by Eileen Ruth Macomber
Ten Men in a Row
During the Second World War in the Philippines, behind the home of the De La Cruz family, the Japanese would torturously slaughter Filipinos. The things that were devised to torture people, from babies to adults, were unthinkable.There were two times the father of the family had been taken to the slaughter, but because of his wife’s prayers he had been miraculously returned. He was arrested again the third time. This time the officer told Mrs. De La Cruz that this was it. "Don’t you ever think he will be spared the third time. This time he dies." The Mother replied to the officer, "If you don’t believe in prayer, get out of here." He left with the father. The Mother put the five children to bed on their grass mats and began her prayer vigil. At 5 a.m. she woke the children up saying, "The burden has become so heavy I cannot bear it alone. Get up and help me pray for your father."
They all gathered in a circle praying, when suddenly they heard footsteps: It was their father with a blood-spattered shirt from those that had fallen around him. When he saw the all praying, he said, "I understand now why they let me go..."
...He had been the last in a row of ten me. A man had gone down the row, slashing off the heads of each with a sword.
He raised his sword when he came to me, and just as he was ready to bring it down the officer in charge suddenly screamed, "Stop!" Then that officer roared at me, "Go home. Quick, get out of here. Go home."
The officer grabbed him and propelled him out of the gate. God controls gates, and there is one gate that we have total confidence will be open in heaven."
Where the Gates Swing Outward Never
The noted songwriter Charles H. Gabriel had traveled to New York to see his namesake son off to France for the First World War. His son had said, "Dad, if I never see you again here, I’ll meet you where the gates never swing outward." On board the train back to Chicago, he meditated on those word, and produced this well-loved hymn.
Sources
Viola Walden (compiler), The Sword Scrapbook (Murfreesboro, TN: Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1969), p.5
George W. Sanville, Forty Gospel Hymn Stories (Winona Lake, IN: Rodeheaver-Hall Mack Co. Inc., 1943), p. 80
