SALVATION—THE LOST

5347 Charlemagne’s Position After Death

Charlemagne gave instructions that when he died he should be buried seated in the royal posture of a ruling monarch on a throne. Then he directed that the Gospels should be laid on his knees, his sword beside him, the imperial crown on his head, and the royal mantle on his shoulders. And thus his body remained for 180 years.

About 1,000 AD, the tomb was opened by the Emperor Otho. They found the skeleton of Charlemagne, dissolved and dismembered into various hideous postures. The skull was still wearing the crown. And the bony finger of the skeleton was pointing to the verse of Scripture, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Matt. 16:26).

The various relics were collected and used in the coronation of the emperors of Germany to signify their greatness and succession from Charlemagne.

—Massie

5348 One Step To Heaven

Entering a crowded street car, with his Bible under his arm, a young minister soon became the brunt of sneering remarks and wisecracks from the group of fellows. These remarks continued, and when the minister left the car, one youth said, “Say, mister, how far is it to heaven?” The Christian replied, “It is only a step; will you take it now?”

—Power

5349 Less Than An Inch To Heaven

What is the distance between life and eternity? When Princess Anne visited the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, she was intrigued by the spacesuits of the astronauts, and asked Moonman Neil Armstrong: “Is there any danger of a rip?” The relaxed Armstrong replied: “The difference between eternity and life is about one-hundredth of an inch of rubber.”

—Prairie Overcomer

5350 Calvary Must Occur

An English soldier was converted in the trenches during the first World War and wrote home to his mother, “This war had to occur that I might be saved.” The mother showed the letter to her minister, remarking that her boy was unduly magnifying the importance of his salvation. The minister agreed with the boy. “Madam,” he said, “not only this war, but Calvary, had to occur to save your boy.” God used the wrath which raged both at Calvary and through that awful war experience to bring the lad to his Saviour.

5351 Worst Sinner And Best Moralist

At an evangelistic service conducted in London by Dr. G. Campbell Morgan, a hardened criminal came forward to the altar seeking salvation. Dr. Morgan knelt beside him and pointed him to Jesus the Lamb of God who could cleanse him from all his sins, and he who had been a great sinner believed and was converted.

Then Dr. Morgan saw the Mayor of the city, a man of high morals and greatly respected, kneeling at the same altar, and to him, as to the criminal, he pointed out the Lamb of God who alone could take away sins. In humble self-surrender, the Mayor, too, accepted Jesus as his Saviour. A short time before this, the Mayor had sentenced the criminal to imprisonment; and there at the altar the two shook hands while tears of joy ran down their cheeks.

For the worst of sinners and the best of moralists there is the same Saviour. In none other is there salvation, for “there is none other Name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

5352 The Boy Crawled Forward

Dr. Marshall Craig, preaching in a southern university, pleaded for young men and women to place their all on God’s altar. They began to come—the president of the student body, football players, beautiful girls, campus leaders—sincerely, honestly giving themselves to Christ. And then Dr. Craig saw a strange thing. Far back toward the rear of the auditorium, he saw a boy start down the aisle toward the front. And that boy was crawling on his hands and knees.

Dr. Craig turned to the president of the university, who said, “It’s all right, sir. That boy is one of our students, but he is a hopeless cripple, and the only way he can get around is on his hands and knees.” Dr. Craig waited until the boy had made his way to the front, then leaned down to greet him.

The young man looked at the great preacher, and said to him, “Sir, you said God had a place for a man. I know God has a place for these athletes with their muscles of steel; I know God has a place for these campus leaders. But tell me, sir, does God have a place for a wreck like me?” And Dr. Craig told him through his tears, “Son, God has just been waiting for a wreck like you.”

—Charles Wellborn

5353 Father More Anxious To Find Boy

One Sunday night D. L. Moody preached in a big circus tent near the Columbian Exposition in Chicago from the text, “The Son of man is come to seek and to save the lost.” After he had finished, a little boy was brought to the platform by an officer who had found the child wandering in the crowd, lost. Mr. Moody took him in his arms and asked the crowd to look at the lost child. Said he: “The father is more anxious to find the boy than the boy is to be found. It is just so with our Heavenly Father, for long years He has been following you, oh, sinner. He is following you still!”

