These are times of many snares, and there are temptations to infidelity at every step. I have told this true story, with an earnest prayer that the reading of it may prove a warning and be made a blessing to English working men and women.
[BEATEN WITH HIS OWN WEAPONS.]
THE following anecdote was told by a gentleman at a little Bible reading meeting:
"I was going by steamer from the south of England to Dublin during my college days," he said, "and on the voyage I entered into conversation with a young man, my fellow-passenger. He told me that he was going to Dublin in the hope of obtaining a situation, as he had heard there were openings in that city, and trade was slack in the neighbourhood he had left.
"After some talk, I ventured to put in a word about eternal things, and asked him if he had ever come to Jesus for pardon, cleansing, peace; or, if like many another, he was putting off the consideration of that most important subject—the salvation of his immortal soul—to a more convenient season.
"The young man laughed at my question, and said, 'I go to a place of worship now and then, and lately I have been listening to a preacher who told his hearers that it was of no use for them to take any trouble about their souls; that Jesus had done everything, so, of course, there was nothing left for sinners to do. If they were to be saved, they would be, and if not, why, there was no help for it, they could not save themselves.'
"It was easy to see how the young man had misunderstood the preacher's meaning, and put his own interpretation upon it: that in hearing of the full, free, perfect, finished work of Jesus, the Saviour of all men, but specially of them that believe, he professed to find an excuse for his own indifference and inaction.
"But I determined not to argue the matter by taking his version of the preacher's teaching as a ground to go upon. So I said, as if passing from the subject altogether, 'You tell me you are going to Dublin in order to obtain employment. Shall you go in search of work when we arrive there?'