On conversing with a man in middle life, he informed me that his father was a devoted Christian, that he was faithfully instructed and his mind was early impressed with the importance of religion. In his youth, there was a period of six months in which he was in distress, day and night; and a voice within seemed to be continually saying, “Forsake your sins and come unto me, and I will give you peace.” “But,” he added, “I did not wish to be a Christian then; I thought it would ruin my pleasures. I visited a part of the country where dancing and balls were frequent; in a little time my serious thoughts were gone, and I have never had any since.” I asked if he did not fear that God had given him up. “Yes,” said he, “I am afraid he has. I go to church and read the Bible, and try to feel, but I cannot.” I strove to arouse his fears, but it was in vain. I afterwards learned that he was pursuing his worldly business on the Sabbath. It is not for me to pronounce that God had said of all these persons, they are “joined to their idols, let them alone;” “woe to them when I depart from them;” but the state of all such is unspeakably alarming. If the eye of such a one falls upon these lines--if you have persisted in saying, “Go thy way for this time; let me alone, that I may have the pleasures of this life,” and have quenched the Spirit by resorting to amusements, the novel, the ballroom, or the theatre, God may have given you what you desired; but what have you now of all these pleasures? Can you look back upon them with an approving conscience? Will they bring you consolation in a dying hour? Have you not even now in your own soul, if you would make the confession, the gnawings of the worm that never dies, the burning of the fire that is never quenched? If the Spirit of God is now striving with you, it is the most momentous period of your existence. It is perhaps the turning-point between heaven and hell--the songs of angels, or the wailings of the finally lost. Beware of stifling the Spirit. Multitudes have told me the dreadful tale, “I went to scenes of amusement, or turned to the exciting romance, and I have felt no anxiety since.” While the Spirit strives it is the seed-time of eternal life, the embryo of a happy immortality. Sit not down to count the loss of sinful pleasures; receive the Saviour into your heart, and you will have pleasures lasting as eternity--pleasures that leave no sting behind--pleasures that will sustain the soul when on your dying pillow, when the last trumpet shall sound, and the congregated world stand before God. * * * * *