I will guide thee.—Ps. 32:8.
He went first to St. Louis and told the judge on the bench that he had quit the old life forever. They looked at him, and even those who were his bitter enemies, said, "Give him another chance; go and be a man and we will help you." He came back to our home from St. Louis, stayed a few weeks and started for the other charges, encouraged by the last trip. He went to Chicago first, and they told him the same thing there; then he went to Cincinnati, then to Pittsburg, and they said, "Dad, if you mean business you shall have a chance." Then he went to New York where he and three other men had robbed a bank of $175,000. When he went in to see the New York people they did not know him. He had been living a Christian life for several months. Salvation changes the looks of a man, and takes away the hard lines and softens the eye; and when he told them who he was, they said: "My God! where did you come from and what are you doing here?"
He told these gentlemen what had taken place in his life, and of his determination for the future. Said one wealthy man, "Well, Dad, go on your way and may God be with you and help you."
Fear thou not; for I am with thee; be not dismayed; for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee.—Is. 41:10.
He went on a hunt for the old friend "Hinky Dink" down in the first ward. "Hinky Dink" saw him, paid for a week's lodging at the Mills Hotel, and gave him money for meals each day. Finally one day "Hinky Dink" and Dad, standing in the front of his (Hinky Dink's) saloon, called "the workingmen's bar," where they line up by the fifties at a time, looking in, "Hinky Dink" said, "Dad, you are worth $18 a week to me behind that bar." Dad said, "Me? Not me for $1,800 a week. I am a Christian, I have quit all that, never to return again." "Hinky Dink" said: "Well, what do you want, anyhow?" Dad said: "I want to go to Cincinnati to the Holiness camp meeting." "Hinky Dink" said, "Where?" (this being all Greek to him), as it was not in his line, he knew.
"Dad" repeated what he had said, and "Hinky Dink" said: "Come right over here and I'll buy you a ticket." He took him over to the railroad office, and bought him a limited ticket to Cincinnati. Dad said, when telling us, "He thought he was shipping me in the quickest way possible, but it was the Lord taking care of 'Old Dad,' and sending him in first-class style."
Again he came back to our home, stayed several weeks, then we got him $20 worth of religious books to travel around to the camp meetings to sell, and to tell his experience, for the people were eager to hear this wonderful experience of God's transforming power, wherever he went. We started him off, and he soon felt his call to preach the gospel. He was ordained in Indianapolis in 1905, and preached up and down the land, winning lost men and women for Jesus. His life was a miracle of what God's grace can do. He married a fine Christian woman, who was a great help to him in his work.
In the fall of 1908 he died a triumphant death, leaving a glorious testimony behind.
Jim O'Brien Passes Away
The Courier-Journal republishes herewith from the Indianapolis Herald an editorial by the Rev. George E. Bueler, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church, Indianapolis, Ind.: