SUNDAY READING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11346, 14 April 1900, Page 4 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

BURKE THE BURGLAR, AND MOODf THE EVANGELIST." : 'O, [bt r-ROFESSOK H. M. HAMILL, D.D.] ' Valentine Burke was his name. Ho waj an old-time burglar, with kit and gun always ready for use. His picture adorned many & rogue's gallery, (for Burke "was a real burglar,, and none of your cheap amateurs. He had & courage born of many desperate "jobs." Twenty years of his life Burke had spent in prison, here and there. Ho was a big strong fellow, with a hard face, and a terrible tongue forswearing, especially at sheriffs and gaolers, who were hrs natural born oncmies. There ■ must have been a streak of manhood or a tender spot somewhere about him, you will say. or this story could hardly have hap. penccl. I for ono have yet to find the man who Is wholly gone to the bad, and is beyond tho reach of man or God. If you have, skip this story, for it is a true one, just as Mr, Moody told :'t to me in October up in Brattleboro.Vcrmoat. And now that dear Moody is dead, ant has spent his first Christmas if heaven, I icmembor how the big tears foil from his eyes as he told it, and I am thinking how hippy he and-Burke arc, talking it over together up there, where Hurko has been waiting fui him these long years.

It was 25 years or more ago that it hap. pened. Moody was young then, and not long in his iniiiiitry. Ho camo down to St. Louis to load a union revival - meeting, and the Globe-Democrat announced that it was going to print e\cry word he said, sermon, prayer, and exhortation. Moody said it made him quake inwirdly when he read this, but he made up lis mind that he " would woavo in a lot of Scripture for the Globe-Democrat to print, and that might count, if his own poor words should fail." Ho did it, and his printed sermon) from day to day were sprinkled with Bible texts. The reporters tried their cunning at putting big, blazing headlines at the top of tic columns, Everybody was cither hearing or reading the sermons. Burke was in the St Louis Gaol waiting trial for some piece of daring. Solitary confinement was wcarin? on him, and ho put in his time railing at tie guards, or damning the sheriff on his dailj rounds. It was meat and drinkto Burke to curso a sheriff. Somebody threw a Globo-Deuocrat into his cell, and the first thing that Might his eye was a big headline like, this: "How the gaoler at Phllippi got caught." It was just what Burke .'wanted, and he sat c'own with a chuckle to read the story of the jaoler's discomfiture. " Philippi," Jlio said, " that's up in Illinois. I've been in (hat town." Somehow the reading had a strange look, out of the isual newspaper way. It was Moody's sermon of the night before" " What. rot is this?" askod Burke. " Paul and Silas —a great earthquake—what must I dc to be saved? Has the Globe-Democrat got tc printing such stufi?" Ha looked .at the. date. Yes, it was Friday morning's paper, fresh from the press. Burke throw it down with an oath, and walked about his cell like a caged lion. Bj and by ho took up the paper, and read tho sermon through. Tho reitlcss fit grew on him. Again and again he picked up the paper, and read its strange story. It was then that a something, from whence he did not then know, camo into the burglar's heart, and etc. its way to the quick. "What does it mean?" he began asking. "Twenty years and more I've been burglar and gaolbird, but I never folt like this. What is it to bo saved, anyway? I've- lived a dog's life, and I'm getting tired of it. If there is such a God as that preacher is telling about, I believe I'll find it out if it kills me to do it." He found it out. Away toward midnight, after hours of bitter remorse over his wasted life, and lonely and broken prayers, the first timo since he was a child at his mother's kneo Burke learned that there is a God Who is able and willing to blot out the darkest, and bloodiest record at a single stroke. Then he waited for day, a new creature, crying and laughing by turns. Next morning, when the guard camo round, Burko had a pleasant word for Kim, and the guard eyed him in wonder.. 'When the sheriff came, Burke greeted him as a friend, and told how ho had found God, after reading Moody's sermon. "Jim," said the sheriff to the guard, "you better keep an eyo on Burke. He's playing the pious dodge, and, first chance he gets, he will be out of here." '■'..'- .. In a few-weeks, Burke came to trial, but tho rase, through some legal entanglement, failed, and he was released. Friendless, an ex-burglar in a big city, known only as a daring criminal, he had a hard time for months of shame and sorrow. Men looked at his fare when ho asked for work, and upon its' evidence turned him away. But: poor Burke was as brave as a Christian as lie had been as a burglar, and struggled on. Moody told how the poor fellow, seeing that his sinblurred features were making against him, asked the Lord in-prayer " if Ho wouldn't make him a better-looking man, so that he could get an honest job. You will smile ft this, I know, but something •or somebody really answered the, prayer, for Moody said a year from that time, when he met Burke in Chicago, he was as fine a looking man as ho knew. I cannot help thinking it was the Lord Who did it for him in answer to his childlike faith. Shifting to and fro, wanting much to find steady work, Burke went to New. York, hoping far from his old haunts to find peace and honest labour. He did not succeed, and after six months came back to St. Louis,- much discouraged, but still holding fast,to the God he had found in his prison celli One day there came a message from the sheriff that he was wanted at the court-house, and Burke obeyed with a heavy heart. "Some old case they've got against me,' he said; "but, if I'm guilty I'll toll them so, I've done lying." - The sheriff greeted him kindly. " Where have you been, Burke?" " In New York." " What have you been doing there?" - '. "Trying to find a decent job," said Kurke. " Havo you kept a good grip on the religion you told me about?" inquired the sheriff. "Yes," ansvercd Burke, looking him steadily in the .'ye. "I've had a hard time, sheriff, but I haven't lost my religion." It was then the tide began to turn. " Burke," said the sheriff, "I have had you shadowed every day you were in New York. I suspected that your religion was a fraud. But I want to say.to you that I know you've lived an honest Christian life, and I havo sent for you to offer you a deputyship under me. You can begin at once." Ho began. He set his face like a flint. Steadily, and with dogged faithfulness, the old burglar went about hi? duties until men high in business began to Up their hats to him, and to talk of him at their clubs. Moody was passing through the city, and stopped off an hour to meet Burke, who loved nobody as he did the man who converted him. Moody told how ho found him in a close room upstairs in the court-house, | serving as trusted guard over a bag of diamonds. Burke sat with a sack of the gems in his lap, and a gun on the table. There were ! 60,000 dollars worth of diamonds in the sack. J " Moody," he said, " see what the grace of | God can do for a burglar. Look at this! The ! sheriff picked mo out of his force to guard | it."

