FAITH AND SALVATION by J. Power

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 23, 1901

FAITH AND SALVATION.

By J. Power

THE Helping Hand and Medical Mission has proved a rich blessing to the homeless and friendless of San Francisco. Nor is its beneficence circumscribed to the needy of this city. There are daily and nightly arrivals at our Commercial Street home from almost every part of the world. The queen of Great Britain and Ireland and empress of India has the wants of many of her subjects attended to in this charitable haven; the same may be said of Kaiser William’s emigrants; of French, Russian, Spanish, and Austrian poor, and at present one of our boarders and lodgers acknowledges as his liege (terrestrial) lord, Abdul Hamid, sultan of Turkey. This turbaned visitor declares there is nothing along the Bosporus to equal the Christian consideration shown in the San Francisco Helping Hand.

Since God in His infinite mercy used the mission to save me from a reckless life of sin and degradation, I have, thru the kindness of Superintendent Dolson, made the mission my home, and am only too glad to place my humble services in the hands of my Saviour. Blessed be God, I can be of earthly service now to my fellow-man, as well as a factor in the salvation of others who, like myself, had been “a drag upon the wheels of time.”

Our meetings are crowded every evening, and we have devoted preachers to give the message and extend the invitation, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” And, O, there are so many who need the rest promised by the Lord Jesus Christ,—poor fellows sodden in the caldron of sinful habit, with almost every vestige of manhood eliminated by the drinking of cheap Chinese whisky, hands stained by crimes of theft and personal violence, lips polluted with fiendish profanity, and ears contaminated by language most foul!

What is the one thing lacking? Where does Satan get in his persuasive powers to shut out God’s Spirit from souls hungering and thirsting for that peace which passeth all understanding? It is the stifling of faith in the hearts of seeking sinners. O, for one spark of this great virtue to light up the troubled paths of those thousands seeking rest but finding none!

“Master,” said Peter, “behold, the fig tree which Thou cursedst is withered away. And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.” O, for a faith purified of every semblance of doubt! O, for a desire accompanied by the belief that we have received it, and we should nightly see a mass of forlorn humanity transformed into living souls of Christ, souls ennobled by the merciful grace of divinity! No longer would they be outward forms tottering to decay, but bodies cleansed and souls purified by the wonderful gift of God’s love.

“The Lord is far from the wicked; but He heareth the prayer of the righteous.” Prov. 15: 29. Dear readers of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES whom God has blessed with His favor, we ask your prayers in particular for the discouraged and withering souls that come nightly to our Helping Hand Mission, but who do not grasp “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

J. POWER.