THE VALUE OF A SONG by Edison Driver

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 5, 1902

THE VALUE OF A SONG.

By Edison Driver

THERE are times in human life when nothing else will take the place of a true Christian song. It has a power for good that few realize, even of those who are benefited thereby. But now and then it does happen that a man can tell us what to him has been the value of a single song, listen:—

A little orphan, called “Jim,” was known to the police of the poor section of New York as a youthful terror. If any boyish meanness had been committed, of course “Jim was at the head of it.” But finally he was converted to Christ. All the energy he had before used for evil was now turned into the channel of good, and from that time the story of “James Newsboy” is a remarkable one.

Late one night in a stale-beer saloon he caught a remark which meant to his well-versed ear that a man was tired of living. He followed the fellow, a poor, starved wreck of humanity, down to the wharf,

saw him sit down to think it over for the last time. “I must save that man,” he muttered; but what could he do? He was quick to act in times like this. Going away down the pier, he began to sing one of the most encouraging hymns he knew.

The words reached the heart of the poor man. A new hope sprang up in his mind; and by and by, when the voice ceased, he rose and went back to the city, and back to a better life. Years afterward he tells the story with tears in his eyes: “God bless the singers,” he says. “Nothing but the voice of that child could have reached me. I would have run from a Bible-worker, but I could not resist the sweetness of that song.” EDISON DRIVER.