vil. Not all who
make a profession will stand firm; while those who have been merely
carried along by the current of excitement will return at last to the
world, from which they have never really separated themselves, when the
excitement has passed away. But, indeed, a great and lasting work for
God was accomplished in that revival, and the young man I am speaking
about was one of the fruits of it.

"He had been living a very gay and thoughtless life. I am not sure that
he had been indulging in any openly sinful practices; but, at any rate,
he had been giving himself up wholly to the pursuit of this world. He
was in a good social position, and possessed of abundant means.
Moreover, he had received a good education, so far as mere learning
went, and was of pleasing and popular manners. The last thing he would
have thought of would have been turning a Christian. But God, whose
thoughts are not as our thoughts, had better things in store for him.
The revival wave swept over the neighbourhood where he was, and carried
him along with it. His heart, his views, his aims were all really
changed; he was, indeed and in truth, a new creature. And now he felt
that he must not hide his colours, he must nail them to the mast, or,
rather, he must wrap them round him that, go where he might, every one
might see them. His was that thorough-going, energetic, outspeaking
disposition which has accomplished such marvellous earthly things
through so many of his fellow-countrymen. He was not the person to do
anything by halves.

"Before his conversion, himself and several other young men, of like
tastes and habits, used to meet weekly at one another's houses, in turn,
for card-playing and carousing; and at these meetings he used to be the
very life of the party, the gayest of the gay. But what should he do
now? It would be no easy matter to confess to his young associates the
change that had taken place in his heart. What would they think and
say? Perhaps he might let it get known by degrees, and then he could
just absent himself from the old gatherings, and merely drop out of a
society no longer congenial to him. This would save him a great deal of
shame and reproach. Would not this be as much as could be reasonably
expected of him, and sufficient to show his sincerity and consistency?
It might have satisfied ordinary characters, but it did not satisfy him.
He wanted to be doing something at once for the Master, and to begin