A mother said, “Dr. Nettleton, I do wish you would talk to Caroline. She doesn’t care anything about the salvation of her soul.” Dr. Nettleton turned round to the young girl and asked, “Now, just tell me, Miss Caroline, don’t they bother you amazingly about this thing?”
She, taken by surprise, answered at once, “Yes, sir, they do. They keep talking to me all the time, till I am sick of it.” “So I thought,” said Dr. Nettleton. “Let’s see — how old are you?” “Eighteen, sir.” “Good health?” “Yes, sir.” “The fact is,” said Dr. Nettleton, “religion is a good thing in itself; but the idea of all the time troubling a young creature like you with it! I wonder how long it would do for you to wait.” “That’s just what I’ve been thinking myself,” said Caroline. “Well,” said Dr. Nettleton, “suppose you say till you are fifty?” “No, that won’t do — I attended the funeral the other day of a lady fifteen years younger than that.” “Thirty — how will that do?” “I’m not so sure it would do to wait quite so long,” said Caroline. “No, I do not think so either. Something might happen. See now, twenty-five, or even twenty, if we could be sure you would live so long? Or a year from now, how would that do?” “I don’t know, sir.” “Neither do I. The fact is, my dear young lady, the more I think of it, I am afraid to have you put it off a moment longer. Besides, the Bible says, ‘Now is the accepted time.’ We must take this time. Had we not better kneel right down here, and ask God for mercy?”
The young lady, perfectly overcome by her feelings, kneeled on the spot. In a day or two, she was rejoicing in hope.
William Moses Tidwell, “Pointed Illustrations.”