“Allen Hartley, son of the late Senator, Fred A. Hartley, Jr. who was co-author of the Taft-Hartley Act, writes and draws the Archie Comics. Allen Hartley now speaks for himself.

“Take the son of a famous Congressman. Give him some experience as a World War II pilot. Add some business experience, social life, church background and what do you get? A business man? A politician? A pilot?

“No a cartoonist of teenage comic books. At least that’s the way it turned out for me—after some bizarre experiences.

“Everything started out well.

“I had the love of a very wonderful family, the respect of my community, all the material blessings anyone could hope for. I had even been a Sunday School teacher. My problem was money. I had the idea that, if I just had enough money, there wouldn’t be a problem in the world that I couldn’t handle. Money to me was the answer to just about everything, and for years I neglected my art and writing in order to try to make a bundle overnight.

“It wasn’t many years, however, before I found myself in deep trouble.

“Then in the middle of what had finally become an impossible situation, a friend came by and offered to take my wife and me to a prayer meeting.

“We were numb with fear about our personal affairs—not knowing whether or not our marriage was going to survive, so we went. And that night we heard one thing that made all the difference in the world when the speaker pointed out, ‘Nothing is impossible to God.’

“We went home with a slim ray of hope. Two days later I met privately with the pastor of that church and told him my story. When I finished he took his Bible and told me his ‘story’ – that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. He told me though my sins be scarlet, they could be as white as snow. You know up until this time I had considered myself to be a Christian, but I couldn’t really relate it to my life at the present.

“That morning the pastor showed me the very secret of the Gospel: that Christ had died in my place to pay the penalty of my sin. He showed me in the Bible where Christ said: ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock, if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come into you.’ He also showed me that when this happens and Christ comes into a life that life is completely changed. The person becomes a brand new person: ‘old things pass away and all things become new!’

“This was what I longed for. I desperately wanted this impossible mess in my life to pass away.

“That morning I drove home earnestly praying. There was no puff of smoke, no bells, no voices. Instead, before I reached home I had the deep assurance that the Lord Jesus had come into my life.

“When I walked into the house, my wife recognized there had been a change in me. A friend with her also knew that something had happened. And from that moment on, the desperate situation that was completely impossible to any man, became possible to God. The Lord Jesus had taken over, and this threat to my life simply dissolved and passed away. And, even more wonderful, I was overwhelmed by the quality of life that I had suddenly found in Christ.

“But there’s more to my story than that. The Lord has blessed my life beyond my ability to express.

“In these past years my wife and I have seen a number of our family come to know Christ in a real, living way.

“One brief example concerns my father, Fred Hartley, who spent 20 years in the United States Congress, and was co-author of the Taft-Hartley Bill. He had a stroke in January 1969 and for the last four months he lay in a hospital bed, completely paralyzed, knowing that he was going to die.

“Now I can remember back over the years to when my father buried his father. On that solemn occasion he spoke of life and of death, and said: ‘There is nothing beyond the grave. Heaven and hell is right here on earth.’ That was the way my father felt and thought 36 years ago, but I thank the Lord that in the latter years of his life he was among those members of our family who came to know Christ. As a result, when he lay in a hospital bed paralyzed completely, unable to do a single thing for himself, and knowing that he was going to die, the last words he spoke to me were, ‘I am very happy.’ He knew where he was going. He felt the presence of the Lord with him and there was no fear, no doubt; just quiet assurance.”

American Tract Society, (NJ) Archie Comics Inc. c1971

-It is not money, but the LOVE of money, that is evil. -God can save the rich as well as the poor -The brilliant as well as the uneducated. -There is only one condition-“Come.”