E. P. Clayton, 1916

Seventy-eight persons testified to the power of God to save in the evening service, on Sunday, March 19th. Two hundred and sixty-two people listened to the stories of the converts, told in short and graphic sentences of their experiences of misery, crime and degradation left behind for a life of respectability.

The occasion marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of Mr. E. P. Clayton, who brought tears to the eyes of three-fourths of the people present, when he told of having panhandled his own father, on the streets of Washington, having been estranged from his family for eighteen years prior to that time.

His father recognized the wayward boy, but did not want the man with whom he was walking at the time to know it was his boy. So, he excused himself with the explanation that the young man was the son of a friend and that he wanted to talk to him about his mother. Mr. Clayton’s father was a Methodist minister, and he knew of the work of the Mission so he took his boy to the service and they listened to the testimonies of the converts, and when the invitation was given, the boy was reminded by his father that his mother had been praying for him all those years and his hardened heart was touched.

He went forward and asked God to forgive him his sins and he has been kept by His power ever since. Today he is a well-respected citizen employed by the Government and best of all he is ever ready to testify to the saving and keeping power of our Savior, in the hope that some poor wretched sinner may take courage and “commit his ways unto the Lord” who is able to save “from the uttermost to the uttermost”.