PROFILES OF FAMOUS CHRISTIANS

PROFILES OF FAMOUS CHRISTIANS

by
Pastor David W. Kuykendall
First Baptist Church of Searles Valley
84661 Trona Road
Trona, CA 93562
1994

TO
BARBARA, MY LOVING AND FAITHFUL HELPMEET

PREFACE

These brief biographies were originally written for

use as columns in the
newspaper, and then as part of a fifteen minute
radio program entitled: On the
Lords Side. The intent was to focus on accounts of
salvation, and how Christ
makes a difference in lives. As one result of the
programs, a Mormon man
contacted us to say that he had trusted Christ
while listening to the radio in
his work shed.
The very nature of the subject limits originality,
as these well-known people,
with only two exceptions, have now gone to meet
their Savior in Heaven. I am
heavily indebted to the books listed in the
bibliography, as well as to Dr. Ed
Reese and Dr. Jim Vineyard who taught courses in
Church History and Biographies
of Great Christians while I attended Hyles-Anderson
college, and dozens of
biographies that I have read over the years.
I am thankful for Pastor W. W. "Bill" Scott, now in
heaven, who loaned me a copy
of Hudson Taylors Spiritual Secret, when I first
started attending a
fundamental church. I am also indebted to my
parents, who shared with me their
love of reading, and particularly my mother, who
read stories to me every night.
I can remember her reading Bible stories at my
bedside, as well as many
marvelous English and Australian childrens books.
This collection is by no means exhaustive, but is
rather a sampling of stories
of ordinary people who left an outstanding
testimony because of the power of
God. My prayer is that the Holy Spirit would use
this work to convict some of
their need for salvation, and encourage many others
as they continue in their
walk with Him.

CONTENTS
SPENDING A LIFE
WILLIAM BORDEN
CAN A SHOEMAKER WIN THE WORLD?
WILLIAM CAREY
 THE GRAND SECRET OF SUCCESS
PETER CARTWRIGHT
ITS GREAT TO BE SAVED!
WESLEY CLARK
FACE TO FACE
FANNY CROSBY
OUR LOVING GOD
JONATHAN EDWARDS
DRIVE ON!
CHRISTMAS EVANS
A LAWYER BEATS THE LAW
CHARLES FINNEY
TO WHOM DOES THE PROPHET REFER?
SOLOMON GINSBURG
10.WHO IS ON THE LORDS SIDE?
FRANCIS RIDLEY HAVERGAL
11.LITTLE JACKIE BOY
JACK HYLES
12.THE "BOY WONDER"
HARRY IRONSIDE
13.IS THIS ALL THAT IS LEFT?
SAM JONES
14.LIFE AFTER DEATH
ADONIRAM JUDSON
15.THE TEACHER FINDS THE TRUTH
MARTIN LUTHER
16.A NEW ROLE MODEL
JEREMIAH MCAULEY
17.LIVE SO AS TO BE MISSED
ROBERT M. MCCHEYNE
18.WHAT ONE MAN CAN DO
DWIGHT L. MOODY
19.A FRAUD FINDS FAITH
GEORGE MUELLER
20.AMAZING GRACE
JOHN NEWTON
21.ILL SEE YOU AGAIN
JOHN R. RICE
22.THE LORD HATH SUFFERED SO MUCH FOR ME
GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA
 23.THAT ALL MAY UNDERSTAND
CHARLES SIMEON
24.A PRIEST GOES ONLY BY SCRIPTURE
MENNO SIMMONS
25.ACCEPT HIS LOVE
A. B. SIMPSON
26.JESUS DIED FOR ME
CORNELIUS SMITH
27.LOOK TO JESUS
CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON
28.FROM CRICKET TO CHRIST
C. T. STUDD
29.BASEBALLS BRIGHT LIGHT SHINES
BILLY SUNDAY
30.THE SPIRITUAL SECRET
HUDSON TAYLOR
31.CAN GOD SAVE A HOPELESS DRUNK?
MEL TROTTER
32.I DONT WANT TO GO TO CHURCH
JOHN VASSAR
33.A MISSIONARY FINDS GRACE-
JOHN WESLEY
34.I WOULD RATHER WEAR OUT THAN RUST OUT-
GEORGE WHITFIELD
35.TRUSTING JESUS ... THAT IS ALL-ULRICH
ZWINGLI
36.APPENDIX
BIBLIOGRAPHY 37

SPENDING A LIFE
With a fortune from silver mines in Colorado,
Mr. and Mrs. Borden did their
best to provide for their son. First a childhood at
home, then a private
boarding prep school, then on to college at Yale.
Mr. Borden wanted his son to
be a success in life. Mrs. Borden also had high
dreams for her boy, for success
in both this life and the next. Young William was
taken to church even as a
little child. When he was seven years old he
surrendered his life to Christ and
dedicated himself to do whatever God wanted.
Although his family was wealthy, William was
taught to keep strict accounts
of how he spent the money that was given to him. He
learned to be a wise steward
of both his finances and his time, never forgetting
that he had dedicated his
life to God. His father insisted that he attend
Yale University. When he found
few of the students at Yale living for God, he
determined to be an example among
them of what God could do in the life of a
dedicated Christian. He helped start
a rescue mission for sailors who gathered at the
docks. Attending classes and
studying during the day, he spent his evenings
explaining the gospel to these
hardened men. Hundreds came to know forgiveness for
their sins as a result of
this mission work. Graduating from Yale, William
Borden went on to graduate from
Princeton Seminary three years later. Then, within
a year, he was dead.
Is that the end of the story? Certainly not! His
father had passed away
during Williams second year of college, and the
care of the family fortune
passed into Williams hands. He became a trustee of
Moody Bible Institute, and a
member of the council of the China Inland Mission.
While attending seminary, he
taught a Sunday School class in a black church and
gave thousands of dollars to
Christian causes. He was a delegate at both the
Student Volunteer Movement
conference and the Edinburgh Missionary Conference.
Having been strongly influenced by preachers
such as G. Campbell Morgan and
R. A. Torrey, and by travel around the world with
missionaries, he determined to
go as a missionary to some of the fifteen million
Muslims in China who were
without a single Christian witness. William Borden
was ordained in 1912 by Dr.
James M. Gray at the Moody Memorial Church and then
traveled to Egypt to study
with Dr. Samuel Zwemer, the outstanding missionary
to the Muslims. When he
contracted cerebral meningitis a few months later
and died, it was found that he
had willed his entire fortune to Christian work.
How do you count the value of William Bordens
life? Was it the dozens who
became missionaries because of his challenge? Was
it in the hundreds who were
challenged to fully surrender their lives and
fortunes to God? Or was it in the
tender moments he spent teaching young children in
Sunday School, and leading
old, sin-soaked sailors to God? William Borden did
not place a value on his
lifehe merely placed his future for eternity into
the hands of God.

CAN A SHOEMAKER WIN THE WORLD?

In the 1700s in England, many young men dreamed
of exploration. One, a
shoemakers apprentice named William, was
particularly curious about geography
and customs of foreign lands. He had a map on which
he made notes about strange
lands and peoples. He also had a leather globe that
he used to share his
knowledge with others. In the course of his
studying, he read a sermon by Jeremy
Taylor. It roused his interest in a new subject:
being "born again."
When William asked an apprentice friend about
this new birth, he was
encouraged to go to church to get his answers. The
young cobbler resisted,
however, because the invitation was to a Dissenters
Church, not to a Church of
England. To Williams protests, the response was:
"They may be called heretics,
but they preach from the Bible. And thats what
counts!" For months, William
Carey resisted the invitation to church. When he
finally started attending, he
had to admit that they did preach the Bible. One
day, the preacher spoke of the
reproach of following Christ. William said that
during the message: "I felt
ruined and helpless. I had a desire to follow
Christ." He had finally come to
the end of himself, and given up to Jesus.
From that morning onward, he both knew what the
second birth was, and
actively followed Christ. This cobblers apprentice
began to study languages,
and during his daily devotions he read from the
Bible: English, Hebrew, Greek
and Latin. When his master died, he took over the
shoe shop, married and began a
night school for the village children. Seven years
after his new birth, William
Carey was ordained a Baptist minister.
A few weeks later he asked at a ministers
meeting: "Whether or not the Great
Commission is binding upon us today to go and teach
all nations?" The response
from the formal churchmen was: "When God pleases to
convert the heathen, He will
do it without your aid or mine." William Carey was
not content with this answer,
and continued to seek Gods leading in the matter.
Almost six years later, Carey
formed a missionary society, and the next year
became its first missionary,
taking his family to India. It was not easy work,
and there was much heartache.
His wife became mentally deranged, and several
missionaries died of local
diseases. It was seven years before he baptized his
first convert, but William
was not one to give up. By the end of his ministry,
William Carey had translated
the entire Bible into the four leading languages of
India, and established one
hundred and twenty-six mission schools. This
cobblers apprentice with an
interest in the world had not only found the
meaning of the new birth, but had
become the father of the modern missionary
movement.

"THE GRAND SECRET OF THE SUCCESS OF ALL PIONEER

PREACHERS"
Rogues Harbor, Virginia in 1801 was an evil
place for a boy to grow up. At
the age of sixteen, Peter Cartwright was no
stranger to sin. His own father had
bought him a deck of cards to gamble with, and then
given him a racehorse. At
one point, after an evening of drinking and
dancing, the young Cartwright fell
under a sense of conviction of his own sinfulness,
and he wrestled with it night
and day for the next three months. In the sparsely
settled, Indian-plagued
wilderness, some twelve thousand people gathered
for the Cane Ridge Meeting. One
of the two thousand people who were saved by the
end of those meetings, Peter
was destined to do great things for God. The
teenage convert could not keep his
mouth shut about his salvation, and when his family
moved farther west the next
year, young Peter inquired of the Methodist-
Episcopal church authorities who
their new preacher would be? He was astounded to
find himself being appointed to
preach in the new country, with not as much as one
day of seminary training!
Peter soon discovered that Holy Ghost fire in
the heart and a good horse
underneath you was the only seminary training a
circuit-riding preacher needed.
He also found the pay was not startling, officially
being eighty dollars a year,
but seldom actually going over fifty. For twenty-
one years he traveled the
circuits in Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio.
The custom was to change
circuits every two years, which meant many moves
for a family that eventually
came to have nine children. An example of his
preaching was a camp meeting on
the Roaring River circuit in 1822, where the altar
call after his sermon
continued for two days and nights, and resulted in
two hundred people being
saved. In 1823 Peter Cartwright moved his family to
Illinois in order to "get
entirely clear of the evil of slavery", and be in a
place where he "could raise
my children to work where work was not thought a
degradation." He continued to
preach with great results, and through the years
saw the wilderness turned into
great metropolitan areas.
Certainly the outstanding aspect of his life was
his enduement with power
from on high. He described it thus: "In this agency
of the Holy Spirit of God I
have been a firm believer for more than fifty-four
years, and I do firmly
believe that if the ministers of the present day
had more of the unction or
baptismal fire of the Holy Spirit prompting their
ministerial efforts, we should
succeed much better than we do, and be more
successful in winning souls to
Christ than we are and I would humbly ask, is not
this the grand secret of the
success of all early pioneer preachers, from John
Wesley down to the present
day?"

