ars ago our nation sent astronomers to Africa to witness the transit
of Venus. Preparation for this great sight had been going on for
months. There was a critical moment when the sun, Venus and the earth
were all in line. Every astronomer knew that at that moment his eye
must be at the smaller end of the glass if he would see the planet go
flying past the larger end. If he should miss that moment no power on
earth could bring the planet back again. The world is full of these
moments.

Galileo studied the eye of an ox and beheld the principle of the lens.
Watts [Transcriber's note: Watt?] looked at the teakettle lid as it was
lifted by steam, Columbus saw the wind's direction and knew there was
land not far away. The difference between these men, to whom the world
is indebted, and many others is this, that they have looked at the
oxen's eyes and have been unmoved, have allowed the teakettle to boil
without making an impression upon them, and the wind to blow without
leading them to any shore. The opportunity for greatness is gone.
There is not a person in the world but to whom at some time a great
opportunity has been given, and for the use or abuse of it we shall be
called to a strict account.

I

These opportunities for doing good come to the one who is a Christian.

First: I would not preach to others what I did not first preach to
myself, but there are many of us as ministers like Chalmers, who was
one day visiting an old man seventy-two years of age, apparently in
perfect health. They talked together about everything but Christ. The
minister was inclined to speak about his soul, but did not. Before
morning the old man was dead. Dr. Chalmers returned to the house,
called all the old man's household about him, and offered the most
touching apology and prayer. He spent the entire day in the woods,
saying, "If I had been faithful this might not have been." I have no
question but God would say, "So shall thy judgment be."

Second: You who are Christian workers have failed. A Christian
merchant was told that there was a certain man with whom he had traded
for years to whom he had never spoken about his soul. "I will speak
the next time I see him," he said, but he never came, for while he was
busy here and there the man was gone from him. Before he came again
death met him. So shall his judgment be.

Third: You who are parents have failed. Years ago a young Scotchman
from Fife, in Scotland, was l