Eternity — J. Wesley Adcock

Eternity as God’s Eternal Nature

For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and lofty place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite one.

But there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. For the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose water has set mire and dirt. Would you stand for prayer, please? Heavenly Father, we're thankful to thee for thy faithfulness toward the children of men.

We thank thee that in thy faithfulness thou hast given us thy word with its warning message in time to make the needed amends that we might meet thee in peace. We thank thee, blessed Holy Spirit, for every way and every measure that thou hast moved in the tent.

We thank thee, dear Jesus, for tasting death for all men everywhere. We beg thee, O Lord, that thou wilt solemnize our hearts for thy truth and further move to make solemn our hearts with thy truth. Lord, we beg thee that thou wilt help some saints to pull in prayer while we preach.

We readily acknowledge our littleness and inability and our unworthiness, but we acknowledge that the Most High God is our sufficiency. We know, O Lord, that there is nothing too hard for thee, and, dear Jesus, thou art more concerned about the souls assembled here than we have capacity for concern.

So do thou help us to join with thee to see thy will wrought in our midst in the deliverance of souls from the bondage and the fetters of sin. Blessed Holy Ghost, do thou put the devil to flight and break over the barriers that he has set up that there be a yielding spirit and an individual seeking thee with their whole heart.

We'll be glad to get on our knees and give the glory and the praise and honor unto the triune God while we ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen. You may be seated. Regardless of where I'm preaching, or regardless of when I'm preaching, or regardless of the subject I may be preaching, I appreciate prayer.

But I will especially appreciate prayer tonight that the Holy Spirit may have right of way and souls may find Jesus. I call your attention to one word found in Isaiah 67, verse 16, and invite you to think with me upon the momentous word of all of the scriptures.

It is that word, eternity. Some time ago, an individual was asked, what is eternity? And the answer given was, it is the lifetime of the Almighty. I suppose that is a fair definition, but when it is given, the question still lingers in our thinking, but what is eternity?

Eternity may be further defined, in part at least, by saying that it is time with both ends knocked out. The most fitting illustration that I know to use in attempting to illustrate eternity is found in a perfect circle.

A perfect circle appears without end, without beginning end or ending end. Eternity is without end, it is without beginning end, it is without ending end. This word is found only once in all of the 66 books of the Bible.

It is flippantly and lightheartedly used. Every single soul in Adam's race is inseparably connected with eternity, and eternity never can be fully comprehended. In the light of these few facts that I've declared to you, it behooves us to gather every measure of the message and meaning of eternity that our heads and hearts can take in, and in attempting to do that, I want you to think with me first tonight upon eternity as it is related to God.

God’s Eternal Existence and the Everlasting Arms

Eternity in its relationship to God is a glorious, crystal teaching, very blessed indeed to the soul of the blood-washed and the redeemed. I think of this, and I am reminded of the declaration of the psalmist, when he in the 90th division and in the second verse says, Before the mountains were brought forth, for ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

Bless his name. Some years ago, I crossed the great chain of the Rockies to preach in Grand Junction, Colorado. When I beheld that great chain of Rocky Mountains, my mind went back to the statement that I quoted to you from Psalm 90 and verse 2.

Teacher, how long have those Rocky Mountains occupied that particular place of God's footstool? Well, I can't tell you exactly how long they've been in that place, but I can tell you something more blessed than the length of time they may have decorated that part of God's footstool, and tell you, before the Rocky Mountains ever had any being, even from everlasting to everlasting, my Father and my God did and doth and shall exist.

He is the Eternal God. Bless his dear name. In Deuteronomy 33 and 27, we read, The Eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. Brother, I'm glad that's written in the book. That gives my soul a hiding place this Sunday night.

That'll be all of the refuge I'll need all week long. That'll be security enough across life's short span, and that'll be all of the refuge I'll need while the ceaseless ages of eternity roll on and on and on.

I'm glad for the undergirding of the everlasting arms of an Eternal God. This is one way our God differs from every other God in the universe. Every other God had a beginning, and already has had, or soon will have, an end.

But our God never did have a beginning, and he never, never, never will have an end. He is the Eternal God. If we are to appreciate this truth as fully as we ought, it seems to me that we will need to view this scriptural teaching in the light of other facts relative to the being of our God.