ITS GREAT TO BE SAVED!

Wesley Clark thought life was grand. His father
was a storekeeper, and the
family store was loaded with candy and fruit, as
well as less interesting
things. This little boy, however, couldnt figure
out why he had to sneak most
of the candy he wanted to eat. With a whole store
full, why didnt his daddy
just let Wesley eat all the candy he wanted? This
was one of the many mysteries
for which he would find answers in coming years.
While Wesley was not trained by
a fathers example to have a close relationship
with God, his mother did pray
for him, and together his parents paid to send him
to a Christian school.
When he was twelve years old, he began to wonder
about another of lifes
mysteries. He became convicted of the weight of his
sins, and wondered how he
could find forgiveness and peace with God? He found
forgiveness and peace one
day by praying, asking the Lord to forgive him, and
trusting the blood of Jesus
Christ to pay for his sin. He had read in the Bible
and heard through preaching
that "the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord," and that
day he trusted God for His gift. From the moment
that he turned his life over to
God, he had assurance that he was saved.
When he shared with the pastor at the Christian
school that he had been
saved, the pastor tried to talk him out of it! The
minister insisted that no one
could be saved without being baptized, and that
Wesley must be baptized before
he could know for sure that he was going to heaven.
Although he was only twelve,
the child knew through his Bible reading and
through the witness of the Holy
Spirit in his heart that he had received full
salvation. Although he did get
baptized, it was in obedience to his Lord, and as a
witness that he had already
trusted Christ for salvation.
During World War II, Wesley joined the navy.
While others were having "fun"
by getting drunk and being immoral, Wesley was
seeing the sights, studying his
Bible and witnessing to others of the joy there is
in Christ. He never had a day
marred by a hangover, or regrets about the
activities of the past. Wesley had a
sense of humor that never left him. A drill
instructor who was particularly
tough on the men, constantly needled Wesley for
being from Kentucky. Although
Wesley had been raised in the city, the man
insisted on calling him a
"hillbilly." On the rifle range, Wesley purposely
missed the target on his first
few tries. When the drill instructor asked why a
"hillbilly" didnt know how to
shoot, Wesley replied loudly that it was because he
had always shot barefoot
before. When the instructor allowed him to take off
his boots, every shot hit
the center!
After graduating from college and seminary,
Wesley began to pastor small
churches in Kentucky and Tennessee. He combined a
keen sense of humor with a
bold witness and fearless preaching of the Word of
God. Each church he pastored
led the county in baptisms and growth. After some
years, he felt God leading him
to come to California to pastor. He moved out on
faith, and soon became pastor
of a church in Oceanside. He not only was
successful in his pastorate, but was
also elected head of his denominational group for
Southern California. Disgusted
with the liberal drift in the denominational
schools and camps, he eventually
left the denomination, giving up the retirement
plan that he had contributed to
for years.
Pastor Clark began a church by meeting in a
restaurant in Carlsbad,
California. He sold his house, and used the
proceeds to pay the down payment on
a nine-acre citrus orchard with a house, at the end
of a winding road. Some
years later, Dr. Elmer Towns described it as "the
hardest church in America to
find." During the next sixteen years, Dr. Clark saw
over twelve thousand people
profess faith in Christ in the main services of the
church. Thousands of marines
based at Camp Pendleton were saved as a result of
the aggressive outreach
program of the church. Over one hundred people are
in full-time Christian
service as a result of the West Coast Baptist
Church, and the ministry of Dr.
Wesley Clark, a man who found the secret to one of
lifes mysteries.

FACE TO FACE
In the month of May, in the year 1820, a mother
took her six-month old child
to the doctor. It seemed she had a minor eye
infection that needed to be
treated. The doctor was careless in his treatment,
and the precious little girl
went blind. To compound the difficulty, throughout
her life she constantly
battled health problems. How could a blind woman
with fragile health during the
1800s accomplish anything for God?
It seems that for one person, being blind meant
that she could see and
understand a great deal about God. Little Fanny
Crosby turned out to be an
amazing child in several ways. She held no
bitterness about her blindness. At
the age of eight she wrote her first poem:
Oh, what a happy child I am,
Although I cannot see!
I am resolved that in this world
Contented I will be.
How many blessings I enjoy
That other people dont!
So weep or sigh because Im blind,
I cannot, nor I wont!
The biggest influences in Fannys life were her
grandmother, her mother, and
a godly neighbor. With these folks working with
her, by the time she was ten
years old she could recite the first four books of
the Old Testament, the four
Gospels and a very large number of poems. When she
was fifteen she began formal
education in New York City. She quickly became an
excellent student in every
subject except mathematics.
She published her first book of poems at the age
of twenty-four, including
her first hymn. Although her family and one of her
teachers were great spiritual
influences, Fanny herself did not receive the
assurance of her salvation until
she was thirty years old. While attending revival
meetings at the Broadway
Tabernacle Methodist Church in New York, she had
gone to the altar on two
different evenings, without settling the matter.
Finally, while the people were
singing: "Alas, and Did My Saviour Bleed?" God
showed her the solution to her
need. She later said: "My very soul was flooded
with celestial light. For the
first time I realized that I had been trying to
hold the world in one hand and
the Lord in the other."
Fanny found great joy in knowing the Lord Jesus
Christ had forgiven her and
given her abundant new life. Eight years later she
married a gifted musician
who, like her, had been a student and an instructor
at the blind school.
In 1864 she began to write gospel songs,
producing over eight thousand songs
during the next fifty-one years. Many of these
songs are still popular today,
such as: "To God Be the Glory," "Blessed
Assurance," "Praise Him! Praise Him!,"
"Redeemed," "Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross,"
"Rescue the Perishing," and "All
the Way My Saviour Leads Me."
Often she mentioned sight in her songs. She had
a great faith, and sweet
assurance that heaven was her home. In her song:
"Saved by Grace," she writes:
Some day the silver cord will break,
And I no more as now shall sing;
But oh, the joy when I shall wake
Within the palace of the King!
And I shall see Him face to face,
And tell the story Saved by grace.
And I shall see Him face to face,
And tell the story Saved by grace.

OUR LOVING GOD

Jonathans grandpa was a preacher, and Jonathan
seemed to be born with a love
for God also. In a family of eleven children, he
was the only boy. His parents
home-schooled him, and in his early years he showed
a real intellectual genius.
He studied not just English and numbers, but also
included Latin, Greek and
Hebrew. His two great interests in his early years
were science and religion. He
not only watched spiders, he wrote a brilliant
essay about them. He saw God in
the world, and sought to know more about God by
studying His creation. As a
youth, he prayed five times a day. When he built a
fort in the swamp, it was so
he and his friends could pray and talk together
about spiritual matters. He
enrolled in Yale when he was thirteen years old. At
seventeen, he began studying
for a masters degree in theology.
It was at the age of seventeen that he settled
the matter of his personal
relationship with God. Although he had read and
studied much about God, he had a
hard time accepting the fact that God was
sovereign. This reflected the fact
that although he was interested in prayer, he was
unwilling to accept God as the
Lord of his life. In studying a particular verse of
the Bible, I Timothy 1:17,
he finally resolved all of his former struggle: "As
I read the words, there came
into my soul, and was as it were diffused through
it, a sense of the glory of
the divine Being; a new sense, quite different from
anything I ever experienced
before. From about that time, I began to have a new
kind of apprehensions and
ideas of Christ, and the work of redemption, and
the glorious way of salvation
by Him."
At the age of twenty-four, Jonathan Edwards
became assistant pastor to his
grandfather. Within two years, his grandfather
passed away and he found himself
called to pastor this influential church. He
married, and eventually became the
father of eleven children. While an intense student
all of his life, he devoted
specific time each day to his children.
This was a time of revival called the Great
Awakening. Pastor Edwards
received some criticism for his support of this
revival, but it was nothing
compared to the criticism that he would receive as
his ministry progressed. He
began to challenge the members of his church to
accept Christ as their Saviour.
Although they had been baptized into the church as
children, many of the members
had never had a personal time of asking the Lord to
forgive and save them.
Salvation was not necessary in that church for
either membership or
participating in the Lords Supper. The concerned
pastor challenged his people
with the fact that church membership and attendance
were not enough. Rather than
just know of God, he challenged them to truly know
God by admitting their
sinfulness, acknowledging Gods rule over their
lives, and accepting His
wonderful gift of grace. The reaction of many was
that they did not want to be
stirred out of their comfortable ways.
The sermon that Jonathan Edwards is best known
for is one entitled: "Sinners
in the Hands of an Angry God," in which he stirs
people to realize their
accountability before God. Eventually, although
three hundred people were saved
in his church in one year alone, the church
leadership voted him out of the
pastorate. Edwards became a missionary to the
Indians in New England, and
finally accepted the post of President of
Princeton. The testimony of the life
of this brilliant theologian with an evangelists
heart was that he loved God,
and he loved his fellow man. Although many of the
churches in New England
continued on into dead religion, Jonathan Edwards
life became a challenge to
generations of Christians, and a prime influence in
the development of the
modern missionary movement.

"DRIVE ON!"
Who is the most likely candidate to become a
spiritual giant? If we were to
choose, there is one man who would probably be
among the last to be picked. Born
on December 25, 1766, in Wales, his parents named
him Christmas Evans. His
father died when he was a child. As a result of her
poverty, his mother asked
the boys uncle to raise him. Christmas upbringing
was certainly less than
desirable. A cruel man and a drunkard, his uncle
did not give him any education
in scholarship, morality or religion. As a
teenager, Christmas could neither
read nor write, but was certainly an experienced
fighter, and had several
brushes with death. At seventeen, he left his
uncles farm and went to work for
a Presbyterian minister. There was a revival in the
church, and he was one of
those who gave their hearts and lives to Christ. He
began to learn to read and
write, and went along with others to cottage
meetings held for the poor. He was
occasionally called upon to lead in prayer or to
preach, several times
memorizing sermons and prayers that he found in
books. As his skill in reading
grew, he studied the Bible diligently.
Three years after his conversion, he joined a
Baptist church as a result of
this study. He went on to master Greek, Hebrew and
Latin, and four years later
was ordained to preach. God blessed in his first
pastorate, and soon the tall,
bony, ill-dressed, one-eyed farm youth came to the
attention of thousands of
people as one who had the power of God upon his
preaching and ministry. Two
years later they moved to Anglesea, where he rode
his horse around the island to
regular preaching engagements, developing twenty
assemblies and seeing more than
six hundred people trust Christ in just a few
years. He gave advice to young
pastors to live "a blameless life," and remember
that "reading, prayer and
temptation are necessary to strengthen and to
purify the talents of a minister."
He is remembered as a man of pulpit eloquence in
both English and Welsh, of
evangelistic zeal and of prayer.
In this modern day, people make excuses for a
child raised in poverty,
subjected to brutality, deprived of formal
education and lacking social graces.
One who has suffered all of this, in addition to
having been disfigured by
losing an eye in a fight, may be tempted to despair
of ever accomplishing
anything great. We can look to the example of
Christmas Evans, a young man who
gave himself to Jesus Christ and was miraculously
transformed. "Life," he said,
"is the only cure for death. Not the prescriptions
of duty, not the threats of
punishment and damnation, not the arts and
refinements of education, but new,
spiritual, Divine life." Christmas Evans was a man
who knew the Saviour, shared
Him with others, and had confidence in his eternal
home. His last words, on July
20, 1838, were: "Goodbye! Drive on!"

