Stories that Amaze

Ira D. Sankey was traveling by steamboat up the Delaware River. It was a calm, starlit evening and and there were many passengers gathered on the deck. Mr. Sankey was asked to sing. Somehow he was driven to sing the hymn "Saviour, Like A Shepherd Leads Us."

"Can you remember when you were doing picket duty on a bright moonlight night in 1862?" asked a passenger.

"Yes," answered Mr. Sankey, very much surprised.

"So do I," said the stranger, "but I was serving in the Confederate Army. I saw you raised your eyes to heaven and began to sing. Music has always had a wonderful power over me, and I took my finger off the trigger.

"Let him sing his song to the end, I said to myself, I can shoot him afterwards." "but the song you sang then was the song you just sang now. I heard the words perfectly: "We are Thine, do thou befriend us. be the guardian of our way."

"When you had finished your song, it was impossible for me to take aim at you again. I thought: "the Lord who is able to save that man from certain death must surely be great and might" - and my arm dropped limp by my side.

"Since that time I wandered about far and wide; but when I just now saw you standing there singing just as on that other occasion, I recognized you. Then my heart was wounded by your song. Now I wish that you may help find a cure for my sick soul."

Deeply moved, Mr. Sankey threw his arms about the man who had been his enemy and together they found their way to the Shepherd.