When I was at home in Chicago, if I had a night off, I would often run out to some other city to help the ministers there. One night I ran across the line to the city of Hammond, Indiana. After speaking I gave out the invitation. Among those who were moved by the Spirit of God was a young woman. She rose to her feet and started for the front, but the young man who sat by her side caught her by her arm and said, “Don’t go tonight. If you wait a few days I may go with you.” For fear of offending this young man to whom she was engaged to be married, she sat down and threw away her opportunity.
The next week I went to speak in the opera house. At the close of the meeting two young women came to me and said, “Oh, Mr. Torrey, just as soon as you can get away from the opera house, come with us. There is a young lady who started for the front the other night but the young man to whom she was engaged asked her to wait for him and she sat down. Now she has erysipelas. It has gone to her brain. We think she is dying. Probably she will not live until morning. Come to see her just as soon as you can get away from the opera house.” As soon as I could get away from the after meeting, I hurried along from the opera house to her home. I was taken up the stairs into the room where the poor girl lay a dying. You could not recognize her. Her face was painted black with iodine. But she was perfectly conscious. I urged her, then and there to take Christ. “Oh,” she said, “Oh, I cannot.” “But,” I said, “you started to take Him the other night when I was here at Hammond.” “Yes,” she said, “but I did not take Him then. I am dying now and I cannot take Christ now. It is too late.” I plead with her. I besought her. I knew it was her last hour. I tried to persuade her that the Lord Jesus would receive her even then, that He said: “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out,” but she would not listen and would not yield.
When I passed out of that room of awful darkness, a young man in the hallway caught me by the hand, took me into a cold, dark room, and though I could not see him in the darkness, I could feel that he was shaking like a leaf. “Oh,” he said, “Mr. Torrey, I am engaged to marry that girl. When you spoke here last week we were both at the meeting. When you gave out the invitation, she started for the front but I detained her. I said, ‘No, don’t go. If you wait for a few days I may go with you.’ She did not go forward and now she is dying without Christ. She is lost, and I am to blame. I am to blame.”
If you tonight are anywhere near a decision for Christ, don’t put it off. Don’t let the fear of man frighten you out of taking your stand for Him.