Small Things — John Ridley

Zechariah and James on the Power of Small Things

I am asking you to look at the Word of God in two passages. The Old Testament, Zechariah, the fourth chapter, reading a rather peculiar passage of Scripture, but very deeply spiritual, from the fifth verse of the fourth chapter of Zechariah through to the tenth verse, and then we'll come to a very practical, easy-to-be-understood-down-to-earth passage in the book of James in the New Testament.

Zechariah 4 at verse 5. Please remember it's the Word of the living God, which liveth and abideth forever. The Word that never passes away, forever settled in heaven. Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be?

And I said, No, my Lord. Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, the governor of Jerusalem at that time, who had the responsibility of the city and the building of the temple, saying, Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts, Who art thou, O great mountain?

Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a flame, and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shouting, crying, Grace, grace unto it. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, his hand shall also finish it, and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you.

For who hath despised the day of small things? For they shall rejoice, and shall see the promise in the hand of Zerubbabel. With those seven, they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro throughout the whole earth.

Now from that deeply profound and spiritual passage, we turn to a down-to-earth practical passage in the third chapter of the epistle of James, the first verse. My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that ye shall receive the greater condemnation.

For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, unable also to bridle the whole body. Behold, we put bricks in the horses' mouths, that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body.

Behold also the ships, which are driven of fierce winds, though they be so great and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small help. Whithersoever the governor lifteth. Even so, the tongue is a small member, and boasteth great things.

Behold how great a matter a little fire can do. And the tongue is a fire, a word of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and seteth on fire the force of nature, and it is set on fire of hell.

May God add his blessing to the passages of his word, for his name's sake. I notice in my little book, whereby I have a record of many sermons preached throughout the world, that I've preached well over 90 sermons in this pulpit, from that far away September day of 1919, when I was just back in uniform from World War I.

Over 90 sermons. It's rather difficult to find new methods just for Stanmore in some respects, but I've never preached this method before. I'm not guaranteeing that you mightn't hear a distant sound of bells that you've heard in other days, some of the old hands, you know, before we finish the weekend.

But I've never preached this method in Stanmore before, and I think it's a vital method, because in a world that is ever enlarging, a big world, and a world that seems to be coming bigger with the invasion of space, how essential is the supremacy of the small things?

Small Things Count with God

How all vital is the importance of the small things? Oh, I don't know, there's some I don't think is so important or vital. I think we're living in a world where the big things count. I want to tell you, my dear friend, the small things count with God.

That's why the prophets cried out, who has despised the day of small things? And James, the practical apostle, answers, behold, how great a matter a little fire kindled. There is a young man who understands nothing about great transactions, and the speaker was a financial king, seated in his luxurious London office, talking to a business friend.

And through the open door, they heard two clumps talking together, and one of them said to the other, there you are, I just about balanced the budget. Only you hate me out, that's nothing. And like a flash, the financial king said to his friend, there's a young man who understands nothing about great transactions.

The Childhood Temptation of a Small Book

Take these, make pennies. Pennies, pounds. Pounds, fortunes. Behold, how great a matter a little coin can kindle. When I was a very little boy of about six or seven years of age, my mother sent me across the road to a humble store off of our humble home, to buy a few groceries.

And I handed the list to old Mrs. Worth, and she started to attend to the order, and she turned her back on me, and started patting up the butter or something in the old-fashioned way, in which they dug the butter out of a keg and then patted it up, you know.

And she was busy here with her back to me, and I glanced down on the counter, and I saw some tantalizing little books. They were not paperbacks, but paperfronts. The whole of the front was covered by beautiful little colored pictures, enough to tantalize any child.

And Mrs. Worth's back was toward me, and I put out my little hand, and I seized one, and just put it into my pocket. And a few minutes after, I received the parcel of groceries, and walked back over the street, and placed the groceries on the kitchen table, and crept away into a corner of the house, and pulled out this precious little book, and I started to feast my eyes upon those wonderful pictures.

And suddenly, my mother's voice interrupted me. Where did you get that book? Oh, I said, oh, Mrs. Worth, did she give it to you, she said. I said, no, no, beginning to tremble inwardly. Well, she said, how did you get it?

She didn't give it to you. Oh, I said, I took it. You go straight back, said my mother, with great firmness in her voice. You go straight back, and you ask Mrs. Worth if you can have that book, and never you dare take anything again without asking for it.

And I went back very trembling, I can tell you, across that street. I wondered what was going to happen to a little thief when I got back, and I said, please, please, Mrs. Worth, I took one of your books.

I don't think they are very important books, or something like that. She said, no, dear, they were advertisement books. It's all right, you can have one, dear, that's all right, she said. And I went back feeling like I'd won a kind of a little victory over my mother, but I hadn't.

Oh, my mother did good work that day. She nipped in the bud a possible great sin, for nearly all great robberies begin with petty thefts. The little this I must do. Oh, preacher, someone might well say in the congregation, why are we at trifle with hyphenies and advertisement books in days in which we live?

Space exploration, marvelous inventions, electronic power. They're only trifles. That's right, they're only trifles. But who? Who has despised the day of small things? Why, that bland sculptor, Michelangelo, the master sculptor of the ages, kept walking away at the back of that statue until one man in desperation said, oh, sir, it's as smooth as it can be.

Not quite, he said. But it's only a trifle, sir. Yes, he said, and trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle. More than that, trifles count with God. Who has despised the day of small things?

