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A Tribute for William P. McCain
Due to the fact that the church Papa attended as long as he was physically able, The Wesleyan Methodist Church of Tioga, is presently without a pastor, the family of the deceased has requested me, as one closely associated with Papa, and also a member of the same church he was affiliated with, to say a few words in his behalf. Also, I am representing my son, Danny, who for years expressed the desire to preach Papa's funeral when he passed on. But Danny is presently serving in missionary work in Nigeria, Africa and doesn't even know that Papa is deceased.
In preparing this little memorial, several thoughts came to my mind concerning Papa. First, his relationship to God. Second, his meekness. Third, his love of peace, and fourth, his loving, his
caring and sharing.
In Revelation 3:20, we read, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."
There was a time in Papa's life when he heard the knock of Jesus on his heart's door and he let Him in. It was during a revival at our little church in the year 1970. Though he was an exceptionally good moral man, and didn't smoke, curse or steal, was kind and considerate, and worked hard to support his family, yet Papa had never been saved. In fact, I had never known him to go to church. But God placed a burden on my heart for him and we invited him to church and he came and was converted the second night.
After his conversion, he attended church regularly, always sat on the front bench and was prompt to testify at every opportunity. His testimony usually went something like this, "I want to stand up here and tell you I am a Christian. I was saved right here at this church." And he would always add, "And I'm still saved."
Once an older evangelist held a revival for us and he made he statement that Papa was the oldest convert that he'd ever seen. Papa piped up and said, "I'm glad I'm that person." He was happy in his new-found experience.
After church, our family always took Papa home for dinner. His favorite food was turnip greens and corn bread, which I always added to our menu every Sunday. He would always show appreciation for the meal by commenting, "A good dinner, Georgia, a good dinner."
Papa always asked for prayer as long as he was responsive whether at his home or later in the rest home. "Will you pray for me before you go?" were the words we always expected to hear, and of course it was a pleasure to oblige him.
Oh, the great mercy of God to reach down to an old eighty-eight-year-old man and pluck him as a brand from the burning. If any of you are up in the years and feel your life is spent and you have left God out and there's no hope, just consider the mercy extended to Papa and know the same God will extend mercy to you if you will give Him a chance .
The second thing I want us to notice about Papa was his meekness. Let us read a few verses from Numbers 12:1-9. "And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman. And they said Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it. (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.) And the Lord spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam, Come out ye three unto the tabernacle of the congregation. And they three came out. And the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth. And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them; and he departed."
We notice in the first two verses that Moses' brother and sister spake against Moses but he did not retaliate in any way nor did he complain to God. Verse 3 says the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.
When it came to defending God's cause, Moses stood straight and tall like when the people made the golden calf to worship. Moses renounced it boldly, but when it came to defending himself, he said absolutely nothing. But though Moses said nothing, God did. His anger was kindled against Aaron and Miriam. He defended His servant, Moses.
I feel sure that many times God took notice of Papa when people would perhaps criticize or misunderstand him and Papa would say nothing. If Moses was the meekest man on earth, Papa must have run a close second. I have been in the family for forty-two years and not one time have I seen him ruffled. I've never heard him argue or fuss with anyone. Never has he tried to defend himself. He had an excellent spirit as did Daniel and was gifted with the virtue of meekness. I Peter 3:4 tells us that a meek and quiet spirit is in the sight of God of great price. I Timothy 6:11-12 exhorts us to "follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life." I feel Papa has laid hold on the eternal life he has striven for and is now at rest with Jesus.
The third thing we want to notice about Papa, was his love of peace. Romans 12:18 reads, "If it be possible as much as lieth in you, live peaceable with all men." Proverbs 16:7 reads, "When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him."
If Papa had an enemy, God evidently kept him at peace with him for he was one person on earth who, seemingly, had no enemies. He strove to get along with everybody. He expressed his love for peace in an interview for a newspaper on his ninety-fifth birthday. I quote "W. F. McCain, Pineville, does not want to hassle anyone and he does not want anyone hassling him. 'Avoid confusion,' he often repeated in an interview Monday. 'It's not necessary to always be arguing and fighting. Treat everybody right and go to church. Avoid confusion.' " End quote .
