A story is told in a Sheffield paper of a burglary committed two or three years ago at an old-fashioned house in a southern country. The lady who occupied the house retired to her room shortly before midnight, and found a man under her bed. She feared to go to the door and unlock it, lest the burglar should suspect that she was about to summon help, and should intercept her. To gain time, she sat down and took her Bible from her dressing-table. Opening the sacred book at random, it so happened that the chapter lighted on was that containing the parable of the prodigal son. Kneeling down when the chapter was ended, she prayed aloud,— prayed earnestly and fervently. She besought safety for herself during the perils of the night, and cast herself in supreme confidence on the Divine protection. Then she prayed for others who might have been tempted into ill-doing, that they might be led from evil, and brought into the fold of Christ; that to such might be vouchsafed the tender mercy and kindness promised to all who truly repent of their sins. Lastly, she prayed that, if he willed it, even to-night some such sinner might be saved from the wrath to come, might, like the prodigal, be made to see that he had sinned, and might be welcomed back with the joy that awaits even one penitent. The lady rose from her knees and went to bed. The man got up as noiselessly as he could, and said, “I mean you no harm, ma’am; I am going to leave the house, and I thank you for your prayers.” With difficulty he opened the bed- room door, and presently she heard him open a window in another part of the house, and drop down into the garden.
The lady was recently visiting at a friend’s house in the north of England, and while there was asked to go to hear, in a Dissenting place of worship, a minister who was a “reformed character.” In the course of the sermon, the preacher told all the incidents of this terrible night exactly as they occurred. After the sermon she went into the vestry, and asked him who had told him this story. After some hesitation, he said that he was the burglar, but that her earnest supplication and intercession sank deep into his heart, and as he listened, he then and there resolved not only to give up his guilty design, but to live a reformed life altogether. To that resolution he had adhered, and to her was owing whatever good be had since been able to do as a minister of the gospel.