By Archie Payne.
THE Cornish Express was fast picking up speed as it left a small Devonshire station, when a farmer rushed across the platform and jumped upon the footboard of the moving train. Helping him safely into my compartment, he sat for some time evidently overcome by excitement and the hurry. After a while he expressed his thanks for the helping hand which had dragged him from a perilous position, and said, “It was a great risk, but well worth it!” I could not help expressing wonder at what could be well worth such a terrible risk, and in answer he produced the familiar form of a telegram, and read the message which informed him of the expected speedy death of a brother. Seeking to express my sympathy with him, I soon found that he was a saved man, and then his story came out.
Both brothers had been saved, and for years had everything in common. Then they quarreled over business matters, and bitter words were spoken. With a deep groan the farmer cried, “God keep him alive till I get to him.”
Nearly ten years had passed since the quarrel, and they had never spoken to each other. Now the urgent call had come, and stirred him to the depths.
“Sir,” said he, “do you believe in the Judgment Seat of Christ?”
My answer received, he went on: “And if I don’t see Robert before he dies we will have to settle it at His Judgment Seat. That will be terrible.” And again in real soul agony he prayed:
“God keep him alive!”
At Exeter he left the train, and the sequel may well be imagined, but his words, “Well worth the risk,” left a deep impression on my mind.
The Judgment Seat of Christ is a great fact (Rom. 14:10), but how often it is lost sight of, and how sadly belittled by others. But the great fact of death, and the still greater fact of the speedy return of our Lord Jesus (Rev. 22:20) will fix forever the record of that Day.
In the awful light of that Day we do well to read again the commands of God. “Let not the sun go down upon your wrath” (Eph. 4:26); “Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye” (Col. 3:13), and to pray, “Lord, teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Psa. 90:12), remembering “we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ.”