“February 15th, 1813. — I know not a more serious drawback to mixed society than the exclusion of all conversation about the one thing needful ; and it comes to be a seriousquestion, How are you to get the better of it? Are you to lift your testimony against it? This zeal would prompt; but we are also called to walk in wisdom toward those that are without. There must be a way of introducing the topic, so as to make a useful impression, so as to conciliate prejudice, so as to win, if possible, rather than repel. I confess it is to me a thing beset with many difficulties, and I fear thatan unmanly shame may have some share in it. It is certainly wrong to disguise it from others that you look uponeternity as your uppermost concern. Disguise this, and you add the sanction of your example to their exclusive indulgence in the frivolities of time — you add to the multitude of stumbling-blocks or offenses which lie in the way of others. It is delightful that there is a promise annexed to the prayer for wisdom; and I know not a more delicate subject for the application of wisdom than the one I am now insisting on.”
-Thomas Chalmers, from his private journal
West Port Experiment 
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