SUCH were the terrible words that echoed through a small watering town where I was staying. I put on my hat, and following the eager steps of others, I found myself in a narrow crowded street where a large concourse of people had assembled. On inquiring, “Are all the inmates safe?” I was told all but one, and that was an old lady who had once been led to the door, but would go back again to fetch something, and they had lost her in the smoke and fire. “But can they not save her?” I replied; for I knew the old lady, and felt interested in her welfare. “Well,” said the person addressed, “they are doing their best; she should not have gone back.”
The flames were still pouring out of the windows amid volumes of smoke; the firemen worked hard and did what they could to get the fire under, but did not succeed till the poor old lady’s spirit had fled, and her body charred, with both legs burnt off, was found.
I stood in solemn wonderment as I thought of these words, “The earth also and the works therein shall be burned up” (2 Peter 3:1010But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. (2 Peter 3:10)). Dear reader, have you ever thought what a dreadful thing it will be when “the heavens being on fire, the elements will melt with fervent heat?” If not, think where will you, be in that day. “Behold! now is the day of salvation.” Oh! come to the Saviour while you may. If the lady of whom I have written had accepted the offer of the friend who helped her sister to escape, she would have been saved, but she went back after something and was burnt. Dear reader, do not delay — the Lord Jesus is coming, and then the door will be shut. On which side of that door will you be? B. S.