At a little lumber station in the great Northwest a train stopped for a few minutes. A group of lumberjacks loaded a roughly made wooden case into the baggage car.
"That's one of our men," remarked a hard-looking man. There was a touch of feeling in his voice as he helped to lift the case and then got into the train. "He was killed in our camp yesterday," he explained.
"Are you sending his body to his friends?" he was asked.
"No. None of us knows where he comes from; but we all loved Jim. His mates have collected enough money to give him a decent burial in the city.
"Poor Jim," he went on, "that tree that fell on him was a sudden call for the poor fellow, no mistake! He was the jolliest chap we had in the camp. He used to be singing the wildest songs all the time, and his language was not particularly choice either; but at any rate Jim was no worse than the rest of us. None of us were raised in a prayer meeting, but I guess Jim had heard more preaching than some.”
"What changed him?”
"Well, here is how it happened. We got a big bundle of magazines in the mail one day, and nice little bags filled with useful things such as we who live most of the year far from civilization appreciate very much. And in every bag there was a New Testament and a hymn book.
"Jim began at once to sing those hymns and others that he remembered. My, how he sang! And every night you could see him reading his testament. At first some of our men made fun of him; but Jim didn't mind. They couldn't make him mad, and they liked him better for it.
"Jim had been a pretty tough customer, but he was always jolly and good-natured. What a good thing it was that he changed his way of thinking! Poor Jim! It's hard to believe that it's him in that big box there. In the morning he used to start out to work singing:
"I'll be ready when they call my name,
Pure and spotless from the crimson flood;
I will answer when they call my name,
`Saved through Jesus' blood!'
"The call for him was sudden, but he was ready. He had made it plain to us all that the Lord Jesus Christ was his Savior. He had put his trust in Him alone. Jim was one of the men who felled the trees, and he sang as he drove the ax into the big trunk. Just as the tree crashed his song suddenly stopped. The whole chest of our cheerful singer had been crushed. It was awful to see, but he didn't have to suffer long.
"When we emptied his pockets before laying him in the coffin, we found the little Testament. God had used it to lead him to Himself before He took him home.”
Such was the simple narrative of Jim's friend. May we ask our readers a plain question: Will you be ready, too, when the call comes?
In Jim's and in every other New Testament are these words: "He that believeth on the SON hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the SON shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." John 3:3636He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. (John 3:36).