MR. GEORGE and his son, Bill, were driving in their van along the busy city street. It had been raining and the pavement was wet and slippery. Just as they were passing a shop, the boy said to his father, “Dad, I need some new rubbers. Can I run in and get a pair?”
“Sure, son,” said his father. “I’ll stop for you.”
They were on a downgrade, and his father could not pull up as quickly as the boy wished. So with the impatience and energy of a boy in his teens, Bill jumped off while the van was moving; his foot slipped and he fell, as his father thought, under the wheel.
Mr. George stopped as quickly as he could and jumping out he ran back expecting to see a crowd around his boy’s broken and perhaps lifeless body; but no trace of the boy could he see. Bye and bye he spied him tripping gaily to meet him with his parcel under his arm.
“O Bill, I thought you had fallen under the wheels!” he exclaimed.
“No, Dad, I fell behind the van and wasn’t hurt,” explained Bill.
When they both were in the van and on their way again his father asked solemnly, “Suppose, my boy, the wheel had gone over you, and you had been killed. Where would you be now?”
“In heaven, Dad,” replied Bill. “How do you know that?” his father asked again.
“Because I believe in Jesus, Dad,” returned the boy. “I believe He died for me, and I know that my sins are all forgiven.”
Then it came out how that the seed sown by his Christian father and mother, together with the prayers of an earnest Sunday school teacher, being good seed, the seed of the Word, had fallen on good ground in Bill’s young heart. Now it was springing up, a tiny green blade of confession of Christ.
Was Bill any better than other boys of his age? No, indeed. Though sheltered in a Christian home from the snares and temptations that many other boys are exposed to, Bill had a nature and heart as bad as the worst of them. But the Holy Spirit had ploughed up his heart and conscience, showed him that he was a sinner, and he had been honest out it. His was a “broken and contrite heart,” and that accident brought out his first confession of Christ.
Dear reader, accidents happen every day—on the streets and highways, on land and sea, or in the air precious souls, young and old, are being hurried into eternity, and who knows whether you may be the next victim? Death often gives no warning of his approach, but God warns of what comes “after death!” for death does not end it all. “It is appointed unto men once to die, but AFTER THIS THE JUDGMENT.” Heb. 9:2727And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (Hebrews 9:27).
You can be ready, like that dear boy, Bill. Jesus has died for sinners and you can be saved right now. Trust Him as your Saviour, pass from death unto life, and be prepared, come what may.
ML-09/27/1970