BITS and PIECES
297th Edition – June 7, 2026
A random collection of news and views compiled by Frank McClelland for the Toronto Free Presbyterian Church.
THE LONGEST STREET IN THE WORLD
The best-known street in Toronto is Yonge Street, named after a friend of Lord Simcoe. It starts at the edge of Lake Ontario and runs basically north, bisecting the city.
Yonge Street, or Highway 11, continues north about twelve hundred miles, ending at Rainy River, a small town in the province of Ontario on the U.S. border at Minnesota. Yonge Street is one of the longest streets in the world. It was started by Simcoe in 1796 as a military road from Toronto to Lake Simcoe about thirty-five miles north.
AN OLDER ROAD. There is a much longer, older and more important road than Yonge Street. It is the one completed by Jesus Christ two thousand years ago – the road from Earth to Heaven.
There are but two destinations at the end of life’s journey, either Heaven or Hell. Most seem to want to go to the former, but do they know the way?
First, you must consider the destination, and how you hope to get there. If your desired destination is not Heaven, you will find Hell automatically.
SEEK DIRECTIONS. If I decided to drive to Rainy River in Ontario, and had never been there, or knew the way, I might never get there. I could crisscross North America for a lifetime and never stumble on the place.
Yet there are those who have a vague desire of getting to Heaven but will spend most of their lives hopelessly lost. The wise traveller will get a map. Now a map of Africa would be of little use in finding Rainy River in Canada. I must have the right map!
The world has a multiplicity of ‘maps’ to some sort of ethereal ‘nirvana,’ but the world’s religions and philosophies will never lead you to God’s Heaven. God has given us His divine map, the Bible, to show us the way from Earth to Heaven. Have you studied God’s map recently?
ASK SOMEONE. It’s useless asking directions from someone who has never been there. That is why earthly religious leaders and philosophers cannot help, although they would be loath to admit it. None of them has been to Heaven so they cannot show the way to the Heavenly kingdom.
There is One, however, who came from Heaven and returned there and is coming back to Earth again. He is Jesus Christ, and He knows the way; in fact He is the way.
“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” John 14:6. Dear reader, if you want to get to Heaven, ask Jesus Christ to save and guide you. Without Christ, you will never find it.
THE PARABLE OF THE DEAD CHURCH
A man once called a pastor and told him he wanted to join his church. But he went on to explain that he did not want to worship every week, nor did he want to attend the prayer meeting. He wasn’t interested in Bible study or personal witness, and he did not want to serve as an elder or deacon.
The pastor commended him for his desire to join but told him the church he sought was in another section of town.
He took the directions and hung up his phone. When he arrived at the church, the man came face to face with his own apathetic attitude. There stood an abandoned church building, boarded up and ready for demolition.
THE MEMORY OF TIME
We have been thinking of the past this year as we celebrate the church’s Fiftieth Anniversary. But did you know that the past does not exist – except in memory? Every movement we make, and every action we take, is gone into the past, never to be recovered. That is why there is such a preoccupation with videos and photos that record past events.
We like to hold on to the past, but the fact it does not exist. It is forever gone. The problem is that each word or action in our lives is beyond our reach. We cannot get to it to amend it, remake it, or improve it.
How can we fix our broken lives? We can’t. Only God can do that. What a great promise He has given: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow.” Isaiah 1:18.
