Near Handeck, in Switzerland, two tourists were crossing the narrow wooden bridge over the river. Stopping to admire the view, they leaned against the railings on one side of the bridge. The railings, evidently rotted by exposure to the weather, broke. The unfortunate tourists fell a distance of a hundred and fifty feet into the Handeck cataract and were killed. How much better it would have been if there had been no railings at all, rather than the rotten and untrustworthy ones which caused the death of those who leaned on them!
These rotten railings resemble the religion of thousands, even in so-called Christian countries. Many a man imagines that he is all right because he is a “member” of some church. Many a woman takes it for granted that she is on the way to heaven because she “goes to church” and is perhaps a Sunday school teacher. Young people by the thousands are deluded by the idea that nothing more is needed for salvation than that they should be members of some religious club.
All these things are like the railings at Handeck, if leaned on for salvation. They may be good and useful in themselves, but if people lean on them for salvation they do so at their peril. To depend on anything but Christ and His precious blood is to court certain destruction.
Salvation, it cannot be too strongly emphasized, is a personal matter. It is not a question of environment or of improved social conditions. It is entirely a question of the individual getting into right relations with God through faith in Christ.
See to it that you do not lean upon any unsafe railings! Be sure you build your hopes for eternity upon a sure foundation!
“Neither is there salvation
in any other: for there
is none other name
under heaven given among
men, whereby we
must be saved.”