Who Cares?
General William Booth
On one of
my recent journeys, as I gazed from the coach window I was led into a
train of thought concerning the conditions of the multitudes around
me. They were living carelessly in the most open and shameless
rebellion against God, without a thought for their eternal welfare. As
I looked out the window, I seemed to see them all… millions of
people all around me given up to their drink and their pleasure,
their dancing and their music, their business and their anxieties,
their politics and their troubles. Ignorant-willfully ignorant in
many cases – and in other instances knowing all about the truth and
not caring at all. But all of them, the whole mass of them, sweeping
on and up in their blasphemies and devilries to the throne of God.
While my mind was thus engaged, I had a vision. I saw a dark and
stormy ocean. Over it the black clouds hung heavily; through them
every now and then vivid lightning flashed and loud thunder rolled,
while the winds moaned, and the waves rose and foamed, towered and
broke, only to rise and foam, tower and break again.
In
that ocean I thought I saw myriads of poor human beings plunging and
floating; shouting and shrieking, cursing and struggling and
drowning; and as they cursed and screamed, they rose and shrieked
again, and then some sank to rise no more.
And I
saw out of this dark, angry ocean, a mighty rock that rose up with
its summit towering high above the black clouds that overhung the
stormy sea. And all around the base of this rock I saw a vast
platform. Onto this platform, I saw with delight a number of the
poor struggling, drowning wretches continually climbing out of the
angry ocean. And I saw that a few of those who were already safe on
the platform were helping the poor creatures still in the angry
waters to reach the place of safety. On looking more closely, I
found a number of those who had been rescued, industriously working
and scheming by ladders, ropes, boats, and other means more
effective, to deliver the poor strugglers out of this sea. Here and
there were some who actually jumped into the water, regardless of
all the consequences, in their passion to “rescue the perishing.”
And I hardly know which gladdened me most-the sight of the poor
drowning people climbing onto the rocks, reaching the place of
safety, or the devotion and self-sacrifice of those whose whole
beings were wrapped up in the effort for their deliverance. As I
looked on, I saw that the occupants of that platform were quite a
mixed company. That is, they were divided into different “sets” or
classes, and they occupied themselves with different pleasures and
employment. But only a very few of them seemed to make it their
business to get the people out of the sea. But what puzzled me most
was the fact that though all of them had been rescued at one time or
another from the ocean, nearly everyone seemed to have forgotten
all about it. Anyway, it seemed the memory of its darkness and danger
no longer troubled them at all. And what seemed equally strange
and perplexing to me was that these people did not even seem to
have any care – that is any agonizing care – about the poor
perishing ones who were struggling and drowning right before their
very eyes, many of whom were their own husbands and wives,
brothers, and sisters, and even their own children. Now this
astonishing unconcern could not have been the result of ignorance or
lack of knowledge, because they lived right there in full sight of
it all and even talked about it sometimes. Many even went regularly
to hear lectures and sermons in which the awful state of these
people drowning creatures was described.
I have
already said that the occupants of this platform were engaged in
different pursuits and pastimes. Some of them were absorbed night and
day in trading and business In order to make gain, storing up their
savings in boxes, safes, and the like.
Many
spent their time in amusing themselves with growing flowers on the
side of the rock, others in painting pieces of cloth or in playing
music or in dressing themselves up in different styles and walking
about to be admired. Some occupy themselves chiefly in eating and
drinking, others were taken up with arguing about the poor drowning
creatures that had already been rescued.
But the
thing to me that seemed the most amazing was that those on the
platform to whom He called, who heard His voice and felt they ought
to obey it at least they said they did those who confessed to love
Him much and were in full sympathy with Him in the task He had
undertaken – who worshipped Him or who professed to do so – were so
taken up with their trades and professions, their money saving and
pleasures, their families and circles, their religions and
arguments about it, and their preparation for going to the mainland,
that they did not listen to the cry that came to them from this
Wonderful Being who had Himself gone down into the sea. Anyway, if
they heard it they did not heed it. They did not care. And so the
multitude went on right before them struggling and shrieking and
drowning in the darkness.
And then I saw something
that seemed to me even more strange than anything that had gone on
before in this strange vision. I saw that some Of these people on
the platform whom this Wonderful Being had called to, wanting them
to come and help Him in His difficult task of saving these
perishing creatures, were always praying and crying out to Him to
come to them. Some wanted Him to come and stay with them and spend
His time and strength in making them happier. Others wanted Him to
come and take away various doubts and misgivings they had concerning
the truth of some letters which He had written them. Some wanted
Him to come and make them feel more secure on the rock-so secure
that they would be quite sure that they should never slip off again
into the ocean. Numbers of others wanted Him to make them feel
quite certain that they would really get off the rock and onto the
mainland someday; because as a matter of fact, it was well known
that some had walked so carelessly as to lose their footing, and
had fallen back again, into the stormy waters.
