A DISGUISED FOE

During one of the North American wars with the Indians, a brave young soldier named Hugh Sanderson found himself on clear September night in an exciting and perilous position. He had volunteered as a sentry for the night on one of the outposts. He had chosen the duty in the face of the fact that, for four successive days, brave comrades of his own, who had occupied the same post, had been found dead, stabbed in the heart by some mysterious and subtle foe.

“You will be number five,” said his companions as he bade them goodnight with his usual gaiety, in which few of them could share.

“No fear,” he said. “My orders are to shoot if anything moves, and depend upon it, if so much as a bird stirs its wing, I’ll do it,” and so he went his way.

His senses sharpened to more than their usual keenness by a consciousness of peril, for, once alone in the stillness of the midnight watch, the dead faces of his comrades rose before his mind, and he could not but wonder whether, in spite of his intended precaution, he should share their fate.

His post was on a slightly rising ground, a partially-cleared space stretching between him and a thick forest lying in the distance. No sign of life broke the monotony of his vigilance during the first few hours; and the grey dawn, as it stole over the quiet scene, revealed not even the trembling of a leaf, so quiet, so profoundly still was everything around. Being naturally adventurous, Hugh began almost to fear that he should have a very uneventful watch to speak of to his comrades. His thoughts wandered away from his own immediate circumstances and were scarcely recalled to them by the sight of a wild hog, which, wandering from the distant forest, appeared to be picking up food as it gradually crossed the intervening space towards him.

Hugh’s eyes were fixed upon the movements of this animal with very little interest, until, as it approached nearer and nearer, he suddenly remembered his orders and his resolution, “If so much as a bird moves its wing, I will fire.”

“I must do it,” he said to himself, “though the brute’s hardly worth the powder.”

Leveling his musket at the unwieldy looking object, and taking careful aim, he fired. Then, following close upon the report, was a sharp human cry o£ agony, breaking the stillness of quiet dawn. The alarm was enough to bring two or three neighboring sentries to the spot, just in time to witness the death struggle of a Red Indian, who, thus cleverly disguised in the skin of a hog, had been intending to add one more to the list of his victims.

If ever Hugh Sanderson thanked God in his life, he did it then, as he saw how narrow his escape had been. He owed that escape to a keen sense of danger, and a soldierly watchfulness and respect to orders through the wonderful providence and mercy of God.

The writer of this page records this striking incident in the hope of pointing out the danger in which many stand without feeling aware of it. No foes are really so dangerous as those which creep up on us in disguise, and thus take us at a disadvantage and off our proper guard.

Many a young man, fresh from home and its loving restraints, has been thus exposed to great danger without perceiving it. Things have been called by deceptive names, such as, “pleasure,” “courage,” or even “duty,” and thus the victim has been imperceptibly ensnared.

Many a Christian, too, has been lulled to an insecure state by a disguised foe, and thus by degrees has been drawn back to the world. Demas was one of these, of whom Paul though well; and no doubt some readers can think of several in their circle who have thus been ruined by disguised foes.

We can never afford to trifle with danger, or to neglect even the smallest precautions against it. May Divine Grace make and keep us ever on our guard. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” I Peter 5:8.

Remember, that lions do not roar until they spring upon their victim!

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