The Tender Flame

by Al Lacy

  Pastor Lester Farrington was so excited about Josh preaching at the lumber camp that he told him he would talk to his song leader, Jim Curtis, and encourage him to go along and lead the singing. Maybe he could get a couple of the young men who played musical instruments to join them.

  Josh rode back to the Cornell Lumber Camp and began asking the men and their wives if they would attend preaching services at the camp on Sunday afternoons. Many showed interest and said they would come. That evening, Brett and Josh met with Pastor Farrington and Jim Curtis, and it was quickly settled that they would begin services the next Sunday afternoon.

  The week passed quickly, and on Sunday at three o’clock, Brett was there with Josh, Jim, and two young musicians. Cliff Wright played a guitar, and Barry Stout played an accordion. More than half of the camp’s lumbermen and their families were in attendance.

  After the opening singing, Josh preached a clear gospel message, and when he gave an invitation, two lumbermen and their wives responded.

  After the service, Brett and the gospel team rode their horses toward Oregon City, rejoicing all the way. There was rejoicing also in the church service that evening when Pastor Farrington told of the souls saved that afternoon at the lumber camp.

  At the end of the work day on Monday, Martha Cornell was in the kitchen when her husband, son, and daughter came in. Mary Ann hugged her mother and kissed her cheek.

  Brett edged himself ahead of Josh and said, “I’m next, son.”

  Josh grinned and playfully pushed his dad.

  “Oh, Josh!” Martha said. “A letter came today from Jessica. I put it on your dresser.”

  “Great! They must’ve gotten settled in Colorado.”

  “Mm-hmm. There’s a Denver address on the envelope.”

  Josh glanced at the food on the stove. “Do I have time to go up and read it?”

  “I think so, as long as you don’t tarry while you drool over it.”

  “Drool over it?”

  “You know what she means, son,” Brett said.

  “You’re not fooling anybody, Josh,” Mary Ann said. “Your long friendship with Jessica is developing into something else.”

  “Be honest with us, son,” Brett said. “Your sister’s right, isn’t she?”

  Josh’s face tinted. “Well … I … she’s turned out to be some kind of young lady, I’ll say that.”

  Martha nodded. “Some kind of young lady who’s captured your heart.”

  “Well, right now I’m trying to read my own heart on this. And even if I should decide I’m in love with Jessica, that won’t mean she’s in love with me. I think she looks at me as no more than a very good friend.”

  “I have an inkling that Jessica feels more for you than she’s letting on,” Martha said.

  “Based on what, Mom?”

  “A woman’s intuition.”

  “Don’t ever discount that, son,” Brett said. “Women’s intuition is a powerful force.”

  “Jessica may very well be waiting for you to declare yourself,” Martha said.

  “You really think so?”

  “I do. Now go on and read her letter. Supper will be ready in a few minutes.”

  Later, as the Cornell family was eating supper, Martha said, “So are the Smiths settled in Denver?”

  “Sounds like it. They had to live in their covered wagon for a while until they were able to buy a house. They’re living in the country about a half mile out of town. Major—Mr. Smith got a good job in a Denver bank.”

  “And how is Mrs. Smith?” Mary Ann asked.

  “Jessica said she withstood the trip quite well and is feeling some better.”

  “That’s wonderful,” Martha said. “I hope this move will improve her health substantially.”

  “Jessica seems to think it will.” Josh loaded his fork with chicken and dumplings and started to take a bite. Then he paused and said, “Remember my telling you about Jessica’s friend going to Nevada as a mail order bride? I’ve kind of joked about the mail order bride idea with Jessica. Well, she told me there are two couples in their church who found each other that way.”

  “God works in many ways to bring about His will in people’s lives,” Brett said.

  Martha nodded. “I can see the Lord providing Christian mail order brides for the many lonely Christian men who’ve come west to make their fortunes. Of course they’d have to be very careful and prayerful in choosing their mates. But then, that’s important even when courtship is not done by mail.”

  Mary Ann sighed. “I just wish I had someone to pray about marrying.”

