2 TIMOTHY 4:2
April 15th marked yet another anniversary of the sinking of the great Titanic (sank in the year 1912). Stories have been told about the Titanic, but one that really touches the heart was the story John Harper.
When pastor and preacher John Harper, his sister and his six year old daughter boarded the Titanic it was for the privilege of preaching at one of the greatest churches in America, Moody Church in Chicago.
When the Titanic hit the iceberg, Harper successfully led his sister and daughter to a lifeboat. Being a widower he may have been allowed to join them but instead forsook his own rescue, choosing to provide the people onboard with one more chance to know Christ. He ran from one person to another, passionately telling them about Christ. As the ship sank, Harper was heard shouting, “women, children, and the unsaved into the lifeboats.” He also gave a certain man who rejected his offer of salvation his own life vest, saying, “you need this more than I do.”
Harper struggled to swim to as many people as he could, sharing the Gospel. He did not survive.
Four years after the tragedy at a Titanic survivor’s meeting in Ontario, Canada, one survivor recounted his interaction with Harper in the middle of the icy waters of the Atlantic. He was clinging to ship debris when Harper swam up to him, twice challenging him with a biblical invitation to “believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” He rejected the offer once. Yet given the second chance and with miles of water beneath his feet, the man gave his life to Christ. Then as Harper succumbed to his watery grave, this new believer was rescued by a lifeboat. As he concluded his remarks at the Ontario meeting of survivors he said, “I am the last convert of John Harper.”
John Harper preached the gospel in season and out of season.
