WHEN the British troops, during the Mutiny in India, had made their silent retreat from Lucknow at dead of night, there was one man left behind. Captain Waterman, having gone to his bed in a retired corner, over-slept himself. He had been forgotten. At two o'clock in the morning he got up, and found to his horror that Lucknow had been evacuated. He hoped against hope, and visited every outpost. But all was silent and deserted.
His position was terrible to contemplate. To be the only man in an open entrenchment, and fifty thousand furious foes outside Appalled by his situation, he took to his heels and ran—ran in the direction of the retreating forces till he could scarcely breathe. Still the same silence, interrupted only by the occasional report of a musket. At last he came up with the retiring rear-guard, almost mad with excitement. But he had made his escape, and he was safe.
No one will contend that this officer's anxiety and excitement were unreasonable, seeing he knew the dangers that surrounded him. And if you, unsaved reader, realized your dreadful circumstances as a lost sinner, in danger of losing your soul at any moment, would it not be perfectly reasonable for you to get into a similar state of alarm about your safety?
Suppose a person had come up to the imperiled officer at Lucknow, just as he became conscious of his fearful position, and had tried to tranquillize his mind by saying, "Don't become excited; look upon your circumstances with philosophic calmness; view the matter intellectually as a gentleman of education and intelligence." Would this not have been mockery at that dread hour when he was so conscious of his danger, and when he knew that his safety depended on immediate flight?
“Yes," you say, "such counsel would indeed be mockery." And is not this the very counsel the world gives you whenever you are awakened by the Spirit of God as to your lost condition? But what does God say? He says, “Flee from the wrath to come." (Matt. 3:7)
The safety of your soul depends upon your immediate flight. You are in danger of perishing eternally.
You do not need the philosophy of the world in order to understand your position. You simply need to believe God as to your danger, and to betake yourself as a hell-deserving sinner to Christ, the sinner's only Refuge. In Him is your place of safety; for in Hint there is "no condemnation" (Rom. 8:1) Fear not to trust Him now; for has He not said, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out"? (John 6:37.) W. S.