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People who found Jesus
MANY have been saved by being courageous for God. Many also have been lost by
not trusting
themselves to the care of God. They have been so afraid that they would be
unable to hold on to God in the
midst of the trials that might come to them that they have never surrendered to
Him. They never accepted
Christ as their Savior.
Yet there have been unnumbered examples of those who
have been faithful to God
even unto death or when faced with death.
It was about eventide on the Irish Sea. All was peaceful as the “Lusitania”
ploughed its way
through the waves. A quartette of the Royal Welsh Male Chorus were enjoying the
quiet scene, when they
suddenly saw a crosswise ripple on the waves and heard a muffled explosion. In a
few minutes the boat
began to tip. They understood what that meant: the great vessel had been
torpedoed.
So they decided to act
together and at once. They put on their life belts. They had been brought up on
the Welsh coast and were
excellent swimmers. So they determined to dive from the deck rail before the
ship sank, swim under water
as far as they could, and meet beyond the range of the suction that
would follow the sinking of
the ship.
One of them said afterward:
“We were just in time. As we came up within a few yards of one another and
looked back, we saw
the ‘Lusitania’ stand upright for a second and then drop terribly and
shriekingly into the sea. We swam
furiously on and on together. A damaged life raft floated out to us. It was
useless, except as something to
cling to when we were tired of floating or treading water. All the rescue boats
missed us. The sun set over
the spot where the Lusitania had sunk. It was suddenly dark and very cold.
“Our fingers, and eventually our bodies, grew numb. We clung to the lift raft
with increasing
difficulty. Being unable to produce a light or a sound on the sea, we gave up
hope of rescue and grudgingly
admitted as much to one another. Being Christians, we wanted to worship at a
time like that, but none of us
felt good enough to pray. But we had always sung-sometimes sacred songs. We
agreed to sing one stanza
of a hymn and then slip quietly together into the sea. We sang:
‘Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide!
When other helpers fail, and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, 0 abide with me!’
“As we finished, a
ship's bell sounded.... We took heart and sang the
remaining verses.
Guided by the music of the hymn, the crew of a destroyer steered directly to us,
picked us up, and carried
us safely to shore.”
When Jesus was on the way to Gethsemane, He appealed to His disciples to abide
in Him, that He
might abide in them: “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself, except it abide in
the vine; no more can you, except you abide in Me.” John 15:4. What a wonderful
promise He has made to
those who will trust in Him: “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you
shall ask what you will,
and it shall be done unto you.” Verse 7.
The one who told of the great deliverance on the sea said, “None of us felt good
enough to pray.”
Yet they did pray as they sang their heartfelt appeal to God. So also may the
weakest of the weak take
courage, and even those who have never prayed before, because feeling or no
feeling, they can cry out to
God for deliverance and help and strength and get it.
They may say with all earnestness, “I will abide in Thee, dear Lord, I will
trust in Thee as never before,
and I will pray also as never before!” These are the ones who go through their
Christian experience more
victorious than ever before, happier than ever before, and with a more glorious
hope of their wondrous
home in glory awaiting them at the end of their heavenward journey.
STANDING on the outskirts of a large meeting, a discharged soldier, crippled and
miserable, was
leaning on his crutches. This young man became afterward a great preacher, Dr.
B. H. Carroll. He had been
baptized and had joined the church when a boy, but since he had not experienced
real conversion, he later
drifted into skepticism and unbelief.
He had read widely of books both for and
against Christ, but had
found no peace of heart. He was bitter and discouraged. He had sworn that he
would never enter another
church; but his mother pleaded, as only a mother could plead, that he would
attend one more camp
meeting, and so he went.
As he stood there on his crutches, rather scornfully enduring the proceedings,
the preacher startled
him by asking questions that seemed meant for him:
“You that stand aloof from Christianity, and scorn us simple folks, what have
you got?” His heart
answered in a moment, “Nothing under the whole heaven, absolutely nothing.”
As
if he had heard this
unspoken answer, the preacher continued: “Is there anything else out there worth
trying, that has any
promise in it?” Again the young soldier said to himself, “Nothing, absolutely
nothing. I have been to the
jumping-off place on all these roads. They all lead to a bottomless pit.”
“Well, then,” continued the
preacher, as though he had heard the answer, Let us admit there’s nothing there.
But if there is a God,
mustn’t there be a something somewhere? If so, how do you know it is not here?
Are you willing to test it?
