WILLIAM HONE | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 10, 1890

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 16, No. 10.

WILLIAM HONE.

THERE are many infidels who are content to shut up their own hearts to the truth without disturbing the beliefs of others. Mr. Hone, of London, was not one of that kind. He was noted for his active opposition to Christianity, and his hatred of the Bible was such that he would not have a copy of it in the house, nor suffer any of his family to own one if he knew it.

He could not, however, prevent his little daughter from picking up some religious knowledge, through the secret teaching of her mother, and her association with friends, nor could he always be aware of the way their Sundays were spent. It was painful to be obliged to thrust the lesson of concealment and unnatural caution upon a child, but the mother recognized a higher duty than obedience to a persecuting mandate, and contrived to send the little girl to public worship with some regularity for three years, without the father's knowledge.

One of her teachers presented her with a Bible, and soon a fervent love of it and its Author was born in the heart of the child.

One day her father, passing the door of her room, heard her voice and stopped. She was praying, and he heard her mention him in her prayer. She had brought home her hidden Bible with fear and trembling, and was asking God to change her father's heart, so that he would let her keep it and be willing to read it, too, himself.

The man went away strangely distressed. He became so agitated that, when summoned to the tea table, shortly after, he could neither eat nor drink. At length he said,—

"Is there a Bible in the house?"

The little girl's heart sank. She now believed that it was anger at some new discovery that had made him so excited and absent. The mother spoke,—

"Did you not burn every Bible—the last one we had?"

"Is there any good book, then?" said he.

By that time the whole family saw that there was something unusual in his manner. The little girl took courage and said,—

"Father, if you will not be angry, I will get you a Bible."

She brought the book, and, instead of rebuking her, he took her in his arms and kissed her, and his tears fell upon her face.

That evening he went with her to the Weigh-house Chapel, and heard Thomas Binney preach. A new world seemed to open to him, and he sought instruction with all the earnestness of a young disciple. God gave him another heart, and he renounced his infidelity as publicly as he had professed it.

William Hone became one of the best-known Christian workers of England. He was the author of "The Every-Day Book," a favorite volume, which has been read in almost every God-fearing family in the kingdom.

Unstable and insecure must have been the

basis of the belief that so simple an incident could change. Conscious effort at self-deception sometimes vanishes at a touch. It was doubtless thus with William Hone.—Youths' Companion.