Missionaries for Jesus

There have been many missionaries for Jesus since the beginning of time. Old, as well as young men and women and even children have been used by the Lord to bring a message to His people. He will use anyone who is willing to surrender their lives to the Lord.

Here are two short stories about two men who were used by the Lord. One was young and one was old, but they each had their own work to do and they did it to the best of their ability. They gave their lives to Jesus.

SAMMY’S CALL

Slave boy Sammy Morris’ body tightened as the master’s cruel whip was applied to his bare back. He said not a word, but he yearned for freedom. And finally he worked up enough courage to run away from his heartless master. He dreaded to think what would happen to him if he were caught.

After his freedom, he went to the coast of Africa where he worked on a coffee plantation. Later he painted houses and became interested in attending a Christian mission. At first the services were strange and new for him, but he liked the singing and the preaching. One night he went forward and gave his heart to God. Soon after that he was called to preach. For hours he discussed the Bible with the missionary and asked him how he could learn more about God.

The missionary told Sammy he should travel to the United States to study for the ministry, and that in New York, Stephen Merritt would help him. So at the age of twenty, reaching America became a definite goal for Sammy Morris. O how much he wanted to go! But having almost no money, how could he ever achieve his purpose?
Finally Sammy persuaded the captain of a sailing boat to let him work his passage to America.

At first the boy was treated roughly by the other men on the ship. They were not interested in the religion that Sammy insisted on preaching. But before the journey was completed the captain and half the crew were converted to Christianity!
On arriving in New York, Sammy bravely offered a young man a dollar to help him find Stephen Merritt.

“Let me see the money first,” said the boy.
“Stephen Merritt will pay you,” said Sammy. It was a statement of faith, but it became fact. Stephen Merritt paid the dollar and was overjoyed to meet the earnest Christian from Africa. Merritt was a philanthropist who used part of his wealth to operate a Christian mission in New York.

On the evening that Sammy arrived, Mr. Merritt had to attend a meeting at another church, so he left Sammy at the mission. When he returned at ten-thirty he discovered that Sammy Morris had preached, and seventeen men were kneeling at the altar!
Next weekend, Sammy preached in church. Within a few minutes the altar was crowded with people. He lived so close to God and was so willing to be a useful servant that God used him marvelously. He won friends quickly, and a number of them willingly agreed to finance his college education at William Taylor University, in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

At college the power of the Spirit in Sammy Morris’ life soon became evident. He was a “Prayer Warrior”; he loved people, and constantly tried to help them spiritually.

Sammy gave himself freely. He attended all the religious services, and was constantly active at preaching and personal evangelism. This young African was certainly strong in spirit, but his body, so long conditioned to a mild climate, had great difficulty resisting the frigid temperatures that occasionally gripped the United States. The cold, combined with overwork and lack of sleep, weakened Sammy Morris’ physical resistance until death became certain.

But when he was told about his serious condition he laughed and said, “Since I have found Jesus, death is my friend.” Truly he had found peace that “passeth understanding.”

A desire of Sammy’s heart was to return to Africa to preach Jesus Christ to his people. But even knowing he could never do this did not worry him. “Others can do it better,” he said. “It is not my work, but it is Christ’s work. He must choose His own workers.”

Until the end Sammy was patient, cheerful, and thankful. The impact of his Christian living was so great that at his funeral three young men dedicated their lives to go to Africa to take the place of Sammy Morris. Jesus had chosen His workers threefold!

Isn’t it marvelous what God can do with a life that is willingly and completely consecrated to Him even though the life is only mat of a poor slave? Sammy Morris was only 21 when he died, but his life has inspired many to give their lives to Jesus and go out as foreign missionaries.

THE RIGHT NUMBER

The ringing of a telephone shattered the early morning stillness in “Daddy” Hall’s meager apartment in New York.
The old man blinked his eyes and feebly sat up in bed as the telephone rang a second time. Who could want to talk with him at that hour, and about what? Laboriously, because he was still recuperating from a stroke, he went to the telephone and said, “Hello.”

Wrong number!

