It was just upon nine o’clock in the morning. The 8.50 am. Train had just been dispatched, and the station master was settling down for an hour’s quiet, when a gentleman with face red hot and bursting with ill-temper, rushed upon the platform. He loudly stormed against the bus driver, whose neglect had caused him to lose the train. He declared he would rather have forfeited $5 than miss that particular train.
What was to be done? The only course was to wait for the ten o’clock train. But the gentleman was infuriated, and walked up and down the platform in an excited manner. Presently he cooled down, when the station master went up to him, and said, “There’s a comfortable waiting room inside, if you would like to sit down, sir.” The gentleman found himself in a pleasant room, shaded by climbing roses outside. He found, to his surprise, a table, on which were spread some gospel tracts. To while away the time he took one up, and began to read.
He got interested. Time fled. Passengers began to arrive. The ticket office was opened for the coming train. Still the gentleman sat on, absorbed in the message he was reading. “The train’s in sight,” said the station master.
“The train,” replied the gentleman, like one waking up out of a dream. “Will you sell me this tract? I want to read it again.”
“Take it, and welcome, sir,” responded the station master, “the kind lady, who supplies the tracts, will be glad if you will accept it.”
“Thank you, and her,” said the gentleman. He took it, and in another minute he was speeding away in the train.
A month rolled by. A gentleman leaped out of the train, and offering his hand warmly to the station master, said, “Do you remember me?”
“I do, sir,” he replied. “You are the gentleman that missed the train a few weeks back, and was so troubled about it.”
“I need not have been. I missed the train that morning, but I found the Saviour. Oh! What a tract that was. I had been so absorbed with business that I did not allow myself time to think about God, or to read His Word. I could not get away from the solemn questions that tract asked. Please tell the lady that tract has led me to the Saviour, and I am buying all I can, and giving them away wholesale. I never knew what happiness was before.”
The gentleman resumed his seat in the train, and the steam-whistle sounded. There was a solemn joy in the heart of the old station master as he waved farewell to the gentleman, and saw the joyous look upon his face-a new creature in Christ Jesus.
Have you made time to think about God and to read His Word? Have you faced the most pressing and vital matter that can engage your attention? Where will you spend eternity? Heaven or Hell? Sin is a reality, and nothing short of the atoning death of the Son of God sufficed to meet God’s righteous claims, and enable Him to offer you forgiveness of sins, salvation, eternal life through simple faith in His dear Son.
Sin is a reality, and the judgment pronounced by God upon sin is a reality. In due season you will have to face that judgment. The power of sin in your life is a reality too. You cannot grapple with that power and overcome it in your own strength. You need a Saviour. The Saviour, which was presented to the gentleman by the tract he picked up in the station, is now presented to you.
“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart, that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be SAVED” (Rom. 10.9)
A.J.P.