It is not for me to pronounce that God had said of all these persons, they are “joined to their idols, let them alone;” “woe to them when I depart from them;” but the state of all such is unspeakably alarming. If the eye of such a one falls upon these lines--if you have persisted in saying, “Go thy way for this time; let me alone, that I may have the pleasures of this life,” and have quenched the Spirit by resorting to amusements, the novel, the ballroom, or the theatre, God may have given you what you desired; but what have you now of all these pleasures? Can you look back upon them with an approving conscience? Will they bring you consolation in a dying hour? Have you not even now in your own soul, if you would make the confession, the gnawings of the worm that never dies, the burning of the fire that is never quenched? If the Spirit of God is now striving with you, it is the most momentous period of your existence. It is perhaps the turning-point between heaven and hell--the songs of angels, or the wailings of the finally lost. Beware of stifling the Spirit. Multitudes have told me the dreadful tale, “I went to scenes of amusement, or turned to the exciting romance, and I have felt no anxiety since.” While the Spirit strives it is the seed-time of eternal life, the embryo of a happy immortality. Sit not down to count the loss of sinful pleasures; receive the Saviour into your heart, and you will have pleasures lasting as eternity--pleasures that leave no sting behind--pleasures that will sustain the soul when on your dying pillow, when the last trumpet shall sound, and the congregated world stand before God.
Many facts of a more cheering character might be given. The Rev. N. C----, who had a pastoral charge in M---- county, said to me, “A colporteur had left a copy of the Anxious Inquirer in the house of a wealthy man in M---- county. After some time he became interested for his salvation. One day while there on a visit I pointed him to a chapter in this book, and requested him to read it. He read it, and soon found peace. Like every real Christian, he desired the salvation of his relations. He sent the book to his brother, a physician, who, together with a sister, were led to Christ by reading it. The book is kept in the family as an heir-loom.” On another occasion Rev. Mr. C---- said he was sent for to go some distance to see a sick woman. His custom was always to carry with him a few select books to give or loan. He gave her a copy of the Anxious Inquirer, and requested her husband to read it to her. Both were irreligious; but by God’s blessing on reading this book, both were led to the Saviour. A colporteur sold a copy of the same book to a man who sent it to an absent son. It led him and two of his companions to Christ. A colporteur gave a copy of Baxter’s Call to a very wicked family, who never went to church. Within ten months he found the reading of it had been blessed to three of the household. A tract put into a wagoner’s feed-trough while driving his team on the Sabbath, was the means of stopping him from travelling on the Sabbath, and led him to repentance. He became eminent for his piety and usefulness in the church.