  Martha reached across the table and patted her daughter’s hand. “Honey, God will bring that someone into your life when the time is right. You have to be patient and wait on the Lord.”

  “It’s hard, Mother. It seems like all the other girls in the church are getting engaged and getting married. Sure, I have my share of dates, but I don’t even have a steady beau.”

  “You will, sis,” Josh said, “and one day you’ll marry some dashing young man. But no matter who he is, in my mind he’ll never be quite good enough.”

  Mary Ann smiled. “Big brother, you say the nicest things sometimes.”

  In the privacy of his room that evening, Josh wrote to Jessica, telling her all about the Sunday afternoon services at the Cornell Lumber Camp, and that four souls had already been saved. He asked her to pray that many more would come to the Lord.

  When it came time to close off the letter, Josh pondered his mother’s words earlier that evening. Finally, he wrote: Jessica, I miss you more each time I receive a letter from you. I find myself living for the day I can see you again. Love always, Josh.

  The following Sunday afternoon, Josh preached at the lumber camp, making salvation plain and clear as he pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ as the one and only way to heaven. When he gave the invitation, no one responded, but a small group of men gathered around him after the service, asking questions. Josh answered their questions, using his Bible, and with compassion he pressed the men to repent of their sin and open their hearts to Jesus.

  In the group were two single men, Neil Stratton and Bob Lynch, both in their early twenties. When the other men had walked away, those two remained to talk with Josh.

  Lynch said, “Doesn’t the Bible say that after the people in hell burn for a certain period of time, they’ll have another chance to be saved?”

  Josh shook his head. “No, it doesn’t, Bob. There’s no such thing as a second chance to be saved after you die. In the last chapter of the Bible, when the white throne judgment is past and all Christ-rejecters are in the lake of fire and all the saved are in heaven with the Lord, God’s Word says, ‘He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still.’ If you die without being justified before God by the blood of Christ, you will be unjust forever. It can’t be changed. That’s why I said in my sermon that it’s dangerous to put off salvation. Nobody knows when they’re going to die.”

  Both men let Josh’s words sink in, then looked at each other.

  “Next Sunday, right?” Bob said. “A little time to think on it.”

  “Fellas, listen to me. What’s there to think about? You both know you’re lost, don’t you?”

  Both men nodded.

  “You believe that Jesus is the only way of salvation, don’t you?”

  They nodded again.

  “Then why put it off? What’s to think about?”

  Neil wiped a hand over his mouth. “It’s … it’s just a pretty big step to take, Josh. We gotta think on it.”

  “But what if you die while you’re thinking on it?”

  Neither made a reply.

  “I’ll tell you what will happen,” said Josh. “You’ll spend eternity in hell wishing you had done the right thing while you could. Proverbs 27:1 says, ‘Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.’ You don’t even know if you’ll see another sunrise, much less that you’ll
be here next Sunday.”

  “Like we said … we’ll think on it this week,” Neil said. “Thanks for answering the questions for us.”

  Josh’s heart was heavy for the two young men as he watched them walk away. When they had gone some thirty yards, they looked back. Bob waved and said, “Work us up another good sermon, Josh. We’ll see you next Sunday!”

  The following Tuesday morning, some twenty lumbermen left the Cornell camp with axes and saws in hand, and made their way eastward toward higher ground. The surrounding forests of towering spruce, douglas fir, ponderosa pine, and birch stretched upward toward the jagged peaks of the Cascade Range.

  The spruce on the lower slopes of the Cascades gave way to deep gorges lined with misty-green alder that crept up the steep slopes for great distances, then disappeared into pallid rock ledges and shale saddles. Shadowed canyons gaped alongside the rocky ridges.

  Brett Cornell’s foreman, Luke Kimble, paired the men off. Kimble had been through the designated area the day before and had marked the trees to be cut down. Before sending the men forth to begin their work, he reminded them to stay alert at all times.

  As the group of lumbermen headed up a steep ridge where they would separate and start their work, some of the men who had been in Sunday’s service brought up Josh Cornell’s sermon. The men who had not been in the service listened quietly.