A LAWYER BEATS THE LAW

The twenty-nine year old lawyer was one of the
most popular men in Adams, New
York. Not only was he busy as a lawyer, but because
of his musical talents he
was the choir leader of the Adams Presbyterian
Church. Although he helped out at
the church, it was well known that he was a
skeptic. He felt that nothing he had
seen in Christianity showed any power of reality.
Although he knew people who
said they were Christians, he saw so many
inconsistencies in their lives that he
dismissed their faith. As a lawyer, Charles Finney
often had to consult
Blackstone's law books. About the time that a group
of Christians began to pray
for his conversion, Finney began to notice
references in the law books to the
Bible as the highest authority. He purchased a
Bible and began to study it,
partly to try to outwit the pastor of the church.
He became convicted of the weight of his sin,
and began to wonder if he could
find a way to have forgiveness and real peace.
After studying the Bible, he came
to the realization that the Bible was true, even
though Christians might be
inconsistent. Finally, he set aside a day to read
the Bible for the answers to
his spiritual needs. Each time he began to read,
there would be a knock on his
door, and he would hide the Bible. Before he began
to pray, he plugged the
keyhole of the office door, so that no one would
hear him. He wanted to learn
more about God, but was embarrassed for anyone to
find out, since he was known
as being a scoffer. That night, he tossed and
turned, finding no peace. In the
morning, after he entered his office, he said an
inner voice seemed to whisper:
"What are you waiting for? Are you trying to become
righteous on your own?" He
then understood that: "Christ's work was a finished
work ... and that all I must
do was consent to give up my sins and accept Him."
Charles Finney left the
office that morning to find a place alone in the
woods. There, he kneeled down
and gave up to God. As he prayed, he asked for
forgiveness and turned his life
over to the Lord. When he arose, he was a new man.
He could not keep silent about his newfound
Savior. In the coming days and
years, his testimony spread as he talked to
individuals and then preached
wherever he could. Almost the entire population of
the town of Adams received
Christ as a result, and the churches were
revitalized. The revival swept to
surrounding towns and then throughout the
northeast. Hundreds of thousands of
people, including dozens of ministers, were saved
as a result of the Holy Spirit
using the preaching and writings of Charles Finney.
This skeptical lawyer not
only found victory over the law, but also spent a
lifetime sharing that victory
with others.
"TO WHOM DOES THE PROPHET REFER?"
One hundred years ago, Poland was a center of
Jewish intellectual activity.
Rabbi Ginsburg had the duty of leading the
celebration of the Feast of
Tabernacles, assisted by other learned rabbis. As
the men discussed spiritual
questions, thirteen-year-old Solomon Ginsburg, the
rabbi's son, glanced through
an old copy of the Prophets. In the margin next to
a portion of Isaiah was
written the question: "To whom does the prophet
refer?" As Solomon read the
scripture, he, too, had the same question in his
mind. He asked his father the
question, but did not receive an answer. Thinking
his father had not heard, he
asked him again: "To whom does the prophet refer?"
In reply, his father reached
out and slapped his face, and closed the book.
Two years passed, and Solomon's question
remained unanswered. As a young man
of fifteen, Solomon was approached one day in the
streets of London and invited
to hear a sermon that was to be preached by a
Jewish missionary. The topic was
to be Isaiah chapter 53, the same passage that had
raised the question. Solomon
agreed to attend, and that evening he heard the
wonderful account of Jesus, the
Lamb of God prophesied in Isaiah. Solomon was
encouraged to read the New
Testament. Through reading the Bible, Solomon came
to know that Jesus was the
Messiah, but he was hesitant to trust Him as his
savior. He knew that if a Jew
trusted in Jesus, his entire family would disown
him and treat him as if he were
dead.
After three months of struggle, Solomon listened
to a sermon on Matthew
10:37: "He that loveth father or mother more than
me is not worthy of me." That
day, he knew he must decide. When the preacher
asked for testimonies at the end
of the service, Solomon rose to say: "I want to be
worthy of Jesus." Solomon had
gone from questions to belief and finally to trust.
In that moment of trusting,
the Bible says he was spiritually born into God's
family. The next day, his
uncle wanted to know what caused young Solomon to
have such a big smile on his
face. When he told his uncle his joy came from
trusting Jesus as the Messiah,
his family immediately took steps to cut all ties
with him.
What happened to this teenager who trusted
Christ? He went on to attend and
graduate from Bible college and become a missionary
in Brazil. From 1890 to
1920, Solomon Ginsburg engaged in pioneer mission
work and introduced hundreds
of people to the family of God through trusting
faith in Jesus Christ, the
sinless Lamb of God who died to pay for our sins.

"WHO IS ON THE LORD'S SIDE?"

Francis Ridley Havergal wrote songs. More
specifically, out of a heart of
love for her Lord Jesus Christ, flowed a wellspring
of poetry. Francis' father
was a pastor, and wrote and published church music.
When she was three she began
to read, and at four she was reading the Bible. By
the age of seven she began to
keep a notebook of poetry she had written. Although
she was recognized as having
a remarkable intellect, life was not easy for her.
Her mother died when Francis
was only eleven. Although she attended church from
her childhood, she struggled
with the concept of salvation for three years, and
finally received the
assurance of her salvation at the age of fifteen.
Francis believed in God, even as a child. She
was deeply moved by the truth
of Christ's death on the cross to pay for our sin.
Every time she saw the Lord's
Supper, she was reminded of the great love that was
shown us by Christ's
sacrifice. She was also troubled by the fact of
sin, and the judgment that she
knew was the result of sin. She wanted to have
peace with God, but felt that the
weight of her sin kept her from it. Finally,
through the counsel of a committed
Christian lady and the testimony of peace that a
girlfriend found when she
accepted Christ, Francis was persuaded to put all
of her hope and trust in Jesus
Christ's payment for her sin and in His gift of
eternal life. When she finally
and fully accepted God's love and trusted Christ's
payment for her sins, she
found the wonderful peace that a new life in Christ
brings.
Francis Ridley Havergal was an unusual person.
She learned Greek, Hebrew,
Latin, German, French and Italian. She memorized
the contents of most of the
books of the New Testament, as well as Psalms,
Isaiah and the Minor Prophets.
Francis taught a children's Sunday School class,
visited those who were poor and
ill, and had a ministry of writing books and
corresponding with those in need of
counsel and comfort. She suffered poor health much
of her life, and yet always
found cause to praise her Lord and challenge others
to serve Him. Today many of
her songs are still popular, such as: "Like a River
Glorious", "I Gave My Life
for Thee", and "Who Is on the Lord's Side?" Toward
the end of her life she wrote
a song that could well sum up her life's prayer:
Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to
thee.
Take my moments and my days: let them flow in
ceaseless praise.
Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of
thy love.
Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful
for Thee.
Take my voice, and let me sing always, only, for my
King.
Take my lips, and let them be filled with messages
from Thee.
Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I
withhold.
Take my intellect, and use every power as thou
shalt choose.
Take my will and make it thine; it shall be no
longer mine.
Take my heart; it is thine own; it shall be thy
royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour at thy feet its
treasure-store.
Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for
Thee.
LITTLE JACKIE BOY
The fourth child of a family that had been
touched with hardship and tragedy,
Jack was painfully shy. His father had been active
in the Methodist church early
in his marriage, but by the time Jack was born, any
church involvement had long
been replaced by a love of the bottle. The poverty
stricken family moved to a
small house in Dallas, where Jack and his mother
attended a Baptist church two
doors away.
By the age of eight, Jack realized he was lost
without the Lord Jesus Christ
as his Saviour. He considered asking Jesus for
forgiveness and the gift of
eternal life, but he did not want to get baptized.
At the age of ten, Jack
became heavily burdened about his lost condition.
At the same time, his pastor
and the church members spent a week in prayer for
his salvation. On Saturday
night, his father's return home from a night of
drinking greatly disturbed Jack.
When Sunday came, Jack couldn't feel at peace with
God or with others around
him. He sat through Sunday School and the morning
church service, and a great
heaviness enveloped him. That evening, in the break
time between Training Union
and the evening service, in the hallway of the
Fernwood Baptist Church, young
Jack Hyles knelt and asked God for forgiveness for
his sins. He told Him that he
believed that Jesus Christ was the Saviour, and he
was trusting the Lord Jesus
to save him. When he rose from his knees he had
received forgiveness for sin,
and God's gift of eternal life. What a happy boy he
was! That night, he made his
profession of faith at the evening service and was
baptized.
When he was thirteen, Jack's father left the
home. Jack's mother was a godly
woman, willing to work long hours to support the
family. In spite of her
grinding schedule, she made time to teach her child
Biblical principles to guide
his life. When he graduated from high school, Jack
went to work for the
railroad. He had an idea of becoming a publicist or
maybe a newspaper writer, or
possibly an announcer.
That first year after high school, as he sat in
church one night, he realized
very definitely that God wanted him to surrender to
preach. How could "Little
Jackie Boy" be a preacher? At eighteen years of
age, he still sucked his thumb.
How could this introvert ever speak to others? Yet,
that night he surrendered to
God's call to preach. At the end of the service Joe
Boyd, the famous football
player, walked down the aisle to tell the pastor
that he had surrendered to be a
preacher. Then, when the preacher announced that
"Little Jackie Boy" Hyles had
also come to be a preacher, a hush fell over the
congregation. The pastor said:
"Folks ... let's pray for Jackie!" Jack's first
sermon was three minutes of
stammering, stuttering, a false start and a tearful
exit. It was not a very
auspicious beginning! He enrolled in college,
taking some classes in speech,
then attended Bible college interspersed with a
stint as a paratrooper during
World War II. After graduation, he pastored a
church while working forty hours a
week and attending seminary.
One night Jack's father came to hear him preach.
After the service, he begged
his father to get saved, and his father promised
that he would soon, but there
wasn't enough time. Shortly thereafter, he died of
a heart attack. He was a
drunkard, and as far as is known he never did trust
the Lord Jesus Christ for
forgiveness. His son spent hours on his father's
grave, praying and crying and
calling out to God for His power to reach men. He
begged for God's Spirit to so
touch men's hearts that they would turn to God.
After this time, when he
preached, God's power began to fall. He would call
on five hundred homes each
month to try to win souls and build the church. One
church went from ten up to
six hundred in attendance. He built another church
of a hundred up to four
thousand, and then was called to pastor the First
Baptist Church of Hammond,
Indiana.
"Little Jackie Boy", the thumb sucking, insecure
introvert, who stood to
preach for three minutes and sat down in tears,
pastored the largest church in
the world for 41 years. The Sunday School
attendance averaged twenty thousand
weekly, and for many years they baptized over eight
thousand each year. A
soulwinning lighthouse, the church was known for
dynamic preaching, and tapes of
Dr. Hyles' messages went to thousands throughout
the world every week. He also
traveled across America, preaching over a thousand
times a year. Today many
rejoice that, years ago, God cared enough to save
"Little Jackie Boy".

