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Life's Railway to Heaven
Many of the older Christian songs were written in such a way as to identify with something of the times. Life's Railway was such a song. It was written during the time of the railroad being the main way of transport and in it we find a wonderful analogy to our lives. As you read through the words of the song you will see why the song itself can be a lesson unto the church and its members.
Life's Railway to Heaven
|
Life is like a mountain railroad,
With an engineer that's brave; We must make the run successful, From the cradle to the grave; Watch the curves, the fills, the tunnels; Never falter, never quail; Keep your hand upon the throttle, And your eye upon the rail. You will roll up grades of trial You will cross the bridge of strife See that Christ is your conductor On this lightning train of life Always mindful of obstruction Do your duty, never fail Keep your hand upon the throttle And your eye upon the rail Blessed Savior, Thou wilt guide us Till we reach that blissful shore Where the angels wait to join us In Thy praise forevermore |
You will often find
obstructions Look for storms of wind and rain On a fill, or curve, or trestle They will almost ditch your train Put your trust alone in Jesus Never falter, never fail Keep your hand upon the throttle And your eye upon the rail As you roll across the trestle Spanning Jordan's swelling tide You be hold the Union Depot In to which your train will glide There you'll meet the Superintendent God the Father, God the Son With the hearty, joyous plaudit "Weary pilgrim, welcome home!" |
We are the engineers and our life is a train. We are
in control of this train. It is up to us to decide which tracks our
train will run on. Every train departs out of the same station and
to the same destination at our birth. In the song analogy that is
the Jordan River. In many Christian analogies the Jordan River is
used as death. When you cross Jordan you are heading into the
promised land. This comes from the Old Testament references where
the children of Israel are crossing the Jordan River into the
Promised Land of Canaan. They were leaving the hard journeys behind
them and entering into a land flowing with milk and honey. Today our
Canaan land that we are striving for is heaven.
At some point in our journey the tracks will fork and
we as the engineer of our train can choose to go either right or
left. It is up to us. We can listen for the dispatch operator (God)
to call us to go in one direction but it is ultimately up to us to
decide if we choose the right fork that leads to heaven or the left
fork that leads to hell. The left fork looks like easy traveling
while to the right side we see it start to wind up a mountain. We
know that the train will struggle as it goes that direction but that
is the way dispatch wants us to go.
If we choose to take the left fork we have no
guarantee that we will cross Jordan to end up in the land of Canaan.
We do not know if there will be another fork down the line for us to
turn back the right way and once we have lived a part of our life we
cannot go back and redo that part. We cannot become a child again.
This train has no reverse on it so there's no backing up. We can
only go forward and if we choose to go down the left fork (or not to
follow Jesus when we have the choice) we do not have a promise we
will ever receive another chance. God promises us each one chance
but no more. We each have one fork in our life.
We don't know how far it is to the Jordan River where
we "cross over". It may only be a short ways past your fork in the
rail. It may be a long way we don't know, but we are responsible for
our actions and our choice.
If we choose the right fork and begin our journey
toward Canaan and following the directions of the dispatch we still
have many trials ahead of us. We sometimes feel as though we cannot
make it. But we can because we have God on our side. If you choose
the right fork I guarantee you will have more forks appear in your
rail and you might not have gone far before you see the first one.
they are there to make you wonder if you took the right path and to
try to lead you astray. Some of the side rails may look grown up
with weeds but others will look as though they are used frequently.
The problem is knowing which one of the rails is the right one to be
on?
That's where its so important to be in constant
communication with your dispatch. That is how you know which is your
true path to the destination. Dispatch will tell you and guide you
but it is up to you to be responsible and know which is the path
they want to send you on. The problem can arise if you aren't in
communication with Dispatch. How do you know which path you are to
follow?
The song talks of storms of wind and rain, crossing
over strife and things trying to wreck the train but it also talks
of having Christ as your conductor on your train. We know that it is
important to have Christ onboard with you but that won't happen if
you don't choose the right path. We know that through God all things
are possible and the Bible has told us to
"Cast
all your cares upon him for he careth for you"
(1
Peter 5:7). When Jesus is the conductor on our train we don't have
to worry about the storms for he will be there to help us. We just
have to make sure that we are not lured off the main rail tracks by
an appealing looking "shortcut". We have to know which is Dispatch
coming through and which is a false voice trying to lead us astray.
Which fork in the road will you take? The one
Dispatch is telling you to take or the easier one? As you cross over
Jordan don't you want to know you came into the right station and
hear "welcome home" instead of "depart from me I do not know you"?
Follow the way God tells you to go and that is your reward.