IT had been a hard struggle for life, but at last doctors and nurses were congratulating themselves that Private Fisher was on the highroad to convalescence. He had been brought to the military hospital with a severe wound in the thigh, and recovery was slow, but today he had walked round the ward for the first time.
Night was falling and silence reigned in the hospital. Suddenly a cry of pain echoed through the ward. The nurse, hurrying to Private Fisher’s bed, whence the cry had come, found a jet of blood spurting from the wound. By the nurse’s direction one present placed his finger firmly upon the tiny orifice while they waited till the surgeon should arrive.
A short examination convinced the latter that the case was hopeless, for the sharp edge of the splintered bone had pierced an artery.
The soldier was unconscious that anything serious had occurred, and they broke the news to him as gently as possible. He received it calmly and courageously, and, after begging that his mother might be told of his death, asked, “How long can I live?”
“Only as long as I keep my finger upon this artery,” was the reply.
There was a pause. At last the soldier broke the silence, “You can let go.”
The man would not let go. But after a while he suddenly fainted and the muscles of his hand relaxed. So the soldier’s end came.
Now sin, like that splintered bone, has pierced man’s soul and the life is ebbing away. It was by sin death came into the world, and “the soul that sinneth, it shall die.”
Reader, one thing alone keeps the tide of life running in the channels of thy existence. It is the sustaining finger of God that rests upon thee, for in Him we live and move and have our being. For twenty, thirty, fifty, perhaps seventy years, He has kept His finger there; but it may be that He is about to say, “I will let go.” Before there is time to glance at the clock on the wall thy soul may be summoned into eternity. Oh, reader, art thou prepared?
Because of the uncertainty of life, and because of the certainty of the hell that awaits the impenitent, we would urge thee, if unconverted, to make instant decision for Christ. Only those are safe that are sheltered by the blood of Christ, and thou mayest at once have this shelter if thou wilt turn to the Lord Jesus.
Do not delay, another opportunity may never be given thee. We entreat thee to come now.
M. L. B.