The Value of a Minute

"OH' that is not worth much," perhaps some child may say, "just one little minute! We get so very many of them, even in a day, that one cannot be of much use to anybody.”
Let us suppose that you are walking along on the brink of a dangerous precipice—your foot suddenly slips, another minute and you must be dashed to pieces, but in that one precious minute (precious indeed to you) a strong hand seizes and saves you. Another minute and you would have lost your life; that one minute would have been salvation to you, so far as regards your natural life. Do you at all catch my meaning? It is the present time we have to do with, not the future, as it may or may not come it is God's solemn "now," not our "presently!—to-morrow!—another time." It is God's now that is the accepted time-the time for salvation to poor perishing sinners, whether young or old. If you have never yet been saved by the Lord Jesus Christ, if you have never been placed by Him on safe ground forever, you are even now in far greater danger than one walking on the edge of a cliff. You can never be sure of seeing to-morrow's light. To-day, —God's now—the present moment is the only time given, so far as you can tell, for your soul's salvation.
A few years ago a railway train was rapidly speeding towards London, bearing a number of passengers. It stopped at a station, and some alighted there to change lines. While standing on the platform waiting for the train to move on, those who had just left it could soon see that something unusual was the matter. Porters looked frightened and ran hither and thither, and there was evidently some grave cause for excitement, but what the danger was no one could see. Suddenly the station-master rushed down between the lines with no hat on, his hair flying loosely about, and looking intensely anxious. Something he said to the engine-driver gave to his face the same look. In an instant he reversed the engine, and tried his hardest to back the train on to a siding. Slowly it retreated, too slowly it seemed to creep along, while all looked on, those who were still in the train peering anxiously from the windows, little knowing that their lives were in the greatest danger, as well as those of the onlookers. Part of the engine still projected over the line, when an object was plainly seen in the distance—an express train dashing along at headlong speed, carrying all before it. Will the other train escape? Oh, will it? Everyone now well knew the cause of the general terror. Not a word was spoken, all held their breath. A minute of time (probably less) saved it. The other train just drew back—only just—as the express dashed by, and a low groan of deep feeling and relief sounded down the platform. All had been face to face with death in one of its most terrible forms, and had escaped. How many, like the Samaritan leper in the gospels, thought of returning thanks for so marked a deliverance we cannot say, but God grant that it may have been the means of lasting good to some.
All of you, dear children will own that that minute was a truly valuable one, and God is still giving you many such, that your souls (not bodies alone) may be saved. God's word says that a solemn cry shall one day go forth—There shall “be no longer delay"! (Rev. 10:6.) Now the cry is— "Whosoever will may come" “To-day, if ye will, hear His voice."
E. G.