Then lie cried like a child as lie held up the ([littering stones for Moody to see. Years afterwards the churches of St. Louis had made ready, and were waiting for the coming of an evangelist .who was to lead the meeting, but something happened,' and he did not come. The pastors were in sore trouble, until one of them suggested that they send for Valentine Burke, to lead the meetings for them. Burke led night after night, and many hard men to the city came to near him, and many hearts were turned, as Burke's had been, from lives of crime and shame to clean Christian living. There is no more beautiful or pathetic story than that of Burke's gentle and faithful life and service in the city where ho had been chief of sinners. How long he lived I do not recall, but Moody told me of his funeral, and how the rich and the poor, the saints and the sinners, came to it, and how the big men of the city could not say enough over the coffin of Valentine Burke. And to this day there are not a few in that city whose hearts soften with a strange tenderness when the name of the burglar is recalled. And now Moody and Burke are met, no more to lie separated. When I was a boy, an old black '' mammy" that I greatly loved used to sing for me a song with words like these:— "Through all depths of sin and loss Sinks tho plummet of Thy cross." :' v,

"MAKE.JESUS KING!'*: POOR weary heart, why sad and lone when there is waiting for thee One Who would be All to thee?Ho knows thy cares, thy doubts, thy fears, Ho listens to thy sighs, and hears In deepest sympathy. Oh! restless, thirsty, hungering one, When God's own well-beloved Son Came down to Calvary, He died to save thee from all sin, That thou might's! joy and rest in Him For constant victory. Wilt thou not yield Him all thine heart' The holding back of any part Will leave thee weary still. He sacrificed His All for thee, Thine All it is His wish to be: Is He to have His will? Oh! crown Him Kin?, this very day, , .' Let this great Saviour have His way • And be thine All in All! - "- Then, strong in Him. go forth to prov* ' ; God's own unutterable Love Is thine, whate'er befall! " . fV-•>' ' " ; EIiMEI/INE G. THISELTOff, ■: : . Borwick, Shrewsbury, _ .;..!:.