Faith On The Line - Stress, Stress Go Away Vol 18 | Page 5

The captain drove him out and said, “You will report
Saturday for duty.”
But Sabbath morning, B took his Bible and went off through
the woods, and stayed there all day, and read the Bible and
prayed to God; and he settled it with the Lord. He went
over the experience of death in the fortress and down in
the African jungles, and he faced it all, and took his stand to
live for God, no matter what the consequences might be.
He expected to be summoned before the captain Sunday
morning, but he wasn‘t. Monday morning the captain
called for him and said, “You were not on duty Saturday.”
He replied, “No I was not.”
The captain wanted to know where he was
and what he was doing, and he told him. The
captain was furious, and he said, “Now I am going to take you to the higher officer, and he will
give you your sentence.”
So he led this young man in, and reported to
the higher officer.
This officer looked at him kindly. “Well,” he said,
“my man, what‘s the matter?” Brother B explained to him about the Sabbath.
The officer listened, and then said, “Do you
think you can‘t do any work whatsoever on the
Sabbath, on Saturday?”
He said, “No.”
“Well,” he said, “do you think that the French
government can surrender to your whims?”
He answered, ”I don‘t know what they can do. I
only know what I cannot do—I cannot work on
the Sabbath day.”
After some conversation, the commander
stepped out with the captain, and the young
man remained in the room, and he prayed to
the Lord to move on their hearts, that the right
thing might be done. After a bit, the captain
came back, but the commander went away.
The captain asked, “Well, how do you feel just
now since seeing the officer?”
He answered, “I feel just the same.”

“You do not intend
to do any work on Saturday?”
“No.”
“You say you were
a stenographer
and secretary before you
came here, and you can do that work now?”
“Yes, if I have a chance.”
Then the captain asked, “How would you like to be my
stenographer and secretary?”
“Why,” he said, “Captain, I would like it fine, only no
work on the Sabbath.”
“Very well,” he said, “that‘s taken for granted now.” And
he made that boy his secretary, and gave him the
bath from sundown Friday until sundown
night.
He had been there a full year, and his two weeks‘
holiday was to come in connection with our camp
meeting: but as it was to begin on Friday, just as
our meeting was about to close, he would get only
one Sabbath, the meetings closing on Sunday.
He had his work all finished, so he went to the
captain and told him about the camp meeting,
and asked him if he would be willing to let him
leave early and cut the time off the other end of
his vacation.
He said, “Captain, I would stay up all night tonight, and
all night tomorrow night, and do everything necessary,
if you would let me go.”
The captain said, “I haven‘t anything to do now, and
you have everything finished, so you can go now.”
Brother B said, “Very well, Captain. I will come back
as soon as it is over.”
But the captain replied, “Your regular time closes Saturday, and you are no good Saturday, and I don‘t want to
be fussing around here Sunday; so you needn‘t come
back until Monday.”
There he was, with the full time of his holiday and eight
days over.
His story was a revelation to me of splendid Christian
heroism, of real, firm, definite loyalty to God. Just a
French boy, only twenty-two years old, and he would
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