Bay of Bengal by the Indo-Chinese coast till he came to Penang, where
he began to live as a trader.
But by this time the fire of his anger had burnt itself out. He--again
like Peter--remembered his denial of his Master, and when he saw in
a Penang newspaper an article saying that the famous Sabat, who had
become a Christian and then become a Mohammedan again, had come to
live in their city, he wrote a letter which was published in the
newspaper at Penang declaring that he was now--and for good and all--a
Christian.
A British officer named Colonel MacInnes was stationed at Penang.
Sabat went to him. "My mind is full of great sorrow," he said,
"because I denied Jesus Christ. I have not had a moment's peace since
Satan made me do that bad work. I did it for revenge. I only want to
do one thing with my life: to spend it in undoing this evil that has
come through my denial."
Sabat left the house of the Mohammedan with whom he was living in
Penang. He found an old friend of his named Johannes, an Armenian
Christian merchant, who had lived in Madras in the very days when
Sabat first became a Christian. Every night Johannes the Armenian
and Sabat the Arab got out their Bibles, and far into the night Sabat
would explain their meaning to Johannes.
_The Prince from Sumatra_
One day all Penang was agog with excitement because a brown Prince
from Acheen, a Malay State in the island of Sumatra, had suddenly
sailed into the harbour. He was in flight from his own land, where
rebels had attacked him. The people of Acheen were wild and ferocious;
many of them were cannibals.
"I will join you in helping to recover your throne," said Sabat to the
fugitive Prince. "I am going," said Sabat to Colonel MacInnes, "to see
if I can carry the message of Christianity to this fierce people."
So Sabat and the Prince, with others, went aboard a sailing ship and
crossed the Strait of Malacca to Sumatra. They landed, and for long
the struggle with the rebels swayed from side to side. The Prince was
so pleased with Sabat that he made him his Prime Minister. But the
struggle dragged on and on; there seemed to be no hope of triumph. At
last Sabat decided to go back to Penang. One day he left the Prince
and started off, but soldiers of the rebel-chief Syfoolalim captured
him.
Great was the joy of the rebels--their powerful enemy was in their
hands! They bound him, threw him into a boat, hoisted him aboard a
sailing ship and clapped him in
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