PASSING in a train over the Forth Bridge this afternoon, I was impressed by the appearance of a widow sitting opposite me with two little children by her side. Neatly and modestly dressed in mourning, she wore round her neck a small gold chain with a pendant, containing the portrait of a naval officer.
As we reached the center of the bridge, a lady lifted one of the children to the window beside her to view the great battleships anchored in the Forth. With a sad and dejected countenance the widow looked vacantly forward without turning her eyes towards the fleet, till presently they filled with tears, which rolled down her cheeks until she could restrain her grief no longer, and, hiding her face in her handkerchief, she wept in silence.
Oh! how I longed to pour into that heart-broken widow’s ear the tale of Jesu’s love to the sinner! How I longed to tell her of One, Who had given His life, not only for His country’s weal, but to save the lost sinner!
We quickly reached the station at the northern end of the bridge, where the lady and children left the train.
This simple and touching incident impressed itself upon me, and I was filled with regret that I had not been able to embrace the quickly passing opportunity of telling out the love of Christ to that poor lonely heart.
May I turn to you, dear reader, and ask you the question: Have you a satisfied heart? Amidst the sunshine of life, or the dark shadows thrown by the horrors and results of this distracting war, have you found One, upon Whom you can rest your weary soul?
We cannot pass along the streets of any town or city without seeing the sad effects of the self-will of man displayed. The anxious and worried looks of many we meet; the mourning attire; the wounded and maimed―all alike proclaim the one message that Satan has brought distress and destruction upon this sin-stricken world.
We would not, however, dwell upon that, which distracts more or less the Whole habitable world, but we would seek to draw the reader’s attention to the fact that “a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land” (Isa. 32:22And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. (Isaiah 32:2)).
In prophecy, poetry, and song, He―the Lord Jesus Christ―was the One to Whom all Old Testament Scriptures pointed, and “when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we [believers] might receive the adoption of sons” (Gal. 4:4, 54But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. (Galatians 4:4‑5)).
He was the bright out-beaming of God’s love to a perishing world. He came forth to tell out God’s heart to you, that He had naught but purposes of grace towards you, and that He so loved the world, and you as a part of it, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever, and that may include you, believing on Him should have everlasting life.
Thus in the tenderness and grace of His heart God has brought relief and salvation to you. He beseeches you to come and rest upon His Son for salvation, and present and eternal joy shall be yours.
C. S. R.