It was an awful wreck. The train had run past the small station into an open switch and into the path of the oncoming express. There were many dead and seriously injured. Doctors and nurses were rushed to the scene. Mr. Watters, a passenger on the ill-fated train, escaped uninjured, and was seeking to comfort the suffering victims. He knelt beside a well-dressed man who was fatally hurt though in no great pain.
Mr. Watters sought to reassure the dying man, but he entreated Mr. Watters to listen to his story, and tell it to others as a warning to them.
He related that ten years before, while traveling as a salesman for a firm, he had spent a night of carousing in the drinking-parlor of a hotel. On that evening the conversation turned in ridicule upon the awakening gospel meetings that were being held in the town. An elderly preacher was proclaiming the glad tidings of God's love to poor lost sinners. A few who had before been drunkards had been converted. This increased the hatred and enmity of the others against the servant of the Lord and against all those interested in his meetings.
The injured man continued his story: "On that particular evening all kinds of wicked jokes were played, and the more the salesman and his companions drank, the worse they became. Someone asked how the meetings were conducted and what was happening in them. A half drunken young man offered to make a demonstration, if a few others would join him in the show.
"Six of us kneeled on the floor, and started the mockery. We prayed for the forgiveness of our sins, and even tried to imitate tears of repentance. We closed with that song we had learned in childhood: 'Rock of Ages, Cleft for Sin'! When all was finished, we found ourselves alone in the parlor. Shocked by the awful blasphemy, the rest of the guests had left and gone home.”
Here the seriously injured man paused, and those who had gathered around him and heard him tell the awful story, were greatly shocked. But continuing, he said: "What I am about to tell you is no fiction. No! It happened within the last ten years. There were six of us participating in that farce.
"Before the end of the first year, the hotel owner suffered a fall. In that fall, a blood vessel burst in his brain and he never regained consciousness. He died. Someone might think that this is unusual; but notice! it was a violent death.
"Two years later the young man who started the demonstration was with a hunting-party in the country. During the night he got up to get a drink of water. In the dark he missed his way and fell down the steps. He broke his neck and died two days later.
"The third to go was Tom, a droll fellow, who in mockery had cried the loudest. He fell down his own cellar steps and died.
"Now I began to be uneasy. What would happen to my two other companions? Sobered and fearful, one of these went west, thus hoping to avoid such a tragic end. I heard that he became a railway guard, a usually safe occupation; but ere long a newspaper reported his tragic death. He had been caught between the bumpers of two coaches and died a horrible death.
"Last year I met my only surviving companion. He had sunk into poverty after having lost his wife and two children. One evening he fell from the door of the saloon onto the concrete walk. His head struck a rock that pierced his temple, and he died instantly. Since that time I have waited for my end. I knew I could not escape it, and now it has come.”
Inside of ten years all six who took part in that blasphemous mockery had died violent deaths. Not one, apparently, had turned to God, nor repented of his sin.
What a solemn voice, dear reader! How true are the words of Scripture!
"It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Heb. 10:31.
These judgments only affected the bodies of these mockers. But how about their souls, passing into eternity unforgiven? They must appear before the great white throne, there to receive the awful sentence of God's just judgment!
"Because a sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." Eccl. 8:11.
"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Gal. 6:'7.
"Let not conscience make you linger,
Nor of FITNESS fondly dream:
All the fitness He requireth
Is to feel your need of Him.”