THE WRONG TRAIN by James White

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 16, 1869

THE WRONG TRAIN.

By James White

[I have so often been met with the accusation of a lack of charity, &c., &c., when I have told people they must get on the train going to a certain destination; if they would go to that destination, that I was pleased to find in the Depository of the Tract Society, a little tract on that subject. Perhaps you may think it worth publishing.—J. H. W.]

As I was traveling recently, homeward bound, in the New-York express train to Boston, an incident occurred which excited the attention of many passengers. In the same seat with myself sat a young man of gentlemanly appearance, who, for many a mile, appeared to be in a state of uneasy and dreamy slumber. The conductor for a long time passed and repassed him without disturbing his sleep; but at length it became necessary to awake him. “Your ticket, sir,” said he, as he reluctantly aroused him. The ticket was produced. “Where are you going, sir?” continued the man of the tickets. “Going!” said the passenger. “I am going to—,” naming a city more than a hundred and fifty miles distant, in an opposite direction. “No, sir,” replied the conductor: “you are in the wrong train; you are on the way to Boston.” “To Boston!” exclaimed the astonished traveler: “why, I procured my ticket, and had my baggage checked at—, for—; and when I took my seat in the cars at the depot, I supposed I was in the right train.” “But you are certainly in the wrong train, and going the wrong way, notwithstanding,” said the conductor. “Then,” inquired the traveler with a look of earnestness and solicitude, “What must I do? I have an engagement at—o’clock; and I would rather have given one thousand dollars than to have made this mistake.”

He had already traveled about fifty miles in the wrong train. It was not strange, therefore, that, as a man of business, with an engagement at a given hour and much at stake, he should look troubled and anxious. And when the conductor told him that his only course now would be to stop at the next station, just at hand, and “right about” in the next train, there was an eager promptness in his decision to follow the direction.

I began to muse:—

1. There is, then, such a thing as a “wrong train;” and such a thing as traveling in a wrong direction, though I have often heard men say that on the road to eternity there is not. Two men may have directly opposite principles, ends, aims, and grounds of hope, for another world. The one is prayerful, devout, and godly: he hates and abstains from sin; he loves and relies upon Christ as his only Saviour, and makes his whole life an offering of service upon his altar. The other never prays; he yields himself to sinful gratifications; he rejects the atonement of Christ, and relies on his own reason in preference to the teachings of God’s word; he is worldly in all his spirit and all his conduct. Now, these two men cannot be traveling the same road. If one is on the way to the celestial city, the other is not.

2. The fact that a man is sincere does not prove that he is going in the direction he thinks he is. Our friend, the traveler, verily believed he was in the right train; he was, in fact, just as wrong as if he had known it. Yet many say, in respect to religion, “It is no matter what a man believes, if he only thinks he is right;” and so the thoughtless, dreaming, and often very insincere, multitude throng the paths of error, and the ways of death, and rush on in the wrong direction. Indeed, the more sincere they are, and the more earnest in their course, if it be wrong, the worse it is for them. It was the traveler’s assurance that he was right which was the very thing that was leading him wrong.

3. Mistakes in fundamental matters are just as fatal as willful wrong-doing. God will never interpose to save men from their consequences. If our friend failed to reach his appointment, he incurred the loss of the failure; and this was not a whit diminished by the plea that it was only a mistake. He had no right to make such mistakes. It was his duty to be careful, to inquire, and be sure he was on the right train before he started. Just so with the way to eternity. If you espouse fatal error, if you indulge in fatal sins, it will not avail you at the Judgment to say, “It was a mistake.” God has made the way of life plain to all who desire to find it; and his command to you is to “make your calling and your election sure.”

4. Sooner or later those who are going the wrong way must be made sensible of their mistake. They can not persevere in going wrong, and yet come out right. Well will it be for them, if, like the slumbering traveler, they are awakened in season to retrace their steps and retrieve their error. And he is their truest friend who strives most earnestly to effect this. The faithful Christian minister, the devoted wife, or mother, or neighbor, who warns sinners of their danger, and urges them to turn from their evil ways, performs for them a labor of love which words are too poor to repay. It may be unpleasant to disturb their repose; it may excite their anger, and perhaps their enmity; but it must be done. What would have been thought of the conductor if he had knowingly permitted the passenger to keep on the wrong way without awakening him? Such was not the conduct of Paul, who “ceased not to warn every man night and day with tears.”

5. When men are made sensible of their mistake, it is the part of true wisdom anxiously to ask the question, “What must I do?” Manifestly something must be done. It will not answer to keep right on. The swiftness of the progress in the wrong direction calls loudly for an immediate decision. And in the restless solicitude of a soul conscious of being wrong, and therefore ill at ease, the question, “What must I do?” should be asked with all the earnestness and honesty which a genuine sense of need dictates.

6. The answer given to our friend, the traveler, suggests the true answer to this question. Stop! Turn right about! Repent of your folly and indifference. Take the path which leads to Calvary and the cross. No other is right or safe. No other will conduct to Heaven. Every moment of delay is carrying you farther and farther from the destination you seek. Every moment is making the possibility of your return more doubtful. Oh! stop now. You may now retrace your path: one day, one hour, hence may be too late. “Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; FOR WHY WILL YE DIE?”