WHILE travelling with a friend in Jamaica, who was a native of the island, we happened to see growing near to the roadside a curious little bush. He pointed it out to me, and suggested that I should let my clothes touch it. I did so, and at once found myself caught by a hooked thorn not unlike a fishhook. While releasing myself from it I was caught by another, and then again by still another, and it was only with much care and patience that I got clear of it at last. “Wait-a-bit” is the name given to the bush by the natives of the island, and an exceptionally good name I thought it.
Has not the devil got many such bushes growing alongside the road which leads to blessing? Indeed he has. You wake up to the fact that it is time you thought of eternity, and immediately you are caught by some pleasure, or pursuit, or sin, which holds and detains you, saying, “Wait a bit,” and many are thus detained until it is too late for ever.
You mean to be saved, to have the Lord Jesus for your Saviour some day. Do it now; do not tread the road of By-and-By, for it leads eventually to the town of “Never.”
“The road called By-and-By is smooth,
And over the hills it windeth,
But he who starts in its crooked way
Much cause for trouble findeth.
That winding way seems bright today,
But darkness will fall for ever,
For over the hills of By-and-By
Is built the house of ‘Never.’”
J. T. M.