Furnished unto Every Good Work.
Who will man the life-boat, who the storm will brave?
Many souls are drifting helpless on the wave;
See their hands uplifted; hear their bitter cry:
"Save us ere we perish, save us ere we die!"
See! amid the breakers yonder vessel toss'd,
Onward to the rescue, haste, or all is lost;
Waves that dash around us cannot overwhelm,
While our faithful Pilot standeth at the helm.
Darker yet, and darker grows the fearful night,
Sound the trump of mercy, flash the signal light;
Bear the joyful message o'er the raging wave,
Christ, the heavenly Pilot, comes the lost to save.
Who will man the life-boat, who will launch away?
Who will help to rescue dying souls to-day?
Who will man the life-boat, who will breast the wave?
All its dangers braving, precious souls to save?
--_Sel._
The dear Lord wants workers, both men and women, whom He can trust in
every line of Christian work, and what do Christians most need in
order to be successful soul-winners for God?
First of all, it is to be born of the Spirit; then to be filled with
the Holy Spirit, whereby we are sealed unto God. Then the fruits of
the Spirit will be manifest in our lives. Of course, we should not
presume to go out as mission workers without a divine call from God.
The first thing, then, is to know God and then to know ourselves as
utterly helpless without the cleansing power of the blood of Christ on
our own souls. Then the especial anointing for service in the vineyard
of the Lord. If to these be added a thorough knowledge of human
nature and a sincere desire for the salvation of souls, then the glory
of God will be revealed in us and we will be forgetful of self and
alive to the needs of others. We must see men and women lost, going
down to eternal death and must reach them at any cost and be willing
to gladly suffer the loss of all things that we might gain Christ and
win souls for Him.
We should acquire from the Lord the gift of adaptation to any and all
kinds of work, people and places. We must see the people from their
own standpoint and then from God's standpoint and then have implicit
confidence in God and in the power of the blood of Jesus to cleanse
from all sin. We must be humble and meek and yet strong, through faith
in God and His promises. Is anything too hard for the Lord? And has He
not told us, "Greater works than these shall ye do because I go unto
my Father?" Is He not at the Father's right hand, interceding for us
and for the souls to whom He sends us?
We must be all things to all men that we might win some. We must watch
for opportunities for service and be quick to use them when they are
given us. We must be ready to launch out into the deep at the Master's
command. We must have grace, not only to serve, but if need be, to
die, in order that souls might be saved--souls that are going to
destruction for the want of a kind word or a helping hand at just the
right time. I have often found them upon the verge of suicide. Men and
women in despair, both in prison and outside, were goaded into
desperation and the enemy of their souls was urging them to end it
all--that nobody cared, and God had forgotten them.
How glad I have been to clasp their hand and tell them there was One
who cared; that He loved them still and I have seen the long pent-up
tears start from their eyes and hope has sprung up once more in their
desolate hearts. I hope to hear God say in the Day of Judgment of
some, "Here are the discouraged, the tempted and tried ones, who were
almost lost, but who were won through your faithfulness." To God be
all the glory.
We must not seek our own ease. Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane,
would have died in agony, only that an angel came and ministered unto
Him, yet he prayed, "Not My will, but Thine be done." Such must be our
heartfelt cry and we must abandon ourselves to God's will in all
things and forgetting ourselves and the opinions of the World, seek to
please Him only. Then He will make even our enemies be at peace with
us.
Multitudes all about us are going down to despair for want of true
love such as Jesus had when He said, "Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do," and "Neither do I condemn thee; go and sin no
more."
Having this spirit, God has promised to furnish us unto every good
work. That is, every work to which He calls us. We each have our
responsibility to meet, our especial capability, our gift or talent.
Then let us adapt ourselves to the work which God has given us to
do--not ignoring the work of others, nor lording it over God's
heritage, but each abiding in the calling wherein we are called,
having charity for all, whether saints or sinners. Surely, with the
field so wide and the work so great, there is the greatest need for
love and the unity of the Spirit among all Christians. Why there are
so many divisions, I know not. I find true and earnest hearts among
all classes, all denominations and all nationalities.
