Long before we moved into
this community, I had heard that this section was known far and wide for
its bootlegging and moonshining activities, and so I was not at all surprised
after we had moved here to meet a man one day out on a mountain trail with
a half gallon fruit jar under each arm. We stopped and had quite a talk.
He said he had found the jars along the road, and that they had been used
to carry moonshine liquor.
He also said that on Saturdays
and Sundays the liquor flowed in this valley like water in the creek, which
I found later to be very true. It was not al all unusual to see someone
going up and down these mountain trails drunk—staggering, yelling, and
firing a revolver in all directions. One day a very young boy, about 14
years of age, came by our home in a pitiful condition; he was so drunk
that he could hardly stand up, much less walk. With cigarette hung loosely
between his lips, he went reeling and staggering up the road.
Over a year ago, a good while
before we had moved here, I was going through this section of the mountains
on foot, stopping at every home, leaving tracts, Gospels of John, and pleading
the cause of Christ. At one home where I stopped, a very old lady and a
young man were out in the field hoeing. They were planting potatoes, and
were working very fast, as they were trying to finish before a storm came,
which seemed likely to break at any moment. I went over to the old lady,
who was tired out, and asked her to let me take her place which she did.
After we had finished the garden, we went over and sat on the cabin porch.
There, I had a wonderful opportunity to witness for our Savior, after which
I continued on my way through the mountains.
Soon I came to another home
in which there were a man and his wife and several children. I talked to
this father and mother about their souls' salvation. Later I learned that
the man was typical mountain moonshiner, one of the old timers. Many times
we have prayed for this man and his family, and since we have moved into
this community, God has used us in leading him to the Cross.
One day he told me that he
could not read very well, but he believed the Lord was helping him to read
the Bible. He also told how that one night when they were later than usual
in having Bible reading and prayer, one of the children, a little girl
about seven years old said, "Daddy, ain't we going to read the Bible tonight?
Daddy, ain't we going to pray tonight?" Just a few short months ago this
father did not know what it was to pray.
Last night I conducted a
prayer meeting in this home. As the darkness was settling down over these
mountains and little cabin homes, when mothers were singing lullabies and
rocking their little ones to sleep, I made my way over a winding foot path
to this home. Stopping along the way, I listened to a whippoorwill calling
to its mate; far away on the side of another mountain I could faintly hear
the answering call, Whippoorwill! Whippoorwill! in the growing darkness.
Soon I reached the little
cabin in which we were to have the prayer meeting. We did not have any
light, but fortunately, I had carried a flash light which I used to read
the Scripture lesson. We all joined in singing some of the old hymns. One
of the was In the Sweet By and By, another was Lord, I'm Coming Home. After
the singing we went to God in prayer. I was kneeling by the side of this
moonshiner, and oh! how wonderful to hear him lift his heart to God in
prayer—not with beautiful words nor high sounding phrases, but just the
simple words of an humble child who just a short time before was all and
more than the devil wanted him to be. But praise God for the blood that
shed on Calvary's Cross, he can say with all of God's children:
I'll be present
when the roll is called, Pure and spotless through the crimson flood. I
will answer when they call my name, Saved through Jesus' blood!
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