Men of Destiny is a compilation of twelve biographies covering men of God from a variety of walks of life. The subjects covered by Masters includes: Sir James Simpson, the discoverer of chloroform; General William Dobbie, the defender of Malta; Tsar Alexander of Russia; John Newton, the slave trader; and various others. Each mini-biography (all are under 15 pages in length) testifies to God’s grace in salvation and in the believer’s life
One of the more unusual stories is that of Alvin Reis. Born and raised in Portugal around the turn of the 20th century, he made his way to the colony of Angola with a forged engineering degree in his pocket. By the time he was 23, he had become the colony’s top scientific civil servant and director of the railway system.
Driven by greed and sensual lust, he lived a debauched life while working towards his goal of becoming a millionaire. As a result of a fraudulent business deal, he found himself in a damp, dark Portuguese prison. While there he hatched a scheme for a far greater fraud. He sold all he had to raise bail money and to bribe authorities to dismiss the charges. Once out of prison he proceeded over a course of several years to fraudulently obtain millions of dollars’ worth of forged Portuguese bank notes. He almost succeeded in taking control of the Bank of Portugal and when he was finally found out, the government was nearly overthrown.
He was imprisoned and an unsuccessful suicide attempt brought him to a prison hospital where another inmate read to him from the Scriptures. His curiosity led him to read them for himself with the effect that, even as he began working on more forged documents to try to spread the blame for his crimes on others, he felt compelled to confess his guilt to the authorities.
Soon he did so and was sentenced to 25 years in the federal prison with the first two years to be served in solitary confinement. His days in prison were spent grieving over the innocent people who had been hurt by his schemes. He turned once more to the Scriptures which he had earlier discarded. He soon realized that the picture of Christianity portrayed in the New Testament was far different from that of the Roman Catholicism with which he was familiar. He began to pray to God for understanding and a short while later a British missionary sent him a package of tracts. A correspondence began and in a short time Reis came to faith in Christ.
He immediately began to witness for Christ in the prison and had a fruitful ministry there for the remaining years of his sentence. Upon his release, he continued to minister and preach in Lisbon among the evangelical churches until his death in 1955.
Men of Destiny is a book bound to encourage and thrill the heart. As well, the material is presented in such a way that the book is a useful evangelistic tool, appropriate for giving to someone who might question whether any “famous” people are Christians.
Publisher: Wakeman Trust © 1968
ISBN: 187-085-5035
Price: $9.99
Binding: Paper, 172 pages