Transforming Hearts in Haiti
By Albert F. Prieger
A Lawyer and Libertine Turns to God — A Mighty Power Revolutionizes His Life
SOME time ago I was called to a small city here, and found a number of believers ready for baptism. Among them was a lawyer who seemed very anxious for baptism, but I had just heard from our native worker a little concerning his former life. The man was brought up a Catholic. As is customary in these countries, he had lived with a woman a number of years without marriage. They had one child, and by some former woman he had two other children in another city. Now he was in great perplexity, not knowing what to do to please God; but because the woman he was living with was opposed to his new-found faith, he thought it best that he should leave her. Realizing the sinful course he had pursued, he came to me for advice. We began to search the good old Bible in reference to his case; and when he found that in the sight of God he was married to this last woman, and that he had no right to leave her if she consented to live with him, and that he ought to support all his children, he resolved to be married by the state the next morning, which was Friday. The woman was very much surprised to see how everything was changing, since she had been under the impression that to be holy one must be unmarried, like the priests, and that he would leave her. When she found that she was now a lawfully married woman, and all because of this new-found gospel, she went, contrary to the13wishes of her priest, to witness the baptism of her husband. When I baptized him, she sank on her knees, and resolved in her heart to follow. There were nine persons baptized. We organized them into a church, and this woman became a member, subject to baptism. It was good to see how readily she gave up all objectionable practises to serve her Master more fully. For a time this brother's faith was tried severely. But just now I received word stating that this government has appointed him as one of the judges of Haiti, and I believe we of the home land, of faith, may say with Paul in Rom. 1:16: "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."