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Butler, Samuel, 1835-1902

"The Way of All Flesh"

I say this as no figure of speech or bugbear
with which to frighten you, but as an unvarnished unexaggerated statement
which will be no more disputed by yourselves than by me."
And now Mr Hawke, who up to this time had spoken with singular quietness,
changed his manner to one of greater warmth and continued--
"Oh! my young friends turn, turn, turn, now while it is called to-day--now
from this hour, from this instant; stay not even to gird up your loins;
look not behind you for a second, but fly into the bosom of that Christ
who is to be found of all who seek him, and from that fearful wrath of
God which lieth in wait for those who know not the things belonging to
their peace. For the Son of Man cometh as a thief in the night, and
there is not one of us can tell but what this day his soul may be
required of him. If there is even one here who has heeded me,"--and he
let his eye fall for an instant upon almost all his hearers, but
especially on the Ernest set--"I shall know that it was not for nothing
that I felt the call of the Lord, and heard as I thought a voice by night
that bade me come hither quickly, for there was a chosen vessel who had
need of me.


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