Travelling by express train the other day, we found that we were stopped
a long distance from the station where we were timed to stop, and looking
out of the window, saw a red light ahead. That accounted for it, we knew
there was something in the way. The driver knew what he was about, and
though anxious to go on, did not move until the red light was changed to
white.
Some of those who read this paper are living in sin. To such, the Bible
speaks out in plain terms, and, like the Red Light, would stop them.
"THE END OF THESE THINGS IS DEATH."
You cannot go any further without danger. Why run the risk? That Red
Lamp seems to say, "If you will come on, you will be slain." What should
we think of any one who urged the driver to go on, in spite of the
warning? Would you not call him "fool" and "madman?" Just so, and you
will do well to call those who urge you to despise the warnings of the
Bible, by the same names.
We should not think much of the wisdom of any one who said of the Red
Lamp, "Why take any notice of that old-fashioned thing? We have outgrown
these childish ideas!" Would not your reply be, "Danger is danger, and
safety is safety!" We have not outgrown death and the grave, and it is
still true, in spite of the march of science, that a train coming into
collision with another means suffering to those who are in it. Sin is
yet sin, and we cannot break the Commandments of God without having to
suffer. And as for the Bible being old-fashioned, we feel, that which
kept our fathers from hell shall keep their sons also.
Here is one of the Red Lamps of the Bible, which young men would do well
to consider--
"HER HOUSE IS THE WAY TO HELL!"
Young man, there is the Red Light! Stop! Do not go one step further!
There are plenty of fools to tell you that
"THIS IS SEEING LIFE."
The Bible says--"The dead are there, and her guests are in the depths of
hell." If everything had to be called by its right name, just as sign-
boards tell us what is to be procured within, like "Furniture Dealer,"
"Boot and Shoe Maker," fancy the sign-board that would have to be put
over the house of the "strange woman." Here is a suitable inscription,
which we take from the Bible.--Prov. ii. 19:--
"NONE THAT GO UNTO HER RETURN AGAIN."
This is putting a Red Lamp over her door, is it not? Will you heed the
warning? Or do you mean to be one of those of whom the Bible speaks,
"AND THOU SHALT MOURN AT THE LAST, WHEN THY FLESH AND THY BODY ARE
CONSUMED, AND SAY, 'HOW HAVE I HATED INSTRUCTION AND MY HEART DESPISED
REPROOF?'"