One night a woman was brought into the hospital on a stretcher dying of terrible burns. The history showed that her husband had come home drunk and thrown the paraffin lamp over her. The police, the husband, and magistrate were immediately sent for.
I can still see that miserable creature standing at the foot of the bed between the policeman, watching every moment of his dying wife. I can see today that magistrate stooping over the bed warning her that she had but a few minutes to live and that within an hour she would be standing before her maker. He kept imploring her to tell the truth, as he took down her dying statement.
At last her eyes were raised to the face of the man, the father of her children, the man who had sworn so shortly before to love and protect her “until death do us part”. Here he was now, her murderer.
The silence at her bedside, as we waited for her reply, could be felt. As her eyes fell upon the familiar features, I can only suppose she saw him as once he had been, before drunk claimed him as another victim. For a new light came into them, and she passed out with a lie on her lips to save him. “My God! It was an accident”, was the last thing she said.
How I loathed the man! I longed to fell him where he stood; yet it was the intoxicant that did it.
-Dr. Paul Lee Tan, a pastor/educator/prophetic lecturer
