Chapter Six

Youth's Hero

Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Psalm 16:11).

FIFTEEN young Marines of World War II stood on Iwo Jima receiving their orders from a lieutenant. The battle was raging hot and heavy all around, but all unknown to them a lone Japanese sailor was slipping cautiously from boulder to boulder behind them. In his hand was a grenade. Just as the lieutenant was finishing his directions the arm of the Japanese sailor flashed, the grenade was thrown, and just as it was about to land, in a split second, Jim, a young Marine from Louisiana, saw it out of the corner of his eye. Without thinking of his own life he pounced upon the grenade as it exploded and sent him into a hundred pieces. But his comrades escaped with only minor injuries.

   As I read that story in a magazine I thought, This young fellow Jim will go down in the annals of American history as a great American hero. He gave his life for his friends. He died in the line of duty.

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   You know, there is something about American young people that makes us love heroes of every type, whether they be on the cinder track, the baseball diamond, the gridiron or in a tank.

   I shall never forget how in my first year in high school Babe Ruth, the great "King of Swat," came to my small home town to play a great exhibition game. Of course, all of us kids were on the front seat shouting and yelling at the top our lungs. My father, who had taken us to the game, arranged for me to shake hands with the great Babe. I will never forget the thrill of shaking hands with this fellow who was the idol of our young hearts. I remember I didn't wash my hands for about three days. On the next day I went back to school. I was envied by all my friends, for it was known throughout the school that I had had the privilege of shaking hands with America's great baseball hero.

   During my last years in high school my keenest ambition was to be a professional baseball player. I shall never forget how, as I played on the sandlots of North Carolina, I used to dream of someday playing at Wrigley Field. Of course, these are dreams of a million high-school kids. I used to read every word in the papers about my favorite baseball heroes, Lou Gehrig, Schoolboy Rowe, Babe Ruth and others.

   At the age of seventeen, after finishing a high school game, I was invited to go to church one evening. I was told that a "fighting" preacher was going to preach. If there was going to be a scrap or a fight my interest was immediately aroused and so, forsaking my studies, I went to church that particular evening. To my amazement, it was a great evangelistic campaign, and some five thousand people had gathered. The clergy and the laymen of our town were conducting a united effort. I sat in the rear of the building, curiously watching all the strange happenings. I was not quite sure what was going to take place next.

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I had always thought of religion as being more or less "sissy" and a fellow who was going to be an athlete would have no time for such "sissy" stuff. It was all right for old people and girls, but not for a real "he man" with red blood in his veins. I had gone to church, but that was as far as it went.

   This night a great giant of a man stood and began to preach in such a way as I had never heard a man preach. About halfway through his message he pointed in my direction and said, "Young man, you are a sinner." I thought he was talking straight at me. I ducked behind the person who was sitting in front of me and hid my face. The idea of his calling me a sinner! "Why, I am as good as anybody. I live a good clean healthy moral life. I am a member of the church!" I told myself. But then he began to quote various verses from Scripture. "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God," "There is none righteous no, not one," and others. For the first time in my life I began to realize that I was a sinner, that my soul was bound for hell, and that I needed a Saviour. When the invitation was given, I rushed out into the night and made my way home. I will never forget the struggle that followed. All night long I wrestled and fought. The next day I could hardly wait for evening so that I could get back to the service. This night I sat near the front and the preacher got up again but this time he seemed to smile at me, and said in tenderest tones that God commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

   I thought, This is for me! I am a sinner. God loves me. When the invitation was given, I made my way to the front with the others, gave my hand to the preacher and my heart to the Saviour. Immediately joy, peace and assurance flooded my soul. My sins which were many were gone, and for the first time I had met the Person who became

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the Hero of my life, and after eleven years He is still the One I idolize.

   I had sought thrills; I found them in Christ. I had looked for something that would bring perfect joy and happiness; I found it in Christ. I had looked for something that would bring pleasure and that would satisfy the deepest longing of my heart; I found it all in Christ. "In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." Christ had become the Hero and the Idol of my heart and soul. He challenges, thrills and satisfies.

   At the age of thirty-six, William Jennings Bryan swept the Democratic Convention off its feet by his powerful and brilliant oratory. At this early age he was nominated to the presidency of the United States. But the Hero of my soul stood before the doctors and philosophers of His day and astounded them by His knowledge of their laws, statutes and science. The same God-man, Jesus Christ, after nineteen hundred years is the answer to every problem facing young people in this twentieth century. He has the blueprint for your life. If you want to get the very best out of life and enjoy it to the fullest, if you want a life full of zest, push, adventure, excitement, gaiety and thrills, let Him have full control as Lord and Master not only of your soul but of your life. In the darkest hour He can direct and lead over the roughest path. He knows the safest place for the sole of your foot to touch. He who knows the end from the beginning can lead and direct.

   We are told that Enrico Caruso could sing with such volume that he could break a glass tumbler twelve feet away, and that if his voice were put in an ordinary throat it would shatter it. But I know a Person who, while the storm was raging in all its oriental fury, the lightning flashing, the thunder roaring, the wind howling, the sea sending up its angry billows, stood in a storm-tossed little boat filled with fearful men, beckoned to the wind, and said, "Peace, be still." The angry sea subsided, the wind was hurled back

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into the north, the clouds folded like a scroll, the stars and moon peeped through, the thunder was heard no more, and the lightning fled at the power of the voice of the Man of Galilee.