God’s Omnipotence in Creation and Salvation

For the same Bible that declares that he is eternal, declares that he is omnipotent. Oh, I'm so glad that we have an answer to the scriptural question that says, is there anything too hard for God? Did you read the scriptural answer to that scriptural question?

Well, it's found over a bit further, and the answer is, there is nothing too hard for our God. Bless his name. But the book teaches that our God is omnipotent, that he is almighty in power. That fact is declared in the very first verse of the very first chapter of the very first book of the Bible, hearing as he says, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.

Now, to create in its scriptural sense means to make something out of nothing. That power doesn't belong to man insofar as I know never will belong to man, even after we have been glorified. But it belongs to our God, it belongs to him.

Suppose you were to send a group of men out tomorrow with every kind of material that they need to put up a beautiful church building, but be sure you don't let them have any kind of tool with which to labor, and I'll assure you, they won't get the building erected.

The next day you turn the order around and give them every kind of tool they need to work with from start to finish, but don't let them have any kind of material, and I'll assure you, they won't get the church building put up.

But brother back yonder somewhere in the eternal past, my loving heavenly father had neither tools nor material. He didn't need either one, brother. Before there was ever a single stone or a clod of dirt or a second dust, he brought the heaven and the earth into being out of nothing.

Brother, that kind of a God is big enough to solve our little problems and iron out our difficulties.

And meet our needs, but we don't get any further than the third verse of that same.

Chapter in Genesis 1 and 3, and we have another testimony to the greatness of God. Hear him as he says, and God said, let there be light, and there was light. Now, these beautiful lights are in great contrast to those old coal oil lamps I used to study by down in the hills of western Kentucky.

I don't know, but I suppose if I'd been born up here in Pennsylvania, I would have said Pharisees, but down there was just plain coal oil. Those old coal oil lamps didn't give a good light, especially if the wick hadn't been properly trimmed and if the chimney hadn't been recently cleaned.

But these lights that are in great contrast to those old coal oil lamps haven't come into being by accident or chance. There needed to be hours and hours spent in the place of invention, and after the invention of the first light bulb was made, there still needs to be a dynamo set up somewhere, and the tables all stretched and the connections all made, and when that has all been done, we still don't speak these lights on or speak them off.

We still need to pull the cord or flip the button, but brought it back yonder somewhere in the eternal past. My loving Heavenly Father didn't spend any hours in the place of invention. He didn't set up any dynamos.

He didn't stretch any cables. He made no connections. He didn't pull any cords nor flip any buttons. He said, let there be light, and light burst forth into being. Brother, that kind of a God is able to make the glorious light of the gospel of Jesus shine in sin-denied hearts until he transforms them and makes them to be life in a sin-denied world.

Brother, that kind of a God is able to make saints out of sinners and change their feet from treading in the slippery slopes that terminate in the loathing regions of the lost, and set them running in the king's highway that leads home to the celestial city.

Bless his name. I'm trying to tell you the Bible reveals that we have an omnipotent God. Suppose we let Job testify to the greatness of God. Did you hear his testimony? It's found in the 22nd chapter and the 7th verse.

He declares, he hangeth the earth upon nothing. You and I couldn't hang a goose feather on nothing and make it stay, but our loving Heavenly Father has placed this old globe 25 ,000 miles around out there on nothing, and it's been doing a good job of staying across the centuries.

Bless his name forever. Suppose we let Moses testify to the greatness of God and hear his testimony in the 40th chapter, or Isaiah rather, in the 40th chapter and the 12th verse, who measures the water in the hollow of his hand.

I didn't make any survey. I don't know who has the biggest palm here, but I'm satisfied of this one thing, that if the same were outstretched and if two tablespoons full of water were poured therein, it would be enough to make it overflow.

But to think of my loving Heavenly Father pouring in the Atlantic and the Pacific, the Arctic and the Antarctic, and the Indian Oceans, and the Red and the White and the Black and the Caspian and all of the rest of the seas, and the lakes and the rivers and the springs and the palms thrown in, and measure them in the hollow of his hand, so that that kind of a hand is able to reach way down, a little bit lower than the lowest soul has ever fallen into sin, and lift them up, and has set them up, and tuned them up, and keep them up, and get them ready to go up in the rapture.

Bless his name. I'm glad to tell you we have a God bigger than the battles, bigger than the needs, bigger than the problems. We have the privilege of directing our prayers unto the Omnipotent God. But the same Bible that makes these declarations relative to the almightiness of our God reveals that he is omniscient, he is the all-knowing God.

