Wrecks on the Burma Road [Booklet]

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Travelling the famous "Burma Road," the author saw many sights which he correlates to Christians who have made shipwreck of their lives. This interesting and instructive comparison is full of warnings aimed at keeping one "on the road."

Excerpt:

I have just traveled the famous 'Burma Road' from Lashio in Upper Burma to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province in China. It is about seven hundred miles of a truly wonderful road. I have never had such a drive in my life before. One mountain range after another had to be crossed, with rivers and streams between, some of them wide and swift and deep and dangerous. Indeed the greater part of the road was one of extreme danger. One skid, one mistake in judgment of the driver, one failure on the part of the truck, and we might have been gone.

We went through the pass in the top of the mountains above the Salween River at about two in the afternoon, and for four hours we went down, down, till we crossed the bridge at five minutes after six. We saw the broken timber and splintered wreckage showing where it had been bombed by the Japanese only a few days before; and we marveled at the courage and ingenuity of the Chinese as they kept the bridges clear, and the road open. Wrecked houses near the bridge, shell craters by the roadside, and numberless scars on the rocky hillside, told of the fierce attacks that had only succeeded in holding up the traffic for a day or two. But the road down the hillside impressed me almost more than the bridge itself. Much of it is cut out of the side of vast precipices that yawn far below, apparently thousands of feet of sheer drop, without a thing in the world to keep a truck from going over the edge. The curves, the hairpin bends, the terrible grades all add their dangers, not to speak of the new roadbed, and the possibility of its collapse, or the danger of landslides from above.

Indeed the whole road appeared to be fraught with the gravest danger, and one impossible obstacle after another seemed to loom before us to block the way, and yet a way had been made that covered the whole distance from start to finish. It was a wonderful trip, but the saddest part about it was the sight of so many wrecks strewn all along the road. I was forcibly reminded of the pathway of life, and the wrecks I have seen upon it. Many a time during that drive did the words of the old hymn come to my mind:

“Christian walk carefully, Danger is near!”

And yet there is a way by which any good truck, and careful driver, may go in safety from Lashio to Kunming. And there is a way by which the Christian may walk in safety without even a stumble (Jude 24 —New Translation) from earth to Heaven.

Why then, the wrecks? That is the question I asked myself as each wreck came in sight, and I would like to try to tell you of some of the causes. If they would act as a warning note to any fellow-traveler, how thankful the writer would be…

Dear fellow-traveler on the road of life, have you had an accident? Has there been a wreck? Is it all your own fault? Have you sinned, and is there nothing before you but a ruined life? Call the 'Savior Truck' alongside to help. "We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." Call on Him. That is why the 'Savior Truck' is on the road. That is why we have an Advocate with the Father; and the Advocate is the One Whom we have already learned to know as Savior.

But here the picture breaks down. As the trucks got home, many of them showed scars and scratches; they were battered and bruised, and showed all too plainly the signs of the long hard journey they had made. But with us, it is different. He will present His Own to Himself, "a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing." All the sin and the failure will be gone. Not a trace of the wilderness journey to remind us of the wrecks and the falls. But we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is.

“For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be kept safe from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be kept safe by His life." (Rom. 5:7-10; See Moule)

“But to Him that is able to keep you without stumbling, and to set you with exultation blameless before His glory, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, from before the whole age, and now, and to all the ages." Amen! (Jude 23, 25, New Translation.)