THE damaged S.S. “Olympic,” attended by a retinue of tugs, came painfully home to harbor in Southampton, and landed her passengers and luggage. Only the day before the mighty ocean leviathan had started on her voyage to New York, her powerful engines sending the vessel speeding on her way.
But the unexpected happened―H.M.S. “Hawke” collided with the “Olympic,” tearing a gash in her side 15 feet across, 25 feet above, and a considerable distance below the water-line. The most of the passengers betrayed no alarm or anxiety, and took the matter quietly.
An American millionaire, however, a leading lawyer in the United States, with pressing and important business engagements in America, had his arrangements greatly upset by the accident. At the earliest possible moment he laid his plans. He found that by chartering a special train to Liverpool he might still catch the S.S. “Adriatic” sailing from that port. A guarantee was given him by the railway company that the journey would be done in six hours. That would bring him to Liverpool three minutes after the. “Adriatic” was advertised to leave. He paid £78 plus first-class fare for a special train, consisting of engine, a first-class coach, and a guard’s van.
He started. His special went whizzing past express trains, and all ordinary trains were side-tracked to let him pass. He reached Edgehill Station, Liverpool, at 6:22 P.M. Two miles away at Riverside lay the “Adriatic” with steam up, ready to start for New York at 6:30, her scheduled time―eight minutes left in which to do the last two miles.
Then came the millionaire’s ordeal, which left him a nervous wreck at the end of his journey; that wild rush through England at top-speed settled down to a slow snail-like agonizing crawl. Rail traffic on this section must not go faster than four miles an hour, and must be preceded by a signalman walking ahead on the track carrying a red flag. The special took seventeen minutes to cover the last two miles. It was 6:39 when the millionaire’s train steamed into the Quayside station, its solitary passenger standing at the window nervously clutching the handle of the door. “Am I in time?” he gasped. “You’re all right,” said the White Star official who was waiting. “Come right aboard. We’ll see to the baggage.”
The millionaire, quivering with excitement, stepped rapidly across to the landing stage, up the gangway, refusing to say a word to anybody. He was led to his state-room, which he promptly entered, and locked himself in. Two minutes later the gangway was drawn ashore, and the “Adriatic’s” booming whistle of departure rang hoarsely over the river. The mighty engines throbbed, and soon the big liner was putting distance between herself and the shore.
What anxiety the millionaire showed! How earnestly he used every means to accomplish his purpose. How each day as the steamer pursued her way across the rolling Atlantic must he have congratulated himself on the success of his effort.
But there stands in vivid contrast to the anxiety and effort of the American’ lawyer the deadly indifference of multitudes in a far more deeply important matter. I refer to the matter of the soul’s salvation. His anxiety related only to reaching New York three or four days earlier than he would have done otherwise. But the matter we urge upon your attention relates to eternity. A few brief years at most, and life’s little day will be over for you, and what then?
Listen to me for a moment. Either the Bible is true, or a more false and evil book cannot be found. It describes Satan as an “angel of light,” but if the Book is false it out-Satan’s Satan, for it parades itself as a book of light. And yet, mark its undoubted results. Are they beneficent? Do they bear witness in the beautiful lives of the best of men and women to the power of the Book? A nation destitute of the restraining influence of that book is a nation not to be trusted, a nation whose word is worthless, whose morals lead to national suicide. An individual destitute of this same restraining influence is shunned by all right-thinking people―his sins generally lead him headlong to physical and moral shipwreck even in this world. Certainly the truth of one of the sayings of the Bible is evident― “Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.”
But if the Bible is true, what then? It is true. The fulfillment of prophecy proves it. Its moral results, magnificent beyond the power of word to describe, prove it. The conversion of tens of thousands prove it. The testimony from the throne, from the slums, from the dying, from the lips of the cultured and the wise, from the mouths of the coarse and illiterate, prove it; age, the lisping’s of babes and sucklings prove the mighty power and reality of God’s Word.
And if true, what is the testimony of the Bible? That the only Saviour from sin is the Son of God. That the only means by which the claims of God’s throne could be met was by His wonderful sacrificial death on the cross. That the only way by which you can be saved from the consequences of your sins is by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, “repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Now if the Bible is true, it is high time you woke out of your deadly indifference. If the American millionaire was wise over the matter of a few hours, will you not be wise as to eternal things?
We read of those in Scripture who have “fled for refuge” (Heb. 6:1818That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: (Hebrews 6:18)). They evidently felt their need of a refuge. They did not crawl, or walk, but “fled.” How intensely earnest they were, as the language indicates.
Will you be less earnest? I trust not. Remember the intensely solemn question of Scripture, “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” (Heb. 3). All those who live in a fool’s paradise of indifference will assuredly find out their folly.
A. J. P.