p. 183 | Cheer Him

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 21, 1871

“Cheer Him.”

IN one of our cities a fire occurred in a dwelling. It was near midnight, and the flames had made headway before they were discovered. The fire companies rallied; the inmates escaped in affright, and the firemen worked with a will to subdue the flames. The smoke had become so thick that the outlines of the house were scarcely visible, and the fiery element was raging with fearful power, when a piercing cry thrilled all hearts, as they learned that there was one person yet unsaved within the building.

In a moment a ladder was swung through the flames and planted against the heated walls, and a brave fireman rushed up its rounds to the rescue.

Overcome by the smoke, and perhaps daunted by the hissing flames before him, he halted, and seemed to hesitate. It was an awful scene. A life hung in the balance, and each moment was an age.

“Cheer him!” shouted a voice from the crowd, and a wild “Hurrah!” burst like a tempest from the beholding multitude. That cheer did the work, and the brave fireman went upward amid smoke and flame, and in a moment descended with the rescued one in his arms.

Friend, brother, when you see a brave soul battling with temptation, struggling under the cross, rushing forward to rescue dying men, and yet faltering in an hour of weakness or a moment of peril, then cheer him! And as a pebble’s fall may change a river’s course, so your words of sympathetic kindness may uplift a drooping heart and fix its faltering purpose for a noble life.—Good Words.