So
these people used to meet and get up as high on the rock as they
could, and looking toward the mainland (where they thought the Great
Being was) they would cry out, “Come to us! Come, help us!” And all
the while He was down (by His Spirit) among the poor struggling,
drowning creatures in the angry deep, with His arms around them
trying to drag them out, and looking up oh! so longingly, but all in
vain to those on the rock, crying to them with His voice all
hoarse from calling, “Come to Me! Come, and help Me!”
And
then I understood it all. It was plain enough. That sea was the
ocean of life-the sea of real, actual human existence. That
lightning was the gleaming of piercing truth coming from Jehovah’s
throne. That thunder was the distant echoing of the wrath of God.
Those multitudes of people shrieking, struggling, and agonizing in
the stormy sea, were the thousands and thousands of poor harlots
and harlot-makers, of drunkards and drunkard-makers, of thieves,
liars, blasphemers, and ungodly people of every kindred, tongue,
and nation.
Oh, what a black sea it was! And oh,
what multitudes of rich and poor, ignorant and educated were there.
They were all so unalike in their outward circumstances and
conditions, yet all alike in one thing all sinners before God all
held by, and holding onto, some iniquity, fascinated by some idol,
the slaves of some devilish lust, and ruled by the foul fiend from
the bottomless pit! “All alike in one thing?” No, all alike in two
things not only the same in their wickedness but, unless rescued,
the same in their sinking, sinking… down, down, down… to the same
terrible doom. That great sheltering rock represented Calvary, the
place where Jesus had died for them. And the people on it were
those who had been rescued. The way they used their energies, gifts,
and time represented the occupations and amusements of those who
professed to be saved from sin and hell followers of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The handful of fierce, determined ones, who were risking
their own lives in saving the perishing, were true soldiers of the
cross of Jesus. That Mighty Being who was calling to them from the
midst of the angry waters was the Son of God, “the same yesterday,
today, and forever,” who is still struggling and interceding to save
the dying multitudes about us from this terrible doom of
damnation, and whose voice can be heard above the music, machinery,
and noise of life calling on the rescued to come and help Him save
the world.
My friends in Christ, you are rescued
from the waters, you are on the rock. He is in the dark sea calling
on you to come to Him and help Him. Will you go? Look for
yourselves. The surging sea of life crowded with perishing multitudes
rolls up to the very spot on which you stand. Leaving the vision, I
now come to speak of the fact a fact that is as real as the Bible,
as real as the Christ who hung upon the cross, as real as the
judgment day will be, and as real as the heaven and hell that will
follow it.
Look! Don’t be deceived by appearances
men and things are not what they seem. All who are not on the rock
are in the sea! Look at them from the standpoint of the great white
throne, and what a sight you have! Jesus Christ, the Son of God
is, through His Spirit, in the midst of this dying multitude,
struggling to save them. And He is calling on you to jump into the
sea to go right away to His side and help Him in the holy strife.
Will you jump? That is, will you go to His feet and place yourself
absolutely at His disposal?
A young Christian once
came to me and told me that for some time she had been giving the
Lord her profession and prayers and money, but now she wanted to give
Him her life. She wanted to go right into the fight. In other
words, she wanted to go to His assistance in the sea. As when a man
from the shore seeing another struggling in the water, takes off
those outer garments that would hinder his efforts, and leaps to the
rescue so will you who still linger on the bank, thinking and
singing and praying about the poor perishing souls, lay aside your
shame, your pride, your cares about other people’s opinions, your
love of ease and all the selfish loves that have kept you back for
so long, and rush to the rescue of this multitude of dying men and
women?
Does the surging sea look dark and dangerous?
Unquestionably it is so. There is no doubt that the leap for you,
as for every one who takes it, means difficulty and scorn and
suffering. For you it may mean more than this. It may mean death.
He who beckons you from the sea however, knows what it will mean and
knowing, He still calls to you and bids you come.
You
must do it! You cannot hold back. You have enjoyed yourself in
Christianity long enough. You have had pleasant feelings, pleasant
songs, pleasant meetings, and pleasant prospects. There has been much
of human happiness, much clapping of hands and shouting of
praises, very much of heaven on earth. Now then, go to God and tell
Him you are prepared as much as necessary to turn your back upon
it all, and that you are willing to spend the rest of your days
struggling in the midst of these perishing multitudes, whatever it
may cost you.
You must do it. With the light that
is now broken in upon your mind, and the call that is now sounding
in your ears, and the beckoning hands that are now before your
eyes, you have no alternative. To go down among the perishing crowds
is your duty. Your happiness from now on will consist in sharing
their misery, your ease in sharing their pain, your crown in
helping them to bear their cross, and your heaven in going into the
very jaws of hell to rescue them. Now, what will you do?
by General William Booth
Posts
