CAPTAIN GEORGE’S ship was torpedoed during World War I, and all hands went down except the captain and his first officer. For twenty-two hours, with lifebelts on, they held together, crying to God to save them, for the captain loved the Lord.
Their danger was not exactly drowning, but dying of thirst. Water for hundreds of miles around them, but they dared not touch it. Salt water, as perhaps my reader is aware, like the pleasures of the world, only creates thirst instead of satisfying it. They had reached a point in their intense thirst when they thought they could endure no longer. But, to their delight, salvation came to them in an unexpected way, and oh, how the captain thanked God for His goodness.
It so happened that a large vegetable marrow, or kind of squash, floated by. Without one second’s delay, they seized the marrow, broke it in two, divided it between them and sucked out its moisture. Both men were saved, and some hours later they were picked up.
Would it not have been madness for them to have allowed that marrow to pass by, thinking that perhaps another marrow might float by a little later? Yes, indeed! But this they did not do. They dared not miss the opportunity, seeing that God in His goodness had brought that marrow there for their salvation. But, my friend, serious as their position was, yours is far more serious now. At any moment, you may be called to leave this world, and all that is dear to you, and to pass into eternity. With your sins upon you, unforgiven and unsaved, you would be lost forever.
At infinite cost, God has sent you a Saviour. Under sufferings untold, Jesus died to bring that salvation to you. This salvation is now within your reach—not to be purchased, with money, not to be merited or won, but just to be accepted, as Captain George did the marrow. The Saviour Jesus is near to all that call upon Him, for: “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Reader, He is near you now. Don’t miss Him; don’t neglect His great salvation. Now is your day of salvation, now is your moment of salvation. Take it at once and be happy in the Lord. Five minutes from now, your opportunity to be saved may have gone forever.
“With Me—No more is told;
What more, Lord, could’st thou tell?
Thou knewest that would satisfy
The heart that knows thee well.
Copied from a tombstone (of a departed sister in the Lord) in Bournemouth Cemetery.
ML-06/14/1964