A FEW days ago, when standing on a railway platform, I heard a faint shriek in the distance, and at the same moment a porter ran and snatched up the signal-bell which was lying at the further end of the station. He had only just time to give two clangs with it, when an express dashed through with frightful velocity, and in a moment was gone. Now, there was at one end of the platform what is called a level crossing, by which persons wishing to go from one side to the other passed over the metals. Many persons were standing about, and several going to and fro, some to get their tickets or speak to friends, and some to wait for the train, up or down, which they intended to travel by; but just at the moment that the bell was sounded, it so happened that no one was in the act of crossing. If he had been, he must have lost his life. Escape would have been impossible, and the signal, which no doubt the servants of the company had orders to sound as a warning, would simply have been his death-knell. You could not count two seconds— nay, not one — between the clang of that signal-bell and the instantaneous rush of the train. They came together; indeed, I am not quite sure whether the train was not first, but certainly the second note of the bell’s iron tongue had hardly been given when the train was already out of sight. Was it by mere chance, as people say, or was it not rather through the goodness of God, that of all those who had been going and coming along that level crossing just before, no one happened at that instant to be there? To me it told a sad tale as to the cause of too many so-called railway accidents. Those porters knew that that train was coming; they had known it long before; yet, until it was actually there, no warning note was sounded, no caution given to any. The double clang of that warning bell would have been a fearful mockery indeed to any man on the level crossing. As the engine’s shriek, and the rush and roar of the train, shook the station, and drowned his dying groan, that iron note twice sounded would have filled, his ears, the knell of death to him, as he fell dashed to pieces by the railway side. But who would, have been, responsible in the sight of God for that man’s terrible death? The porters, whose duty it was to sound that bell in time, and the station-master, whose business it is to see that the porters do their duty. Well, now, I think we get two solemn lessons here: one for the believer, and one for the unbeliever. You know “the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” is coming. Time, like the rushing train, is hurrying it on, and every moment brings it nearer. Too many mere professors having, indeed, “the knowledge of the truth,” but no faith in it, and “a form of godliness,” without the power, pass to and fro like men upon the level crossing; now meeting with God’s people, now mingling with the world of the ungodly, heedless alike of the danger and of the warnings given in God’s blessed Word. Yet that Word declares that “when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them.... and they shall not escape.” sow, believers know that that day is coming — coming fast. Already the harbingers of its approach may be heard and seen by those that watch. Yet some, alas! neglect to sound the warning, and leave the careless sinner in his peril and false security to meet “the terror of the Lord.” You, know it is written, “The trumpet shall sound, and the dead in Christ shall be raised, and WE shall be changed.” But “where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” Ah! that trumpet-sound will be the harbinger of endless joys to the believer; but to the rejector of Christ it will be as the knell of everlasting death.
But, though Time’s Express is rushing on, and though “the day is near,” there is yet time to sound the warning-note, for “NOW is the accepted time, NOW is the day of salvation.” And “this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” “He that believeth shall not make haste,” for he is out of the reach of the dangers of the coming day. Caught away to be forever with the Lord, he will be safe in the Father’s house before the day breaks on the world. He is, so to speak, in the train, instead of being on the level crossing. Where, reader, would you rather be when the death-knell of the “despiser” is sounded?