Sea of Life --- from a friend serving as a M in East Asia

I hope this pierces your heart as it did mine……….
Matt 24:14 “And the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come.”
We don’t have long my brothers and sisters, take these words to heart.
This comes from a book I just finished reading, a portion including a vision from William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army…………this is what he saw....
“I saw a dark and stormy ocean. Over it the black clouds hung heavily; through them every now and then vivid lightening flashed and loud thunder rolled, while the winds moaned and the waves rose and foamed, towered and broke…In that ocean I thought I saw myriads of poor human beings plunging and floating, shouting and shrieking, cursing and struggling they rose and shrieked again, and the some sank to rise no more. I saw out of this dark angry ocean a mighty rock that rose up with its summit towering high above the black clouds that overhung the story sea. All around the base of this great rock I saw a vast platform. Onto this platform, I saw with delight a number of the poor struggling, drowning wretches continually climbing out of the angry ocean.I saw that a few of those who were already safe on the platform were helping the poor creatures still in the angry waves to reach the place of safety. On looking more closely I found a number of those who had been rescued, industriously working and scheming by ladders, ropes, boats and other means more effective, to deliver the poor strugglers out of the sea. Here and there were some who actually jumped into the water, regardless of the consequences in their passion to “rescue the perishing.” And I hardly know which gladdened me the most- the sight of the poor drowning people climbing on the rocks reaching a place of safety, or the devotion and self-sacrifice of those whose whole being was wrapped up in the effort for their deliverance.As I looked on, I saw that the occupants of that platform were quite a mixed company. That is, they were divided into different “sets” or classes, and they occupied themselves with different pleasures and employments. But only a very few of them seemed to make it their business to get the people out of the sea. What puzzled me most was the fact that though all of them had been rescued at one time or another from the ocean, nearly everyone seemed to have forgotten all about it. Anyway, it seemed the memory of its darkness and danger no longer troubled them at all. And what seemed equally strange and perplexing to me was that these people did not even seem to have any care-that is, any agonizing care- about the poor perishing one who were struggling and drowning right before their very eyes…many of whom were their own husbands and wives, brothers and sisters and even their own children.Now this astonishing unconcern could not have been the result of ignorance or lack of knowledge, because they lived right there in full sight of it all and even talked about it sometimes. Many even went to regularly hear lectures and sermons in which the awful state of these poor drowning creatures was described. The occupants of this platform were engaged in different pursuits and pastimes. Some of them were absorbed day and night in trading and business in order to gain, storing up their savings in boxes, safes, and the like. Many spent their time in amusing themselves with growing flowers on the side of the rock, other in painting pieces of cloth or in playing music, or in dressing themselves up in different styles and walking about to be admired. Some occupied themselves chiefly in eating and drinking, others were taken up with arguing about the poor drowning creatures that had already been rescued. …And so the multitude went on right before them struggling and shrieking and drowning in darkness.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 of the letters he has 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 ocean. Numbers of others wanted Him to make them feel quite certain that they would really get of the rock and onto the mainland some day: because as a matter of fact, it was well know 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 from Jehovah’s Throne. That thunder was the distant echoing of the wrath of G*d. 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….The handful of fierce, determined ones, who were risking their own lives in saving the perishing were true soldiers of the cross of Je$us. That Mighty Being who was calling to them from the midst of the angry waters was the Son of G*d, “the same yesterday, today, and forever” who is still struggling and interceding to save the dying multitudes about us from this terrible doom of damnation, and whose voice can be heard above the music, machinery, and noise of life, calling on the rescued to come and help Him save the world.My friends in Chri$t, you are rescued from the waters, 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.”