A New Life Begins: Discovering Faith in Cooperstown
Back at Cooperstown, I received a letter in the mail from cousin Everett Rulison, who incidentally, had brought the Gospel to my brother John a year or so before. He had addressed the envelope in this way: Donald Rulison, B.A., 33 Lake St., Cooperstown, N.Y. I wondered why he had written B.A. after my name. I don’t think that I had a clue, so I opened the letter and read. He said that it meant, “Born Again.” That was news to me because that phrase was not yet in my vocabulary, though I had experienced it in my heart. In this same manner, I soon ran across the Gospel tract, Four Things God Wants you to Know. It thrilled me because it seemed to be describing what had already happened to me. When I was able to get some, I began giving them out to others, hoping that they too might be saved. The tract thrilled me, not because it told me how I might be saved, but it seemed to outline how God had already saved meeven according to the Scripture verses quoted in the tract.
In my work in Otsego County farm woodlands I had the help of some pacifists, volunteer conscientious objectors, who lived together in a large house in Cooperstown. They were, for the most part, serious-minded young people who objected to having a direct part in the war effort but could conscientiously help in the field of forest products, etc. Various ones of them would accompany me surveying woodland areas and in estimating (cruising) timber. One day Dusty Miller, a Christadelphian believer accompanied me as my helper. I had shared with him how God had saved me and given me the assurance of eternal life with Him and I quoted some appropriate Scriptures. As we were driving along a country road bordered by big maple trees, he asked me, “Don, tell me the truth. If we careened off the road into one of those trees and were killed, do you know for sure that you would go to heaven?” After just a few seconds’ thought, I could reply with assurance to this matter on which I had never been tested and really had never known before, “Yes, I am sure!” That assurance has been tested severely at times since then, but it remains “as sure as Jehovah’s throne.”
On another day a well-educated fellow accompanied me. Perhaps his name was Ed. He had had some theological training as I recall. As we were cruising timber that day in a portion of the massive Cooper Estate, I reiterated to Ed how the Lord had saved me only a few days before. He listened carefully for a while and then ejaculated, “Don, you’re a Calvinist.” I did not know whether it was a compliment or a derogatory remark, because, though I had probably heard the designation of Calvinist, I had no idea what it meant. Later I came to understand probably why he said it. It was because my simple testimony indicated that I had no consciousness that I had asked God to save my soul or to give me eternal life nor had I done anything to merit any rewardfrom God. All I knew was that quite suddenly my understanding was quickened, I was changed by Someone who imparted His new life to me, and I understood and possessed that which I neither understood nor possessed before, i.e. that I was free of guilt and shame. I understood that God had changed me. I had no sense that I had done anything to merit, to earn or to acquire what now had become mine. All I could do (which I did do) was to rejoice in my heart, to open my Bible to read Ephesians 2:8-9, which now I understood, then kneel by my bedside and thank God for His Gift which I had received. God had answered the prayers of my brothers, John and Richard, my cousin Everett, and others whose petitions God heard. He had also used the words in the book Sunrise written by Grace Livingston Hill, and He had used Pastor John A. Lavender who sent us that book at Christmas time. He used the apostle Paul to write Ephesians 2:8-9. Finally thanks and praise belong to God the author and finisher of faith, mine included.
In Cooperstown I knew no one who even professed assurance of salvation. There were a number of churches including Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Episcopal and Roman Catholic. I first visited the young Presbyterian pastor and was disappointed to find that he did not seem to understand what had happened to me. He shared with me what he knew about the Apostles’ Creed as his assurance of faith. Then I heard that there would be a young people’s meeting at the Baptist Church. So I went and found that it was a meeting to look into the reason why young people were not attracted to church or young people’s meetings. When I was asked what I thought, I was constrained to tell them that I thought it was because the Church was not giving them the message that they needed to hear, the message that would meet the need of their hearts and lives, the Gospel of the Grace of God. At the Episcopal Church there was only the Gospel in their prayer book and liturgy. At the Methodist Church I heard nothing but the “social gospel”. It was only at the Catholic Church that there was teaching about Christ’s suffering on the cross, though the teaching was otherwise very suspect to me. I had gone there that day to accompany a R.C. girl friend.
I recall an experience one day that thrilled and encouraged me. It was wintertime and I had worked all day out in the woods doing my forestry work. Returning to my boarding house room in late afternoon, I was tired and, without removing my heavy shoes and warm clothes, I flung myself across my bed just to relax a bit. There on my bedside stand I had a simple radio with a short wave band. I snapped it on and tuned up and down the dial. Suddenly I heard rather faintly some chimes rendering the gospel song, “We have heard the joyful sound, Jesus saves, Jesus Saves.” I tuned the radio more carefully and heard the announcer say, “This is The Voice of the Andes in Quito, Ecuador, H C J B – Heralding Christ Jesus’ Blessing.” What gladness flooded my soul; to think that I was hearing the Good News of Salvation from that distant land away down in South America! I seldom could tune them in again, but on that occasion, it was truly Good News from a far country to a thirsty soul. As near as I can recall, that was in 1941 at which time HCJB had not been in operation very long. (Just now, 59 years later, Kathy and I just listened to the news and a missionary interview from that same radio station, H C J B.)
I had been given some Gospel tracts and found them so informative. So I began to get a supply and then found out how to roll them with bright colored plastic to make “Gospel Bombs”. I distributed them quite profusely but not very openly, as I was still too shy; but they were picked up and read, including many that I placed along the sidewalks by the church entrances on Sunday mornings. Though I gained personal satisfaction through doing this, I did not notice any positive effects. Perhaps the following paragraphs will offer a clue to the reason why.
I had begun a new Life, and it was Life from God, but I had no Christian friends nor fellowship except when I visited home occasionally. The devil laid his snares and I was caught in them, which later I came to recognize and by His grace escape – yet not without cost. (The principle of sowing and reaping- Galatians 6:7-8)
