THE clock ill the distance struck four, Hugh Frazer, a young naval officer, closed his book hastily and rose to his feet.
“If I don’t hurry, I can see myself going without supper today; and, familiar as the sea breezes are, they still give me an appetite,” he murmured to himself. Yet he stood for another minute by the low stone wall, gazing over the calm expanse of water.
“Hardly a ripple to be seen! Ah, my friend, you’re about as changeable as some men that I know!” he mused, turning to go home.
But as he turned something happened. A small red object, rolling rapidly down the cliff, caught Hugh’s eye, and he turned back to investigate further. It was nothing but a child’s rubber ball, which soon reached the sea and lay rocking on its calm surface.
Suddenly Hugh started. The sound of a child’s voice was followed by the sight of a boy of about five or six years old, following his treasure with an idea of rescue. There was not a soul to be seen, and Hugh knew that where the ball lay the sea was deep, with jagged rocks submerged. If the child attempted to wade after the ball he would surely be drowned.
With a swift prayer for help Hugh began scrambling down the side of the cliff, and after slipping and tumbling over the chalky boulders at length came upon the little boy, who had reached a rocky ledge, from which he was attempting to lower himself into the water.
Clutching at the collar of the foolhardy youngster, Hugh attempted to drag him backwards into safety.
“My ball! my ball!” he spluttered; “it’s getting farther and farther out. Get it! get it! Get it, I say!” and his voice rose to a shriek.
“Are you mad, child?” said the young man sternly. “Thank God, I was in time to save your life, and don’t trouble about the ball.”
For a moment the boy was speechless, then he made a dart forward, but was quickly made prisoner again.
“Let me go,” he cried. “I want my ball, and I’m going to get it.”
But Hugh’s grasp did not relax, and struggling and kicking, the naughty little boy was half led, half carried up the cliff, where they encountered a distracted nurse.
“Oh, Master Roy, what have you been doing—you bad, bad boy.”
In a few words Hugh explained matters, and thanking him as well as she could, the girl ordered the child to do the same.
But Master Roy’s face still wore its dark scowl, and without a word he took up a handful of gravel and flung it with all his might at his kind deliverer. Then taking to his heels, he ran out of sight, the girl following.
“Ungrateful little rascal!” murmured the young officer; “that is all one gets for ‘seeking to save’.”
“Seeking to save!”
During his three mile tramp back along the cliffs, Hugh’s thoughts lingered upon the One, the blessed Lord Jesus Christ, Who had shown His willingness to save men from their self-will and folly, by leaving His Father’s side in the glory to come down to earth and to be “made sin” for us. Yet, even as the child had spurned his help, so many have spurned God’s offers of mercy with basest ingratitude.
And yet—oh solemn thought!— God will hold us responsible for what we do with His only Son, Who so willingly came to seek and to save us.
ML-12/11/1960