Last Saturday some boys and girls went on their wheels for a ride to a pretty lake they wanted to see.
It was a nice sunny day, and not too hot, so they made their bicycles go pretty fast past the trees and houses and stores and dogs that were all along the way. Two of the girls got ahead of the rest, and were riding so fast, and talking too, that they did not see they had come to a long hill until after they were going down it.
“O, Mary,” said Anna, who was just back of her, “this is an awful steep hill! I’m afraid to go on, and I can’t get off my bicycle. What shall I do?”
“Just stay on,” said Mary, “you’re all right.” But just then Mary saw a railroad track across the road further down the hill, but not as far as the bottom of the hill, so they would have to ride over it.
“I hope a train won’t come along,” Mary said. But Anna was quite a little distance behind, and did not hear, and did not see the track at all.
Just then a train came round a curve at the other side of some woods, and it was coming very fast towards the very road Mary and Anna were on. Mary was getting so near to the track, and the train coming so fast, it was plain they would meet on the crossing.
There was a steep bank with a barbed wire fence on each side of the hill they were riding down, so she couldn’t go down there, and to turn round would make Anna ride into her, and then perhaps Anna would keep on and get killed. What could Mary do! Not a thing! She looked at the green trees and heard the birds sing, and then thought of God above the blue sky, who loved her so much He sent His Son to die for her.
“O, God, Thou seek me, take care of me!” she prayed, and then shut her eyes; the engine was getting nearer and she was almost to the track.
Do you think God heard? Yes, He did. And what do you think He did? He made the train come to a dead stop just before the road, so Mary and Anna could pass! And just as soon as they got over, the engine whistled and went on again very fast. Wasn’t that good of God? Both Mary and Anna thanked Him for His great mercy as soon as they got past.
He saw Mary, and would not let her be hurt when she prayed to Him. She could not help herself, but He could, and He did.
And has He not sent His Son down to save us from something worse than being killed by a train? Yes, He has. The Lord Jesus died on the cross because He loved us and wanted us to be up in heaven some day with Him, and that was the only way He could save us from Satan.
All we have to do is to trust Him, bieve Him. Do you?
ML 12/27/1942