One Boys Influence (Samuel Moor Shoemaker)
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Oxford Group Pamphlet
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One
Boys Influence (Samuel Moor Shoemaker)
Full Length Digital Reprint of this
Oxford Group Pamphlet
He is just an American boy. He is nineteen and goes to high school. I suppose there are many others like him. But he has had an experience. Let me tell you about it.
One day in August of 1920 I was coming home from Chicago, and changed trains at Harrisburg. On the station platform I noticed a fellow about six feet tall, with a suit-case in one hand and a trench-coat over the other arm. I said to myself, “There is a fellow who probably goes to high school and has a certain amount of influence, and would
make a real Christian if something roused him." I thought no more of it until I found that he was coming down the stairs to board the same train as I. While going down those stairs it came to me strongly, as though from outside myself, “You are going to get to know that fellow and make friends with him." There are times when God puts thoughts into the minds of men, if men are listening, and this was one of them.
I went into the day coach and sat in the only vacant seat in the car. My friend went into the smoker which was just ahead. Pretty soon a very fat old woman with five children came into the car where I was seated reading, and there was nothing to do but give her my seat. I saw that I must
move into the smoker. So I gathered up my book and my bags and started for the next car.
While going it came to me again strongly, "Go up and sit in front of him." Which I did,
I was reading a book on Constantine, and I greatly preferred being left alone with my book. I sup-posed my friend wanted to be left alone with his magazine and his cigarettes.
Why shouldn't I leave him alone Why should I intrude?
Then I began to think. Was it possible that some-thing important was at stake that this urge kept driving me to speak to him? Perhaps he was not a Christian, perhaps his becoming one depended on me. Somebody outside myself seemed to be telling me so. I thought of an old story of a man who asked if he were his brother's keeper, when he knew that he was. The more I read and tried to forget it, the more what had been a hazy intimation at first became a clear and powerful conviction; I must get to know that boy, or else be false to what I noiv knew was a spiritual command.
Of course, I did not begin by asking him, "Are you a Christian?" That ivould not have been good manners, and therefore not Christian, and therefore not wise. But we had to get into con-versation. The day was hot – that was one topic. And the train was late – that was another. They did not last long, and they were not very exciting subjects anyway. "Where do you live, may I ask?" 4
"My home is in – –.”"I take it that you are at school there.'"
"Yes, at high school.”
“Have you been long up in this part of the country ”
"No – just paying a visit to – –, where I expect to go to college.”"Do you play football?" Yes, he did.
“I used to knoiv a fellow at – – who
played football, as I suppose you will when you get there. FIe divas a rounder up there, one of their interesting sinners. He knew the dives and inhere liquor might be had. He was a good athlete and a college sport. Its rather interesting about hini, by the way. A friend of mine got hold of him, and the upshot of it is that he has been a mission-ary for some time in China.”
"That is unusual,” observed my friend laconically. I had not made a dent so far."VL’ell, perhaps there is more of that sort of thing than you’d think,” I told him, and then gave him another story of a man who had been living a loose sort of life in college, and had been won to Christ by a friend. I gave him the story in su%-cient detail for him to see that something quite out of the ordinary had been brought to bear upon him, and he said, “That must be very interesting work." He pricked up his ears a bit, and shoived more signs eyes were a bit foggy. His eyelids hung lower than they should: he looked dissipated. He was dissi-pated, though he was a long way from being a complete degenerate in the gutter. He was just a boy on the way, at a dead run, for ruin.
He was living entirely for himself, was without much sense of purpose in his own life, and was liv-ing for what he could get out of life. I found lack of discipline along many lines.
M'e discussed the matter of relationships with other people in connection with Christ’s standard of absolute love. \Ye talked of grudges, bad blood, school jealousies, criticism. Just then into the car came a parcel of black, corn-field darkies. It was a hot Saturday afternoon in August: they had come from their fields reeking with perspiration, and picked up some grog on their way which smelled like raw alcohol. When they came into the car', they sat themselves right opposite us and began to sing and to talk so noisily that we could scarcely hear our-selves across the back of my seat. My friend stood it as long as he could, and then he exploded, “Gosh, I do hate niggers!” His southern blood boiled. I said, "Old fellow, that is just what I mean. ,U’hat do you think about a remark like that, in con-nection with vrhat we have just been saying?" I said, "Old fellow, that is just what I mean. ,U’hat do you think about a remark like that, in con-nection with vrhat we have just been saying?" He said, “I see. I suppose Jesus would not have said that, would He?” I said that I did not think He would.