I'm glad for that tonight. We get a little peekhole into the omniscience of God in the 147th Psalm, in the fourth verse, when he says he held up the number of the stars and called them all by their names.

I understood from the World Book Encyclopedia that the estimated number of stars was 40 billion, not million, but millions. But a more recent report from a professor from Indiana University revealed, according to his teaching, that there are not 20 million, nor billion, nor trillion, nor quadrillion, nor quintillion, nor twenty-septillion, but that there are twenty-septillion of stars.

If there are twenty-septillion, there must be a few more, seeing that no man can number them. And my loving Heavenly Father's vocabulary is not limited to twenty-septillion words. He calls them all by their names.

His vocabulary is not limited to twenty-septillion words. Brother, that's a little bit of his star knowledge. That's saying nothing about all of the rest that he knows all about. I don't know much about the past.

I know less about the present, and I know still less about the future. But my loving Heavenly Father knows all about the past. He knows all about the present, and he knows all about the future. He knows all we know, and all we don't know.

There just isn't anything to know but what our loving Heavenly Father doth know. Brother, that kind of a God knows me by name, and that kind of a God knows you by name, and knows you by name. That kind of a God knows every sinful thought that you've ever entertained.

He has a record of every wicked word that you've ever spoken. He knows every sinful deed that you've ever committed, if they're not under the blood of Jesus Christ. But preacher, what are you saying all of this?

I thought you were preaching on the eternity of God. Well, I'm trying to, but I am trying to bring this in to remind you that God is not just eternal in his existence. He is eternal in his being. To say it in another way, God is tonight who he always was, and he always will be who he now is.

He always was almighty in power. He is so tonight, and there never will be a time when he shall be any the less powerful. He not only does know all things, but he always did know all things, and he always will know all things.

I'm glad that in the midst of a changing world, and a changing church, and changing conditions, and changing people, we have a changeless God. He is eternal in his being, as well as he is eternal in his existence.

God’s Promises Bring Salvation Within Reach

If we believe what I've said, it ought to help us to get hold of the promises that God almighty has granted unto the children of men. For he, the omnipotent, eternal omniscient God, has condescended to put himself within our reach by his promises.

Let me see if I could illustrate that to you. Look at a little boy out there, four or so years of age, standing under an apple tree with the first ripe apples of the season hanging on the tree. He's too little to climb the tree, and too short to reach the lowest apple on the lowest leaf.

That's quite a predicament for a hungry boy to the end. You go down by the creek bank of the river, and get one of those canes that has length and lightness, until a chubby hand of four years could handle.

Put that in his little chubby hand, and you rest assured that it isn't long until at least one apple's not hanging on the tree. But in that little chubby hand, and the juice running out of both corners of his mouth, the reason was the apple got within his leaf by a little pole that he could handle.

Brother, that's a little illustration of what God has condescended to do. He was so high up in his holiness, and I was so far down in my sin, that I didn't have a thing with which to reach him. He was so high up in his wisdom, and I was so far down in my ignorance, I didn't have a thing with which to reach him.

He was so high up in his goodness, and I was so low down in my meanness, that my family tree wouldn't help me get ahold of him. There was nothing that I had with which to reach him. And when I found myself in such a sore plight as that, he condescended, and put himself right down within my reach by his promise, and said, come now, and let us reason together.

Thus sayeth the Lord, though your sins be as solid, they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Preacher, you don't know how mean I am around home. Preacher, you don't know how wickedly I talk.

Preacher, you don't know about my sins I commit in the dark. Preacher, you don't know how immoral and unclean I am. Preacher, you don't know how big of a thief I am. Preacher, you don't know how long since I've broken my marriage vow.

Preacher, you don't know about my double living. No, sir, I don't, but there's a God seated on yonder throne that knows all about you, and he who does know all about you has extended an invitation to you until though your sins be as solid and be as red as solid and as crimson, you don't have to go to a devil's hell for God has condescended to put himself within your reach by his promise, and cried out in Matthew 11 and 28, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, and he wouldn't let the last amen of the last book be written until then.

He, in Revelation 22 and 17, extended another golden invitation, the spirit and the bride say come, and let him that hear us say come, and let him that is at birth come, and he didn't stop there. He didn't leave it there.

