" ON May 28th , 1911, a party of prospectors recovered from an abandoned cabin beyond the Valdez Glacier, Alaska, the bones and personal effects of F.B.F., of Boston, a miner, who had been missing since the fall of 1908. F. and his partners attempted to reach the fourth bend on the head waters of the Klutina River, but ran out of supplies. The partners turned back, but F. wandered into the old cabin, and perished with hunger and cold.
“The dying man kept a record of his last days on the margin of an almanac. Some of the entries are as follow: Feb. 1st, No food yet." Feb. 9th, Ditto. I am awfully weak.'
Feb. 17th, Ditto. May the Lord have mercy on me. I thank Him, Amen." Feb. 20th, Ditto.' ‘Feb. 28th, Ditto. Do not expect to get up again.—F.B.F.'”
Thus another has been added to the long list of men who have lost their lives while searching for gold that perishes. What tales of hardship and suffering would be told if dead men's bones could speak! There they lie, strewn in the alluring but often fatal path trod by the seekers after earth's fickle wealth, as an awful warning to all who pass by. “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matt. 16:2626For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew 16:26)). MAT 16:2626For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew 16:26)
According to the diary of F.B.F., we are glad to believe that God, in His grace, enabled him to know that there was mercy still reserved for him ere he passed out of time into eternity, “from whose bourn no traveler returns." There was doubtless a profound sense of his helplessness, and the certainty of meeting a holy God as a sinner; and that led him to cry, "Lord, have mercy on me.”
F., having assurance that he was heard, could say, "I thank Him; Amen.”
Can you, too, dear friend, thank God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us? Can you thank Him for His unspeakable gift? That all surpassing love, displayed in the cross of Christ, where He, the holy Son of God, is thereby commended to you on the part of God Himself, for your reception by faith, that you may never perish, but have everlasting life (Rom. 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8); ROM 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8) John 3:14-1614And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:14‑16) JOH 3:14-1614And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:14‑16)).
M. W. S.