“Maybe I am on the road to hell; that’s my business.” So wrote a private to me a little while ago. It may be his business, but it is our business also. If I saw a blind man going towards a precipice, would it not be my business to warn him? If I saw a man sleeping on a railway track, and I knew an express train was coming, would it not be my business to wake him up and see him into a place of safety? If I see a sinner going to hell, it is my business to get him, if I can, to flee from the wrath to come. So I ask my readers to pray for this dear fellow, that he may be saved. If he is blind, God can give him sight. If he is asleep in the track of God’s judgments, God can wake him up.
“I Thought my Number was Up”
A young cadet came to me as a patient—one who had come over with the Canadian contingent. He was telling me about a battle he had been engaged in at the Front. He was in a wood, and the English batteries and the German batteries were both shelling the wood. A huge shell burst not far from him and made a vast hole in the ground. He thought no two shells fall in exactly the same place, so he crept into the cavity made by the shell and lay down. Shortly after another shell burst a few yards away and buried him almost completely. He said, “I thought my number was up.” He was dug out and after a while recovered. What he said about no two shells falling on the same spot made me think of another place of safety. The Cross of Calvary was the place where the fury of the wrath of God fell upon the head of the Sin-bearer-the Lamb of God. “He appeared once in the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” I am safe if I accept what Christ has done as meeting all my need. “I am crucified with Christ,” the apostle says, and “there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” If I identify myself with what my Substitute did for me― “He loved me, and gave Himself for me”―I shall be safe from all the judgment that is coming upon this world. I can say, “Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Grace hath hid me safe in Thee.” There is shelter, there is safety in the Rock of Ages, and nowhere else.
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”
A 17 Inch Shell
An officer in the Field Artillery was telling me about these huge 17-inch shells. The sound of their passage through the air is like an express train, and when they fall and explode they made a hole in the ground fifty feet across and thirty feet deep.
He told me that one day he saw a soldier standing petrified at the sound made by one of these shells coming. He had no power to move from the spot where he was and to fly to a place of safety. Where he stood he was just in the line of the shell. As it fell it drove the poor man before it right into the earth!
But the wrath of man, terrible as it is, is as nothing compared to the “day of wrath” that is coming upon this world. When the great day of His wrath is come who shall be able to stand?
No sinner will be able to flee from the wrath of God then, but will have to fall before its awful fury. When it falls upon the sinner it will drive him straight to hell. Now the cry to the sinner is, “Flee from the wrath to come.” There is a way of escape now. There is a Saviour who calls you, and will save you now.
The Words They Could not Sing
A telling extract from a brave man’s experience, related in the Evening News:— “I’ll tell you a funny thing, sir. On Sunday the parson held a service on the battle-field very near the trenches. Three hundred of us stood up in the field. The parson said prayers. We had hymns. We were all singing away in a fine style when we came to the lines, ‘Can a woman’s tender care, Cease towards the child she bare?’ Funny thing, sir, but do you know, we couldn’t go on singing it. We had to leave that verse out.”
Ready
Miss Agnes Weston tells of a young naval officer who wrote to her just before his first battle: ― “We are going into action tomorrow, and I’m jolly glad. I want to fight for my country and for the right. I know that I may never come out alive, but, living or dying, Christ is with me.”
In the conflict which followed the young officer was mortally wounded, but there was no shadow of fear on his face as he passed through the dark valley, for the Lord had whispered, “Courage; be of good cheer!”
The Father’s Prayer
“Lord, cover his head in the day of battle.” So prayed a Christian soldier for his young son at the Front. A shell struck the trench where the lad was, and he was buried, but a beam, displaced by the shell, fell just above his head, and the falling earth fell upon the beam, and he was preserved. God did cover his head in answer to his father’s prayer.
Soldiers, Face the Truth
DYING for your COUNTRY in
BATTLE will NOT save your
soul; but LOOKING unto the
LORD JESUS
save your soul.
E.P.L.
Devotion to Duty
The picture depicts a temple scene. It is an incident in the naval battle in the North Sea. In the face of death and destruction these brave men serve their guns to the end—until the last shot is fired, and the last man lies down to die. This is how men serve their country.
Many stirring deeds of British heroism we can recall. There was the story, for instance, of the gallant man in the Northumberland Fusiliers who was charged with the mission of carrying an urgent dispatch. When within two hundred yards of his destination be was brought down by a bullet. Although he must have been suffering terribly he managed to drag himself across the intervening ground, literally fell into the dug-out, put his hand upon his breast, where the precious missive lay, feebly murmured, “It is here,” and fell back dead.
How do men serve their God today? A young soldier goes from a Christian home, as officer or private. For King George he drills and obeys and perfects himself in the soldier life; he is willing to face hardships of all kinds, and in the trenches or on the battleship he is never ashamed of the service of his King, and is at all times willing to die for his country. But what about his God and his Saviour? How often is his allegiance to Christ undermined? How many letters do I get from soldiers and sailors telling me that they were Christian lads and loved the Lord before they left home, but the camp life made them lose all their faith. They became ashamed of Christ. A young recruit in the R.N.R. writes on leaving home for the first time:” He alone doeth all things well. In Him and Him alone do I put my trust... Ah tell me more of Christ.... I want to know more.... Yes, it is well with my soul... Oh! Doctor, if ever I have been brought close to Jesus, it’s now. Write to me when you have time, and tell me more about Jesus.” Dear lad, he loves his Saviour, and is not ashamed to confess Him.
The following letter shows the reality of knowing Christ when face to face with death. It is given to me by Mr. ‘J. J. P., to whom it was sent: ―
Extract of Letter
From Private James Wallace, 1St King’s Own (Royal Lancashire Regiment):
“July 5th 1916. 7:30 p.m. I write you a line lying on my back at a little behind the firing line. I have been hit in the stomach by a bullet. How peaceful I am and yet only a short distance away tens of thousands are fighting for their lives. How sweet to know that nothing happens by chance―that all things work together for good to those who love God. As I jumped over the parapet when advancing to the attack I could not help but sing: ―
‘Jesus, Lover of my soul,
Let me to Thy bosom fly.’
How calm I was, knowing He never fails, no matter what surrounds us. ‘I can praise Him for all that is past, and trust Him for all that’s to come.’ Truly God is good, a very present help in trouble. I can say, like the Psalmist, ‘For Thou, Lord, hast made me glad through Thy work; I will triumph in the works of Thy hands’ (Psa. 92:44For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands. (Psalm 92:4)).”
The Soldier’s Duty To Christ
Christian soldier! your duty to Christ is plain and positive: “Take up your cross and follow Me.” You are as bound to work for Christ where you are as you were in the Sunday School or the Bible Class at home. Do nothing where you are that will make you ashamed to look your mother in the face when you come back.
God bless you.