This is the third installment of William Booth’s Vision of the Lost. My friends, it isn’t easy to read. Booth’s Vision reveals the apathy of many “Christians” who have forgotten the dark and stormy sea from which they were saved. How self-absorbed we can be! May God awaken and forgive us! Back to the vision…

And then I saw something that seemed to me even stranger 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 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 sea. 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 towards the mainland (where they thought the Great Being was) they would cry out, “Come to us! Come and 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. The sea was the ocean of life — the sea of real, actual human existence. That lightening 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, was 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 there were. 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 — 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 those who were drowning.

My friends in Christ, you are rescued from the sea, 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. It laps around your feet.
Will you go? It is a penetrating question.

In next week’s final installment, William Booth will make his personal plea for all of us to join the mission of God – regardless of what it may cost. May God use it to take us by passion!