Milo

THE HEAVEN BUILT WALL

In the campaign of Napoleon in Russia, while the French army was retreating from Moscow, there lay in a poor, low cottage, in a little village, an invalid boy. This village was exactly in the course of the retreating army, and already the reports of its approach had reached and excited the terrified inhabitants. In their turn, they began to make preparations for retreat; for they knew there was no hope for them from the hands of soldiers, all seeking their own preservation, and giving no quarter to others. Every one who had the strength to fly, fled; some trying to take with them their worldly goods, some to conceal them. The little village was fast growing deserted. Some burnt their houses or dismantled them. The old were placed in wagons, and the young hurried their families away with them.

But in the little cottage there was none of this bustle. The poor crippled boy could not move from his bed. The widowed mother had no friends intimate enough to spare a thought for her in this time of trouble, when every one thought only of those nearest to him and of himself. What chance in flight was there for herself and her young children, among whom one was the poor crippled boy?

It was evening, and the sound of distant voices and of preparation had died away. The poor boy was wakeful with urging his mother to leave him to his fate, now dreading lest she should take him at his word, and leave him behind.

The neighbors are just going away; I hear them no longer,” he said. “I am so selfish, I have kept you here. Take the little girls with you; it is not too late. And I am safe; who will hurt a poor helpless boy?”

“We are all safe,” answered the mother; “God will not leave us, though all else forsake us.”

“But what can help us?’ persisted the boy. “Who can defend us from their cruelty? Such stories as I have heard of the ravages of these men! They are not men; they are wild beasts. Oh, why was I made so weak, so weak as to be utterly useless? No strength to defend, no strength to fly.”

“There is a sure wall for the defenseless,” answered his mother “God will build us up a sure wall.”

“You are my strength now,” said the boy; ‘ I thank God that you did not desert me. I am so weak, I cling to you. Do not leave me, indeed! I fancy I can see the cruel soldiers hurrying in. We are too poor to satisfy them, and they would pour their vengeance upon us! And yet you ought to leave me! What right have I to keep you here? And I shall suffer more if I see you suffer.”

“God will be our refuge and defense still,” said the mother and at length, with low, quieting words, she stilled the anxious boy, till he, too, slept like his sisters. The morning came of the day that was to bring the dreaded enemy. The mother and children opened their eyes to find that a “sure wall” had indeed been built for their defense. The snow had begun to fall the evening before. Through the night it had collected rapidly. A “stormy wind, fulfilling His word” had blown the snow into drifts against the low house, so that it had entirely covered it — a protecting wall, built by Him who holds the very winds in his fists, and who ever pities those who trust in Him. A low shed behind protected the, way to the outhouse, here the animals were, and for a few days the mother and her children kept themselves alive within their cottage, shut in and concealed by the heavy barricade of snow.

It was during that time that the dreaded scourge passed over the village. Every house was ransacked; all the wealthier ones deprived of their luxuries, and the poorer ones robbed of their necessaries. But the low-roofed cottage lay sheltered beneath its wall of snow, which, in the silent night, had gathered about it. God had protected the defenseless with a “sure wall.” –Guiding Hand, by H.L. Hastings.

THE GREATEST REVIVAL OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA

Dr. Lyman Beecher said of the great revival in Rochester, N.Y., conducted by Mr. Finney, that it was the greatest revival in the Christian era. During Mr. Finney’s evangelistic ministry, hundreds of thousands were converted to God through his labors, joined to those of the church.

His Lectures on Revivals ” have been most wonderfully blessed in the conversion of sinners, directly and indirectly, not only in this country, but in foreign countries. When they were published in this country, 12,000 of them were sold as fast as they could be printed. They were reprinted in England and France.

They were translated into Welsh, French and German. One publisher in London put out 80,000 volumes of them. Great revivals followed wherever they circulated. But why did such revivals follow Mr. Finney’s preaching, and the reading of his lectures?

I will let Mr. Finney answer this question himself. Said he, in his autobiography – “Let the reader remember that long day of agony and prayer at sea, that God would do something to forward the work of revivals, and enable me, if He desired to do it, to take such a course as to help forward the work.

