A WORD NEVER BROKEN

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 20, 1880

A WORD NEVER BROKEN.

Building a bridge across the Niagara River below the Falls was once thought to be impossible. The banks of the river, as we all know, are very high and steep, the distance across nearly an eighth of a mile; and the river here boils and foams so that no boat can stand the fury of the torrent a moment. Sinking piles and building arches was quite out of the question. Yet a bridge was built—a wire suspension bridge, so called because it had to be hung or suspended by cables driven into huge blocks of granite on each bank. The cables were made of twisted wire. The bridge looked like a spider's thread.

But would the cables hold? That had to be tried. How frightened the spectators were when the engineer drove the first carriage over! The bridge quivered to the horse's tread. When he reached the middle, might not the weight snap it in two? Might not the horses grow restive, frightened? A terrible leap would that be into the raging waters two hundred and fifty feet underneath! But he crossed in safety. The bridge stood the trial. Then it had to be tried by storms. Might not a heavy gale wrench the cables from their fastenings? Gales and storms beat against it, and it stood. Might not rust eat off the wires? Time would tell; and time proved that the bridge could be relied on. "I am afraid to trust it, it looks so slender," said one of our party, shrinking back, when we visited the Falls a year afterward. "It has been tried," said the guide; "there is no danger;" and we crossed in safety.

A new steamboat has to be tried before passengers and freight can be trusted on board. A new railroad has its trial trips before it is thrown open to the public. A few years ago, at the opening of a railroad in Missouri, a train of cars filled with people, many of them gentlemen invited by the directors, set out from St. Louis on a trial trip. On swept the train. The party were in high spirits, when in an instant—crash, crash! Timbers split, joists snapped, one terrible plunge, and down went the cars through a breaking bridge into the river below, a heap of ruins. That bridge had been trusted before it had been tried.

We usually do not trust anything until it is tried. Boys dare not skate across a river until they have tried the new ice. The swing just put up on the tree is not deemed safe for the children until the rope is tried. A tried friend is a friend worth having.

The Bible tells us of something that is tried. "The word of the Lord is tried." Its declarations are tried. It declares that "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Its promises are tried. "Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out." John Bunyan, the wild tinker boy, went and found it so; John Newton, the swearing slave captain, went and found it so. And how many all over the world are ready to witness, this day, that they went to the Son of God, and found him a very precious Saviour from their sins.

"The word of the Lord is tried." But are its threatenings to be relied on? Yes; when it says, "Be not deceived; neither thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards shall inherit the kingdom of God." Judas found it so, when it says, "The wrath of God cometh on the disobedient." Poor king Saul found it so, when it says, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." You must experience the happy change before you can enjoy the blessings of the kingdom.

"The word of God is tried." And then what? "He is a buckler to all who trust in him;" he is a sure friend. Ps. 30. In him are safety and protection from the sad effects of sin in this world, and its dreadful consequences hereafter.—Sel.