The Sixth Man's Story [Tract]

Full Text of

The Sixth Man’s Story

It was an awful wreck. The train had run past the small station into the path of the oncoming express. There were many dead and seriously injured. Doctors and nurses were rushed to the scene. Mr. Watters, a passenger, escaped uninjured, and he was trying to comfort the victims. He knelt beside a well-dressed man who was fatally hurt though in no great pain.

Mr. Watters tried to reassure the dying man, but he begged Mr. Watters to listen to his story and to tell it to others as a warning to them.

Mockery

He said that ten years before, while traveling as a salesman, he had spent a night of partying at a hotel. On that evening, they began ridiculing the gospel meetings that were being held in the town. An elderly preacher was presenting the good news of God’s love to lost sinners. A few who had before been drunkards had been converted. This increased the hatred of the others against the preacher and against all those interested in his meetings.

The injured man continued: “On that particular evening all kinds of wicked jokes were made, and the more I and my companions drank, the worse we became. Someone asked how the meetings were conducted and what was happening in them. A half drunken young man offered to demonstrate, if a few others would join him in the show.

“Six of us kneeled on the floor and started the mockery. We prayed for the forgiveness of our sins and even tried to imitate tears of repentance. We closed with that song we had learned in childhood: ‘Rock of Ages, Cleft for Sin’! When we were done, we found ourselves all alone. Shocked by the blasphemy, the rest of the guests had left and gone home.”

Here the seriously injured man paused. Then he said, “What I am about to tell you is no fiction. No! It happened within the last ten years. There were six of us participating in that farce.

“Before the end of the first year, the hotel owner suffered a fall. In that fall, a blood vessel burst in his brain and he never regained consciousness. He died. Someone might not think that this is unusual, but notice! It was a violent death.

“Two years later the young man who started the ‘show’ was with a hunting party in the country. During the night, he got up to get a drink of water. In the dark, he missed his way and fell down the steps. He broke his neck and died two days later.

“The third to go was Tom, who had been the leader of the mockery. He fell down his own cellar steps and died.

“Now I began to be uneasy. What would happen to my two other companions? Sobered and fearful, one of these went west hoping to avoid a tragic end. I heard that he became a railway guard, a usually safe occupation, but before long a newspaper reported his tragic death. He had been caught between the bumpers of two coaches and died a horrible death.

“Last year I met my only surviving companion. He’d become depressed after having lost his wife and two children. One evening he fell from the door of the saloon onto the concrete walk. His head struck a rock, and he died instantly. Since that time I have waited for my end. I knew I couldn’t escape it, and now it has come.”

God Is Not Mocked

In less than ten years all six who took part in that mockery died violent deaths. Apparently not one of them had repented and turned to God.

What a solemn voice! How true are the words of Scripture!

“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31).

These judgments only affected the bodies of these mockers. But how about their souls, passing into eternity unforgiven? They must appear before the great white throne to receive the awful sentence of God’s just judgment!

“Because a sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” (Eccl. 8:11).

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal. 6:7).