The Titanic's Last Hero by Moody Adams Page A

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