At that moment a man with a blanched face elbowed his way to the platform. The boy saw him and, running, threw himself into his father’s outstretched arms. The multitude that witnessed the scene, broke into a mighty cheer. “Thus,” cried Mr. Moody, “will God receive you if you will only run to Him today.”

—King’s Business

5354 “I Wasn’t Lost”

A mother attended a service in a large and crowded auditorium accompanied by her little daughter Mary. In some manner Mary became separated from her mother. The mother sent a notice to the platform which was read: “If there is a little girl named Mary Moore in the audience, who is lost, will she please raise her hand so that her mother can find her?” “Yes,” said Mary later, “I heard it read.” “Why didn’t you raise your hand then? “ asked her mother. “Why, mother, it couldn’t have meant me,” said Mary, “for I wasn’t lost. I knew where I was.” Jesus came to call sinners to repentance because they are saying, “I’m not a sinner, I’m not lost.”

—Wonderful Word

5355 Excepting Ingersoll

Some years ago, Bishop Phillips Brooks became quite ill and would see no visitors. When Robert Ingersoll, the agnostic, heard that his friend was sick, he called at his home to see him and was admitted at once. “I appreciate this very much,” said Mr. Ingersoll, “but why do you see me when you deny yourself to all your friends?” “It’s this way,” answered the bishop. “I feel confident of seeing my other friends in the next world, but this may be my last chance to see you.”

—Emery G. Young

5356 His One Mistake

He wore his rubbers when it rained.

He brushed his teeth TWICE a day … with a nationally- advertised toothpaste.

The doctors examined him twice a year.

He slept with the windows open.

He stuck to a diet with plenty of fresh vegetables.

He relinquished his tonsils and traded in several worn-out glands.

He golfed—but never more than 18 holes at a time.

He got at least eight hours’ sleep every night.

He never smoked, drank or lost his temper.

He did his “daily dozen” daily. He was all set to live to be a hundred.

The funeral will be held Wednesday. He’s survived by eight specialists, three health institutions, two gymnasiums and numerous manufacturers of health foods and antiseptics.

He forgot God.

5357 It Lacks Only One Thing

A young artist in Italy sculptured an angel statue and then concealed himself that he might hear what the master Michelangelo would say about it.

The master looked upon it awhile; the young artist waited breathlessly. He heard Michelangelo said, “It lacks only one thing.”

The artist was nearly brokenhearted and could not eat or sleep until a friend inquired of Michelangelo what the statue lacked. The great artist said, “It lacks only life; if it had life, it would be as perfect as God Himself could make it.”

5358 Tourist Lost Next Door

A young Filipino, travelling in Chicago, registered at the Hotel Sherman. Taking a walk, he became lost. He was ignorant of the name, location, and appearance of the hotel, and so was unable to find it again. Consequently, he selected another room in the Hotel Astor. Unwilling to acknowledge to the authorities that he was lost, he tried for five days to find the place where he had deposited his baggage.

Unsuccessful, he finally appealed to the authorities. The police soon found his original registration place, and informed him that for five days he had been living next door to the place where he had left his baggage. Although so near, he lost five days’ peace of mind, five days’ time, and five days’ use of his baggage all because he would not tell an officer that he was LOST. No one should entertain any fears about telling the Lord that they are lost, confessing, “I have gone astray like a lost sheep.”

—Tom Olson

5359 Water Only Thousand Steps Away

Two rude stones in the Sahara Desert mark a tragedy of thirst. The wealthy Egyptian merchant, Ab Ishay, paid his camel driver Arik 10,000 ducats ($22,500) for a mouthful of water. Within an hour both died of thirst. Yet only a thousand steps distant was a well which would have saved them! “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink” (John 7:37).