I felt certain then, that my prayers would be answered, and I have regarded all that I have since been able to accomplish, as in a very important sense, an answer to the prayers of that day. The spirit of prayer came upon me as a sovereign grace, bestowed upon me without the least merit, and in despite of all my sinfulness.

He pressed my soul in prayer until I was enabled to prevail; and through infinite riches of grace in Christ Jesus, I have been many years witnessing the wonderful results of that day of wrestling with God. In answer to that day’s agony, He has continued to give me the
spirit of prayer.”

Said Dr. N. Murray: “Prayer is the power of the Church; and could I speak as loud as the trumpet which is to wake the dead, I would thus call upon the Church, in all branches and in all lands: ‘Awake! awake! put on thy strength, 0 Zion! put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem! Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.’ Patriarchs, prophets, apostles. martyrs, reformers, were mighty in prayer. – Prevailing Prayer, by Wigle.

THE GOLDEN RULE EXEMPLIFIED

Early one morning while it was yet dark, a poor man came to my door and informed me that he had an infant child very sick, which he was afraid would die. He desired me to go to his home, and, if possible, prescribe some medicine to relieve it. “For,” said he, “I want to save its life if possible.”

As he spoke thus the tears ran down his face. He then added “I am a poor man; but, doctor, I will pay you in work as much as you ask if you will go.” I said: “Yes, I will go with you as soon as I take a little refreshment.” “Oh, sir,” said he, “I was going to try to get a bushel of corn, and get it ground to carry home, and I am afraid the child will die before I get there. I wish you would not wait for me;” and then added: “We want to save the child’s life if we can.”

It being some miles to his house, I did not arrive there until the sun was two hours high in the morning, when I found the mother holding her sick child, and six or seven little boys and girls around her, with clean hands and faces, looking as their mother did, lean and poor.

On examining the sick child, I discovered that it was starving to death I said to the mother “You don’t give milk enough for this child.” She said: ” I suppose I don’t.” “Well,” said I, “you must feed it with milk.”She answered: “I would, sir, but I can’t get any to feed it with.” I then said: “It will be well then for you to make a little water gruel, and feed your child.” To this she replied; “I was thinking I would if my husband brings home some Indian meal. He has gone to try to get some, and I am in hopes he will make out.” She said this with a sad countenance.

I asked her with surprise: “Why, madam, have you not got anything to eat? She strove to suppress a tear, and answered sorrowfully, “No, sir we have had but little these some days.I said: “What are your neighbors, that you should suffer among them?” She said; “I suppose they are good people; but we are strangers in this place, and don’t wish to trouble any of them, if we can get along without.” Wishing to give the child a little manna, I asked for a spoon. The little girl went to the table drawer to get one, and her mother said to her “Get the longest handled spoon.” As she opened the drawer, I saw only two spoons, and both with handles broken off, but one handle was a little longer than the other. I thought to myself, this is a very poor family, but I will do the best I can to relieve them.

While I was preparing the medicine for the sick child, I heard the oldest boy (who was about fourteen), say: “You shall have the biggest piece now, because I had the biggest piece before.” I turned around to see who it was that manifested such a principle of justice, and saw four or five children sitting in the corner, where the oldest was dividing a roasted potato among them. And he said to one: “You shall have the biggest piece now,” etc. But the other said “Why, brother, you are the oldest, and you ought to have the biggest piece.” “No,” said the other, “I had the biggest piece.” I turned to the mother, and said ” Madam, you have potatoes to eat, I suppose?” She replied: “We have had, but that is the last one we have left; and the children have now roasted that for their breakfast.”

On hearing this, I hastened home, and informed my wife that I had taken the wrong medicine with me to the sick family. I then prescribed a gallon of milk, two loaves of bread, some butter, meat and potatoes, and sent my boy with these; and had the pleasure to hear in a few days that they were all well — Selected.

Mr George Henry Cavell was born in Southampton, Hampshire, England on 4 December 1889.

His parents were George Henry Cavell (1863-1927), a marine fireman, and Alice Florence Purkiss (1865-1945), both Hampshire natives who had married in Southampton in 1888.

One of a reported thirteen children, his only known siblings were: Ellen Jane (1884-1959, later Mrs Alfred Mainer), Rose Mathilda (1886-1907), Alice Florence (b. 1887), Lily Elizabeth (b. 1895), Alice Maud (b. 1898) and Frederick Ernest (b. 1901).

