The Potter's House — Leonard Ravenhill

And all I get is this stupid thing. I'm going to get a crown one day, so don't worry. Jeremiah chapter 18. The scholars say this is the most, the second most spiritual book in the Old Testament, the first being the book of Psalms.

I was thinking yesterday, I didn't say it, but you know what? You know, when we die we don't go straight to heaven and get our rewards. John Wesley has been blessing us for 2000 or 200 years, and his brother who wrote all the hymns and Honey Cosby, they've been blessing us and the Lord's setting the bonus up till they get to heaven.

And they're going to get rewarded then. They can't reward them when they go to heaven because they're not finished ministering. You minister, we ministers, some ministers minister better after they're dead than when they're alive.

Were you gasping or were you saying yes? Both. Oh both. I told you somebody asked me a while ago if I pray for the dead, I'd say no, I preach to them constantly. The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying arise and go down to the potter's house and there will I cause thee to hear my words.

God Speaks Through the Potter's House

How did he hear? He heard through demonstration. So often God speaks through our eyes as well as our ears. He speaks through demonstration. History proves that. He preached through demonstration on the cross.

He showed us one who triumphed gloriously. But he remembered he suffered immensely. And he never murmured. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep before a shearer his dumb he opened not his mouth.

An example to us of patience, fortitude. Everybody wants success. Do you want success hanging on the cross? Is that the way to triumph? Bloody, beaten up, ragged, spit running down your jaw. Is that the way into a kingdom?

Yes. It's the only way into the eternal kingdom. You see the reason you don't get blessed, many people don't get blessed, you refuse to die. I picked up a scripture today. When Jesus stepped into a Jordan the heaven opened.

That was his first step to the cross. And the heavens opened. It was the last step in the life of the youngest martyr in the New Testament, Stephen. At the last moment the heavens opened. He saw the Son of God.

You know, ever think how that shocked the Jews, the rabbis and others? Oh, we killed him. We got rid of him. Stephen says, you may, I can see him right now. Do you think that made them mad? I hope it didn't.

If it made them mad, it makes me glad. But right in the crisis moment when everybody else besook him, there that young man sees Jesus. And Jesus contradicts himself, at least contradicts the scripture.

Don't throw him books yet. Because the scripture says that Jesus was sitting at the right hand of the Father. But he says, I see Jesus standing. Do you know what I think? I think Jesus was so excited to see a young man doing everything that he did, lay his life down.

He might have lived 60 years and been the greatest rabbi in the world, or the greatest Bible teacher, and God cuts him off. And Jesus jumps up and says, come on fellow, I'm waiting for you. Also, you don't know that chorus, you're not well enough educated.

Do you know that chorus, it will be worth it all when we see Jesus? You do. It will be worth it all when we see Christ. More like a choir practice tonight than a Bible study, isn't it? Jeremiah 18, verse 1.

The word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah, the son from the Lord, saying, Arise and go down to the potter's house, and they were like cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold he wrought a work on wheels, and the vessel that he made was clay, was marred in the hands of the potter.

And he made again another vessel, as seemed to the good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the Lord came unto me. Actually, when he's seeing this, God is talking about nations and kingdoms, but he narrows it down and says, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, O house of Israel, come that I do with you as this potter.

Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye. Do you want to claim that? He's talking to you, he's talking to me. We're clay in the hand of the potter. So are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

The Potter's Craftsmanship and God's Work in Us

One of the advantages of travel, which some of us have done quite a bit, is going to other countries and seeing how things are manufactured. I like to see work. I don't enjoy it, but I like to see others doing it.

I remember going on the Ford factory about 20 odd years ago, and starting at the beginning, going round and seeing all those wonderful things that they do. The metal is brought in at one end of the place, and the other end an automobile comes out.

And it's wonderful to go there and see the men with all their different, what are their jobs, functioning so neatly and putting that thing together. For some reason, a plane I was in stopped in Saudi Arabia a few years ago.

And when we got in the airport, there were all these gorgeous oriental carpets. And I managed to go into a place and see a man weaving a carpet. It was the most crazy thing I ever saw. We went from the back of the carpet, and all I could see was strings of red, red ones, blue ones, green ones, every shade, every hue.

There's a poem that says, my life is like a weaving between my God and me. I can't just choose the colors. He worketh steadily. Full oft he weaveth sorrow, and I in foolish pride. Forget he sees the upper, and I the underside.