Jesus prayed, before He ascended on high, for his children, that they
all might be one as He and the Father were one--one in purpose and one
in heart. If we manifest this oneness, sinners will come flocking home
to God and souls will be saved and God will get all the glory. The
lack of oneness among God's people stands in the way of souls and the
poor and ignorant are at a loss as to what to think or believe.
Surely, there was never greater need for Holy Ghost, Spirit-filled
Christian workers than now, when false doctrine is proclaimed on every
side and in every form. But let Christians unite, losing sight of
everything but God and souls and it will not be long until God will
fulfill his promise that a nation shall be born in a day. Oh, that
there might be a rallying of all of God's true children of every class
and nationality; that they might, with united forces, charge upon the
enemy and soon the world, which now seems to be at variance, would be
won for God and for our Christ.
THE MASSES ARE NOT REACHED through the ordinary channels of the
churches. Look at the need of the Gospel being carried to the railroad
and street-car men, the soldiers, sailors, policemen, firemen, and
postmen. Are we seeking to reach the people? We must get the love of
God in our hearts to that degree that we will not only be willing to
suffer, but to die for them, and mean it--mean business, and fast and
pray and call mightily on God for help and direction, and look to Him
for results. Don't expect an easy time--don't let us expect to be
above our Master. Jesus had no place to lay His head. He went among
the despised, the poor, the fallen, the lowest of earth; and if He
were to return now, how many of us would He find filling the places
appointed us?
The Lord is ready to do exceeding abundantly above all we can think or
ask, and will bless every unselfish effort on our part to help save a
lost world. When the end comes for you and me, dear one, let us have
our lamps trimmed and burning, ready to go in to the marriage supper
of the Lamb, which is to soon take place.
God help us do our part, to be instant in season and out of season; to
keep free in our souls; to be filled with the spirit of Jesus; to be
ever ready with a kind word, a "God bless you," a silent prayer, a
warm hand-clasp. Let us be quick to follow the leadings of the Holy
Spirit, humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God. Let us take a
firmer hold on God and be ourselves in His hands. Let us see our own
responsibility as God sees it, and by His grace measure up to it.
Then the hosts of hell shall not be able to prevail against us and God
will use us to his glory, and with hearts filled with love and
compassion, we will go forward and God will go with us and give us
victory.
MY BOY IN INDIA.
Some years ago the Lord made plain to me that I should support a
famine orphan in India, and since that time He has enabled me to
give twenty dollars per year for the support of my adopted son,
John Ryder Wheaton, named for my brother, who departed this life
a few years ago, and for myself. I give his picture and a copy of
his first letter to me, translated by one of the missionaries;
also some letters from Brother and Sister Jarvis, in charge of
the Orphanage in Lahore, India. We ask the prayers of our readers
for this dear boy, and if God should lay it upon any of your
hearts to provide for one of these famine orphans, any money sent
to the Missionary Home in Tabor, Iowa, will be promptly
forwarded to any orphanage or missionary you may designate. God
has laid this boy upon my heart, and the tie is dearer, perhaps,
because I am alone in the world, having laid my only child in the
grave with my husband. My heart was touched when I received this
letter from John's own hand, and sometimes I long to see and know
him for myself. He is being trained for a missionary, and when my
labors are ended, I hope to see him coming home from India,
bringing his trophies with him--precious souls from his own
native land, and that there we may praise the Lord through all
eternity together.
Lahore, Frontier Faith Mission, April 12, 1904.--Dear
Mama:--Salam, I am well by the grace of Lord Jesus Christ, and
hope you are well. Matter is this that I live here very happy,
few days ago that the fever and cough attacked me so I went to
the hospital, now I am well and do my duty. I learned the work of
Gardener. I pray every day. May God help me and make me His true
Christian and grant me abundant grace. I also hope that you do
pray for me. I pray for you. Here are all well. I am also with
other boys well. My compliment to you,
Your son,
JOHN WHEATON,
Head Gardener.
