“FOUNDERING of the Victoria; list of the saved.” These words might have been seen not long ago printed in large letters and posted up in almost every town and village in the United Kingdom.
One can imagine the intense earnestness with which the relatives and friends of the crew of the lost warship would turn to the “list of the saved” to see if a beloved husband, or father, or brother, or friend, as the case might be, were named in that list; and if the eagerly-looked-for name were discovered therein, what anxiety it would allay, what joy it would give! But, on the other hand, if no such name could be found how great the disappointment, how bitter the grief which would result.
Without the slightest intention of underrating the magnitude of the deplorable calamity by which so many brave men lost their lives, there is yet a matter of vastly greater importance, to which every reader of these pages would do well to give the closest attention, as it intimately concerns every one. Allow me then, as one who sincerely desires your eternal welfare, to ask whether your name is to be found in the “list of the saved”?
Not saved from the death which overtook so many of the poor sailors who perished when the ill-fated Victoria went down, but from the infinitely more appalling death which is the sure portion of every person who dies in his, or her, sins, and has to meet “the judgment.” (Heb. 9:27).
It was almost without warning that the Victoria heeled over and sank, and you can never be sure that you will not be quite as suddenly called into eternity, after which there is no salvation possible for any one, no matter how much in earnest he may then become.
Now is the time to secure your enrollment on the “list of the saved.” Be wise, seize this opportunity, it may be your last. Come to Jesus Now. No one else can save you, “For there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12). He Himself invites one and all to come unto Him. (Matt. 11:28). “As though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” (2 Cor. 5:20). “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” (Acts 16:31). Only believe in Him, only trust Him in simple faith, and the divine assurance shall be yours, that “By grace YE ARE saved” (Eph. 2:5), and are possessed of the “eternal salvation,” of which He is the “Author” (Heb. 5:9), that you shall not come into judgment (John 5:24), but that you are already “found written in the book of life” (Rev. 20:15)—God’s own “list of the saved.”
J. G.