I WAS sitting in a summer house in a nice large garden with a friend of mine. It was one spring evening, and everything was quiet. After we had been sitting for a long time without speaking, my friend said, “Although I have been a regular church-goer all my life, I do not know the rest of soul that has come to you through knowing Christ as your Saviour.”
This was a great surprise to me, as I had known him all my life, and that his parents had been strict on his attendance at church and Sunday school. Often I had asked him to come to our little room where the gospel of the grace of God was preached. And now availing myself of this further opportunity, I again asked him. After a while he consented, if it were only to see what our preaching (as he said) was like.
He came. There the Lord graciously met him, and through the preached word he found the rest his soul so much needed and longed for. This joy was his through believing that Jesus Christ died on the cross for him and for his sins.
My friend was in a situation at B— , to which he used to cycle every morning, arriving home again in the evening. He had no certain time for getting home, as he was employed by a doctor. A short time after he had found his Saviour he was returning home after his day’s work, when he passed another villager on a bicycle who asked him to go slowly and he would catch him up. A little further on he passed the brother of this man, who also remarked the same thing to him. However, before either of these had time to overtake him he had to go down a very steep hill. At the bottom of this hill a wagon which had been used for carrying faggots of wood had been left standing across the road instead of being drawn on one side. Moreover, there was no light as there should have been, for the wagon’s lamp had been out for some time, and there was therefore no proper indication of danger to any that might be following that way.
Cycling down the hill my friend ran into the rod of the wagon, which broke several of his ribs and pierced his heart. He fell from his bicycle and broke his neck. All this happened in a few seconds, and my dear friend who a minute before was in the enjoyment of excellent health, was now ushered into eternity without warning. An eternity of what? Was it an eternity of joy and bliss with his blessed Saviour whom he had learned to know but a short time before? Or was it to be in that awful place “where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched”? (Mark 9). Of him as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, we can say, his eternity was to be spent with his Saviour and Lord.
How is it with you? Were you, my dear reader, to have an accident such as this, where would your eternity be spent? If you are undecided, make a decision now. For in God’s word (the word of Him who cannot lie) we read, “Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold now is the day of salvation.” Do you ask, “How can I get this salvation?” Read John 3:1515That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:15). This is one of the many passages in God’s word in which the way of salvation is made very clear. There need be no doubt; it is just simple faith in the finished work of Christ. He suffered for sins once, the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God.
Make sure of your eternity, not only in case of accidents, for we know not what a day may bring forth, but also that you may be prepared to meet the Lord if He should come before anything happened to you. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” For to you is the word of this salvation sent.
J. H. P.