midnight
The evangelical spirit glowed within him when he faced the factor across the little table . Figuratively speaking he cleared for action . His host , being a hard-headed son of a disputatious race , met him more than half-way . As a result midnight found them still wordily engaged , one maintaining with emotional fervor that man 's spiritual welfare was the end and aim of human existence ; the other as outspoken -- if more calmly and critically so -- in his assertion that a tooth-and-toenail struggle for existence left no room in any rational man 's life for the manner of religion set forth in general by churches and churchmen . The edge of acrimony crept into the argument . `` The Lord said , ` Leave all thou hast and follow me , ' '' Thompson declared . `` My dear sir , you can not dispute -- '' `` Ay , but yon word was said eighteen hundred years past , '' MacLeod interrupted .