The Conversion of TOD SLO I w e n t home from my church one night in late November, picked up a newspaper, and read a short item about Tod Sloan, the famous jockey, who was in the county hospital in
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Los Angeles, penniless, and said to be dying. It was almost midnight, and I realized it would be too late that night to visit him. But I lifted my heart to God, asking Him to open a door o f oppor tunity that I might speak to Tod about his rela tionship to Jesus Christ. For I had known him well in England, years ago, when he and I were both in the employ of Lord Carnarvon. Early the next morning, I went to the hospital and asked the head nurse if I might see Mr. Sloan for a moment. “ I am sorry,” she replied, “ but I am afraid you will not be able to see him, for the publicity that has been given him in the papers has made it very hard for us here at the hospital; hundreds have, come, wanting to see him, and they all say they know him.” “ Well, nurse,” said I, “ please go and tell him that the pastor o f a Los Angeles church would like to speak with him just a minute.” Promptly the word came back that he did not want to see any minister! I tried again. “ Go and tell him, please, that an old boy he knows, who rode for Lord Carnarvon and the Prince o f Wales, would like to see him.” This broke down the barrier. Tod Sloan sent word : “ Tell him to wait; I want to see him.” By his bedside, I chatted with him, and we reminisced together
Tod Sloan as he ap peared in his later days. A m idget in size, he w as the greatest jock ey of his time, w inning many races for L ord C a r narvon, and later for K in g Edw ard of England when Prince of W ales. S l o a n am assed a fortune of a m il lion dollars, which later slipped through his fingers.
abou t o ld times. Then he asked favor o f me. “ Say, Doc,” he said, “ have you got a drink on y o u r hip?”
The style of racin g intro duced by T od Sloan.
“ No, Tod,” _I answered, “ not the kind of drink you are looking for. But I have a drink o f the living water that really satisfies those who drink.” He stared at me. “ What do you mean?” he asked. I told him o f my conversion twenty years ago in Paterson, N. J., in a Billy Sunday meet ing, after having lived a life somewhat like that o f Tod. I spoke to him o f the woman at the well of Samaria, and o f Nicodemus, and o f the dying thief on the cross. I told Tod that I had come to Jesus as I was— “ weary and worn and sad; I found in Him a resting place, and He hath made me glad.” “ Tod, old boy,” I said, “ this is the reason that Jesus left His home in glory, that you and I might drink o f the water o f life.”
The conversion of T od Sloan, led to Chrl bed by a graduate of the Bible Institute is a m iracle of the grace of
He looked up at me and said, “ Billy Sunday came into my pool hall on Forty-second Street and Broadway in New York, years ago, and told me I needed religion, and I said I didn’t want any religion.”
“ Tod,” I said finally, “ don’t you believe that Jesus was the Son o f God? Don’t you believe that He died not only for the sins o f the world, but hung on the cross for your sins as well ?” “ Yes,” he answered.
-Illustration courtesy L. A. Evening Herald.
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