King's Business - 1933-08

295

T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S

September, 1933

FISHING Æ estele allQÊuhrs A TRUE TALE OF HOLLYWOOD HILARITY AND A CONVERTED COMMUNIST

B y SAMUEL FISK Los Angeles, Calif.

CiQ

M

^ ^ ^ ^

liant boulevard, they there also presented as the power of God unto salvation. It was a dark and foreboding section o f the city where they endeavored to “ fish for men.” Joe was stumbling along East

I T t is Saturday evening in the gay city o f Hollywood. The pleasure-seeking p o p u la c e fills the streets and throngs the places o f amusement. _ The bright lights of

oflttn fishers flJPHE first Fishermen’ s Club was (lu organized twenty-seven years ago by Dr. T. C. Horton, who in his life­ time embodied to so large an extent that spirit of soul-winning zeal which the clubs now strive to instill in their members. Although the present Bible Institute o f Los Angeles came into being as an outgrowth of that first Club, it has never had any organic connection with the Institute. Now that the International Fisher­ men’ s Club has become organized, branch clubs are being established in many towns and cities. With the sole purpose of encouraging and training young men to win their fellows to Christ, the International Fishermen’ s Club is unique. In the regular weekly meeting, where songs, testimonies, re­ ports, and Bible messages are given, the boys are instructed and inspired to engage in effective soul-winning efforts. Its constitution holds the Club from becoming merely a recre­ ational or educational enterprise, and its program seeks no secular enter­ tainment. It is founded upon the con­ viction that the Word of God alone is sufficient to draw men together, and that the constraining passion of Christ is the deepest note to which man’ s nature can respond. This is proving abundantly true in the lives of hundreds of young men who find in the local Fishermen’ s Club real fel­ lowship in things divine. For information about this enter­ prise, or for details as to plan of or­ ganization, address the E x e c u t i v e Secretary, V . V. Morgan, 132 Pacific A v e ., L o n g Beach, Ca l i f o rn i a .

popular theaters flash on and off in their effort to attract those seeking entertainment. The crowded traffic in the streets witnesses to the gala spirit o f this play-land city. Smartly dressed citizens pass up and down Hollywood Boulevard, some in even­ ing dress and some in sport attire, as they hurry here and there, greet one another, or pause to gaze at an elab­ orate window display. But what is that ? Amid the ring­ ing o f traffic signals and the cries of newsboys, the shrill notes o f a trum­ pet are heard above the tumult. As some o f the pedestrians shuffle along the sidewalk, their attention is sud­ denly and strangely arrested by the sound, not o f jazz, but o f gospel music. A s they approach a corner of the boulevard, they find themselves face to face with a strange sight for a city like this. Ten or a dozen young men, clean-cut, neatly dressed, and with the appearance o f joy in what they are doing, stand there before the curb lustily singing a gospel song. A portable organ is being played, ac­ companied by a lad not over eighteen years, who takes up the melody on a trumpet. A sight like this is enough to amaze the most worldly. What can impel red-blooded young men of this day and age to come into the heart o f Hollywood and tell forth in song and testimony the story o f One who died on a cross nineteen hundred years ago? Two figures standing in the center o f the group attract special atten­ tion. They are both there to testify to the power o f the gospel in trans­ forming a man’s life. They both tell of a great change which they have experienced, one only three weeks ago, the other, more than that number o f years ago. Ed has the stamp o f a cultured and refined individual about him, while Joe still shows the marks

Fifth Street hardly knowing where he was going, for his mind was deeply pondering a bitter past and an unsatis­ fying prospect for the days ahead. To be sure, he was still with the com­ munists and on their list as an organ­ izer (as he afterward told u s), but what did life amount to anyway? Drink had left its stamp upon him, and his bootlegger friends were egg­ ing him on. Fourteen years had been spent behind penitentiary doors. Down, down, down, and bitter, bitter, bitter was his story. He paused to lean up against a building and gazed in front o f him with a far-away ex­ pression in his eye. He hardly realized that it was the singing o f gospel songs that had caused him to stop here. It was near the end o f the open-air meet­ ing, and some one stood in front of him pleading with him about One whose name he had often taken in vain. He argued derogatively, using all the old stock objections. But the lad seemed at least sincere— and surely happier over what he had than Joe was over his portion. Because o f this and the boy’s courtesy, Joe con­ sented to take a little red Gospel of John. But less than a block away, he crumpled it and threw it into a trash pile on a vacant lot. A restless night, however, left him with only an empty heart. The next day, by some unex­ plainable impulse—-Joe never could account for it—he found himself going back in search of that little red book, and counting the blocks, just forty o f them, till he came to the trash heap. And oh, the message which that crumpled book contained! It found its way deep into his heart and brought forth fruit unto everlast­ ing life. The next week he was at the Fifth Street corner waiting to greet the boys upon their regular return. Joe’s

struggle was a hard one. Penniless, the urge to go back to organizing for the communists was persistent. But Ed had befriended him and was now introducing him to our Hollywood crowd before whom Joe showed forth the joy o f a new-found hope. Ed’s testimony, on the other hand, while displaying [Continued on page 305]

that sin’s inroads have left in their wake. The same ex­ pression o f peace, however, illumines the faces o f both. But their backgrounds are as striking as are the changes to which they bear witness. Three weeks ago, the Fishermen boys made their way down to the east side o f metropolitan Los Angeles. The same message that they now herald on Hollywood’s bril­

Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs