The gospel preacher gave out a hymn, but the words which I can recall and which still ring in my ears were: "Be in Time, Be in Time." I had traveled to that town by train. I had had plenty of time to buy my ticket and to watch the train whiz into the station.
I took my seat, and at that very instant I felt the train moving. The porter cried, "Hurry up!" and, hot and panting, a young girl raced along the platform to the vestibule of the coach where I sat. The porter pushed her up the steps and into the train, warning her, as he did so, to "be in time" another day.
Hardly was she seated, when a lady, who had been examining the books on the newsstand for at least ten minutes, turned around. She saw the train moving and sprang forward with a cry. "Is that the M— train?"
"Stand back!" shouted the guard.
"Stop the train, stop the train! I must get to M—!”
"Too late, madam," said the porter, and he laid a detaining hand on her arm.
The train was now well out of the station. I turned from the window and heard an old woman in a corner remark: "Well, now, if she wasn't silly with them porters calling out her station in her very ears!”
She had been silly; but I felt sorry for that lady. She evidently meant to "be in time" for that train, but she missed it.
What a lesson this little incident teaches! May your ears, my friend, be open to the gospel cry going out around you. Hear it, I pray, and answer its call. "Be in time.”
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24).