Down in the valley lay a snug little village. Up from its busy homes struggled the new railway line, past a lonely little station, up to the dam, where many years ago, the waters of the mountain stream turned the great turbines generating electric power.
In that lonely little station on the mountain side, sat a young lady, whose business it was to listen to the constant ticking of the telegraph needle, to receive and to send messages. She was a faithful girl, and each time she looked up her eyes fell upon the words of a text fastened to her wall, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save.” Mark 15:3131Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; himself he cannot save. (Mark 15:31).
This text was a gift from her Sunday school teacher. I am sure she must have loved it, to hang it there. What do those words mean to you, my reader? To me, they mean that my Saviour could not save Himself from the awful death of Calvary’s cross, because He had come to save me from the eternal hell that I deserved. God must punish sin, and unless the Lord Jesus bore the judgment for me, then I must bear it myself. Do you love those words too? Himself He could not save, but He saved me. Dear reader, has He saved you?
Through a long day’s rain the telegraph girl sat faithfully at work, as the tempest increased in fury, and the wind made her little cabin tremble. Then came a crash, and she knew in a moment that the upper dam had burst.
Would it be possible for her to flee out of reach of the swirling waters? Very likely, but what of the village, resting snugly down, the glen? Only one girl, between all those souls and death! In an instant, she was at her post again, clicking out a message of warning to the village below. Only a few moments more and then she fled for safety, but in those few moments came the rush of waters. Her body was not found, but her reward is with God.
Her warning was not in vain. There were many, warned in time, who escaped. Oh, my reader, you are warned in time, this very day. Judgment comes nearer every moment. The Lord Jesus did not die in vain, for He has saved many. Have you trusted Him as your Saviour?
ML 09/06/1953