ow, among other things, my friend was smok-ing like a chimney. He was talking about pretty intimate things with a person he did not yet know very well: he did not quite know what to make of me yet, though there had been no “come-back" on anything I had said to him – he had to grant it. But he was a bit nervous, as I knew, and he was taking it out in smoking. He had begun on a new pack, and was going through them, lighting one with the butt of the last. His hands were stained with nicotine. I inclined to think that his drinking was in part an effort to quiet the nicotine poison in him: and I know that liquor helped to loosen his attitude towards women. I do not say, mind you, that cigar-ettes were the cause of his immorality: I say they may have been the entering wedge. I asked him what he thought of cigarettes. Well, he thought they were mighty good, and did no harm "in modera-tion." He wanted to know what I thought. I told him that I was not a crank about tobacco: I thought men had a lot worse enemies than that, but for myself I viewed it thi's way. No one will say that there is any harm in having a chocolate soda, will they? No. But suppose a man in training goes into drug-stores and fills himself full of ice-cream and candy during training season, is that wrong? Yes. Why? Because it lessens his eKciency in playing the game. Precisely. Now I am in train-ing for a game that is much bigger than football. It is the game of trying to live a Christian life,
think sin has a good deal to do with our being out of touch with God?"He said that he did.
I asked, “How (ar do you think you would have to come yourself before you could ask B – to come all the way? Let's make this a bit more spe-cific if you really mean business.”
"All right, I am game,” he said.
"Well, one of the things that will have to go is any sort of dishonesty, isn't it? Ever crib a bit in classes?” Sometimes but not often, he told me.
"Christ had four absolute standards which He never transgressed – absolute honesty, absolute pur-ity, absolute unselfishness, and absolute love. Most fellows have a pretty tough battle with impurity. How about it, have you got it where you want it, or has it got you?"We found that there were often thoughts that were rotten, and when he could he went the whole pace. I told him very naturally and honestly about my own battles and temptations at his age, and we discussed the matter sensibly and fully. It was the first time he had ever talked of it seriously. There was much of the simple hygiene of it which he did not know, and he knew nothing of ways to con-quer spiritually. Happily I could tell him of not a few men who had won out, and how they had found in Christ a source of hitherto undiscovered power.
"Christ had four absolute standards which He never transgressed – absolute honesty, absolute pur-ity, absolute unselfishness, and absolute love. Most fellows have a pretty tough battle with impurity. How about it, have you got it where you want it, or has it got you?"We found that there were often thoughts that were rotten, and when he could he went the whole pace. I told him very naturally and honestly about my own battles and temptations at his age, and we discussed the matter sensibly and fully. It was the first time he had ever talked of it seriously. There was much of the simple hygiene of it which he did not know, and he knew nothing of ways to con-quer spiritually. Happily I could tell him of not a few men who had won out, and how they had found in Christ a source of hitherto undiscovered power.
anything that lessens my efFiciency
even a little, I ought to cut it out, on the same principle as the man who cuts
sodas during football training season, shouldn’t I? Admitted. All right. Now I
have found a few fellows for whom smoking definitely led to worse things, and
for whose health it was plainly injurious. Anybody seeing them would ad-mit they
ought to slow down, at any rate, and not smoke so much. But there are a lot of
fellows who, if they smoke at all, will smoke a great deal: there
isn’t any will-power there, and it's a question of cutting it altogether, or
not cutting it at all. They can't cut it down, unless they cut it o«t.
Now when I am talking to those fellows, I can't sit there and blow smoke in
their faces, and tell them that I can smoke, but they can't. I don’t
know why that is so, but it is so. The same applies to drink: I can’t drink,
however moderately, and make anyone else stop entirely. For myself it is worth
while to keep in spiritual training, so that when I run into a fel-low like that
I am not handicapped by even a little compromise in my own life. St. Paul laid
down the most sensitive ethical touchstone in the world when he said, "if
meat cause my brother to offend, ’I will eat no meat while the world
stands." He was talking of meat offered to idols, which he could eat
without harm, but it would have been a scandal and a danger for simpler-minded
early Christians to touch it, when for them it was so closely associated,¿
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Now there are times when one cannot
accept such a reply as that. It is too indefinite. It came too easily to mean
very much, and I told him so. When he said he would "do his best," he
meant some general resolution, like hundreds he had made and broken. So I said,
"My friend, just remember this one thing: when you say that you are not
saying it to me. Count me out. Forget me entirely. You are saying it to God. And
unless you mean it, do not say it. Better think it over a while longer."
