When Jesus called them, Simon and Andrew obeyed at once—without a murmur. If only we would do the same! If we would punctually, with resolute zeal, put into practice what we hear upon the spot—or at the first fit occasion—our church attendance and devotional reading could not fail to enrich us spiritually.

Think about it: you cannot lose bread you've already eaten. You cannot be robbed of doctrine you've already acted upon.

But here's what happens instead. Most readers and hearers feel moved enough to purpose to change. But alas! That purpose is a blossom that never sets into fruit. They wait. They waver. They forget. Like ponds in frosty nights that thaw under the morning sun only to freeze again, they are melted just in time to harden once more.

That fatal tomorrow is blood-red with the murder of fair resolutions! It is the slaughterhouse of the innocents!

I am deeply concerned that these evening readings should not be fruitless. Therefore I pray you will not be readers only, but doers of the Word. The practice of truth is the most profitable reading of it.

If any duty impresses itself upon you while reading these pages, hasten to fulfill it before the holy glow departs from your soul! Leave your nets—leave all that you have—sooner than be found rebellious to the Master's call. Do not give place to the devil by delay! Haste while opportunity and quickening are in happy conjunction!

Do not be caught in your own nets. Break the meshes of worldliness and away where glory calls you!

Happy is the writer who meets with readers resolved to carry out his teachings—his harvest shall be a hundredfold, and his Master shall have great honor. Would to God that such might be our reward upon these brief meditations and hurried hints.

Grant it, O Lord, unto thy servant!