Before embarking on
the general natural history of the regenerate character, let me
convince you of this curious fact by one or two examples. The
most numerous are those of reformed drunkards. You recollect the
case of Mr. Hadley in the last lecture; the Jerry McAuley Water
Street Mission abounds in similar instances.[148] You also
remember the graduate of Oxford, converted at three in the
afternoon, and getting drunk in the hay-field the next day,
but after that permanently cured of his appetite. "From that
hour drink has had no terrors for me: I never touch it, never
want it. The same thing occurred with my pipe. . . . the desire
for it went at once and has never returned. So with every known
sin, the deliverance in each case being permanent and complete.
I have had no temptations since conversion."
[148] Above, p. 200. "The only radical remedy I know for
dipsomania is religiomania," is a saying I have heard quoted from
some medical man.
Here is an analogous case from Starbuck's manuscript
collection:--
"I went into the old Adelphi Theatre, where there was a Holiness
meeting, .
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