It was about the time of the passover. The soft airs of the vernal equinox began to breathe from the plains of Sharon, laden with the aroma of the young vines, and of the opening roses. On the silent city falls the moonlight, making Moriah's templed top to tower like a mountain of silver above the greenth of the vale Kedron. A few lone women are grinding their evening meal in the doorways here and there; a Pharisee that has lingered long at his vespers (a Papist before the Papacy) is hastening homewards; a belated fisherman from the Jordan is driving his beast toward the city gates to get outside them ere they are bolted for the night. The Roman sentinel on the temple wall calls the watch-word All's well. The evening glides on. Through the silent street—gathering his robe up close about him to conceal his face and keeping out of the moonlight, a ruler of the Jews passes stealthily along. Into a retired court—out of the aristocratic quarter—and hard by where God's poor are crowded close together, the ruler knocks at a lowly door. A plain, serene personage puts forth his hand to take the ruler's jewelled fingers and a rich turban bows low to the floor in reverence. "Rabbi," says the Pharisee to the meek Nazarene in his coarse raiment—"Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him." Without waiting for any further preliminaries; without wasting time in idle talk, the omniscient teacher proves his divine wisdom by the solemn declaration, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Surprise steals over the ruler's face, as he fixes his keen Jewish eyes on the Master. "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?" The poor pitiful idea of a second bodily birth enters into the mind of Nicodemus. He cannot get hold of this spiritual new birth. It is an enigma. Christ patiently explains it to his anxious inquirer. * The Pharisee listens to it all. We may imagine that the turban was laid aside and the eager face bent to catch the words of life from the lips of the Nazarene. Evening wears on toward midnight ere Nicodemus puts on his sandals to depart. He rises to go away a wiser man. He goes away to remember the solemn and weighty teachings—not to forget. He goes away convinced, but not yet converted. He goes away saved out of Phariseeism, though not yet saved into Christianity. Already is the hand of Christ upon his heart; and when we afterwards see him rising up in the Sanhedrim to demand a fair treatment of the persecuted Saviour, and at last bringing sweet spices to embalm the mangled form just rescued from the cross, we only see the glorious outcome of that evening with Jesus Christ. Perhaps some reader of this sketch is now sitting where Nicodemus sat that night—on the seat of honest inquiry. He has sat there long already, but delay has not improved his guilty heart. He knows the theory of salvation, but the practical steps he does not get hold of. My friend, you may perish in that very seat. You may sink to the pit from the place of the inquirer, if you make it too the place of the palterer, and the trifler with the Holy Spirit. What you want is action. You have waited long enough. Go straightway to Christ. Lay hold of the first duty to which conscience calls and do it. Begin at once to serve God. If your will rebels, pray God to subdue your stubborn will. If Satan hinder, "resist the devil, and he will flee from you." If business beguile you, set your face like a flint to the one great business of securing the salvation of your soul. The very attempt to serve God will bring out the wickedness and the weakness of your heart, as no other process possibly can. But try it. Every attempt will bring you nearer to Christ. Persevere! Like Bunyan's pilgrim, you will find that the way to heaven "lies through this very valley." Struggle on! And when you can perform one solitary act, however humble, from no other motive than the glory of God—when you can renounce a single sin from no other motive than honoring the Saviour, then have you experienced a new birth; then will your feet be safely planted in that straight path that leads to life eternal.