AYE, sir, I've seen some things in my time, I can tell you. All over the world I've been, and anything on this round earth that's worth seeing I've seen, and here I am back again on the same old job I had when a boy.”
“Then no doubt you have made a nice little collection of things during your travels?”
Aye, sir, but I've very little left now, 'cept a few cuts and bruises.”
“So you used to push this ferry across when you were a boy. How long ago is that?”
“Oh! sixty years ago I left this old boat, and joined the Queen's Navy. After that I tried the merchant service, and here I am, sir, at the end of my journey as I began it, without having gained anything except rheumatics, pushing this old ferry as I did sixty years ago.”
“Well, well, old friend, it's sad enough to have spent so long a life and gained nothing; but I very much fear you have gained something that perhaps you have never thought of, an awful collection that has accumulated day after day, night after night, for this last sixty or seventy years. Silently, but surely, this great accumulation has been gathering about you, until this morning your sins are such a multitude as no man can number. You have not returned to this ferry as you left it. Your soul is sin-stained, your conscience seared, your face (once lightened by the smile of childhood's innocence) bears the unmistakable marks of a misspent life, and your bent body tells that soon, very soon, you must go to meet God. The fact is, you have gained too much. Believe me, your ill-gotten gains will sink you unless they are speedily got rid of. Excuse my plain speaking, but there is only one way of getting rid of that multitude of sins, and that is by going down upon your knees, and telling God all about your misspent life, pleading the value of the precious blood of Christ, which alone can cleanse you from all sin (see 1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)), and accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. ' Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved' (Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31)), is surely God's voice to you.”
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Now, reader, you have started life's journey, and we know not how soon you may end it, but be assured of this, you cannot end it as you began. The beginning was as an innocent babe, but to-day, if unsaved, you are a sinner. Your conscience tells you that you have a lifetime of sin to account for. What about the judgment of God?
And, tell me, what about the Cross of Calvary, and the Holy One of God, who hung there as a sacrifice for sin that forgiveness might be preached to even you? And what about the precious blood that flowed from His pierced side that sin-stained souls might be cleansed? What is all this to you? Why not prove the value of that sacrifice, and the efficacies of that sin-cleansing flood this very moment? Then as a pardoned sinner, saved by grace, you will be able to praise Him, who died to save you. S. W. M.