But instead of hanging up the receiver immediately, Daddy Hall said, “No, you have the right number. You are talking with the ‘Bishop’ of Wall Street. And I want to know if you are a Christian?”
“What? Oh, 1 suppose so.”
“And do you suppose you are married?”
“I know I am married.”
“Do you know you love your wife?”
“Yes.”
“Do you read the Bible and pray?”
“Sometimes. Long ago my mother taught me to do that.”
“She also taught you to bathe regularly, didn’t she?”
“Certainly.”
“Since you left your mother you haven’t stopped bathing, have you?”
“No – but who on earth are you anyway?
“Name’s James Jefferson Davis Hall. I’m an old-fashioned minister who preaches everywhere.”
“Well, thank you. You’ve really helped me this morning.”

So Pastor Hall hung up the receiver and slowly made his way back to bed, thinking he might not receive another telephone call for a week. But on that December 29, 1939, he received nineteen more calls!
The man who had called by mistake told a friend about the unexpected help he had received. This friend called, was helped, and he called a friend. Thus a chain was started, which lengthened until finally Daddy Hall received more than two thousand calls weekly for spiritual inspiration.

James Davis Hall was born in the state of Alabama. He attended the Protestant Episcopal Theological School of Virginia, at Alexandria, and was ordained as a minister in 1895, But he said, “The only degrees I have are the B.A. for ‘born again,’ and D.D. for ‘Divine Dynamiter.'”

After serving a few pastorates, for seven years he was a chaplain at Alabama State Prison. Then for twelve years he served at rescue missions in Philadelphia and Boston. He moved to New York in J922, at the age of fifty-nine.
For many years he preached daily at noon on the Wall Street corner near the New York Stock Exchange. “I preached what they needed,” he said, “not what they wanted to hear,” Many listened and were helped, while others paid no attention or simply explained briefly to someone, “He’s the ‘Bishop’ of Wall Street.”

Bishop Halt also preached on Broadway, at piers, and at other places. Occasionally he delivered a sermonet while riding a subway. Of course, he had no idea that his ‘telephone ministry’ would become so popular that he would have to install more telephones and hire five assistants to operate them. All night a light was on in his brownstone house on Fifty-first Street, where he had moved from his apartment.

Each morning he had a brief new “message of the day.” And many people formed the habit of calling for those daily messages. The famous, the wealthy, the poor, discouraged people of all faiths, including the clergy of other churches, called the elderly minister for spiritual inspiration.

“I have a religious hypodermic for every man or woman who calls, and I can tell what size dose a person needs by the way he talks,” he said.
When a woman called, the telephone minister might say, “I have a message that could fit Lady Astor or the Duchess of Marlborough as well as you. ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.’ Read your Bible. Love your own husband, not somebody else’s. That’s the way to keep out of Reno.” Or he might tell briefly of God’s marvelous love or about His righteous wrath.
After the telephone ministry became so urgent, the “bishop” had to limit his preaching on Wall Street to each Thursday noon, and work in other outdoor preaching engagements as opportunities came. No collections were ever taken, but contributions from friends were welcome. Funds for service were always on hand, especially as Hall and his assistants did not have expensive habits, and they had no desire for wealth.

“I wear second hand clothing and eat of the Spirit,” said the aged minister. He was a vegetarian, did not drink alcohol, tea, or coffee, did not smoke, and advised others to follow his example. “My only worry is that I’m so happy I hate to go to bed at night,” he said. Most of the time his eyes twinkled merrily, although at times, in his battle with sin, he could be as serious as a judge with the prisoner at the bar.

During a period of eleven years the telephone minister answered at least seven hundred thousand calls for spiritual guidance. Then on September 6, 1951, at age eighty-eight, he went to sleep in Jesus.
Circle 6-6483 or Circle 6-6484 – those were the numbers that so many spiritually bankrupt people called. Of course, sometimes people were given those numbers to call as a joke. But regardless, the faithful minister tried always to get God’s truth to anyone who called. And frequently a call that started as a joke became very serious business.

“You have the most important numbers in New York,” telephone operators told him. And thousands of people who were definitely helped by his unusual ministry could certainly have vouched for the truth of that statement.

James Hall thought he was getting old before his telephone ministry began. He was already in his 70’s. Many would have thought he should be retiring from active service, and that his work was pretty well over, but God still had work for him to do and kept him alive for those many years to do a very important work. No one is to say when a person’s active life should end – the Lord may still have work for them to accomplish and He will decide when the work is done.

So God can use anyone -whether young or old. Anyone who is willing to surrender their life to the Lord will have avenues of opportunity open before them.