Cavell first appears on the 1891 census living with his family at 28 Chapel Street, St Mary, Southampton and by the time of the 1901 census the family were living at 25 Chantry Road, Southampton and his father was by then described as a general labourer.

The family had moved to 46 Russell Street in the same city by the time of the 1911 census although George is absent from the household and was listed elsewhere at Bermuda House.

George, who was unmarried, signed on to the Titanic on 6 April 1912, giving his address as Lower East Road, Sholing. He had previously served on Adriatic, Oceanic, and Olympic, before joining the Titanic and had worked with the White Star Line for eighteen months by that point.
On the evening of 14 April Cavell was on the 8 to 12 watch, and was alone in the starboard coal bunker in boiler room 4 at the time of the collision. He felt a shock and the piles of coal around him collapsed, covering him and from which he had a job freeing himself. Hearing warning bells that the watertight doors were closing, Cavell then managed to get into the stokehold but upon arriving he was surprised by the lights suddenly extinguishing. He then left the stokehold via an escape ladder to fetch lamps and went to Scotland Road where he saw steerage passengers heading aft, many wet through and clinging to lifebelts, being told to remain calm by stewards; it was here he ascertained from a colleague that the ship had struck an iceberg.

He fetched the lamps and returned to the stokehold but by the time he had returned the lights had come back on and he received orders to start drawing the fires. Whilst doing this water started to flood through the floor plates which rose about a foot before Cavell left his station and returned to Scotland Road but found it deserted. Believing that there was no danger Cavell briefly returned to boiler room 4 but found it deserted. He again made his way up top where he went to the aft boat deck.

Upon reaching the aft starboard boat deck Cavell noted that there were still a few lifeboats remaining; one was still hanging in the davits (#15) whilst the other was being lowered (#13) and the only people on deck where a handful of firemen and the crew lowering the boat, including an unidentified officer. The officer ordered Cavell and the other firemen into lifeboat 15 and it was lowered flush with A-deck to receive passengers but only five came forward. Boat 15 was then lowered again to become flush with B-deck and calls for more passengers was met with a large crowd of third-class passengers appearing and gathering around, which Cavell estimated to be around sixty in total and what he believed to be all women and children and with a few men standing back. He also noted that the majority of the crowd seemed to be Irish women.

With lifeboat 15 heavily laden with an estimated 70 survivors aboard, fireman Frank Dymond took charge.

Cavell was called to testify at the British Inquiry on 9 May 1912 and received expenses of £11, 6s.

George returned to the sea, serving on ships including the Olympic, Braemar Castle, Carnarvon Castle, Armadale Castle, Warwick Castle and Rothesay Castle and continued to serve in the merchant service throughout the duration of WWI.

He was married in Southampton in 1919 to Kate Elizabeth Barber (b. 7 January 1885); the couple would have no children.

Cavell later left the sea and worked as a fitter’s mate; by the time of the 1939 register he and his wife were residents of 2, The Popes Buildings in Southampton.

George Henry Cavell died in Winchester, Hampshire on 21 July 1966, his wife Kate Elizabeth died 11 November 1967 and they are both buried together in Hollybrook Cemetery Southampton (section L16, plot 46, possibly an unmarked grave).

George Henry Cavell signed up to serve on the new ocean liner Titanic on her maiden voyage. On the evening of April 14, 1912, George was assigned to the coal bunker, and was alone when that great ship hit the iceberg. He worked with the crew to secure the ship as best they could, but then was ordered by an officer into a lifeboat.

One of the passengers aboard the Titanic was a man named John Harper, a Baptist pastor from Scotland who was on his way to Chicago to preach a series of revival meetings—his second trip to do so. He did not make it into a lifeboat, and he was one of the hundreds of people who drowned that night. Before he died, however, he spent his final moments urging people to come to Christ. Anytime someone drifted close to where he was, he would ask them, “Are you saved?”

George Henry Cavell replied from a lifeboat, “No,” to which Harper shouted above the noise the words of Acts 16:31, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Harper drifted away. Later, Harper drifted back within sight of the lifeboat. From the frigid water, once more the dying Harper shouted the question, “Are you saved?” Once again he received the answer, “No.” Harper repeated the words of Acts 16:31, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,” before he drifted away again.

