John Harper
was born into a Christian family May 29, 1872. He became a Christian 13 years later and had
already started preaching by age 17. He
received training at the Baptist Pioneer Mission in London, and in 1896 he
founded a church, now known as Harper Memorial Church, which began with 25
worshipers but had grown to 500 members by the time he left 13 years later.
In 1912
Harper, the newly called pastor of Moody Church in Chicago was traveling on the
Titanic with his 6-year-old daughter. After
the ship struck an iceberg and began to sink, he got Nana into a lifeboat but
apparently made no effort to follow her. Instead, he ran through the ship yelling,
"Women, children, and unsaved into the lifeboats!" Survivors report
that he then began witnessing to anyone who would listen. He continued preaching even after he had
jumped into the water and was clinging to a piece of wreckage (he'd already
given his lifejacket to another man).
Harper's
final moments were recounted four years later at a meeting in Hamilton,
Ontario, by a man who said:
I am a
survivor of the Titanic. When I was
drifting alone on a spar that awful night, the tide brought Mr. Harper of
Glasgow, also on a piece of wreck, near me. "Man," he said, "are you
saved?" "No," I said,
"I am not." He replied,
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."
The waves
bore him away, but, strange to say, brought him back a little later, and he said,
"Are you saved now?" "No,"
I said, "I cannot honestly say that I am." He said again, "Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved," and shortly after he went down; and
there, alone in the night, and with two miles of water under me, I believed. I am John Harper's last convert.
He was also
one of only six people picked out the water by the lifeboats; the other 1,522,
including Harper, were left to die.[1]
The Rest of the Story
Kit Carson, a
member of Hyde Park Baptist Church, Jacksonville, Florida, told me "The
Rest of the Story" regarding Rev. Harper, who was Kit's Grand Uncle.
It seems
Harper was noted in his congregation for giving things away. Once, during a fierce winter in his native
Scotland, John's mother had gone to great expense to get him a new overcoat. He was a student at Bible College, and poor
to boot. Within a week he had given the
new coat to a street person, saving the ratty old one to wear for himself.
It is
natural for people that unselfish to give the gospel away too.
Today
Are you willing to give away your most prized possession?
[1]
Elesha Coffman, "Sacrifice
at Sea," Christianhistory.net (8-11-00), adapted from The Titanic's Last
Hero (Moody Press, 1997) © 2000 PreachingToday.com / Christianity Today, Inc.
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