Steve P. Holcombe, the Converted Gambler Part 8

Very respectfully yours, A. M. WADDILL.

The esteem in which he is held by the leading business men of the city is shown by the fact that the Board of Directors of the Mission is composed of such men as John A. Carter, J. P. Torbitt, L. Richardson, J.

B. McFerran, R. J. Menefee, J. T. Burghard, H. V. Loving, Arthur Peter, John T. Moore, J. K. Goodloe, P. Meguiar, C. McClarty, W. T. Rolph, John Finzer, with P. H. Tapp as Treasurer.

He has the confidence and esteem of the officers both of the city and State, and he has a large influence with them.

The Mayor, the Chief of Police, and the Judges of the Courts recognize his usefulness, his ability and his efficiency by co-operating with him, as far as may be, and by adopting his views and suggestions as to the treatment of criminals charged with lesser crimes and misdemeanors.

The Governor, J. Proctor Knott, readily granted pardon to the only man for whom Mr. Holcombe ever asked it, and the testimony of this now happy man is given in this volume.

Not only is Mr. Holcombe thus in honor and demand at home; he is in demand all over the country. Until it came to be known that he would not leave his own work in Louisville, he was constantly receiving requests to attend or conduct meetings of one sort or another in all parts of Kentucky and in several other States.

Year before last, in the summer of 1886, he was, by appointment of the Governor of the State, a Commissioner from Kentucky in the National Convention of Corrections and Charities at Washington.

In the fall of 1887 he attended, by request, the Convention of Christian Workers of the United States and Canada, in the Broadway Tabernacle in New York City, and made two addresses, both of which are printed among his sermons in this book. He was appointed a member of the Executive Committee of that body, in which capacity he now serves.

But not only in direct results has the power of G.o.d been manifested through this instrument. Mr. Holcombe's conversion and work have had the effect of quickening the faith and zeal of all the churches of the city.

It has not only drawn them nearer together in fostering and furthering a common enterprise into which they entered of their own motion, and without solicitation, but it has revived the languishing faith of all cla.s.ses. Not only has the Gospel saved Steve Holcombe and others, he (let it be said reverently and understood rightly) has, in one sense, saved the Gospel. Many had lost faith in it. They thought it was an old, worn-out story. It had lost its novelty and vitality, and it had not the power it claimed to have. Its achievements were not equal to its pretensions. Some of the men who have been brought to a better life through Mr. Holcombe's instrumentality have said that, though they did not, out of respect for other people, publish the fact, they had lost all faith and were, at heart, utter infidels. Some of them continued to attend church and to give to the church of their means, and to give respectful attention to the preaching, but it was out of deference to relatives or respect for custom, or for mere Sunday pastime. But the conversion of Steve Holcombe, and the life he was living, arrested their thought, awakened inquiry and revived their faith, and many of these have been saved.

The conversion of these has in turn resulted in the conviction of others and so the stream has broadened and deepened. As Mr. Holcombe says in one of his addresses, "There is naturally in the minds of men a doubt as to the truth and divinity of the religion which fails to do what it proposes to do, and so in times of religious deadness men lose faith and unbelief gets stronger and more stubborn while they see no examples of the power of the Gospel to save bad men. But when bad men have been reached and quickened and made better through the Gospel, and this continues year after year, then the tide turns, and faith becomes natural and easy not to say contagious and inevitable."

These effects have demonstrated the reality of conversion in opposition to the view that it is an effect of the excitement of the imagination.

"One hears," it is said, "the narration of the experience of others who claim to be converted, and he works at himself till he works himself up to the persuasion that he also has got it." But, as one of the converts in narrating his experience said, "Imagination could not take the whisky habit out of a man. It never did take it out of me. But the power of this Gospel which Steve Holcombe preaches has taken it out root and branch."

Another thing is shown also by the history of this work. A distinguished minister said once, "We must get the top of society converted and then we may expect to reach the lower cla.s.ses." Mr. Holcombe, on the contrary, in accordance with the example and words of Jesus and of Paul, of Luther and of Wesley, has given his time and labor primarily and largely to the lower cla.s.ses and the lost cla.s.ses, and through these he has reached also the higher cla.s.ses, exemplifying again what was said by the most apostolic man since the Apostles, that the Gospel "works not from the top down but from the bottom up."

If you should ask what is the explanation of Mr. Holcombe's success, it may be answered that it is due to three things. The extraordinary change which has taken place in his character and in his life arrests attention and produces conviction.

In the second place is his intense and pitying love for those who are not saved, and especially for those who, besides being most utterly lost, are, either by their own suspicions and fears or by the customs and coldheartedness of society, or both, shut out from all sympathy and opportunity. He has a very mother's love for poor, sinful, struggling souls, and he shows this not in words only or chiefly, but in service.

