dreamt by day.  But they never heard the apostle preach again!  It was their first and last sermon; that moment in their life came and passed, but never returned.  Like two ships which meet at midnight on a moonlit sea, those two persons, the prisoner and the king, spoke, then each passed into the darkness, and onward on their voyage to their several ports, but never met again!  Oh, how awful are such moments when truth reveals herself to the responsible spirit of man!  And so, my reader, does it ofttimes happen between thee and God’s Spirit.  Let me beseech of thee to “redeem the time,” to know this “the day of thy visitation,” and to hear and believe “the word of the Lord.”

Another “moment in life” which may be specially noticed, is that in which we are tempted to evil.  Temptations are no doubt “common to man.”  Our whole life in a sense is a temptation, for whatever makes a demand upon our choice as moral beings, involves a trial of character, and tests the “spirit we are of.”  But nevertheless there do occur periods in our lives when such trials are peculiarly testing; when large bribes are offered to the sin that doth so easily beset us, tempting us to betray conscience, give up principle, lose faith in the right and in God, and to serve the devil, the world, or the flesh.  Such moments may be very brief, yet decisive of our future life.  They may come suddenly upon us, though possibly many notes of warning have announced their approach.  For they are often but the apex of the pyramid to which many previous steps have gradually and almost imperceptibly led; the beginning of a battle, which must at last be fought, and very shortly decided, but yet the ending of many previous skirmishings.  Be this as it may, that moment of life does come to us all, when evil like the enemy appears to concentrate against us its whole force, and when we must fight, conquer, or die; when like a thief it resolves to break into our home and take possession; when as a deceiver it promises happiness, and demands immediate acceptance or rejection of the splendid offer,—­“All these will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me!”

What a moment is this in the life of many a young person.  How unutterably solemn is the first deliberate act which opposes conscience, rebels against the authority of God and of His law, shuts out the light, and prefers darkness.  Future character, and the life and happiness of years, may be determined by it.  The step taken in that brief moment, the lie uttered, the dishonesty perpetrated, the drunkenness or debauchery indulged in, the prayers for the first time given up, and the father’s home left for the far country.  Who can realise the consequences of those first acts, or estimate the many links of evil, and the endless chain itself, that may connect themselves with the one link of sin fashioned in that moment of life!  Who can foresee the streams ever increasing in breadth and depth which may flow from this letting in of water!  Would God that my readers, young men especially, would but believe in the possibility even of the choice they make at such a time determining their future destiny.  The thought of this might at least make them pause and consider.