ETERNAL PUNISHMENTS. [To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—It is refreshing to hear of a genuine conversion, if it be from darkness to light, especially when it is speedy and com- plete. A few years ago, a friend of mine—there is no harm now in telling this story, as the superstition referred to in it is exploded, if not everywhere, certainly among your readers—was taking a country walk with a friend, a clergyman, when the latter suddenly wheeled round, his face towards home, with the remark, "Let us go back, I'm tired ; was called up in the middle of the night to baptise a child that was dying." "Were you in time ?" asked my friend. "Just," was the reply; "another half-minute, and I should have been too late!" "And if you had been, what then ?" "Why, then, I suppose, the poor little thing would have been lost." " Eternally ?" "Well, yes, according to our belief." "May I ask what sort of boots you wear ?" said my friend. " Boots ? Elastic-sided, always." "Now, suppose you wore laced, and they had taken two minutes to put on, the child would have been dead, and,—lost eternally, ay P" "That's a peculiar view of the question ; I must think over my position." Two days after, the clergyman met my friend, and said, "I have thought that matter over, and must alter my view. The boots did it."—I am, Sir, &c.,
D. I. P.
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