Don't Let Opportunity Float By

Eastford Baptist Church
August 23, 2006

Don’t Let Opportunity Float By

Several years ago the movie Titanic thrilled millions and collected a record number of Academy Awards. But an inspiring story is missing from the script - the self-sacrificing efforts of a minister named John Harper. Harper was the son of a draper in a village near Glasgow, Scotland. His father was a Puritan in theology and practice, according to Harper's brother George, their father read the sermons of the great London preacher C. H. Spurgeon aloud to his children “whether we enjoyed them or otherwise.”

Both Harper and his brother became ministers. At age 17, Harper, according to his brother, had an “enraptured vision, almost overpowering in its intensity, in which he saw and felt as never before the purpose of God in the cross of Christ.” For the next five or six years, Harper worked in a paper mill by day and preached on the streets of the village and neighboring communities by night. He eventually became pastor of a mission in Glasgow. The mission prospered, and he began a new church in another rough section of Glasgow, where many formerly “heavy drinkers, blasphemers and deep-eyed sinners” testified to the fact that Harper was the means by which they came to repentance and faith. “He looked after us carefully as a father after his children,” one wrote. After 13 years of a rigorous schedule, Harper's health broke, and he was forced to take a six-month sabbatical. Although his health never fully returned, he became pastor of a church in London, and his success there led to an invitation to preach a revival at Moody Church in Chicago in the winter of 1911. The revival was successful, and although his health was weakening, he agreed to return to Chicago that spring.

When Harper boarded the Titanic for that return trip to the United States, he was 39 years old, a widower accompanied by his 6-year old daughter, Nana. His departure included an ominous foreshadowing of disaster. While speaking at a seaman's mission in Glasgow, he mentioned he had changed his plans and instead of sailing on the Lusitania, he was scheduled to sail on the Titanic. A man stood up and begged him not to go, saying he had been in prayer and had the impression that disaster awaited him if he made the voyage. Harper's response is not recorded, but he and his daughter sailed from Southampton on the Titanic, April 11, 1912. They were second-class passengers, and when the Titanic struck an iceberg the night of April 15, he immediately wrapped his daughter in a blanket and was able to hand her to an upper deck officer with instruction to place her in a lifeboat. She survived the disaster. Harper didn't. As the scale of the crisis started to become obvious, Harper's Scottish voice could be heard calling out, “Women, children and the unsaved into the lifeboats first!” He took his own life jacket—his only hope for survival—and gave it to another man.

More than 1,500 people died in the disaster, but more than 700 survived. One man, picked up by the S. S. Carpathia after clinging to a board for several hours, recalled an encounter with a man that turned out to be Harper. After the ship had gone down, the man drifted near another passenger - Harper - who was struggling to stay afloat. “Are you saved?” Harper called out to him. “No,” he replied. Harper responded with the words of Acts 16:31, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved.” The man made no reply and drifted away again. Before long the current brought them back within sight of each other. Again, Harper asked him, “Are you saved now?” “No,” he replied, “I can't honestly say that I am.” Once more the words from Acts echoed in the darkness, before they drifted apart for the last time. After his rescue, the man found out the name of the man who had asked him the questions. He explained what happened at a meeting in Ontario, Canada, “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.” Later, the church Harper started in the Glasgow suburb was renamed Harper Memorial Church in his memory and is still active today.

What is your heart attitude towards those who do not yet know the forgiveness of Christ? Everyday, all around us are people whose ship will sink in a godless eternity unless they come to a saving knowledge of the cross of Christ. A question, a comment, or a simple interest from you might be all that it takes for them to step into salvation. Pray and ask the Lord to lead you to someone with whom you can share the Gospel this week. You might just be amazed who floats across your path.

Looking for an opportunity,PT