The frigid water of the North Atlantic took John Harper’s life, and his body was never recovered. But George put his faith in Jesus Christ.

Later he was rescued by the lifeboats of the S.S. Carpathia. In Hamilton, Ontario, George Henry Cavell testified that he was John Harper’s last convert. With his dying breaths John Harper was urging people to come to Christ, because he knew there wasn’t much time; that was the last opportunity for many of them.

Without being too dramatic, the truth is that none of us knows when our last opportunity has arrived. So allow me to ask: “Are you saved?”

If the answer is “No,” or you do not know how to answer that question, please pay attention to the words of Acts 16:31 as if your life depended on it–because it does. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”

Miss Annie Jessie Harper, often known as Nana or Nina, was born on 3 January 1906 in Govan, Lanarkshire, Scotland.

She was the daughter of John Harper (b. 1872), an evangelical pastor and a native of Renfrewshire, and the former Annie Leckie Bell (b. 1866), also a native of Govan and who had previously worked as a dressmaker. John and Annie had married in 1903 and Annie was fated to be their only child when her mother died following complications arising from childbirth on 8 January 1906. Her mother’s niece Jessie Wills Leitch, a Renfrewshire native who had lived with Annie much of her life, stepped in to help take care of baby Nana. This was imperative as John Harper worked and preached throughout Britain and Ireland, including North America.

Her father later became pastor of the Walworth Road Baptist Church in London and they moved to that city. They were listed on the 1911 census living at 3 Claude Villas, Love Walk, Camberwell.

Nana, her father and her cousin Jessie boarded the Titanic at Southampton as second class passengers (joint ticket number 248727 which cost £33) and they were travelling to the Moody Church in Chicago, Illinois. She is listed in the passenger list as Nina Harper.

Jessie Leitch later recalled the events on the night of the sinking:

“… About midnight Mr Harper came to our stateroom and told us that the vessel had struck an iceberg. While I was dressing he went to learn further particulars and returned to say that the order had been given to put on the life belts. We did so, and, picking up Nana in his arms, he took her up to the deck. There the women were ordered to the upperdeck. I had to climb a vertical iron ladder and Mr Harper brought Nana after me up the ladder and the men at the top lifted her up to me again… There was no opportunity for farewell, and, in fact, even then we did not realize the danger, as we were assured again and again that the vessel could not sink, that the Olympic would be alongside at any minute, and that the women and children were to be put into the boats first and the men to follow, and that there were boats sufficient for all. Our boat was well manned–it was the eleventh to leave the vessel… After about half an hour the Titanic went down. We were about a mile away.”

Nana’s own recollections were sparse but she later recalled sitting on her cousin Jessie’s knee as she watched the Titanic sink and she later recalled the noise of those struggling in the water.

Jessie and Nana are believed to have been rescued in lifeboat 11 but Pastor Harper was lost in the sinking. Following their rescue by Carpathia they were not given a cabin but slept in a library aboard ship. Arriving in New York, still in the clothes they wore to leave the Titanic, Jessie and Nana were met by the Reverend Ervine Wooley, the assistant pastor of Moody Church. Jessie elected not to continue to Chicago and decided instead to return to England at the earliest available opportunity and arrived aboard the Celtic on 25 April.

Nana, now an orphan, returned to England and was apparently raised by an uncle and aunt in London. In 1921 she performed the opening ceremony of the Harper Memorial Baptist Church in Glasgow, which was dedicated to her father’s memory. During her upbringing, however, discussion of Titanic was discouraged by her family.

She later worked at Riglands Bible College in London and it was there that she met Philip Roy Pont (b. 1903), an alumnus of All Saints Bible College and a native of Heathfield, Sussex, the son of a grocer. The pair were married in London in the closing months of 1934 and they had two children: Gordon and Mary (later Dr Gurling).

The family moved back to Scotland around 1936 where Philip was the pastor at a Baptist Church in Denny, Falkirk before they moved to Shetland followed by Dundee and eventually Glasgow. Philip retired in around 1984 and they settled in Burnside, Lanarkshire.

