WHEN about to cross the river Thames at Putney bridge, London, I noticed on Saint Mary’s old church steeple, just below the clock face and sundial, the true motto, “Time and tide stay for no man.”
In that churchyard too, on tombstones, I saw death records dating as far back as two hundred and fifty years, witnessing forcibly to the truth of this striking motto. The ever ebbing and flowing tide underneath the bridge also bore equal testimony to the fact that eternity cannot be rolled back.
I met a young man upon that bridge watching the tide during his dinner hour, whose attention I drew to this motto, and asked him if he had availed himself of the hint it afforded to be ready for eternity; and his reply was, “Yes; ready!” Further conversation with him showed that his answer was a true one; for he had, through the sovereign grace of God, known himself sinner enough to need the sinner’s Saviour. He had accepted the blessed Person provided by a holy God against whom he had sinned; in short, he had believed on the Lord Jesus Christ to the eternal salvation of his immortal and priceless soul, and was rejoicing in hope of the glory of God.
Passing on a little farther on the bridge, I handed a little Gospel booklet to a man who was waiting for a bus, to whom I put a similar question; but, alas! his reply was, “No, nor don’t need to be!” and the ensuing intercourse gave proof that his answer was no lie, for he was evidently not only, with great indifference, rejecting the Saviour still waiting to save, but said, in a defiant manner, that he had “never sinned, nor done anybody any harm;” and turned away, an open scoffer, hastening to death, to judgment, and to the eternal lake of fire, “where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched,”―a deluded soul, cheated out of eternal blessing by Satan, the great enemy of souls.
What a solemn contrast was presented between those two men! One “ready,” and he had a face beaming with joy; but the other, “not ready,” and carrying a countenance the very picture of misery itself. May we ask our reader, Are you “ready” or “not ready” for, that endless duration―ETERNITY?
Some may ask, “Why refer so much to eternity?” Well, just because it is the goal to which all are so rapidly hastening; and mark, neither time nor tide will wait for any of us! Think of each one of those clock-ticks, those ever-altering sun-dial shades, and those unabating tide ebbings and flowings, bringing us, as it were, nearer and nearer to the great eternity, which, when once entered upon, millions upon millions of years cannot by one single moment shorten!
But, dear unsaved one, if such you be, remember that although neither time nor tide can wait for you, nor help you, God in His rich grace is WAITING for needy souls to bow, believe, and be saved; for “He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance;” and we “account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation.” Then do not, we beseech you, keep Him waiting until you are forever too late to be saved.
Upon the top of that same church steeple is a weather-vane, surrounded by the usual initial letters of the four quarters of the globe― “E W N S”―and where is to be seen, of course, the direction whence the wind blows. We all know that those four letters spell “NEWS.” When people who are interested in the weather look up to that indicator, they believe what it shows; at least, from inquiries made on the spot, we did not find that any one doubted the truth of the news it gave.
To any soul interested in God’s good news for eternity, we commend for your belief and accept acceptance a few scriptures of indication and may the God of love, and the God of all grace, let you into the benefits of the same, for His own glory and name’s sake: ―
“ ‘Call them in,’ the mere professors,
Slumbering, sleeping on hell’s brink;
Naught of life are they possessors,
Yet of safety vainly think.
Bring them in, the careless scoffers,
Pleasure-seekers of the earth;
Tell of God’s most gracious offers,
And of Jesus’ priceless worth.
“‘Call them in,’ the broken-hearted,
Cow’ring ‘neath the brand of shame;
Speak love’s message, low and tender
‘Twas for sinners Jesus came.
See the shadows lengthened round us,
Soon the day dawn will begin;
Can you leave them, lost and lonely?
Christ is coming― ‘call them in.’”
J. N.