He threw the invitation wider still and cried out, whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Brother, that's more blessing than it would have been if he had said, and let Wesley Adcock come, for there are more Wesley Adcocks than him.

I don't know which one he meant, but brother, when he said whosoever, I know who he meant. He didn't leave you out, and he took me in. He didn't leave me out, and he took you in. I'm glad to tell you that he's whosoever included you, and you, and you, and when he condescended to put himself within my reach 34 years ago, the 18th day of April past, I found Jesus Christ precious from my heart down in the hills of western Kentucky until it seemed that the stars shone brighter as I walked through that night, and brother, I plowed corn on the hillside with a double shovel behind the mule, and cut saw logs in the woods with a crosscut saw, and taught on the high school level, and on the college, and the grade school level, and brother, it's been blessed to walk with the Lord Jesus Christ, whether I was cutting saw logs or plowing corn, or teaching school as I walked with him and kept in step.

Time’s Brevity and Its Contrast With Eternity

Bless his name, I'm glad to tell you, nobody has to go to hell because he's too big of a sinner, for God Almighty has more grace than you, and you, and you have seen. I pass from eternity as it is related to God, and have you look with me upon eternity and its relationship to time.

Time for mortal man has not been in existence very long, it's just been about 6 ,000 years since Adam took his first breath. Oh, I realize some of these know-it-all professors would have us believe about 50 billion, well they might as well make some other wild guess, but they can't but they did more support than they can that.

About 6 ,000 years ago since Adam took his first breath, if you were to change it into days, it has just been around 2 ,200 ,000 days since Adam took his first breath. If you were to change it into hours, it has just been something like 52 ,600 ,000 hours since Adam took his first breath.

If he had lived down till this Sunday night, and if he had saved $10 each day that he lived, he still would not be the most wealthy man in the world. Yes, sir, time is a brief something. It is revealed to be brief by illustration again and again in the scriptures.

Hear him as he likens life unto a vapor. Watch the tea kettle as it boils on the understove, and you see the steam above the spout of waves, and then you see it no more. For life is like a vapor. The vapor is soon over and gone, and you will soon be gone, and I'll soon be gone.

No, life is further likened unto a shadow, and the longest shadow the sun ever made just lasted one short day, and life's short day for me is hurrying to a close, and for you it will soon be ended. We'll hear but such a dilly little while.

What a short time does it seem since we were children running and playing on the hillside younger in the country, but time is hurrying us off to eternity. Life is likened unto the grass. It grew up a short while ago and was cut down and withered and is gone.

Yes, sir, there are only a certain number of blades of grass that decorate dogs for stew. There are only a certain number of grains of sand that rope in the briny deep, but you can't measure eternity.

You can measure time by the seconds, the minutes, the hours, the days, the weeks, the months, the years, the decades, the centuries, the millenniums, and the ages, but you can't measure eternity. Time had a beginning and time is going to have an end.

Did you read what the angel declared as his fans with one foot on the land and one on the sea and with hand raised to heaven is going to declare that time shall be no more. Brother, there's going to be the last ton of coal drawn out of the bowels of mother earth.

There's going to be the last automobile run off of the assembly line. There's going to be the very last, the very last cat meeting hell, and the last autocar is going to be extended. There's coming a time when the angel shall declare that time shall be no more.

Brother, you'll need more than a church membership to rescue us all on in that day. You'll need more than a hopeful religion when the angel declares that time has come to a close and is to be swallowed up into eternity.

Yes, sir, time had a beginning and time shall have an end. Eternity never had a beginning and eternity never, never, never will have an end. I pass from eternity as it is related to God and time and have you be with me, if you will, eternity as it is related to the blood washed and the redeemed.

Eternal Life and the Hope of the Redeemed

And oh, how unspeakably blessed is this part of the scriptural teaching for us. Yes, sir, there shall be a brighter day to dawn for the blood washed and the redeemed all alone declared. And we know, and we know, I'm glad it got out of the hope so many so get so proud and got over into the know so proud and declared.

We know that if the earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God and house not made with hands eternal in the heaven. Brother, that's the best house anybody, anywhere, anytime ever heard tell It's built by the greatest builder, anybody, anywhere, anytime ever heard tell us it has the most blessed location that anybody, anywhere, anytime ever heard tell us.

