The Titanic's Last Hero (10 page)

YOU WILL BE MISSED

We say of him what Jonathan said of David: “You will be missed, for your place will be vacant.” How some of us miss him! We miss his cheery word, his helpful messages, and above all the inspiration of his magnetic presence. I never left his company without returning home to pray. This was invariably the effect Mr. Harper’s presence had on me.

May a double portion of his holy, consecrated spirit fall on those of us who are left a little while longer, not only to “hold the fort,” but to storm the forts of darkness as our brother loved to do.

CHAPTER 13

JOHN HARPER’S PARTING TEXT

Tribute by Pastor William Wright

My parting with him

near the station at Old Cumnock

last March,

was an incident worth remembering.

We agreed to give each other a text. …

The text he gave me

was one that had been much in his mind

for a considerable time,

“He that doeth the will of God

abideth for ever” (I John 2:17).

DENNY AND SURROUNDING DISTRICTS ARE much indebted to God for the gift of Mr. John Harper. I felt there was a manifestation of Christ in his life that I had not known before. We had on one occasion a conversation about the indwelling of Christ, and he suggested our need of being “strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man,” that Christ might dwell in our hearts by faith. Early in life he had experienced this strengthening process, and when he came to Denny, it was seen in a marvelous degree.

He believed in having the text he was to preach from direct from God, and I have seen his soul in great trouble until he had the witness of the Holy Spirit in regard to the passage of Scripture he was to expound. He also had the stamp of heaven on the title he gave to the subjects he preached about, and his divisions were masterly.

DENNY, SCOTLAND, IS SHAKEN FOR GOD

Denny is not easily moved, but when he had the town placarded with bills asking, “Is there a hell?” it made some stop and think. He announced one subject that has remained with me: “The hardest thing in the world,” which he proved to be to go to hell, from II Peter 3 and 9, as the sinner has to go there against the will of God.

GREEN FIELDS AND WHITE FIELDS

In September 1910, John Harper delivered one of the freshest and most hopeful messages I have ever heard. The subject was “green fields and white fields.” The fields were green in the eyes of the disciples; they were white to the harvest in the eyes of our Lord. In delivering a mighty message from God during the same short mission, he raised a question for the evolutionists to answer, in this form: “If the status of human character is continually rising, how is it that the One Who is almost universally recognized as the perfect man, Jesus, existed nearly nineteen hundred years ago?”

FIGHTING THE FORCES OF HELL

It was Harper’s firm conviction that Satan would have killed him if he could. He was continually conscious, especially in the latter years of his ministry, of the conflict going on in every service between the powers of light and the powers of darkness. He gave me a little hint personally last September in London that has been very helpful to my soul, to this effect: “The devil cannot touch you on resurrection ground.” Although often assailed by Satan, he enjoyed in a superlative degree the rest of God.

Nine years ago I asked him the question, “In the gospel, what takes the place of the fourth commandment?” His instant reply was “The rest of God.”

To the uninitiated, his removing from Glasgow to London looked like a wrong step, but a revived church in London, and other churches influenced for good, proved it to be the mind of the Spirit, which he had followed in leaving Paisley Road for Walworth Road.

PARTING WORDS FROM JOHN HARPER

My parting with him near the station of Old Cumnock last March was an incident worth remembering. We agreed to give each other a text. I gave him “feed my lambs,” which led him to make this noteworthy statement: when he was in Chicago, he was earnestly engaged in secret prayer, when God, by His Holy Spirit, gave the assurance to him that his little daughter, six years of age, was a Christian. I thanked God and him most sincerely for the beautiful story, and all the more because I am convinced that this is where many are up against the will of God today in not recognizing believing children as the lambs of the flock.

The text he gave me was one that had been much in his mind for a considerable time: “He that doeth the will of God abideth for ever” (I John 2:17).

Photo of William R. Andrew

CHAPTER 14

THE THREE THEMES
OF A HERO

Tribute by Mr. William R. Andrew,

Glasgow

In private life in Chicago

Mr. Harper was bright and joyful,

and though at times

he was ill and suffered great pain,

which was aggravated by over-work,

he gloried in his weakness,

because thereby the power of Christ

was manifested in him.

IT IS HARD TO REALIZE that the friend and brother who was so much to us has been removed from this scene of labor, and that we shall never again here join heart and hand with him in proclaiming the love of Jesus to this poor sin-stricken world.

The preaching of our brother was in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. His themes were the Cross of Christ, God’s marvelous grace to man, and the soon coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. His messages on grace held his audiences spellbound by the hour. As the Spirit of God carried the truth home to the hearts of his hearers, he called upon them to yield, repeating over and over again the words of a favorite chorus:

“Nay, but I yield, I yield,

I can hold out no more.

I sink, by dying love constrained,

and own Thee conqueror.”

The message of Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me,” was another upon which our dear brother laid great emphasis. Often he would have the audience repeat the words of that text carefully and prayerfully, and, as they did so, many entered into a new conception of its meaning, and a new experience of its truth by accepting “God’s reckoning alone.”

THE SONG ON JOHN HARPER’S LIPS

The following words of a hymn were many times upon his own lips:

“Buried with Christ and raised with Him too,

What is there left for me to do?

Simply to cease from struggle and strife,

Simply to walk in newness of life.”

