WITNESSING

But take heed to yourselves: for they shall deliver you up to councils; and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them.

—Mark 13:9

7382 Teleperson System

Someone has said that the Gospel in the first century was carried by a good system. It was called the teleperson system, and it truly got results, better than we do today with our telephones, televisions, and so on. The woman of Samaria carried the Gospel after her meeting with Christ by the teleperson system. It is said that “many of the Samaritans … believed on Him for the saying of the woman” (John 4:39).

—Mrs. J. Shields

7383 Friends Of Jesus’ Patients

Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman, famous evangelist, said that the New Testament records tell of forty people, each suffering from the same disease, who were healed by Jesus. Of this number, thirty-four were either brought to Jesus by friends, or He was taken to them. In only six cases out of forty did the sufferers find the way to Jesus without assistance. Of the vast number of people who find their way to Jesus today, most of them reach Him because the friends of Jesus are concerned about the welfare of their souls.

—Pastor’s Manual

7384 New York’s Realistic Demonstration

Some years ago twelve thousand persons marched in a great demonstration in New York City. In the procession were three vans packed full of men, women, and children. In one was a judge of the Court of Appeals, and in the last one was a ragged street boy. On the sides of a car was written, “These people have been saved from burning buildings by the New York Firemen.” Then back of the cars marched the men who saved them, wearing their medals.

—Daily Readings

7385 Man With Roped Blind Friends

A missionary physician in one of China’s hospitals cured a man of cataracts. A few weeks later 48 blind men came to the doctor from one of China’s wilds, all holding on to a rope guided by the man who had been cured. He had led them in this way, walking in chain 250 miles to the hospital. The multitude may appear indifferent to their condition, but let not this discourage us, for many are fumbling blindly after light. It is our happy mission to tenderly and tirelessly seek them.

—S. S. Times

7386 The Pentel Pen

A type of pen, once imported from Japan and called “Pentel,” flooded the market in the United States. Though having been available for only one year, sales of Pentels climbed to 1.8 million and rising. And all this without heavy promotion! The explanation? “Word-of-mouth advertising.” Businessmen and public-relations counselors, office workers, and housewives—all have contributed to the advertising of the pen simply by using the pen and introducing it to others.

7387 Lesson From Atom

Every atom in the universe can act on every other atom, but only through the atom next to it. If a man would act upon every other man, he can do it best by acting, one at a time, upon those beside him.

—Henry Drummond

7388 Relay Games In Corinth

In ancient Corinth there used to be staged the Isthmian Games, the forerunner of the modern Olympics. There were many events, but the one which received the most attention was the relay race. The competitors lined up side by side at the starting line, each bearing a torch. In the distance waited still another line, of men, and still farther on other lines.

When the signal was given, the men started to run, bearing their lighted torches. When a runner reached his partner in the next line he would pass on his light, and so on from man to man until the finish line was reached. With the famous relay race in mind, the Greeks coined a phrase: “Let those who have the light pass it on.”

7389 Actual Training Of Leaders

Leaders are more trained than born.

Evangelism is more caught than taught.

The average person can no more learn to evangelize in a classroom than he can learn to fly an airplane in the living room.

There should be more on-the-job training.

7390 Clock Of Life

The clock of life is wound but once,

And no man has the power

To tell just when the hands will stop,

At late or early hour.

To lose one’s wealth is sad indeed.

To lose one’s health is more.

To lose one’s soul is such a loss

That no man can restore.

Thirty-nine people died while you read this short poem. Every hour 5,417 go to meet their Maker. What are YOU doing to help reach them with the Gospel e’re they are cast into Hell?

7391 Two High Positions

Prince Oscar Bernadotte was the brother of King Gustav of Sweden, and a sincere Christian. We are told that one summer Sunday morning he was on board the yacht that was to take him to the island of Liding where he was to speak to a great gathering. A large crowd had collected at the dock to see him off. As the prince was not in sight, they began calling for him. Presently, he came out on the bridge, hushed the crowd, and began to speak: “What have you come out to see? Is it that you wished to see the son of a king? Look well at me then for that I truly am—a son of the father of your country, and a son of the King of Kings.”