  “I like Josh a lot, so don’t misunderstand me,” one man said, “but he’s awfully narrow-minded about how people go to heaven.”

  “That’s what I’ve been thinking,” another said. “Seems to me a man’s goin’ to heaven if he’s sincere in his religion, no matter what name it has on it. Josh cut a pretty thin line sayin’ that Jesus Christ is the only way.”

  “One thing you guys gotta admit, though,” Bob Lynch said. “What Josh preached he showed us right out of the Bible. It clearly says that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation.”

  “So if you believed what Josh preached, Bob,” said another man, “why didn’t you go forward and get saved?”

  “Well, I’m thinking about it.”

  “And I’m thinking about it too,” Neil Stratton said.

  Casey Harmon, who was walking close to Lynch and Stratton, said, “Tell you what, guys. As far as I’m concerned, this Bible stuff is all a bunch of fanaticism. I wasn’t in the service on Sunday, but I’ve heard those hellfire-and-brimstone, Bible-thumping preachers plenty in my time. They’re nothing but a bunch of fanatics. I don’t want anything to do with them.”

  Jed Andrews, who had been assigned to work with Harmon, said, “Well, I was in the service, Casey, and Josh doesn’t sound like a fanatic to me. He laid it on the line, plain and clear. What I heard made sense, but I’m not going over the edge yet. I’m only twenty-one. I’ve got a lot of living to do, and I don’t want the Lord or anybody else getting in my way. Not until I’ve sown some wild oats, anyway.”

  “There you go, Jed,” said another man. “Them’s my sentiments exactly. Fella ought to live it up while he’s young, then worry about heaven and hell and that stuff when he gets old.”

  Soon the lumbermen were hard at work, chopping and sawing to bring down the marked trees. The sound of axes and saws filled the forest.

  Neil Stratton and Bob Lynch had their tree down after some four hours and were using their axes to cut off limbs. Just above them to the northeast, Jake Weathers and Eldon McGrady were still sawing a giant pine. Finally their two-man saw bit through the last remaining fibers to the notch, and the tree began making a cracking sound. They stopped sawing when the giant pine began to tilt.

  McGrady shouted, “Timber!”

  Something had gone wrong with the notching job. The tree was falling at an angle to the southwest. Directly in its path, Stratton and Lynch were still swinging their axes, and neither heard McGrady’s shout.

  Stratton and Lynch stopped chopping at the same moment and suddenly heard the warning cries. But the giant of the forest was nearly on top of them when they looked up. One second of terror, and then they were crushed beneath the falling pine.

  Jake Weathers and Eldon McGrady were the only two lumbermen who did not attend the funeral services at the church in Oregon City on Thursday morning. They were too sick at heart to put in an appearance.

  Josh preached the funeral message with love and compassion. He told of how Neil and Bob had talked to him about salvation after the service on Sunday afternoon, and how he had urged them to receive Christ. Josh then preached the gospel and gave an invitation. One lumberman and two women came to the altar to be led to Christ.

  The plain wooden coffins were transported to the local cemetery for a graveside service, where Pastor Farrington gave a brief message. When the service was over, Mary Ann came up to her brother and said, “Josh, you did a wonderful job. Your message was very touching, and I’m so glad those three people came to the Lord.”

  “Thank you, sis.”

  Casey Harmon’s voice cut through the air. “Aw, c’mon, Jed! You don’t want that Jesus stuff! You’re not gonna do that!”

  “Oh, yes I do, and oh, yes I am!” Jed Andrews turned away from Casey and stepped toward Josh and Mary Ann. “Can I talk to you, Josh?” he said.

  “Of course.”

  Mary Ann excused herself and went to join her parents.

  Jed’s voice held a tremor as he said, “Josh, I can’t go on any longer this way. What happened to Neil and Bob could just as easily have happened to me. I’m not ready to die. Just Tuesday I told Casey about the sermon you preached at the camp and that what you said made sense. But I said I’d wait till I was old to take care of this salvation business. Well, Josh, I realize I may not live to be old. I want to be saved now.”