He settled back into his seat, and
was quiet for about fifteen minutes. He fought as he had never fought before in
his life. I was busy praying for him, and keeping sympathetic to every sign he
gave; waiting interestingly but not anxiously, asking God to help him over the
Great Divide. Pretty soon up came his big hand over the back of the seat, and he
said, "I am coming across."
"All the way?" I asked.
Yes, all the way.
We shook hands, and I smiled at him
and told him it was great. Then I said, "Now what do you feel like doing
right at this time?"
He said, "I think we ought to
pray." So did I, and we did.
Now there are a great many better
places to pray together than on a Pennsylvania Railroad train in full motion,
with all the windows open, and a lot of darkies chattering like monkeys across
the aisle. But it was the only place we happened to have with us at the time,
and we couldn't get off very con"i
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on that level? Some problems look
differently when viewed from that standpoint. Some which you never thought
"moral questions" before become moral questions when rung on this
touchstone.
My friend thought this was a good
argument – good enough for giving up his "weed," for, remem-ber, he
wanted to win B –, and he could not be completely won so long as he was
smoking too much.
Then I said something like this:
"Wouldn't all these things be included if we said that once for all we were
going to give ourselves to Christ – to surrender entirely to Him?"
He said that this was a good deal
to ask a man to do all at once, especially when he had not thought of it before.
"But," I went on,
"you have thought of it be-fore, I believe. At some time or other you have
made up your mind to cut loose and have done with all this compromise and live a
full-out Chris-tion life. But nothing has pushed you to do it. The thought has
not been acted upon, and so it has died out of your mind. Occasionally it flits
back, but again being denied it finally has been given up as
impracticable." He granted this.
"Now I am really saying
something to you which tallies exactly with your own conscience. And when are
you really going to begin?"
He tbought a brief moment, and
said, "I will do my best."
veniently, so we prayed right
there. His prayer was not long, came right out of his heart, and asked for what
he needed most; first he gave himself to Christ, and then he asked for strength
to keep go-ing, and then he asked for help to win B –. IVhen he looked up (it
had been the first time he had prayed in many a day) he said, "Gosh, that
helps." I said, "Of course it helps. That's what it was meant to do,
and that’s what it will keep on doing if you will let it."
Then I shifted my seat, and sat
down beside him. I found out his name, and by mutual agreement we began calling
each other by our first names. I told him that going through this great
experience always made me feel mighty close to a man, and he has been
"Jack" to me from that day to this, and one of the very closest
friends I have.
He had taken a mighty step. He
was feeling the glow of it, the importance of it, the power and re-sponsibility
of it. The thing for me to do was to be very understanding, and make him realize
fully the greatness of this step, and yet let him see that it was only a start
and he must become fixed in prac-tices which would make the experience
permanent.
He asked me how to "keep
going." I told him that broadly there were two directions in which a man's
mind must continually be travelling if he was to be successful and useful as a
Christian – one was up towards God, the other was out towards men.
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One was primarily maintained by prayer and
Bible study, the other by personal work and service.
First we talked about the Morning Watch. Strong
Christians in every generation have found that the first hour of
the day is the freshest, and that if they give part of it to God,
their day will be stronger and better. I suggested that he take
twenty min-utes or so for Bible study, and begin by immersing
himself in the heart of it, the Gospels, and steeping himself in
the personality of Christ. Then take five or ten minutes in
prayer; ask God for what he really needed, keeping a list of those
for whom he wanted to pray most, in the fly-leaf of his Bible –
the family, the school, the men he most wanted to win to Christ
– and then that he listen for God's direction, as well as tell
Him a lot of things.
We talked then of the right sort of books to
read. hiost of us are ignorant of the plain facts of Christianity.
I gave him a brief bibliography which would help him in his
search. He ordered the seven books I suggested the moment he got
home.
He was already a nominal church member, but saw at
once that he must renew his loyalty to the church, and give and
get all that he could in it. We spoke of the need for
companionship with live, con-tagious Christians, who have enough
religion to give away, and don't use it all up going to church.
Then we got to the question of getting religion across to the
other fellow. Of course he was keen ¿
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One was primarily maintained by prayer and
Bible study, the other by personal work and service.
First we talked about the Morning Watch. Strong
Christians in every generation have found that the first hour of
the day is the freshest, and that if they give part of it to God,
their day will be stronger and better. I suggested that he take
twenty min-utes or so for Bible study, and begin by immersing
himself in the heart of it, the Gospels, and steeping himself in
the personality of Christ. Then take five or ten minutes in
prayer; ask God for what he really needed, keeping a list of those
for whom he wanted to pray most, in the fly-leaf of his Bible –
the family, the school, the men he most wanted to win to Christ
– and then that he listen for God's direction, as well as tell
Him a lot of things.
