ANY one passing along the seaside, close to a certain little Scotch fishing village, cannot fail to see the above words, painted in plain white letters just above high-water mark. They have probably been an encouragement to many a poor, hardworking fisherman as he has sallied forth to toil in his daily calling mid the dangers of the great deep.
A passer-by, being greeted by an old man standing at the corner of one of the little streets with a friendly “Good-morning,” entered into conversation with him.
“I was struck with those words painted on the rocks; do you know what they reminded me of? I hoped, as I read them, that many in this village will not only come home safely from the fishing, but come home safe to the glory above at the end of their life’s toil here? Are you clear about that?”
“I am doing the best I can,” was the familiar stereotyped answer. A poor do probably, as is generally the case with those who reply thus.
“But you can never reach the glory of God by that road. Has it never struck you that if it depended on your doing there was no need for the Son of God to have come to accomplish the mighty work of redemption?”
The old man gave a sort of half assent.
“Supposing now,” he continued, “you were on a ship wrecked on the rocks in a storm, and far from the shore, and a lifeboat came alongside. Would it not be very foolish to keep on trying and doing the best you could to get ashore? Would it not be far wiser to give up doing, and to get into the lifeboat?”
This brought back to the old man’s memory some similar circumstance at sea in which he had had part, and which, alas! seemed to interest him a good deal more than how his soul could be saved.
“Well, friend, it is high time you got into the lifeboat. This world is a wreck, and a complete and irretrievable one. It is, so to speak, on the rocks, and we were all on board that ship till the lifeboat took some of us off. The Lord Jesus Christ is the true lifeboat, and He Only can cave. If you stick to the wreck, you may do what you may, but down with it you will surely go—and where? Eternal judgment follows death (Heb. 9:27; 6:2); but if you cast aside your own doings, and believe on Him, you may leave the wreck, and He will transport you safely borne. Good luck, if we may use the poor fisherman’s expression, will then indeed be yours, and the Father’s house your blessed home forever.”
The painter of the words on the rocks desired that all should come safe home as to their bodies. And the heart of the Lord Jesus is surely even so large as to our souls. He died for all, and offers salvation to all. God is not willing that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9). He would have all to be saved (1 Tim. 2:4). It is a wonderful lifeboat that God has provided to save the wrecked (there is plenty of room for all) ―it is Christ.
A more complete wreck than fallen man―spirit, soul, and body―could not be, for sin and corruption and death have mastered him. And a more complete salvation than the salvation of God could not be, for it is from all the effects of sin, and for glory. But, alas! how many choose their own delusion, continuing to do, and work, and strive, and try to save themselves, instead of simply believing God! All such efforts are utterly useless.
If this is your thought then, dear reader, give it up at once lest you perish in the wreck. Take God at His word. Venture your all on Christ. He is the perfect lifeboat of God’s faithful and gracious providing. Many are in it already, daily traveling farther and farther from the wreck, and nearer and nearer to the heavenly harbor in glory. Are you one? If not, why not, why not now? “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” &c. (Acts 16:31). God grant that it may be the blessed portion of all who real these fines that they all may come safe home.
“Behold, what wondrous love and grace!
When we were wretched and undone,
To save a ruined, helpless race
The Father gave His only Son!
Of twice ten thousand gifts divine
No gift like this could ever shine.”
E. H. C.