KAT’S KORNER
True hero of the Titanic
One of the passengers on the Titanic was a pastor from Scotland named John Harper. He had ministered at the Moody Church in Chicago for three months and the church had experienced a wonderful revival during his ministry there, so he was asked to return and continue his ministry. He had not been back in Britain long when he and his daughter, Nana, made plans to travel back to Chicago; she was six. He delayed their departure by a week so that they could sail on the new ship, the Titanic, as it made its maiden voyage.
On April 14, 1912, The Titanic struck an iceberg at 11:40PM. When the call was issued to vacate their cabins, Harper told his daughter he would see her again one day and passed her off, wrapped in a blanket, to a crewman. Once she was safe in a lifeboat, Harper gave his life jacket to another passenger. A survivor distinctly remembered hearing John Harper shouting, “Women, children, and the unsaved into the lifeboats!” He then ran along the decks pleading with passengers to turn to Christ.
“Harper asked the orchestra to play, “Nearer, my God, to Thee” as the ship was sinking and raised his arms in prayer with holy joy in his face. Harper jumped into the icy water and swam
frantically to all he could reach, insistent that they turn to the Lord and be saved. As hypothermia set in, Pastor John Harper sank beneath the waters and went to be with the Lord. He was 39.
Four years later, a young Scotsman by the name of Aguilla Webb stood up in a meeting in Hamilton, Canada, and gave the following testimony:
I am a survivor of the Titanic. When I was drifting alone on a spar that awful night, the tide brought Mr. John Harper of Glasgow, also on a piece of wreck, near me. ‘Man,’ he said, ‘Are you saved?’ ‘No,’ I said, ‘I am not.’ He replied, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.’ The waves bore him away; but, strange to say brought him back a little later, and he said, ‘Are you saved now?’ ‘No,’ I said, ‘I cannot honestly say that I am.’ He said again, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,’ and shortly after he went down; and there, alone in the night, and with two miles of water under me, I believed. I am John Harper’s last convert.
Kat
