The waters of the English Channel flowed broad and deep. Hitherto they had never been crossed in their entire breadth by a human swimmer. Fired with ambition to do what none had done before, and conscious of his great muscular powers, the celebrated swimmer Webb swam those twenty-five miles and set foot on the coast of France. Once more the overruling providence of God guarded him from the dangers of the deep, and spared him a little longer in His long-suffering mercy.
Often in the water, and always unharmed, he seemed to think he bore a charmed life. And so, one day looking at the boiling current of Niagara, he determined to risk his life for fame—fame that never yet satisfied any yearning human heart. “It’s all luck, in the end,” he declared. “I don’t think about that; I’m going to take my chance.”
For the last time, though he knew it not, he dressed in his familiar swim suit, and took that fatal leap out into the angry whirling torrent. Rising from his dive as usual, he floated for a moment and then began those powerful strokes. But the eddying waters had him as a straw in their giant grasp. He was hurled unseen and powerless into the vortex he had so madly braved—lost in sight of thousands standing in safety around him, safe themselves, but with no power to help him.
On the shore of that great river is a rock called “Past Redemption Point.” It is only a little cape jutting into the water, unnoticed by travelers, but beyond it no human being has ever been known to be saved. On one side is life, hope, and salvation; on the other, death, despair, destruction; and only such a little way apart.
In the ever flowing stream of life we are daily drawing near the point from whence no traveler returns. Oh, dear unsaved reader, you do not know how soon you may drift past “redemption point”—that whisper in your heart today of a text learned at your mother’s knees; that wonderful preservation in a moment of great danger; that day you went to a funeral and looked into the open grave; that illness when you felt so near God and eternity; that night at the gospel meeting when you halted between two opinions. Oh! who shall say when the voice of the Spirit shall plead with you for the last time. Can you tell which of these circumstances shall be the “Past Redemption Point” of your life? God says, “My Spirit shall not always strive with man.” Genesis 6:33And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. (Genesis 6:3). “Quench not the Spirit.” 1 Thessalonians 5:1919Quench not the Spirit. (1 Thessalonians 5:19).
Remember! there will come the last time when you will go forth to your daily duties, and you will not know it is the last.
ML 01/10/1965