PARTY of gay young officers were walking up and down the Newbridge platform, waiting the arrival of the up train to Dublin, where they were going to a ball.
As the train came up to the station, with the conservativeness of railway travelers, they looked into each first-class compartment to find one empty. At length they decided on a carriage in which a gentleman sat reading. It was such an ordinary occurrence to see a traveler reading, and they were so occupied with one another, laughing and talking together, that they did not at first notice the book he was intent upon; or, had they seen it was the Bible, they would not have chosen him as their companion.
Soon after leaving the station, they began to smoke; the one sitting next the gentleman saying, “I hope you don't object to smoking?”
“Indeed I do,”
“Then so much the worse for you." At which sally they all laughed.
He said nothing for a time; then leaning over to the officer next to him, he inquired "Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ?”
“Shut your mouth," was the ready rejoinder.
Quietly looking the officer in the face, he said, “If you don't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll be damned.”
“Who asked you your opinion? Don't be annoying us.”
“My not annoying you will not alter the fact; if you don't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll be damned.”
“What business have you speaking to us? We don't want your cant”
“Your not wanting my cant does not alter the fact; if you don't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll be damned.”
“Let us sit on him.”
“Your sitting on me will not alter the fact; if you don't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll be damned.”
“Shove him out of the window.”
“Your shoving me out of the window will not alter the fact; if you don't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll be damned.”
It was getting too hot for the young fellows, and the train coming to a station, they cried, “Let us get out of this into another carriage, and leave the old hypocrite to himself." He followed them to the door, and spoke aloud after them, "Your leaving the carriage does not alter the fact; if you don't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll all be damned.”
Some years passed; and this gentleman was traveling in England by the L. & N. W. It. At Chester he went into the refreshment-room, and while there a military-looking man came in. He looked at our friend once or twice, as if to make sure he was right, then stepping over to where he stood, said, “Pardon me! if I don't greatly err, we have met before. Do you recollect traveling in Ireland by the G. S. & W. R., and a party of young fellows getting into your compartment at Newbridge?”
“Perfectly.”
“Well, I am one of that party, and the one who sat next to you, to whom you addressed your question. I was thoughtless and worldly then, and we were all engrossed with the gaiety of the scene we were going to that night. But your sole answer to our many insults, If you don't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll be damned,' lodged in my heart. I went with the rest, and dressed for the ball; but I could hardly see to attire myself properly, your words swam before my eyes. I attended the ball, but could enjoy nothing; for every voice seemed to re-echo your sentence. I could endure it no longer; I pleaded indisposition, and withdrew. How I cried for mercy! and, thank God, I saw that if the terrible negative was awfully true, the grand positive, `Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved' (Acts 16:31), was none the less happily so. And, like the Philippian jailor, I rejoiced, believing in God’” (v. 34).
Little have you thought, reader, that simple and easy as is the way of salvation, so also is the way of damnation,—" He that believeth not, shall be damned " (Mark 16:16). "Because there is wrath, beware lest he take thee away with his stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee" (Job 36:18).
J. C. R.