"For this cause came I into the world." John 18:37. The words of the
Master rang in the ears and through the soul of a minister as he prepared
his sermon for the coming day.

"What is your subject for tomorrow?" questioned John, his nephew, who
had stepped into the pastor's study for a chat.

"I don't know," replied the minister, "but I have my text;" and he
repeated the words, "For this cause came I into the world."

The young man turned and went out, deeply touched by his uncle's
fervor.

An hour later the telephone rang. The call came from the city hospital.
"Your nephew has been seriously injured," a voice informed the pastor. "You
had better come at once."

Hastening to the hospital, the pastor was met by a doctor who told him
the circumstances that had occasioned the accident.

"When John left you this morning," said the physician, "he heard the
fire siren. Following the engine, he came to the scene of the fire, and
stood watching, with others, as the flames devoured the flimsy walls of an
apartment house. Suddenly, in a window in the third story, he saw a group of
children cut off from escape, and crying in terror. Across an alley nearly
five feet away stood another building, with rows of windows facing the
apartment house. Accompanied by a friend, John bounded up the stairs, found
the window opposite to that in which the children stood, and, assisted by
his friend, he managed to stretch himself across the space between the two
windows. One by one the children crept across their human bridge. There were
eight of them. The flames licked John's clothes and seared his flesh.
Exhausted by the ordeal, the lad lost his grip and fell to the brick
pavement three stories below. No, there isn't much chance for his recovery,
but--well, come in and see him."

As the minister entered the room, his nephew looked up, smiled, and
murmured, "For--this--cause--came--I--into--the--world." That was all.

Every person born into the world has a cause, a reason, for existence.
Who knows but that you were brought into the kingdom for such a time as
this? You may be a bridge between despair and hope for some soul who is
waiting for succor. Adversity, grief, trouble, unhappiness, crowd about
every human life. There is no heart but has its sorrow, no soul but has its
problems.

That person who is in perplexity--perhaps he needs your ministry. It
may be that this is your hour, your cause. This, perhaps, is the reason for
your being.

John saved eight lives. If one soul can be saved from despair through
your ministry or mine, life will be worth while.--

By May Cole Kuhn,
Signs of the Times, January 6, 1942