You know, a lot of us go for a counselor, and there's no answer to them. You'll be better playing. There are no answers. If you get all the answers, why do you need faith? God does not, God as I've told you so often, he doesn't owe me anything.

He does not owe me any explanation. All he asks of me is obedience. I may stumble, I may stagger. All he asks is obedience. It's going to be worth it all when we see Jesus. I say, why didn't the Lord give this fellow a private rapture?

I mean, after all, he took Philip and transported him. Why did he take this marvelous man, Jeremiah? A man who has a marvelous identification. I would that God it would be said of me. You remember when Jesus came, he said, who do men say that I the son of man am?

Well, some say, well, there are Moses, some Elijah, and some Jeremiah. Why? Because I believe Jeremiah was the man of sorrows until the man of sorrows came. You know, there's a saying, laugh and the world laughs with you, weep and you weep alone.

It's true in the church, never mind in the world. I read a statement made a hundred years ago, just a few days ago, and the author of that statement said this, God is not at home in his own world. I got news for you, he isn't at home in his own church either.

On the law of averages, he isn't. And he's seeking a habitation, a place to dwell, a place to abide, not only in us singularly, but in collectively amongst people. Why didn't Jesus take this man, I have to say, kind of rapture him and drop him down by the, say, where, the river Jordan and show him the stones that were put there when they crossed the river.

They're there as a memorial. Why didn't he take him onto the top of the mountain and say, pray here, this is where Elijah prayed. Why didn't he take him to some other historic place? He's not just giving the man inspiration, he's giving him correction, and he's giving intuition.

I'll tell you why, amongst other things. Oh yes, sure, I'm saying where we've been different times we've been traveling. We went into Ireland and there's a, a place there. Oh, let me do some marvelous drawing again.

But this thing actually is scooped out like this, and over here there's a great big, call it a barrel if you like, and it was full of stones. The man was pouring stones in. They came from five different nations, and there they were, and then there's a thing going around, it crushes them.

I was going to say to you, when you start making pottery, don't use a hammer. Well, that's exactly what they do. They brought the stones from five nations, stick them in there, there's a thing going around, it crushed the stones, and water was dripping in.

And when it got very, very, very thin, they moved it in a jug, and they poured it into here. That's all they did. This thing's made of clay, oh no, kind of a white clay, and they fill it up with this solution that they've made out of all the stones, and then when it's been there for about an hour, they take the stuff out and throw it back into the trough, if you want, and they leave those things on one side, dozens of them.

Then in the morning, they go take that thing upside down, and what happens? A cup comes out, thinner than the shell of an egg. Martha has her two pieces. I didn't buy them, somebody gave them, I guess.

Where are they from? Belique. Marvelous, marvelous, marvelous. You can read through the thing almost, if you're very good eyed, but it's so thin. Now it gets a little thicker, and they put it into a tube, and a guy has a tube that looks like toothpaste, and I'm watching this little guy with a beard, and he presses a button, and just a little bit of the stuff comes out of the toothpaste, and he puts it down there, and I'm watching something else.

When I look back, he's taken maybe a six or seven inches. When I look back, he's chopped it in little bits. I go around the table and come back. When I get together, he's pushed them together. Then I notice a bit further up the roadway, or up the factory road, or the bench, I should say.

Those pieces that are being put together are being put in an oven. They've been baked, and they come out. There's no color. Then they're passed on to women that are working there, and they paint them.

And by the time you get to the end of the line there, there's some gorgeous brooches with gorgeous flowers, little roses, little forget-me-nots, all made by a little guy that didn't even look up. He just tipped away.

He knew how to do it so well. But you see, there were different stages in which that material could be used. Sometimes there's a thin liquid just poured into a reciprocal like that. Sometimes it was used for other things.

But I marveled when I saw that stuff, because outside they had an exhibition. They had some vases, I'm sure, up to my shoulder. And inside they were just a kind of a pale, almost a yellowy-white for the vessel.

But the roses, the clusters on them, I don't know how long. They must have taken months and months to form, because they have to keep putting them in the oven, and they take them out. They dry the paint, they put them in, they glaze them.

Now when that mud is there, is there anything with less character than mud, except muddy people? It has no beauty that you desire. It has no shape. It has no perfection. It has no perfume. A handful of mud, you can slam it against the wall.

