The Boy's Story Did Izpop-st

Aloni Muhindwa, from Uganda, was educated in Britain and became a priest in the Church of England. From his early youth he had questions about the Sabbath. Pastors, seminary professors, and bishops refused to discuss the matter. It was late in life that a story was told to him by a boy as he sipped a soft drink in a shop on his way to his coffee plantation.

The boy said, “Once upon a time there was a great king who had ten sons. Before leaving for a long journey he called his prime minister and his ten sons before him and said farewell. He charged the prime minister to take good care of his sons. As soon as he had gone, the prime minister called the ten sons together again, removed the fourth son who didn’t seem to him regal enough, and replaced him with his own son that he judged to be a finer specimen of royalty.

“By and by the king returned and called for his sons. He greeted them one by one until he came to the fourth son. ‘Who is this imposter? This is not my son. What happened to my son, Mr. Prime Minister?’ The prime minister explained, ‘Your fourth son did not look like a royal son to me, so I put my [own] son in his place.’ As the story goes, the king banished the prime minister from the realm and restored his son.”

Aloni now asked the little boy what was the meaning of the story. He said, “The king is God; the ten sons are the ten commandments. The prime minister is the church, but the church changed God’s fourth commandment and put in a commandment of her own. But the King is coming back one day, sir, and He will ask what has happened to His commandment.”

“Where did you learn this, son?”

“Up at the Kereka Mission on top of the hill, sir.”

So the old priest was led by the little boy up to the Sabbathkeeping mission where he spent several days in intensive Bible study. The next Sunday he stood before his congregation and said, “This is my last Sunday as your priest. From now on I am a Sabbathkeeper.”