The introduction of the book is what I wanted to blog on here. Dever recounts the life story of an amazing person: John Harper. I found nearly the same story on a few places across the Internet, most written slightly differently, and all citing the only authentic published source, a Moody Press book from 1997 which documents the two prime (first-hand account) sources: his daughter and a Scotsman. What follows is a slightly-abbreviated account of Dever's summarization of these first-hand sources. I highly encourage all of you readers to read the whole account. It will take only a few minutes. This absolutely moved my soul.
John Harper was born in a Christian home in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1872. When he was about fourteen years old, he became a Christian himself, and from that time on, he began to tell others about Christ. At seventeen years of age, he began to preach, going down the streets of his village and pouring out his soul in passionate pleading for men to be reconciled to God.
After five or six years of toiling on the street corners preaching the gospel and working in the mill during the day, Harper was taken in by the Reverend E. A. Carter of Baptist Pioneer Mission in London. Soon, in September 1896, Harper started his own church, which began with twenty-five members and grew to over five hundred by the time he left thirteen years later. During this time he had been both married and widowed. Before he lost his wife, God blessed Harper with a beautiful little girl named Nana.
Harper was invited to a theological conference in Chicago. He went once and it was successful. He was invited back a few years later and Harper again went. He bought two second-class tickets for him and his daughter for a steamship headed for America.
What happened after this we know mainly from two sources. One is Nana, who died in 1986 at the age of eighty. She remembered being woken up by her father a few nights into their journey. It was about midnight, and he said that the ship they were on had struck an iceberg. Harper told Nana that another ship was just about there to rescue them, but, as a precaution, he was going to put her in a lifeboat with an older cousin, who had accompanied them. As for Harper, he would wait until the other ship arrived.
The rest of the story is a tragedy well known. Little Nana and her cousin were saved. But the ship they were on was the Titanic. The only way we know what happened to John Harper after is because, in a prayer meeting in Hamilton, Ontario, some months later, a young Scotsman stood up in tears and told the extraordinary story of how he was converted. He explained that he had been on the Titanic the night it struck the iceberg. He had clung to a piece of floating debris in the freezing waters. "Suddenly," he said, "a wave brought a man near, John Harper. He, too, was holding a piece of wreckage.
"He called out, 'Man, are you saved?'
"'No, I am not,' I replied.
"He shouted back, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.'
"The waves bore [Harper] away, but a little later, he was washed back beside me again. 'Are you saved now?' he called out.
"'No,' I answered. 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.'
"Then losing his hold on the wood, [Harper] sank. And there, alone in the night with two miles of water under me, I trusted Christ as my savior. I am John Harper's last convert."
I just found out that there is a book about the amazing John Harper. If you get it, let me know how it has effected your life. For those that feel locked in cement when talking to someone you know is unsaved, I recommend Dever's book above.
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