LOST! A very short word, yet it is true of every I member of Adam’s race. You may not believe it, but your unbelief does not alter the fact. God has it on record in His Word. “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:1010For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10)). When a vessel goes down at sea, the report in the papers says so many were saved and so many were lost, and no one doubts it; but there is no third class spoken of who were neither saved nor lost. So it is now in connection with salvation: there are only two classes, those who are saved through faith in Christ, and have a right to know it (1 Cor. 1:1818For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18); 2 Cor. 2:1515For we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: (2 Corinthians 2:15)), and those who are lost. “Some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not” (Acts 28:2424And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not. (Acts 28:24)).
Lost! Eighteen years ago the crew that carried the mail from Cape Tormentine to P.E. Island were lost on the ice, and for two nights and a day and a half they were driven hither and thither during a terrible storm, and they knew not what to do; everything looked dark and gloomy. The captain said to his men, “What must we do?” One of them answered, “Stand still.” One of the mail-boats was broken up and used as firewood, two of them were turned over as a place of shelter, only the ice between them and a lost eternity.
Some of the men were almost frantic; others began to pray as they thought of going out into eternity unsaved: all longed for a shelter from the storm. The captain sighted land, so the boats were drawn ashore, which took four hours’ steady hauling on the ice. Through exposure and the extreme cold, some had to have their feet taken off; others were disabled for life as the result, of having to remain so long on the ice.
One of the mail-boat crew went to a gospel meeting. He was not asked to stand up or go forward, or make a start. Man’s lost state by nature was plainly brought before them, Christ was lifted up as the resting-place for sin-sick souls. The man who was lost on the ice said, “I listened to the story of the cross, I saw that I was a poor lost sinner on the broad road which leads to hell. My former religious life was no use to me. Trust in prayers, and so-called good feelings, passed away, as the truth of the gospel came with power to my dark, benighted soul. There I stood with nothing but hell before me. I could do nothing to save myself. Then the truth of God came with all its freshness to me. I saw that the Son of God had poured out His life’s blood for me. I rested in Jesus, and I was saved, first from a watery grave, then from a burning hell.”