When You Were Absent

58 I went to my cabin. I am a poor sailor and I looked around at its discomfort and at Van Dyke in his basket on the dark floor and my heart went down to the depths. Then I opened the little book and read the message for that day. It was a message that took me right up to heaven itself: "And Jacob awakened out of his sleep, and he said, 'Surely the Lord is in this place.' This is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven." It was the very message I had left behind to be read after my departure and here it came to me. Why of course the ladders from heaven found their foothold right there in the dismal cabin-and what more could I wish than the facilities of a first class bathroom because of Clyde's berth. Then it struck me-the name of the people where Clyde was, was Gates. Truly the Gates of Heaven! Afterwards I found that the Japanese, who are very meticulous, and who rarely make a mistake, had put the number of Clyde's third class berth as the number of his cabin. As there was no authority on the ship to change the berth, his third class berth remained empty. We did not discover this till about the third last day of a 3 week voyage to Lourenco Marques when we had boat drill. Had the mistake come to any other number there might have been a question, but it happened to be the number of the cabin in which the Gates' were, who were friends of ours. Let me say over and over again that this could not possibly have been a coincidence, but was divine provision for us. The number might be explained away, but who is going to explain the presence of the little book with the identical thought I left behind. The cabin was impossible for sleep. I had to get out in the fresh air if I were not to succumb to sea-sickness, so the family moved to a comer of the deck. After several days a consul from Bangkok gave us a mattress he had had for an overland journey.

This was one ministering angel.

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