"How far is it to hell?”
The profane question was asked of a policeman by one of three excursionists who, in a half-drunk condition were sauntering along the esplanade of a favorite watering-place.
The officer was shocked by the ungodliness of the youth, whose companions evidently were half ashamed of his conduct and apologized on his behalf. Looking the careless man full in the face, he said, "Hell is at the end of a Christ-less life, and you may be nearer it than you think. Prepare to meet thy God.”
This was more than they had expected, so, without a word, they turned and hastened away.
' That night a lifeless form was picked up on the sea-shore; it was that of the scoffing excursionist. Hell was nearer than he had counted on, and he had reached it sooner than he had thought. Reader, do not forget that "Hell is at the end of a Christ-less life, and you may be nearer it than you think.”
If you die unconverted, in your sins, you will be in that hell as sure as God has said it.
Years had come and gone since that sad incident, and like others of its kind, it had ceased to be a warning to the godless multitude, who, for a. time, seemed to be awed by the remembrance of it. The Christian policeman, still in the force, was accosted by a middle-aged commercial traveler one afternoon on the street of that same watering-place.
"I do not suppose you will remember me," he said, holding out his hand to the officer and grasping his warmly, "but I remember you, and especially some words you uttered many years ago in circumstances which may yet be in you memory. Do you remember saying to three excursionists on yonder esplanade, when accosted by one of them with the impious question 'How far is it to hell?' 'Hell is at the end of a Christ-less life?' You will remember, no doubt, the sad fate of that young man. I am one of the two who accompanied him,, and I had often wished I could meet you, to tell you that the words you spoke that day never left me, until I came as a sinner to Jesus Christ and received Him as my Savior. I praise His Name that He took me as I was, a godless, guilty sinner, and saved me by His grace. I daily prove His keeping and sustaining power, and I know as surely as His Word has said it, that a heaven of glory and of bliss is at the end of the path on which I walk, and that I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
The Christian policeman was made glad through this testimony to God's saving grace, by means of the words he was enabled to speak, and the friendship between these two fellow-believers in the Lord Jesus, begun that day, continued throughout many years of happy Christian service.
I would repeat the policeman's testimony; it is as true now as then, and it may be as needful to you, reader, although you are no half-drunk scoffer, as it was to the excursionists that day long ago.
"Hell is at the end of a Christ-less life, and you may be nearer it than you think.”
Is it at the end of yours? Pause and consider! On which road are you traveling? The broad or the narrow? The way of holiness or the path of sin?