Not only was Papa a peace-loving man but he was a non-complaining person. Though the last two and one-half years of his life were spent in bed with tube-feeding, not once did he ever complain. Never did you hear Papa say, "This old tube stuck in my nose is driving me nuts--this bed is too hard--these bed sores are hurting me--my roommate is a nuisance--I'm too hot or too cold." All the legitimate complaints of an elderly rest home patient were never expressed by Papa. It was always, "I'm doing pretty good. Come back and see me."
On his 105th birthday, Papa was given a party and he knew everyone. He talked to them and asked about different members of their families and seemed so pleased to have everyone come and visit.
Not long prior to that, my husband and I visited him in the hospital and he named all of his children to us and one of his nephews, and said, "Tell all of them I love them, and to come see me."
Yes, Papa was a dear. In all the years I've known him, I've never known him to complain once. Though he never had more than the bare necessities of life, he accepted it without murmuring and complaining, was content in whatsoever state he was in.
Lastly, we want to mention Papa's Loving, Caring and Sharing.
James 2:15-16 reads, "If a brother or sister be naked, and destiture of daily food. And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, not withstanding, ye give them not those things which are needful to the body: what does it profit?"
Years ago when times were very hard, Papa's sister-in-law, a widow, passed away leaving several orphan children. Some wanted to put them in an orphanage but Papa and his beloved wife took them in their home, fed them, and did the best they could for them, loving them and sharing their meager existence with them. though they had a large family themselves. Papa didn't say. "Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled," but he reached out loving hands to them and shared such as he had.
Life has been rough for Papa, as a whole, but today he has laid his old armour by, and I feel sure as the rewards will be meted out, that Papa wi
ll be hearing Jesus say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joys of the Lord."
Georgia D. McCain
God Answers the Prayer of a Mother Who Had Been Dead 65 Years
In the providence of God, while we were in Trinidad, He permitted an unpleasant incident to put me in touch with a man who needed God quickly before he slipped into eternity. A piece of mail had been put into my mailbox which belonged to someone else; actually it was only a part of a package from America. This I took back to the branch post office. What was left of this small, mutilated package was sent on to the young lady to whom it was addressed. She was a stenographer in a business firm and had come from America to be with her grandfather who was now alone and dying with a tobacco heart. He was a druggist and owned his own store, but had to give it up because of his illness. This young woman was very angry about her mail and made demands of the postmaster who could do nothing about it. The postmaster wrote me a letter requesting me to come in and see him, which I did. He told me that this package which had wrongly been given to me had come to them in the condition in which it was sent to this branch post office. He asked me if I would go to see her and try to pacify her. I went to see her at the address given but she was not there; she was at work. Her grandfather called for me to come in when he heard my knock. I went in and discovered the condition he was in. He told me that the doctor had given him only until Friday to live; this was Wednesday. He told me that his mother, who died when he was only eight years old, had been a Christian and had gotten him to promise that he would meet her in Heaven. Out in the world, away from Mother's influence and with no one to lead him to Christ through the years, he was soon to face the realities of another world. His mother had put her dying hand on his head and prayed for her boy. I saw at once that God had permitted the mix-up in the mail to put me in touch with him. A mother's prayers had to be answered.
As I talked with this man, propped up in his bed, I explained the way of salvation as clearly as I could. I urged him to pray, repent of his sins and trust the blood of Jesus for salvation. I stayed a long time and then committed him to God. I asked God to reveal Himself to this man's heart, and left. I went back the next day to see him, intending to go every day until his death, and do what I could to get him to God. I found him rejoicing in Christ, his Saviour. God had revealed Himself and he had prayed through and was gloriously saved. We rejoiced together. I read the Bible to him and talked to him about the compassion of Christ and His healing power. I asked him if he would like for me to pray that God would raise him up and cheat the death angel on Friday, the day that the doctors said he would die. He seemed to grasp the truth and asked me to anoint and pray for him. God had given me faith for his healing before I spoke to him about it, as was so often the case in my ministry in those days. After anointing and praying for him, I again left him in the hands of God. I told him I would be back the next day at that time.
