Major Whittle, who was saved during the Civil War, used to tell the story of an aged Quaker whose son had enlisted in the army. News came of a dreadful battle, and this old father in fear and trembling, started to the scene of conflict hoping to learn something concerning his boy. The officer of the day told him he had not answered to roll call and that there was reason to believe that he had been killed.
This did not satisfy the aged father, so leaving headquarters, he started out across the battlefield, looking for the one who was dearer to him than life. He would stoop down and turn over the face of this one and that, but without success. Night came on, and with the help of a lantern, he continued his search, all to no avail.
Suddenly the wind, which was blowing a gale, blew out his lantern, and he stood there in the darkness hardly knowing what to do. Then his father’s ingenuity, strength and affection for his son, prompted him to call out his son’s name; and so he stood and shouted, “John Hartmann, thy father calleth thee.” All about him he could hear the groans and sighs of the dying and someone saying, “Oh, if that were only my father!” He continued his cry with more pathos and power. Then, at last, in the distance and darkness he heard his own dear boy’s voice crying tremblingly, “Here, father!”
The old man made his way across the fiend shouting: “Thank God! Thank God!” Taking his wounded boy up in his arms, he bore him back to headquarters. He nursed him back to health and strength, and he lived to walk again.
Dear sinner friend, you who have been wounded by sin and Satan, amid the darkness and ruins of this world, the voice of the Spirit of God comes to you, “Thy Father calleth thee.” He sent His blessed Son into this world to be your Saviour, and now if there be but the faintest response to His cry, He would take the lost up in His arms and bear him home to heaven. May you be able to sing in all sincerity:
The Shepherd sought His sheep,
The Father sought His child;
They followed me o’er vale and hill
O’er deserts waste and wild.
They found me nigh to death,
Famished and faint and lone;
They bound me with the bands of love,
They saved the wandering one.
“But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him...
“This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” Luke 15:20,2420And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. (Luke 15:20)
24For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. (Luke 15:24).
ML 07/28/1968