TWICE-BORN MEN
REMARKABLE CONVERSIONS OF WELL-KNOWN MEN
IN DIFFERENT AGES AND IN VARIED RANKS OF LIFE
Compiled by HY. PICKERING
A World Known Bible Teacher
DR. ARTHUR T. PIERSON had attended Church and Sunday School since the age of six, and all his training and most of the influences that surrounded him had been Christian, yet he had never yet deliberately surrendered his heart to Christ. At Tarrytown there came the crisis that comes to so many boys when they first leave home, an experience which tested his earnestness and his courage. He came face to face with the question: “Shall I seek great things for myself in my own way, or shall I give my life to God and surrender to the claims of Jesus Christ ?”
A series of special revival meetings were held in the Methodist Church, and the earnest, but quiet message of the evangelist made a deep impression on him. What followed is given in his own words:
“One night I was much moved to seek my salvation. When the invitation was given, I asked for the prayers of God’s people and decided to make a start in serving God by accepting Jesus as my Saviour. On my way back to school I was forced to ask myself: How am I to act as a Christian before the other boys? We all slept in large rooms with five or six beds, and with two boys in each bed. As I went up to the ward where I slept, I felt that now or never I must show my colours. If my life were to count, I must give some testimony before my schoolmates.
“The boys were not yet in bed, and as some others had attended the meeting, the word had preceded me, ‘Pierson is converted.’ The boys were waiting to see what I would do. There was not one other Christian in the ward, and my own bedfellow was perhaps the most careless, trifling, and vicious boy in the school. My first hour of testing had come; much depended on how I would meet it.
“As I undressed for bed, I asked God for courage, and then, when ready to turn in, knelt down beside the bed and silently prayed. The boys were quiet for a moment, then a few began to chuckle, and presently a pillow came flying at my head. I paid no attention to it, though praying was not easy just then, if by prayer is meant consecutive, orderly speaking to God.
“My schoolmates were not malicious, but only bent on ‘fun,’ and when they saw that I did not move, their sense of fair play asserted itself. One of the older boys said, ‘Let him alone,’ and silently they all picked up their pillows and got into bed. I was never again disturbed when praying before my fellows.”
The initial victory was won, and it was his conviction in later years that this was the turning point in his life. He found that an apparently heavy cross when taken up with the help of God, proves light, and easily borne.