Nana, known more frequently as Nan in her later years, continued to live in Burnside but had few memories of her time on Titanic. She therefore spoke little about that experience in her life but did keep in regular contact with the Titanic community and with fellow survivor Eva Hart who remembered playing with her on Titanic as a child, past exchanges that Nan had no recollections of.

Nan Harper Pont died at her home on 10 April 1986 aged 80, 74 years to the day when Titanic had departed from Southampton. She was buried in Moffat Cemetery and left behind her husband Philip (who died in 1995) and her two children and their families.

References and Sources
Glasgow Herald, 11 April 1986, Death Notice

Annie Jessie Harper was born on 3rd January 1906, her mother died just 5 days later. Her father, a Baptist Preacher, decided in 1912 to travel to Chicago to preach at a Church there. He booked 3 second class berths on RMS Titanic for himself, his sister Jessie Wills Leitch and his daughter Annie Jessie Harper (known as Nan).

When the ship struck the infamous iceberg on the night of 14th April 1912 John Harper wakened his sister & grabbed a sleeping Nan from her berth, wrapping her in a blanket before taking them up on deck. There he kissed Nan goodbye, handed her to a crewman and watched as she and her aunt were safely stowed in a lifeboat, John remained on board to give support to the distressed passengers- he went down with the ship. Many years later Nan recalled that she was sitting on her aunt’s lap when she saw the Titanic sink and she remembered watching the lights go out and hearing the screams of the drowning.

Rescued by the Carpathia and taken to New York, Nan and her aunt returned to England later that same month. Nan was brought up by her father’s brother George Harper. It was when Nan was at Riglands Bible College that she met Philip Roy Pont who she married in London in 1934. Philip Roy Pont was ordained and in 1964 the couple moved to Moffat when Reverend Pont took charge at St. John’s Episcopal Church where he preached for the next 20 years. They lived in St. John’s Vicarage at 3 Mansfield Place in Moffat.

Nan died on the 10th April 1986; 74 years to the day after the Titanic set sail from Southampton. Jim Storrar (Moffat Miscellany Volume 2, pp145-146) describes her: “Nan was a wonderfully gentle and kind person, and her voice was a soft Glasgow brogue. When she was 72, she was asked if she would like to see the Titanic raised “I don’t see much point in it after all this time,” she replied.”

Both Nan and her husband are buried in Moffat New Cemetery.

The final letter sent by an unsung hero of the Titanic disaster who sacrificed his own life for others has been unearthed almost 110 years later.

John Harper placed his six-year-old daughter Nina and niece into lifeboat 11 but gave up the chance to go with her so another woman or child could be saved.

He did so knowing the decision would likely make his daughter an orphan as her mother had previously died.

As the liner began to sink Mr Harper, a Baptist minister, ran along the flooded decks, preaching the gospel to anyone who would listen.

He also gave away his own lifejacket to another men, telling him ‘you need this more than I do’, before going down with the ship.

He is also said to have preached to those in the freezing water after the liber sank, dying in it himself. He was 39.

His niece Jessie went to be the longest-living Scottish Titanic survivor and died in 1986.

Three days before the 1912 disaster, the pastor , from Houston, Renfrewshire in Scotland, wrote a last letter home to his great-grandfather, Charles Livingstone, of 5 Porter Street, Glasgow.

The letter is written on White Star Line headed notepaper
In it he told him of the ‘glorious time’ he, his daughter and niece – who also survived – had been having on the Titanic.

He wrote the note on White Star Line headed notepaper while the Titanic was en route from Cherbourg to Ireland.

The never-before-seen letter was posted at Queenstown (Cork), which was the doomed liner’s last port of call.

It remained in the family but has now been put up for sale for the first time.

It is being sold by Henry Aldridge and Son Auctioneers of Devizes, Wilts, and has a pre-sale estimate of £50,000.

Mr Harper was known to be an engaging and impressive pastor and was on his way to America to serve at the Moody Church in Chicago.

He and his daughter and niece, Jessie Leitch, boarded Titanic at Southampton on April 10 for her maiden voyage to New York.

A famous photograph showing a little girl holding her father’s hand as they walked on the second class promenade during the voyage is believed to be Mr Harper and Nina.