Special tribute to Dr. R. A. Torrey, in whose memory this issue is pub lished.
THERE WAS A MAN
by Dr. Louis T. Talbot Chancellor, Blola Schools and Colleges, Inc.
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down to the place where folks live. He had a brilliant mind, but he could go down to the Pacific Garden Mission and preach there in simple, understandable terms. He was like his Lord in this re gard. Jesus used the language of the people; the common people heard Him gladly. When I sat at his feet as a stu dent at the Moody Bible Insti tute, two things especially im pressed me. First, he said, “ I never sit by the side of a man or a woman, a boy or a girl, with out realizing that if anything is going to be accomplished in the life o f that person, the Holy Spirit o f God must do it.” The second thing I remember his saying was that the test o f disci- pleship is the depth o f your inter est in fishing for men. Is it the business o f your life? Or do you just fish once in awhile for the sport of it? The fourth thing that made this man great was that he lived in the very atmosphere o f prayer. When a man has these charac teristics, God can use him. In these terrific days, God is look ing for men. I pray His hand may rest upon each o f you and upon me, that some day someone will be able to say o f each of us, “THERE WAS A MAN.” HE
his mother’s God. He fell on his knees and offered every inch of his being to God. He was bom again and God laid His hand on him. We must have what Dr. Tor rey had—an old-time conversion with the hand of God on our lives. The second thing was that Dr. Torrey preached with authority, and his authority was the Word of God. He believed the Bible was God’s revelation. He accepted not a part of the Bible, but all o f it, as inspired and without error. Dr. Torrey not only had a great heart, but he also had a great brain. He graduated from Yale and Heidelberg Universities and was prepared for the legal profes sion. He would have made a great prosecuting attorney, but the Lord called him from the practice of law to be a herald of the cross. He stated often that he was com pelled intellectually to believe the Bible was the Word of God. One of his great literary masterpieces was his little book, “Ten Reasons Why I Believe the Bible is the Word o f God,” and it is unan swerable. He preached the whole hook. He could melt a heart with the love of God, but he also em phasized the sterner attributes. The third thing that made Dr. T o rrey g r e a t was tha t he preached with simplicity. He got
W h e n e v e r I TH INK of Dr. Reu ben Archer Torrey, I think o f Daniel 5:11— “There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods.” “ There is a man.” God always has a man. All the great move ments of the centuries have re volved around men, and Dr. Tor rey was a great man. God made him great. When I was a boy in Australia, Dr. Torrey came there for a cam paign, and it brought a deep and lasting spiritual awakening in that land. Many of the old pas tors in Australia today came to know Christ through Dr. Tor- rey’s campaign there. Some o f us young people were challenged to full-time service and dedicated our lives to God. I was among those who came from Australia to the Moody Bible Institute as a result of Dr. Torrey’s meetings in that land. What was the explanation of this man’s life? Why did God use him? When you answer these questions, you answer the ques tion why God uses any man. The first thing was that he had an old-time conversion. At Yale University he was in unbelief and in despair, and was about to take his life. Then he remem bered his mother’s prayers and
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