JUST ONCE by J. | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 16, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 23.

JUST ONCE.

By J.

THE temptation to step aside "just once" from the strait and narrow way comes not infrequently to the young Christian. If Satan can but gain our consent to one departure, he knows that succeeding steps in the wrong direction will easily follow. The following extract from the recently published life of Dr. Judson, by his son, may come as a timely word to some tempted and hesitating soul:—

"A native Christian woman told me that she was about to engage in something which Dr. Judson considered not conducive to her spiritual good. He sent for her and remonstrated; but she would not give up her darling project.

'Look here!' said he, eagerly, snatching a ruler from the table, and tracing not a very straight line upon the floor, 'here is where you have been walking. You have made a crooked track, to be sure: out of the path half the time; but then you have kept near it, and not taken to new roads, and you have—not so much as you might have done, mind, but still to a certain extent—grown in grace; and now, with all this growth upon your heart and head, in the maturity of your years, with ripened understanding, and an every day deepening sense of the goodness of God—here,' bringing down the ruler with emphasis to indicate a certain position, 'here you stand. You know where this path leads. You know what is before you. Some struggles, some honors, and finally eternal life and a crown of glory. But to the left branches off another very pleasant road, and along the air floats, rather temptingly, a pretty bubble. You do not mean to leave the path you have walked in fifteen years—fifteen long years—altogether; you only want to step aside and catch the bubble, and think you will come back again, but you never will. Woman, think! Dare you deliberately leave this strait and narrow path, drawn by the Saviour's finger, and go away for one moment into that of your enemy? Will you? Will you? WILL YOU?'

'I was sobbing so,' said the woman, 'that I could not speak a word; but he knew, as he always did, what I meant; for he knelt down and prayed that God would preserve me in my determination. I have made a great many crooked tracks since,' she added, tearfully, 'but whenever I am unusually tempted I see the teacher as he looked that day, bending over in his chair, the ruler placed upon the floor to represent me, his finger pointing along the path of eternal life, his eye looking so strangely over his shoulder, and that terrible, "Will you," coming from his lips as though it was the voice of God; and I pray just as Peter did, for I am frightened.'"—Christian at Work.