How often do we hear of men hurried into eternity! In good health one moment, the next gone! Gone to meet God, saved or unsaved!
I had known a goods-guard for about twenty-three years, and for years he had received a Gospel Sheet Almanac with God’s word of warnings and entreaties. So far as I can tell, there seemed to have been wrought in him no divine change, when one evening he passed my signal cabin and we spoke to each other. It was for the last time, for in about ten minutes he was knocked down by a motor and suddenly launched into eternity. How solemn, how sudden! He had talked about having his pension in nine months, and thought no doubt how happy he would he in his old age! But God’s call came in an unexpected moment, and now, where is he? Who can say? If a believer, he is with Christ. If he died an unbeliever, he has perished in his sins—a lost soul forever! Oh, what a voice to those who found his body on the line! “Be ye also ready.” God is speaking by these solemn, sudden calls, and it is the writer’s hope that you who read this, if not yet saved, may come to repentance, and believe the glorious news of salvation without delay. Then, if called suddenly away, it will be but immediate bliss.
I know also a goods foreman who enjoyed good health till he was seventy. He then had twa accidents, the last being fatal. But though he never spoke after it, happily he was ready and went to praise his Saviour in heaven. Another fine young man was taken ill and passed away in four days. His father would not leave him, and pressed him to accept salvation, which I believe he did. He said to me one night as I passed, “Mr. W—, these shunters want a tract.” I said, “There are others beside them want tracts.” Little did I think that I should not see him again. Yet another young man. The other shunters had not left him but a short while when they found him dead beside a wagon.
O dear reader, I could tell you of many such cases. I will conclude this with but one more. We were at the funeral of a station-master. A Mr. H— had not long before asked, “Who would be the next?” At the gates of the cemetery he fell down dead, but, praise God, he was a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, how is it with you? Are you prepared to meet God? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you ready if God were to call you? The matter must be faced. Look, and live now, to the Saviour who is willing to save your soul. Then, come what will, you will be ready.
A. C. W.