Stories Of Integrity

RAMBLING along the coast of the Isle of Man some years ago, a young man came to a spot where the ground sloped at a steep angle, and then terminated abruptly in a series of perpendicular rocks rising more than three hundred feet above the sea. The ground was covered with short fine grass, rendering it exceedingly slippery for walking.

The young man carelessly rambled along, scarcely conscious of his perilous position, when, suddenly losing his presence of mind, he sat down to recover himself. He had not done so for more than a minute or two, when, to his horror, he found himself gradually

slipping down the incline. Every effort to stop himself was fruitless.

Each moment brought him nearer to the awful brink. Destruction seemed inevitable. Words cannot describe the agony that filled his mind. His whole soul was now engaged in most earnest supplications to God; and He who is always ready to hear, and ever ready to save, even to the uttermost, was not deaf to the momentary cry that rose from this poor young man's lips; for exactly in his path, and within a foot of the terrible brink, there grew a little solitary tuft of grass. Against this he placed his trembling foot. It arrested him in his descent. In this position he remained for a few minutes, fervently engaged in prayer. On becoming more calm, he gently unloosed his boots, and, with the utmost caution, he was enabled to take first one boot off, and then the other, and secure them to his neck. He was now enabled to obtain a firmer footing, and, turning round, he slowly ascended till he safely reached the top, there to adore the Grace that had so miraculously snatched him from an awful death.

Dear young reader, in this illustration, which is a real fact, you have a picture of the careless sinner's position.

He is even at this moment sliding down the incline of life; each   

fleeting second brings him nearer and nearer to eternity's awful brink; beneath him lies the abyss of eternal ruin. This may be your position.

If you are not a Christian, it is. But listen. It may be that God has put before you this simple incident a short but solemn and true story, like "the little tuft of grass" to arrest you in your downward course. Oh! despise it not. That young man could not afford to neglect even so mean a thing as a little tuft of grass; and can you afford to refuse God's offer of mercy? Many a soul has been saved by reading a single text of Scripture.

This may be your time. "Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts."  "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked."

 London Children's Treasury.