WHILE driving on the box seat of a coach near Wellington, N.Z., we passed a ferry wharf where, only the day before, a sad accident had happened. Three little children had gone to the wharf to see “the ferry steamer” come in, as they frequently did.
While they were playing on the wharf, Mary, a little girl aged six, tripped and fell into the water; her brother, aged nine, unable to help his sister, ran home, a distance of half a mile, and told his father, who at once came to the rescue, but alas! too late, for when the father got the body out of the water life was extinct.
“Yes,” said the driver of the coach, “I was just passing at the time, and saw the poor man carry away the dead body of his child in his arms.”
My friend and I took advantage of this remark to try and drive home to h,is heart the fact of how soon death overtakes us, both young and old.
“Are you ready for it?” asked my friend.
“Well, to tell you the truth,” replied the driver, “I HAVE NEVER GIVEN IT A SERIOUS THOUGHT” at the same time whipping up his horses as if to take off the keen edge of the question.
But what a confession, “Have never given it a serious thought.” He had thought very seriously of his coach, his horses, his passengers, and the things of time, but death and his precious never-dying soul had never received one serious thought.
Dear reader, what about you? Death is before you, “and after this the judgment,” and beyond the judgment, the lake of fire. Have you given it a serious thought? If not, do so at once. Just as you are, Jesus will receive you, and put away your sins by His own precious blood, making you fit for His own presence for eternity. Oh, do give it a serious thought.
“Life at best is very brief,
Like the falling of a leaf,
Like the binding of a sheaf,
Be in time!
Fleeting days are telling fast.
That the die will soon be cast,
And the fatal line be past,
Be in time!”
J. H. F.