AS SOON as they had finished eating, Stephen and Phillip were excused from the dinner table. When having company it seemed that the grown folks were always very interested in conversation, but the boys were anxious to do some horseback riding before it was time to go back to town. It was late summer, but they scarcely noticed the heat as they tramped through dry dusty weeds to the corral where the horses were.
Quite suddenly Steve’s attention was riveted to something beyond.
“Look!” His arm pointed to a single column of smoke rising from behind the hill to the right.
The boys stood stock still absorbing the import of that dark rising pillar of smoke, and then with a burst of speed both rushed back to the house.
“There’s a fire!” Their breathless message startled everyone. The dishes were deserted as everyone rushed outside to see how close it was. It was spreading quickly and seemed to come from behind the hill where a stand of oats was just ripe for the harvest.
If one has not lived in prairie country, they may be unable to visualize such peril.
Stephen, Phillip, and several of our men jumped into a car and started in the direction of the smoke they had observed. It was farther away than it looked, but was serious enough. It had started in a neighbor’s stubble field and was heading toward their buildings. The men took wet sacks and began beating it, and others tried to smother it with shovels full of dirt. Soon other neighbors arrived, and some with their tractors and ploughs got busy trying to isolate the fire. In one of the sheds was the seed wheat for fall planting. Closer and closer crept the fire, in spite of the panting, desperate, fighting men. Finally the flames licked up one side of the building; embers burned through shingles on the roof, and very shortly great billows of black smoke told us that the barn was going.
Firefighting equipment arrived at last, and after exhaustive effort, the fire was brought under control. How thankful we were to the Lord for His mercy that no one was burned, and our neighbor’s house, as well as ours, was spared.
Not long ago a fire broke out on the nearby Eureka flats. Some men riding a handcar down the tracks near the field saw it, and quickly stopped to try and put it out. But in spite of their efforts, it was soon a raging inferno. Neighboring farmers saw the smoke from a distance and immediately started ploughing a wide strip that would likely be in the path of the flame, thinking to turn up enough dirt that the fire couldn’t fan across and go further. As they feverishly worked to save their crops, they watched the flames racing closer and closer toward them. At the end of a long strip they turned their tractor and ploughed back along the row toward the advancing wall of flame. Back they turned again, across the oncoming roar and smoke and flying embers, and geared their motor to its top speed to get out of the way. Fire is like judgment; it does not stop for fences and has no respect of persons or property in its merciless course.
On it came, and to their consternation it leaped over the strip of ploughed ground. The men found themselves in a race for life.
“It’s gaining on us—we’ll have to turn around and try to make a run through!” shouted the driver.
“Man, you can’t do that!” yelled the other one.
“It’s our only chance!”
He wheeled the tractor around and faced the advancing wall of fire. The heat was intense and terrifying, but he crouched low and turned the controls wide open. The other man jumped off and started running away as fast as he could run. Burned and blistered though he was, the man on the tractor came through and lived to tell the story, but, sad to say, the other man was overtaken and perished in the fire.
Judgment is going to fall on this sinful world, as surely as God’s Word is true. Judgment, like fire, is no respecter of persons. There is only one way of escape—and there is no chance about it! It is sure and certain, for God has spoken. Do not try to run away from the facts, but own and confess all your sin and guilt before God and acknowledge Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, as your Sin-bearer. On Calvary’s cross He bore the penalty of sin. God’s judgment fell upon Jesus. He is our refuge and strength. God says, “Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?” Ezek. 33:1111Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? (Ezekiel 33:11).
Great loss it is when fire destroys our crops or our homes! Such a loss, that one is filled with dread at the thought. But have you considered what a far greater disaster it is to lose one’s own soul, to be doomed to spend eternity in the lake of fire?
Do not go on any longer without settling this most important matter of life and death, before it is forever too late.
Messages of God’s Love 3/20/1955