Few would think of persons being drowned in an omnibus. But this unusual event happened in D. a number of years ago. A bus from one of the suburbs before arriving in the city required to cross a canal, and when going over the bridge the horses became restive and unmanageable. They had not quite reached the middle of the bridge, but were still on the incline, and the bus by its weight and the movement of the horses gradually got back to the approach to the bridge, and from the way the horses backed it turned round, broke the railings, and fell into the lock-chamber of the canal.
Efforts were made to rescue the two or three persons who had remained in it, but from the position of the vehicle, and the way in which they were held beneath the water, it was impossible to save them.
Little did those passengers think as they were being borne along that it was the last time they would be on that road, that in a short period they would pass from time into eternity, and in the very conveyance by which they trusted safely to arrive in the city.
Could one have told them that what they trusted in to reach the city would fail them, and that death by drowning would come upon them, doubtless they would have laughed at the thought, and have treated such a warning with indifference; but such was the fact, though of course unknown.
Now, what I want to bring before you, my reader, is that we are all on a journey either to the abodes of darkness or to that bright celestial city—heaven. In referring to the sad event I have only spoken of that which had to do with the body and their failing to reach the city. If they were believers, then to them it would be, “absent from the body, present with the Lord.”
Dear reader, it maybe you expect to be in heaven. But do you know the One who alone is able to bring you there—the Lord Jesus Christ? Only through Him can you reach it.
If you are a believer He will bring you safely to that desired abode, but if you are placing- your confidence in anything of your own doings—anything apart from Christ—you will never reach it.
That which you trust in will not only fail to ‘bring you’ to the heavenly city, but by your resting in it, and not in Christ, will lead to your being borne down to the depths of darkness, out of which there will be no deliverance, no way of escape.
All who put their trust in the Lord Jesus will be brought safely to that scene of eternal joy, while those who do not will most assuredly perish.
ML 10/30/1904