Thread by @PeteGreig

Inspired today by the witness of John Harper - the ‘bravest man on The Titanic’ - whose last letter just sold at Sotheby’s for an eye-watering £42,000.

John Harper boarded the #Titanic bound for #Chicago having been invited to preach at the city’s Moody Church. His wife had recently died so he was travelling with his sister and six-year-daughter Annie Jessie.

When the #Titanic began to sink, John Harper took off his life jacket and gave it to another man, saying simply, ‘You need it more than I do.’ Others described him preaching the gospel, preparing people for eternity, right to the very end.

Having ensured that his sister and daughter had made it into a lifeboat, Harper remained and soon found himself immersed in the icy water, floating near another drowning man. “Are you saved?” he called.
“No, I’m not saved!” the desperate man replied.

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” he cried, “and you will be saved!” Moments later Harper disappeared beneath the surface, never to return, but that man was indeed saved. 4 yrs later he testified to his conversion at that moment in a tract entitled “John Harper’s Last Convert”

Annie Jessie (Harper ’s six-year-old daughter) and her aunt arrived safely in New York, rescued by the Carpathia, and only then learned of her father’s heroic death. She went on to be the oldest Scottish Titanic survivor.

Annie’s father’s life had been characterized by two consuming commitments:
1. the urgency of the gospel and
2. a passion for prayer. He would sometimes spend all night interceding.

His brother wrote “My beloved brother was a man mighty in prayer. I’ve been with him when his whole frame shook like an aspen leaf, so earnest was he in his pleadings with God for a perishing world. Little wonder hard hearts were broken, stubborn wills subdued under his ministry”

I am inspired by John Harper to pray more passionately, to preach the gospel more courageously, to sacrifice myself more willingly, and to communicate more lovingly with others, never knowing which letter, which email (which social media post!) will in fact be my last.