15. 1908 Convention - One Soul a Day

1908 Convention - One Soul a Day

It was about this time that John Hyde laid hold of God in a very definite covenant. This was for one soul a day—not less, not enquirers simply but a soul saved—ready to confess Christ in public and be baptized in his name. Then the stress and strain was relieved. His heart was filled with the peace of full assurance. All who spoke to him perceived a new life and a new life-work which this life can never end.

He returned to his district with this confidence nor was he disappointed. It meant long journeys, nights of watching unto prayer and fasting, pain and conflict, yet victory always crowning this. What though the dews chilled him by night and the drought exhausted him by day ? His sheep were being gathered into the fold and the Good Shepherd was seeing of the travail of his soul and being satisfied. By the end of that year more than four hundred were gathered in. Was he satisfied? Far from it. How could he possibly be so long as his Lord was not? How could our Lord be satisfied, so long as one single sheep was yet outside his fold? But John Hyde was learning the secret of Divine Strength: "The joy of the Lord." For, after all, the greater our capa- city for joy the greater our capacity also for sorrow. Thus it was with the Man of Sorrows, he who could say: "These words have I spoken unto you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full."

John Hyde seemed always to be hearing the Good Shepherd’s voice saying, "Other sheep I have—other sheep I have." No matter if he won the one a day or two a day or four a day, he had an unsatisfied longing, an undying passion for lost souls. Here is a picture given by one of his friends in India: "As a personal worker he would engage a man in a talk about his salvation. By and by he would have his hands on the man’s shoulders looking him very earnestly in the eye. Soon he would get the man on his knees confessing his sins and seeking salvation. Such a one he would baptize in the village, by the roadside, or anywhere."

I once attended one of his conventions for Christians. He would meet his converts as they came in and embrace them in Oriental style, laying his hand first on one shoulder and then on the oth- er. Indeed, his embraces were so loving that he got nearly all to give like embraces to Christians and those too of the lowest caste. This was his strong point. Love won him victories.