Luke Sehort was a rich farmer in America who had reached the extreme old age of one hundred years. Sadly, he had spent that long life in leading a worldly life, and in a total neglect of his religious duties. Even now, when he saw himself so close to death, a truth which he could not hide from himself, he did not even once think of the great God Who was so soon to judge him, nor of the Eternity he was so soon to enter.

One day, he was sitting on a large stone in the middle of one of his fields, looking at a rich crop of corn ready for the sickle. His mind wandered into the past, and he began to count the number of harvests he had gathered in since the days of his childhood.

He soon began to recall not only harvests, but other scenes of times long past came vividly before him.

Suddenly he remembered that in his early years he had gone one day to church, and that he had been very touched by the words that he heard there.

It was nearly ninety years before. But he could even now remember these words; and he repeated them aloud word by word, as he had heard them on that day.

“If anyone does not love our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema.”

And he remembered, too, that when the preacher had said them, a young man, who was sitting by his side, had fainted.

The memory of that event so long ago seemed as fresh in his mind as if it were happening in the present.

“I have not loved God at all,” he said to himself; “And what will become of me? God has continually blessed me during these hundred years I have lived, and I have shown Him no gratitude nor love. And now what can I expect but a curse instead of a blessing from Him Whom I have treated so unkindly?”

This thought made him sad, and he began to tremble.

He next thought of the future, and of the miserable Eternity he must so soon enter. For how could he hope to enter Heaven, when he had never given much thought to saving his soul?

But this fear opened his mind and heart to grace. For he went on to say:

“Oh, that I had followed the inspirations God gave when I was listening to that sermon! Oh, that I had loved God all my lifetime! But is it now too late? Has not God spared me to see this day, and is it not He Who has put this thought into my heart? Yes, I feel within me a firm confidence that He will not reject me even though it is so late, if I try to love Him for the rest of my days, few as they must be.”

He went home, and from that moment led a new life. God spared him a few years longer, and he spent these years in loving Him with all the fervor of his soul. Thus he worked, till his last breath, to make up for his long past. He died in the hope of going to see God in Heaven - God Who had not forsaken him, but had given him the grace, at the end of his life, to serve and love Him.

The sermon this man had heard nearly a hundred years before was not in vain. At length, it served its purpose, and opened this man up to the grace which set him on the path to Heaven.

Thus we see that no matter how long a person walks down the wrong path, we must never give up hope. We must pray and work for the salvation of everyone, and trust that God, at the most fruitful moment, will use the graces of our prayers, good works, and sacrifices to bring them back on the right path.