ON MAY 28th, 1911, a party of prospectors recovered from an abandoned cabin, beyond the Valdez Glacier, Alaska, the bones and personal effects of F. B. F., of Boston, a miner, who had been missing since the fall of 1908. F. and his partners attempted to reach the fourth bend on the head waters of the Klutina River, but ran out of supplies. The partners turned back, but F. wandered into the old cabin and perished with hunger and cold.
The dying man kept a record of his last days on the margin of an almanac. Some of the entries follow: “Feb. 1. No food yet.” “Feb. 9. Ditto. I am awfully weak.” “Feb. 17. Ditto. May the Lord have mercy on me. I thank Him. Amen.” “Feb. 20. Ditto.” “Feb. 28. Ditto. Do not expect to get up again.” “F. B. F.”
Thus another has been added to the Tong list of searchers for gold that perishes, who have lost their lives in the attempt. What tales of hardship and suffering would be told, if dead men’s bones could speak; yet there they lie, strewn in the path of the vain searcher of earth’s fickle wealth, as an awful warning to all who would pass by. “For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matt. 16:2626For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew 16:26).
According to the diary of F. B. F., we are led to believe that God in His grace enabled him to know that there was mercy still reserved for him ere he passed out of time into eternity, from whence none return. There was doubtless the sense of his helplessness and the certainty of meeting a holy God as a sinner, and that led him to say, “Lord, have mercy on me.”
That was an appeal of faith and a confession of absolute helplessness. “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Rom. 10:1313For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Romans 10:13). “By grace are ye saved through faith.” Eph. 2: 8. “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” Rom. 5: 6.
F., having assurance that he was heard, could say, “I thank Him, Amen.”
Friend, can you too thank God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us—for His unspeakable gift? That love, unsurpassed, has been displayed at the cross, where Jesus, the holy Son of God was sacrificed, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16).)
ML 07/28/1912