egged him to close
with the offer of salvation "now." "No," he said, with a sigh, "I am
afraid I have refused too long!"

"Don't say so! take it at once, 'now;' or perhaps it will be 'never'
with you. A man does not often get such a plain warning as you have had.
You had better take care what you are doing. 'Now!' why not 'now'?" He
did accept salvation, and yielding himself to God, received forgiveness
of his sins; and after that became a very different man.

He had, as may have been suspected from the above narrative, the
besetment of drink, before his conversion, and it remained a trouble to
him after. Conversion and forgiveness of sins do not put away present
bad habits. Such a master habit as this requires a direct dealing with.

Zaccheus was a man who had been led astray by the love of money; when he
was saved, he put his idol away from him at a stroke. This is the first
thing to be done; and if it is done in the power of one's first love, it
is a more easy task than afterwards. But it must be done with a firm and
whole heart; not "Lord, shall I give the half of my goods to feed the
poor?" but, "Lord. behold, the half of my goods I do give." "Behold,
Lord, I do give up the world here, now." "Behold, Lord, I do here, and
now, give up drink, anti will totally abstain from it henceforth." This
is the first step; and the next is not less important, and that is to
carry out the determination in the Lord's power, and not in our own. The
resolution and determination once made, must be given over to the Lord
to be kept by Him; not by our own effort and energy, but with perfect
distrust of self and in dependence upon Him to enable us to keep it.
Without this, there is no security whatever for anything more than
temporary success, too often succeeded by a sorrowful fall. The flesh is
too strong for us, and even if it were not so, the devil is; these two
together, besides the lax example of the world, are sure to overpower
the weak one. Young Christians need to put away at once the sin,
whatever it is, that "so easily besets" them, or they will be entangled
by it. There is no real and thorough deliverance, except by renouncing
sin, and self too, giving up and yielding to the Lord.

That soul was saved; but it was a miserable bondage of fear in which he
lived and died. He was brought home at last, like a wrecked ship into
harbour, who might have come in with a good freight, a happy welcome,
and an "abundant entrance."

T