The front of the tract had a picture of a man’s face on it. He had his hand under his chin to show he was thinking. There was a big question mark over his head and over that was written, “Which Way? Life or Eternal Death?” Behind the man was a door with a staircase leading from it with arrows by the staircase. One arrow pointed up and was marked “Eternal Life” and the other arrow pointed down and was marked “The Unbelievers’ Judgment.”

Mom had once read this tract to us at family prayers. It was about a man who had been raised in a godly home but who never made a personal profession of faith in Jesus. When he grew up he strayed far from the Lord and was filling up his empty life with the pleasures of the world: drinking, dancing, smoking, and even worse things the tract called “The fleeting pleasures of the flesh.” Then he had a serious accident. After the accident a godly nurse told him he should trust Jesus for his recovery, physical and spiritual. Then the story sort of split into two parts. Like two answers you could choose between to solve a problem on a test. In one the man got bitter because of his accident and turned his face away from the godly nurse who was sharing a Scripture with him about “He whom the Lord loveth He chastiseth.” The man finally got well without the Lord’s help even though Jesus was standing knocking at his unre-generate vile heart. A year later he was drunk and he stepped in front of a freight train. He had had his chance with the godly nurse but it was too late now and he went weeping before the Awesome Judgment Seat of the Lord in a state of Original Sin and Total Depravity. He was judged to be a goat—a Vessel of Wrath—predestined to damnation, not an Elect sheep, and got sent to the Left Hand of the Lord, where there was gnashing of teeth. He wished he had listened to the godly nurse and invited Jesus into his heart when he had had the chance. His last thought in the tract before he went into the Lake of Fire was “If only . . .” After that the story stopped and they didn’t say what he was saying or thinking to himself in the Lake of Fire even though he had plenty of time to say a lot because he was there for all eternity.