Lost!

Hark! a voice sounds in the distance;” “Lost! Lost! Lost!” Was it the echo of a dear father’s own grieving thoughts as he is plodding anxiously and wearily on through the bleating storm, looking for his dear little son? “Lost! Lost! Lost!” Again, he listened and again he heard, “Lost, oh, I’m lost! I’m lost!”

Oh, what a dreadful word is this! My dear young reader, remember that you, even you with the sparkling eye, the merry heart, the rosy cheek, the cheerful tongue, and the active limbs, are, by nature, lost. Sin has cost the children of men the loss of the only true happiness which can be found in the whole universe, namely, communion with God. From their birth they wander farther and farther from God, happiness, and heaven. Thousands do—

With heedless heart and simpering face,

Dance the downward road apace.

Reader, dear reader, in love to your immortal and neverdying soul, let me urge upon you the truth that the end of all happiness apart from God is eternal misery. Whilst the words flow from the writer’s pen, his heart goes up to God with an earnest prayer that the solemn truth may be applied with power to the heart of some careless one.

A true story may illustrate what it is to be lost and found, and at the same time enforce the lesson it is desired to impress upon the minds of those young friends who may peruse these lines.

A lad, whose name was Willie, was sent one winter afternoon on an errand to a market town a few miles from his native village. Soon after he started, it began to snow very fast; not discouraged by trifles, Willie plodded on, delivered his message, and was shortly on his way home. He walked fast at first but the snow fell faster, and as it drifted in the wind, in many places it was soon more than knee-deep. His progress, therefore, was necessarily slow; still he did his best to hasten on. Before long, whilst as yet he was far distant from his home, it began to grow dark. Very quickly the night closed in, and meanwhile, being unable to discern the path, Willie had wandered from the track. Willie was lost! He did not as yet know the full extent of his misery. He could not tell which way to take amid the horrors; the darkness, with the bleak wind and blinding snow, rendered it hopeless for him to attempt to set himself right.

Just so by nature we have wandered from the path (we all “have gone astray like a lost sheep”) which leads to heaven and home, and the utmost we can do in our own strength is to get farther and farther away. Our best attempts to save ourselves from perishing prove abortive (unsuccessful).

Willie’s state grew worse and worse. He was beginning to feel his strength fail, for struggling against the storm made him very weary, when he suddenly got into a deep hollow place where the snow had drifted. There he lay, unable to extricate himself. The more he struggled the deeper he sunk.

In like manner, when we begin to struggle to deliver ourselves from sin, our experience is—

The more I strive against its power,

I sin and stumble but the more.

Moreover, he soon found the snow increasing around him—all hope of escape seemed to be taken away. What could he do? Only one thing and this he did—he cried! And what do you think he said? Oh, cannot you fancy you can hear the echo of that half-choked voice crying from beneath the snow-drift, “Lost! Lost! Lost”?

Not knowing whether it would be of any use, in the hour of extreme danger, as loudly as he could with failing strength, he proclaimed his sad case in the hope that someone would hear his cry. This is all the poor, wandering, perishing sinner can do when the Holy Ghost reveals his ruined, lost, hopeless, helpless, hapless state. He can only cry to heaven, “Lost! Lost! Lost!” Is it possible that poor, lost Willie can be saved? Let us see what has been going on at Willie’s home all this time.

Finding he did not return, Willie’s parents became alarmed, and his father set out in search of him. Many anxious, weary hours were spent in vain, and, at length, his father began to fear he must give up poor Willie as lost. Hark! a voice sounded in the distance, “Lost! Lost! Lost!” Was it the echo of his own thought? He looked around, but he could see no one. He listened. He heard the voice again more distinctly, “Lost! Lost! Lost!” Again, he heard it. It was Willie’s voice! He soon found from where it came, and after much labor poor Willie was rescued, but he was greatly exhausted and so escaped death as by a hairsbreadth.

His salvation from death depended upon the love of his father in seeking him and upon his father’s ability to find and rescue him from the snowdrift. Just as lost, perishing sinners are unable to save themselves, their salvation depends upon the love of the “everlasting Father” in coming to seek and to save them, which is what the gospel declares Jesus came to do. The cry of the lost one always reaches His ear, but where Willie’s father might NOT have succeeded in finding or extricating him, we know that Jesus has all power and is able to save “even unto the uttermost” all them who cry unto Him.

That our readers may be shown and convinced of their lost state, and so be brought to cry for mercy, is the sincere prayer of the writer. He knows that such shall be saved, and that their experience in due time will coincide with the testimony of him who said, “I once was lost, but now am found.” p —E.C.

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