When I arrived I found him up and dressed, for God had healed him of the tobacco heart. He was rejoicing in spirit and we had a wonderful visit together. God was answering the prayers of that mother who had been with her Lord for more than 65 years. Day after day, I visited him. I invited him to the mission to give his testimony on Sunday morning. I went and got him, and together we rode the streetcar to the meeting. I had difficulty in getting to the meeting on time, for all along the way, he would tell everyone he met how God had healed him of his tobacco heart and saved him. When we got on the street-car, he stopped there and testified to the driver. He was a happy, faithful witness. God delivered him completely from the tobacco habit the moment He saved him. It does not always work that way but in this case it did. He was a great blessing and faithful as long as I was there, and no doubt, to the end of his days, which may not have been long.
Dr. William F. Beirnes
(Taken from the book, Seeing Him Who Is Invisible, by Dr. William F. Beirnes. Used by permission.)
Struck by 138,000 Volts of Electricity and Lived
God is stilI in the saving business today.
I thank God for His mercy to my never-dying soul. After thirty-one years of serving the devil, Jesus has forgiven me of all my sins. Praise God. On April 16, 1978, He saved my soul by answering my prayer of repentance. I was a wicked and vile sinner. I didn't care for myself or anyone, at times. I started to drink, smoke, lie, and cheat at a very young age. As I got older and got married, I became even worse. I knew nothing about God.
In October 1967, I was working on construction when a crane that I was working with hit into high tension wires carrying 138,000 volts of electricity. I was thrown 18 feet into the air, and when my body hit into some soft ground, it left an imprint of about nine inches deep. I was taken to the hospital, and word got to my wife that I was dead. When she arrived at the hospital, she found that I was not dead but very close to it.
My right arm was welded into my chest, both legs were burned badly. I had to have most of the top of my right foot taken off to the bone, and three toes were amputated. The left foot was blown full of holes. The heel was blown out and a hole clear through the arch. If I would have died, that day, I would have already been in hell all these years.
After being in and out of the hospital almost two years, and having to learn to walk all over again, my heart full of hate, my life continued to grow worse and worse. My drinking increased to the point that I had to wake up to a warm can of beer to start the day. I was not able to work. We could not pay our bills because all I got went to my habit. My wife and children were ready to leave me, and I felt I didn't care. Life had no meaning to me.
Then in Jan. of 1977, my wife went to a Church, and people prayed, and God poured out old-time conviction on her soul, and she got saved. This made me hungry because I was sick of my life. So I started to go to church and God delivered me from alcohol. I wasn't saved yet, but God was helping me. Thank God, saints were praying. My wife was living a Christian life before me.
I continued to stay around the church people, and one day I went down to North Carolina from my home in Ohio because I got word that my brother-in-law had gotten saved. I couldn't believe it. This man was as wicked as I was. Sure enough, there was that same glow on his face that I had seen on my wife's face. I was so miserable I could hardly stand to be around where the Christians were. I was so hungry for God I didn't know what to do. I was afraid I couldn't make it on my own. Friend, you can't make it on your own. I went to a little church there in Paster Branch, N.C. the next morning and there while saints of God were singing "Come Unto Me", God spoke to me and said, "I will give you rest." And I found myself at the altar praying through, and He saved me . Then in Alliance, Ohio God sanctified me. I have never been sorry or had any regret in serving Jesus. I now have a new outlook on life, new desires.
II Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away: behold all things are become new." Dear Reader, you can enjoy this peace and rest in your soul if you will but heed the call of the Saviour today.
