I don’t know if you have ever heard of a “stowaway” before, but sometimes people try to hide themselves on board ships, often among the big bundles of freight, in order to avoid paying their fare. This doesn’t happen very often now, but the incident which I wish to relate occurred in the days when boats had great sails and took weeks to cross the ocean.
The boat was just a few days out from the port of Liverpool when a poor little boy about the size of the one in our picture was found hidden on board. The sailor who found him carried him at once to the captain. The captain was a hard-hearted man, and had very little patience with the boy. He gruffly asked him why he was there, and where he intended to go. The brave boy looked up with clear and fearless eyes into the captain’s angry face.
“Sir, my stepfather did it because he wanted to get rid of me.”
The captain had met stowaways before, and he didn’t believe the story at all. With anger, he shouted,
“Tell the truth, boy. Tell the truth or it will be the worse for you.”
Still the boy would not change his story, and the captain handed him over to the first mate, who was even more rough and cruel. With all his threats, he still couldn’t make the brave boy change his story. At last, in anger, and in the sight of many passengers, he brought him to the edge of the deck, and told him that unless he would speak the truth, he would throw him overboard.
Holding him by the collar he growled, “Come now. I’ll give you just two minutes to tell the truth, or I’ll throw you into the sea.”
With head erect, and with his tear-filled eyes fixed on the angry sailor, the boy replied, “Sir, I am telling the truth. If I must be thrown overboard, I would like to pray first.”
The sailor turned white and let go of the brave boy. In a moment the boy was down on his knees, and with a firm voice, thanked God for saving his soul through the blood of Jesus, and asked for His protecting care in this hour of danger. Then he arose from his knees and stood before the mate. But the mate’s anger was all gone, and in its place were tears and trembling. More than one of the passengers sobbed aloud at the brave boy’s firmness in telling the truth, and his fearless confession of the Lord Jesus in the face of death.
Needless to say, his story was firmly believed, and he was well treated the rest of the voyage. I can’t tell you what happened after he landed, but I want to ask you if you know this brave lad’s Saviour as your own? Accept Him today as your own. Trust Him fully and then seek to walk in ways that would please Him.
“VERILY, VERILY, I SAY UNTO YOU, HE THAT HEARETH MY WORD, AND BELIEVETH ON HIM THAT SENT ME, HATH EVERLASTING LIFE, AND SHALL NOT COME INTO CONDEMNATION; BUT IS PASSED FROM DEATH UNTO LIFE.” John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24).
ML 12/12/1954