  “Wonderful!” said Josh, opening his Bible. “You’ve heard me read from Scripture that Jesus Christ came into this world for one basic purpose, and that was to shed His precious blood for sinners like you and me. You’ve heard me read that Jesus arose from the grave and is alive today and will save any repentant sinner who puts his or her trust in Him for salvation.”

  “Yes.”

  “And you believe that?”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “Now let me read you something from the book of 1 John, chapter 4: ‘In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.’ Do you see that if you are going to live eternally with God in heaven, that eternal life can come only through Jesus Christ? Not through religious rites or good works … only through Jesus?”

  “Yes, sir. I see that. And I believe it.”

  “Then are you willing to call on Jesus right now, in repentance of your sin, and ask Him to cleanse your sins with His blood and save your soul?”

  Tears were in Jed’s eyes. “Yes, I am.”

  Josh put his arm around Jed’s shoulder and guided him in prayer as he called on the Lord to save him. When they finished praying, Josh and Jed looked up to find Casey standing close by.

  Jed rushed to his friend and cried, “Casey, I’m saved, I’m saved! I’m going to heaven when I die!”

  “Well, Jed, if that makes you happy, so be it. It’s just not for me.”

  Josh took a few steps in Casey’s direction. “Is dying for you, Casey?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, are you going to die?”

  “Well, sure. Someday. Everybody dies.”

  “Some much sooner than they expect, like Neil and Bob. Could happen to you too.”

  “Well … yeah.”

  “So if Jesus Christ is not for you, Casey, hell is. The God who gave you life and existence also gave His Son to save you from hell. Without Jesus, all you have beyond your last breath is to suffer the wrath of God in an eternal hell.”

  Casey wiped a hand across his mouth. “Josh, you’re the boss’s son, and I don’t want to insult you, but I want no part of this fanaticism.”

  “Don’t worry about insulting the boss’s son, Casey
. You’d better worry, though, about insulting God’s Son.”

  Josh stepped closer and laid a hand on Casey’s shoulder. “I’m going to be praying for you. I want to see you saved before it’s too late.”

  Casey looked him straight in the eye, started to say something, then changed his mind. “I … I appreciate that you care, Josh. It’s just that I don’t see it like you do.”

  Josh smiled. “I’ll be praying that you will.”

  JESSICA SMITH RUSHED TO HER ROOM, carrying two letters that had just come in the mail. Her heart warmed to see Josh Cornell’s return address, but she decided to save it until she had read Brenda’s letter. She knew before she opened it that Brenda and Gil had married, for the name on the return address was Brenda Simmons.

  Brenda loved her new church. She had become a member just before she and Gil were married, and now she was helping Gil with his Sunday school class by being class secretary and going with him on visitation calls. She had married God’s man for her, and the letter was filled with the happiness she and Gil had found.

  As Jessica folded the letter and placed it back in the envelope, she whispered, “Thank You, Lord, for making Brenda so happy. Thank You for bringing her and Gil together.”

  She laid aside the letter and carefully opened the envelope from Josh. Her fingers trembled as she unfolded the letter. It began: My dearest Jessica … He had never used dearest before. It made her heart pick up pace.

  Josh told her about Bob Lynch and Neil Stratton, and of the souls that were saved on the day of the funeral. He used almost a full page to give Jed Andrews’s story, then asked her to pray for Casey Harmon.

  Josh told Jessica that the church was growing steadily and just last week had been able to raise his salary some. And the Cornell Lumber Company was prospering; the whole Cornell family was superbly happy.

  Well, Jessica, he wrote, I guess I should say the whole Cornell family is superbly happy except me. I’m happy in my church work, yes. I’m happy doing the preaching at the camp and in my work at the lumber mill. But there is one sad aspect to my life. I miss the sweetest girl I have ever known. I miss her very much. Know who she is? I won’t give you a name, but her initials are Jessica Smith. Love always, Josh.