One December night in 1878 a passenger train traveling from Edinburgh to Dundee, Scotland, sped down the tracks during a severe windstorm. At 7:14 it passed the railroad station near the great Tay Bridge. This bridge crossed a large inlet of the ocean called the Firth of Tay. The stationmaster watched as the train passed. He saw the red sparks shoot out of the smokestack only to be swiftly blown away by the wind. He saw the lurid red glow of light from the back of the locomotive as the stoker shoveled coal into the firebox of the engine. He watched each of the six passenger cars pass in quick succession. The interiors of the passenger cars were dimly lighted by oil lamps, but in the blur of the rushing train he could see the silhouettes of the many passengers. He could make out the men in their bowler hats and also several women in their wider-brimmed hats tied down by scarves.
The Tay Bridge was the longest bridge in the world during its day. It was nearly two miles long and had a total of 85 cast iron spans that sat on as many columns made of concrete and masonry. Some of the spans were almost 250 feet long, and sections of the bridge were nearly 80 feet above the water to allow large ships to pass under it. As the train rushed on to the Tay Bridge, little did any of the passengers suspect that they would all pass into eternity before the bridge was crossed over. Have you ever stopped to think of how swiftly life is rushing past? “What is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:1414Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. (James 4:14)). Eternity is at the exit terminal of this life and is not far away for any of us. God has given each one of us only the span of a single lifetime to cross before we are there. No one knows if that span of life will be long or short. Before anyone comes to the end of that span, they must bow their heart to Christ and make Him their Savior if they are ever going to enter into heaven. Those who decide never to come to Christ will be swallowed up in a horrible eternity of darkness.
The stationmaster was still watching as the train pulled onto the bridge. He watched as it traveled across the many spans of the bridge, and soon in the distant darkness he could no longer see the form of the train or the outline of the bridge. All he could see was the faint glow of the lights of the train as it moved along. When the train was on the middle of the bridge, all of its lights suddenly went out and the whole scene was swallowed up in darkness. Alarmed by the sudden disappearance of the lights, the stationmaster frantically tried to telegraph the station at the other end of the bridge. However, the telegraph line was broken, and the message wouldn’t go through. Realizing that something must be terribly wrong, the stationmaster put on his foul-weather gear and took a lantern and went out into the night to investigate. The wind was so fierce that at times he had to crawl on the bridge to avoid being blown off. He went a long distance on the bridge before he made a shocking discovery. The entire mid section of the Tay Bridge had disappeared! In shock, he crawled to the edge of the last standing section with its torn rails and held his lantern over it. The light from the lantern barely illuminated the dark, storm tossed waves eighty feet below. Somewhere beneath those unforgiving waves the train and all the people on board had vanished. The gale force winds and the weight of the rushing train caused more strain than the bridge could handle-and it fell! Seventy-five people perished on that fateful night. A powerful steam engine pulled the train to the disaster.
What is the driving force that is keeping so many people from hearing the gospel and believing on the Lord Jesus? The answer isn’t particular views of science, or false religions, or faulty philosophies; those are more like cars that are being pulled along than the driving force. I can tell you what this driving force is: Deep down in the heart of man, in the heart which is the well-spring of all his actions, a dreadful disease called “sin” has entered his heart. This is what is driving men away from God into the darkness of eternal night. In the Bible the word “sin” sometimes refers to acts of disobedience to God’s will. At other times the word “sin” refers to the nature of enmity in the heart of man that produces those acts of disobedience. The source is more terrible by far than any acts it produces. Each one of us has committed acts of sin and is guilty before God. “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:2323For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23)).
And each one of us also has a sinful nature: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” The train steamed on to the Tay Bridge and perished in the darkness that night. Don’t let yourself continue to live apart from the Lord Jesus Christ until you too must perish in everlasting darkness, but come to Him who said, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:1212Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. (John 8:12)). Come while there is still time!