Rev. Richard Grewell
Ohio
A Man Appeared to Me in White
I had prayed for many years for someone who was very dear to me, but he had never seemed interested at all in spiritual things. Now he was lying at the point of death, seemingly without hope of making it to Heaven. I was under a burden for him, as was our pastor. He had been visiting him and the sick man took a real liking to him and did not seem to resent our pastor coming to. see him or praying for him. In fact, one day as he visited, he asked for prayer. No doubt God was faithfully dealing with his heart because of the prayer going up for him.
But the man passed away, and as far as we knew, had made no profession of getting right with God. It broke my heart. I was too grieved for words. Our pastor came to me the morning he died and told me, "But I know I prayed through for him." Perhaps this should have brought some comfort to my heart, but the evidence of him dying without a testimony seemed to be the
final word. At the funeral home, I was so grieved until I didn't feel like talking to anyone. Our pastor was there but was in another room. All at once, he and his wife came in smiling and came over to where I was sitting. "Come with us where we can talk," he said. I really did not feel like talking but hated to refuse their request. I went with them and this is the message he gave me.
He said that the son-in-law of the man who died had come to him and told him, "He told me just before he died to tell the family not to worry about where he was going, that a man in white had come and stood by his bed with His hand outstretched to him and said, " 'Come,' so I came. So tell my family not to worry about where I'm going.' "
Oh, the faithfulness of God to do everything in His power to answer His children's prayers.
Georgia D. McCain
He Picked Me Up
I want the world to know that the Lord can save a drunkard. I was left without father or mother at the age of sixteen, and getting out into the middle of the current of sin, went on down. I began to drink at the age of eighteen. I served three years in the United States Army where I learned to gamble and do everything the devil wanted me to do. At the age of twenty five, I found myself a drunkard. I then tried to quit but was not able. I married a good girl of seventeen years of age only to bring her down to disgrace with me. Two years later, a little girl was born. I loved my wife and baby, but drink had the best of me.
I had a friend I had drunk with for seven years. He was a habitual drunkard. Change of work put me in another part of town, so I did not see my drunkard friend for some time. One day I went into the old "hang-out" and I missed him. When I asked about him, they told me he was up at Wheeler Rescue Mission preaching. I laughed at them, but I heard later that he was saved and had quit drinking. Now this man had taken the Keeley cure twice, and it did not cure him; so I could not believe what I heard about his being saved. I had to pass the mission every day as I went to work, and I could not help looking over there and wondering about my friend .
After staying out one Saturday night until two o'clock in the morning, I came home to find my tired little wife sitting up, waiting for me. After a drunken quarrel, I went to bed. She called me at seven o'clock the next morning (Sunday) to go to the grocery for bread. I went and came back at One P.M. staggering drunk, with bread for breakfast. I went to bed and slept off that drunk. I got up at four o'clock, went down and got another drink, then came back to the house and dressed up. Two blue shirts, an old black tie, and a light, threadbare pair of trousers were all I had to wear. I said to my wife, "Come; let's go to the picture show." She said, "You know I have nothing to wear-no dress, no shoes, and no hat."
Little Ruth was five years old and had nothing to wear like the other little girls. She used to say, "Daddy, I wish I had a new dress and new shoes like little Clara." (Clara was the little girl next door.) That would break my heart, but I would do nothing to help it. Then I said, "Well, we will go to Wheeler Mission"; but as my wife had nothing to wear I started alone.
On the way I stopped and got another drink, then went down to the mission and stood out in front smoking a cigarette. I wondered what they would say if I went in. At last, I slipped in and sat down as far back as I could. I began to look for my friend. At last, I saw him sitting on a front seat. I hardly recognized him as he was cleaned up, had on good clothes, and did not look like himself. He came back to the door, spied me sitting there, and ran to me with a "God bless you, Charlie." He got his arm around me and pulled me up in front. I said "Get away, man. You will disgrace yourself and this place." But he said,"Jesus loves you," and helped me into a front seat.
