A Methodist minister, on his way to a camp-meeting, through some
mistake took passage on the wrong boat. He found that instead of being
bound for a religious gathering, he was on his way to a horse-race.
His fellow-passengers were betting and discussing the events, and the
whole atmosphere was foreign to his nature. He besought the captain
that he would stop his boat and let him off at the first landing, as
the surroundings were so distasteful to him.
The story also goes on to relate how, on the same occasion a sporting
man, intending to go to the races, by some mistake found himself on
the wrong boat, bound for the camp-meeting. The conversation about him
was no more intelligible to him than to the man in the first instance,
and he, too, besought the captain to stop and let him off the boat.
Now what was true in these two cases is practically true with every
one. A true Christian is wretched where there is no fellowship, and an
unregenerate man is not at ease where there are only Christians. A
man's future will be according to what he is here prepared for. If he
is not regenerate, heaven will have no attractions for him. Heaven is
a prepared place for a prepared people.