The Hypocrite Infidel

Many people use the excuse of hypocrites in the church to keep them from attending. The old saying is, "if a hypocrite stands between you and God, then he is closer to God then you are." The following apparently true story makes the point well:

An infidel lecturer addressed an audience with great earnestness, denying God and immortality and uttering the most horrid blasphemies. When he was done, a man of middle age arose and said: "My friends I have a word to speak to you tonight. I am not about to refute any of the arguments of the orator. I shall not criticize his style. I shall say nothing of what I believe to be the blasphemies he has uttered, but I shall simply relate to you a fact and after I have done that you shall draw your own conclusions.

Yesterday I walked by the side of yonder river. I saw on its floods a young man in a boat. The boat was unmanageable; it was going fast toward the rapids. He could not use the oars and I saw that he was not capable of bringing the boat to the shore. I saw that young man wring his hands in agony. By and by he gave up the attempt to save his life, kneeled down and cried with desperate earnestness, 'O God, save my soul. If my body can not be saved, save my soul!' I heard him confess he had been a blasphemer. I heard him vow that if his life were spared he would never be such again. I heard him implore the mercy of heaven for Jesus Christ's sake, and earnestly plead that he might be washed in his blood. These arms saved that young man from the flood. I plunged in, brought the boat to shore, and saved his life. That same young man has just now addressed you, and cursed his Maker. What say you to this, sirs?"

The speaker sat down. A shudder ran through the young man himself, and the audience saw that while it was a fine thing to act the bravado against almighty God on dry land, when danger was distant, it was not the same near the edge of the grave. -- Foster's Cyclopedia