WHILE being whirled along from place to place in a railway train you have observed the signalmen with their three flags! Each of the flags has a meaning, which is as plain as words―red, danger; white, safety; green, caution.
Now on the road of life we may see these three flags waving. We are all traveling to eternity. Not one of us is at a standstill. Moment by moment life is being got through; soon it will be over, and the great terminus reached. Some are hurrying on to eternity unsaved, others as swiftly are going home to glory.
Before you, my unsaved reader, I wave the red flag. You are in danger. You are yet in your sins, yet out of Christ; you are rushing on at express speed to the fearful precipice which is at the end of your line, At the bottom of that precipice is hell― eternal hell. With all my soul’s energy I cry to you, “Stop, stop!” God’s own word is my authority. By His command I wave the signal before your eyes. “All have sinned.” You have sinned. “The wages of sin is death”― “after death the judgment,” and there is no coming out of hell forever. Reader, “Because there is wrath, beware lest He take thee away with His stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee” (Job 36:1818Because there is wrath, beware lest he take thee away with his stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee. (Job 36:18)). No, not even the great ransom price of the blood of Christ.
But has my reader left the old line of self? Has he believed on the Lord Jesus Christ? “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” These are blessed words for you who fear the wrath to come, and dread the eternity to which you are hastening. Ah! some of us have had moments, nay hours, when eternity has seemed to stare us in the face, and we knew that we were rushing on into it, and might die at any moment, but were unsaved. But, thank God, we now see God’s white flag of safety. It speaks of peace to us. Swiftly and surely we are going on to the glory. Ours is safety, and safety forever. God has found a ransom, even Jesus; His death has perfectly met all the claims of God’s justice, and now we are no longer in the train which is due for destruction, and is timed to reach eternal death directly this life is over, but we are in Christ, we are bound for glory, and no accident can possibly hinder us reaching God’s home above.
One word as to the green flag. In railway signal language it is caution. But when used for this life and eternity it seems to be the devil’s flag of “Go on quietly, don’t be too fast, live a decent, moral life, say your prayers and be religious, and all will turn out well at the end.” Reader, thousands are signaled down to hell by the devil’s green flag. But be not deceived, it is either Danger or Safety for you―danger of eternal destruction, or safety in eternal blessedness. May you know all the deep blessedness of having God’s white flag of peace waving over you! But bear in mind that His word says, “Behold now is the day of salvation.”
A. F. R.