Riches of Grace Part 6

Upon coming to the guard-house, he called the sergeant of the guard and said, "Sergeant, do not search this boy, for I know that he will not take in anything but that which is lawful."

He then asked me whether I wanted to stay in the big cell with the rest of the prisoners or go into one small cell by myself. I asked him for one by myself so that I might study the Bible.

When he was bidding me good-by, he said: "For the first time I shake a prisoner's hand, and I must say that I do not look upon you as a prisoner but as the most honorable man that we have in this post, and I must confess that you have done a most honorable thing in the sight of man and G.o.d, and I will help you with all that lies within my power to make everything easy for you."

The next morning the lieutenant-colonel came into the guard-house asking for me. When I came near the door, he reached out his hand and grasped mine, saying, "Neither my wife nor I have slept during the night, and I have decided to recommend you for a year's clemency, so that you will have only two years to serve."

It did not sound very good to me, but I went into the guard-house and prayed. The thought came to me, "Can you not trust the Lord to carry you through all these difficulties?" I said to myself, "Yes, I leave all in the hands of the Lord."

After a few weeks the court was detailed. The president of the court was Captain Koester, who, I was informed, was an infidel. The next man of his court, Captain Ottwell, was a Christian Scientist, and the rest of the court, including eleven officers, were Roman Catholics. They detailed Lieutenant Rockwell to be my counsel for defense. He came up to the court-house and said:

"You are a Jew, are you not?"

"Yes."

"And you believe in Jesus Christ, do you not?"

"Yes."

"I have no use for Jews, especially for a turncoat, and I will see that you get the limit of the court."

This broke me all up, and I said, "Lieutenant, if you can, G.o.d will let you go ahead."

I then walked into my cell and knelt down to pray, broken-hearted. The scripture came to me, "Fear them not; for I the Lord thy G.o.d shall fight for you." I rejoiced to know that the Lord was fighting my battles and that he would do it well. Thirteen days afterwards I was tried.

When I came to the court, the lieutenant came to me with a piece of paper in his hand and said: "I am sorry for the words which I spoke to you, but I have suffered for them, and with G.o.d's help I will recommend you to clemency. The same Lord that saved you has also saved me."

The judge of the court asked me what I would plead to the charge.

"I plead guilty to the charge of desertion and violation of the forty-seventh article of war."

He asked me again if I knew what it meant to plead guilty. I answered that I knew.

He then asked me what my plea on the specification of the forty-seventh article of war was.

"Guilty," I answered.

He said to the court, "I want to make plain to this boy the solemnity of these charges, that he may know the consequences thereof." He then asked me if I had any pleas to make.

I told him no, and repeated the scripture that the Lord had given me: "Fear them not; for I the Lord thy G.o.d shall fight for you." I said, "I fear you not, for my Lord will fight for me and will deliver me."

Then the counsel for the defense arose and made this statement:

"Fellow Officers: You all know what a bitter man I was against the Jews.

You know that I was not going to make any plea, but to let this boy get all that the court could give him, and be sorry afterwards that the court could not give him more. But the same G.o.d that he serves troubled me and made me sick, as you know, until I realized that the same G.o.d must be my G.o.d and the same Savior my Savior; and furthermore, the same Jesus that saved this Jewish boy has saved me also."

The court was greatly surprized, but my counsel went on further and handed the court a paper and explained verbally the different reasons for his pleas until tears came to the eyes of Captain Koester, Captain Ottwell, and the different members of the court. Four of the worst officers arose and recommended me for eighteen months' clemency and thirteen dollars a month fine and reinstatement to duty.

The recommendation of the court was sent to the Department Commander of the East, Major-General Leonard A. Woods, who earnestly considered the case, according to his statement, for several hours, not knowing what to do. He also expressed himself by saying that if he had full power to release me, he would gladly do so, without any punishment. Also, through prayer and pet.i.tions to the Lord the case reached President Taft, the Adjutant-General of the army, and then it reached Brigadier-General Davis, who was the Judge-Advocate General of the United States Army.

They also had notified the Department Commander to be as lenient as he could before the case had reached the War Department in Was.h.i.+ngton.

In fifteen days after my trial, the sentence came back approved by the Department Commander for eighteen months' clemency and thirteen dollars'

fine a month and reinstatement to duty to serve out my enlistment.

While I was in the guard-house in Was.h.i.+ngton Barracks, District of Columbia, serving the sentence imposed upon me for the charge heretofore mentioned, I was sawing wood one day, when a fellow prisoner hit me with a piece of wood behind my ear and knocked me down. About two months later this prisoner was saved, and the other prisoners became bitter against me, for they believed that I was the cause of the conversion of one of the worst men in the guard-house. I learned later that a number of the officers were converted.