—The Burning Bush

5360 Only Two Miles From Spring

The skeleton of a woman was found on the hot sands of the Mojave Desert. Before death, she had written a note which read: “I am exhausted and must have water! I do not believe I can last much longer!” She died of thirst and exposure just two miles from Surprise Springs where water flowed in abundance.

5361 Lost In Sight Of Home

A few months ago, during one of the severe storms that visited Colorado, a young man perished in sight of home. In his bewilderment he passed and repassed his own cottage, to lie down and die almost in range with the “light in the window” which his young wife had placed there to guide him home.

All alone she watched the long night through, listening in vain for the footsteps that would come no more; for long before the morning dawned the icy touch of death had forever stilled that warm, loving heart. The sad death was made still sadder by the fact that he was lost in sight of home.

How many wanderers from the Father’s house are lost in sight of home, in the full glare of gospel light!

—Walter Baxendale

5362 Ship Was So Near Home

The Royal Charter had been around the world. A magnificent ship she was. She had touched at every important port, and was homeward bound. She had arrived at Queenstown, and a message was received that she would dock at Liverpool the next morning.

One of the members of my church told me he waited on the dock all night to see her come in. The Lord Mayor of London was there, and the Lord Mayor of Liverpool. Bands of musicians and thousands of people waited to give her a welcome home. But the Royal Charter went down in the nighttime between Queenstown and Liverpool, losing almost all on board.

The wife of the first mate was a member of Dr. William M. Taylor’s church in Liverpool, and he was told that he must tell her that her husband was lost. He said that he felt like an executioner when he reached the cottage where they lived. He touched the doorbell, and a bright-faced, sunny-haired little girl sprang out and said:

“Oh, Dr. Taylor, I thought it was my papa. He is coming home today!”

“When I stepped into the house,” said Dr. Taylor, “I found the breakfast table spread in the sitting room, and the wife of the first mate came forward and said:

“ “Dr. Taylor, you must excuse us for having the table here and at this hour, but you know my husband is coming home today, and if you will stay, it will make the day like heaven.”

“I took both her hands in mine,” said Dr. Taylor, “and held them for a moment, and then said, “My poor woman, the Royal Charter went down last night, and your husband was lost, and can never come home again.””

She looked at him just a moment, and then as she drew away her hands, she shrieked out:

“Oh, my God, so near home, and yet lost!”

I have known men nearer than that. Between them and eternal life was just one word, and they would not speak it; between them and hope there was just a line, and they would not cross it.

—J. Wilbur Chapman

5363 Gamble At Railroad Crossing

Four young adults were killed near Moses Lake, Washington, when they tried to beat an approaching freight train to a crossing. Said one observer, “It was a foolish gamble. They had so little to gain and so much to lose.”

It was true. If they had won, they would have gained only a few moments. Losing, they lost everything. Those four people symbolize millions of others who gambled and lost an eternity in heaven for the momentary pleasures of sin.

—Stanley C. Baldwin

5364 Legally Dead While Living

A prisoner, who had been sentenced to death for murder, was sitting in his cell one day when the doctor passed. The prisoner requested him to secure some paper and pen and ink for him, as he had forgotten to make his will, and wished to do it before he was executed.

“But,” said the doctor, “that will be of no use. It is too late now for you to make a will. Ever since the judge passed sentence of death upon you, you have been a dead man in the eyes of the law. The fact that the sentence has not been actually executed makes no difference. No court of law in the land can regard as valid any document that you may now produce.”

The poor fellow buried his head in his hands as he realized his condition. He was dead, even though he lived.

5365 Thoreau’s Ignorance

When Thoreau, the naturalist, was close to death, he was visited by a very pious aunt who asked, “Henry, have you made your peace with God?” “I didn’t know,” was Thoreau’s answer, “that we had ever quarreled.”

And in his answer he revealed his profound spiritual ignorance. Too many people are like him. They are utterly unconscious of the fact that they have sinned against God and so have “quarreled” with Him, and are really lost and separated from God. The first step in coming to Christ is to realize one is a sinner, a lost sinner.

