It must be nearly 40 years ago now since the “Monarch,” a sailing yacht, capsized with 28 people on board, 14 of whom were drowned and 14 saved. One at least will never forget it; for it was one of the links in the chain that led to her conversion. The child of Christian parents, she longed for the world, its pleasures, its gaiety, its amusements. She loved the world, and longed to be in it and of it. But God had His purposes of grace. Something was going to happen, an awakening shock should be sent, which should bring Eternity before her, and through God’s grace and mercy, keep Eternity before her.
Little she thought it, as she and a merry little band of young people started out under the care of an old friend of her father, for an afternoon’s walk to L and back. They went. over L— Downs, the beautiful, hilly coast road. Many boats were out, and the party just noticed sudden squalls of wind from the hills seawards; and one of these squalls, with a sharp shower of rain, kept them for a while sheltering in L under some fine old trees on the inland road leading from L— to I—. When nearly home, they heard the sad, sad news that the “Monarch” had capsized. Into what sorrow was the town of I— plunged! And an arrow from the Almighty God had reached one heart at least, the heart of this young girl. She had loved boating, loved the excitement of a good sail, and now she thought, “Oh, if I had been on the ‘Monarch,’ if I had been drowned, where should I be now?” Nor could she get away from the thought; it was kept continually before her. Some of the bodies were recovered at once. At the prayer-meeting on the Monday evening, those present could hear the coffins being made by the carpenter son-in-law of the people from whom the room was rented. She heard it. If one of those coffins had been for her, where would her poor soul have been?
Where? Some of the bodies were not found for nine days, some not for three weeks. Descriptions of these were posted up in many places. Often she read them, and would think, “Oh, if it had been I!” The world had lost its charm. The end of those things was death. A day’s outing, an afternoon’s outing might end in death. Eternity stared her in the face.
One young man who was on the “Monarch” that afternoon, and who was drowned, was a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ; and known to be such. He knew, too, the joy and privilege of being gathered to the precious Name of the Lord Jesus; and would doubtless have been at the Lord’s Table on the Lord’s Day morning, but instead of that was “absent from the body, present with the Lord.” He had come to If or a little change of air and scene, as he sorely needed a rest and holiday, leaving his young wife and child at home. His hymn book was in his pocket. The young girl felt and knew it was all right with him, but if she had been there, where would she have been?
This was one link in the chain that led to her conversion. A severe, though brief, illness was another. “If taken, where shall I spend Eternity?”
For many, many years now she has known the Lord Jesus as the One Who bore her sins in His Own Body on the tree; and she is waiting for Him to come and receive her unto Himself, that where He is, there she may be also. Blessed hope, blessed rest of her soul, Eternity with Christ!
“A Brand plucked out of the fire nearly 40 years ago.”