I remember reading a story of a woman who with her little babe was traveling by train through one of the northeastern states. It was a very wintry day. Outside a terrific storm was blowing, snow was falling, and sleet covered everything. The train made its way along slowly because of the ice on the tracks and the snowplow went ahead to clear the way. The woman seemed very nervous. She was to get off at a small station, where she would be met by some friends, and she said to the conductor, “You will be sure and let me know the right station, won’t you?”
“Certainly,” he said, “just remain here until I tell you the right station.”
She sat rather nervously, and again spoke to the conductor, “You won’t forget me?”
“No, just trust me. I will tell you when to get off.”
A commercial man sat across the aisle. He leaned over and said, “Pardon me, but I see you are rather nervous about getting off at your station. I know this road well. Your station is the first stop after such and such a city. These conductors are very forgetful, they have a great many things to attend to, and he may overlook your request, but I will see that you get off all right. I will help you with your baggage.”
“Oh, thank you,” she said. And she leaned back greatly relieved.
By and by the brakeman called the name of the city the commercial traveler had mentioned, and the latter said to the woman, “Yours is the next station. Better get ready and I will assist you to get off.”
The train moved on and shortly afterward came to a full stop. The woman hurried to the end of the car, the man who was helping her carrying her bag. When they reached the vestibule, there was no one there. “You see,” said the stranger, “these trainmen are very careless. The conductor has quite forgotten you.” But he opened the door, assisted the woman with her baby down the steps, and just as he boarded the train again it moved on.
A few minutes later the conductor came through the train and looking all about, said, “Why, that is strange! There was a woman here who wanted to get off at the next station. I wonder where she is.”
The commercial man spoke up and said, “Yes, you forgot her, but I saw that she got off all right.”
“Got off where?” the conductor asked.
“When the train stopped.”
“But that was not a station! That was an emergency stop! I was looking after that woman. Why, man, you have put her off in a wild country district in the midst of all this storm, where there will be nobody to meet her!”
There was only one thing to do, and, although it was a rather dangerous thing, they had to reverse the engine and go back a number of miles, and then went out to look for the woman. They searched and searched; finally, somebody stumbled upon her body. She was frozen on the ground, her little babe dead in her arms. She was the victim of wrong information.
If it is such a serious thing to give people wrong information in regard to temporal things, what about the man who misleads men and women in regard to the great question of the salvation of their immortal souls? If men believe a false gospel, if they put their trust in something that is contrary to the Word of God, their loss will be not for time only, but for eternity.