Thoreau’s answer revealed that he still was a lost man: he didn’t know he was lost and so he had never come to Christ to get saved. Here is the truth about man’s sin and lost condition by nature.

—Christian Victory

5366 Pilots Got No Lights

During the second World War an aircraft carrier was out in the North Atlantic. As it was engaged in war, its six pilots took off the carrier to scout out some enemy submarines. While these pilots were gone, the captain of the ship issued an alarm. The button was pushed, and every light on that ship was extinguished.

Eventually these pilots started to come back toward the mother ship, and realizing that she was down there somewhere, although they couldn’t find her, they radioed the ship: “Give us light, we’re coming home.”

The radio operator on the ship radioed back: “Order—blackout. I can’t give you light.”

Another pilot picked up his radio and said, “Just give us some light, and we’ll make it.”

And the radio operator said, “No light—blackout.”

The third pilot picked up his radio, and he said, “Give us just one light, and we’ll land.”

The operator could do no more. He reached over, turned the switch, and broke radio contact. Six red-blooded aviators, in the prime of manhood, went down in the cold, north Atlantic Ocean and out into eternity.

—Prairie Overcomer

5367 The Grandson From Australia

King Edward VII of England gave a dinner to tens of thousands of the poor in commemoration of his coronation. All London and the country for miles around had been scoured to find the guests for the king’s dinner. Royal princesses, princes, dukes, lords, and officers of the army which had just returned from South Africa, waited upon the king’s guests. It was a sight never to be forgotten.

Among the royal guests were an old man and his wife, who had come up to partake of the king’s hospitality, from one of the rural districts. It was learned that the aged couple has just managed to keep body and soul together long enough to partake of the king’s dinner; after that they intended to enter the poorhouse. They had sold their household effects in order to keep from starving.

Among the waiters upon the table at which the old couple sat, was a fine-looking officer from Australia. As he helped them to food the old man whispered to his wife, “My, ain’t he like our Ned.”

The officer overheard them. Presently he came again to help them to some more food, when the old man spoke aloud to him:

“My, but you are like our Ned!”

“Indeed, am I?” said the officer.

“Yes, you are.”

“Well, what is your name and where is your Ned?”

“Oh, he went to Australia over thirty years ago, and we have not heard from him in over twenty-years.”

It was now the young officer’s turn to talk, and the tears were running down his manly face as he said:

“Well, my name is Ned, and if you are Edward B. … ., I am your Ned’s son. My father died twenty-one years ago, but I came to England to find you, and had given up in despair. Where are you going when dinner is over?”

“To the poorhouse,” said the old man.

“Oh, no, you are not,” said the young officer. “You are going with me to my hotel, and you sail with me next Saturday for my home in Australia. Come, grandmother, give me your arm,” and he took them to his hotel.

—The Pastor

5368 To Find That Penknife

William Malsbury was a locomotive engineer on the erstwhile Tuckerton Railroad in Ocean County, New Jersey. One day he lost a penknife which he prized highly. He remembered seeing the knife lying on the window ledge of the engine cab at the start of his daily run. He surmised that it had bounced off and landed on the roadbed somewhere between Whiting and Tuckerton—quite a long stretch of railroad.

However, Malsbury secured permission from the railway authorities to try a little experiment whereby he might possibly find his lost knife. Early the next morning, he cut a piece of metal about the size and weight of his knife, and placed it on the ledge of the cab window at the beginning of the day’s run. After the train had run about thirty minutes the piece of metal bounced off the ledge and fell beside the tracks. Malsbury stopped the train as prearranged, searched the area for approximately three minutes, and found his valued knife.

—Charles M. Cramer

5369 Bridge Builders’ Freedom

In the small town of Ronn in the Australian state of Tasmania there is a bridge regarded by many as the most beautiful of its kind in the world. Built over 140 years ago, the bridge is most unusual because of the extraordinary carvings on each stone of the three arches of the beautiful proportioned bridge.