"THE BOY WONDER"

OR
OUR WONDERFUL GOD
"He's a boy wonder" they said, and indeed he
was! He read through the Bible
completely at the age of eight, and read through it
twice the next year. By the
time he was fourteen, Harry had read the entire
Bible fourteen times! At the age
of eleven, Harry and his widowed mother moved to
Los Angeles and there was no
Sunday School in the neighborhood. Would that stop
this "boy wonder"? He
organized boys to collect burlap bags, and
organized girls to sew them together.
Within days, a tent was created that could cover
one hundred people. No teacher?
Harry became the teacher, and averaged sixty in
attendance the first year. At
the age of twelve, Harry went to hear Dwight L.
Moody preach the first night of
the 1888 Los Angeles Crusade. He prayed to someday
be able to preach to immense
crowds like that.
At fourteen, Harry came home to find a familiar
visitor. Donald Munro was an
evangelist, and every time he had come to visit
them in Canada, he had always
asked Harry the same question: "Lad, are you born
again?" The boy would answer
that he memorized scripture, gave out tracts and
attended Sunday School. Mr.
Munro would always warn him: "Oh, laddie, you can
do all that and still spend
eternity in hell."
"My, how you've grown after four years, Harry,
lad. Now tell me, are you born
again, yet, laddie?" Harry's uncle responded to Mr.
Munro that Harry was
preaching in his own Sunday School. "You mean
you're preaching and not yet born
again! Get your Bible, lad. We've some things to
talk about." Mr. Munro had him
read Romans 3:19, to teach him of his own
sinfulness before God, and his need of
salvation. How important it is for one to be born
again before he preaches God's
Word to others! A few weeks later, fourteen-year-
old Harry gave up his Sunday
School. For the next six months he lived like a
part of the world, paying little
heed to God. One night while attending a party, a
Bible passage that he had
committed to memory came back very powerfully to
him. He became very concerned
for his eternal salvation, and went home to be by
himself. Arriving after
midnight, he read from the Bible in Romans chapter
three and John chapter three,
especially verses 16 and 18. In prayer he said to
God: "Lord, I rest on Thy
promise. I do now take Christ as my Saviour, and
because Thy Word says so, I
know I have eternal life."
At last, Harry had the proper order. The "boy
wonder" might have gone to
hell, but instead he gave up to Christ. As he began
to study and preach, God's
power was upon his ministry. He became well known
for his clear Bible teaching.
He wrote over twenty commentaries on books of the
Bible, and wrote dozens of
other books and tracts. For many years Dr. Harry
Ironside pastored the Moody
Memorial Church in Chicago, founded by the famous
evangelist. Throughout his
ministry, people pointed not to the "boy wonder",
but to the wonderful God who
could save even such a one as he.

IS THIS ALL THAT IS LEFT OF THE GREAT SAM JONES?

Sam's life was one of great potential. The son
of godly parents, he received
a good education. When he determined to become a
lawyer, he seemed one of the
most likely to succeed. Upon passing the
examination to become a lawyer in
Georgia in 1868, a judge described him as "the
brightest boy ever admitted to
our state's bar." This bright boy became a
brilliant lawyer. He married a
beautiful woman and had a career that many would
envy, except for one problem.
It seems that Sam had been sickly before
entering college, and had decided to
treat his weakness with a few doses of stiff
liquor. Upon regaining his
strength, he found that he still felt stronger when
he had braced himself with a
drink or two. This habit of preparing himself with
alcohol led to great
inconsistencies in his life. When he argued a case
in court, it was hailed as
outstanding, but too many times he was so drunk he
could not stand up to defend
anyone. When Sam was still a lad, his mother had
said to him on her deathbed:
"Sam, I will never be able to return to you, but
you can come to me." These
words haunted him. He would remember them sometimes
when he had been engaged in
a drinking bout, bringing shame upon his preacher
father and upon his godly
mother's memory.
One day Sam found himself in a bar, during a
particularly long drinking bout.
He had just begged from the bartender a glass of
"bar-slop", the spills of
alcohol found in the gutter of the bar counter. As
he lifted that glass of
gutter slop to his lips, he gazed at the sotted,
beaten, soiled and tattered
image reflected in the mirror before him. As he
looked he cried out in horror
and despair: "Is this all that is left of the great
Sam Jones?" At his dying
father's bedside, Sam tried to hide his whiskey
breath as his father called for
him. "My poor, wayward boy. You have broken the
heart of your wife and have
brought me in sorrow to my grave. Promise me you'll
meet me in heaven." Broken,
Sam shouted to his father: "I promise! I'll quit
drinking and set things
straight. I'll meet you and Mother in heaven." Sam
Jones never took another
drink after he left his dying father.
The following Sunday he went to hear his
grandfather preach, and asked for
prayer at the close of the service. Continuing to
attend church, a few weeks
later he walked the aisle in the church again, this
time to surrender his entire
life to God. One week later he preached his first
sermon, and went on to become
a well-known, faithful evangelist. Across the
country, leaders and common folk
alike came to hear him preach. Thousands were saved
through his ministry, and
thousands more challenged to put their priorities
right by determining to follow
the Bible command to: "Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and His righteousness,
and all these things shall be added unto you."

LIFE AFTER DEATH

As Adoniram Judson graduated from Brown
University in Providence, Rhode
Island, his parents reveled in his presentation of
the valedictory address. He
was a bright boy and his father, a pastor, welcomed
his son back home to start a
school. By the following year, he was both a
successful schoolteacher and an
accomplished author.
This seemingly stable young man, who faithfully
attended church with his
family, suddenly announced one day that he was
leaving teaching to become a
playwright in New York. His parents were astounded.
Upon questioning him, they
found that Adoniram had been deeply influenced by a
fellow student at Brown
University named Jacob Eames. Eames had convinced
Adoniram that there was
nothing of substance to Christianity, and since
Adoniram had never been born
again, Jacob's arguments seemed to fit what he
knew. Jacob Eames had succeeded
in turning Adoniram into a man without earthly or
eternal hope. Adoniram
determined to follow his friend's philosophy of
living only for the moment.
After a few unsuccessful weeks in New York,
Adoniram Judson decided to go
west to seek his fortune. When he stopped at an inn
to spend the night, he was
told the only available room was next to one of a
man who was dying. Adoniram
lay awake most of the night, listening to the
sounds from the next room and
thinking about where he himself would go when he
died. As he checked out the
next morning, he was told that the man had died,
and that his name had been
Jacob Eames! That day, he decided to search for the
truth back in his hometown.
At home, Adoniram talked to his father and some
other Christians about the
possibility of a real relationship with God.
Finally, he himself confessed to
God his sin, and placed his complete faith and
trust in the price that Jesus
Christ had paid on the cross. He at last found
peace with himself and God,
through accepting God's gift of eternal life.
Adoniram Judson eventually married and traveled
to Burma as a missionary,
laboring for six years before having his first
convert. By the time of his
death, he had translated the entire Bible into
Burmese, and on the one-hundredth
anniversary of his death it was estimated there
were two hundred thousand
Christians in Burma. Yes, Adoniram Judson died, and
Jacob Eames died, but
Judson's life work lives on and his spirit rests
eternally with the Lord.

THE TEACHER FINDS THE TRUTH

If ever a religious man would get to heaven by
his good works, Martin was
determined to be that man. If ever a religious man
were to be forgiven for the
sins he had committed, Martin was also determined
to be that man. In attempting
to be religious and to receive forgiveness, Martin
entered the Augustinian order
of monks. He fasted for days at a time. He dressed
simply and lived even more
simply. He prayed for hours, doing penance in such
a way that he was in physical
danger because of the stresses upon his body. He
sought direction from those in
authority over him, and following their teachings
made lists of his sins in
order to seek Christ's forgiveness.
He was faithful in his duties as a monk, and
studied hard from a Latin Bible.
As he read, one day a verse seemed to leap from the
page: "The just shall live
by faith." Not works? Not devotions? How could this
be? He continued to strive
to serve God faithfully and to find the peace he so
desperately sought. He
traveled to Rome and visited every shrine that he
could. He studied the Bible
books of Romans, Psalms and Galatians. The
University of Wittenberg granted him
a Doctor of Theology degree, entitling him to teach
theology, yet this teacher
still did not know how to find God's peace. While
teaching the book of Romans,
he wrestled with the idea of justification by
faith. He could not see how to
resolve the righteousness of God with the sins of
man. As he continued to study
the scriptures, God finally showed him the light.
"I saw that the righteousness
of God is received from God by faith as a gift. I
saw that this was the means by
which the merciful God declares the believers
righteous. I felt myself newborn.
All the scriptures appeared different to me.
Instead of hating, now I intensely
loved God's righteousness."
And so, the teacher who had been a seeker now
became the teacher who had
received the greatest of gifts: the forgiveness of
all of his sin and an eternal
life communing with Christ. At last he could share
real truths with others. This
powerful biblical idea of justification by faith
became such a mighty force,
that Martin Luther's name came to stand for a
person who was wholly resting upon
Christ's sacrifice as payment for his sins.

A NEW ROLE MODEL

Every boy's father is a role model for that
child. Jerry's father was a
counterfeiter, so it is not surprising that by the
age of thirteen, Jerry was
already beginning a life of crime. At nineteen,
Jeremiah McAuley was a thief and
the terror of the New York waterfront. While still
a young man, he was sentenced
to serve fifteen years of hard labor in Sing-Sing
prison, framed by some of his
underworld "friends." Jerry spent years in prison,
filled with bitterness toward
the men who had falsely accused him, and plotting
his escape.
One morning, something happened that changed his
life. As the prisoners sat
in chapel, Jerry saw his old friend Awful Gardiner
sitting on the platform. "I
was wearing stripes like you only a few months
ago," Awful Gardiner explained.
"Then I found Christ as my Saviour..." After
leading in prayer, Awful Gardiner,
amid tears, told how he had come to find salvation
through knowing Jesus Christ.
Jerry was intrigued. For the next few weeks he
studied a Bible that was in his
cell. He fought a long battle with his own pride
until he finally gave up to
Christ, not caring what anyone thought. Getting
down on the stone floor of his
cell, Jerry McAuley turned his life over to the
Saviour. As soon as he did so,
he found the joy of his sins forgiven and faith in
Christ. Jerry could not be
silent now. He told guards and prisoners of his
newfound faith, and won several
prisoners to the Lord.
When the governor granted a pardon, Jerry
McAuley was free to roam the
streets again. After personally experiencing the
difficulty of adjusting to
freedom, Jerry turned his house into a base that he
called the Helping Hand
Mission. This criminal had found new life through
receiving the Saviour, and
wanted to do everything he could to point others to
Jesus Christ. As a result of
his zeal in reaching the lost and helping
Christians to live for God, hundreds
of rescue missions were established across the
nation. Today, many rescue
missions continue to do a great work, all because
Jerry McAuley found new power
and a positive role model in his Lord and Saviour,
Jesus Christ.
"LIVE SO AS TO BE MISSED"
Among the most striking examples of those whose
lives have counted for God,
are those whose ministries have been comparatively
short. Thousands of
Christians have been inspired by the example of
David Brainerd, missionary to
the American Indians, who died at the age of
thirty-two. Likewise, many have
been challenged by the life of Henry Martyn, who
also died at the age of
thirty-two. The testimonies of these two men played
a part in inspiring Robert
Murray McCheyne to live his life for God, but there
was another lesser-known man
who inspired him also.
When Robert McCheyne passed away at the age of
thirty, the Christian world
mourned his loss. In his short ministry he had
become the most popular preacher
in Scotland. Some seven thousand people attended
his funeral, shutting down
business in the city of Dundee. McCheyne had been
known for his holiness, and
his challenge to others to live a life devoted to
God. Jesus Christ had forgiven
him for his sin, and he had never gotten over it.
He wrote to a friend: "I feel
there are two things it is impossible to desire
with sufficient ardour --
personal holiness, and the honour of Christ in the
salvation of souls."
Robert McCheyne was known for his carefully
prepared and earnest Bible
messages, but he felt that a Christian's life
needed to be rooted in a
consistent devotional life. He always read at least
three chapters of the Bible
before breakfast, as well as singing hymns and
praying. A saying of Jeremy
Taylor had inspired him: "If thou meanest to
enlarge thy religion, do it rather
by enlarging thine ordinary devotions than thy
extraordinary." This man of God
struggled with health problems during much of his
seven-year ministry. He often
had to lie still for hours to still his palpitating
heart, and eventually
succumbed to a consumptive lung condition.
During his ministry he was referred to as the
holiest man in Scotland, but it
was not always so. When Andrew Bonar gathered
material to write his biography,
he found that the biggest human influence in
Robert's life had been his older
brother, David. David was a quiet lad who himself
had poor health, but had an
intense devotion to the Lord. While Robert was
attending university, David
became so burdened for his brother's salvation that
he would weep for hours for
him. Robert tried to put David off by telling him
not to pray so hard for him.
Robert felt that with his natural talents, he did
not have a need for salvation
and the power of God in his life. Still, David
continued to claim Robert for
God.
At last, something came to stop Robert in his
tracks and cause him to
consider the Saviour. When Robert was eighteen, his
brother David died. With
lips stilled in death, memories of David's life now
spoke volumes. A man who had
a simple, sincere faith in a God Who will never
fail, truly had the answer to
life. Through David's death, and hope of life in
heaven, Robert was pointed to
Christ's death and gift of eternal life. In a
moment of sincere repentance and
faith, Robert received forgiveness of sin and
eternal, abundant new life. Yes,
David was missed, but his life went on speaking!

