I don’t know as to whether he was as engrossed with animal rights as
we are, but a fellow once came in to my life whom I’ll never forget. He
was first publicised in the Bradford newspaper as a prophet. For like
Elijah, he spent a memorable night within a cave, and began walking the
streets with a shortened version of a Franciscan habit, plus a hold-all
hung down his back. People often, at first, took a rise out of him, but
to me – an ex Baptist minister reading electric meters – he epitomised a
kindred spirit, but with a greater faith in God. Indeed, on meeting him
within a park I told him of my past and how, at that time, I didn’t know
what God had planned for my future. Yet he was very sure concerning his
calling. “I want my lifestyle to be a sermon and also a rebuke to the
selfish way folk are living today” he replied. “God is everywhere around
us, and people fail to grasp the reality of His presence”.
How true were his words! We both shared the closeness of The Saviour
in our lives, and he radiated Him. I invited him for tea the following
Sunday, plus a visit to a local Church of which I’d been recently
installed as part-time lay pastor (it was around 1958). Mother sensed
that I’d actually invited Jesus in from the street. “His face glows with
the light of Heaven” she said. After tea – which he literally devoured -
I felt it would be embarrassing to have both him and the sedate
congregation sitting together. Perhaps he sensed it and asked to be
excused to go on his way, just before we reached the open door of the
spacious chapel. It was a relief to ones self, coward that I was!
A year or two later I met him, head on, outside the Alhambra theatre
in Bradford. It was now winter and the weather very cold. “I’ve been, up
to recently, sleeping out under hedges or with the sheep and it’s been
very cold” he said. “But a young couple have been very kind. They’ve
given me shelter when they’d no need to. I’ve never had as much as a
cold” he added; but I was feeling terribly chilly at nights”. Perhaps it
was to ease my own conscience that I offered him a five-pound note. He
was at first reluctant to take it. But when I insisted he accepted, and
the smile that literally shone through his piercing eyes melted my heart
and made me want to cry. “He doesn’t appear to preach salvation through
the blood!” said a fellow believer. “Is he fright shy of getting a job?”
said another. But I knew that Jesus lived in this self appointed vagrant
of the Bradford streets who never ever begged or even asked for his next
meal..
More than two decades were to pass before coming face to face with
Bradford’s cave man prophet once more. Sadness had filled my heart for
the wife of one’s youth had left me for another and I was reminiscing
while driving through Apperley Bridge towards Rawdon. Yes, it was
undoubtedly him; and his appearance had hardly changed except that he
looked thinner and a little more drawn. He had smiled and waved as my
car had slowly driven past him. But this was not unusual; he’d always
waved and smiled to everyone.
Go on to
Never Be Flippant On Tossing A Coin In
Extremity
Return to Autumn 2005 Issue
Animal Padre's