It was a passport to freedom for the two men responsible for the Ross Bridge—Daniel Herbert, a reformed highwayman, and a stone mason and reformed burglar named James Colbeck—both transported as convicts to Van Diemen Land (as Tasmania was then known), but given their freedom as a reward when the bridge was finished in 1836.

5370 Pardon Of Sir Herschel

Mark Guy Pearse once told this story at Chautauqua: There was a young musician in the royal band of Hanover. He was a remarkable lad for his age, and his superior playing won much praise for him, and he liked to march at the head of the troops discoursing martial music. But when war came on and he had to lie in the trenches all night he could not stand it, and one night he deserted and fled to England.

Now, it is a serious thing for a soldier to desert. The penalty is death, and is usually inflicted when the deserter is caught. But this man was not caught. He became a great organist, but his heart was in the stars and he was a still greater astronomer. With infinite pains he constructed a telescope, and then he scanned the heavens night after night, until one night he actually discovered a new planet. He was awed. He verified the discovery and then received the applause of the whole world. He was sent for by the king and went to Windsor Castle. But the king was George, of Hanover, the sovereign to whom his life was forfeit for his old desertion. The king knew him, too; and what would he do?

Before the king would see him he was requested to open an envelope containing a royal communication. He did so, wondering what the king was going to do with him. It was his pardon as a deserter. “Now,” said King George, “we can talk, and you shall come up and live at Windsor and be Sir William Herschel.” The wonderful grace of God is sometimes reflected in human hearts.

—Selected

5371 Barefooted Into Jerusalem

An old ecclesiastical legend tells of how an emperor won the true cross in battle and brought it back with great pomp to Jerusalem but found the gate walled up and an angel standing before it who said, “You bring back the cross with pomp and splendor. He that died upon it had shame for his companion and carried it on his back, barefooted, to Calvary.”

Thereupon, the emperor dismounted from his horse, cast off his robes, lifted the sacred cross to his shoulders, and with bare feet advanced to the gate which opened of itself, and he entered in.

—Eugene A. Hessel

5372 It Was The Court Of Law

In a courtroom drama written by Judge Curtis Bok, the plaintiff, who was a sculptor, at one point asked the judge in frustration, “Isn’t this a court of justice?”

“No,” replied the judge. “It is a court of law. Justice is an ideal like truth or beauty. As you try to achieve beauty with your mallet and chisel, so law is our tool in the pursuit of justice.”

5373 His Rags Were Enough

Dr. Bernardo, the great friend of friendless children, told a story of how a dirty, ragged urchin hailed him in the street one day, with the request that he might be taken into one of Bernardo’s Homes.

“I know nothing about you, my lad,” said the Doctor. “What have you to recommend you?”

“I thought these would be enough,” said the little chap, pointing to his rags.

Dr. Bernardo gathered him up in his arms and took him in.

—A. Naismith

5374 His Son First One Seen

When Andre Maurois went to North Africa late in 1943 on a special mission for the Fighting French, he had heard no word of his son for over two years. This son had been an officer in the French Army. Maurois could only hope that he had been taken prisoner somewhere, unharmed.

In Casablanca, he heard that Frenchmen who lived only to lick the Nazis were being smuggled across the Mediterranean by the hundreds each week. “Come with me and watch them when they arrive,” suggested a friend. Maurois went with his notebook in hand. The first boy who came in that night was his son!

5375 Five-Week Hunt For Baby

Hull, England (UPI)—Somebody snatched 6-month-old Denise Weller from her carriage outside a drugstore in Harlow while her mother was shopping inside. Police found her after one of the biggest police hunts for a kidnapper in British history.

A team of 200 police and detectives had methodically questioned 75,000 persons in Harlow, north of London. Three hundred twenty newspapers in London and surrounding areas published police questionnaires relating to the kidnapping for readers to fill in if they thought they could help.

“It’s like a holiday here,” said Police Chief Willers Victers, after Denise was found in a house raid in Harlow. “I’ve never known the town so happy.”

5376 Epigram On Salvation (Lost)

•     Man’s problem rises from the fact that he has not only lost the way, but he has lost the address.

—Nicolas Bardyaev