When I saw those marvelous vases there, they were worth, I think, fifty thousand, a hundred thousand dollars. I see them over here, shapeless. They need somebody with intelligence. They need somebody with character.

They need somebody with vision. They need somebody with determination. They need somebody with patience. Well, God help us, we're far worse than that sticky clay. Perverted, twisted, rebellious. Go down and see, there are only three things here.

You've got the potter, you've got the potter's wheel, and you've got the clay. And he takes that clay. Now, they do the same thing. Go down to Marshall sometime. There's a place there, there's a potter working all the time.

The only difference now, as you would expect, they've electrified the little, what do you call it, disc. But he's still out of control with his foot. He controls the speed of, if you want to call it a lathe, whatever it is, he controls the amount of stuff.

And you can stand there and he'll be working. He doesn't seem to be very intelligent, he's looking around, but he manipulates it. And he shapes it, he has a design, he has a patience, he has an intention.

Well, God does exactly the same thing with us. We sang tonight, have thine own way. Thou art the potter, I am the clay. Mould me and make me after thy will. The only difference between the clay that he puts on that disc there is it has no will, it has no rebellion.

Almost the last thing, you know, we sing, take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord. Take my silver and my gold. Take my moments and my days. Take my hands and let them move. Take my feet and let them move.

The last thing in the verse, in the hymn is, take my will and make it thine. And that's about the last thing that we surrender. I want to manipulate and guide my own life. It's my life. Well, keep the stinking thing as it is, and it will stink till you give it to Christ.

But once you give it, it's his life. Again, we're not Christians because we just make a confession. The apostle Paul says, you are dead. I said, yes, it's a thought. There are only two kinds of people in the world, those who are dead in sin and those who are dead to sin.

Well, do you mean to say we can die? Is it possible to get into a state, this side of eternity, where we never sin? No, it's not impossible to sin, it's possible not to sin. As I said yesterday, Jesus, when that bad woman came, what did he say?

Go and sin less? Go and sin no more. That was the other side of the cross. We sin because we want to sin. We sin according to appetites that we have. We've cultivated our appetites. We've cultured our appetites.

We've paid thousands of dollars to increase our own perversity. Get soaked enough intellectually and you'll sneer at some things. Let them sneer. I don't care how high-brow some of these scholars are.

Some of the greatest men I meet have not been intellectuals by a long way. Our pride gets in our way. We call it intelligence. God calls it pride. Self-sufficiency, arrogance. I've heard people say, you know, if that man would ever give his life to the Lord, he's a lawyer, or he's this.

Oh, he'd be so marvelous. Are you sure? I'm not. You see, the crumbling of the will is the hardest thing in the whole world. Because if I had no will, I'm under a dictator, a marvelous dictator, a loving dictator.

He's never capricious. I'm glad God doesn't have moods. Aren't you? Good, shout as loud as you like. Now, Dick. When Dick shouts, you know I'm right. Isn't it wonderful? He's the same. There's no shadow of turning.

We almost sang it. We didn't have time. Great is my faithfulness. There is no shadow of turning. Do you know what? If somebody put on the New York Times, Len Radner's a fraud. He runs around with women when he's not at home.

He steals money, does this. Some of the kind of threatened ones. I said, well, if you do it, send me a copy. Why? I said, I like to laugh too. What about your reputation? I took it to the cross a long while ago.

I don't have one. Come on, nail this in your mind. Reputation is what men think you are, and character is what God knows you are. Doesn't make a hell of a difference what people think. They said Jesus took upon himself no reputation.

Yeah, what did they call him? They said he was the prince of demons. That's why demons subjected themselves to him, because he was boss over them. It was not true. So he takes shapeless clay. I don't know why.

Living Clay and the Surrendered Will

I was thinking a little while ago about one of the great men of our day. Well, my day, I guess. No, not quite my day. David Livingstone. There's a place called Blantyre, just outside of Glasgow. I went to Blantyre one day, and I went down the place where he went.

It was nine miles from where he lived to the dockside. He walked every inch of it in a fog he could hardly see his way, carrying all his own baggage. Dear Lord, we'd expect a military band, wouldn't we?

Oh, that's the announcements on TV. I'm going to Africa to sacrifice my life. The church would make an offering for you, and no little baloney. He walked the nine miles. When he got there, what did he get?