   Some of you today are on a troubled and treacherous sea. Your life seems to be filled with troubles, difficulties, miseries and a smiting conscience. It seems at times that your little boat is about to sink. I invite you to yield your body and soul to the touch of this God-man who can transform your life and speak peace to your troubled heart. "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (John 14:27).

   Marconi experimented with radio so successfully that today one can turn a dial and get to the other side of the globe, but I know a Man who sits at the right hand of God the Father, a Man who can hear the cry of thousands who cry unto Him, "God be merciful to me, a sinner." I can hear you saying, "I am not a sinner. I live a good life. Why should I be converted?" The Bible thunders back, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way," "The wages of sin is death" and "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." "According to the Word of God, everyone of us has broken the law of God. We have sinned and deserved death, but today, just where you are, you can cry, like the publican of old, "God be merciful to me, a sinner," and He will hear and answer by saving your soul.

   Aga Khan has been called the world's richest man. We are told that every year he gets his weight in gold from his loyal subjects and every twenty-five years his weight in diamonds. He weighs more than two hundred and fifty pounds. But I know a Man who owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He owns the gold and the silver and all the resources of the world, and He says to me, His child

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"It is all yours! I will supply all your needs according to My riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

   When you accept Christ as Saviour you are immediately adopted into the family of God and become a joint-heir with Christ. It is by adoption that you can become a prince or princess in the royal family of God. Think of it — royal blood flowing through your veins, an aristocrat born from on high! What a thrill surges through your heart as you contemplate such a privilege!

   Young people everywhere come to me and say, "If I become a Christian I will have to give up so much. You can't have a good time and be a Christian." Listen, young people, you do not begin to live until you know Christ. The young people around the world today who are having the best time are the young people who know Jesus Christ as their Saviour. They know what real living is. I have heard the hollow, shallow laughter of the world. I have heard the genuine laughter of the beaming young Christian. I know there is a difference.

   A young fellow got off the train in south Illinois some months ago to play for me in a service. He had just been saved and thought that to be a Christian one should have a long face, a sober and gloomy expression, and should never smile or laugh. When he stepped from the train he was wearing a black unpressed drape suit, black socks, black shoes, a black tie, a dirty blue shirt and black horn-rimmed glasses! He thought that this was the proper attire and countenance for a Christian. I was bowled over with amusement and asked him to come with me. We went to the business district. I bought him a red tie, a white shirt, a red handkerchief and red socks, had his shoes shined, his suit pressed, and told him to get a big smile on his face, which he gladly did. We went to the youth rally and had a glorious time. There were more than one hundred and fifty conversions.

   A few months ago I met him in another city where he

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was residing. He came up to me after the service. He wore a great big red bow-tie and was smiling from ear to ear. He asked, "How am I doing?" I said, "Boy, you are cooking with gas now. That's the stuff!" Christ wants you to have a good time, enjoy life to the full and get all you can out of it, remembering to put Him first and in the prominent place twenty-four hours a day.

   There is nothing that will discourage unconverted young people so much as the thought of living a solemn, sober, gloomy, uninteresting life. We have nothing to be ashamed of. Get a smile on your face. Walk down the street with your shoulders back. Dress as attractively as you can. You are an aristocrat, a child of God. You have nothing to be ashamed of. Paul said, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ . . . in whom also we have obtained an inheritance . . . that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ." We have been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. We are men and women of eternity.

   Abraham Lincoln has been called the "Great Emancipator." With one stroke of his pen he set free millions of slaves, but I know a Man, the Hero of my soul, who died on the Cross of Calvary nineteen hundred years ago to set me free from the bonds, fetters, ropes and chains of sin. Satan had blinded me. Scales were on my eyes. I was completely bound. I had nothing to pay. I could do no work that would be accounted for righteousness. I was helpless and hopeless before a Holy God, recognizing that I deserved eternal banishment from His presence, when one day I made my way to His pierced feet and embraced His offer of mercy. My only plea was that He had invited me to come.

   Many of you have found it thus, and discovered also that "with the Lord there is mercy, and . . . plenteous redemption." You heard Him say, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out," and your heart leaped for joy. He had

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redeemed you, bought you, paid the awful price for your sins, and while you were at the stake, tied and bound by Satan, and about to suffer for eternity, by faith you looked up into His blessed face, and that look of faith was enough! He stooped, cut the chains and ropes, and now you are at liberty, and freedom is yours for eternity. "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." We are not redeemed "with corruptible things, such as silver and gold . . . but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."

   After all these glorious and magnificent things that this God-man called Christ has done for us, no wonder we are thrilled to call Him the hero of our lives and the idol of our hearts! In His presence is "fulness of joy," and at His right hand there are "pleasures forevermore."

   A tough young Marine said one day, "I don't believe in God. I don't care about your Christ. I am a Marine. I am tough. Religion is for "sissies," "old people" and "women," not for a real "he man"!

   Later he was stationed at Dutch Harbor, Alaska. The Japanese started dropping their bombs. The Marine was riding in a jeep around a little land-locked harbor. Thinking one of these bombs might be meant for him, he jumped off the jeep, hid behind a lumber pile and started praying with all his might. God had mercy upon him, answered his prayer and saved his soul.

   Right now you can come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ by simple faith in Him. All you have to do is to confess Him as Lord and Saviour and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. He will do the rest!

Chapter Seven  ||  Table of Contents