Too late—too late! The fire had too great a head start, and when the fire fighters arrived, the fierce heat prevented them from going inside until the flames were brought under control. Then the sad search began, and soon the bodies were brought out—one—and another—and another. Three people lay dead in the ruins of the two-story house. No more could be found, but there was still a faint buzzing noise in the ruined house. Could someone else be alive?
The search continued, and the cause was soon discovered. Downstairs they found a smoke alarm, covered and muffled with old clothes, but still faithfully sounding the alarm—the alarm that, if they could only have heard it—would have roused them all in time to escape the burning building.
The sad fact is that they did not want to hear the alarm. They did not want to be disturbed and so deliberately muffled the sound that could have saved them. In peace and quietness they slept on until the moment when they awoke, engulfed in flames and doomed.
There is an alarm sounding for our world today—a warning that time is short and that "it is high time to awake out of sleep." Rom. 13:11. The good times will end; the luxury and self-indulgence, the fun and thrills cannot last. They may have muffled the sound of the alarm, may have diverted the mind for a time, but they cannot avert the eventual wakening. Will you awaken too late?