The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1882-08-09
The Gospel and Railroad Men
BY A RAILROAD EMPLoYE.

By a RA1LkOAD EMBLO1E.
There are about one million of rail
road men in this country. Statistics
show less than twenty-five thousand pro-
Tossing Christians among this number,
or less than one in forty. AS class,
they stand aloof from the church, shun
the preacher, and spend their lives in a
treadmill round of toll, and die prema-
turely of dissipation, or are killed by &C
cident While this is true of them as a
class, there are individual exceptions
There are among them men of faith in
God men "who came out of great tribu-
lation," men whom God hath chosen to
bring their associates into His kingdom.
This appears from the fact that the Holy
Ghost has already set His seal to their
efforts
In the great railroad centres East and
West, and especially in the Lake States,
little bands of railroad men meet to read
Gods Word, and pray and talk over the
progress of Christ's kingdom among their
associates. 1t has dawned upon some of
the sharpest railroad magnates, like the
Vanderbilts, that such work and such a
class of men are financially desirable
IeIe 10 duOCuSI pOluG Sdlueu.
There are yet great obstacles to be
overcome. Railroad men who are per-
mitted to have Sabbath are the excep-
ton, not the rule. They are a hard
worked body of men, There is fascina-
ton about the employment, like seafar-
ing life, keeping men in it who would
leave other vocations requiring the same
number of hours and an equal amount Of
hardship for like wages. A desecrated
Sabbath and an exhausted physical ma
ture are two mighty hindrances to the
gospel among them. The Christian
world has come very near despairing of
their salvation. But no men are better
qualified to meet these difficulties than
these very men themselves, when the
Spirit of God is upon them. The pio-
neer gospel work among railroad men is
undoubtedly theirs. They can enter into
the sympathies and confidence of their
associates as no others can.
Possibly God answers the question the
church has been propounding as to meth
DDS of getting hold of these hearts. 1t is
a simple answer. Here is class of men
clannish and exclusive, confding in each
other, but skeptieal, shy and wary of out
side instructors, holding strangers at
arms length, and slow to admit them to
confidence, familiar with and corrupted
by the popular delusion that cheating
railroad corporation is not sin of the
same magnitude as robbing private
individual, inhaling the very atmosphere
Of deception and falsehood. 1t should
also be remembered that the Sabbath, in
stead Of being the day God intended, is
season Of severest toll with these men, or
given to sleep or pleasure.
And so the gospel struggles with them
at mighty disadvantage. Its human ex-
emplifcation, nowhere perfect, needs for
them the truest illustration. The light
that signals them effectively can be no
dim, faint, Pickering flames, but must be
a strong, clear, shining power "that
coming into the world lighteth every
man" He who holds this signal will find
a class of men responding who are not
color blind"
God takes the best agencies for His
work-the men who know the ground
and are used to the signals" And He
turns the clannishness and distrust and
seeming obstacles to His own glory. For
He hath made all things of Himself"
COngregotiOna1iSt.