Some account has already been given from one of the Louisville papers concerning his rescue of a man who had been drunk continuously for twenty-three years. To have preached temperance and morality and duty to this wild and degraded man would have been useless, to have _told_ him of the love of G.o.d would, perhaps, have been no better. But when this far off love of G.o.d took concrete form in the person of Steve Holcombe and was brought nigh and made real in his brotherliness and gentleness and patience and service, it proved stronger than a twenty-three years'

whisky habit and to-day this man, who lately dwelt apart from men like the man among the tombs and who was possessed by the demon of drink so that no man could bind him with bonds of morality or duty--this man is to-day clothed and in his right mind. And though he has not fully apprehended the way of salvation, he says, yet a transfiguration has taken place in him which is little short of miraculous. He says also that he has got some light on the question of personal religion. He is thoroughly honest and will not claim or profess what he has not. He says a man who has always gone slow in everything else can't go fast in getting religion.[1]

[1] This man has, since the above was written, been brought into a clear experience of conversion, and is now a clean and happy Christian man.

In the third place, Mr Holcombe's success is due to the character of his preaching. It is the simple Gospel, wherein two points are continually made and emphasized, the reality and tenderness of G.o.d's love for sinful men, even the worst, and the absolute necessity of regeneration and a holy life. Both these great truths he ill.u.s.trates with fitness and force from his own life and that of the men who have been converted under his ministry. His sermons are so striking in their directness and simplicity, and so helpful withal, that some of them have been reproduced in outline in the present volume, and the reader who has never heard him may get some idea of his preaching from these, and, it is hoped, some profit as well.

Whatever men may say, the fact remains that when the Gospel is preached on apostolic conditions, it has still apostolic success.

In 1886, when Rev. Sam P. Jones was holding a meeting in Cincinnati, he said of Mr. Holcombe:

"Mr. Holcombe's work is finer than anything done since the death of Jerry McAuley. He is fully consecrated to the work of rescuing the perishing and saving the fallen. Hundreds of men, dug by him from the deepest depths of dissipation and degradation, are to-day clothed in their right minds. Some of the most efficient Christian men have pa.s.sed through his Mission, at No. 436 Jefferson street, in Louisville. I feel that in helping Steve Holcombe, I shall be able to say, at least: 'Lord, if I did not do much when I was on earth, I did what I could to help Steve Holcombe, the converted gambler, in his mission work among men who never hear preaching, and to whom a helping hand is never extended.'

"There are mighty few men like Steve Holcombe to take hold of poor fellows and bring them back to a purer and better life."

In 1888, during a great temperance meeting in Louisville, Mr. Francis Murphy said of Mr. Holcombe:

"Of all the n.o.ble men I know, he is one of the n.o.blest, and Louisville may well be proud of the grand, big-hearted Christian man, who, in his quiet, una.s.suming manner is doing such a world of good here."

Mr. D. L. Moody, during his great meeting in Louisville, in the months of January and February, 1888, said of Mr. Holcombe:

"I have got very much interested in a work in your city conducted by a man you call Steve Holcombe. I don't know when I met a man who so struck my heart. I went up and saw his headquarters and how he works. He is doing the n.o.blest work I know of. I want you to help him with money and words of cheer. Remember, here in Louisville you make so many drunkards that you must have a place to take care of the wrecks. Steve Holcombe rescues them. Let us help him all we can."

And Mr. Holcombe's work is not done. He is in the vigor of life, with fifteen or twenty years of life and service, G.o.d willing, before him. He is only beginning to reap the results of these ten years of study and these ten years of Christian living and working. He knows the Gospel better than he ever did before, and he preaches it better. He knows himself and G.o.d better than he ever did before, and he lives nearer the Source of Power. He knows men good and bad, better than he ever did before, and he deals with them in all states and stages more wisely and successfully.

He is of that nervous and Intense temperament which can not rest without getting something done, and he is always doing something to advance his work. And though so intensely in earnest, he is singularly, it is not at all too strong to say, entirely free from fanaticism. He is in high esteem, with large influence at home and abroad, and this he does not prost.i.tute to selfishness, but uses for usefulness.

And, best of all, he has tokens, not a few, in the form of discipline on the one hand, and success on the other, that G.o.d is guarding and guiding his Life and Work.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE UNION GOSPEL MISSION.]

LETTERS.

TO HIS FIRST PASTOR.

LOUISVILLE, KY., November 6, 1883.

_My Dear Brother_:

Our meetings continue in interest. Last night the Holy Ghost was with us in great power. At the close of the talk, we invited backsliders to come forward and kneel. Six responded. Then we invited all others who wanted to become Christians to come forward and nine others responded, most of them the most hardened sinners in the city. I am sure nothing but the power of G.o.d could have lifted them from their seats. Men who have fought each other actually embraced last night. Continue to pray for us.

Yours,

S. P. HOLCOMBE.

TO THE SAME.

LOUISVILLE, KY., November 19, 1883.

_Dear Brother_:

Last night about two hundred persons were present, most of them non-churchgoers. About forty stood up for prayers. And oh, such good testimonies, no harangues but living testimonies as to what G.o.d can and will do for those who will let him.

Yours truly,

S. P. HOLCOMBE.

TO THE SAME.

LOUISVILLE, KY., November 21, 1883.