IT is related by M. Constance, the French statesman and author, that he knew a sailor, who was once on board a vessel with a passenger, who had frequently made the same voyage.
This passenger pointed out to the captain a rock hidden beneath the waves, but he would not listen. The man insisted, and his urgency causing uneasiness amongst the other passengers, the captain, under the plea that the man's presence incited to mutiny, had him thrown into the sea. This energetic measure put an end to all remonstrance. Perfect unanimity reigned on board, until -suddenly the vessel struck upon the rock.
Ah! they had drowned the giver of the warning voice, BUT THE ROCK REMAINED.
Suddenly I was startled in my bed by the cry:— FIRE, FIRE. The fire-alarm had disturbed my sleep, but it was to save me from being burned alive.
But, oh, listen! Warning voices are heard today in the gospel, telling loudly of hidden rocks whereby souls may founder and perish for all eternity.
The captain of human thought and reasonings has not exactly drowned and silenced the Giver of these voices yet. Despite his strong desire to do so—as the wrecker fiendishly seeks to extinguish the kindly rays of the warning beacon—these voices are urgent. They warn the mariner on life's treacherous sea. To slight them is but to foolishly rush on to everlasting destruction.
God hath spoken, and still speaks today in no uncertain sound. His word—like a beacon—warns of danger, while it points to Jesus, as a Harbor of refuge.
Better never to have heard the warning, than to hear it and despise it. Better never to have been born—and if born, to have been strangled at the dawn of life—than to neglect it. "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation." (Heb. 2:3).
But listen again. The warning voice sounds this time not from heaven, nor from earth, but from hell. Do not come into this place of torment is its agonizing burden. He, who thus speaks, lived once upon earth and enjoyed its pleasures. Now in hell he prays and pleads for one drop of water. This is denied him. He, who was once clothed in purple and fine linen, is now wrapped in a winding sheet of fire. He, who neglected his own soul, is warning others. How terrible.
Ah! sinner, what a fate will be yours, if you neglect God's great salvation! What are you going to do? Heed the warning voice, and thus, like me, escape from the danger not of an earthly, but of an eternal fire. Do not be like the cruel captain, and drown the pleading voice, and rush on to the eternal horrors of the second death—the lake of fire. These are not "cunningly devised fables." They are coming realities, verities of the living God.
The voice of God now proclaims salvation through the precious blood of Christ. "Be it known unto you... that through this Man [Jesus] is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him, all that believe are justified from all things." (Acts 13:38, 39).
“In simple faith His word believe,
And His abundant grace receive;
No love like His the heart can fill,
Oh! come to Him, ' whoever will.'”
W. NEWMAN.