Saved by a Cry

It was a very hot summer day, several years ago, when a little boy called Robbie McCrae, while sporting near the river bank, fell over the edge and rolled into the water. The Clyde looked so lovely that afternoon — so transparent and clear and blue! But, alas! Robbie sank and disappeared in a moment. There seemed no one at hand to help the little fellow, but as he rose to the surface he cried out with all his might. “Oh, save me!”
A kind man near heard the touching cry, and saw the curly head disappear. Without an instant’s hesitation, casting off his coat, and kicking off his shoes, Mr. Moore plunged into the river. A few calm, measured strokes brought him to the spot where last the small form had been seen. Then a quick dive, and Robbie was in his preserver’s strong arms.
The tide was running strongly at the time, so strongly that Mr. Moore landed a good point further down than he had started from. But at last he bravely brought the boy to shore.
On the Clyde banks, near Glasgow Green, that day, Robbie McCrae was saved by a cry. Of course it was not his cry that actually saved him, yet it was the means of leading to it. It fetched a saviour near.
As we read Psalm cvii we see that the Israelites of old were saved and delivered four times by a cry. The cry did not deliver them, but it brought a Saviour near.
It sounds like a beautiful song, “Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses” (vs. 6). “Then they cried... and He saved them out of their distresses” (vss.,3). Both these are in the past. But God has two promises in the present tense too: “Then they cry... and He saveth them out of their distresses” (vs. 19). “Then they cry... and He bringeth then1 out of their distresses” (vs. 28).
How simply we may obtain the help we need. We need not struggle to save ourselves. Just a cry to the Lord is enough. Robbie would not have cried if he had thought and felt that he was safe. So we need to feel ourselves in danger and distress. Peter began to sink before he cried out, “Lord, save me” (Matt. 14:30). Then “immediately” Jesus stretched forth His hand and caught him.
It was a fortunate thing that Mr. Moore was near at hand when Robbie McCrae was drowning in the Clyde. He might so easily have been a mile off, or at home, or away at that hour, and only a very strong swimmer could have stemmed the tide that day. But our Deliverer is always at hand. “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto their cry” (Psa. 34:15).
M. A. L.
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The Diary of a Soul
By the Editor