two o'clock Sunday
morning
Recent rains had washed the streets clean , the wind was blowing fresh , the sky was cloudless and the sun lit in cool gleaming splendour every avenue and park of the great city . The people had returned from their country places and the hotels were thronged with merchants and visitors from the four quarters of the earth . An enormous crowd squeezed into every inch of space the police would allow to be filled in the church , and hundreds were turned away , unable to gain admission . Gordon had spent the entire day and night before in an agony of preparation , and he had not left his study until two o'clock Sunday morning . He took his seat in the pulpit trembling with anxiety . The organ burst into the strains of the Doxology and the crowd rose . He stood with folded hands looking over the sea of faces , and his heart began to ache with an agony of suspense and fear of failure .