He got diseased. He was a doctor. He was a genius. His wife died. He buried his wife there. He buried his two children there. And yet he kept going on. The Portuguese traders fought him, but he was the first pioneer.

He really split Africa in two. He made a path where there wasn't a path. God took that man in a marvelous way. At the other end of the spectrum, we have a little book. If you haven't got it, get it. And if you can't afford it, ask Martha.

I can't, but Martha will get it for you. It's called Sammy Morris, and it's by a lady called Baldwin. Just a little black African boy. And one night the lights shone, and he followed the light through the forest.

There was no path. He ended up at the dockside. He'd never seen a ship. He'd never seen the ocean. He asked, what's the ship for? It's going across to America. Where's America? Across the ocean. What's the ocean?

This thing here. He got on board the ship, and those marvelous white men, so intelligent, used him as a football. They kicked him actually on the deck more than one. But by the time he got to New York, he's not David Livingstone with a brain of a genius.

He's an ordinary African boy. The Holy Ghost came upon him. And before he got to New York, 23 of the crewmen were saved. I remember in Fort, what was it? Fort Wayne. One day it was drizzling snow and rain.

I went and knelt at his grave. He was an African prince. I think his name was Kru, was it Kru? Of the Kru tribe. And yet everywhere he went, God used him in revival. He knocked at the door of a man in New York, and the man said, who are you?

And he said who he was. A missionary told me, you know about the Holy Ghost. She doesn't know about the Holy Ghost. A black boy comes over the seas and gets kicked around and half-stuffed. He so wanted the Holy Ghost, he wondered if God made him.

You don't want him, you're so satisfied. Oh, he has to use culture or use knowledge or Bible knowledge, nothing of the kind. You see, it's only when we get to a place where we have nothing that God takes us.

And we don't say just verbally, we have nothing, and we live as though we have nothing. No self-satisfaction, no ability of our own. Well, then the fellow took him to a meeting. And going, as they were going through New York, the man kept saying, that's the skyscraper belongs to Woolworths, and this skyscraper.

He stopped the man and he said, sir, I didn't come here to learn about these things, I want the Holy Ghost. And God marvelously met him. He was taken to a fashionable church, and the preacher said, well, just put him in here as a black boy, he'll make these youngsters happy.

A crowd of college kids. And the man went to teach the super Bible class, of course. And he came back wondering what was happening. A strange noise, he opened the door. All the college boys were flat on their faces, seeking God.

So one boy, who was intimate with, he didn't know his Bible very well. Not that that's wrong. But the Bible says, doesn't it, the people that do know their Bible shall be stronger to exploit, doesn't it say that?

Well, what does it say there? Know their God. There are very, very few people who know God. They know theology, they know philosophy, they do not know God. If you know God, if I love someone, I want to be in their presence.

If I love God, I'm unhappy out of his presence. I know he can live in me, and he does live in me. But there are times I want to get away and adore him and worship him and magnify him. Speechless adoration, that's what worship is.

We had a good time of worship. No, we had a good time of praise. Praise is a gateway to adoration. Adoration is a gateway to worship. And if you read the scripture, you'll find that almost everybody who worshiped, they fell on their faces before God.

Didn't fall backwards, they fell on their faces. Well, there you are, that's the exhortation to begin. Let's look at the scripture now. In 2 Timothy chapter 2, 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 20,. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some are to honor and some to dishonor.

If any man therefore purge himself from these, from what? You know that word purge is only twice in the New Testament. It's in 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 7 where you purge out the old leaven, because there's corruption in it.

You have to purge it, you get it out, clean it, which devout Jews still do these days. There are times when they move all their furniture, at least in our city they used to. I worked in a factory of 8 ,000 people, 5 ,000 were Jews.

Those were all kinds of atheists, what have you got? But when it came to Passover, they used to get people to go and buy all new pots, they wouldn't use old things. Everything must be totally cleansed, the house must be swept.

Purge out the old leaven. You know we're so satisfied, God help us, to walk along in a crippled state spiritually. We wouldn't put up with physical health. You know when people say, oh I love that scripture that says, what does it say now?

In John, I pray that your soul may prosper, that your health may prosper, even as your soul prospers. If people's spiritual health is only as good as their, if their physical health is only as good as their spiritual health, it's the hundreds of people going to church in wheelchairs.

