Three young women, who had been to a gospel preaching, were telling one another what they thought of it. Said one,
"I never heard anything like it before; if what they say is true, it is very certain we are not saved."
"No," responded the second, "indeed we are not; what shall we do?"
"Let us go back again," said the first speaker, "there is an inquiry-meeting; perhaps we could be saved tonight." Here the third one remarked,
"Let us go for a walk and forget it, I say." After a little more consultation her voice prevailed. They had not gone far, however, before the first one stopped, saying,
"I shall go back, I know they are there praying for us. If the blessing they tell of is to be had, I should like it; will you come with me?"
The girl who had before counseled the walk refused, but the other two went back to the meeting, and through the mercy of God believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and were saved that night.
Many years have passed, and now one of those young women lives a happy, rejoicing Christian. The second one has passed into the Lord's own presence; and the third, the one who preferred her pleasure to her soul's salvation, is living yet, one of the most hardened sinners in her native town. Not an outwardly wicked woman, by any means, but a person whose heart has grown so hard that nothing seems to touch it, and whose ear is so closed that the pleading voice of mercy never appears to reach it.
Do let me warn you, my readers, not to trifle about this important matter.
Even if the Lord should not come yet awhile, and you were not taken away by death, what a terrible thing if you should have been anxious about your sins for the last time, and now every day are but heaping up the measure of your condemnation.
May God, in His infinite mercy, grant it may never be yours; but I warn you, if still unsaved, you are running a fearful risk. Trifling! procrastinating! and on the very brink of hell! How awfully solemn. Do heed now the voice that has often pleaded, perhaps it is sounding in your ears for the last time.