GO TO THE RAILROAD

I’ve come to believe over my many years of ministry that whatever is not lead of the Holy Spirit is dead at its beginning. So as we endeavor to expand our outreach through Let God Lead Us it is our desire to begin sharing real stories of real people who let God lead them.  With that in mind, as I was browsing through some old issues of The Gospel Banner, I found this story from the May 24, 1931 issue that tells the following remarkable story.

It was night when the long heavily loaded B & O train pulled out of the station at St. Louis, bound for Cincinnati and the East. There had been a great gathering in the city of St. Louis and thousands of people were leaving for their eastern homes.  Chas. Waters was the engineer that night, and he was a Christian man.

As the great engine leaped forward into the darkness, a burden seemed to weight upon him.  He could not account for it.  He began to pray.  On and on the long train sped across the State of Illinois, and again and again, as he drove the engine through the dark, the engineer prayed.  He prayed for himself, he prayed for his train and the hundreds of people aboard, committing them all into the hands of Him who sees in the darkness as well as in the light.  The whole State of Illinois was crossed and part of Indiana, was reached in safety, and as he pulled the throttle and started out of his station, the burden lifted from his spirit and he felt that somehow all was well.  It was almost morning now, and in an hour or two it would be light.

A little distance east of Seymour, Indiana, there lived a farmer who had risen early that morning.  He had a load of hogs to take to market, and he wanted to get an early start.  He lighted his lantern and went out and fed his horses, and then came into the house for breakfast.  As he sat at the table something seemed to say, “Go to the railroad!  Go to the railroad! Go to the railroad!” and yet again the insistent call, “Go to the Railroad!”  The farmer jumped up from the table and started out.  His wife said, “Where are you going?”

“ I am going to the railroad,” he answered.

“What for?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he flung back, as he grabbed his lantern.

Down across the field he went, and over the rail fence, and stepped up on the railroad. He swung his lantern over the track, and behold, there was a broken rail—not only broken, but a great piece of it thrown entirely out of its place.  He had little time to think, for just that moment he heard the distant rumble of the night express coming out of Seymour.  He ran down the track and waved his lantern frantically.   The engineer saw it and stopped the train and climbed down from the engine, and met the farmer.

Then he understood the reason for that long night of prayer, and the farmer now understood the strange call that had broken in on him at breakfast and bade him “Go to the railroad.”  A horrible wreck had been averted and hundreds of lives had been saved.

Hmmm, are you ready to Go to the Railroad?