Happy Birthday in the Scriptures. What a revelation this was to me! When the invitation was given, I went forward, and on my knees cried out to God, ‘O Lord, I thank Thee for dying for me! I want to live for Thee. If I’ve never be fore trusted Thee in saving faith, I do so now.’ . . . That night I consciously turned about so that my back was upon the old life of self-satisfaction, and my face was toward the cross . . . That was the beginning of days to to me. I can point to it as the occasion when I became sure of having passed out of darkness into His marvelous light . . . From then on it was my business to walk in ‘newness of life’ ” . * After completing his training at Moody Bible Institute, Louis Talbot went on to McCormick Theological Seminary and then into the pastorate. In the Paris, Texas Congre gational Church he experienced not only the marked blessing of God upon his ministry, but great sorrow and joy as well ■—■sorrow in the loss of his brother Jim who died in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was a greatly be loved pastor; joy in meeting and marrying the attractive, gracious Audrey Lucile Hogue, accomplished musician and teacher of organ and piano. There too the first Talbot daughter was bom on her mother’s birthday and was named for her. Other pastorates followed: Oak Park, Illinois, 1919-1922, where the second daughter, Betty, was bom ; Keokuk, Iowa, 1922-1926; Oliver Presbyterian Church, Minneapolis, Minn., 1927-1929; and Philpott Tabernacle, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, 1929-1931. Wherever he went, Louis Talbot gained the reputation of an eloquent preacher of the Word and an expert on prophecy and false religions. For instance, in Philpott Tabernacle, on Sunday nights the doors were closed by 6:30 as the auditorium was filled to capacity by that time by those who had come to hear the brilliant, fun damental young preacher. His loving interest in people earned him a host of friends, and hundreds were brought to Christ, and blessed by his ministry. The great test of his service for Christ came when he was called to be the pastor of the Church of the Open Door in Los Angeles, then encumbered with a ruinous debt, which, together with the indebtedness on the Bible Institute buildings, ran into a million and a half dollars. It took courage and faith for the young Australian to agree to come, but after saying “Yes,” he set his face “ like a flint” to raise the money and clear from debt the buildings of the two institutions. It took a long time and it was a killing job and would have been considered a lifetime task for most men. Under God, with the help of the Board, and thousands of self-sacrificing friends, this almost superhuman task was accomplished. It should be noted in passing that Dr. Talbot himself set the pace by demanding that his salary be cut, and by giving large donations out of his own pocket! It was a day of joy and victory when the last mortgage was burned. This led to the saying that although the distinguished Dr. R. A. Torrey, as the first dean of the Bible Institute and the * From Faith for the Family, by Louis T. Talbot, as told to Mildred Cook, obtainable in Biola Book Room. THE KING'S BUSINESS
Dr. Louis T. Talbot, Biola Chancellor, looks over Scripiural portion to be used on one of his daily radio programs. O N t h e nineteenth of October in the year of our Lord 1889 there occured in the Land Down Under the Southern Cross, an event which was to prove of particular significance to the work of the Lord in distant America, and especially in Los Angeles, California. This was the birth to John and Elizabeth Talbot, formerly of England, but then of the beautiful harbor city of Sydney, Australia, of their gifted fourth son, Louis Thompson Talbot. One of three girls and five boys, Louis had a rollicking child hood, a lively boyhood, and a young manhood filled with excitement and enjoyment. School and sports, fun and work figured largely in those early days of his life. His mother, a devout Christian, saw to it that her family regularly attended church and Sunday School. Further more, she prayed daily for her children, and the first outstanding fruit of such prayers was the conversion of beloved and popular Jim. Shortly thereafter, he left for America to study for the ministry at Moody Bible In stitute in Chicago, followed in 1911 by younger brother Louis. Of his own spiritual transformation Louis Talbot says: “ God knew I lacked light and assurance from the Word, and to help me in my specific need, He brought His ser vant, John Harper, all the way from London to Chicago in the fall of 1911 . . . The plan of salvation I understood and had accepted, intellectually at least, but the truth was not a vital force in my life, because I had never wished it to be. One night John Harper preached from a great text, ‘Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures.’ For the first time in my life I saw how great was the price Christ had paid for my salvation; saw the immensity and perfection of the plan of God as revealed 16
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