It is midnight. The great city sleeps: the shadows are heavy beneath the prison walls, and the long, dark night throbs on.
But hark! What sound is that? Singing and—can it be possible? coming from the prison. What does it mean? Prisoners singing, and at midnight? Who can they be? Let us go near.
Ah! there they are: two men chained in the inner prison, with their feet fast in the stocks, scarcely able to move. But, see their faces! How they glisten! What wondrous joy! And they are singing— singing in the prison cell. And their fellow-prisoners—what a sight!
Man after man; waking from his sleep, rises on his elbow and listens. Yes, listens with wonder and amazement to the strangest, sweetest sound he has ever heard.
Suddenly, as if moved by a supernatural hand, the earth begins to shake and tremble. A mighty upheaval, an earthquake! Doors fly open, chains and stocks drop off; the singing ceases, and the prisoners, springing to their feet, rush around in the dangerous building.
“What must I do to be saved?" It 'is the cry of a desperate soul, and comes from the lips of the jailer. He has awakened from his sleep to hear the singing. As he listens, the earthquake comes, and maddened with fear, he has leaped from his couch.
Seeing the prisoners loose on every side, he has drawn his sword and prepared to plunge it into his own heart. But, lo from the dark shadows a voice cries, "Do thyself no harm, for we are all here.”
The jailer knows that voice knows that it is the voice of the renowned Paul, the servant of Jesus Christ. It is the voice that had enraged all Philippi; the voice that had rung through the prison with songs of praise but a moment ago. Ah, yes, he knows it well! And at the feet of Paul he casts himself in anguish of spirit, and gives utterance to the cry that echoes far and wide on the midnight air.
“What must I do to be saved?" That is the cry of a million hearts. All down the centuries it has sounded forth, sometimes with true anxiety, and then again with a shriek of despair. It is the cry of the death-bed, the cry of sin-cursed souls. Have you not heard it? Do you not know it yourself? You know it well. It has come from your own heart. Go where you will, that question will follow you. Strive as you may, it will face you, for it demands an answer.
Do you know why? Listen: "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." "The wages of sin is death." "All have sinned." "All we like sheep have gone astray.”
It is because you are lost! Oh, that you might see it! Lost here, lost hereafter. No heaven, no loved ones, no Savior, no happiness; but hell and Satan, separation and everlasting night. Oh, how fearful to have "no hope, without God in the world.”
“Lost!" Yes, but thank God, you may yet be saved if you will But God is not going to save you against your own desire. It is for you to decide, to take your place honestly and humbly before God as a lost and guilty sinner. Let the cry of the Philippian jailer that rang out that night: "What must I do to be saved?" be your cry just now. The answer can come to you as quickly as it came to him so long ago: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31).