We talked then of the right sort of books to
read. hiost of us are ignorant of the plain facts of Christianity.
I gave him a brief bibliography which would help him in his
search. He ordered the seven books I suggested the moment he got
home.
He was already a nominal church member, but saw at
once that he must renew his loyalty to the church, and give and
get all that he could in it. We spoke of the need for
companionship with live, con-tagious Christians, who have enough
religion to give away, and don't use it all up going to church.
Then we got to the question of getting religion
across to the other fellow. Of course he was keen ¿
again
to reach B –, but there were many others in the school who
needed help also. I told him that the only way to keep religion is
to give it away. He must begin to function as soon as he could.
Give what you can right away; it will increase as you give it.
Other men are apt to be a good deal like yourself, up against
temptations that are too strong for them, defeated, selfish,
unhappy. Strike deep, talk honestly about sin, aim for complete
surren-der, and make them in turn winners of others. They come to
you a field: they ought to go away a force. He wanted to know
about this type and that type, and what you say when a man asks
you this or that. He wanted a complete cross-section of all that I
knew in a brief time. Much of it he could only learn by
experience, but we talked about it for some time. When we got oE
the train, he thanked me, and said it was the greatest afternoon
of his life. I told him the best was yet to be. He chanced to be
staying in a city near my home for a week, and the following
Thursday I went in to town and saw him for a couple of hours. He
had been keeping his Morning Watch faithfully ¿ every day, said
he found temptations still present but much easier to conquer. So
far so good. He went back to his home the next day. I did not see
him face to face for eleven months. It was only a week till the
opening of training season for football, so he was soon back at
school
again. Before long I had a letter from him con-taining this:
“Perhaps you would care to hear how I am pro-gressing. I think
that I can say finely, I have had several hard battles, but at the
time I was about to break, something in me seemed to help to put
it down. I thought it was your prayer for me. Any-way I have
conquered myself, and am just about ready to start my crusade....
My next letter will have some news for you." In less than a
week came this: “I couldn't wait for an answer to my letter. I
have some wonderful news. I have just about in hand my first
convert, considered the toughest man on the squad. I have gotten
him to try the morn-ing prayer and Bible reading. He has just
about come clean: it will be a matter of only a few days. To tell
you frankly I didn’t think‘ I could do it. But after getting
myself in hand it was much easier. I have gone this far without
smoking and I believe the worst is over. I have received the set
of books which I ordered. Have been writing my uncle in I really
believe if I could see him I could win him.... You can’t imagine
how the world and living has changed, since I came across. There
is more in life than I ever imagined. I know you still pray for me
for when in the greatest moments of temptation, something seems to
come in and give me renewed courage and the desire leaves me. And
I earnestly hope you will continue to pray for me.,
Every evening and morning I offer a prayer for
)'OU.
In two weeks more he sent me this:
"B has come clean, I left it up to him
three days and then asked him. He was ready. iVoiv we are
working together and I have a stubborn one this time. It will
take time, I can see, but I'll get him.... My worst battles
are over, I truly think they are. With God's help and your
prayers, I will be 0.K. It is great work. I have not com-mitted
any act of impurity since I came across that day, but I have
had my battles.... As you say, ‘They all want it,’ only it
takes confidences to do it."
Then I failed to hear for some weeks. I
con-tinued to write about once a week, giving him con-stant
guidance and suggestion, and sharing with him other
experiences of mine which had been happen-ing. I was a little
alarmed at not hearing tram him, and feared he might have
back-slid and did not want to tell me of it. Happily my doubts
inhere unfounded. They did not cause me to cease pray-ing for
him or writing to him. After about six weeks came a letter
saying:
"I have been having just a bit of tough luck. I was at the
– – convention in – some time ago, contracted a cold, and as
I have had the Hu it turned to pneumonia. I was surely in bad
shape. It's just been in the past few days that I have been about
again.... There was something that hap-
Every evening and morning I offer a prayer for )'OU. In two
weeks more he sent me this: "B has come clean, I left it up
to him three days and then asked him. He was ready. iVoiv we are
working together and I have a stubborn one this time. It will take
time, I can see, but I'll get him.... My worst battles are over, I
truly think they are. With God's help and your prayers, I will be
0.K. It is great work. I have not com-mitted any act of impurity
since I came across that day, but I have had my battles.... As you
say, ‘They all want it,’ only it takes confidences to do it.”
