Christian Stories - A True Hero

The True Christian Story of
Rev. John Harper, of Glasgow, Scotland

Four years after the Titanic went down, a young Scotsman rose in a meeting in Hamilton, Canada, and said, "I am a survivor of the Titanic. When I was drifting alone on a spar that awful night, the tide brought John 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,’ Then He took off his Life Vest and gave it to me saying… you need this more than I do. 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."

Saved That Night By The
Kindness & Sincerity Two Men
...
One Who Would Give Me Not Only The Truth
But His Life Jacket as Well...

And...

One Who Died On A Cross...
For All My Miserable Sins...

So I Could Be...
Saved Forever!

ABIDE WITH ME
By: Henry F. Lyte, 1847.

Abidewith me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
Earth’s joys grow dim; its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

The True Christian Story of Henry Lyte

Henry Lyte was inspired to write this hymn as he was dying of tuberculosis; he finished it the Sunday he gave his farewell sermon in the parish he served so many years. The next day, he left for Italy to regain his health. He didn’t make it, though... he died in Nice, France, three weeks after writing these words. Here is an excerpt from his farewell sermon:

O brethren, I stand here among you today, as alive from the dead, if I may hope to impress it upon you, and induce you to prepare for that solemn hour which must come to all, by a timely acquaintance with the death of Christ.

For over a century, the bells of his church at All Saints in Lower Brixham, Devonshire, have rung out “Abide with Me” daily. The hymn was sung at the wedding of King George VI, at the wedding of his daughter, the future Queen Elizabeth II, and at the funeral of Nobel peace prize winner Mother Teresa of Calcutta in 1997.

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