If I miss other things, I want to be sure that I don't miss that. And Jesus declared, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself.

But where I am, there ye may be also. I don't know what Jesus has been doing for about 2000 years, evidently not making mansions. For he said, in my father's house are many mansions. One teacher declared that he's been doing interior decoration.

Well, brother, I don't know just what all he's been doing, but I'm satisfied of one thing, that if I make it through that it will be far more blessed and glorious than I have ever been able to imagine that it possibly could be.

It's going to be mighty blessed to make it through to that celestial crown because over there, brother, over there, we'll be out of gunshot of the devil forever. We'll be where the biggest enemy of our hearts and the biggest enemy of our home and the biggest enemy of the church and the biggest enemy of God never, never can come.

That alone ought to be enough to put a shout in our soul and a go-to in our inmost being until we would be victorious regardless of what the cost might include. But that's not all, that's not all. Hey, it's going to be mighty blessed because we can have a glorious, glorified body like under the glorious, glorified body of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Down here I get so tired and weary and worn that I don't know whether I can make it very much further or not, that never will have any aches and pains or any diseases. Oh, I'm trying to tell you there's a brighter day to dawn for the blood-washed and redeemed.

No wonder he declared in the face of coming evidences of the second coming of Jesus, lift up your eyes or your head for your redemption draws. Now, yes, it's going to be mighty blessed over there because of all the associations that we'll be privileged to have.

I know of no way to tell you how deeply my heart has been blessed and strengthened by the association with the saints right down here that meet up with one that I haven't seen for a while and have a great greeting or a season of prayer together, brother, that's unspeakably blessed.

But tell me if you can what is it going to be like when we're privileged in that celestial time to meet all of the saints of the yesteryear that made the landing on the other shore. Oh, brother, I want to go down Hallelujah Avenue if that is where Peter, James, and John reside and have them answer some questions from here.

I'd like to look up Paul wherever his mansion is and talk some things over with him. I'd like to find Moses and have him tell me more about what it was like when God Almighty verified his promise to Philippians 4 and 19 saying, my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory.

There they were under the scorching equatorial sun without any umbrellas to protect them there from and God Almighty in his goodness put a pillar of cloud in the heavens until everybody could pass under.

They didn't have any electric light system such as this and God put a pillar of fire in the heavens until every last one of them could see how to travel day and night. They didn't have any bakery to buy bread from and God sent them bread all the way from the glory world.

They didn't have any meat market to buy meat from and God Almighty sent them quail in abundance. Brother, they didn't have any running water system and God sent them water out of the rock. They didn't have any department store to shop at on Friday or Saturday night either one and God wouldn't let their shoes and clothes wear out for 40 long years.

Brother, I tell you it's going to be mighty blessed to have that grand home coming in the skies, to have that glorious reunion of all of the saints of all of the yesterdays and even more blessed than there shall be at that glorious experience when the reality of the truth written in the first epistle of John is ours in truth.

For there he tells us about something that is more blessed than being sanctified holy and that's too blessed for words. He tells us something more blessed than going to heaven and that's too blessed for words.

He tells us something that is more blessed than walking on the street of gold. He tells us of something that is far more blessed than living in a mansion in the glory world and that's too blessed for the words of mortal man ever to express.

He tells us how that there is coming a time when we're going to be privileged to be like Jesus. Therefore we shall see him as he is. Brother, that's the highest possible goal that mortal man ever can aspire unto or attain unto but it will stay true one of these days.

We will not just be privileged to live in a mansion and walk on a gold-plated street and be associated with a blood-washed and redeemed and be out of gunshot of the devil and have a glorified body but brother we're going to be privileged to be like Jesus.

Oh brother that ought to be enough to make everything the devil has looked like junk fit to be thrown on the ash heap. That ought to be enough to make us say by the grace of God I'll stem every tide and stand every test and make it all on the inside of the celestial city.

The Eternal Blessedness of Heaven

I'm satisfied this evening that if I can make you people believe that down in the big state of Texas there was a large area of land where people lived to be 1 ,000 years old, never had any sorrow or any suffering, no sin to face and no Satan to face, had no disease, no death, no devil, no dying, nothing undesirable living in Texas to be a thousand years old.

