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JACOB HODGES
49
not removed. Their sympathies, with all
the sources of consolation presented to
her, afforded no relief to her troubled
nind, but rather aggravated her sense of
guilt. It was at length proposed that
Jacob should be requested to converse
and pray with her. He came into the
room with emotions of deep interest for
his young friend. There was no one for
whose salvation he more earnestly prayed.
Jacob stood before the weeping girl.
He knew from his own bitter experience,
what she was now suffering; for, though
in circumstances vastly different, the hu¬
man heart is still the same, and the neces¬
sity for atoning blood is as absolute for
the religiously educated and moral daugh¬
ter of Christian parents, as for the vilest
of convicts. The heart that never has
loved God supremely, and that has virtu
ally rejected the Saviour, is, in every in¬
stance, a heart at enmity with God, and
hopeless in guilt, without the cleansing
Dlood of Christ. Jacob had himself felt
the angaish ot mi, and he knew the re-
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