It backfires on us. I pray that you may be as healthy in your body as your soul prospers. There's hardly any soul prosperity. Come on, before God, where were you a year ago now? Are you more passionate in prayer?

Is your love for the lost greater? Is your communion with God deeper? Is your love to him higher, hotter than ever it's been? I'm just gathering news, reading books and getting nowhere. I think we'd do well to get rid of most books.

Some we wouldn't, of course, but anyhow. And just stick to the good old word, because faith comes by hearing, but not by hearing music. Sure, I get mad when you can get thousands of young kids go to sit in the cold to hear a rock concert.

You can't get them to a prayer meeting. If there's an option, most people don't settle for the prayer meeting. Go somewhere, oh, we can't come Friday night. Well, don't come, I don't care. Measure thy life by loss and not by gain.

I try to prepare if there's two people here, I put as much time and prayer and sacrifice, or if there's two thousand. Doesn't make any difference. In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor.

If therefore a man purge himself from these, from what? Well, these people at this time were in a state of flux. There was heresy that had entered, and therefore he says, purge himself from what? Well, look for a minute at verse 22, flee also from youthful lusts.

Don't stay with it and say, I'm coming. Flee, get away from the wretched thing. Oh, I went to so-and-so. Yeah, you shouldn't have been there anyhow. You fell into temptation. God says, free from it.

Don't try and drive as near to the edge of the precipice as you can. Drive as far away from the edge as you can. You don't have to test your strength. The flee from it. Youthful lusts, special lusts, usually lust of the flesh, or it may be lust of covetousness or some other thing.

Purging the Vessels for Honor

There are vessels to honor and some to dishonor. I knew this illustration before. When we'd go to the Bahamas, which we haven't been for a few years, we stayed in a lovely home. They had quite a few servants, and I liked to come up the back staircase.

It had one of these great huge porches there. We'd come up and there's a big black woman there, and she'd be at the kitchen sink. I never knew a house could have so many pans. And sometimes the sink would be literally this high with pans, big ones, little ones, couple ones, all kinds of them.

And she was in that steamy kitchen one day. I just patted on the back. I forgot the name, but anyway. Elaine, Elaine, thank you dear. I said, Elaine, you're doing a wonderful job. Always such marvelous meals.

Oh, I wouldn't like to work here. Greasy pots. Oh, greasy dishes. Every crazy thing there. I like the next room. Good old English style. A great long mahogany table, polished. You could see she's shaving the thing.

I like dinner served. Oh, they used to serve the fish on a long silver platter like this. The maid would come in and put it down. Never seen a fish so dressed up in my life. It had a green skirt all around it, parsley, and it had more, I don't know, a kind of tropical fruits.

Looked gorgeous. The tables laid out with superb English china. You know, like the crazy people, three knives and three forks, and I don't have any spoons. And you can tell who are the Americans, they don't know which to use.

And then when they start, but when they start, they don't use their knives, but fiddle around with a fork. But you know, when I look at that kitchen and I saw those dishes greasy, and we'd eat dinner and have a marvelous time and come back and Elaine will be there.

Now she's up to her elbows in that deep sink, washing those things. But the only reason you can have that dinner like that in such wonderful style and all the etiquette and all you've got is because this woman's doing all the dirty work.

You don't put the pots, you don't put the dishes where the pans are, you don't put the pans over there. Sometimes you'll see beautiful English china laid out here, they're going to put different vegetables in it.

But I never heard any of those dishes arguing with the, with the pans. I didn't hear the pan saying, it's all right for you, you go in there, they put something warm on you. They roast me on the stupid thing every day.

Every time it goes 12 o 'clock, they try and burn me out. They put the heat up and I burn and I cringe and they still do it. And sometimes I get my revenge, I've burned all the dinner. But anyhow, well God does that with some people.

He puts some people repeatedly in the fire, it depends what you're after. We have a big earthenware pot kind of thing at our house. We picked it up on the side of the road once coming from Mexico. It had big handles on it.

I don't know anything about the thing. I thought it had been well baked, you know. I picked it up by the handle one day and it just came off in my hands. It had never been in the furnace. It had just been dried in a field in the sun.

And you see the degree to which God seems to punish us, or seems to be slow in manipulating our lives, is the degree to which he's going to use us later on. The other day I was thinking about scripture.

