A MIRACLE OF GRACE In one of our largest cities a man whom we shall call Dunlap led for years the life of a criminal. He had a large muscular body, a great, massive head, and willpower bigger than both combined. He was a bold, bad man and stopped short of nothing in the accomplishment of his burglaries, which were usually planned on an extensive scale and seemed to be enjoyed by him just in proportion to their danger and difficulty. Walls were scaled, doors and windows entered, bolts snapped, and big iron safes burst open with the crowbar, chisel, and dynamite of this fearless individual. Policemen had a wholesome dread of the man and never dreamed of attacking him single-handedly. Detectives dogged his steps, and every effort was made to overtake and fasten guilt upon him to land their victim in the penitentiary. But successful as he was fearless, and cunning as he was bold, it was ten years before the trap was sprung, and Dunlap, caught in one of his store robberies, was overpowered by numbers and dragged to jail. He had been incarcerated a number of weeks awaiting his trial, when one day some godly women who made a practice of visiting the prisons in the city on the Sabbath passed his cell and handed him a newspaper containing D. L. Moody’s sermon on justification by faith. The prisoner, more from the tediousness of the solitary confinement than anything else, took up the printed sheet and commenced reading. Suddenly his eyes fell upon the words that God would forgive the vilest criminal and foulest sinner on earth if he would simply look to and believe on His Son, Jesus Christ. Then came the scripture confirming the statement, ‘Being justified by faith, we have peace with God.’ It would be simply impossible to describe the actual shock of astonishment that came over Dunlap as he read those words. It was like a lightning flash in his mental and spiritual world. The Spirit poured light on the Word and in the man as he sat reading and rereading the words with a great voiceless wonder in heart and mind. Though the personages and periods were widely different and separated as to character and time, yet the same thing was taking place in his case that occurred to Luther when climbing up the Sacred Stairway in Rome in search after pardon. The reader will remember that as the monk was two-thirds up the steps on his knees, the Holy Ghost impressed this passage on his mind while streaming a flood of light upon it—‘The just shall live by faith! In an instant Martin Luther saw the truth, grasped it, leaped to his feet, and rushed down the staircase a converted man, to electrify the church and Europe with the restored doctrine that men are not saved by works but by faith in the Son of God. In a similar manner the light came upon the lonely prisoner, and as he read and reread the Bible passage, God helping him, he grasped the truth with a thrill of amazement, and looking to Jesus, was in an instant soundly converted to God. Of course, this made a great stir in the prison, and especially outside among the people of God who heard of it. Some there were who doubted, but the man’s remarkable change in face, conversation, spirit, and life left no question with the Christian workers who saw him that he had been truly regenerated. A few weeks after the prisoner’s conversion, under the instruction of the holiness band who visited the jail, he was led into the experience of entire sanctification. Here was another miracle of grace, which caused additional wonder with some and increased gladness among the people of God. The day for the trial of his case drew near, the conviction was general that the sentence would be for a long term in the penitentiary. And because of the changed nature of the man, this certainty of the coming verdict intensified sympathy in his behalf. Dunlap had been assigned a lawyer by the judge, and this gentleman, conceiving a warm interest in his unfortunate client, gave a faithful study to the case. One day he made an important discovery and went at once to the jail to interview the prisoner. After taking his seat in the cell, he said, “Mr. Dunlap, I have made a very important discovery in your case which may result in my being able to get you off clear.” “Indeed,’ replied Dunlap, ‘I am glad to hear that.’ “Yes,’ resumed the lawyer; ‘I find that through a technical error, as we call it, I can get you free. But in order to use my advantage, I will have to obtain your consent to make a statement that is not exactly in accord with facts.” “I do not understand you,” replied the prisoner, turning a steady, searching look upon the man of law. “I mean,’ said his counsel, ‘that I will have to get you to stretch the truth a little.” “Do you mean that I must tell a falsehood?’ asked Dunlap. “Well,” returned the lawyer, “if you insist in putting it in that strong way, you may do so.” “‘Do I understand you to say,” asked Dunlap, “that my deliverance from a long term in the penitentiary depends on my telling an untruth—in other words, a lie?” “Well, yes; that is about the sum of the matter.” “Then,’ answered Dunlap, ‘I prefer to go to the penitentiary!” If the man’s conversion created surprise, the last occurrence increased the amazement, and Dunlap became a standing wonder among many, while Christians rejoiced over the steadfastness and faithfulness of the new convert. “According to the Bible, it is when a man meets the conditions that God requires and turns himself over entirely to the divine keeping, that the Lord not only works mightily for him on the inside, but achieves marvelously for him on the outside. Without being able to enter into the history of the matter, we can only say that the same God who caused an angel to unlock the prison doors for Peter did likewise for the subject of this sketch, and Dunlap after a few months incarceration walked out a pardoned and liberated man. He speedily joined the church, secured work down in the city, and entered into a new life in every sense of the word. There were many, of course, who did not believe in him and suspected a deep trick and scheme underneath the whole occurrence. Notably this was the opinion of the police and detective force. For years they kept a hawk’s eye on him and shadowed day and night the great, burly fellow who, with clear, honest eyes and bright, happy face, trudged the streets of the city. It was not long before Dunlap secured a deputyship at the courthouse. The men there were not sorry to obtain the services of an individual of such physical strength and courage; and, having perfect confidence in his redeemed life, they entrusted him with large sums of money. It was especially on these collecting days that the police and detectives would watch Dunlap, and he, not slow to perceive this, went on his happy, tranquil way, saying to a friend, “They don’t know I carry a treasure in my heart that all the money of this city is not able to buy. I would be a fool indeed to part with what I’ve got for the few hundred dollars I gather in my collecting tours.” As a church member, Dunlap was regular in his attendance and prompt in payment of money to meet the pastoral and conference claims. In addition to this, he would put aside a small amount each month from his salary in order to attend a holiness camp meeting that was located about two hundred miles from the city. This was his solitary recreation. He said he needed no other and cared for no other. About that time the writer was sent as pastor to the church where Dunlap held his membership. One of the first things the redeemed man said about the new preacher was, ‘Now I need not go off to a camp meeting for soul food. God has sent me a holiness preacher, and I can have full salvation preaching without taking an expensive trip to hear it. So from this time I will give as an extra amount to the church that which I took before to pay for my camp meeting trip. One day we were visiting the home of Dunlap, when in the course of conversation he said, “Would you like to see two photographs of myself taken at different times?” We replied that we would, when he went to a wardrobe and from a drawer within brought out two pictures. Handing the first one to us, he said, “This was taken while I was in the service of the devil, and when he had me bound hand and foot.” As we looked upon the face on the cardboard, we could scarcely keep back an expression of disgust. The bloated countenance was not only marked heavily with lines of sin, but was so grossly animal as to arouse in the heart a sense of loathing and in the mind a feeling almost of horror. He saw the look, and with a smile laid the other photograph before us, saying, “This one was taken since I entered the service of Christ.” As we gazed upon the fine, open, shining face in the picture, it fairly staggered faith in one’s own eyesight and judgment to believe that these two portraits were of the same man. Looking up at Dunlap with an expression of wonder, we saw the tears dripping down his face. With our own eyes wet and a husky sound in the voice, we said to the deeply moved man, “Brother Dunlap, you could not preach the gospel more powerfully and effectively than to carry these two photographs around with you and show them to people. They constitute a gospel and an unanswerable argument in themselves.” His reply was, “I have done so many times, and said as I showed first one, and then the other, This is what the devil brought me to, and this is what Jesus did for me! And I have never known it to fail to convict the person who heard what I said and looked at the pictures I showed him.”
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 20:39:22 +0000
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