THE last train was slowly moving out of a London station when a man rushed on the platform and essayed to enter a carriage. The guard threw the door open and exclaimed, “Quick! Jump in!”
The man hesitated; the train having accelerated its speed, the opportunity was gone, and the guard shut the door, with the disconcerting remark, “Too late you must stay for the night.”
A Christian in the departing train, who had noticed what had passed, shouted in a voice that echoed through the deserted station, “We are not of them who draw hack into perdition; but of them who believe to the saving of the soul” (Heb. 10:3939But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. (Hebrews 10:39)). This all happened in a moment.
How forcibly this little incident illustrates far greater events, of far greater moment! A great opportunity! A great call! Willful delay! Eternal loss! Life with its uncertain duration, its momentous opportunity for embracing God’s great salvation; God’s gracious call to the perishing; the delay of the fearful and unbelieving; the consequent loss when eventually left outside in eternal darkness!
Reader, where are you? Are you alive to the vital interest of the moment―the need of your one precious soul?
At the right hand of God, possessing fullness of blessing for the sinner, the glorified risen Saviour, Christ Jesus the Lord, still waits. Once He died for sinners. He came not to call the righteous! He has pardon, peace, and eternal joy for all who will receive the blessing. But soon that opportunity will have passed. Come to Him, sinner, as you are.
What a comfort to be secure! To trust in Him for salvation is indeed to be secure; ready for that moment when He will descend and with His victorious shout call His own away. At that same moment the door of mercy, so long held open, will be closed. Alas, then, for those who have neglected God’s great salvation in the day of His long-suffering (Matt. 25:1010And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. (Matthew 25:10)). Whilst believers will be taken to share the glories of the “perfect day,” they will be left behind for eternal night.
It is a terrible thing to draw back to perdition, but blessed indeed to believe to the saving of the soul.