—C. A. Anderson

7392 Truman On Guestbook

As I signed the Vatican pavilion’s register at the World’s Fair last April, I couldn’t help noticing the bold signature a few lines above: “Harry S. Truman, Independence, Mo. (Baptist!)”

—New York World-Telegram

7393 Ike’s Faith And Humility

The late Dwight David Eisenhower had the distinction of being the only American President to have been baptized and received into church membership upon confession of faith while in office. The memorial service in the Washington Cathedral witnessed strongly to his faith—there can be no mistaking of it. The simple service, the hymns sung by choir and congregation, the Scriptures read, the prayers given, the Apostles Creed—all bore witness to Ike’s faith in his Lord. The leaders of one hundred nations were present and they heard the witness. More than that, national television brought the witness before the American people.

We were not only reminded of Eisenhower’s faith, but of his humility. There might have been much pomp and ceremony. Eisenhower was the Commander of the Allied forces for the invasion of Europe. He was one of the world’s most decorated military men. Many honors had been heaped upon him in life. In death, the services were simple. It had been planned that way. He was buried in a casket just like those used for common soldiers. This speaks of the humility of the man. With all the honors bestowed upon him, and having been the 34th President of the United States, and having enjoyed a personal popularity seldom matched in America, he chose the common lot.

—Christian Victory

7394 Dallas Airport’s Soul Winner

A businessman landed at the Dallas airport and realized he had one hour and 20 minutes before his next plane connection.

He thought, How can I be used of the Lord here?

He had a supply of Gospel tracts with him. He inserted one of his business cards inside each tract. Then he gave these to single men sitting waiting for their planes.

But he didn’t just hand them out and pass on. Instead he said to each man, “Pardon me. I have a little booklet here that explains how a person can become a Christian. Inside is my business card. I would like you to read this over and if you have any questions, I will be sitting over there. I have some time before my plane takes off. Or if you would like to write, my address is there.”

At the end of the hour and 20 minutes, men were standing four deep to ask questions about how to become a Christian. And, for weeks afterwards, the businessman received correspondence because of the business cards in the tracts.

—Navigators’ Log

7395 Miss America’s Witness

Vonda Kay Van Dyke, Miss America for 1965, was being interviewed during the pageant finals. Emcee Bert Parks asked, “Do you carry a Bible as a “good luck charm”?” The twenty-one-year-old Sunday school teacher from Phoenix, Arizona, replied, “It’s not a charm, but the most important Book I own.” And she added, “I wouldn’t classify my relationship to Jesus Christ as a religion, but rather as faith. I trust in Him completely.”

7396 Fred Hawkin’s Private Census

Fred Hawkins the great soul-winner was saved at 48, yet none could be with him for a minute before he would inquire about his soul.

One day, Hawkins was invited to a countyseat town in Missouri for a meeting. Arriving early, he strolled near a bus station and decided to make a little survey. At the town’s busiest corner, he asked people: “How does a fellow get to heaven?”

He stopped 29 people and only 7 answered correctly. They had all grown up, were all white, and most had attended church regularly. And in that very spot could be seen the spires of 5 churches.

7397 A Better Second Baseman

Bobby Richardson, the former second baseman for the New York Yankees, is an active Christian. Once he was asked, “Does being a Christian make you a better second baseman?” He replied, “Trying to be a good Christian has made me a better father and a better citizen; and my wife says it has made me a better husband. So, if being a Christian has made me a better man, I would say it has made me a better second baseman.”

7398 To Meet Christ Is Better

Larry McKenzie, polio poster boy, whose picture and story were used by the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis to help thousands of other stricken children, made his testimony as a Christian count in helping others.

In his tour of the country in behalf of the polio drive, the Christian lad frequently told of his love for the Lord Jesus. Now his testimony has been printed in a tract, “Rise Up and Walk,” published and distributed by the American Tract Society.

Says Larry in his tract, “I met many famous people on my tour—President of the United States, J. Edgar Hoover, chief of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and others, but I think often about the time I will meet the Lord Jesus, and until then I really want to serve Him any way I can.”

7399 Elevator Boy’s Surprise

Dr. T. C. Horton entered an elevator one day and called for the floor at which he wished to stop. Always ready to seize an opportunity to tell what God had done for a world of lost sinners, he turned to the elevator boy, and asked, “Are you bound for Heaven or hell?” “I don’t know,” the startled young man replied. When the desired floor was reached, the elevator stopped, and the door was opened.

