One Taken, the Other Left.
By H. A. St. John
“THE one shall be taken, and the other left.” The solemn declaration of our soon coming-Lord was forcibly impressed upon my mind recently by an incident in travel. Self and wife had reached the railroad station at B—, in good season for the train. After waiting a few minutes, in perfect readiness (as we supposed), the train arrived. We hastily bade farewell to friends, and stepped aboard the train. But no sooner had we found our seat in the coach, than we discovered that a valuable piece of baggage had been left behind, in the wagon, several rods from the depot. I sprang from the car to recover the lost, but the train was gone before I reached the wagon. My wife was taken, I was left. With sadness and disappointment I waited the next train, thankful for one thing, that the former was not my last chance, but that another opportunity to go would offer soon. But not so will it be when the above prophetic declaration of our Lord shall be fulfilled. Oh! how solemn and important the day that fast hastens on. Soon Jesus will come, and the final separation be made. The righteous, taken by angels bright and strong, will meet their Lord in the air, and in that train, the glory of which cannot be described, will ascend to the heavenly depot, the city of everlasting light. But the unrighteous are left, no further opportunity for them, but they are left, and forever left! What unutterable anguish will fill the souls of the finally incorrigible! O my soul, shall I be left then! Shall I come up to that awful day self-deceived, supposing I am ready when I am not? Shall I neglect to examine myself and put away every sin until it is too late? But a little time of preparation is left us. We want to be loosening our hold upon the transient things of earth, and getting firm hold from above.