WHAT ONE MAN CAN DO

Usually when a man comes to a shoe store, he is
looking to buy something. One
of the greatest transactions that was ever made in
a shoe store occurred on day
when a man came to make sure the clerk had the
opportunity to receive a gift.
Edward Kimball was a faithful Sunday School teacher
who was somewhat timid. For
a year a young man had attended his class each
Sunday morning. Most of the class
members were students at Harvard, but this boy was
fresh off the farm and was
not an accomplished student. Now at the age of
eighteen, Dwight was beginning to
get interested in the Bible.
Mr. Kimball felt that God wanted him to present
the gospel to Dwight, but as
he approached the store, he decided to wait for
another opportunity. He was
halfway down the block before he was able to build
up his courage to go back to
the shoe store and talk to the young star-salesman.
As he found him in the back,
wrapping shoes, Mr. Kimball said: "I want to tell
you how much Christ loved
you." Unbeknownst to Mr. Kimball, Dwight had
recently become earnest in a desire
to improve himself, even signing this resolution in
blood. Thus, God brought the
Sunday School teacher to talk to him at just the
right time. God used the
testimony of the gospel contained in His Holy Word.
Dwight listened to the good
news of God's love that was so great that Jesus,
the God-man, died on the cross
to pay for Dwight's sins, and then rose again from
the dead to offer him the
gift of eternal life. Dwight bowed his head and
said yes to God. He later told
of his feelings that day: "I was in a new world.
The birds sang sweeter. The sun
shone brighter. I'd never known such peace."
Later, after moving to Chicago to be a salesman,
young Dwight became a Sunday
School teacher himself. He organized a Sunday
School, recruiting both the
students and the teachers. God so blessed his
efforts that Dwight Moody left the
business world to work full time for the Lord. By
the time his life work was
over, he had made such an impact on both America
and England that he was
described as: "the greatest evangelist of the
nineteenth century." All this
because God chose to reach a shoe salesman through
the witness of a timid Sunday
School teacher, Edward Kimball.

A FRAUD FINDS FAITH

As a boy growing up in Germany, George Mueller
was a thief. Even on the day
of his confirmation in the Lutheran church, he kept
most of the offering for
himself. Although his father tried to teach him to
be honest and upstanding, he
found that he loved worldly pleasures and other
people's money. At the age of
fifteen, George had determined to study for the
ministry. By sixteen he had
spent time in jail for fraud, and by twenty-one he
had become an expert at
drinking, thievery and sinful activities. Although
he had wanted to have a
career in the church, he found he was only able to
trust himself.
One night, a friend from the university invited
George to a cottage prayer
meeting. After singing hymns, a chapter of the
Bible was read. Afterwards,
another hymn was sung. This was the first time
George had ever seen anyone kneel
to pray. While the host prayed, George said he felt
an inward joy and peace
springing up within him. He had decided to
completely surrender his sinful life
to God, asking for forgiveness through the blood of
Christ and trusting God to
take over. On the way home he told his friend: "All
our former pleasures are as
nothing compared to what we experienced tonight."
From that time on, George's life was changed. He
began to learn practical
lessons in trusting God for His direction and
obeying His leading. He later
moved to England, and founded a total of five
orphanages, capable of sheltering
two thousand children. He became known for his
faith. George Mueller determined
to ask only God to supply his needs, and saw his
Father continually do so.
Through the years he received one and one-half
million dollars to meet the needs
of 9,975 orphans, and estimated that he had
received fifty thousand specific
answers to prayer. His books on prayer and faith
are still an inspiration today,
because God could truly save even a thief.

AMAZING GRACE
John Newton, an English seaman, rose to become
the captain of a slave ship
operating out of Africa. A proud man, he felt no
need or desire to trust in the
God that his parents had taught him of. His life
had brought him from the
lowliest sailor's position all the way up to that
of captain, and then all the
way down to becoming a slave himself, held captive
on an island off the coast of
Africa.
In March of 1748, as an assistant to the captain
of the ship Greyhound, which
was transporting him back to Britain from his
captivity, Newton found himself in
the most desperate situation of his life. During
the voyage the crew had
repeatedly heard his bitter boastings of being a
freethinker who did not believe
in God. He had even lashed himself to a mast during
a storm and dared God to
strike him dead, in order to prove Himself real.
Now Newton found the ship
leaking badly, in danger of being overwhelmed
beneath one of the mountainous
waves of a powerful Atlantic storm. In a moment of
weakness and terror, he
uttered the words: "Lord, have mercy on us." This
was the first time he had
prayed since childhood, and it shook him to think
that he had stooped to ask for
help from God.
 By the time the storm ended, most of the rigging
had been blown away, making
navigation almost impossible. After seven days of
drifting with no land in
sight, the crew was practically without hope. One
man had already died when the
captain came to challenge John Newton. The captain
was of the opinion that
Newton was somewhat like Jonah: 'a curse to the
ship.' The crew had discussed
throwing him overboard, but decided not to. "We'll
wait," said the captain, "but
ye'd better join us in prayer if ye value your
hide." As Newton returned to
work, he recalled a Bible verse that he had learned
as a child. "If ye then,
being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your
children; how much more shall
your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them
that ask him?" (Luke 11:13)
Finally brought to the end of himself, Newton
prayed: "God, if You're true,
You'll make good your Word. Cleanse Thou my vile
heart."
Four weeks later, the crippled ship made port in
Ireland, and there he went
to a church and made public his profession of
faith. He became a powerful
preacher, seeking to reach those who did not or
would not trust in Someone
mightier than themselves. He wrote a number of
poems that have been put to
music, but none more well-known nor more expressive
of his gratitude to God than
this:
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a
wretch like me! I once was lost
but now am found, was blind, but now I see.
I'LL SEE YOU AGAIN
As John's mother lay dying, this godly woman
made a passionate plea for each
of her children to meet her in heaven. These last
memories of his mother so
impressed the five-year-old boy that he never
forgot them. John's family always
attended church, even before his mother's death.
Four years later, after
listening to a sermon on "The Prodigal Son", nine-
year-old John R. Rice went
forward in the First Baptist Church of Gainesville,
Texas to claim Christ as his
Saviour.
When he asked his father if he could be
baptized, his father replied: "When
you are old enough to really repent of your sins
and be regenerated, then will
be time enough to join the church." John wondered
what was wrong. He knew he had
repented and trusted Christ, but maybe, as his
father said, he was too young to
be truly saved. Finally, at the age of twelve, he
read in John 5:24 the promise
of salvation, and knew that he had received God's
gift that day when he was
nine.
John was a hard worker on his father's ranch,
and also a good student in
school. At twenty, between studying and ranching,
John R. Rice knelt under a
chaparral bush one day and committed his future to
the Lord, to follow God's
leading whatever it might be. He graduated from
Baylor University in 1920. After
this, he married and began graduate studies at
Chicago University.
 During his adult years he had been faithful in
church attendance, often
leading singing for special revival services. He
had also preached in jails and
on street corners, and been actively engaged in
winning souls wherever he went.
One night, kneeling to pray with a drunk at the
Pacific Garden Rescue Mission in
Chicago, John R. Rice decided that there was no
greater joy than to lead a
person to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He abandoned his plans of
teaching and politics and surrendered to preach,
based on Romans 12:1-2.
After seminary training Brother Rice became an
assistant pastor, then a
pastor, then an evangelist. Out of one of his
crusades, a church was organized
and he pastored it for seven years. During that
time they had seven thousand
saved and seventeen hundred baptized. He began the
Sword of the Lord newspaper
during that pastorate, then re-entered the field of
evangelism. During World War
II Dr. Rice pioneered citywide evangelistic
crusades, laying the foundation for
the highly effective crusades of the 1950's. Then,
in 1948, he left the citywide
revival work to concentrate on the newspaper and
area-wide meetings, with a new
emphasis: to stir preachers to reach the people.
Dr. Rice was a prolific writer. At his death in
1980, he had over two hundred
titles in print, with a circulation of sixty
million copies. Twenty-five
thousand people had written to tell him they had
been saved through his
publications. Today his hymnbooks are used in
fundamental churches across the
nation. The Sword of the Lord newspaper and Sword
publications continue to carry
on the crusade to win this world for Christ. Yet,
even with all of his success
in preaching and writing, he considered soulwinning
"the most important business
in the world." He stated that personal contact and
personal invitation had a
part in winning nine out of ten of the multiplied
thousands he had seen come to
Christ.
"The Twentieth Century's Mightiest Pen", "the
Titan of Soulwinning", yes, but
it might not have happened if not for a mother who
was burdened for her
children's salvation.

