A GOSPEL tent stood in a field on the outskirts of town. There were services held there almost every night, and once during the week there was a special meeting for children, and many came to listen.
One night the speaker spoke very earnestly to the young folks and sought to impress upon them the necessity of putting their trust in the Lord Jesus as their Saviour. He urged them not to delay, but to decide at once.
To impress this upon the children he told them the true story of his own life. He had been asked by a friend to speak to some boys at school. The message he felt impelled to give them was very solemn. He told them that he had a strong conviction that before the year had passed, one of the boys before him would have passed out of this world into eternity, and the warning was given. He urged them to decide for Christ.
Some years later a lady who had been present at that meeting said to him, “Sir, do you remember giving an address at the school years ago?”
“Yes, I remember it well.”
“Do you remember that you said you believed that before a year was gone one of your hearers would have passed into eternity?”
“Yes, I well remember it,” he replied again; “and at that time my friend who had asked me to speak was not pleased at my making the remark — he considered it sensational.”
“Well, I took note of it at the time,” said the lady, “and before the year was past two boys in that company had passed away.”
That was the incident related to the children in the tent that Friday evening. The children scattered; the tent was closed. The next meeting had been announced for three o’clock on Sunday.
The preacher stood by his tent on Sunday a few minutes before meeting time. News was passing from mouth to mouth—bad news, evidently, for a look of sad surprise passed over each face as it was made known.
A boy of ten had drowned in the river. “How?” “When?” “Just now,” said one. “He was walking by the river, and fell into the deep water.” Before he could be rescued, his little spirit had fled.
The young folk soon passed the news from one to another. “Harry is drowned,” said one. “Why, he was in my class at school,” said another. “He was at the meeting in the tent on Friday.”
Sure enough, when the preacher knocked at the door where Harry’s mother lived, it was to look upon the face of one of his little hearers, now cold in death.
Harry had heard the gospel. He had been warned of the reality of death which claims even merry, healthy boys. Did he accept the Lord Jesus as his Saviour? We cannot say. All we know is that he alone of his family had attended the tent meeting, and had urged one of his classmates to come also.
But there was another boy who came to that meeting, and his name was Scotty.
“Welcome, Scotty,” said the preacher to a boy ten years old, “and are you saved?”
“Yes sir,” he brightly answered. “I trusted the Lord the Friday night you spoke in the tent, when you told us to decide for Jesus and not to delay.”
Wise boy. He chose to decide for Christ at once. He did not wait for death to come. Dear Scotty! May he long be spared to witness for his Saviour.
Which boy are you like?
ML-11/15/1964