IT was the day before the terrible volcanic disaster in Martinique. The Italian bark Orsolina, Captain Marino Leboffe, lay at anchor in the roadstead of St. Pierre, loading with sugar for Havre.
The volcano was already beginning to assume an appearance that seemed threatening to an experienced eye, and signs of the coming outburst were making themselves visible about the mountain summit. Unobserved though these symptoms were by the great majority of the people, they did not escape the notice of Captain Leboffe. Alarmed by what he saw, he went to the shippers and told them that he did not consider it safe to stay in the roadstead any longer, and that he had decided to stop loading and sail immediately for Havre.
“But,” objected the shippers, “you haven’t got half your cargo on board; you can’t go yet.”
“That doesn’t make any difference,” replied the captain. “I would rather sail with half a cargo than run such a risk as a man must run by staying here.”
The shippers assured him that there was nothing to be feared from Mont Pelée.
“Well,” said Captain Leboffe, “if Vesuvius were looking as your volcano looks this morning, I would get out of Naples, and I’m going to get out of here.”
The shippers then became angry, and told him that if he sailed he would be arrested as soon as he reached Havre. He bade them goodbye and left them. They, however, sent two customs officers to the bark, with instructions to stay on board and prevent her sailing.
When the sails were unfurled and the crew began to heave up the anchor, the customs officers hailed a passing boat and went ashore, after threatening the captain with all the penalties of the law.
Twenty-four hours later the shippers and the customs officers lay dead among the ruins of St. Pierre, while the bark Orsolina was far at sea, on her way to Europe.
A striking illustration this of the truth of the Scripture proverb: “The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going” (Prov. 14:1515The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going. (Proverbs 14:15)).
If Captain Leboffe had been “simple” enough to listen to the counsel of the shippers, he would have shared their fate. His prudence in “looking well to his going” is deserving of every commendation.
Your soul, my unsaved reader, is like a bark anchored in a roadstead which is threatened by approaching doom. The shore by which you linger is soon to be overwhelmed by a terrible outburst of divine wrath and judgment. Portentous signs of this are not wanting. Evidence accumulates that things cannot continue as they are much longer. In social life, in political life, in commercial life, the same tale is told, a sweeping change is coming; we are on the very verge of it.
But loud and clear above all these dim and uncertain warnings sounds the voice of divine revelation, with tones of clarion distinctness. “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” “The Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all.” “Out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.”
In view of such warnings as these, we are far more certain as to the disaster that is coming upon the world than the captain of the Orsolina could be about the eruption of Mont Pelée. After all, he might have been mistaken, but when God has spoken there can be no mistake.
The point for you, reader, is whether you are going to linger any longer in the roadstead of sin and insecurity, or whether you are going to immediately weigh anchor and set sail for the harbor of eternal bliss.
There are influences, no doubt, that would detain you, just as the shippers and the customs officers sought to detain Captain Leboffe. There is the thought of what your friends would say and think. There are “the pleasures of sin,” upon which you are not prepared to turn your back just yet. There is the hope that you stand as good a chance as others, and that there is no special need for haste. Satan has many devices by means of which he induces the “simple” to put off coming to Christ, to abide in their peril and their sin.
But the blessed God, to whom your eternal welfare is a matter of deep and true concern, warns you. “Escape for thy life,” He cries; “look not behind thee, neither stay thou... lest thou be consumed” (Gen. 19:1717And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. (Genesis 19:17)). But He does not stop here. He tells you of a means of escape, a sure haven of refuge, which He has Himself provided through the gift of His Son. The way of salvation is through JESUS, and the sinner who trusts in Him gets all the benefit of His atoning work and is saved.
It is your sins that expose you to judgment, and the only way of deliverance from the danger is for your sins to be removed. Now this is just what the work of Christ upon the cross entitles God to do. On the ground of that finished work He can righteously put away forever the believer’s sins, and gratify His own heart of love in doing so.
His words of warning, then, go hand in hand with words of grace. The voice that bids you flee from your danger calls you to the arms of a Saviour.
Let no influence detain you. Say, with Captain Leboffe, “I’m going to get out of here.” Put your confidence in the gracious Saviour. “Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him” (Psa. 2:1212Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. (Psalm 2:12)).
H. P. B.