A great story for a hard day

Though we never met, I think that Malcolm Muggeridge was one of the finest men the west has ever produced - or perhaps more accurately, that came out of the west despite its delinquencies. Another fine man of character (and not coincidentally a friend of Mr. Muggeridge) was David Niven - actor extraordinare and British war hero.

Mr. Niven tells a wondrous story of his service which can brighten even the harshest day.

In 1940, about 3,000 people were evacuated from france after the battle of Dunkirk - many of them Red Cross workers as well as British soldiers. Those fleeing were sent on board an old liner called the Lancastria and escorted by 3 British destroyers. Well, the Germans spotted this easy target and placed a bomb down its central smoke stack. The ship began to list terribly to one side as it began to sink. Many people rushed to the upper deck to jump overboard, but several hundred soldiers and sailors were trapped in a hold and could not escape because the ship lay almost on its side.

A young Catholic priest, serving as Chaplain onboard the ship, took a rope and lowered himself down into the hold, knowing that he and the men could never escape. Many of those who jumped overboard amid the burning oil and rubbish and waves said they would have given up and drowned except that over all the noise of the battle, they could hear resounding hymns emanating from the sinking ship even as it slipped beneath the waves.

Perhaps hundreds of men and some women are in heaven now because of a single act of sacrifice by one young man. His light continues to shine atop the hill of the world and his lamp will probably never go out as long as there is an earth.

When your day is hard and things aren't going as well as they might, think of this young man singing and encouraging hundreds of others as they prepare to make the journey from this world to the next.