HIS DANGEROUS CONDITION
A drunkard husband, spending the evening with his jovial companions at a tavern, boasted that if he should take a group of his friends home with him at midnight and ask his Christian wife to get up and cook supper for them, she would do it without complaint.
The crowd considered it a vain boast and dared him to try it by a considerable wager. So the drunken crowd went home with him and he made the unreasonable demands of his wife. She obeyed, dressed, came down, and prepared a very nice supper just as quickly as possible and served it as cheerfully as if she had been expecting them.
After supper one of the men, a little more sober than the others, asked how she could be so kind when they had been so unreasonable, and, too, they knew she did not approve of their conduct. Her reply was: "Sir, when my husband and I were married, we were both sinners. It has pleased God to call me out of that dangerous condition. My husband continues in it. I tremble for his future state. Were he to die as he is, he would be miserable forever; I think it my duty to render his present existence as comfortable as possible."
This wise and faithful reply affected the whole company. The husband thanked her for the warning and became a serious Christian and a good husband.
(Sunday School Times (Encyclopedia of 15,000 Illustrations))