A New Way to Heckle

We who had spent a lot of time in open evangelism might have thought we were acquainted with every form of disturbance the devil could invent. We had suffered cat-calls without number, also dirt thrown, peach pits, rotten tomatoes, lethal stones and many drunks letting the hearers and the world know that as for them they were true members of the faith, loyal members of the true church, the virgin and all the "holy saints', before they weaved off to another saloon. Whichever the form of the disturbance, you at first cringe and suffer, then pray for the Lord to defend you and fight the battles, and then finally to awaken that He is and and has and that the affair has drawn a good crowd and produced as many sympathizers as enemies of the Gospel.

Now comes a brother back to the mission after a time of open air preaching with a new tale of two hecklers. They started out at the edge of the crowd yelling one thing and another, at times threatening and jostling, bothering the listeners also, gradually working their way forward nearer the speaker. This could be dangerous. Several times men with both evil spirits and booze, have worked themselves up and forward until they would pull a pistol, which at that short range looked like a cannon, press it against the temple of the preacher, who had to fear that even if the demon-crazed man didn't plan to pull the trigger, his very vehemence might do it. So far-- though the pistol experience has happened several times to different Gospel preachers, none have suffered the pulled trigger, without doubt guarded by the angel of the Lord.

One asks himself after such harrowing close encounters why the Lord doesn't protect us in more detail keeping those crazy people, religious fanatics and drunks away from us. But no, God lets the tempests come, the waves roar and the storms beat against us, just saying Fear Not. Finally when one is almost dead of fright, but God sees anyway you are not running away, then He calms the cyclone with a Peace, Be Still.

Our brother did not know what was in store for him. but could mostly try to hope the disturbers would tire and go away. They did not pull out a pistol but began to shove, man-handle and hug our preacher, meanwhile yelling anything anti-religious, then went off.

Our brother drew his breath with a sigh of relief-- for about two minutes, then discovered his wrist watch was gone, his pocket book with both his money and identification papers, and also his pocket change and keys.

"Lord, why--?"-- but then you recall that God has not promised to keep us from every trial, only to be near you. In fact, he has promised suffering, rather regularly. "It must be through great tribulation they ye enter into the Kingdom of Heaven."

The sparrows shall not fall without our Heavenly father's knowledge, but sparrows do fall when their time comes. Preachers are protected from many crises, but at other times, pass through great tribulation. A mostly godly person may be healed one time, then allowed to suffer another, and then die a martyr for his Faith. The Bible teaches us to count the cost, be forward, and take the spoiling of our goods cheerfully.