Incline of Life

          At the base of the mountain sat an incline tram with bucket seats to carry miners up to the coal mines and small cars with benches for other passengers. The stable owner told me the incline was dangerous and very few people risked taking it, especially women.¹ 

            This photograph of that very tram, the Whitwell Mine Incline in Marion County, Tennessee,  was taken on October 1, 1886 - one hundred twenty-six years ago! If you study the picture carefully, you will see a gentleman on the left beside the signal house, four men on the tracks, and another coal miner standing in the distance on the hill to the right – six men who lived life on this ol’ earth and then stepped into eternity.

            Did they know Jesus Christ? Did they fulfill God’s purposes in their own generation? Did they hear from the Master, “Well done, good and faithful servant or depart from Me, I never knew you?”

            It's now our time to ride the incline of life for "He made from one man every nation of mankind, to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation" (Acts 17:26 NASB).

            “So be careful how you act…Don’t be fools; be wise: make the most of every opportunity you have for doing good. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but try to find out and do whatever the Lord wants you to” (Ephesians 5:15-17 TLB).

¹   Jill Watson Glassco. The Schoolhouse (Peoria, AR: LifeHouse Publishing, 2012), 8.

 (The Schoolhouse is available online at Amazon.com)