The Fatal Current
DAY EIGHTEEN
PONDER THIS ENGRAVING
MEDITATE ON THESE VERSES
Psalm 69:15-17 | Psalm 6:4 | Psalm 69:12 | Philippians 2: 12-13 | Proverbs 11:5 | Isaiah 5:22 | Proverbs 29:1
Escape for thy life. Genesis 19:17 ––The course of this world. Ephesians 2:2
POETIC REFLECTION
See! where the fatal current, broad and deep,
Rolls its swift waters down the awful steep;
While from below the steaming clouds arise,
And spread and mingle with the distant skies;
Two men, behold! near the tremendous verge,
A moment sinks them ‘neath the boiling surge,
One rows for life, he pulls with all his strength,
And from the danger well escapes at length:
The other stops, lays in his oars to drink,
While nearer drawing to the dreadful brink:
His jeers and taunts he still persists to throw,
And sinks unaided down the gulf below.
DEVOTION OF INTERPRETATION
The engraving shows the fatal current hurrying on its rolling waters to the dread abyss; see where the boiling cataract sends forth its cloudy vapors; like volumes of thick smoke, they rise and mingle with the surrounding atmosphere. On the stream, and near the fatal gulf, two men are seen in their frail barks. The one on the left hand, knowing his danger, pulls with all his might. Life is at stake; he stems the current. By dint of mighty, persevering effort, he escapes the vortex, and gets beyond the reach of danger.
The one on the right, careless and unconcerned, suffers his little boat to glide down the stream; he dreams not of danger. See! he has laid in his oars, he is drowning thought by drinking the intoxicating draught. He points the finger of scorn at his more thoughtful and laborious companion. Notwithstanding his unconcern, the stream bears him onward; nearer and nearer he draws toward the awful brink; on, and on he drifts, til all at once, over he goes, and sinks into the roaring, boiling gulf below.
The above is an emblem of what follows: The gulf, with its rising curling vapors, may represent the regions of the damned, where the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever.
The fatal current signifies the “course of this world” leading thereinto; the streams of sin that eventually lead to the gates of death. The man on the left, rowing against tide, represents those who stem the torrents of sin, who opposed themselves to the course of this world, “no longer fulfilling the lusts of the flesh, nor the mind".” Eternal life is at stake; they agonize that they may prevail; they endure to the end, and are saved.
The other, on the right, represents one who is indifferent about salvation, who indulges in sin and folly, and who even ridicules others who are striving to serve God. He endeavors to drown his conscience by drinking larger draughts of sin, and by plunging deeper into crime, til, carried onward by the ruling powers of evil, he approaches the horrible gulf, into which he falls, and is lost forever.
Dead fish may frequently be seen floating down with the tide. The live fish alone stem the torrent, and swim against the stream. So those dead in trespasses and in sins, follow the course of this world; they are borne unresistingly down the fatal stream. But those who are alive spiritually, those whom God hath quickened, oppose the torrent, make headway against it, and, by divine assistance, work out their own salvation, full, and forever.
The patriarch Noah had in his day, to swim against the stream. The floodgates of sin were opened; the turgid waters rolled down with fearful violence; truth and justice were well-nigh swept from the face of the earth. Manfully did he resist the descending torrent. Like a rock, he remained immovable, and opposed the overflowings of ungodliness. He was preserved.
God himself bore testimony to his righteousness. He was crowned with Divine approbation, and permitted to see the Bow of Promise. At the same time, the multitude, neglecting to stem the tide, were borne away by the waves thereof, “down to the gulf of black despair.”
When wildly on rolls sin’s broad tide
to caverns of despair,
May I be found on virtue’s side,
And meet it without fear.
Barber, John Warner, 1798-1885. Bible Looking Glass: Reflector, Companion and Guide to the Great Truths of the Sacred Scriptures, and Illustrating the Diversities of Human Character, and the Qualities of the Human Heart.
Philadelphia, Bradley, Garretson & Co., 1861