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John Harper, Scotland, Preacher April 10. John Harper. Growing up in A John Harper, Scotland, Preacher April 10. John Harper. Growing up in a Christian household, Harper came to faith when he was 14. By the he turned 18, he couldn’t be kept quiet. He had to preach about Jesus. He became a pastor and served churches in Glasgow and London before he went to Chicago in 1911 and back to London, where he pastored. He’d been invited to return to Moody Church, so on this date in 1912, Harper—with his daughter and his niece—boarded the luxury liner RMS Titanic. The forces of nature were too much for the Titanic, but the force of John’s love for lost souls was greater. This man used every minute, every opportunity. Here’s how it went down. Crisis makes telling the truth in love urgent. Illuminated from stem to stern, the great RMS Titanic struck an iceberg, sending shards of ice over her starboard deck. As water flooded into her side, a horde of panicking people filled the multiple boat decks. Stars flickered above like festive lights, and strains of “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” rose from a sinking deck. And the stench of death mingled with the acrid smell of saltwater. John Harper’s voice rang above the din, “Let the women, children, and the unsaved into the life boats!” John, the great revival preacher, responded from the same fervor that guided his every- day life—the passion to see people saved for eternity. Crisis makes telling the truth in love urgent. John lowered his six-year-old daughter, Nana, into a lifeboat, then he rushed about, asking man after man if he was saved. One rebuffed him. John took off his life vest. “You need this more than I do.” John knew his future. Fearless, he fought for the future of those who didn’t know the Lord. The men on that deck formed a circle and knelt. Some say it was John who asked the band to play Nearer My God to Thee. The Titanic settled, the bow and bridge completely under water. A wave crashed over the deck—and washed it clear. Gasping for breath in the icy waters, John grabbed a piece of wreckage. Using it to keep his torso above the frigid grave, he kicked against the freezing sea. “Are you saved?” he called to the nearest soul. On to the next and the next he went. “Are you saved?” The great RMS Titanic swung upward, the stern shooting out of the water. Her lights went black, flickered on again for a single flash, and then went forever dark. There was a terrible crashing. When it ended, the RMS Titanic hung vertical. It seemed an eternity she stood on end, mammoth propeller dangling from the stern, out of place in the night air. Then she slid slowly forward as her haunches slipped slanting down … down … and she was gone. Nothing remained to prove she’d been there except the crushing chorus of a thousand or more voices moaning, crying, begging for salvation from icy death. They bobbed in the water in life belts, clung to the wreckage scattered upon the dark, bitter wet. “Are you saved?” John called to the nearest man. “No,” came a Scottish brogue. “I am not.” “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” The waves pulled John from the young man, then the swell brought him near again. “Are you saved now?” “I cannot honestly say that I am.” “They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, along with everyone in your household,” (Acts 16: 31, NLT). Of the 1,528 people that went into the water that night, six were rescued by the lifeboats. One of them was this young Scotsman, Aguilla Webb. A few years later, he shared his story. “[John Harper] went down,” Aguilla said. “And there, alone in the night, and with two miles of water under me, I believed. I am John Harper’s last convert.” What will give you courage in crisis? Crisis makes telling the truth in love urgent. “A Story of the Titanic Article from the Evangel. June 1912.” Billy Graham Center Archives. Collection 330, Box 42, Folder 3. Wheaton College. Updated June 14, 2002. https://web.archive.org/web/20170220173815/http:// www2. wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/docs/titanic4. htm. The Titanic’s Last Hero, Moody Adams, 2012, Ambassador International Acts 16: 31, Holy Bible, King James Version, public domain Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations, Paul Lee Tan, 1982, Assurance Publishers Story read by Blake Mattocks Story written by Paula Moldenhauer, http://paulamoldenhauer.com/ .
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