[Illustration: JOHN RYDER WHEATON, INDIA FAMINE BOY.]
* * * * *
Frontier Faith Mission and Orphanage, Lahore, N. India, Dec. 11,
1901.--Dear Sister Wheaton--We have chosen for you a bright
little boy by the name of Ruthena, about ten years old. He is one
of our brightest little boys, one that bids fair to be something
for God. He is a shoemaker by trade and is doing well at it. We
are endeavoring to teach the boys trades, wanting them to be like
Paul where they can preach the Gospel while they make tents for a
living. Ruthena is a bright boy in every way and will be named
John Ryder as you wished. We do not have time to write often but
our hearts are with you.
Yours for India's redemption,
LAURA E. JARVIS.
* * * * *
Lahore, N. India, Sept. 18, 1902.--My Dear Sister--Your dear boy
is healthy and well. He is such a help, and seems to know just
what to do at the right time. We feel that we can count on him at
all times. He is a precious Christian boy, and God is using him.
God is blessing our precious children, and the work is going
forward. We are so glad to be on our own land. Our homes are only
temporary, but our faith is in God for the permanent ones. He
says no good thing will He withhold from them that walk
uprightly.
Your Sister seeking the lost,
L. E. J.
* * * * *
Lahore, North India, August 20, 1903.--Dear Sister Wheaton--Your
kind offering of twenty dollars for the support of your boy,
John, is very thankfully received. The Lord bless and repay you.
Continue to pray for him, and for the rest of our great family.
God is hearing prayer for us. There are some slight fever cases
among the children. This is our sickly season. Unite in prayer
that our workers may keep well. We are all burdened because of
the lack of workers and much has to remain undone.
Though burdened, we will stand at our post until Jesus comes. (R.
V.) Our faith is in God. So many young people at home seem to be
wasting their lives and talents, when they might be doing so much
for God in this land.
Your brother seeking the lost,
ROBERT JARVIS.
* * * * *
Lahore, N. India, March 16, 1904.
My Dear Sister Wheaton--Greetings in Jesus' name. "Lift up your
eyes, and look on the fields, for they are white already to
harvest."
I write to tell you today that your boy John is quite poorly. He
has been having an attack of lung fever. I believe that in answer
to prayer God will raise him up. I felt he would have better care
in the hospital than we could give him, so we took him there, but
we go to see him frequently, and I will keep you posted as to how
he is doing. I know you are interested and are praying for him.
We thank you much for your interest, and all you are doing for
him. I hope you are keeping well and seeing souls saved.
John was a real help in the garden outside of school hours. He
has always been a willing little worker. God bless you much, dear
Sister Wheaton, and use you greatly, is our prayer.
Your sister,
L. E. JARVIS.
* * * * *
Lahore, N. India, April 12, 1904.
My Dear Sister Wheaton--Greeting in Jesus' name. I am glad to
write you this time that John is all right again. I think his
sickness has drawn him closer to God. He is writing you a few
lines that I will translate for him and send it with this.
Yours to be faithful,
L. E. JARVIS.
PREACHING IN THE PEST-HOUSE.
Just why the dear Lord saw best to permit me to take the loathsome
disease of smallpox into my system, I know not; but I do know the same
God that made man and pronounced him very good, permitted Job and many
others of His people to suffer many things. Of one thing I am certain,
the Lord permitted me to preach the Gospel in the pest-house. No one
was allowed there but the physician of the Board of Health and those
in charge, and there were many lost ones there and no gospel services
for years and not even the superintendent and his family were allowed
to go to church. I had held meetings in almost every other place and I
now had opportunity to go there, this being the only way to get to
them. During the summer of 1901 I was taken very ill and the sixth
doctor pronounced the disease smallpox. There was no alternative but
to prepare for the hospital, which I did unaided. This was
remarkable; for I had been very near death, the suffering both
mentally and physically was so intense and the agony so great. Surely
God heard the prayers of His believing ones and raised me up to once
more go forth to glorify His name by preaching His gospel and singing
His praises. Bless His holy name!
