IT HAD been a happy week, for Uncle William had come. “The dearest dearest uncle!” as the children said over and over again. He was young and lively, and furnished amusement for the children. He would exercise, play and swing with them. How the peoples on the street looked when Uncle William in his fine uniform would pass with the children. He was lieutenant at sea and would soon have his own ship, as Paul told the school boys.
“I wonder if uncle is a real Christian and if he reads the word of God,” thought Lena, and she was so glad, when on Lord’s day morning, she saw what she wanted to know. How earnest his face grew, while he listened to the word of God and now she was confident that he was the Lord’s.
“Uncle, come with us to the Bible study,” said little Max, in the afternoon.
The children’s mother had undertaken to instruct the little ones in the Bible, and it was a pleasure to her to sow the precious seed in the young hearts.
“If I may,” said Uncle William, pulling his chair near the table, around which the four were already seated.
“Have you learned a verse?” asked Max with an important air.
“Well, what have you learned?” returned the uncle. Max folded his hands on the table and said without a mistake:
“BEHOLD, HE THAT KEEPETH ISRAEL SHALL NEITHER SLUMBER NOR SLEEP.” Ps. 121:4.
“Look at that! that’s just my verse,” said Uncle William.
Then came Helen’s turn; she, too, had learned well. Paul and Lena could say all of this wonderful Psalm.
“Do you know who it is that is called the Keeper of Israel?” asked the uncle of Max.
“Mamma says it is the Lord Jesus,” answered the little one immediately. “All men go to sleep when they get tired, but the Lord of heaven never goes to sleep, because He never gets tired.”
“Why do you say that is your verse, Uncle William?” asked Paul.
“It shall always be my verse,” said he. “Ever since my first voyage and the first storm I went through, I take this verse with me every time I go to sea. Yes, children, it was an awful storm. I thought not only the ship, but the whole world, was going down, when one wave climbed upon another, high as mountains, and then came down upon us with a thundering noise, so that the great ship cracked and groaned in all its joints as though it would split in two. It was a large ship on which I made my first trip, with a great many officers and men and a large number of passengers. ‘Where is the captain?’ the passengers would ask, with pale faces and chattering teeth.
‘At his post,’ was always the answer.
Yes, there he stood, and would not move. Two days and two nights he was standing on his bridge with cold, sleet, rain and hail blowing against him by the fierce storm, while performing his duty as a faithful guide of his ship. On the third day the storm became milder and danger was over. Then our captain went down to his cabin to rest; but, alas! he never got up again. Pneumonia set in, and in three days he was dead.
Children, I can’t tell you how I felt as they let the body of our good captain down into the sea. I cried like a little child; but I was not the only one—tears came into the eyes of big, strong men.
Among the passengers there was a gospel preacher who preached the funeral sermon. I still hear his voice, sounding over the wide ocean, which then looked so quiet and peaceful: ‘Behold, He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.’ He pictured before us our captain in his faithfulness even unto death, and then he spoke of the only Keeper who never slumbers nor sleeps. He warned us as I have never heard before and begged us to take the Lord Jesus as our Captain, Leader, Keeper and Saviour for life and death, for time and eternity. You see, Paul, in that hour it became my verse, and the Lord Jesus my Saviour and Keeper, and I hope to do as my brave captain has done in his faithfulness unto death.”
The children had listened with great attention, and Helen asked thoughtfully, “When you become a captain, will there be such a storm as that?”
“It depends upon the great Keeper in heaven,” answered Uncle William, as he patted her little blond head. Then she lovingly said to him, “Stay here with us!”
“Why, you do not think that you are safer here on land than we are on the wide ocean, do you?” asked the uncle, laughing. “You are very much mistaken. The people on land need the Keeper above as much as we do on the sea. But when we have Him as our Keeper, and lookup to Him, we are safely hid, wherever we may be.”
ML 05/22/1904