BY WILLIAM LUFF.
HE loved soldiers, and as a boy had a collecting box in the shape of a drum, in which he received help for Miss Perks’ Soldiers’ Home, Winchester.
As he grew older, he so loved soldiers that he joined the army and became a soldier himself. As the South African war was in everybody’s mind at the time, he chose the South African Constabulary, and left Southampton on board the Morayshire, March 27th, 1901.
The departure from home was a trying time for Wallie’s parents, as he had not decided for Christ, and they feared the temptations that lay in the youth’s path. He was only nineteen years of age, bright, cheerful, and full of promise: it seemed dreadful to see him go away without a Friend, a Guide, a Saviour.
George, a companion from the lad’s neighborhood, was also going out, but this was small comfort for the anxious father and mother. One thing they could send with him, God’s Word: so they packed it in his box, and not in his bag, for fear it might be lost.
And they could pray for the absent boy; perhaps it was needful he should go so far to find salvation, for “God moves in a mysterious way.”
Anxiously they waited for the first letter, and by the kindness of those parents we are able to let the reader read it also. It was written on board the S.S. Morayshire,
DEAR MOTHER AND FATHER.
I hope you are all quite well, as it leaves me. I am going to write this letter on purpose for you. I expect you will be surprised and be glad after you have read it. I am going to start at the beginning, so that you will know everything. It was on Tuesday, the 2nd of April, in the evening. George and I were sitting under one of the boats: we were talking about home and all the little things which we used to do, and I told him what I promised mother I would do about meeting her and you all on the other side of Jordan, and then he said that he had promised the same thing, and he told me that since he started from home he had given himself to God, and every night and morning he asks God to take care of us all.
Dear mother and father, when I started I said to myself that I should try to be a Christian: but I went back in the same old way, and I did not know that George had given himself to God, not till that night, and from that time George and I have known each other, and I tell you that we have had some happy times together, since I was so miserable up to then I hardly spoke a word, and from that night we have been so happy, because we have got Someone to take care of us. Dear mother and father, there is a man on board with us . . . and we got talking about the Bible, and he told me a lot about it and some verses: he is a nice man. I borrowed a Bible off a chap in our mess: he is the only one I have seen reading the Bible. Dear mother and father, you would not believe the change that has come over us; we are so happy because we have a Guide with us, and He will lead us the right way, if you only trust Him. We had some services on Sunday; it was nice to hear the Word of God and the singing. Our conversion is so nice and sweet, and everything seems so different. It is worth coming out here for. I am glad I came now. I tell you it is worth going for. I wish you had put my Bible in my bag. Three chaps started singing Sankey hymns last Sunday, 14th, and so I joined in up on the deck. There were a lot more trying to overpower us: but they could not. Dear mother and father, I don’t think I can say any more: only we are very, very happy, because we have found a Friend, a true one, who will never leave us.” The dear lad finished his letter by saying, “We have arrived at Cape Town . . . going to shore at 7 o’clock tomorrow. I will write and tell you the news in a day or two.” Mother and father waited for that letter: but it never came.
The next news is printed on a black-edged, silver-bordered card which lies before me:
In Loving Memory of
DEAR WALLIE,
Who died of enteric fever, May i5th, 1901,
At Germiston, South Africa.
In his 19th year.
Since writing this we have received a letter from the Soldiers’ Home, Winchester, saying a postal order for zos. has come in, given by dear Christians, poor people, who live in the village where young Wallie did. They said it was a thank-offering for his conversion. Is it not touching?