April, 1944
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paper work attracted me, and I worked for a time for the Sydney Morning Herald as a copy-writer and collector of delinquent accounts, and became so proficent at the latter task that the firm wanted to put me on the payroll for life! Yes, the present was exciting enough—but confused, too. So many voices were calling. I thought again: There is Jim — there in America, studying to be a preacher. Why? Why had he made such a point of accepting Christ openly a few years before, when all his lifetime he had been a good fellow? And why had his interests changed so, after that? I recalled how, imme diately after his conversion, he had broken with the old crowd—not sharp ly, but with the firmness of personal conviction. He had declined alluring offers from theater managers, and I had thought his decisions senseless. Though he was then a partner with my father in the ownership of the siz able New Tbwn Fruit Markets, he had foreseen trouble with the other asso ciates who favored the sale of liquor, and had withdrawn from the firm. This action had disappointed my fa ther. I wondered, now, why Jim had thought it necessary to throw away his opportunities for success in busi ness. Other questions plagued me.- What had been the magnet that had drawn the new Jim to street meetings, to missions, to churches—to sing and play and give his testimony, especial ly at ^ those unelaborate breakfast gatherings of the old Sydney Rescue Mission, where some four hundred of the town’s worst derelicts were as sembled? I could not answer these questions. But I knew (or thought I knew)
what had taken Jiim to the United States. It was the romance of the place. Mark Twain was right when he said: “Australians do not differ noticeably from Americans.” But in the United States, I thought, there was more freedom than in Australia, with more money and more prestige. Slowly I began to conclude that Jim’s going, had not been such a fool ish thing after all. It had in it a promise of success—the same kind of success that the evangelists in the Town Hall had achieved. How hope lessly materialistic all my standards were! • As I continued my walk toward home, I thought, too: What about my future? I was known well enough in my own circle of acquaintances. But c e r t a i n l y there were no thousands flocking to me or hanging on my words. I was not even receiving invitations to speak in churches, as Jim had before he left Sydney. It did not occur to me that there was an immeasurable dif ference between my heart relation to Jesus Christ and Jim’s relation to Him. I gave mental assent to the claims of, Christ; I even taught a Sunday-school class. But Christ was not the Master of my life. Night after night, I returned to the Town Hall meetings. And as frequent ly I mulled over the questions that had disturbed me that first night: What about me? What about Jim? What about the future? It was a matter of months before I made the decision to go to be with my brother in Chicago. During his ab sence, Jim had been wise, for not even once had he invited me to join him. Though he wrote every mail to Moth er, his letters to other members of the family were infrequent and casual.
But the power of his life and brother ly affection were behind his words, and these were the cords that drew me to him. It was Jim ' himself that I wanted more than any principles for which he stood. One night, when my mother and I were alone, I told her what I had de cided. Tears filled her eyes, but she held them in. “ Son,” she said, “ I have prayed -for this.” “ You did, Mother?” This seemed in credible. “You prayed that I’d go away from home — to the United States?” “I am praying—” the words came slo.wly, and I noted the present tenSe, “ that you children—will always fo l low Christ.” “Did you pray Jim out of here; too? Out of those jobs with the theater people and with Dad’s firm?” But my mother only smiled. In the weeks that followed, my ticket was purchased and my trunk’ packed. When the night came for me to leave home, the whole family wait ed excitedly for a glimpse of the cab by, perched importantly in a high seat above his hansom, coming to take us to the dock. In these mo ments, Mother called me aside. “Louis,” her voice was firm. “Take your coat off.” “ Now, Mother? The cab might come any minute!” “ Now.” She kneW that the instruc tion she had for me could not safely have been given earlier, for she had a very forgetful son. Something was in her hand, and she extended it to me. "I’ve made this belt for you,” she said, “ and I want you to keep it on— aiways—until you are located in Chi cago. Don’t take it off for any reason.” It was heavy, and I saw that a purse had been sewed in i t “ There are thirty gold sovereigns here,” my mother continued. That would be, then, about $150 in Amer ican money. “They will Iasi you a long time, if you’re careful.” I do not know how my mother ob tained that money; undoubtedly it was a sum that she had been saving for some emergency. Nor do I know how many tears and prayers may - have been represented by the little stitches in the canvas belt I know only that when I set out on a journey that would take me some sixteen thousand miles from home, I went with the Spirit of God drawing me onward and with the love of a pray ing mother bound close to my heart Any person thus endowed must come to know, sooner or later, “When I fear my faith will fail, ' Christ will hold me fast.” (To be continued)
IN EARLIER CHAPTERS THE PURPOSE: To bear personal testimony to the truth of Acts 16:31, in the prayerful hope that many who read this account may trust God for the salvation of whole families. CHAPTER I: A glimpse of the Talbot home in Sydney, Australia, some forty years ago. The father was a moral man, highly respected. He "never drank liquor and cautioned his boys not to touch it.” The mother—a godly, praying woman—generously endowed with humor and common sense, knew exactly how to meet her family of eight rollicking youngsters. CHAPTER II: A glimpse of the old church in Sydney. The pastor, with patient zeal for Christ, endured the pranks of his young parish ioners, and ultimately was richly rewarded. CHAPTER III: A glimpse of changed lives. Young gangsters were saved at a street meeting, and their lives were "scrutinized in unguarded moments; always the testimony rang true." When Jim. an older brother of Louis Talbot, did an about-face with the old life, Louis was profoundly impressed. “ Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts 16:31 ).
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