Lesson 165: "Believe in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and You Will be Saved"

Kentucky Chaplain David Chaltas

There was a man of God aboard that great ship that night. There was a man that knew that he was called for that very purpose. He was a man of destiny and through his faith, became a legend. This is his story.

He was born on May 29, 1872, in Scotland. By the age of seventeen, he was spreading the gospel within Renfrewshire, Scotland. By 1896, the young Baptist preacher had founded a growing church in Glasgow. As is the nature of young men, he found a lovely lady and soon she became his bride. Their union brought forth a beautiful daughter who was named Anna Jesse. But to his father, she was ‘Nina’.

His ministry grew and he found himself called from London, England, to Chicago, Illinois, for a series of revivals. He had been invited to preach at Moody before and ended up spending three months with an invitation to return. He prayed about the ministry and the family (his wife had died just after the birth on Nanna) decided that little Nina, being six years old, would accompany him on his voyage but would need a nanny. They decided to take his sister-in-law, Miss Jessie Wills Leitch, to act in that capacity. They all were excited. They all were thrilled. They all could not believe their fortune to be leaving South Hampton on the largest ship ever built for America.

On the evening of April 14, 1912, he was on the deck with his daughter and remarked that, “It will be beautiful in the morning”. At 11:40 P. M., the ship hit a submerged iceberg, disintegrating six chambers. The realization was at hand. The alarm was sounded, as flares lit the sky showing total panic and chaos on the deck. It was then that he sprang into action. He grabbed his beloved daughter and took her to lifeboat #11, kissing her goodbye, and then gently handing her over to Aunt Jessie, with tears of a father’s love flowing down his face. He turned to face his destiny.

Many survivors recall his last moments. After he faded from the lifeboat where his daughter sat, he ran into a man and asked him if he was saved. The man stated he was not. He immediately took off his lifejacket and gave it to him, stating that Jesus was his lifejacket and if the young man would call upon the name of the Lord, he would be saved. He was observed running back and forth yelling for the women, children, and ‘unsaved’ to get aboard the lifeboats.

The great ship rose to the heavens and then plummeted to the abyss, taking 1,498 people into the 28-degree waters. The six survivors from that watery grave and those in the boats saw and heard him calling out to others, “Are you saved?” He would take a lifejacket off a floating body and give it to someone. All is efforts and all is energies went towards offering salvation to those about to die. His last words before slipping under: "Believe in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved."

Following the disaster, a nameless survivor wrote about the stranger who urged him to call out to Jesus for his soul's safety: "Then and there, with two miles of water beneath me, in my desperation I cried to Christ to save me." Of the fifteen hundred souls who were sent into the water, only six came out alive. One of the six was that young man who accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior, after he listened to the preacher’s pleas for salvation and watched the 39-year-old preacher slip into the night, with the name of Jesus Christ upon his lips. The Angel on that fateful night was the Reverend John Harper and the ship was the fabled Titanic.

Upon my first encounter with this story, I trembled with a pervasive feeling of admiration, yet loss. I wondered could I have been so noble. No, could I have been so Christian? John Harper most assuredly would have been given a seat in the lifeboat, as he was the surviving parent of a child, but he realized his moment of destiny was upon him. He did not think of the thousands who awaited his sermons in Moody Church in Chicago. He thought of the greater good in serving those that were about to die. It is my firm conviction he demonstrated to those terrified people that death is but a portal, if you call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And no matter what fate awaits you, you will be saved. He made a conscience choice to follow the path less taken and that has made him the Angel of the Titanic.

What will be your test? What will be your testimony? When it is your time, how will you face death? Will the name Jesus Christ be on your lips and written in the book of life, as evidenced by your heart? How will you fair when the waters come crushing down upon you? Let us all pray that we will have the courage of those that walked a righteous path. Let us recall with honor those men and women that sacrificed all for God and the love of His creations. Trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ for my Salvation, I remain your servant, the Old General