The Accepted Time

There trudged along a Scottish highway years ago a little, old-fashioned mother. By her side was her boy. The boy was going out into the world. At last the mother stopped. She could go no farther. “Robert,” she said, “promise me something?” “What?” asked the boy. “Promise me something?” said the mother again. The boy was as Scottish as his mother, and he said: “You will have to tell me before I will promise.” She said: “Robert, it is something you can easily do. Promise your mother?” He looked into her face and said: “Very well, mother, I will do anything you wish.” She clasped her hands behind his head and pulled his face down close to hers, and said: “Robert, you are going out into a wicked world. Begin every day with God. Close every day with God.” Then she kissed him, and Robert Moffat says that that kiss made him a missionary. And Joseph Parker says that when Robert Moffat was added to the Kingdom of God, a whole continent was added with him. There are critical times in the history of souls. “Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation.”

—J. Wilbur Chapman