I was hedged in with God. He got the glory of my healing. I bless the
Lord that in answer to prayer He never let one person take the disease
from me that we knew of. When leaving the minister's home where I was
taken sick, I was shouting and praising the Lord. I told the mission
workers I was sure I could go to Heaven even from the pest-house, with
the smallpox. I told the young sister with me to bring the tracts for
service in the hospital. I had told her that morning that there would
be several doctors call and hold a consultation and pronounce the
disease smallpox and they would take me to the pest-house, and I
expected I would die there. I had such victory in my soul that I just
shouted and praised the Lord.
In the hospital I was given the privilege of all the wards to sing and
pray and talk with the patients. Some were in a very dangerous
condition, and others convalescent. Others were trembling with fear,
having been exposed and quarantined here to protect the public from
contagion. Those were weeks of suffering, although full of service and
song. The hymns were listened to with the greatest delight even by
foreigners who could not understand our language. I often wonder why
professing Christians are not as careful about the spread of sin as
people are about the transmitting of disease. The same day I left the
hospital the Lord sent me out on a long journey to preach the gospel
on the train. As I was talking with the conductor, there was a sudden
stop and he ran to find the cause. Our engine had become disabled on a
bridge, and as a train was coming behind us, the trainmen ran to flag
the coming train before it should overtake us; but it was too late. I
dropped on my knees on the platform of the rear car and asked God to
spare our lives. I arose, took in the situation, went to my seat in
the center of the car and again knelt in prayer. I turned to look just
as the engine struck our car, raising it about five feet in the air,
crushing timbers and glass, and causing a panic among the passengers.
I was blest of God through it all, and went immediately to work
holding meetings while we waited some hours for help to come. I see so
plainly the hand of the Lord in all this. I might have left the train
when on the rear platform, but I felt impressed to stay with those on
board and call on God for help. Do you wonder that when all our lives
were spared I felt that as the Lord gave all on the ship into Paul's
hands, so in this case, as in many others, the wise Master gave me
those who traveled with me? "As thy days so shall thy strength be." "A
thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand,
but it shall not come nigh thee."
HOW THE LORD PROVIDES.
One night in San Francisco while holding a meeting in the Old Adelphi
Theater, I was impressed to give a dollar to a sister who often sang
and exhorted in our service and who assisted me that night. At the
close of the meeting I handed her a silver dollar. She seemed much
surprised and said, "No, I should not take this from you." I told her
God showed me to give her that dollar and I must obey Him; so she took
the money.
The next day, while waiting for the street car on a public
thoroughfare, I saw a man giving out ladies' fashion plates. I spoke
kindly to him and suggested how much more good he could do by giving
out tracts. He replied that that was the way he made his living--that
the firm paid him for his services. I told him that God would care for
him if he only trusted and served Him, but he evidently thought me
somewhat of a fanatic. Just then a well-dressed old gentleman spoke to
me and said, "Do you belong to the Salvation Army?" I said that I did
not and he then asked, "What is your work?" I answered, "I am a
missionary to the prisoners and lost girls." He handed me a dollar and
hurried on. The man with whom I had been speaking looked on surprised
and said, "Who was that man?" I said, "I do not know; I never saw him
before and may never see him again." He was evidently thinking, for I
had told him that God provided for me and would provide for him if he
would but work for Him, and God was giving him an object lesson. I
said, "I believe the Lord sent that man to convince you that what I
said was true for I never ask any person for money, but trust all to
Providence."
Going on my way later in the day, outside the city where I changed
cars, I saw hurrying toward me the same man who had given me the
dollar in the morning. He said, "I have been thinking all day about
you and what you said and here is another dollar for you." I told him
how I felt God had used him to convince the fashion plate man, that if
we fully trust and serve the Lord He will provide for us. I have never
seen either of these men again since that day, but God sent me the two
dollars in place of the one dollar I had given that poor woman the
night before, in the meeting.
