storytracts4

Years ago at Niagara Falls, a young man was employed as a guide. Having nothing to do one day, he moored his boat well above the falls and lay down in it to rest. Rocked by the current, he fell asleep. Swaying in the current, his boat finally worked loose and began to drift downstream. Spectators on the shore, seeing his great danger, shouted loudly to waken him. He, still asleep, was rapidly swept toward the falls.

At one point the boat came to rest upon a rock that protruded in midstream. Seeing their chance, the bystanders redoubled their efforts to awaken the sleeping man by shouting loudly, "Get on the rock! Get on the rock!" But he couldn't be wakened.

In the swirling water, the boat soon slipped from the rock, and headed for the Falls. At last the young man, wakened by the thundering roar of the great cataract, plunged over the falls to his death.

How terrible! Asleep in the boat! Calmly and unconsciously drifting into the jaws of death!

But how many people today are doing the same thing! Many are unconcerned by their fatal course, fast asleep in their sins. Some are lulled by temporary pleasure, others are calmed by their "good" life or religiousness, but all are ASLEEP IN THE BOAT!