I got into a streetcar in Buffalo with a prayer in my heart that I might speak to some lost soul about Christ. When the conductor came for my fare I also gave him the leaflet: "Where Hell is." As I handed it to him he laughed and said, "You always give me one of these religious papers! I suppose you think me a very wicked fellow; but I am about as good as they make them.”
I held up my Bible and asked: "Do you see this book? It tells me, 'The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked,' Jer. 17:9. That means your heart and mine. That doesn't sound so very good, does it?”
"Oh, well," he said, "there is plenty of time for me to think about these things. I am still young.”
"Yes," I answered. "But if you go into any cemetery you will see graves of all sizes. A little girl once asked her mother how old must one be before he dies. The wise mother gave her child a piece of string and told her to go into the graveyard and measure the graves, and every time she measured to tie a knot.
"Soon the child came back with the string full of knots. 'Look, mother, the graves are all sizes'
"'Yes, dear, that is when people die; at all times and ages.'”
Again the young man laughed and said, "There is plenty of time for me.”
As I was leaving the car I said to him: "Remember, the time is short! You need not go to a Christless grave and to hell. Jesus died for you.”
This young man had been a conductor for only a few weeks, but during that time I had often met him, and always gave him a tract. As this was not a busy line, I often had a little talk with him and other conductors, and sought to bring Christ before them.
The next morning I traveled by the same car, but a new conductor was on it. He told me that the one I had spoken to the day before had intended going for an afternoon's pleasure trip; but in jumping from one car to another he had missed his footing. He had fallen under the car, and was so badly injured that in a few hours he had died.
Now my heart was indeed burdened. Had he gone to a Christless grave? Or had that solemn warning by the Spirit been just in time? I went to his home, and as I looked upon the young man's face in death, I could not help thinking what an awful warning to anyone who thinks "there is plenty of time for me.”
"I tell you, time is short." (Psa. 89:47.)
God in His love and mercy had given this young man time, but, oh how short that time was! God gave him a last message. Reader, this may be God's last message to you!
"Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." 2 Cor. 6:2.
Are you trusting that doing the best you can will save you? Listen: "He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool." Prov. 28:26. Again, "He that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief." Prov. 28:14.
Oh, will you not come to the Savior now?—Tomorrow may be too late.