"I well remember," said an old man one day, "that when I was a young boy a voice within me said, 'My son, give me thy heart! Now is the accepted time.' But the devil whispered in my ear: 'You can think of that later. Wait till youth has passed; take your pleasure now.' My relatives and my companions said the same thing, so that I waited until I should become a man.
"Then the same voice within me said: 'Seek ye the Lord while He may be found. Today is the day of salvation.' 'What folly,' replied the wicked one. 'Attend to your business first; later, when you have made a place for yourself, you can attend to this.' I saw indeed that everyone about me acted thus, so I waited until I reached maturity.
"I was soon there. Again something said to me: `Today, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.'
" 'Not yet,' cried the enemy. 'You haven't much time to work. Wait till you are old, and you will then have nothing else to do.'
"I have waited. Today I am old. The spring, the summer, the autumn of life have passed. The winter is here and I am not saved. Now, parson, what can I do? I have flouted God's mercy and lived only for myself; but now I know that someday ere long I must leave this world. How can I face a holy God?”
It was difficult to present the precious gospel to one who had deliberately hardened his heart and postponed the day of salvation throughout a lifetime of enjoying the goodness of God. That very goodness should have turned him long ago to repentance and it was presented now as evidence of that long-suffering and love for the sinner which characterize Him who so loved and gave Himself to save such. While fear of death and judgment had turned the old man's thoughts to the hereafter, it was now that the "sweetest story ever old" really broke his heart and brought tears of true repentance, and surrender to that blessed One who is "able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him.”
Oh, ye procrastinators! Take heed. Ye know neither the day nor the hour when your time of opportunity will end. Indeed, the foregoing recalls the story of a woman who often said: "I shall only need five minutes at the last to ask for mercy, and I am sure the Almighty will grant it.”
Although she thought she was secure, yet she never had the five minutes. One day her son rushed out of the house to find a minister. "Come to my mother," he cried. "Come quick! She is dying.”
The minister ran. When they reached the house they found the woman, haggard and distressed, sitting on the side of the bed. When they entered she looked fixedly at the minister and cried out: "Ah, my soul is lost! I am damned!" Then she fell back on the pillow. That was the end.