The writer was standing on a corner recently in one of our large cities awaiting a street car. He was pressed for time, and needed to take the first
one that passed. But suddenly he became very much interested in
watching a gentleman who was trying to catch a car that was nearly a
block away. The man certainly did put forth a lot of energy, but the
distance was considerable, the public conveyance was about to turn a
corner, and the racer struggled against the additional difficulty of having a
cigar in his mouth.
We could but feel that to make a successful run he needed to lay aside
every weight, the cigar which so easily beset him, and run with swiftness
the race that was set before him. But he did not, and just as we feared, in
spite of all our sympathetic movement of limbs, and gazing of eyes, he
missed the thing he pursued.
But lo! and behold! while watching and mentally criticizing and wondering
and even worrying about our unknown friend racing for his car, we missed
our own! While absorbed in his case, we lost our own chance.
With a most decidedly foolish feeling as well as look, we leaned against a
lamppost and got to moralizing.
We said, that is just what a lot of people are doing today. They are so
taken up with fault finding and judging the characters and lives of other
Christians; they are so absorbed in observing other individuals in their
race for heaven and eternal life; they take up so much time in telling their
brethren how they ought to make speed, and what to do as they race for
the Kingdom, that they forget to run themselves. They see it is true, a
number miss the Car of Salvation, but alas for it! they also miss it
themselves! The man with the cigar in his mouth is in a bad fix; but the
man who is absorbed in watching the struggles, weaknesses and failures of
others is in as lamentable a condition. Both will miss the car!
A wrong practice will cause one to come short in making the heavenly
run; but what of the buzzard eye, the jackal snout, the nature of the ghoul,
and the handshake of a modern Joab who says, Good morning, brother,
and then runs the unsuspecting victim through with the sword of harshest
criticism, judgment, and abuse.
Between a wrong personal habit, and a tongue set on fire of hell, and
dripping with malice, innuendo, misrepresentation, slander, falsehood, and
hate, most of the worlds inhabitants would lose scarcely a moment in
decision and choice.
To a lot of people who live most of the time on the Judgment Seat, or
rather the Buzzards Roost, some most startling but excellent advice from
the great Apostle might most profitably come; and that is Work out your
OWN salvation with fear and trembling.
We honestly believe that if some who name the name of Christ, but who
live in suspicion and, malevolence, could see how far they have drifted
from the Spirit of Christ they would have need to tremble!
So the moral as well as exhortation in our Kansas City street corner
illustration is, that the man who gets absorbed in watching a brother miss
the car of salvation, had better be careful lest by another and yet as certain
a way he fails himself to reach Heaven and Eternal Life.
Living Illustrations By B. Carradine.
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