They began to sing, "In the Sweet By and By" and "I Will Sing the Wondrous Story," and that got hold of the reverse lever of my poor, whiskey-crazed mind. I remembered how my father use to sing those songs as he went about his work. Then they had praise service, and men and women rose to their feet and told how they had been saved.
At last my friend arose and looked off toward heaven with a shine on his face and said, "I want to thank God that I am sober." I do not remember what else he said. I was under such conviction that I could not move. The preacher began to preach, and he preached at me. He stamped his foot at me and shook his fist at me. Conviction kept falling.
My mind ran back to my mother's knee, where she taught me to pray, "Now I lay me down to sleep." A vision of a tired woman and a little girl at home, hungry and half-clothed, passed before me. The night of conviction grew darker and darker. I saw myself the meanest and most wretched man in the world. Then they gave an altar call, and I groped my way to the altar through the dark. They began to pray for me, and I asked God to save me and He did. Praise His Holy Name forever! He picked me up! I arose from the altar--Jesus had come to that room and had gone through and polished the lights. It was bright in there then.
They tell me the first thing I said was, "Where is my hat? I want to see my wife." Home had always been the last place I wanted to go; but now old things had passed away, and all things had become new. I started home and could not walk fast enough. I did not wait for the streetcar; but finally one came, and I got aboard. It was the brightest car I had ever seen. As I entered the door, the conductor said, "Hello, old soak." I said, "No!" and pointed him to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.
When I arrived at home, I knocked at the door, for wife had gone to bed. I could see through the glass under the shade; and as she came down the stairs, she looked like a angel to me. I could hardly wait for her to get to the door. She opened the door, and I ran in with a shout. She thought I was still drunk; so she ran upstairs, and I followed her. She jumped into bed; but I fell on my knees and told her the story of saving grace, the power of which had reached me that night. Then I went to bed, and the next morning, I woke in the most beautiful world I had ever seen. The sun was shining so bright. I looked over into my companion's tired-looking face and kissed her. I looked over into a small bed, where lay little Ruth. Then I went to her bed, leaned over and kissed her sweet face. I noticed some water on her face, and as I looked, I saw it was a tear from my own eyes. It was precious to me. I said, "Ruth, you can have a dress and shoes like little Clara now."
I prayed to God to help me. I called Mamma, and we went down the stairs. She kept her eyes on me. She was afraid to believe it--afraid it would not be true. We had breakfast at the same table where I had drunk, and sworn, and played cards. Now I asked God to bless our breakfast, and He did. Although it was not much, it was the sweetest meal I had ever eaten. It tasted like a birthday dinner. Then I started to work. How the sun did shine! All the trees seemed to wave their hands and praise the Lord, and the English sparrows sounded like mockingbirds. It was only one square and a half to the old saloon, and I had not been able to pass it before. Now I was nearly three squares beyond it before I ever thought of the saloon; the old appetite was gone. I worked one week, went straight home and handed my wife my week's salary. The tears stole down her cheeks as she counted it, and looked up, and said, "This is the first time I ever knew how much you drew."
Now we are both saved and enjoying the blessing of holiness. God has called me to preach His Word, and I am in His work. I give God all the praise and the glory forever.
By Charles M. Harrison
(This testimony is in tract form and was printed by Old Paths Tract Society, Inc., Shoals, Ind. 47581. Used by permission, Author.)
How God Paid the Bills at Northwest Indian Bible School
In 1968-69, two hundred and fifty six acres of pine-covered land was purchased for the Northwest Indian Bible School. School opened in the fall of 1969 with about thirty students. Classrooms were held in truck van boxes, garages to uncompleted houses, and even in an Indian tepee. The bills mounted up so high with so many buildings going up, school supplies to purchase, plus the daily expenses of a school. Brother Robert Pelton, our president, came to our Monday evening campus prayer meeting one week with quite a stack of bills. He passed them out to a
ll the ones there, and we gathered at the front of the chapel to pray over the bills we had been given. God really helped us in that prayer time, and we left feeling a responsibility to keep praying until "our" bill or bills had been paid. One by one, we would hear that money had come in to pay a certain bill until in a short time, that stack of bills was completely taken care of. Recalling this answer to prayer, I have been encouraged in my years here at Northwest to believe God for all our needs.