Now we see through a glass darkly. And I prayed, Lord take, we've made an excuse of that. I'm seeing through a glass darkly. Why? Because we want to be that way. Oh, we get a book and ponder over it and it feeds our intellects.

And I'm not against intellectualism. I've got a bit of my own. Paul's got more. And some sons are pretty smart fellows. But it doesn't satisfy the spirit. It satisfies our pride. It satisfies our conceit.

It satisfies our ego. It satisfies our self-confidence. I don't go where I can go. I can keep up my voice. I can be, so what? I said yes to the crowd, you know, we sing turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look, pull in this, pull in his wonderful face.

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim. That's if we get a true revelation of Jesus now, the things of earth become dust. But when we get there and look back, the things of earth will look strangely grim.

We'll find we invested our lives in sawdust, in rubbish, in stuff that didn't really matter. Now some of these vessels are gold. Well you can't, you can't purify gold in the kitchen. Turn your eyes upon Jesus.

Look, pull in his wonderful face. You can take a bar of gold. It may have some alloy in it and whatnot. You put it in a crucible. These days an induction crucible. You put it in there, press some buttons.

The only thing the heat will do with gold is change it from solid to liquid. It won't change its value. It won't do that with silver either. But the goldsmith sits there and he has a sieve like the sieve you use sometimes to take something out of the, when you're cooking.

And he goes with that sieve and he takes the scum, because you see, gold is heavier even than iron. It's heavier than the dross. And therefore the gold sinks to the bottom and he takes the scum off the top and he throws it away and he throws it away.

And he does it over and over again. He goes and then once he stops. He hasn't taken any out. You say, why did you stop? Because it's pure. Well, how do you know it's pure? You didn't test it with anything.

Yes, I did. What did you test it with? I looked in it. When gold is pure, I can see my reflection in it. But whatever the scum there, it doesn't matter how thin it is, he cannot see his reflection. Until his work finishes refining us, he will not see his reflection in us.

It may take him a long, long, long process, according to our obedience, according to our willingness. Anyhow, he says, okay, those 20, they're in a great house. They're not only vessels of gold and silver, but also wood and earth.

Some to honor and some to dishonor. You know, the best parts of you are on the inside, isn't that good? We had an old man live not too far from us and he used to say, beauty is only skin deep. Most of us need skinning.

But nobody comes up to you except on TV and says, well, how's your liver doing this morning? They say it on TV, but suppose you're going in church and pastor says, well, how's your liver? I heard of a woman asked the pastor, would you pray for my floating kidney?

What, in church? I can't pray for your floating kidney in church. She said, well, last week you prayed for bad livers. Oh dear. Not bad livers, bad living, he meant. Oh, now you saw it, thank you. The quarter dropped.

All this inside machinery that's so fabulous. Oh, when I read how many miles of intestines I have and how many cells I have in my body, I'm a billionaire, but I don't know much about it, but the function, I hope they do anyhow.

The good book says we're fearful and wonderfully made. All these inner workings and the brain, I don't know how many cells it has. I sometimes think my batteries are dying down a bit, but anyhow, what a marvelous thing.

Human Complexity and the Limits of Computers

I remember when we were living in England, they made the first, what they call it then, electric brain. It was about as big as this room and there were all kinds of things said about it. They brought some professors from the University of Manchester and they went around and saw these, this marvelous machinery.

And they said, you know, this machine can work out a proposition in 15 minutes that would take a scientist 15 years to work out. Ah, that's wonderful. And one of the men said, well at the side of this machine, what is man?

And some smart boy said, he's a guy that made a machine. Oh yes, sir. Computers are wonderful, aren't they? But they can't reproduce themselves and they reproduce a lot of stuff in them. But again, we are fearful, we are wonderfully made.

You know, the thing that slays me off when I say this, I go in my room. I don't have a big library, maybe a couple of thousand books altogether, which isn't much. And I look around, I see a great set of volumes.

I think of a history like Brady's, or Brady's history of Wesley. It took Brady 17 years to write that book. I look at the other commentators, all kinds of them. I look at them and then I suddenly sit down in disgust.

And say, now one of those men, whether he's there or whether he's in the pages of history. I mentioned yesterday, I was suddenly impressed this week with single individual men, just men. Wesley had no financial backing.