HIS STRENGTH CAME OUT OF WEAKNESS

In private life in Chicago, Mr. Harper was bright and joyful, and though at times he was ill and suffered great pain, which was aggravated by over-work, he gloried in his weakness, because thereby the power of Christ was manifested in him.

A SYMPATHETIC LISTENER

In any spare time he had, Harper was at the disposal of those who came, as many did each day, some to confess sin and to be helped, guided, and prayed with. He was a loving, sympathetic listener to many tales of sorrow and wrongdoing, and nothing was a trouble to him, and nothing a sacrifice if by any means he might save some.

His preparation for all this service was in his prayer life. What was witnessed and shared of that was a never-to-be-forgotten privilege. Often after a hard day’s work, he would reach his room tired out and much in need of rest and sleep, but something else claimed him. Instead of retiring, he threw himself on his knees at the bedside, and by the hour, he poured out his soul in agonizing prayer to God that salvation and blessing might come to those in Chicago, and London, and Scotland, who were refusing the message of the Spirit. Friends were mentioned by name—those with whom he had been associated in gospel work during the years of his ministry, and many as well about whose salvation he was concerned.

A VOICE WITH “TONES” OF LOVE

There was a touch of softness and love and intimacy in the very tones of his voice as, in prayer, he used the beloved name, “Lord Jesus.” It was evident that even then our brother had gone far into the presence of his Lord. Then ceasing prayer for a time, he would turn to the Word. The teaching that fell from his lips was wonderful as he gave expression to some new unfolding of truth which the Lord Jesus had just given him. The Lord, the Spirit, spoke through him indeed.

John Harper has “gone before” us to the larger service. May his God and ours make us faithful as he was while we still labor here.

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

CHAPTER 15

THE TESTIMONIES OF SOME OF JOHN HARPER’S CONVERTS

Testimony #1

SATURDAY, AUGUST 9, 1902, WAS a day of great rejoicing on earth, because on that day our late King Edward’s coronation occurred amidst pomp and pageantry, and London was the center of hundred of representatives of other nations who were present at the magnificent event. The day following, Sabbath, August 10, 1902, was a day of great rejoicing to me, because on that day my wife and I crowned Jesus Christ and owned him as King of our lives.

Work had been going on for about a year before this in the little “tin kirk,” as the corrugated iron church was called, in which were held the services of the Paisley Road Baptist Church under the ministry of Pastor John Harper. The services were well attended, and very aggressive work was being carried on in the open-air just before our conversion. We had never been in a Baptist church in our lives but had seen Mr. Harper in the center of his workers at the open-air meeting at the corner of Plantation Street and Paisley Road several times as we went up the street to Paisley Road.

On Friday night, August 7, 1902, two workers from the Baptist church knocked at the door of my wife’s mother’s house (we were not married then) and invited her to the gospel meeting in the iron church on Sabbath night at 6:30. When I went to see her on Saturday night, she told me of the visit and asked me if I would care to go with her. I usually attended another church and did not much care about leaving our own church for a night even, to go to another.

However, I consented, and the next night found me for the first time inside a Baptist church. It was crowded. We received a hearty handshake from two deacons at the door, and a hymn book was put into our hands. The singing was hearty, with no stiffness about it. But the sermon—well, I don’t know what the preacher said, but I remember his text: “He feedeth on ashes” (Isaiah 44:20).

Pastor Harper was the preacher, and oh how he did preach! Every word cut, and I felt convicted of sin and knew there and then that I needed salvation. Not a word do I remember of the sermon, but the earnestness and burning passion of the preacher arrested me. I had never heard preaching like it, so powerful and so pleading, that when the sermon was over and a young man and young woman got up and sang the sweet duet, “Covered by the Blood of Jesus,” I drank in the words of the hymn as a thirsty traveler under a burning sun drinks the clear sparkling water from the spring at the wayside. Little did I know that I was beginning to drink of that Living Water from the Eternal Spring, which, if a man drink of, he will never thirst again.

The duet ended, and a time of prayer followed. Then Mr. Harper asked for all those who wanted to trust Jesus Christ as their own personal Savior to raise their hands, and mine went up. I knew I was a sinner. I knew I needed Christ. I knew enough of the Bible to be aware of the fact that I required to be converted before I could enter the Kingdom of heaven. That memorable August 10 found me stricken in soul before God and ripe for salvation. After my hand was raised, I settled the question of my soul’s salvation by accepting Jesus Christ as my Savior.

No one spoke to me. No one prayed with me. No one read texts to me. The transaction took place between my Lord and me, and it was blessedly real. I knew that Sabbath night, sitting on the third back seat of the church at the preacher’s right hand, that my sins were forgiven, and I was born of God. Jesus can speak the word of peace to a soul.

In the after meeting, a dear brother who is now in glory came up to my wife and asked her if she was trusting Jesus. She said “no.” Then he spoke to her the Words of Life, but still she could not see the truth of salvation. He left speaking to her for a moment and turned to me and asked if I was saved. I said “yes,” and my wife nearly took a fit. “That’s not true!” she said. She thought I had just said so to get rid of the man. She could not understand how I could be saved, seeing no one had spoken to me or read the Bible to me. But the Spirit of God had spoken to me.