A boatman named Joe was rowing a passenger across the river in his ferry boat. Suddenly he stopped, took of his ragged straw hat, and shading his eyes, looked earnestly at somebody on one of the sloops in the distance.
Then he cried out “Dat am de Captain!”
His passengers looked at the distant ship but could see nothing clearly.
“Don’t you see him, mister; dat strong, good-looking man leaning against de mast?”
“Perhaps I’ll see him when his ship gets a little nearer.”
“I want you to see the captain now!” said Joe.
“Who is the Captain?”
“De Captain?” said Joe with a look of surprise, “He am the man what saved me. I can’t miss seeing him while he am in sight.”
“How did he save you, Joe?”
“He strip off his coat and jumped into de ribber, and catch hole of dis chile wid his strong arm, just as he was sinking into the great depths, with the ropes tangled around his feet. Dat am the way he saved me,” said Joe with great feeling.
“You have not forgotten to be grateful, I see.”
“Grateful! Why I’d breave every breff I draw for him, if I could. I tole him I would work the rest of my days for him without pay. But he wouldn’t let me. So I stay as close to him as I can. He runs by here ‘bout every two weeks. So I allus watches for him; and I love to pint him out. It’s all this pore feller can do.”
And if that poor man felt so much gratitude to him who saved him from drowning by simply plunging into the water, how much gratitude do we owe to the blessed Savior, who died in agony upon the cross in order to save our souls from everlasting death?
ML-07/28/1974