Then I failed to hear for some weeks. I con-tinued to write about
once a week, giving him con-stant guidance and suggestion, and
sharing with him other experiences of mine which had been happen-ing.
I was a little alarmed at not hearing tram him, and feared he
might have back-slid and did not want to tell me of it. Happily my
doubts inhere unfounded. They did not cause me to cease pray-ing
for him or writing to him. After about six weeks came a letter
saying: “I have been having just a bit of tough luck. I was at
the – – convention in – some time ago, contracted a cold,
and as I have had the Hu it turned to pneumonia. I was surely in
bad shape. It's just been in the past few days that I have been
about again.... There was something that |
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18 happened which struck me as an act of God through you. The
doctors told me if I had not quit smoking when I did, it might have
proved fatal, because of my lungs.... B is conung along fine. He was
the bright spot in my sickness, visited me daily, and we prayed
together. He is working heart and soul. He is after a fellow now,
and hopes to have him soon. He is playing the greatest game of his
life this year.... I have been having some tough battles with
impurity, but so far I am ahead.... Dad came in from to see me, and
was sur-prised to find that I had actually dropped the weed.
Continue to pray for me, as I need it,"
Several letters from him miscarried in the post, and it was not
until January that I had word again. It ran thus:
"B – and I are going strong. We have each ivan over
another fellow. In fact the spirit has the inhale school. The
students hold chapel every morn- ing. We read a chapter of the Bible
and then one of us prays. It is remarkable to see them. In fact
little did I think I could accomplish so much, al- though it is only
through God’s help and your pray- ers.... I seem to be a diferent
person altogether, ¿ s,o free, no restraint in my heart. My only
regret is that I didn’t find it sooner.... As soon as I can
arrange the necessary money details I am going to get a club room.
Dad has promised me the funds. He is very much pleased. He is coming
across too. He is a man that does not show his feelings, but
19 I know, and I hope it may be soon.... I am a hap-pier person:
I have no heavy feeling in my breast as of old. But this all did not
come without a strug-gle. I have had many of them and hard ones,
too: so has B –. We have prayed and they have been answered.
Impurity has bothered me lately, but so far I have conquered it.
Pray for me. I need it and so does B –.” Within a few weeks he
reported further prog-ress: “The fellows are working fast. We are
four now. Several want to come across but they can't give up some
things. I told them they couldn't come clean while that was so. But
they will in time, and I keep at them at all times.... It is a
wonderful thing. How glad I am you found me! But I am not entirely
free from bad habits: that is, I have to fight them often. I still
need your prayers." In March he wrote me as follows: "I
went to – for a few days. Saw Dad, but did not win him as yet. He
had a hard battle, and I prayed for him, but he did not come
through. I am not discouraged nor am I going to give up the batt1e.
In fact it only leads me to redouble my efforts.... This is the
greatest game I have ever played – so interesting and so
fascinating, and the reward – it seems as if a burden is lifted
from my soul. In fact the feeling is indescribable. And I
owe this all to you. How shall I ever thank you? I shall not try
for it will be useless. To say the least, I was pretty far gone. I
had been leading a fast life, as you know. Dissipation had its hold
on me.... But now, it's too good to be true!... The club is doing
nicely. The fellows are coming across. B –, my right hand man, the
one I thought hardest and almost unconquerable, is working nothing
short of marvelous. In fact it keeps me humping to keep pace with
him. Some of the fellows in the club joined only for curiosity, but
you can rest assured I give them no easel The most remarkable part
is, mothers and fathers come to me, thanking me for what I have done
for their sons. It makes me thrill. They even offer to help support
the club, a thing I do not want until it is absolutely necessary.
Dad helped out nobly for the club.”
Later, in May, this came from him: "The fellows I
spoke of, we are still after: but I think it wise for them to think
it out. But nevertheless we will keep after them until ice get them.
. It is all wonderful.... Not long ago on the . ball field, a fellow
who had not been converted was having bad luck in his batting. A
bunch of us were talking about how much better we were becoming, and
he, knowing just what we were connected with, said that if praying
would help his batting, he'd come across. He said it insolently. But
we prayed right there for him. It was just before a game.
