TERRIBLE indeed is the account of the recent railway accident at Battle Creek. One train was returning from Chicago going eastward, bearing passengers to their homes from “The World’s Fair”; and the other was on its way to the great city, carrying a precious living freight, all anxious to feast their eyes upon one of the world’s masterpieces, “The World’s Fair.” The two trains collided.
But how did it happen? perhaps my reader inquires. Only through the driver of the eastbound train disobeying orders.
Orders had been given for him to stop at a certain point to allow the Pacific express to pass; but instead of obeying, he disobeyed; and the ill-fated train dashed into the other, causing terrible loss of life. In a moment they were hustled into eternity.
The scene that followed is too awful to describe. It happened in the dead of night, when most of the passengers were asleep; then the train took fire, and many were burned past recognition.
Oh! dear unsaved reader, let this solemn circumstance speak to you. Heed its warning voice; it speaks to thee. “For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not.” Refuse not Him that speaketh, we beseech you. Disobedience often meets with its awful reward, as we have seen in this case. But what shall be said of those who refuse the voice of the Living God? ―that voice which today pleads so tenderly, saying, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isa. 1:18). Like those journeying to “The World’s Fair,” you too may be on the search for enjoyment, and “the pleasures of sin for a season.” Thousands are hastening at express speed to endless ruin. Satan drives that express; its cars are filled too with all the latest improvements the world can give; in its sleeping-cars you will find all the latest inventions to give ease of conscience along the journey. Many are fast asleep already, knowing not of the awful awakening soon to be theirs. And how soon may the awakening come! not, as they think, in the morning light, with the golden sunshine shedding its radiance far and wide, ―but in eternity! In hell! where eternal sorrows dwell. Ah! then it will be too late; disobedience will then receive its due retribution.
One of the passengers thus describes the scene: ― “We were awakened by a terrible crash, about four o’clock this morning, and before we knew it the roof of the car had fallen in, and everything around was afire. Then the cries of agony from the poor victims rang out in heart-rending appeals for aid. Oh! it was frightful, and the memory of it can never be erased from my mind.”
We write not these things to terrify; we would fain draw the curtain over the scene. But oh! unsaved reader, that we could press upon you the far worse fate that awaits you, if you will go on in your sins, a rejecter of Christ and God’s salvation. It can only be the worm that never dies; the fire that is never quenched, and the agonies of the lost in hell forever!
“All about us,” said another, “were men, women, and children, held fast in burning embers, slowly roasting before the eyes of their would-be saviours. No water was at hand, and the fire had almost burned itself out.”
Would you have a Saviour from the wrath to come? Then listen, while we point you to Jesus. In yonder glory He sits at God’s right hand, waiting to receive all who come to Him. Once upon the cross He suffered for sin; there He tasted the bitterness of death, the forsaking of God, and bore the judgment due to the sinner. “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” Now risen from the dead, He lives at God’s right hand; and through Him forgiveness of sins is preached, and all that believe in Him “are justified from all things” (Acts 13:38). Will you not come to Him now, dear friend? He will receive you, and blot out all your sins. Do not refuse to obey His call, for remember He will not aye say “Come.” If you refuse, He will have to say, “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh.”
The “would-be Saviour’s” could only look on, horror-stricken, but were powerless to render aid. Christ, the blessed “would-be Saviour,” as He looks upon the sinner, is all-powerful to aid, and “mighty to save.” Refuse Him not, or yours must be the woes that know no end. E. K. N.