A French soldier named Private Ambroise Perrichon had both his legs shattered, and he lay helpless on the field waiting for death. A riderless white horse, feeding on the grass near where he lay, attracted the Frenchman’s attention, and he whistled to it. To his surprise, the animal immediately walked over to him and pushed its nose into his hand, whinnying with delight. The horse showed such intelligence that Perrichon was struck with an idea. He pushed the horse’s nose on to the leather belt round his waist, and the animal, with almost human intelligence, grasped it in its teeth and lifted the unfortunate soldier from the ground. It was thus that the white charger carried the wounded soldier back to the French lines and saved his life. Though in a state of collapse when he reached his friends, Private Perrichon recovered after hospital treatment. He has adopted the charger which saved his life, and it has transpired that the animal is an old circus horse, and before the war had performed in a scene in which he had to carry his master round the sawdust ring.
God watched over that soldier’s life, and delivered him from death. God is willing to deliver you from eternal death if you will, trust on the finished work of His beloved Son. If you do not trust in Jesus you will never be saved, and may have to say at the close of life what the dying sailor in Panama said: “Too late; I’ve lost my chance of salvation.” A sailor in a prayer-meeting told the following story: “In Panama one of my brother sailors was taken very sick.
I had previously, on many occasions, advised him to take Jesus as his guide, counselor and friend. But his answer had ever been, ‘Time enough yet.’ ‘You need a Saviour now,’ I said to him, as he lay writhing upon his mattress. ‘Oh,’ said he, ‘I’ve put off seeking Jesus too long.’ I earnestly begged hin1 to look at the cross of Christ, and there learn what Jesus had done and suffered, that a poor sinner like him might not perish, but have everlasting-life. But he replied, ‘No good to me. I have wasted my chance of salvation.’”