A DEVOTED servant of God, who had been laboring for many years in the West Indies, on the morning of January 11th, 1881, entered the church in which he ministered, unusually impressed with the responsibility laid upon him of addressing his large congregation, consisting of white and colored people.
He took for his text, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever” (Heb. 13:88Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. (Hebrews 13:8)), and faithfully and tenderly did he speak of the unchangeable love of the Saviour. At the same time he warned his hearers that, unless they were secure on the Rock of Salvation when the floods of judgment came, there would be no refuge for them.
It was the custom of our friend to open and close his Sunday-school with hymns, followed by prayer, but on this particular day—the first time during a period of nineteen years—he paused at the end of the hymn, and desired the children to wait while he addressed a few 'words to them. The hymn they had been singing spoke of the flood, and of the open door of the ark for those who believed God in that day. Mr. A. appealed to the children and exhorted them to seek safety at once in Christ, whose loving arms are outstretched to receive all who in this day of grace seek salvation. The truth that in Christ alone is safety to be found from coming judgment filled the preacher's soul, and, by God's grace, the truth reached some, at least, of his hearers.
Eleven of the children—some boys, some girls, some black, some white—at the close of the address went up to their pastor and told him they wished to take their place on the Lord's side. It was a touching sight to witness the earnestness of these dear children. Their kind friend, and also their teachers, who had long been looking to the Lord for real blessing in the various classes, were overjoyed at this token of the work of God among them.
Little, however, did the preacher, or the children and grown-up people who heard him that day, think what was about to happen. Little did they think that his more than usual earnestness was the last warning many of them would ever receive—the last call to them to seek salvation—the last entreaty to them to find mercy.
Midnight came, and, without any warning whatever, a water spout burst in the mountain near their town—Basseterre. Volumes of water, from ten to fifteen feet high, poured down in several streams, with irresistible force sweeping everything before them. Substantial houses, as well as slight tenements, were whirled round like corks by the mighty, resistless torrent; and some were swept miles out to sea. The inhabitants of many of these houses were sleeping calmly, and were awakened only to perish.
When the morning came it broke upon a scene of the direst desolation. The survivors of that awful flood mourned their missing relatives and friends, who had been swept into destruction' in a moment. Two hundred and fifty of the inhabitants of the town perished, many of whom were amongst those who had heard the preacher the day before. How many, or how few, we wonder, believed the message and found salvation?
Of the eleven children who came to our friend, saying they wished to be on the Lord's side, all were swept away, not one was left.
How little did the hearers imagine that the Spirit of God was striving with them for the last time as they heard the preacher's earnest words. It was to them the last opportunity. "Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.”
As the preacher looks back upon that memorable morning and afternoon, he longs to know what only "the day" will declare, even how many of the people he loved really believed the word of God to the saving of their souls.
Dear reader, stop one moment and ask yourself, Has the Spirit of God ever striven with me, and have I responded to His loving entreaties? This world and each unsaved soul is under judgment. The longsuffering of God prolongs the day of grace, but this will soon end, and what an eternity awaits those who have resisted the Spirit of God and despised the warnings of His word!
Very soon the last warning will be addressed by the servants of God to their fellow men. The last gospel address will before long be uttered, the last call to come to Jesus will soon be made. It may be as congregations break up, people will say, "How earnest he was this morning, or this evening," and then go home to sleep their last sleep. But some, like the eleven little children, will seek and find, they will go from preachers to the Lord, they will enter the ark while yet there is room.
Then will come the long foretold judgment, the flood of wrath. Where will you be in that day? "Be ye, therefore, ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh." E. C.