Identifier: knightthatsmoted00rand (find matches)
Title: A knight that smote the dragon;
Year: 1892 (1890s)
Authors: Rand, Edward A. (Edward Augustus), 1837-1903
Subjects: Gough, John B. (John Bartholomew), 1817-1886
Publisher: New York, Hunt & Eaton Cincinnati, Cranston & Stowe
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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Text Appearing Before Image:
40 A KNIGHT THAT SMOTE THE DRAGON.

music a piece of bread. One night, having been
turned away from three homes, he was making
up his mind to go to his quarters hungry and
faint. He stopped to think about it before a
house in St. Georges Square, and he asked him-
self if he must give up his studies, because so
poor and hungry. Must he go back to his
fathe's home to work in the dark mines there
in the neighborhood ? While halting and debat-
ing, the door of the house before him swung
back, and Madame Ursula Cotta stood there.
She had previously noticed him at church serv-
ices, and she now called him into the house, gave
him food, and became his friend. It is such a
kind word that smooths many a rugged way,
and, perhaps, influences the course of a life-time.
Madame Cotta did not once think she was help-
ing the glorious cause of the Reformation in
Germany meet and turn a hungry corner
.Young Gough found friends in New York, for
he put himself where he would be likely to find
friends. A church in Allen Street received him
to its fellowship. It is always an excellent plan,
especially if away from home, to place ones self
amid church associations. It now seemed as if
a bright future were opening before young
Text Appearing After Image:

THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN. CROSBY STREET, NEW YORK


Alone in New York. 41

Gough—but! How ominous is that word ! How
often we read of a life that runs off in unin-
terrupted prosperity, when abruptly that word
" but " is seen in the narrative! It is like the
train of cars gliding smoothly over a bridge until
it comes to the open draw, and then suddenly
there is a plunge downward. That but is the
open draw.
I find no detailed explanation of the fact that
young Gough forsook his church and his place
of employment. He felt the influence of cir-
cumstances, as he writes in that far-away, hum-
ble story of his life. Then he tells about temp-
tation. He confesses carelessness in spiritual
things. He had reached a but in his life. It
did not probably seem so at the time, but in
reality it was a serious change in his prospects.
That old Book Concern on Crosby Street! Hum-
ble indeed its walls compared with those of the
present palatial structure housing so many of the
publication interests of the Methodist Episcopal
Church to-day; but from the humble quarters
on Crosby Street how far-reaching in many lives
have been the streams of influence shooting off
into the future !

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