Page:Black Jacob, a monument of grace.djvu/87

ignorant and degraded. He was accustomed to visit certain families that most other Christians had overlooked, as if they had long and by common consent been abandoned to the ways of unrighteousness. One family in particular excited his interest. They were notoriously hardened and degraded in sin. Jacob, taking his own Bible in his hand, would spend evening after evening at their own house, reasoning with them out of the Scriptures and urging, in his modest yet earnest way, the importance of their reformation and repentance. They had wholly neglected the Bible,and seldom if ever attended religious service at the house of God. He would spend hours in reading to them the Scriptures, and beseech them to go with him to the place of public prayer. He seemed determined not to relinquish his object, but pressed upon them, almost daily, the value of religion. His labours were not in vain. The son, perhaps the most unpromising of all, became awakened to his lost and ruined condition. In his gross darkness and