I was one day visiting with a brother of mine, and having found out the time the train would leave to take the to my home, and that there was not a minute to spare, I started off and ran to the railway station, through the ticket office, and up the stairs to the platform: a train was waiting ready to go, into which stepped, and in a few moments we were out of the station. I took a seat, and made myself very comfortable, and expected I was on my way to my home, and that soon I should reach it. Yes, my little friend, I hoped I was going the right way.
In a little while the train stopped at a station, and looking out of the window, I saw the name of the station written up, and then found that I was going the wrong way. Yes, though, I was so comfortable in my seat, hoping I was nearing my home—yet, every time the wheels had gone round I was farther from it than before.
Well, I need hardly tell you that I quickly opened the door and left the train which was going the wrong way, and crossing the track, after waiting a little, asked for the right train, and soon got back again, and then on to my home.
This mistake only cost me a few minutes time, but there are a great many people who are making a mistake which will cost them eternity.
Yes, a great number of men and women, boys and girls, are going on day by day “hoping” that they are geing nearer to heaven, when all the while, as each day closes, it leaves them nearer hell than when it commenced.
My hopes did not take me to my home, and the hopes of poor sinners will not take them to heaven. O! how terrible it will be for poor lost souls to find out too late, that they have all their lives, been going the wrong way.
How did I make such a mistake? I was a stranger in the neighborhood, and did not ask a porter or guard, who would readily have told me that I was on the wrong platform. And how is it so many thousands of people think and, hope they are going to heaven at last, though they are in the broad road that leads to hell? It is because they do not look into the Holy Word of God; they do not search the Scriptures to see whether they are right or not.
My little friend, do not be satisfied with “hoping” you are on your way to heaven. God says, the only way of salvation is through the Lord Jesus Christ,
The Lord Jesus says,
The only way to heaven, by which a poor sinner can go, is through the Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross to save sinners, and who says,
ML 01/14/1945