London is a wonderful city full of monuments, museums, parks and places of interest. It is well served by the Underground system, generally known as the Tube, and also by taxis. Taxis are in plentiful supply in the city and each taxi driver knows his way around just about every street in the capital. The licensed taxi trade in London is said to be the oldest regulated public transport system in the world due to Oliver Cromwell. In 1654, he set up the Fellowship of Master Hackney Carriages by Act of Parliament. Obviously, the first Hackney Carriages were horse-drawn and the name ‘Hackney’ comes from the French word for a working horse. It is also interesting that the other name for taxis is ‘cab’ and is a shortened French word, ‘cabriolet’ which was a lighter, two-wheeled vehicle.
The size of taxis was laid down by the Public Carriages Office in 1906 and they had to be roomy enough to accommodate a man in a top hat and for two people to sit opposite each other without their knees touching. Taxi drivers must be well trained and have a responsibility to pick up a fare if they ‘standing in the street’ and cannot refuse a journey of up to six miles or that will take less than an hour. This was designed, of course, to prevent the now non-existent horse from becoming fatigued or thirsty. How times have changed, but the rules remain the same and seem to speak of a more leisurely age, slower, simpler, and less damaging to the environment.
Taxis can take people to many places but can not take us to Heaven. The rules for Heaven are laid down very clearly in the Bible and are summarised in Ten Commandments. We should not kill, steal, commit adultery, and so on. The rules are not just about action but also about attitude. We may not have killed someone, but to hate someone or have unreasonable anger towards them is to kill in attitude. Clearly, there are degrees of disobedience to the commandments, but violation of one is to violate the whole.
The Ten Commandments were not designed like ten skittles in a bowling alley. Knock down two or three, but seven or eight are still standing and therefore I am okay because I have kept some of them. They are more to be envisaged as ten links in a chain and we hang on the end, as it were, and any linkage broken plunges us down to destruction.
Therefore, the Ten Commandments simply expose our failure, disobedience and sin and so the vehicle for eternal life is not found in what we do but in whom we trust. The Lord Jesus lived the perfect life which we failed to live but then died the death for sin which we deserved. He took the judgment of God for the sins of the world and all who believe in Him will have eternal life and will escape the consequences and punishment for sins committed.
So we cannot get to Heaven in a London cab because such a cab can’t get that far but Jesus described Himself as ‘the way’ and all who choose to trust Him as Saviour and are prepared to serve Him as Lord know with deep assurance that they are destined for Heaven, glory, joy and light. What a glorious prospect!
DAILY MESSAGES WITH MEANING (23/08/25)
Written by PAUL YOUNG
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