Hallelujah Jack

This is the autobiography of Clement H. "Jack" Linn.

From the introduction:
Less than five years ago I was a prisoner in jail. Less than five years ago I was a fugitive from justice. Less than five years ago I was living under an assumed name. Less than five years ago I was hunted and wanted by the police.

Today I am a saved man. Today I am an ordained minister of the Gospel. Today I am an evangelist. (Previous to my work in the evangelistic field I was pastor of a growing church.)

And this day, moved by the power of the Holy Spirit, I have set about to record how this great change came about. —From the opening lines of this book.

The Table of Contents are as follows:
Chapter 1 — HALLELUJAH JACK
Chapter 2 — A HOME WITHOUT CHRIST
Chapter 3 — AS A NEWSBOY
Chapter 4 — AS A BOOTBLACK
Chapter 5 — AS A MESSENGER-BOY
Chapter 6 — AS A BELL-BOY
Chapter 7 — AS A RUNAWAY BOY
Chapter 8 — AS A PRISONER
Chapter 9 — AS A GAMBLER
Chapter 10 — MOTHER AND FATHER CONVERTED
Chapter 11 — AS PRINTER’S DEVIL
Chapter 12 — AS AN ACTOR
Chapter 13 — THAT WHICH LED TO CONVERSION
Chapter 14 — IN A LONELY JAIL CELL
Chapter 15 — IN ARKANSAS
Chapter 16 — IN BAD COMPANY AGAIN
Chapter 17 — A REVIVAL MEETING
Chapter 18 — GO TO CHURCH FOR FIRST TIME
Chapter 19 — GO TO CHURCH FOR SECOND TIME
Chapter 20 — THE SINNER CONVERTED
Chapter 21 — DAY AFTER CONVERSION
Chapter 22 — A NEW CREATURE IN CHRIST
Chapter 23 — A LETTER TO MOTHER
Chapter 24 — THE CALL TO PREACH
Chapter 25 — THE LICENSE TO PREACH
Chapter 26 — SOME PERSECUTIONS WHICH CAME
Chapter 27 — ON WAY TO SEMINARY
Chapter 28 — WINNING THE FIRST SOUL
Chapter 29 — ENTER VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY
Chapter 30 — GIVING UP ASSUMED NAME
Chapter 31 — FIRST TRIP HOME
Chapter 32 — MOTHER HEARS FIRST SERMON
Chapter 33 — FACE PENITENTIARY CHARGE
Chapter 34 — ENTER MOODY BIBLE INSTITUTE
Chapter 35 — CALL TO PASTORATE
Chapter 36 — ORDAINED AS MINISTER
Chapter 37 — AS AN EVANGELIST

About the author:
The Reverend Clement H. Linn, known as "Hallelujah Jack," gave the credit to God in all things. "I was a newspaperman," he  once recalled, "and I lay down the pen to take up the pulpit. And I was an actor, and I forsook the footlights to preach the Gospel. I came to Wisconsin because I did not want to go to China or Japan or Africa, and I bought an abandoned tobacco field on Highway 13, and asked God to wave a magic wand over it and make it the most beautiful camp meeting grounds in the world. I do not want to brag about myself, but I do want to boast of the Father in Heaven, because He answered my prayer." 

Bolstered by prayer, he built up his camp in Oregon so it included a large tabernacle, dormitory, and dining room, a print shop and children's tabernacle, cottages, and other buildings. He put in modern conveniences and landscaped the grounds. "We have planted more than 2,000 trees and shrubs," he once said. "So you see a tobacco field can be converted too."

Under his leadership, the meeting place became famously interdenominational. Mr. Linn himself was an ordained minister in the Congregational church, while his wife is a Presbyterian, his mother and father Methodists, and one brother a Baptist. Special preachers, musicians, and singers from different parts of the country were highlighted on at the annual programs. In 1931, Mr. Linn took a seven month missionary journey around the world, visiting 25 countries, in an "independent and interdenominational" trip. Mrs. Linn carried on evangelistic work in this country.

"Hallelujah Jack" told a frank story about his conversion. "I was editor of a newspaper in a town down on the Mississippi river in Arkansas, living under an assumed name because of some troubles I had on Broadway in New York when I was on the "It was just like a fellow getting over the tooth-ache. Once he had it and then it was gone. I had a new heart. I was so happy and light inside that I could have walked on eggs and not broken a single one."

His getting religion was "simply wonderful," Mr. Linn continued. "The new fangled idea today is to stick up your little finger, sign on the dotted line, join the church over the telephone, send your picture to be baptized and hear the sermons over the radio. That was not my case. I felt the sins of my heart leave, and before I knew it I hollered out loud, 'Hallelujah!' I knew it wasn't cussin'. Honest, I did not want to cuss. 'Hallelujah' means 'Praise the Lord, or Glory to God!' Imagine a fellow like me saying that. I had been playing stud-poker all night just two days before, and now praising the Lord. Bless God, I was saved from a bottomless hell to a topless heaven.