RECENTLY when a gentleman and I were looking over the well-known “Bradshaw’s Guide” map with its vast network of thousands upon thousands of miles of railways covering the face of the country, he remarked that on the great original railway opening day, sixty-six years ago, he had the honor of being a passenger in the first railway train that ever ran on the face of the earth, which started from Darlington in Yorkshire, in the year 1825, when he was a boy of nine years old.
After my aged friend, to whom I had never spoken before, had given me descriptions of the carriages used in those days, and the accommodation provided, I rejoined, “Well, Mr. A―, have you yet had the honor of being a passenger in that best of all trains―the train for glory?”
“Yes,” said he, “praise God, I have been in that train for well-nigh sixty years, for I have received my Saviour, who is ‘the way, the truth, and the life.’”
“Then,” I added, “you and I are fellow-passengers from man’s ruin on earth to the joys of the Father’s house above, and we will praise the Lord together.”
Friend, you may not have traveled in that first railway train, but let us ask are you a passenger in the train for heaven, or are you still in the train for hell―in the best train or in the worst train―the up express or the down express―yes, which are you to be found in today? If in the devil’s train, and you may not know it, you have only to keep your seat and ere long that train will reach its final and eternal destination―hell flames! ―Dear unsaved reader, if you are still really in the worst train, oh wake up, we beseech you, and change trains. All, without exception, are either in the up train or in the down train. To those in the worst train the cry is “ALL CHANGE!” To those in the best train the word is “No CHANGE!” All have sinned; the wages of sin is death; after death the judgment; then beyond that great white throne of judgment is the lake of fire, that never shall be quenched, and the worm that never dies. All who, in the day of God’s grace, receive Jesus as their sin, death, and judgment bearer, and get their sins washed away in His precious blood, are in the best, the divine train.
But all who keep their seats and refuse to change, remain in their sins, have death and judgment and endless misery for their portion. Do not, we implore you, let that portion be yours. Think, dear soul, of the love of Jesus in dying for you. Think of what it cost Him to purchase for you a free ticket for and a seat in glory. Then lose not another moment of time in taking your seat in the heavenly train, which is filling fast. Still there is room. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”
“Life is found alone in Jesus,
Only there ‘tis offered thee―
Offered without price or money,
‘Tis the gift of God sent free.
‘Take salvation―
Take it Now and happy be.’”
J. N.