Have you the courage and fairness to try it? Are you willing to try it now, to
make a practical, experimental
test, you to be the judge of the result?”
These calm and pointed questions hit him with tremendous force, but he did not
understand what test the preacher had in mind. The preacher continued: “I base
my test on these two scriptures: ‘If any man will do his will, he shall know of
the doctrine, whether it be of God.’ John 7: 17 ‘Then
shall we know, if we follow
on to know the Lord.”Hosea 6: 3.
The
young man saw that a
saving knowledge of Christ rested upon his willingness to obey the truth he
found, and upon his
perseverance in the test till he had gained this knowledge. So when the
invitation was given by the preacher
to all who were thus willing to come forward and take his hand as a token of
that decision, he at once went
forward. His experience from then on in the meeting is related by Dr. Carroll
himself:
“The meeting closed without any change upon my part. The last sermon had been
preached, the
benediction pronounced, and the congregation was dispersing. Only a few ladies
remained, seated near the
pulpit and engaged in singing. Feeling that the experiment was ended and the
solution not found, I
remained to hear them sing. As their last song they sang:
‘0 land of rest, for thee I sigh;
When will the moment come
When I shall lay my armor by,
And dwell with Christ at home?’
MRS E. MILLS.
“This singing made a wonderful impression upon me. Its tones were as soft as the
rustling of
angels’ wings. Suddenly there flashed upon my mind, like a light from heaven,
this scripture: ‘Come unto
Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ I did not
see Jesus with my eyes, but I
seemed to see Him standing before me, looking reproachfully and tenderly and
pleadingly, seeming to
rebuke me for having gone to all other sources for rest but the right one, and
now inviting me to come to
Him. In a moment I went, once and for ever, casting myself unreservedly and for
all time at Christ’s feet,
and in a moment the rest came, indescribable and unspeakable, and it has
remained from that day until
now!”
If you have been living apart from Christ and have found no real rest for your
soul, will you not
make the same test that the young soldier did? Will you not make up your mind to
follow the light that
comes to you, and to keep looking for the light till the test is fulfilled?
When you have done this, the Savior will make His divine presence so real to you
day by day, His
companionship is satisfying, His salvation so lasting, that you too will be longingly will
be looking toward your home with Him in glory.
Piloted by Christ
ALTHOUGH Christ is in heaven at the right hand of God, by the Holy Spirit He is
listening to
and answering the cry of every soul in need who appeals to Him for help. The
words `Jesus, Savior, pilot me” are answered promptly, because He is trying to
awaken just such an appeal in every needy heart.
The great transport “Matsonia,” in the
midst of a terrific storm, in
midnight darkness, with the rain pounding and the wind howling, was cutting her
way through a submarine
zone on the way back from France. Dr. Stidger, on watch at the time, writes:
“For an hour I heard no sound from the boys below me. I watched their silent
forms with a great feeling
of respect and affection. The ship lurched through the storm on its zigzag
course. Then suddenly I heard of
a familiar sound coming from one of the boys below me. It was from big, rawboned
‘Montana,’ as they
called him. The sound was low at first, and because of the storm and the
vibration of the ship I could not
make it out, although the melody was strangely familiar. Then the boy on the
port gun took the melody up,
followed by the gunners on the starboard, and I caught the old, familiar words:
Jesus, Savior, pilot me
Over life’s tempestuous sea;
Unknown waves before me roll,
Hiding rock and treacherous shoal; Chart and compass come from Thee;
Jesus, Savior, pilot me.
“Above the creaking and the vibrations of the great ship, above the thunder of
the storm, those
American boy gunners all unconsciously, in that storm-tossed, tumultuous,
turbulent sea, were singing the
old hymn that came back to them from their boyhood memories in little churches
across this continent. I
think I never heard that wonderful hymn when it sounded sweeter or more
appropriately sung than it did
that night as the second verse wafted up to me where I stood my watch on the aft
gun deck of the old
transport ‘Matsonia’.
‘As a mother stills her child
Thou can still the ocean wild;
Boisterous waves obey Thy will
When Thou says to them, “Be still.”
Wondrous Sovereign of the sea,
Jesus, Savior, pilot me.’
Jesus Himself
has promised: “I
am the bread of life: he that comes to Me shall never hunger; and he that
believes on Me shall never thirst.”
“And him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out.” John 6:35,37.
Are you
bound for the heavenly
harbor? Is Christ your Pilot? If not, then in these days of stress and strain,
of fears unnumbered, will you
take Christ on board as your Pilot?
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