The battle was over, though the victory had been dearly won. Beaten, and their ranks decimated, the foe was forced back to their former entrenchment. As darkness fell over the battlefield, stretcher bearers went out to gather the wounded and the dead. Lying on the hillside on his face they found a private of the Guards, cold in death. A few inches from his face lay an open Bible. On it his hand rested, literally glued there by his life-blood, which had drained away while he fixed his dying eyes on the Book of God. His forefinger pointed to a verse on the open page. It was this: "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. Believest thou this?" John 11:25, 2625Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: 26And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? (John 11:25‑26).
They reverently lifted the dead guardsman and laid him with his blood-stained Bible in a soldier's grave. He was well known in his company as a consistent follower of the Lord Jesus. Often he had said that, if he fell in battle, he had no fears; he knew that heaven was his destination. He had been saved some years back by the grace of God, through faith in the blood of the Lamb. Since then he could "read his title clear to mansions in the skies."
This soldier, dead on that blood-stained field, still bore witness to his title to the land where battles rage no more. He had Christ, and in Him a present known salvation, with "the certain hope of a glorious resurrection."
Reader, could you so die? Are you quite sure you are saved? A vague hope is not enough; you need certainty.
"A certain fearful looking for of judgment" awaits the Christless sinner. But you need not perish. The Son of man has come to seek and to save "the lost." If, acknowledging yourself as a lost sinner, you cast yourself on Him, believing in His love and power, you will be saved and ready to go, as that guardsman left dead on the battlefield.