Theodore Monod has been preaching, and preaching Christ, any time this score of years perhaps; but there were no crowds, and no "signs following." What made the difference. He tells us himself that one day a few months ago comparatively, Mr. Pearsall Smith came to Paris.
"I had not read much of what he had written; I have not read much of it now, but I saw him; and as we conversed together, I said, 'There are certain sins I like.' He answered me in one verse of Scripture, 'Reckon yourself dead' to them. A strange way, I thought, of surmounting sin; but I tried it, and it succeeded; I tried it again and again, and with the same result; and so I felt I had better try it always and for everything. Since then I have had falls, which I have confessed to Christ as sadder than similar falls before; but He has led me and helped me wonderfully, giving me to receive of Him abounding streams of light, life, and love."
This revolution in his religious experience, for it was little less, revolutionized his ministry too, and made him the power that he is in France—and in England—at this day. So that if Monod was an Apollos, Mr. and Mrs. Smith were an Aquila and Priscilla sent to teach him the way of God more perfectly.— Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle, (London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1875), p. 506