p. 9 | THE WATCHTOWER by N. P. Neilsen

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jun 28, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 26.

THE WATCHTOWER.

By N. P. Neilsen

IT is night. In a railroad tower on the great Northwestern line is a man all alert, with hands on levers, peering into the darkness. The noisy telegraph instruments are chattering their messages, and we see a score of levers controlling interlocking switches. The shrill whistle of an approaching train is heard. The man throws back a lever, a semaphore drops, a glare of light tunnels the darkness, and then with a roar the limited express rushes past with its freight of sleeping passengers, and soon disappears in the darkness.

Again a shrill whistle pierces the midnight air. Other levers are flung back, other semaphores drop, and a belated train from the opposite point plunges past with a deafening roar. The tower-man must be alert. Tho the night may be dark and the hours seem long he must not fall asleep, for upon his faithfulness depends the safety of scores of lives. Should the wrong signal be given or the wrong lever operated, the sleeping passengers might be hurled into eternity without a moment's warning.

Even thus it is with the watchman on the walls of Zion. He also must be alert. The earth is wrapped in midnight darkness, and men are rushing on in a maddening race. They must be warned. The true signals of God's last great threefold message (Rev. 14:6-14) must be given. A fa'se signal may mean the destruction of many souls. Nor must the watchman fall asleep or the blood of souls may be on his garments. He must be faithful to his calling.

A CHRISTIAN mother in speaking of her dead son who had not quite reached the age of twenty, said: "I thank God that I found nothing in his trunk or in his pockets which I was not glad to find." It is an excellent testimony, presumptive of the purity of the inner life of the young man. What a blessing it would be to the world if every young man could so live that no evidence of anything that would make the world worse could be found behind him! But how much better than this to be able to stand "without fault before the throne of God"!—Selected.

"NOTHING brings people closer than the touch of tears."