Ruth Stearns
Montana
Riding on an Empty Gas Tank and the Promises of God
It is great to serve God, to be able to rely on Him in difficult situations, to know He cares and will help us when we need Him most.
I remember once that we wanted to attend a camp meeting at Mobile, Alabama over the week-end. But we had a problem connected with the trip. We had to be home early Monday morning, so we would have to leave Sunday night after church and we wanted to honor the Sabbath day and not buy gas on Sunday. This was an impossibility unless God would intervene in some way, because our old car was a real gas guzzler.
Now as is always the case, the devil did not want us to go to camp meeting, so he assaulted me with this suggestion, "You are going to run out of gas on one of those long stretches of wooded sections of the highway, and will be stranded in the late hours of the night. The men will have to leave you and the little ones alone, defenseless, while they go in search of gas. Can't you see the danger you will be in?" Oh, isn't the devil concerned about God's children? I wonder why I have let him scare me so many times with his suggestions, but he presents them in such a realistic way until they sound very logical.
Anyway, I went to prayer about the situation. I said, "Lord, Thou dost know that we want to honor Thee by not buying gas on Thy Sabbath Day. We will fill up our tank on Saturday night and leave Sunday night after church and drive as far as we can, but we won't buy gas until after midnight." I asked God for a promise to stand on because of the impossibility of it all, and because of what the devil had told me. Here is what He gave me from Psalm 34:22, "None ... that trust in Him shall be desolate." The word "desolate" means forsaken, so I had God's promise that He would not forsake us. I felt relieved. In fact, I no longer feared the devil's suggestion but I just rested in the Lord.
We went to camp meeting as planned, and after the service Sunday night we started back home. When we were fifty miles from a town where gas could be bought, my son who was driving, said, "Mamma, we're about out of gas. We only have one eighth of a tank left." I answered, "Son, God assured me that we would not be left desolate, so I know He will see us through." We drove a few more miles and my son warned me again, "Mamma, the gas gauge is registering empty." We still had about forty miles more to go before we could get gas. I assured him again "Son, I'm trusting the Lord's promise. Just keep your eyes off the gas tank and keep them on God."
What a trip! It was exciting, to say the least. We were riding on an empty gas tank and the promises of God. We drove all the way to Natchez, Mississippi and stopped at a red light and the car died on us. My son said, "Well, that's it." But he got the car started again and pulled into the nearest gas station. It was closed but just after we drove into the gas station, a car pulled in behind us. It was two policemen. They were checking to see what we were doing there since the station was closed. When they found out our problem, they offered to go and show my son where a gas station was open. They let him ride in their car. We emptied a gallon jug that was filled with water and they were soon back with some gas, which, incidentally, was bought after midnight because it was now after twelve. We, then, went and filled up the tank. We had honored God and He had honored us by keeping us from being stranded, and by leading us to an open gas station after the midnight hour. "Now the Lord saith ... them that honour me I will honour" I Samuel 2:30.
Georgia D. McCain
Fire!
After their wedding in New York, Will and Carrie Trusler boarded a train and headed for Kansas, where they were to live. Earlier, Will had had a desire to go west, and Kansas had appealed to him, so he had located in Eskridge, where one of his friends was in business. Will built a small building and stocked it with hardware. For several years, he slept in the back of the building and ate in a restaurant. Then, all of a sudden, loneliness enveloped him. One of his friends suggested he needed a wife, to which he agreed. Soon he returned to his home in New York, and while there he met a young lady, Carrie Lowns, whom he had known through the years, but now she became very special to him. They were married sometime later on September 25, 1883, and made the move to Kansas.
While living in Kansas, first Carrie and then Will were gloriously saved and later sanctified. Because of a consistent walk with God, Carrie was able to have faith to believe God for help in a crisis in their lives in the following true account.