The Central Presbyterian

For the Central Presbyterian.
The Contrast.
I was about to enter the Lecture room, to be present at a meeting of our session, on the evening preceding a communion Sabbath. Just as I reached the door, there passed by an old friend of my youth. He has ever been a man of unquestioned integrity and unimpeachable morals, a regular attendant upon public worship, and a steady and earnest friend and supporter of the Church. Most persons take him for a professed Christian, and those who are better informed are surprised that he is not.
As he was passing I said to him—"My friend, this is the door you ought to enter. The session is to hold a meeting just now—come in with me."
He replied sadly—"You are right, it is what I ought to do, but I am not fit." "Nor," said I, "will you ever become more fit by waiting"—and he passed on. In the room I found two of our young people, who had presented themselves as candidates for admission to the communion of the Church. It had been my privilege to serve with the grand-father and father of each respectively, as office-bearers in the Church. How it strengthens our faith to see the promise thus verified to the third generation, and how it cheers the heart to see children, by open profession avouching as their God, the God of their fathers.
And how much wiser were these two dear young persons than my old friend, to whom I had spoken a moment before. In young faith they had entered the open door of the Church, not relying on any supposed fitness of their own, but trusting with simplicity to the promise "Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out." While he—not I am sure without many a longing to enter, had a hundred times or more passed by the door, waiting for some fancied fitness, or yielding to a spirit of dangerous procrastination. And now he feels himself less fit than he was forty years ago, and the habit of procrastination growing stronger and more dangerous every year.
And if they should live for forty years as true Christians—(may the Holy Spirit be abundantly vouchsafed to both of them,) how will they rejoice that by the grace of God they were enabled in the morning of life to consecrate themselves to his service.
S. L. C.