After I left the Was.h.i.+ngton Barracks, I went to Ft. Sloc.u.m, New York.

From there I was sent to Ft. Sheridan, where I was a.s.signed to Battery F, Fifth Field Artillery. After I had been there two days, I asked permission of Lieutenant Osborn to hold religious services in front of the battery. On account of its being so cold, he told me to go into the pool-room and hold services if I thought my G.o.d was living.

I went into the pool-room, where they were playing pool, and began to preach the gospel. Two b.a.l.l.s were thrown at me, and I was also hit across the back with the thick end of a cue. They took me to the hospital and after a short time came back and said that the Jew would not preach Jesus Christ any more. After another week I felt impressed to preach the gospel again. While I was preaching, the cook came out of the kitchen with a pail of hot lard and threw it on me. I was burned on both of my hands and arms.

While I was at the hospital, black poison set in, and the doctor said my arm must be cut off. I told him that I would not submit to any operation; that as I suffered this for the gospel's sake, the Lord would heal my arm. Five weeks later he looked at my arm, as the poison was getting worse in my system, and he said, "If I do not cut off this arm, you are going to die from the effects of blood-poisoning." I said that I still had faith in G.o.d that he would heal this arm for his glory.

"What church do you belong to?" he inquired.

"I belong to the church of G.o.d," I answered.

"Your arm can not heal," he replied and began to laugh.

Several days afterward the poison had come up to my shoulder. When the doctor saw it, he said, "The only thing to do is to cut your arm off at the shoulder."

I told him that I had more faith than ever in G.o.d that he would heal my arm, even after my whole body should be poisoned. I believed that the Lord would heal me for his glory.

That night my fever was 104, and the doctor was called. He gave orders to put me into a bathtub full of ice-water, but after I came out I was much worse, and they said I could not live through the night. At five o'clock the next morning a sudden change came and my arm turned a yellowish color and the discharge ceased little by little. When the doctor came, he said, "I had thought that the arm must be cut off, but now it will get well." In two weeks I was able to use my arm as well as ever and was again a.s.signed to duty.

After coming out of the hospital I preached much more the unsearchable riches of Christ, for which at different times I was cast into prison.

The post-commander of Ft. Sheridan told me that I might just as well use the gymnasium-hall to preach the gospel six nights in the week.

While I preached there, a number of souls were brought to the Lord.

While I was at Ft. Sheridan, a letter came to me from my mother stating that if I wanted to save her life I should turn back to Judaism and forsake the impostor Jesus, and that if I would do this they would receive me back again with full honor, as I was defiled before them and the only means to save her life was for me to turn back from this heathen belief. I wrote her as follows:

"My Dear Mother: I have received your letter and thank you very much for it. I do really love you, but my love for you now is much different than before. I love you because the Lord Jesus loved you and died for you.

Yet if my accepting Jesus will not and can not save you from dying, then my rejecting him will not save you either, and I can not forsake the Lord Jesus."

About two months later I received a cable-message saying that the last words of my mother were, "My only son is the cause of my death." After that period they made a burial service, took all my little belongings, put them in a casket and buried it, and put a stone on the grave, signifying that I died on October 29, 1908. After this they mourned for me for eight days. Now though I am supposed to be dead to my family and to my nation, yet I am glad that I am alive for Christ and still preaching the unsearchable riches of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to my own people as well as to the other nations. The Lord has enabled me to preach free of charge to any and every one and to give unto them freely even as I have freely received. This scripture has been very real to me since that time: "All things work together for good to them that love G.o.d, to them who are the called according to his purpose."

In 1912 my father died, leaving me of his large estate five dollars to buy a rope and soap to hang myself if I did not come back to Judaism.

The foregoing account of my conversion has been written after nearly seven years of experience and preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ to my own people as well as to Gentile people in this country, in the Islands of the Azores, in Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Syria, Egypt, Palestine, Greece, and Austria.

The most bitter people against the gospel I have found are my own people. The gospel has been misrepresented to them, and they have not been made to realize the heart experience. There are over 12,000,000 Jewish people in this world, yet there are very few faithful and tried missionaries amongst them to explain to them the way of salvation.

However, the comparatively little work that has been done amongst them has met with large results despite the bitter persecution. I am deeply encouraged and comforted to see how open and receptive they are, although they bitterly persecute the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Saul of Tarsus was a great persecutor of Christianity, but finally yielded and became a true follower of Jesus Christ.

May G.o.d help us as Christians to see our great privilege in giving the Jews the gospel and praying for them that their blindness may depart and that they may see that the Lord Jesus is the only way, the truth, and the light.