I RECOLLECT perfectly well one Saturday evening coming from the country in the train. I was in a long third-class carriage.
About the middle of the carriage there were nine or ten people who had evidently been spending the day together, and they had got what you would call jolly, and had no doubt imbibed a good deal of spirituous liquor. They were musical, and sang fairly well a lot of Scotch songs. The carriage was full, and everybody listened.
At a certain station they all got out, and the compartment was filled with strangers. As the train moved off, I rose and said, “My friends, I have listened with great interest to these songs, but I am not a Scotchman, and I would like to tell you of a song of my native land.”
They looked at me, curious to know where I came from. “Well,” I said, “the song is this— I cannot give you the tune, but I can give you the words— ‘And they sang a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth’” (Rev. 5:9, 109And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; 10And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. (Revelation 5:9‑10)).
Then I went on, and very simply preached the gospel till the rattle of the train became so loud that my voice could not be heard. At that moment a distant signal being at “danger,” the train was brought to a stop.
There was a dead silence in the carriage, broken at length by a voice from the other end saying, “Is he drunk?”
Now the fact was the people who had gone out were, I will not say drunk, but on the high road to it. A second voice said, “He is not drunk.” A third added, “I think he is a good man.” A fourth rejoined, “But he is not a wise man.” “Why?” asked a fifth. “Because he does not know the time or the place,” replied the other.
Thus was my preaching of God’s good news to perishing men received. Will you tell me when the world wants to hear about the Saviour, and I will be your man, and be there? The fact is, this world does not want Jesus. Do YOU want Him?
If a man does not believe the gospel, what is the reason? God tells us, “If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are LOST, in whom the god of this world [the devil] hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Cor. 4:3, 43But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 4In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (2 Corinthians 4:3‑4)). That witness is very solemn, and should awaken every careless, unsaved man to bethink him of his awful condition.
Remember, the man who now passes into eternity in an unsaved, unconverted, unforgiven, unbelieving state, goes into it with his eyes open, for God has spoken plainly.
May this never be your experience. Turn to the Lord now. Now is the time, and here is the place, believe me, when you should turn to the Lord.
W. T. P. W.