WHILST waiting at F― Station one day a gospel tract was given to an old engine driver. He took it home, read it, believed God’s word therein set forth, and was saved. Meeting with a serious accident soon after, he was obliged to go to a London hospital, and whilst there the doctors decided that a severe operation was necessary as the only means of saving his life. When told this, and that it was very probable he might sink under it, what did he say? (Now these are his own words) — “I says, should like a few minutes;’ then I looks up to the Lord, and I says, ‘Lord, I am just ready for it, either to go or to stop, whichever you likes; but if you don’t mind I should like to stop a little longer, because of my wife and children; for I’ve got ten of ‘em.’” Such was his simple prayer; but the Lord heard and answered. On his return home I saw him, when he said, “And I got through it so nicely, and here I am a helpless cripple; but ‘tis all right.” Now he is put to do sitting work in Swindon Factory.
Dear reader, are you just ready for it? If death stared you in the face today, is your house set in order for eternity? If you are not ready for it, it may be ready for you — “Then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?” (Luke 12:2020But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? (Luke 12:20)) — and eternity will be too short to enable thee to answer God’s question of Heb. 2:2, 32For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; 3How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; (Hebrews 2:2‑3) — “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” &c. “Because there is wrath, beware lest He take thee away with His stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee.” (Job 36:1818Because there is wrath, beware lest he take thee away with his stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee. (Job 36:18).) Our Lord Jesus, in John 8, told the Pharisees, three times over, “Ye shall die in your sins;” and why? Because they were rejecting Him who came to put away sin — He who was and is the way, and the truth, and the life (John 14:66Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)); “for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” “If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater... And this is the witness.... He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” (1 John 5:9, 11, 129If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. (1 John 5:9)
11And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. (1 John 5:11‑12).)
A. P. B.