We were spending our vacation on the seacoast. It was a bright summer evening, and many small boats were out on the water. Some were rowing, others were fishing. A number of us younger folks were swimming and playing in the waves along the beach.
Suddenly a shrill cry rang out. I looked and saw that a small boat had struck one of the rocks and was being dashed about, in the surf. Four boys were in it, two of them not more than twelve years of age.
I ran up to my mother who was sitting on the beach and told her what had happened. By the time we got to the nearest point to where the boat was, a crowd had gathered, but no one knew what to do. The little boat was filling fast and would soon go down. The four boys, frantic with fear, were clinging to each other and crying out for help.
Poor fellows! How I felt for them, but I could not help. Were they to perish before our eyes?
“If we only had a rope,” said someone, “we could pull the boat around to the sandy beach.”
“Who would go out with it if we had,” said a young lady.
“We’ll see, when the rope comes,” said a young fellow who had just come down, and was busy taking off his shoes.
In a few minutes a rope came, and amid the tears of not a few and the cheers of the rest, this young fellow plunged from a rock into the sea. Every eye was fixed on the swimmer as he struck out for the wrecked boat, whose occupants were now up to their knees in water. A few mites more and he had reached them and made the rope fast to the boat. Then he gave a signal to those on shore to pull as he directed them. Willing hands hauled on the rope, and soon the sinking boat, with its four trembling occupants, was safe on the beach. The brave swimmer followed breathless and exhausted, but thankful that the boys had been rescued from a watery grave.
What do you think the boys did as soon as they got on shore? Did they walk away without saying a word to their rescuer? Ah no! They grasped his wet hand as soon as he came ashore and amid their tears they thanked him with all their heart. The crowd carried him home on their shoulders, and the following day he was presented with a handsome gift by the boys’ parents and the people of the town.
Those four boys in the sinking boat remind me of a sinner—disobedient to God, taking his own way, sinking down to death and judgment, and unable to save himself. It was just such helpless sinners that the Lord Jesus came to save. He came to deliver, to save souls from going down to hell. Have you allowed Him to rescue you, or did you refuse His hand outstretched to save you?
What folly would it have been had these four helpless boys, in danger every moment of plunging into a watery grave, pushed away from them the noble rescuer who at the risk of his own life had come to save them! Would they not have been considered mad had they done so? Yet there are thousands doing this very thing to the Son of God, who came down from heaven and entered death’s dark waves, to save sinners going down to hell. They reject His outstretched arm and perish. Are you one of these Christ rejectors, my dear reader? Are you pushing away from you the only One who is both willing and able to save, or will you not let Him save you now?
Only trust Him, only trust Him,
Only trust Him now;
He will save you, He will save you,
He will save you now.
ML 05/23/1965