p. 4 | WHY NOT FIND HIM HERE? by T. E. Bowen

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 17, 1903

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 29, No. 24.

WHY NOT FIND HIM HERE?

By T. E. Bowen

ONE winter in the city of New York, not many years ago, a man in the employ of a large ice firm, filling a very important position in the office, was tested as to the validity of his professed connection with the Lord. He had but recently given his heart to the Lord, and desired to be used of Him to help others. To this end he had prayed.

One evening at the close of a very busy day he found himself alone in the office attending to the closing up of some little details in the work when one of the teamsters, a naturally good-hearted boy, who had come in from the country (as so many boys unwisely do), bustled into the office, swearing about something that had gone wrong.

Mr. Palmer objected to this kind of language in his inner man, and interrupted by saying:—

"Jack, what makes you swear this way? You didn't do this when you first began working here."

Jack ceased and began to think, and as he thought he remembered some of the good counsel of his mother up among the rugged hills in Vermont. His eyes were fast filling with tears.

Mr. Palmer, observing the Lord was working upon the young man's heart, continued:—

"Your association with the rough class of men at the barns is leading you to ruin. You need the Lord to hold you and keep you in this wicked city."

"But how shall I find Him?" broke in Jack.

"Well," suggested the man who had found the Lord, "down at the Baptist Church there is being held every night a revival service. It is on the corner of—"

"O, I can't go way down there to find the Lord," interrupted Jack; "what is the matter with our finding Him right here, now?"

This came as a surprise, and was something the Christian did not feel equal to undertaking. But thoughts rushed into his mind, "Have I not been asking the Lord to show me how I could do something for Him?" "Have I not given myself to Him to be used?" and "Am I not to be a witness for Him in every place?" and this was taken as a call to prayer. But where could they pray? The office was in plain view to the passers-by on the street. Yet here was a soul seeking God. No time was to be lost, so down on their knees they went, and prayed that God would rescue this poor young man from the snare of sin, and let the power of God keep him in the right way. God heard. Peace and pardon came while there upon their knees.

Jack stood the test. He began laboring for the men at the stables. He was at first ridiculed. They called him their preacher. But he labored on and soon left the barns to continue work for other poor souls on the road to ruin. He became an active missionary, and later started and conducted a very successful mission in this great, wicked city, where many were won to Christ.

Thus resulted a little definite, personal work for the Lord, and Jack, as well as his office friend, found the Lord could be found right where they were, and then.

T. E. BOWEN.