21 He did not get a hit that game or the next, but we kept on
praying, and in the third game he came through with four hits in
five trips to the plate, incidentally winning the game.... He is not
across yet, as we told him not to come until he was ready to come
clear across. He will in time, I am positive." Notice the way
in which this fellow was prevented from making a decision for Christ
simply to win a ball game: Jack and his cohorts wanted him to wait
until he came through on the major issue, not upon any minor and
selfish ones. He concludes that letter: “Opportunities await at
every place, do they not?" He wrote again after two weeks: “Your
most welcome letter came Monday, and it surely did help to retrieve
my spirits, which, I confess, were at a very low ebb. But now, it
just seems like an ugly dream. After your letter came I went to my
room and prayed. It seems as if God was talking to me and it helped.
I was imbued with a new spirit of vim and fight, which ) put
immediately into effect. That evening I got the boys together and we
had a heart-to-heart talk. which I honestly believe did more good to
all of us than has been done for a long time.... I am feeling fine
and have my old spirit back. 0 – is corning back, I believe: he
has asked to talk privately with me some time, but said he just
didn't feel as if he wanted to just now. I thought it best not to
push him, but let him battle it out
himself.... You asked me whether our thirty-four members in the club
are all converted. No, I'm sorry to say, only nineteen have really
come across. But the others will in time.... This morning when I see
the wonders of God, I pray, thanking Him for all that He has done
for me through you. I often look back to my days of unbelieving and
sin, and a feel- ing of peace runs through me, knowing that I have
accepted God. It is wonderful how restful one seems after accepting
Christ, especially after that heavy burden one bears in his soul
when he does not follow God’s commands. Mere words cannot describe
my feelings, it is so wonderful, and all this I owe to you, as God's
worker. Probably today, had God not moved you to speak to me on the
train that day, I would have been that same sinner.... Really, when
I look back to that day, I realize that I was ready and hungry for
God. There was a time when I did not want to do wrong, and thank God
I had a mother to teach me of Him. But yet, though I did not want to
do wrong, somehow I couldn't help it." I have a rather lonely
life, and Christ as I saw him then did not offer much to me. But now
it is so different and so wonderful, that ’.my only regret is that
I did not find Him sooner. ...Write me often and pray for me, that I
shall be able to keep this wonderful spirit.” After another couple
of months he came on to see me, and we had a whole day together. It
was 4C(. Romans 7:15 fE. 22
a great day. He
looked differently. His eyes were clear and wide-open: he seemed
keener, kindlier, more quick to respond, more lovable. In his very
presence I noticed a change from the boy I had left on the train
eleven months before; not less in-teresting but more – not more of
a prig, but more of a man. He met me first with a string of defeats
behind him; he came back with almost a year of victory behind him.
When I saw him last he was a boy without a point of view, as I saw
him now he divas growing into a man with a point of view, knowing
more about life, about men, about God, that he had ever known
before. I wanted him to talk that day, and he did talk. He told me
the whole story over again in his own words. I was astonished at
what he had learned of dealing with fellows man-to-man, of the
motives which move men, of the pointer of the impact of the
supernatural on life. I asked him about the battles in his own life.
And this is the marvellous testimony which he gave: in these eleven
months he had not slipped once in any of his temptations, except
that for a time he had gone back to smoking and now had again given
it up for good. God had held him up through all. And let me say that
Jack was one of the most hotly tempted boys I ever knew: this was of
no human doings, his power was coming from without himself, and he
knew it.
Then I asked him of how
things at the school had gone, and this was what he told me. Fifty-
one boys had joined his
club, which meant really a desire to associate themselves with the
out-and-out Christians of the school: and Jack told me, "Only
thirty-one of them are converted." Only thirty-one, in less
than a year, the work of a boy of eighteen! 1Yhen we had prayer that
day, we thanked God for His marvellous love and for the way He had
reached us both, and for the joy of Life in Christ, and for the men
whose lives He had used us to win to Him. If he said it once, he
said to me a dozen times, "This is positively the greatest
thing in the world. 1Vhy did I not find it sooner?" Here was a
happy man, at one with him-self, and at peace with God, being
powerfully used to influence a whole school indirectly, and more
than thirty boys were Christians because of him. We talked of how
this message might be brought to the girls, for, he said, there were
more full-out Chris-tians among the boys than the girls. He decided
that he must be very careful in dealing with those of the other sex,
for sometimes it is possible to start in talking religion and wind
up talking slush. This is best considered as men’s work for men,
wom-en's work for women. But Jack is working still to see how it may
be gotten across to them, and the way wil! open. I continue to have
letters from him saying that he is still winning men and the club is
doing splendidly. Do you wonder that I wanted to write about
"One Boy’s InRuence?" |
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