It was 9 a.m. The 8:50 train had been dispatched, and the stationmaster at the little country train station was settling down for an hour’s quiet. Suddenly a man, with a red-hot face and bursting with ill-temper, rushed onto the platform. He stormed against the driver whose neglect had made him late, declaring that he would rather have lost $25.00 than miss that particular train.
What was to be done? Nothing could be done but to wait for the ten o’clock train. The man was furious, and walked up and down the platform in a rage.
Presently, when he had cooled down a little, the stationmaster went to him and said, “There’s a comfortable waiting room inside, if you would like to sit down, sir.”
The man went in and found a pleasant room with seats and a table on which were spread some gospel tracts. To while away the time, he took one and began to read: “Passing onward, yes; but whither bound?”
Soon his whole attention was absorbed. Time passed. Passengers began to arrive. The ticket office was opened for the coming train. Still he sat on, deeply interested in what he was reading.
“The train’s in sight,” said the stationmaster.
“The train?” replied the man like one waking from a dream. “Will you sell me this tract? I want to read it again.”
“Take it and welcome,” was the response. “The lady who supplied the tracts will be glad if you will accept it.”
“Thank you, and her,” said the man. He took it, and in another minute he was speeding away in the train.
A month rolled by. A man stepped off the train and offered his hand to the stationmaster.
“Do you remember me?” he asked.
“I do, sir. You are the gentleman that missed the train a few weeks back, and were so upset about it.”
“I need not have been. I missed the train, but I found the Saviour! I had been so absorbed with business that I did not allow myself time to think about God, or to read His Word. I could not get away from the questions that tract raised. Please tell the lady that it has led me to Christ. Now I want others to know Him, so I am buying all I can and giving them away wholesale. I never knew what happiness was before.”
The whistle blew, and the man resumed his seat in the train. There was joy in the heart of the old stationmaster as he waved him farewell and saw the happy look on his face. He was a new creature in Christ Jesus.
“ Enter ye in at the strait gate:
for wide is the gate,
and broad is the way, that leadeth
to destruction, and many there be
which go in thereat:
Because strait is the gate,
and narrow is the way,
which leadeth unto life,
and few there be that find it.”