THE KING’S BUSINESS
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worker and saved will meet for the first time, he asked Mr. Moody to call at the Sheriff’s office in the afternoon. Mr. Moody agreed, and when he came Burke said: “Mr. Moody, I want to give you visi ble evidence of what the grace of God can. 'do.” Going to a safe of which he alone had the combination, and opening it, he took from it a tray containing a king’s ransom in precious stones. “Mr. Moody,” said he, “the sheriff seized a jewelery establishment the other day and chose me, the ex-thief, to take care of the most valuable portion of it.” HIS LAST END “Let me die the death of the righteous,” said Baalam, but his wish could not be realized because he had not lived the life of the righteous, nor had he repented of his evil deeds so far as we know. Burke’s funeral, which occurred on a hot August afternoon in the Eirst M. E. Church, South, was the most unique of any I ever attended. On the rostrum were at least a dozen of busy city preachers. In the pews millionaires touched elbows with servants, and, notwithstanding the heat and the absence of many from, the city, the funeral was one of the biggest in point of attendance I have ever seen. The two pictures accompanying this article were taken, one for the rogues’ gallery of the chief of police of St. Louis, and the other several years after his con version. The latter he had taken, he said, “to show that the power of God’s grace could not only give a man a new heart, but a new face, too.” For about two years the chief of police refused to take the
picture from the, rogues’ gallery, though each year solicited to dq so by Burke, say ing, “You’ll be back at your old tricks again, Burke,” but at last even he was con vinced of Burke’s reformation, though of course he could not understand. “Whoso is wise and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord.” A thread of romance was woven into Burke’s new life, almost beginning with his conversion. Among the “Willing Workers” who visited the jail which was the scene of his conversion, to preach and sing and to distribute tracts amongst the prisoners, was-an earnest Christian woman, then a teacher in the public schools of St. Louis. Burke formed an attachment for her which was returned, and, as soon as practicable after his release, they were married and lived happily together. She survived him and I visited her during her last illness and went over what I have written herein and had the pleasure of her confirmation of all of which she had knowledge. -It has bean said that “facts are God’s arguments.” If so, the above facts'con stitute an argument for the reality and power of Jesus Christ to save and keep all who come to Him by faith, that must be either convincing or condemning to all to whom this witness comes. Renan, the famous French infidel, once said that but for two facts he could overthrow Chris tianity, these facts were: the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. The facts narrated above may certainly be classed with the latter, and in some respects it is even more remarkable.
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