The third time he succeeded ; but his voice sounded strangely in his own ears . He gripped the back of the pew before him with his knotty hands , and fixed his eyes unseeingly on the Christian Endeavor pledge that hung over the heads of the choir . `` Brethren and sisters , '' he said hoarsely , `` before I can say a word of Christian testimony here to-night I 've got something to confess . It 's been lying hard and heavy on my conscience ever since these meetings begun . As long as I kept silence about it I could n't get up and bear witness for Christ . Many of you have expected me to do it . Maybe I 've been a stumbling block to some of you . This season of revival has brought no blessing to me because of my sin , which I repented of , but tried to conceal . There has been a spiritual darkness over me . `` Friends and neighbors , I have always been held by you as an honest man . It was the shame of having you know I was not which has kept me back from open confession and testimony . Just afore these meetings commenced I come home from town one night and found that somebody had passed a counterfeit ten-dollar bill on me . Then Satan entered into me and possessed me . When Mrs. Rachel Lynde come next day , collecting for foreign missions , I give her that ten dollar bill . She never knowed the difference , and sent it away with the rest . But I knew I 'd done a mean and sinful thing . I could n't drive it out of my thoughts . A few days afterwards I went down to Mrs. Rachel 's and give her ten good dollars for the fund . I told her I had come to the conclusion I ought to give more than ten dollars , out of my abundance , to the Lord . That was a lie .
Mrs. XXXXX thought I was a generous man , and I felt ashamed to look her in the face .
Brethren Christian Lynde Rachel days dollar dollars night pew third