But Dr. Horton made no move to go. The elevator boy waited a moment, and then said to him, “Why don’t you go? The door is open.” “So is the door of Heaven,” answered Dr. Horton, walking out, and leaving the young man to make the very obvious application.

—Sunday School Times

7400 Her Name Was Christine

A medical missionary was leaving by ship for a foreign field. The famous Andrew Bonar of Scotland came to the pier to bid farewell to his friend, only to discover that the doctor was to be accompanied by his sister.

Turning to her, he said, “My dear, I don’t believe I’ve ever had the privilege of making your acquaintance. I’m pleased that you are going as your brother’s assistant, and I’d like to remember you in my prayers. What is your first name?” “Christine,” was the reply. “I like that!” said the aged servant of the Lord, “for you have Christ in your name. I trust you also have Him in your heart!”

The woman looked away and was silent for a moment. Before she could think of an answer, the last call to board the ocean liner was given. Convicted by Bonar’s words, she began to think about her relationship to the Lord. Although she went to church regularly, she suddenly realized that she was not truly saved and had never actually become a “new creature” in Christ. That night she knelt and asked the Saviour to pardon her sins and make her His child.

—H. G. Bosch

Our Daily Bread

7401 Dr. Kelly’s Insignia

Dr. Howard A. Kelly was in the habit of wearing a button with a question mark on it. He bought them and has given them out by the hundreds. He uses it as a springboard for a conversation on Christ. A stranger asks, “What does that question mark mean, Dr. Kelly?” He replies, “What is the greatest thing in the world?” Knowing that they are speaking to a physician, some reply, “Health is the greatest thing.” Others in answer to the inquiry say, “Money.”

“No,” this great scientist replies, “the biggest question in the world is: “What think ye of Christ?” Then he proceeds to say a few words for his Christ, the Great Physician. Busy with carrying the burdens of his patients in the hospital, busy with his cares as a physician, but never too busy to speak a word of his Lord.

—Christian Herald

7402 The Man In The Commuter

The United Presbyterian has told of a soft-spoken young man who was a commuter on the Long Island Railroad—on the five o’clock local. The peculiar fact was that every evening, after the train had left the subway, he would begin a journey through the car from front to back. At each seat he would stop and say, “Excuse me, but if any of your friends are blind, tell them to consult Dr. Garl. He restored my sight.”

—Free Methodist

7403 “Go To Hell, Then”

Dr. Len G. Broughton, for years pastor of the Tabernacle Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia, told the following incident: “In my church, there was a half-witted young man. To be sure, he “had zeal without knowledge.” However, he did have a sincere desire to see souls saved. Once, when I was making an appeal for souls at the close of my sermon, this half-witted young man quietly drew up alongside a well-dressed young man, and asked him, “Do you want to go to heaven?” Bluntly, the one approached barked out, “NO!” “Go to hell, then!” said the half-witted young man as he walked away.

God’s Holy Spirit used the sincere effort of that young man to awaken the slumbering soul of that haughty sinner, and, ere long, he chose Christ as his Saviour, and heaven as his eternal home.

7404 Webster’s Epitaph

Daniel Webster’s testimony to his belief in Jesus Christ may be seen and read by anyone who cares to visit Marshfield, Mass., and the burial place of the great statesman. He lies buried half a mile back of his house, by the side of his wife and three children. His tomb is entirely unpretentious, being of rough granite with a sod roof.

Webster dictated his own epitaph on the day before his death. It is as follows:

Daniel Webster,

Born January 18, 1782,

Died Oct. 24, 1852.

Philosophical argument, especially that drawn from the vastness, in comparison with the apparent insignificance of this globe, had sometimes shaken my reasons for the faith which is in me. But my heart has always assured and reassured me that the gospel of Jesus Christ must be a divine reality. The Sermon on the Mount cannot be a mere human production. This belief enters into the very depths of my conscience. The whole history of man proves it.

7405 Over All … Over All

Some years ago, Dr. Henrietta Mears visited the Taj Mahal in India. The famed structure is noted for its unusual acoustical qualities. Standing in the center of the white marble mausoleum, the guide said loudly, “There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is the prophet!”

