“A coach to myself! O how delightful—as delightful as it is unexpected. The Lord Himself must have known how tired—how very tired, I am.”
Helen Grant, who had been spending time and strength in seeking to win souls for the Lord she loved, settled herself contentedly in the corner of the train, as the train drew out of a big and busy station. There were two or three stops on the long run, but it was the depth of winter, and very few people seemed to be traveling. Helen just closed her eyes, glad to rest—to pray, for the work she had left behind—the work which lay ahead.
The great station was busy as usual: folks came crowding to the train. But still, Helen was hoping to be left alone, for most people had taken their seats—the train was just off, and then—
"Well, good-by lass! Hope you'll find—”
The last words were lost, as the handle of the door was seized, and the door wrenched open by the practiced hand of a young railroad man in uniform. But it was no casual passenger to whom he said good-by—it was his young wife, whose eyes were sad as she gave him a kiss—sad with the parting—and, as it came out afterward, sorrowing for something more. She leaned out of the window to wave her husband farewell, then sat down in the corner opposite to Helen Grant, and closed her eyes.
It was not very long before Helen saw big tears creeping under the closed lids—tears rolled slowly down the girl's cheeks. This would never do! There was a long non-stop run before them. Helen felt she must find out what was the matter. The young woman had left the window wide open, and Helen knew it wasn't everybody who shared her love of fresh air, even in winter time.
So, first of all making some excuse to ask the girl if she would prefer the window partly closed, Helen tried to draw the stranger into conversation.
By and by it all came out; and now the tears came unbidden, "I've left my home at an hour's notice.
“My father is dying! They've sent for me!”
How cold even words of sympathy seemed just then—though Helen Grant herself had not long before lost her own mother.
The Way of Salvation
Then she said: "If that dear father of yours is ready to meet God and his sufferings are great—you cannot wish him to linger in his pain!”
"No, O, no! I know he's all right! I have a good Christian father, I know, for him it will mean heaven!" Then Helen laid her hand on that of the girl in the opposite corner, and said gently, "Thank God for that! But what about you, if God's call came for you instead of your father? Is it well with your soul?" Her head was bent still lower now, and the tears fell more quickly than ever.
"No! I can't say I am saved. I wish I could. I know there's something I do not have.”
"But it's something you may have, here and now—if you will," said Helen, pulling out her little pocket Bible. "See, here is God's own Word for it! 'All have sinned'—and that includes you, me, and everybody else. But since all of us are under sin, and sin cannot enter the presence of a holy God, the Lord Jesus gave Himself that He might become the Way to Heaven! There is His way of salvation, clearly enough.
"Come now and let us reason together:. . . Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." He says 'Come' —will you 'Come'—here and now?”
The express roared on at 40 or 50 miles an hour—but there on the floor of the railway coach the two knelt down—Helen Grant and the girl whose name she did not even know till afterward.
Simply taking God at His Word—”Coming' because He invited her to come; giving herself to Him, just as she was; the porter's young wife sought and found the salvation Christ offered her, through His shed Blood upon the Cross of Calvary.
"Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy Blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bid'st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come!”
Very softly came the words—the plea for pardon-the surrender of a soul to Him who had bidden her come. Then Helen Grant pointed to her Bible again.
"He has said, 'Come—and you have just told Him you do come, here and now! Now, what has happened, Look at this.
`Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.' Has He cast you out? No. Why not? Because He says He will not cast you out, and His Word can never be broken. Then what has He done?" Very softly came the words, while God's own peace and joy suddenly transfigured her face.
"He's taken me in!”
A strange place for the seeking Savior to meet a seeking sinner; in a Northern Express as it thundered on its way! But God can save the soul of a man or a woman anywhere—at home, at work, on a journey! Yes, you, just as you are, and where you are, here and now; if you will give yourself to Him and believe His Word. Those two in the train that winter's morning, talked together long and earnestly, until the train slowed down and stopped. With a clasp of the hand, and a whispered, "God bless you"; the two whom God had brought together that morning parted—never since to meet again. Afterward Helen Grant received a letter.
"I was just in time to see my dear father! He died triumphantly, knowing he was going to be with Jesus. * * And I?—well, if I never meet you again on earth, I know I shall see you up in Glory.”
So wrote the girl who, on her way to her father's deathbed, found Christ as her own personal Savior in a railway train.