Settled in time

A young fellow heard a preacher in the other days and was greatly moved, and the preacher said: "When you have a religious impression, the time to act upon it is right then. The time when you hear God's call in the which you ought to respond is right then." And the young fellow walked down the aisle and publicly made his surrender to Christ saying: "It shall be right now that I take Christ as my Saviour." He went back to the sawmill in the mountains where he worked, and the boys said that next morning he sang all the morning. Religion in the heart makes men sing.

About noon his body was caught somehow in the machinery and crushed and mangled so that a little while thereafter he went away into dusty death. When they got him out he faintly said: "Send for the preacher, that preacher in the church house at the foot of the mountains last night."

The preacher fortunately was soon found. He hurried up the mountain to the mill, and he bent down by the side of the dying fellow and took his hand and said: "Charley, I have come. What would you like to say?" And with a smile on his face he faintly pressed the minister's hand and said: "Wasn't it a glorious thing that I settled it in time?"

Oh, my men, and women, my men and women, I beseech you in the great Saviour's name, turn your boat upstream before it is too late! "Now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation." Let it be your time, your day. -- George W. Truett

From: 2700-PLUS SERMON ILLUSTRATIONS By Duane V. Maxey

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