I left my room, one Friday night, to have a walk. As I was walking along, I met a young clerk in the employment of a firm close to my office, with whom we do business. I had met him in the office once or twice before. He seemed a nice young fellow, and was very refined and amiable. As we walked along the street, he pointed to a house, well-known as a place of amusement of a very low kind and asked me if I would go with him there for the evening. I was astonished. He saw it and remarked that “the place was not so bad as people called it,” and urged me to go.
Young in years, and very young in grace, as I then was, naturally social and fond of company, a stranger in the town too, I hesitated a moment. The tempter said,
“Go and see it, you need not stay.”
I found myself actually walking along with the young man, although I had given him no answer. I felt a crisis had come, perhaps the crisis of my life. I stood; I prayed inwardly for strength to resist the devil, and I was strengthened. Looking my companion straight in the face, I said, firmly,
“No, I’ll not go, I am a Christian,” and wishing him good night, I wheeled about.
My soul was filled with joy as I walked along, and although a stranger in the great city, I felt God was very near me. Nor was this all. As I walked along, I found out a Young Men’s Meeting, where over two dozen young Christians were met to search the Scriptures together. I ventured in. What a welcome I had there. I found myself at home among them at once and there I am at home still. Praise be unto God.