The sequel was given me sometime after this when I again met that poor
sister. She said to me, "Sister Wheaton, I want to tell you about the
dollar you gave me that night in the meeting," and then she said: "I
had nothing in my house for my children to eat (there was a large
family of them), and husband was out of work. I had to wash next day
and had neither soap nor starch, and I had to go across the city to
pray for a sick woman, whose son had said that he would believe in God
and serve him if his mother were healed in answer to prayer. I had to
take that young man with me and pay his car fare and my own. The
mother was healed and the young man, being convinced, yielded himself
to God and was converted and became a Christian." And then she added,
"All this your dollar did, for I had prayed God to send me a dollar
that night and you obeyed God and see what was accomplished through
obedience to the God who hears the ravens when they cry and notes the
sparrow's fall."
Then I related to her my experience to show how the Lord used a
stranger to return me double, or two dollars instead of one, and
perhaps saved two men--for God was evidently dealing both with the
stranger who gave me the money and with the one with whom I was
speaking on the street.
MISCELLANEOUS INCIDENTS.
I was once called upon to minister to the needs of a woman who was
burned almost to death. I assisted the doctor as best I could to dress
the burns. I took the scissors and cut the loose flesh from her arm,
and held her while the doctor filed the rings from her hands.
If I had not been previously convinced by the Scriptures of the folly
of wearing rings I think this awful sight would have been sufficient
to satisfy any doubts in my mind, as they cut so cruelly deep into the
charred and swollen flesh. She finally passed away to that land where
there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither
shall there be any more pain.
* * * * *
While being entertained at a certain place a few years ago, a caller
was announced one evening, to see "Mother Wheaton." Entering the
parlor a tall, handsome man, dressed in the uniform of a policeman,
advanced to greet me. I bowed politely, but perhaps a little
distantly, as I did not know him. He came forward and extended his
hand cordially, saying, "Don't you know me, Mother?" I said, "No, I do
not know you." He said "I sang in ----prison in the choir. I served a
term there and heard you sing and preach there. This is my daughter,"
and he presented a nice looking young lady who was with him. He said
he now held a responsible position and was getting along nicely, and
invited me to come and visit his family.
* * * * *
While holding meetings in a little town in one of the southern states,
I was entertained at the home of a wealthy man who was accused of
crime. He had a beautiful wife and lovely children. I was greatly
troubled about his condition. I held meetings there in the home. I was
treated very kindly and cordially welcomed, but he would not yield to
God. I warned him faithfully, and plead with him to repent of his sins
and become a Christian. I told him that a terrible calamity awaited
him if he did not yield himself to the Lord. I went away believing it
was his last chance of salvation. Not long after that he laid in wait
to kill a man against whom he had had a grudge for some time; but the
other man seeing his intention, drew his revolver and fired in
self-defence. The man fell dead. He had had his last call. He had
rejected the Lord and was ushered into eternity without a moment's
warning.
* * * * *
One day years ago, in M----, Mississippi, I went on the street to hold
a meeting. A policeman came along and forbade me after I had begun to
sing, saying it was against the law to hold religious services on the
street. My spirit was grieved as I felt the Lord had a work for me to
do among the poor and lowly who were too poorly clad to attend church
services. A sister (a woman of God who entertained me) was with me.
She then proposed taking me to see a sick child, an infant. When we
reached the house we found the young parents weeping over their dying
child. My heart was touched with sympathy, and kneeling down I asked
Him who said, "Suffer little children to come unto me," to heal the
child for His glory. I believed His word where it says, "The prayer of
faith shall save the sick." My faith touched divinity, the child was
healed and the young parents, seeing the power of God manifested, were
converted, and gave their lives to God for His service.
[Illustration: Height Out Arms Trunk Head Length Head Width Cheek
Width Ear Foot Length Finger L. Fore-arm Color of Eyes Marks & Scars
BERTILLON MEASUREMENTS]
[Illustration: PRISON AT ANAMOSA, IOWA. 1. FEMALE DEPARTMENT. 2. CELL
HOUSE. 3. MAIN ENTRANCE.]