Moments of Melody, a thought, a song, and some words from the world's bestseller. Winter in New York. Cold, raw winds swept through the streets while wayfarers moved uneasily along the sidewalks. Here and there, the first yellow lights of the early evening were flickering on. Rig... A Welsh lad was weary, homesick, and he was a sailor from a cargo boat that berthed just a little way up the waterfront. As he walked along, he happened into a Christian canteen on Fulton Street. He heard the gospel. He rejected the invitation, but accepted a pocket New Testament. Still homesick, still unsatisfied, he left the canteen, holding the Testament in his hand. Rig made a bad choice. He now stops at the bar and drinks, becomes intoxicated, and stumbles back to his boat. His feet were unsteady as he lurches up the gangplank. He slips on the unsteady footing and plunges into the icy waters. There's a muffled groan, a splash, silence. Moments pass, too many of them. When his buddies pull him out of the water, The Testament is still in his hand, tightly pressed against his still and silent chest. A quiet funeral takes place, the usual routine, but the body is unusual, for the hand continues to clutch the New Testament, the book that could have meant entrance into light instead of darkness, for the heart-weary, homesick Welsh lad dying so far from home. It's a sad story. You know it's being repeated over and over again in different variations. Let me explain. A New Testament can be bought for very little. Sometimes they're even given away free. Yet people like Riggs have the New Testament so close at hand, sometimes even in the hand, and yet they plunge to an awful eternity. Because they never trust the one who is the theme of the New Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ. A pardon is of no value unless you receive it. The same is true of salvation. You must receive it by believing, by putting your whole trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is not a day that has been But Christ my Savior is real to me. On bright our shadows pass away, His precious presence by faith I see. along together, his voice of cheer me, his hand of pride. There's not a day that passes, but that he's by my side. And now a few verses from the Gospel according to St. Mark. And now he, the Lord Jesus, called the twelve to him and began sending them out two by two, giving them authority over the unclean spirits. And he gave them instruction to take a staff for their journey and nothing more. No wallet, no bread, no money for their purse. To be shod with sandals and not to wear a second coat. You are to lodge, he told them, in the house you first enter until you leave the place. And wherever they give you no welcome and no hearing, shake off the dust from beneath your feet in witness against them. And so they went out and preached, bidding men repent. They cast out many devils, and many who were sick they anointed with oil, and healed them.