The Traveller’s Guide

Back in the Victorian era a remarkable Scottish lady, Mrs Stephen Menzies, with a huge heart for the lost, gathered together an amazing collection of anecdotes, stories and illustrations with one sole purpose – that people should come to know Jesus, accept Him, be saved and reach their eternal destination. She put all this material into a book and called it The Traveller’s Guide from Death to Life. She printed hundreds and thousands of copies to be either sold or given away.

In the years between 1880 and 1950 The Traveller’s Guide must have been instrumental in bringing hundreds of thousands of people to the foot of the cross. Tens of thousands of copies were distributed to soldiers who were facing the prospect of imminent death, in both world wars.

 

There were several copies of The Traveller’s Guide in our home and, as a child, I feasted on the stories and my heart burned within me. I have never lost the spiritual hunger for evangelism that this book generated in my spirit. I still have this hard-back library edition, which was given to James Thornley in 1897 as a Sunday School prize in the church which my family attended in Bolton.

Many of the anecdotes and stories are very dated, but the urgency of the message will never get out of date. Tragically, so much of what is called church today has lost any sense of evangelistic urgency. Church politics and inward looking congregational activities will never bring the challenge of the Gospel to those who are dying outside of Christ.

It feels as though evangelism has become a dirty word – maybe that’s because the heart of the Gospel doesn’t appear to be believed or taught any longer by national church leaders? Managing church affairs has become more important than what the Church is there for!

As I was leafing through my Traveller’s Guide, I came across the following Christian Creed – every word is from Scripture (I’ve changed the AV to the NIV). But I wonder how many of those who go to church, or lead churches, of whatever denominational or free-church persuasion, can truly say that these words from Scripture are what they know and believe?

Do You Believe:

That “God is love” (1 John 4:8)

That “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10)

That “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16)

That “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:17)

That “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting mens sins against them.” (2 Corinthians 5:19)

That “Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for our sins and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:2)

That Christ ”took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53:4)

That “The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)

That “by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)

That “when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son.” (Romans 5:10)

That “God reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 5:18)

That “through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.” (Acts 13:38)

That “through him everyone who believes is justified from everything.” (Acts 13:39)

That “in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2:13)

That He has made “atonement for the sins of the people.” (Hebrews 2:17)

That “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law.” (Galatians 3:13)

That “in Christ we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:14)

That Christ “obtained eternal redemption for us.” (Hebrews 9:12)

That Christ “loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

That “the blood of Jesus, God’s Son, purifies us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7)

That “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)

That “whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.” (John 3:36)

That “Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people, and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” (Hebrews:9:28)

That “if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God,  an eternal house in Heaven.” (2 Corinthians 5:1)

That the Lord has “made known to me the path of life” and that He “will fill me with joy in His presence, with eternal pleasures at His right hand.” (Psalm 16:11)

As I meditated on all these Scriptures,  I was overwhelmed by the grace and mercy of God. But then I began to ask why these wonderful scriptures no longer seem to be at the centre of  much Christian thinking?

Then I realized that if the concept of ‘sin’ has been so eliminated from the understanding and language of the church, a sense of sinfulness will also disappear from the population. And if there is no awareness of sin, then people will not be aware of their need for salvation. Satan has truly blinded people’s eyes.

I finished my meditation on these Scriptures by realizing that, much like the church at Ephesus which fell from its first love (Revelation 2:4), the 21^st century church has lost much of its evangelistic fire because the knowledge of sin has been buried beneath a mountain of compromise and the need for salvation is no longer central to the Christian message.

Not only do we need to have a deep knowledge of how to bring healing to hurting and often broken people, especially the younger generation, many of whom have been left to wallow in a sea of ungodliness without strong parental love and discipline, but we also need to have a renewed understanding of just what Jesus did for us on the cross. For without that all our efforts will be severely limited in their eternal effectiveness. Jesus died for a reason. Let’s be determined in letting people know that He loved them so much He died for them.

Oh God. How far we have fallen. Forgive and cleanse us. Rekindle the flame of uncompromising fire and set our hearts ablaze with love for Jesus, God’s Word and the lost.

Perhaps the time has come for a 21st Century version of The Traveller’s Guide from Death to Life which proclaims to our compromised and broken world the 1st century message that Jesus brought to the world?

Copyright © Peter Horrobin 2026.

Peter Horrobin is the Founder of Gates of Hope International (GOHI). To receive Peter’s GOHI Newsmails, please subscribe at www.gohi.world .  You can also Donate to Peter’s work through GOHI by going directly to www.gohi.world/give-serve/

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