I'm satisfied if I can make you believe such a place was to be found in the big state of Texas that if you couldn't get there any other way you would start walking all the way to Texas and brother if such a place existed down there I wouldn't blame you for starting out on your feet and walking every step of the way to get to a place like that but brother a year you start that journey I tell you there's no place like that in Texas but brother over on the other side of the river over on the other side of the river how there is no disease that there is no devil there is no death to face there is no dying there is no sickness there is no suffering there is no sorrow there is nothing undesirable oh brother not for a thousand years not for a million or a billion or a trillion not for a quadrillion or the quintillion or a sextillion or a sextillion.

Nor an octillion, nor a nomillion, nor a decillion, nor a duodecillion of years, but for all eternity. Brother, nobody will be sitting on the meeting over there. Every heart will be in harmony with holiness and righteousness and truth.

Every heart will be in adoration unto the Living God. Every heart in that celestial clime will be in harmony with the holiness of the Holy God. Brother, in that glorious celestial city, every individual will be enjoying eternal life.

Do you know what eternal life is? Well, it's life with every undesirable thing in the light of eternity taken out of it, and every desirable thing in the light of eternity poured into it, and that without any end.

Yes, sir, the best camp meeting you ever attended closed. The greatest prayer meeting you ever went to ended. But brother, I'm glad to have a great regard. I'm on my way to an inheritance in the skies where we can throw away the watches and do away with the clocks and dispose of the calendars and exchange time for eternity where every single soul that is enjoying eternal life will have the benefits of an eternal day.

Do you know what an eternal day is? Well, it's a day that doesn't have any yesterdays to precede it. It won't have any tomorrows to follow it. It won't be ushered in by the rays of the natural sun, but it will be ushered in by the rays of the S-U-N of righteousness, even Jesus who shall be the light of that city.

Oh, brother, I declare unto you, it would seem in the light of what God has revealed relative to the blood-washed and redeemed in the face of eternity ought to be enough to make everybody that had good sense forsake everything that looks like the devil and stem every tide and stand every test and be in the number when the saints go marching in.

Glory to God in the highest forever and forever and forever. Things most blessed about it will be if you make it through to the city. You can look back and see how miserably that little two-before preacher failed trying to tell you about Sunday night.

For I'm altogether convinced that it'll be far more glorious than all of the preachers of all of the centuries they've ever been able to try to describe by formal sounds. Bless his name forever. If the Bible left my subject here, I would leave it here and we could be dismissed and go our ways.

Eternity and the Torments of the Lost

But the Bible doesn't leave this solemn subject here. And I, in faithfulness to your soul, can't afford to leave it here. Saints, if you ever did pray in your whole life, I hope you will pray for the next 15, 10 or 15 minutes.

For I have come to the other part of the message. Eternity as it is related to the doomed, the lost, the damned soul. And I think of this and I'm reminded that down in Trinidad there's a lake of pitch.

Oh, in Africa there is a lake of ink. In Australia there is a lake of fire, a lake of boiling water. But somewhere, somewhere in God's universe there is a lake of fire and brimstone. And every single soul that will not be saved will have to finally be an inhabitant in that lake.

And every single soul that slips into that awful abode of the doomed and the lost will have all the torments that are wrapped up in that solemn, serious word, lost, lost. Brother, there's something solemn about being lost.

There's something serious about being lost. There's something sad about being lost. I suppose some of you read that article written in the Leader's Digest. I suppose it must be three years or so ago now.

And somebody was giving a report of one of the newspaper men from one of the newspapers in Louisville, Kentucky who years ago went down in the sandstone cave. When a mother's son was trapped down there, Floyd Collins was fastened in the sandstone cave.

This article that appeared around three or so years ago was telling about this newspaper man going down, down, down that narrow winding passage until finally he reached the place where he was able to lay his hand on something that was wet and cold.

It was a sack that was on part of Floyd Collins' body and Floyd begged him not to take it away. When I got to that part of that report, I was so taken with the grief and the anguish and the sorrow that I stopped reading the article.

I haven't finished it yet. Some mother's son was lost in a sandstone cave in Kentucky. I think of that child that was lost down in southern Indiana some time ago. A child reporting on the same said he went out in the stickers and something like a thousand people turned out to look for a lost child near Burns City, Indiana.

They failed to find the child and after the cross had done its devastating work, they found the skeleton that was left yonder in the stickers. I can't imagine what it would be like for our firstborn David to be lost all night and all day and all night and all day and a whole week lost.