As the man was at his post, his little four-year-old boy came running up to him. At the last moment before a train rushed by, the child stumbled over the rails, and fell into the track. As the engine was almost on the spot, there was no time to rescue the boy. His father could have easily switched the tracks. This would have directed the course of the train incorrectly, and his little boy would be safe. But then there would have been the risk of the train wrecking and killing the passengers

So all the father did was order his child in a loud and powerful voice:

“Lie still! Do not stir!”

The switchman stood there watching, allowing the train to pass over the motionless body of his boy. In terror, he awaited the train to complete its pass.

Imagine his shock when, as the heavy wheels rumbled by, joy, not grief, seized the father’s heart. There was his child - safe and alive! When the directors of the railroad learned what had happened, they promoted the switchman to a higher position on account of his heroic faithfulness to duty. How much more so will the good God reward obedience, both in this life and most especially in the next?