On a dark, stormy night when the waves rolled like mountains and not a star was to be seen a boat rocking and plunging neared the Cleveland harbor.
“Are you sure this is Cleveland?” asked the captain, seeing only one light from the lighthouse.
“Quite sure, sir,” replied the pilot.
“Where are the lower lights?”
“Gone out, sir.”
“Can you make the harbor?”
“We must, or perish, sir.”
And with a strong hand and a brave heart the old pilot turned the wheel. But in the darkness he missed the channel, and with a crash upon the rocks the boat was splintered and many lives were lost in a watery grave because the lighthouse keeper had not kept the lower lights burning to show the way to safety in the harbor.
Christians are like the lower lights directing people to the Saviour, but if we do not show the way they will die and enter eternity without Christ.