THE STORY OF BROTHER FORTY FIVE The power of the Gospel to change the human heart and to plant in it the spirit of forgiveness is most won-derfully exemplified in the life story of an ex- convict known for many years as “Forty-five.” Few, perhaps, have had to forgive the degree of injury that this man did. At the age of sixteen, he left his home in Providence, Rhode Island, and drifted west. One night he came into the city of Tacoma in a boxcar, reaching there just when a murder had been committed. He was arrested, tried, and sentenced to twenty-five years at hard labour. For years he suffered all the severity of punishment that would be meted out to a desperate criminal. At the end of twenty-one years he was discharged from the prison “nearly wrecked in body and mind, homeless, friendless, and nameless.” He was given a ticket to Portland. For four days he wandered about Portland look-ing for work, with nothing to eat nor a place to sleep. At last he started down to the old Burnside Bridge to throw himself into the river. Pulling him down from the railing, the bridge-keeper said, “You cannot do that.” As “Forty-five” walked away he saw the Apostolic Faith sign. In the church he felt he was among friends. The minister was preaching that night about the prodigal son. At the close, Forty-five held up his hand for prayer and went to the altar, where he prayed; and God “washed his soul as white as snow.” One night while he was telling the story of his life and conversion a man sat listening in the back of the church. He got up and ran down the stairs. One who had talked with the stranger told Forty-five that this man knew something about him. Forty-five followed the man to San Francisco where he found him in the City and County Hospital. He went to the superintendent of the hospital and asked for work. When asked where he had been previously employed, he breathed a prayer to God and told his story. The superintendent wept as he listened. He held out his hand to Forty-five and told him to report for duty. When the opportunity came to contact this stranger, he found him suffering from tuberculosis of the spinal column. Asked to read the Bible, Forty-five read to him of the Prodigal Son. While talking, the man put his arm around the ex-convict and asked, “Can you forgive me the wrong I have done you?” The ex-convict replied: “You have done me no wrong. Can you tell me about my mother?” He said, “I know nothing about your people, but I am the man who committed the crime that you were sent to the penitentiary for.” He said, “I want you to forgive me for the years that you spent behind the walls of the penitentiary.” Here was the real murderer for whose crime Forty- five had spent twenty-one long years in the prison! And he was asking Forty-five to forgive him. The thoughts of the ex-convict went back to the long years he had spent in the prison. He thought of the ball and chain he carried for two years. He thought of the thirty lashes he had received at the whipping post, and of the time he was shot in the leg, and of the weeks spent in the old dungeon. He felt that he was not prepared to forgive from his heart. He left the man and went into a little room alone. He locked the door, and kneeling down on the concrete floor he prayed. For nearly three hours he forgot everything else and talked and prayed and wrestled with God for a real spirit of forgiveness. At last a voice said, “Forgive him for My sake.” He went back and took the man in his arms and said, “I forgive you all the injuries you have done me, but you will have to ask God to forgive you, too.” Over and over Forty-five could hear him say, “God, be merciful to me a sinner.” And God had mercy and saved him. A few days later the criminal died in the arms of the man who forgave so much. Since then Forty-five has gone on to be with the Lord; and in eternity, with a “new name,” and no longer just a number, he will meet on the streets of gold the man who caused him such suffering. Both have received the pardon of a merciful God
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 07:46:28 +0000