His voice reverberated through all the chambers and corridors of the tomb.

Dr. Mears asked, “May I say something, too?”

The guide courteously replied, “Certainly.” In clear, distinct voice, Dr. Mears said, “Jesus Christ, Son of God, is Lord over all!”

Her voice, too reverberated from wall to wall and through the corridors of the minareted shrine, saying, “Lord over all … over all … over all … over all!”

7406 Singing In Voltaire’s Chair

Peter McKenzie, the famous Methodist preacher, was being shown over Madame Tussaud’s Waxworks in London. Coming to one object, his guide said, “This is the chair in which Voltaire sat and wrote his atheistic blasphemies.”

“Is that the chair?” asked Peter; and then, without seeking permission, he stepped over the cord, sat down on the chair, and sang as only a real believer could:

Jesus shall reign where’er the sun

Doth His successive journeys run;

His kingdom stretch from shore to shore

Till moons shall wax and wane no more.

7407 Speaking To Wooden Indian

A woman in a mid-Western town some years ago took an unusual method of testifying to her faith in Christ. Her friends for the most part were lukewarm and indifferent. Surface Christians one might call them. One day she knew they would be passing by, she stood before a wooden Indian in front of a cigar store and spoke to the Indian about Christ. When her friends ridiculed her for creating such a scene, she gave this defense: “I would rather be real Christian and talk religion to a wooden Indian, than be a wooden Christian who never talked religion to anyone.”

7408 The Witnessing Plumber

Howard E. Butt, Jr., a millionaire grocer, said, “God doesn’t issue a special call to pastors and leave everyone else uncalled. Every Christian should think of himself as having a divine call for making Christian witnessing a full-time career.”

L. C. Hester of Whitehours, Texas, is a plumber. He packs a New Testament with his tools. He is known as “the witnessing plumber.” A minister said of him: “That witnessing plumber has won hundreds to Christ since he became a Christian. Many will listen to a workingman who will not listen to a preacher, you know.”

—Selected

7409 Pershing’s Testimony

We are told that in one of his speeches to the soldiers of the first World War, General Pershing said: “I have known Jesus Christ now for forty-seven years, and I could not face life without Him. It is no small thing to know that all the past is forgiven, that help is available from God every day.” Then continued the stalwart general: “I commend such a Saviour to you.”

7410 Patrick Henry’s Will

“I have now disposed of all my property to my family. There is one thing more I wish I could give them and that is faith in Jesus Christ. If they had that and I had not given them one shilling, they would have been rich: and if they had not that, and I had given them all the world, they would be poor indeed.”

—The Christian Reader

7411 Shakespeare’s Last Will And Testament

“I, William Shakespeare, of Stratford-upon-Avon, in the county of Warrick, gentleman in perfect health and memory, God be praised, do make and ordain this my last will and testament in manner and form following, that is to say, first, I commend my soul into the hands of God, my Creator, hoping and assuredly believing, through the only merits of Jesus Christ, my Saviour, to be made partaker of life everlasting, and my body to the earth whereof it is made.”

7412 Millionaire Morgan’s Will

When Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, the American financier, the multi-millionaire, died it was found that the year before his death, he had made his will. It consisted of about 10,000 words and contained thirty-seven articles.

But we are left in no doubt as to what Mr. Morgan considered to be the most important clause in his will, nay, the most important affair in his whole life.

He made many transactions—some affecting such large sums of money as to disturb the financial equilibrium of the world—yet there was one transaction that evidently stood out in Mr. Morgan’s mind as of supreme importance:

“I commit my soul in the hands of my Saviour, full of confidence that, having redeemed me and washed me with His most precious Blood, He will present me faultless before the throne of my Heavenly Father.

“I entreat my children to maintain and defend, at all hazard and at any cost of personal sacrifice, the blessed doctrine of complete Atonement of sins through the Blood of Jesus Christ once offered, and through that alone.”

7413 Michelangelo’s Will

“I die in the faith of Jesus Christ, and in the firm hope of a better life.”

See also: Conversion Stories ; Soul-Winning ; Matt. 10:18; 24:14.