THE LORD HATH SUFFERED SO MUCH FOR ME

The third of seven children in an Italian
family, Girolamo Savonarola was
comfortable. In the 1400's, Italy was made up of
many city-states. Most people
were very poor or else quite wealthy. Savonarola's
family had only moderate
wealth, but held great influence in the court of
the Duke of Ferrara. Girolamo
studied with his grandfather, who was personal
physician to the Duke. He was a
bright boy, and it was expected that he would one
day succeed his grandfather as
the court physician.
Being an eager student, Savonarola studied the
classics and Greek philosophy,
but they left him feeling empty. Then, as he
studied the writings of Thomas
Aquinas, God showed him his need for saving faith.
While he was still a student,
Savonarola asked God for forgiveness of sins and
for eternal life through the
saving blood that Jesus Christ shed on the cross.
He began to study the Bible
and gave his life fully to God. Along with his
studies, he became quite serious
about prayer and fasting. He also became sensitive
to the awful sin and
hypocrisy of Italian society, particularly the
political and church leaders.
When he finished his schooling, he entered a
Dominican monastery to get away
from the worldliness and be able to spend a great
deal of time in prayer, Bible
study and hard physical work. He began to commit
passages of scripture to memory
and was asked to teach classics at the monastery.
Soon he was called on to
preach at small churches. His preaching was a
combination of explanation of
scripture and open denunciation of sin. This was
not a very popular message!
Girolamo Savonarola was a sensitive man who
wrote poetry and loved little
children. His love for the Bible and hatred for sin
never changed. When he was
sent to preach in Florence, the center of the
growing Renaissance, he found
himself preaching to small groups. Meanwhile a
polished, inoffensive priest
preached to the large crowds in the largest church
building.
The De Medici family, the prime financiers of
the Renaissance, encouraged the
artistic beauty that filled Florence, but the
morals of these people were in the
gutter. Savonarola openly denounced the cesspool of
city and church politics.
His honest preaching led to a wide reception by the
people and the eventual
downfall of the De Medici rule, but not without
making enemies. Thousands
flocked to hear him preach, and made great bonfires
of the obscene and worldly
items they had formerly treasured, but the church
leaders excommunicated him.
Alexander VI, one of the vilest, most corrupt men
to ever sit as Pope, ordered
Savonarols' arrest and execution. One of the
greatest reformers, politicians and
preachers in Italian history was burned to death in
the public square of
Florence. He died, as he lived, trusting Christ and
delighting in His Word.
Girolamo Savonarola had written that "the Lord hath
suffered so much for me."
Upon his entrance to heaven we can imagine the
greeting: "Well done, thou good
and faithful servant."

THAT ALL MAY UNDERSTAND

Wealth, power and position do not buy a place in
heaven. Young Charles
Simeon's father was a wealthy lawyer, able to
afford to send Charles to the best
school. When Charles enrolled at King's College,
Cambridge, he was dressed and
mannered to fit the part of a young aristocrat. He
had always managed to do well
in school and to get along with others. His years
at Cambridge should have been
equally comfortable, except that something happened
to set him apart from the
other students.
In the year 1779, most of the students and
faculty at Kings College had
little use for talk of God, except for religious
formalities. In the spring the
students were expected to observe the Lenten
season, leading up to Easter, even
though they were about as close to God as the devil
himself. Charles could have
gone on with the charade, just like his classmates,
pretending to care about
God. However, he found himself questioning the
significance of this worship.
Charles became very much aware of his sinfulness in
the sight of God, and began
to wonder if there was a way to find peace and
forgiveness. He began to fast and
pray and read what he could find, trying to
discover how to have a relationship
with God. He was very much struck by his own
sinfulness, and his unworthiness to
approach our holy God.
In the week before Easter, Charles read: "The
Jews knew what they did when
they transferred their sin to the head of their
offering." This explanation of
the meaning of the Old Testament sacrifices,
pointing toward the blood of Jesus
Christ as full payment for sins, struck home with
Charles. As he considered the
claims of Christ that week, he began to understand
the significance of Christ's
death for his own sins. When he awoke early on
Easter morning and thought of
what the resurrection meant, for the first time he
realized that it was
personally for him! That Resurrection Day
anniversary, Charles Simeon fully
trusted Christ's substitutionary payment, and
joyfully received the gift of God
which is eternal life.
While Charles could not find Christian
fellowship among fellow students or
instructors, he did grow spiritually through his
reading and study of God's
Word. His excitement about his conversion was not
shared by his wealthy family,
but their lack of enthusiasm did not diminish his.
He continued to attempt to
witness, and after graduation became successful in
his preaching. As an
evangelical, he was miles apart from the mainstream
of the Anglican church. His
first sermon in his first pastorate was preached to
visitors, because the church
members boycotted the service. When crowds began to
attend, the church members
locked the doors of the pews. When Pastor Simeon
put benches in the aisles, the
church officers threw them outside. When the pastor
started a Sunday evening
service to reach lost sinners, the church members
locked the church doors to try
to keep them out!
Pastor Simeon stayed on, in spite of opposition.
Out of fifty-four years of
service in Holy Trinity Church, Cambridge, he was
opposed by the members for the
first thirty. Since formal education for the
ministry at that time did not
include instruction in Bible study or sermon
preparation, he made a personal
committment to help train young men for the
ministry. He also published 2,536
sermon outlines, and used his inherited wealth to
endow a Patronage Trust to
ensure that evangelical preachers would be able to
occupy pulpits in the
Anglican church. He started a tradition of summer
"house parties" for pastors as
a time of relaxation, instruction, fellowship and
encouragement that became a
forerunner of modern-day short-term pastor's
schools.
Concerned for missions throughout his life,
Charles Simeon helped found the
Church Missionary Society and also made special
efforts to reach the Jews. He
was a passionate preacher whose desire was to
preach the Bible "so plainly and
simply that all may understand." The day of his
funeral, every shop in Cambridge
closed and all college classes were cancelled. Some
two thousand people came to
pay their respects to a man who was willing to take
a stand for God to reach
people with the Gospel, and who would not quit.

A PRIEST GOES ONLY BY SCRIPTURE

In the 1500's, a village priest in Holland
became upset with a group of
people known as the hedge preachers. These
preachers encouraged people to order
their lives "only by Scripture." When he tried to
confront them about their
reasons for baptizing believers or having their own
services, he was continually
met with their excuse that they go "only by
Scripture." As a village priest,
Menno Simons knew that the Scriptures only played a
small part in the reasons
for his religious activities. He looked to the Pope
and higher ecclesiastical
authorities, and to the writings and traditions of
the "church fathers" for many
of his practices.
In trying to bring the simple people back to the
fold, he was forced to go to
the scriptures for his arguments. This was the
first time in his life that he
seriously studied the Bible, and he found that the
more he studied it, the more
his eyes were opened to God's teachings. Menno was
quite upset when he
discovered that his own brother had become one of
the hedge preachers. As his
church applied pressure, the persecution of the
"Anabaptists", as the hedge
preachers were called, became more intense. One day
word came to the priest that
hundreds of the believers had taken refuge in an
abandoned monastery, and there
three hundred men had been killed by the civil
soldiers. Among those killed was
Menno Simons' own brother.
After a great deal of prayer and consideration
of the claims of the Bible,
the priest personally trusted Christ and resigned
his position. As soon as he
began boldly preaching his new-found, Bible-based
faith, he himself became the
focus of great persecution. He was forced to flee
to another section of Holland,
where he was baptized as a believer and ordained as
an elder. As his efforts to
spread the faith increased, so did his fame. In
1542, Emporer Charles V himself
decreed: "On penalty of death, no one is to receive
Menno Simons into his house
or on his property. No one is to speak with him,
give him shelter, provision, or
read his books." As a result of the persecution,
Menno Simons fled to Cologne,
Germany.
Menno Simons preached and wrote in freedom for
the next seventeen years.
Although he died in 1561, his writings have pointed
people to the truths of the
principle of religious liberty, and led to the
organization of a group of people
who are known today as Mennonites. It is hoped that
what he lived and taught
will continue to be a focus for people today: to go
"only by Scripture."

ACCEPT HIS LOVE

As a young Canadian from a Scottish Presbyterian
family, Albert Simpson was
raised to respect God. In his education, God's
justice and hatred for sin was
emphasized but the love of God did not come across.
When he was fourteen, young
Albert became very sick and suffered what appeared
to be a nervous breakdown. He
was an average child in both obedience and
scholarship, but the strain of
studying so hard seemed to have taken a toll on
him. His doctor told him not to
look at a book for another year. How many teenagers
today would love to hear
that prescription!
Following his collapse, Albert called for his
father. "Pray for me," he
begged. "I'm dying, and I'm afraid to face God."
Later, Albert Simpson wrote
about this experience: "I had no personal hope in
Christ. My whole religious
training had left me without any conception of the
simple gospel of Jesus
Christ. The God I knew was a being of great
severity." Following his father's
prayer, Albert tried to pray, but he did not have
the faith or encouragement to
simply ask for salvation. That night he feared to
go to sleep, lest he should
lose a moment in his search for God.
He kept trying to find the peace of God as his
health slowly returned.
Endeavoring to be religious, at one point he
decided to become a minister, as
perhaps that would please God. Young Albert was
desperate to have the peace of
God, and yet he knew that his sins separated him
from God. Finally Albert found
an old volume in his pastor's library, entitled:
Marshall's Gospel Mystery of
Sanctification. In that book was an amazing
statement: "The first god work you
will ever perform is to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Until you do this, all
your works, prayers, tears and good resolutions are
in vain." This went along
with the Bible book of Ephesians chapter two and
verse eight: "For by grace are
ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves:
it is the gift of God."
He finally realized his need was not to work for
salvation, but merely to
accept the work that Jesus Christ had already done.
Albert fell to his knees,
crying, "Lord, I dare to believe that Thou wilt
receive me and save me because I
have taken Thee at Thy Word." Albert Simpson's
whole life changed from that
point. A few days later he wrote: The Dedication of
Myself to God. In this
document he said: "Thou hast subdued my rebellious
heart by Thy love. Take it
now and use it for Thy glory." Although before his
conversion he felt he must
enter the ministry to make God happy, now he wanted
to preach the gospel because
of the joy that filled his own heart.
In 1865 A. B. Simpson graduated from college in
Canada and was called to
pastor large churches in Hamilton, Ontario and then
Louisville, Kentucky. In
both cities, God filled church auditoriums and
public halls as A. B. Simpson
proclaimed to thousands the availability of a new
life through accepting God's
love. In New York City he pastored the Thirteenth
Street Presbyterian Church for
two years and then resigned, telling his
congregation: "You want a conventional
church for respectable Christians. I want a
multitude of publicans and sinners."
He rented a hall in a poor part of the city, and
from a beginning
congregation of seven, built the church that would
be the foundation of the
Christian and Missionary Alliance. From its
beginning with a heart for taking
the gospel to the souls of men, the CMA went on to
become the most actively
missions-minded evangelical denomination in
America, reaching out with
missionaries around the globe proclaiming that the
peace of God and a new life
is available to anyone as a free gift through the
love and sacrifice of our Lord
Jesus Christ.

