“No room for mirth, or trifling here.”
A COMPANY of listeners at an open-air meeting the other evening in London, was impressed on hearing from a Christian young man from Ireland, of three sudden deaths, which had recently come under his painful notice in that country.
The first was that of a young man of herculean strength, of which he had been boasting on his way to the gymnasium where he met with his fatal accident. It appears that, as he was balancing himself upon the higher horizontal bar, he slipped and fell from the higher to the lower one, and so greatly injured his spine that paralysis almost at once set in, at first taking a rapid downward course, and then upwards towards the head. Solemn was it to be told that the only words which came from the lips of the injured athlete were, —
“Where am I going? Where am I going?”
Reiterating these words, this young man passed out of time into eternity; he has gone — where?
The second was that of a bicyclist. He had just said he would be home in fourteen minutes (a distance, we understood, of four miles). Little did he think that this would be his last ride home. Turning a corner with some swiftness, and a vehicle coming the opposite way, a collision ensued, and the shaft of the vehicle actually perforated the body of the poor man. In a moment he was brought face to face with eternity, and so unexpectedly!
Reader, forget not the scriptural injunction, too often unheeded in this world, “Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth” (Prov. 27:11Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. (Proverbs 27:1)).
The third case was that of a well-known Christian man, a worker in the Gospel vineyard. The young open-air preacher had spoken to this Christian man in a Dublin bank one morning. He appeared in his usual health. However, in the evening returning home, he said to his wife, “I am feeling ill;” and then soon added, “I am feeling very ill indeed.” Medical aid was quickly sent for. The doctor came, his experienced eye told him of the seriousness of his patient’s case, and without delay he desired to consult with another medical man. Nothing could be done to save that life. The dying Christian knowing this, became not (as in the first case) anxious about his own personal safety, but about a newly engaged servant, to whom he began to preach the Gospel, telling him of the Saviour’s finished work and of His glorious resurrection.
After all, reader, death finds out where we are. Things are real then. We ask you, Where are you going? On which road are you — the broad or the narrow?
“Passing onward, quickly passing —
Yes, but whither, whither bound?
Is it to the many mansions
Where eternal rest is found?
Passing onward —
Yes, but whither, whither bound?
Passing onward, quickly passing,
Naught the wheels of time can stay!
Sweet the thought, that some are going
To the realms of perfect day!
Passing onward —
Christ their Leader — Christ their way.”
W. R. C.