A switch-tender had just taken his place to change the track in order to turn a train which was in sight, so as to prevent a collision with another train from an opposite direction. At this critical moment, on turning his head, he discovered his little boy playing on the track of the advanced engine. He might spring to the rescue and remove him safely, but then he would not have time to turn the switch, and hundreds of lives might be lost by his neglect. In an instant his resolution was taken. “Lie down!” he shouted to his boy, and the child, happily accustomed to obedience, promptly threw himself on the ground and the whole train thundered over him, the passengers little dreaming how much their safety had cost that father. The trembling father rushed forward fearing to find only a mangled corpse, but no words can express his joy at seeing his child alive and unharmed. The next day the Emperor having heard of the circumstance, sent for the man, and presented him the medal of honor for his bravery.
The above is extracted from the Berlin Volksblatt. In order to comprehend how a train could pass over a boy and he remain unharmed, the reader must know that the locomotive used in England and on the Continent of Europe does not have a “cow-catcher” affixed, as in America.
It is an example of faithfulness rarely met with. To attend to his post was in all probability to lose his son, but the switch-tender gave the preference to the lives of the passengers, rather than the life of his child. It is joyful to know that he did not lose his child, but that he took him up again unharmed.
The incident is pregnant with illustration of the means by which God has made a way for the salvation of sinners. Here is the whole world rushing madly on to perdition. How can the switch be turned that will guide them from the track that leads to hell, to the track that leads to everlasting life? God must give up His Son! If the switch-tender had saved his child, the passengers would have been lost, and if God had allowed that bitter cup to pass from the Lord Jesus, every one of us would inevitably have perished. But He did not; “He spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.” The man commanded his child to lie down, and he obeyed. Thus also the Lord Jesus “humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” And the result is salvation to us. “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
The passengers little dreamed how much their safety had cost that father. And do you know how much your safety has cost God? By virtue of the cross, God has been long-suffering towards you as yet. He lingers still, waiting to be gracious. He has not passed by yet.
‘Twas sweet that cry, ‘He passes by,’
But sweeter still, He lingers nigh.
Can you reflect on the infinite cost to God of salvation, and yet spurn such mercy? Oh, remember, there is a switch which leads to everlasting life or everlasting misery, according to the way in which it is turned, and that is the cross. God has given His Son, but on your acceptance or rejection of Him, depends your happiness or woe for eternity. There is no middle path, you cannot remain neutral here. Accept of a crucified Christ, and you are saved; reject Him, and that very cross becomes your judgment. Awake! awake! Ο sleeper! awake to the reality of your position; awake to the reality of the cross. If those passengers whose destruction or safety depended on the turning of that switch had known in what a balance their safety hung, all depending on whether that father should save his son or them, would their hearts not have thrilled and their breathing suspended as they realized their critical position? And, oh, my reader, that you would realize the position that you are in! If your eyes were but open to that awful gulf into which you are plunging, and on the other hand, the wonderful love of God in giving His Son that you might not perish! If you were this moment taking the final step that should land you into the outer darkness, would you not desire salvation? And who knows but that this may be your last?
A few days ago several men lost their lives in a moment by the explosion of a boiler, within a stone’s throw of where I am writing. It took but a moment for them to pass into the realities of eternity!
Dreamer, with soul unsaved, Awake!
Or thou wilt surely die;
Down in the deep and burning lake
The Christless soul must lie.
Madman, who slumberest on a mast,
That rocks above the deep,
Will nothing but the judgment
Arouse thee from thy sleep?
Dreamer, awake! a moment more,
And in the western sky
Thy sun will set, thy day be o’er,
God passed forever by.
We rejoice to know that this father took up his child again unharmed; and it is joy to know, too, that God has received His Son again by resurrection, and has now exalted Him to His right hand to give repentance and remission of sins. And that Son having accomplished the work of salvation, sends down from the glory a final, loving message to the poor sinner; it is: “Let him that is athirst, come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”
“Freely He gives; His love, all else excelling,
Bids thee now comic!
‘Tis God’s command, thy fears and doubts expelling;
‘ Yet there is room!’
Welcome, poor, weary one,
Lost, ruined, and undone,
Jesus, thy life has won!
Come, sinner, come!”
C. Η. B.
(Extracted from “The Evangelist.”)