JESUS DIED FOR ME

One hundred years ago in England, it was common
to find colorful wagon loads
of gypsies traveling through the countryside. Often
these folks would get in
trouble with the law for camping illegally, or
allowing their animals to graze
without permission. Mothers would gather their
children in when the gypsies came
to town. They were viewed with suspicion because of
their strange clothing and
customs.
Cornelius Smith was one of these who traveled
without ever settling down in
one place. He was often arrested and spent many
nights in local jails. One day
his wife became extremely ill and troubled. As she
lay on her deathbed, she
could find no peace, because of the weight of her
sins. As she pleaded with her
husband to tell her the answer to finding peace
with God, he told her what he
had heard one time from a preacher who had visited
him in jail. She listened to
what he remembered of the gospel story, and then
smiled. "I believe," she said.
That night she passed away in peaceful contentment.
Now Cornelius had the burden of caring for his
six children, including
sixteen year old Rodney. In his grief, Cornelius
was visited by his two
brothers. He told them of the awful weight of his
own sin that he could not get
rid of. They said they felt the same way, and the
three of them determined to
travel to London to find a church with the answer.
On the way, they stopped at
an inn, and asked the keeper if she could tell them
how to have forgiveness for
their sins. She said she had been troubled about
the same thing, and brought a
copy of Pilgrim's Progress to read to them. When
they reached the place where
Pilgrim's burden dropped off as he gazed at the
cross, one brother cried,
"That's what I long for!"
A few days later, Cornelius asked a road worker
where they could find a
church, and the worker promised to take them to one
that evening. As the people
sang: "I do believe, I will believe, that Jesus
died for me," Cornelius sank
down in prayer, and a few moments later rose up
shouting: "I'm converted! I'm
converted!" When that happened, Rodney ran out of
the church, supposing his
father had gone crazy.
That same night, one of Cornelius' brothers also
trusted in Christ, and they
went back to their wagons singing: "I do believe, I
will believe, that Jesus
died for me." In a short time the third brother had
accepted Christ. The three
brothers were so overjoyed at their forgiveness
that they formed a gypsy
evangelistic team to preach and sing the gospel. A
few years later, Cornelius'
son Rodney accepted the Lord also, taught himself
to read, and eventually became
a well-loved and marvelously used evangelist in
both England and America. God
showed once again that He cared, and that even
gypsies can sing that "Jesus died
for me."

LOOK TO JESUS
Where can a troubled teenager go to find peace?
One fifteen-year-old boy
decided that he would try to find a relationship
with God. Although he came from
a line of ministers, he felt that the load of his
sins was greater than that of
others. In trying to find God, he finally
determined to attend every church in
town. After months of visiting different churches,
one cold winter day he
decided to try one some distance from his home. On
his way, he was caught in a
howling snow storm. He noticed the little place
called the Artillery Street
Primitive Methodist Church. This English boy had
not been eager to attend it,
because he had heard that the people sang so loud
that it caused headaches! With
the storm so bad he felt he had little choice, so
he entered.
After several minutes of waiting, a tall, thin
man made an embarrassed
announcement: "Looks as if our minister was held up
by the weather. Reckon
you'll have to put up with me." Charles listened as
this awkward man, unused to
preaching, did his best to communicate a Bible
truth. He chose as his text the
verse: "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends
of the earth" (Isaiah
45:22). Charles felt that this was a most unlikely
man to be able to help him in
his search for God, but he listened as the man
spoke. "The text says 'Look!" Now
some of ye are lookin' to yourselves, but it's no
use lookin' there. Ye may say,
"Wait for the Spirit's workin'.' But I say, 'Look
to Christ!" As the preacher
continued, he began shouting: "Look unto Me!" I'm
sweatin' great drops of blood!
I'm hangin' on the cross!" Then the unlikely
preacher looked down at Charles and
said: "Young man, you look miserable." As he lifted
up his hands, the preacher
shouted: "Young man, look to Jesus Christ! Look!
Look!" Charles Spurgeon later
said: "I saw at once the way of salvation. I looked
until I could have almost
looked my eyes away. The darkness rolled away, and
I saw the sun. I felt I could
spring from my seat and shout with the wildest of
these Methodist brethren: "I
am forgiven!"
The teen decided to start doing something for
Christ. He began to give out
tracts, and when these ran out he wrote gospel
messages on slips of paper, then
dropped them on the streets, hoping someone would
find them. The next year he
began to teach a Sunday School class, and at the
age of seventeen was called to
pastor the Waterbeach Chapel. A short time later he
was called to London to
pastor the New Park Street Baptist Church. Before
he was twenty-one, Charles
Spurgeon was being called "the boy wonder of
England." When he was twenty-three,
he preached one day to a crowd of 23,645 people in
one service. For dozens of
years Charles Haddon Spurgeon preached to 5,500
people each Sunday, while
thousands had to be turned away. He founded an
orphanage, a Bible college and
became a prolific writer. Today his sermons are
still widely read, and he is
known as "The Prince of Preachers." All of this,
because one unknown man was
willing to encourage a teenage boy to: "Look to
Jesus."

FROM CRICKET TO CHRIST

Edward Studd loved sporting fun. A wealthy man,
he owned a string of
racehorses including one which had won the Grand
National. He raised his three
sons to love sport and adventure as much as he did.
At Eton all three played
cricket, but the middle son, C. T., excelled at it.
It came as quite a shock to the boys when their
father introduced his newest
interest by taking them to a revival meeting
conducted by D. L. Moody, the
American evangelist. The boys were unmoved by the
preacher's message, and back
home they remained unmoved as their father shared
his new faith with them. They
soon found, however, that this was not just a
passing fancy. Their father sold
his racehorses and began to earnestly share the
gospel message with them at
every opportunity. C. T. responded by feigning
sleep when his father would come
into his room at night to talk.
One day his father brought two preachers to the
estate while his sons were
home for a visit. The boys decided to play a trick,
causing a horse to run out
of control with one of the preachers. That
afternoon, the same preacher found C.
T. on his way to the cricket field. He asked him if
he was a Christian, and C.
T. answered that he believed in Christ and the
church. The preacher shared John
3:16 with the young man and asked him if he
believed that Jesus had died for
him. When he indicated that he did believe that,
the preacher asked if he
believed the last half of the verse: that the
believer has everlasting life.
When C. T. answered that he did not think that he
could believe that, the
question came back: "Do you think that God is not
telling the truth?" The
preacher challenged C. T. not to be inconsistent.
"I should be consistent. Yes,
I will be." As the preacher pressed the point, C.
T. sank to his knees there in
the grass and thankfully accepted God's gift of
eternal life. From that moment,
his heart was filled with joy and peace. The same
weekend his two brothers also
received Christ.
Later, as a student at Cambridge, C. T. Studd
became known as the greatest
cricket player that England had ever produced. As
the best known athlete of his
day, the country was stunned when he announced that
he was responding to God's
call upon his life to be a missionary. He gave away
his personal fortune and
spent ten years in China. He then toured American
college campuses, enlisting
hundreds as missionaries in what came to be known
as the Student Volunteer
Movement. In 1910 he went to Africa and started the
Africa Inland Mission and
the World Wide Evangelization Crusade. He indeed
lived a life full of adventure,
and upon his death in 1931 he was declared by some
to be the greatest Christian
missionary of modern times.

BASEBALL'S BRIGHT LIGHT

SHINES AS A STAR OF HEAVEN
The crowd roared as "the fastest man in the
leagues" stole another base. Fans
knew that if they wanted to see him stealing the
bases, they better not come on
a Sunday. On the Lord's day, they knew that Billy
Sunday would be speaking to
YMCA youngsters instead of playing the scheduled
games. Why did one of the
greatest athletes of his day insist on putting God
first in his life?
Only a few years prior, this baseball legend had
come staggering out of a
tavern with five of his teammates, to be greeted by
the sound of a rag-tag band
of musicians playing gospel songs. The six ball
players sitting on the curb
enjoyed the music, but it especially brought to
Billy memories of his mother's
singing in the cabin where he grew up. When the
band moved on, Billy alone
followed them to the Pacific Garden Rescue Mission.
That night, and on several
more evenings, he heard stories of how Christ had
changed the lives of young and
old, rich and poor. Finally one night, Billy Sunday
called on God for His
forgiveness. That night became a turning point for
the entire nation.
Five years after his conversion, Billy left the
Chicago White Stockings to
work full time for God, beginning in the YMCA. He
eventually became an
evangelist, and preached to more than one hundred
million people during his
ministry. He preached a sermon, Get On The Water
Wagon, that resulted in many
towns and counties voting to go dry and was
instrumental in the passage of the
national prohibition of liquor sales. Most popular
as a preacher to men, Billy
Sunday won over one million people to the Lord and
was used of God to change
entire towns. One of baseball's superstars? The
book of Daniel says: "And they
that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the
firmament; and they that turn
many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and
ever."
THE SPIRITUAL SECRET
The country of China is the most populous on
earth. During the eighteen
hundreds, God burdened the heart of a five-year-old
boy to reach that country
with the gospel of Christ. The problem was this
boy, while knowing about the
gospel, had never personally received Jesus Christ
as Saviour. During his
childhood he tried his hardest to live a Christian
life, but could not find
contentment. At the age of eleven he read a tract
about a lad who found peace
with God through focusing on only one spiritual
truth: that Jesus' job was to
save sinners. The lad in the tract was mentally
handicapped, but was able to
understand how to have peace with God. Upon reading
the tract, Hudson bowed his
head and prayed about his spiritual condition, but
did not find peace with God
until four years later.
At the age of fifteen, young Hudson Taylor found
himself bored and decided to
read a pamphlet in his father's library. Five words
in the pamphlet so arrested
his attention that he could not escape them: "the
finished work of Christ."
Finally realizing there was nothing he could do to
earn his salvation, he turned
in prayer to the Lord and accepted His forgiveness
for sin. Now this boy, who
was so burdened for China, had himself tasted of
the gospel that is so mighty to
save.
 As Hudson Taylor began to learn about trusting
God, he viewed the promises of
the Bible as literal and personal. God not only
sent him to China as a
missionary, but also led Hudson Taylor to start the
China Inland Mission. Having
directly inspired thousands of men and women to
reach others for Christ in
foreign lands, today his example of the faith-life
is a pattern for missionaries
around the world. All of this because a boy learned
to trust: "the finished work
of Christ."

CAN GOD SAVE A HOPELESS DRUNK?

With a father who was a saloon keeper and
drunkard, it is not surprising that
the son would follow the same path. He grew up
learning how to tend bar, often
working for his father. By the age of nineteen he
was having trouble because of
his own drinking and gambling. Mel finally lost his
job, but as a prospective
bridegroom he knew that he needed steady work. He
promised his new wife that he
would never drink again. It was a good promise, but
one night when he was about
to walk into the house he suddenly turned and went
out to find some alcohol.
After that terrible drunken spree he managed to
stay sober for three months.
When he did start drinking again, he sold his
horse in order to get the
money. Mel and his wife moved to Chicago, but his
drinking spurts continued with
shorter sober periods in between. He made many
promises to himself and his wife,
but the liquor kept winning out. He was finally
hospitalized in order to be
treated for his alcoholism. Upon his release he was
given a medical kit. Within
fifteen minutes he had traded the kit for more
whiskey.
Mel's wife gave birth to a baby, but in his
drunken state Mel paid very
little attention to his family. One day, returning
home from a ten-day drinking
spree, he found that his baby had died. He was so
sorry over the mess that he
had made of his life, and the way he had failed to
provide for his family, that
he decided to commit suicide. Only his wife's
urgent prayers and tearful
pleadings turned him from that course. As he wept,
he promised never to take
another drink. Two hours after the baby's funeral,
Mel came home drunk again. It
seemed that there was no way he could beat his
drinking problem.
On a cold January night, he decided to end it
all by drowning himself. As he
walked the streets heading toward Lake Michigan, he
was stopped by someone who
insisted that he come sit in a service being
conducted at the Pacific Garden
Rescue Mission. Harry Monroe, the superintendant,
told the gathering how God had
saved him from a life of drunkeness and
counterfeiting. At the close of the
service he said to the people: "Jesus loves you.
Make room in your heart for Him
tonight." Mel stood up and went to the front. There
Mr. Monroe led him in
prayer, asking forgiveness for sin and turning his
life over to God.
From that night in 1897, Mel Trotter began to
serve Christ. He spent many
evenings at the mission, playing guitar and singing
gospel songs. He would often
visit churches with Harry Monroe and talk about the
work of the rescue mission.
Three years later he was named superintendent of
the mission in Grand Rapids,
Michigan. For the next forty years he soberly
headed that mission, which had an
auditorium that could seat fifteen hundred people.
He helped start sixty-six
rescue missions around America, seeking to reach
the down-and-out with the
life-changing message of the gospel. Mel Trotter
discovered what many others
have found: that Jesus is the answer!

