IN the year 18—, on one of the remote islands of Western Scotland, there lived a poor widow and her son. He was her stay and support, though only sixteen-years of age. They were very poor, and to help their scanty meals Ronald, her son, used to collect sea-birds' eggs, upon the neighboring cliffs. This feat was accompanied with considerable danger, for the birds used often to attack him and put his life in danger.
One day, having received his mother's blessing, Ronald set off to the cliffs, having supplied himself with a strong rope, by which to get down, and a knife to strike the bird, should he be attacked. How magnificent was that scene! The cliff rose several hundred feet above the sea, whose wild waves lashed madly against it, dashing the glittering spray far and near.
Ronald fastened one end of the rope firmly upon the, top of the cliff, and the other round his waist, and was then lowered until he got opposite one of those fissures in which the birds build, when he gave the signal to his companions not to let him down any further. He planted his foot on a slight projection of the rock, grasped, with one hand his knife, and with the other tried to take the eggs. Just then a bird flew at him and attacked him. He made a blow with the knife; but, oh! horrible to narrate, in place of striking the bird, he struck the rope, and, having severed some of the strands, he hung suspended over that wild abyss of raging waves by only a few threads of hemp. He uttered a piercing exclamation, which was heard by his companions above, who saw his danger, and gently tried to draw him up. Awful moment! As they drew in each coil, Ronald felt thread after thread giving way. "O Lord! save me," was his first agonizing cry; and then, "O Lord! comfort my dear mother." He closed his eyes on the awful scene as he felt the rope gradually breaking. He nears the top; but, oh! the rope is breaking. Another and another pull; then a snap, and now there is but one strand supporting him. He nears the top; his friends reach over to grasp him; he is not yet within their reach. One more haul of the rope. It strains; it unravels under his weight. He looks below at the dark waste of boiling, fathomless water, and then above to the glorious heavens. He feels he is going. He hears the wild cry of his companions, the frantic shriek of his fond mother, as they hold her back from rushing to try to rescue her child from destruction. He knows no more; reason yields; he becomes insensible. But just as the rope is giving way, a friend stretches forward at the risk of being dragged over the cliff. A strong hand grasps him, and Ronald is saved.
Dear reader, if you are unsaved, I want you, in this true and simple narrative, to see your own condition. If living for this world, you are frittering away your precious moments in pursuing perishing trifles. By the cord of life you are suspended over the awful abyss of eternal perdition.
As year after year passes away, the rope of life becomes smaller and smaller. Strand after, strand snaps as the knell of each departing year tolls its mournful notes. How many threads are now left, can you tell? Perhaps by, one slender thread you are now suspended, and ere this year expires that thread may snap and send you, unprepared, unsaved, into the presence of your Maker.
Dear friend, do you realize your awful position? It cannot be worse. How vividly Ronald realized his position in that fearful moment when the last strand was giving way, thread by thread-when, overcome by the sense of his danger, and when that danger was most imminent, a strong hand was stretched out to save him, which brought him safely beyond the reach of further danger, and placed him in the loving arms of his parent!
May the Lord reveal to you, dear unsaved one, your danger, that you may flee at once to the Savior of sinners. Dear sinner, you are lost by sin—lost to holiness, to God, to heaven—but Jesus "came to seek and to save the lost.” Ere it be too late, will you trust yourself to Jesus? On the cross He was" made sin." He perfectly met and satisfied all the righteous claims of God against sin, so that you are now as welcome to come to Christ as the saved thief (Luke 23) or saved jailor (Acts 16) both now in the Paradise of God. Every barrier is removed on God's part-every obstacle put away, so that the moment you take God at His word and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ you are saved.