07.02.24. A Song In The Night

24. A SONG IN THE NIGHT

One night Todd was out with a group of fellows fishing. About ten o’clock it became chilly and they built a fire and sat around warming and telling yarns. A short distance up the creek was a farm house and while they were talking, a lady came out on the porch and began to sing. The boys stopped talking to listen and this is what they heard floating on the night air."Do you see the signal, brother, of the Royal Gospel Train, Warning you now to be ready, and your ticket to obtain, Should you let it pass your station you will then be found too late, You will plead and cry for mercy, when you see your awful fate.

"’Tis the only train that’s running on the standard schedule time, It is going straight to heaven on the Royal Gospel line.

It will make complete connections, nothing will this train delay, Gospel coaches travel only on this straight and narrow way."

How it affected the others that night we do not know, but the song sank deeply in Todd’s heart and he never got away from it. For years in his more thoughtful moments, the words of the song would come back, "Should you let it pass your station, you will then be found too late, You will plead and cry for mercy, when you see your awful fate." The woman never knew the outcome of her song in the night, but God in his divine providence, was using it to reach the heart of a wayward boy and bring him back from sin.

"I shot an arrow into the air, It fell to earth, I knew not where.

I breathed a song into the air, It fell to earth, I knew not where.

Long, long afterward in an oak, I found the arrow still unbroke, And the song from beginning to end, I found again in the heart of a friend."