A True Story From the Past

Valentine Burke, a Missouri criminal, was for twenty years one of the worst characters known to the police of the United States. Sin had put the terrible scars of ferocity and ugliness on his face as he sat brooding in his prison at St. Louis.

A newspaper came into his hands. D.L. Moody, the American evangelist, was preaching in St. Louis at the time, and the newspaper had printed a report of his sermon under the titles, "How the Jailer at Philippi was Caught." This caught Valentine Burke's eye. The jailer had often caught him. It was a novelty for the jailer to be caught. Moreover, there was a town in Missouri called Philippi, which Burke knew. He chuckled as he started to read about the catching of the jailer.

He soon found out that it was not at Philippi, Missouri, but at Philippi in ancient Greece where the jailer was caught, and that about A.D. 53. The Apostle Paul and his companion Silas had been cast into prison, beaten and their feet made fast in the stocks by the brutal jailer, for no crime save that of preaching the Gospel. A terrifying earthquake at midnight alarmed the jailer, and, trembling, he fell down before the men he had beaten, saying in deep earnestness, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" The clear and instant answer was, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31).

At first Burke was angry. Then he became interested, and finally, impressed. No less than nine times were the words, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved" quoted in the report of Mr. Moody's sermon. He began to see how foolish and wicked his life of sin was. For the first time that night he prayed, though the warden at first was suspicious, and thought he was trying on "the pious dodge."

Burke's trial came and through a mere technicality he escaped conviction and was released. The mighty change of conversion to God had indeed taken place with him. He believed on the Lord Jesus and his soul was saved. For months the ex-convict could find no one ready to trust him and give him work. At last the sheriff of the court was so struck by his altered life, that he actually made the ex-thief the collector of his office, the man who above all others would handle large sums of money.

On one occasion Burke met a friend in the street and said to him, "Look at my hands and see what the grace of God has done, when I tell you that just now Captain Mason, the sheriff, put into these hands $60,000 to carry to the bank for deposit."

One photo of Burke hung for a long time in the rogue's gallery in the police museum. The wild desperado had a face you would shrink from and dread. Years after, the authorities, feeling sure the "rogue" character was a thing of the past, handed this picture to him.

Again he had his photo taken. What a change had taken place! This photo was described as, "The face of a man of great dignity, of uncommon calm, of real nobility and spiritual purity: a lofty brow, with hair thrown back in impressive pose. In short, it was the face of a man fit to adorn the judge's bench."

Seven years had elapsed between the taking of these two pictures. Can infidelity, can indifference to God's claims produce anything to match this?

He sent the two pictures to one who had befriended him, Mr. McPheeters of St. Louis. On the back of the second picture, Burke wrote: "He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill; that He may set him with princes, even with the princes of His people" (Psalm 113:7,8).

But shall Burke go to heaven through the amazing grace of God and the atoning sacrifice for sin offered by the Lord Jesus on the cross, and you remain unaffected and unblessed?

We repeat once more for your benefit the words which he read nine times over: "BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND THOU SHALT BE SAVED."

You cannot say you have not had clearly put before you the one and only way of salvation.

Burke and Moody are in heaven now. Will you also believe and join them there?

—A.J.P.