OUR brave coastguard men learn how to throw out the life-line with great dexterity, so that it may fall upon the stranded vessel in order that the seamen on board may secure it to the mast, and passing along it reach the shore, safe from death and a watery shroud. May Heaven’s evangelists be ready in this the day of glad tidings not to hold their peace, but throw out bravely the word of salvation―God’s Life Line―to sinners perishing in the stranded wreck of this doomed world, thereby setting the feet of every believing one secure upon the Rock―Christ.
During a recent gale in the Firth of Forth some fishing smacks off the Fife coast suffered severely. One boat carrying too much sail was caught by a sudden squall; heeling over, her ballast shifted, and down she went, five souls perishing in the angry deep. Skipper and all perished in a moment, suddenly, and that without remedy. Amongst them was a father and his son of only fourteen. This boy had gone on the voyage much against his will, saying he would rather work on a farm than go to sea. Alas for him! if he did not trust in Jesus. Alas for every unregenerated soul! What an awful awakening for the eternity beyond, will there be in the day when the sea shall give up the dead that are in it!
During the same gale a young man was washed overboard into the seething sea―brother to one who was drowned with the above crew. Those in the boat did their utmost to rescue him, but the waves were running high and the current strong. He sank once and again; but, strange to tell, at that moment when all attempts to save him appeared of no avail, he was caught in the ear by a hook upon one of the lines attached to the boat. He was thus literally fished alongside; and with much difficulty lifted on board. This providential event proved to him a life-line without doubt. He was going about Cockenzie with his festering ear bandaged up; but better a wounded ear than a lost soul! If this young man be not converted by his marvelous escape, he ought to be, for it was of God’s mercy he was not cut off in his sins.
No doubt, dear reader, you are interested in this narrative; but what about your own soul? “The redemption of their soul is precious” (Psa. 49:88(For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:) (Psalm 49:8)). You must be redeemed, or perish. “None can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him, that he should still live forever and not see corruption. For he seeth that the wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others. Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue forever, and their dwelling-places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names. Nevertheless, man being in honor abideth not; he is like the beasts that perish. This, their way, is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah (pause to consider). Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them, and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning (resurrection), and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.” What a faithful description a, the men of the world—of you, unsaved sinner. Beware of their way, which is their folly, or “confidence,” as the Hebrew word literally means. Say, is “their way” your “confidence”? A way “without God,” “without hope,” “without Christ,” and a perishing “without mercy.”
Oh! think of it. “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof is the ways a death.” You may be running “in the way of Cain,” the religious sacrifices of “the fruit of the ground;” a professed believer in Christ, but not an actual possessor of Christ. Halt! your end will be destruction. You may be amongst the timorous, afraid to confess Jesus as Lord. Beware! for the fearful have their “part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” Does the gospel of grace, forgiveness, and life through the death and resurrection of the Christ of God fall unheeded on your ear; or the divine trumpet call of judgment to come fail to arouse you? Awake!
A servant of Christ, when in a blacksmith’s shop, observed a pretty dog fast asleep beside the anvil. The place echoed the sonorous ring of the iron, and the clatter of the mighty hammer deftly yielded by the brawny arm. The sparks flew around like a rain of fire, but still the dog slept on perfectly at ease.
“Oh,” said the smith, “he is used to it. At first he was afraid and ran away, then he came nearer and nearer, and at last got so accustomed to it, that he sleeps securely amidst all the noise.”
So with the Gospel hardened multitudes in Christendom. Are you amongst them? Oh, rouse thee, before the hour of the awful awaking to the damnation of hell! Seize hold by faith on Christ, He alone can save you, and save you now.
He died for the ungodly. He liveth beyond the power of the grave. He is “able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.”
T. R. D.