"I DON'T WANT TO GO TO CHURCH"

The last thing John wanted to do was to attend
church. Each time his cousin
invited him, he would turn him down. Finally, he
even cursed as he refused the
invitation. Nothing could interest John in going to
church, except ... "Would
you go if I gave you this gold coin?" Well, church
still held no appeal, but
gold certainly did. If it was important enough to
cause his cousin to offer
money, John was willing to cooperate. That night,
having listened to the sermon,
John walked home with more than he had counted on.
Not only did he have a gold
coin, he also had a conviction from God's Word of
his own need for salvation.
For the next several days as he worked at the
brewery, John Vassar tried to
live a better life. Try as he would, he could find
no peace. He woke his wife
one evening shouting: "How can you rest when your
husband is going to hell?" He
now began to attend every church service he could,
without being begged or paid.
In his desperation to find forgiveness of sin and
peace with God, one night he
asked some of the church members to stay and pray
with him. The pastor said to
him: "John, look to Christ. It's faith that saves
you, man, not feeling." That
night John Vassar did place his complete faith in
the work that Jesus Christ
finished for him on the cross. The change in his
life was evident the next day.
His face took on a new glow. He began to sing hymns
with friends and to talk
about Jesus to all who would hear.
John Vassar had a new life in Christ, and the
world began to hear about it.
When his wife and children caught an illness and
died, John Vassar became a
traveling messenger of the Lord Jesus Christ. With
a small salary paid to him
for distributing books and tracts, he began to
travel from church to church,
spreading the good news of new life in Christ.
During the Civil War, he
witnessed to Union soldiers in the front lines.
Many of the soldiers found their
peace with God through his unofficial chaplain's
work. When he was captured by
the Confederates and tried as a spy, his bold
witnessing to the General who was
examining him led to his immediate release.
After thirty-seven years of witnessing for his
Lord, he died in the year of
1878. At his passing, John Vassar was proclaimed
the most skillful personal
soul-winner in America. This man who had only
agreed to come to church in order
to receive a piece of gold, has now gone to walk
the golden streets of heaven,
spending eternity with those whom he won in life.

A MISSIONARY FINDS GRACE

Although a missionary of the Church of England,
John Wesley found himself
terrified during the fierce Atlantic gale. He
thought the Moravians on the ship
must be "heavy-minded and dull-witted," since they
were able to calmly sing a
psalm during the height of the storm. Afterward, he
asked their leader why the
did not seem to fear death, and was told: "The Lord
is on our side." The next
day, the Moravian pastor asked the missionary:
"Friend Wesley,do you know Jesus
Christ?" "I know that He is the Saviour of the
world," John replied. "But can
you tell me if He has saved you?" the pastor asked.
"I hope so," was all that
Wesley could answer.
This Oxford-educated missionary found that he
could affect neither the
English colonists in America nor the Indians. "I
came to Georgia to convert the
Indians, but oh, who shall convert me? I have but a
fair summer religion," he
wrote.
After two years, John Wesley returned to
England. When he arrived at his sick
brother Charles' bedside, he found a Moravian had
arrived before him. As he
listened to the gospel story, John realized he did
not have a saving faith. Two
days later, visiting a prison, John won his first
soul by encouraging him to
have his sins forgiven by simply trusting in Jesus
Christ.
Soon his brother Charles had received the full
assurance of his salvation,
and within a week John had also. On a Wednesday
evening he listened while the
preacher read Luther's preface to the Bible book of
Romans. "While describing
the change God works in the heart through faith in
Christ, I felt my heart
strongly warmed ... I felt I did trust in Christ
alone for salvation.
Eighteen days later, John Wesley preached: "By
Grace Are Ye Saved Through
Faith." The unsaved missionary had found true faith
in Jesus Christ, and went on
to see his Methodist movement result in tens of
thousands of people receiving
the assurance of their salvation.

"I WOULD RATHER WEAR OUT THAN RUST OUT"

In a day of widespread infidelity, he was a
college student who was highly
religious - but lost. While most around him lived
for worldly pleasures and
material gain, this student strove mightily to
attain his own salvation. Church
attendance, Bible study, regular fasting and
privations, visiting the sick and
imprisoned all led George Whitfield to the point of
physical ruin until one day
the scriptures opened up for him. That day in the
early 1700's he underwent the
New Birth, and began a lifelong mission to proclaim
to the world the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
 Whitfield was not a pretentious man. He had a
heart on fire, and only sought
to learn more about his new birth and to
communicate it to others. Throughout
his ministry he was aware of his "impurity next to
Christ's perfection," his
"pride next to Christ's humility." At a communion
service he conducted on the
outskirts of Glascow that was attended by between
thirty and fifty thousand
people, his humble question to God was: "Why me?"
At the end of his ministry he still preached as
hard as ever, and it was not
unusual for him to ride sixty miles in a day,
preach two or three times and then
ride all night to his next stop. His entire life
his body was wracked with
sickness, never helped by his constant driving
schedule. He answered a friend's
concern for his health by stating: "I would rather
wear out than rust out!" He
was a man of prayer, criticized because he
abandoned use of the Book of Common
Prayer in favor of extemporaneous praying. The
secret to his amazing ministry
was his closeness to God and his burden to do God's
will.
The greatest result of his ministry was a
revival now known as: "The Great
Awakening." This revival swept America from 1740
through the 1770's, touching
and transforming perhaps hundreds of thousands of
people. It had a profound
effect on the ministers, with hundreds of pastors
from a variety of
denominations getting saved. When America finally
engaged in the struggle for
independence, George Whitfield was the man who was
largely responsible for
having brought the nation "under God."
"TRUSTING JESUS ... THAT IS ALL"
Who would have thought a young Swiss goatherd
would grow to become the first
of the great reformers in sixteenth century Europe?
Young Ulrich Zwingli was
born in a village in the Swiss Alps. At the age of
eight, his father sent him to
be taught by his uncle, a priest. At ten, he was
sent to a private school in
Basel, where he studied Greek and Latin as well as
other subjects. At thirteen,
the Dominican priests who taught him were excited
by his wide-ranging
intellectual interests and planned to send him to a
monastery for further
studies, but his father was uneasy with that plan.
His father was a church-going
man, but was beginning to question the teachings of
the priests. He enrolled his
son, Ulrich, in the University of Vienna.
At the age of twenty-two, Ulrich received his
doctorate, but complained that
his classical studies had not taught him about
Jesus Christ. A fellow student
suggested that Ulrich go to Thomas Wyttenbach to
learn about the scriptures. In
his studies with Wyttenbach, Zwingli discovered the
Bible was at odds with Roman
Catholic Church teachings on purgatory, priests and
praying to saints, among
other things. As many in Europe had been taught,
Ulrich Zwingli had been
trusting in the seven sacraments of the Church to
give him a right standing with
God. As he came to see the unreliability of this,
he one day asked his teacher
in despair: "If I can't trust the church, in whom
can I trust?" Wyttenbach
encouraged him to turn in faith to Jesus Christ,
who alone died on the cross to
pay for sin, and who lives to offer the gift of
eternal life. Scripture after
scripture encouraged Zwingli to do what his teacher
now suggested: Confess his
sin to Christ and trust Christ's payment on the
cross for his salvation. That
night, after searching the scriptures, Ulrich
Zwingli placed his full faith in
Jesus Christ's finished work
In the years ahead, Ulrich Zwingli took a bold
stand for the Lord, both as a
pastor in Zurich and in writings which circulated
throughout Europe. Luther and
Knox, among others, took courage to speak out in
defense of the Bible, in part
because of the faith of a Swiss lad who had dared
to stand for Christ.

APPENDIX

WILLIAM BORDEN1887-1913
WILLIAM CAREY1761-1834
PETER CARTWRIGHT1785-1872
WESLEY CLARK1928-
FANNY CROSBY1820-1915
JONATHAN EDWARDS1703-1758
CHRISTMAS EVANS1766-1838
CHARLES FINNEY1792-1875
SOLOMON GINSBURG1867-1921
FRANCIS R. HAVERGAL1836-1879
JACK HYLES1926-2001
HARRY IRONSIDE1876-1951
S. P. "SAM" JONES1847-1906
 ADONIRAM JUDSON1788-1850
MARTIN LUTHER1483-1546
JEREMIAH MCAULEY1839-1884
ROBERT M. MCCHEYNE1813-1843
DWIGHT L. MOODY1837-1899
GEORGE MUELLER1805-1898
JOHN NEWTON1725-1807
JOHN R. RICE1896-1980
GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA1452-1498
CHARLES SIMEON1759-1836
MENNO SIMONS1496-1561
A. B. SIMPSON1844-1919
CORNELIUS SMITH1840? - 18?
CHARLES H. SPURGEON1834-1892
C. T. STUDD1862-1931
BILLY SUNDAY1862-1935
J. HUDSON TAYLOR1832-1905
MEL TROTTER1870-1940
JOHN VASSAR1813-1878
JOHN WESLEY1703-1791
GEORGE WHITFIELD1714-1770
ULRICH ZWINGLI1485-1531

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barlow, Fred M. Dr. John R. Rice: Giant of

Evangelism. Murfreesboro, TN: Sword
of the Lord, 1983.
Dollar, George W. A History of Fundamentalism in
America. Greenville: Bob Jones
University Press, 1973.
Hefley, James C. How Great Christians Met Christ.
Chicago: Moody Press, 1973.
Lawson, J. Gilchrist. Deeper Experiences of Famous
Christians. Anderson IN: The
Warner Press, 1911.
Pollock, John. George Whitefield and the Great
Awakening. Garden City, NJ:
Doubleday, 1972.
Reese, Ed. The Life and Ministry of Jack Hyles.
Glenwood, IL: Fundamental
Publishers, 1976.
Wessel, Helen Strain, ed. The Autobiography of
Charles G. Finney. Minneapolis:
The Bethany Fellowship, 1977.
Wiersbe, Warren W. Victorious Christians You Should
Know. Grand Rapids: Baker
Book House, 1984.
Up to the Table of Contents

Back to Christian Biography Index

Back to Kuykendall Genealogy Index