Have you ever seen a life belt? Perhaps if you have never been near the sea, or near a large lake, you have not yet seen one, but I have no doubt most of our readers know what they look like, and what they are used for. The S.S. Burton, like all other good boats, had a row of life belts hanging around the top deck.
When I stood on the deck and looked at those life-saving belts, I knew that the owners of the good S.S. Burton believed in them, or they never would have put them on the boat. As I was standing there, two men came along and stopped to look at them very closely even taking two or three of them down and examining them. They were inspectors, and I could see that they believed in them, for I heard them say that they were good life belts.
Early the next morning, as the S.S. Burton sailed out into the lake, a young boy slipped and fell overboard. In a ment one of the crew ran for a life belt and threw it out to the drowning boy. It landed with a splash right near him, and he at once threw himself upon it.
That young boy believed in the life belt, but he believed on it in a different way from the owners of the boat, and from inspectors. He believed in it to the saving of his life. He trusted himself to it, and put it between himself and a watery grave.
It is the same with the Lord Jesus Christ. Many believe that He is a Saviour. And many also speak well of Him and say that He is the only Saviour; which is very true. But many of these have never trusted Him as their very own.
If you could see the danger you are in right now as you read this paper, you would do as the drowning lad did, and trust yourself fully to the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour. Do it now, before it is eternally too late.
ML 05/27/1951