Small Disobedience and the Origin of Sin

The whole group. The whole group. How great a man. A little fire. Kindred. Those two texts are true when you face three of the greatest facts in life. When you face three of the greatest facts in life.

Face the facts of sin. And sin is a fact. Those texts are true. Oh, that wonderful garden planted eastward in Eden, with every beautiful tree you could imagine, with the peace of the paradise of innocence, and our forefathers given the right of that garden to eat of the fruit of any of the trees, with one tiny, trifling little prohibition drawn round one tree in the midst of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the Lord God Almighty said, Thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.

And then came the tempter to Mother Eve, and said, Ha! God said, The dose of death. And then, the direct line, Thou shalt not die. Thou shalt be a God, known good from evil. And she saw it was something to be desired, to make one wise.

It was pleasant fruit. And after all, it was only a little trifle if she does make a mistake. And she took the forbidden fruit, gave it to her husband, they both did eat. And according to the Scripture, they fell away from God.

The fall, theologically, the disaster of the human race. All the sorrow, the suffering, the sordidness, the slaughter of the human race, bound up in that little bundle of a tiny, trifling prohibition.

Why? Because you can't trifle with God. Because disobedience is a deep, devilish sin. And when God says a thing, He means it. And you've got to obey it. Or count the cost. If you will count the cost. Out there in the cursed earth, sweating by the sweat of His brow as He digs in that earth that's crocked with thorn and thistle.

You can hear the groan of Adam, I didn't know what I was doing. You can hear the shriek of Eve in the travail pains of birth. Oh, that I'd never touch that fruit. Behold, how great a matter a little trifling disobedience can bring about.

Beloved, are you obedient to God? God now is commander. All men, everywhere, to repent. Are you obedient to God? Again, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.

Hatred, Murder, and the Fire of Resentment

Is there obedience to God? Oh, don't be a trifling. Don't be a trifling. It doesn't really matter. The small thing counts with God. I don't think for a moment that Cain meant to kill Abel at the beginning.

They both came to offer their sacrifices. Cain, the fruits of the earth, which he felt were his own, though God had given all the grace to enable him to reap the harvest. Abel, a lamb of the flock, the slayer can come through blood to the Lord in His own appointed way.

And because the Lord had not respect unto Cain, that he had respect to Abel's offering, Cain's countenance fell. Did you ever see a countenance fall? I've seen some people in my meetings and the countenance has suddenly fallen.

I've been talking at times to people and suddenly, because of the nature of the argument, the countenance has fallen. And up is rising. Be careful, Cain. He's your brother. He's your brother. That's all right.

I won't do him any harm, but I hate the fellows. Ah, hatred. That hellish tiger's cack of hatred that springs up in the heart. Have you never heard a woman say, Oh, I dislike her. You've never heard a man say, I don't stand the fellows.

Be careful of it. It can develop to a hatred, a dislike unto murder. But who so hatheth his brother is a murderer. And ye know no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. When they met in the field, that tiger cat of hatred sprang forth.

And with one blow, Cain killed his brother Abe. Oh. How great a man. A little fire of hatred can kindle. Beloved, save yourselves from hatred by quenching in the grace of Christ the first seeds of dislike, the first risings of resentment.

Keep a heart that is free from malice and anger. You never know. You never know. We're living in an age of violence. We're living in an age when men are bitten straight, left and right, because the demons of hell are abroad.

Filthiness and the Gradual Spread of Sin

Oh. What great a matter, a little fire can kindle. I don't think for a moment that Sodom and Gomorrah were always putrid places. But I think there came one day into the mind of a man in Sodom a filthy thought, and instead of throwing it out of his mind, he fiddled with it, he caressed it, he nursed it, he meditated upon it, he imagined things from it, he whispered it to another man and to another and to another, and it went like wildfire through the community, and after years the whole place is a sink of sordidness.

Oh, said Abraham, to God, spare the place, spare it for ten righteous men. Yes, I will spare it for ten righteous men, he said. But when Abraham rose up early in the morning and went to the high place and looked towards the city to the plain, a great pillar of smoke went up.

Oh. Wait a minute. A little fire of filth had kindled. The whole place was wiped out and even the two women that were rescued with the one righteous man had the awful stain of the city upon them. What an age we live in for filthiness.

An old comrade of mine from the Second World War wrote to me a couple of weeks ago. I got the letter this week, rather, in which he was speaking about the years we were together in the army when he came to the Lord in our evangelistic ministry in the army, and he said, it's a different world and it's a dirtier world than in those days.

Was he right? I think so. It's a world where impurity prevails. In many a mind, in many a heart, it meets you in the advertisements. It meets you when you come up against the ordinary bookstore. It meets you constantly in the conversation of men and women.

Oh, Timothy, keep thy heart pure, was the cry of Paul. Not an easy thing to do. No, the fight for purity is a tremendous uphill fight that God has able. If you trifle with filthiness, if you trifle with immorality, if you trifle with that which is defiled in God's sight, behold, how great a matter a little fire kindled.

Oh, John, said a dear fellow that I loved, who was aiming for the ministry and had been found in a place of ill fame. Oh, John, he said bursting into tears, I learnt this kind of thing at a boarding school the other side of the world years ago and it's got me down now.

Dishonesty and the Fall of Judas

I learnt it. I didn't despise the die of small things, yet I did despise it. I let the small go to the last. Poor broken hearted man. Of course impurity can break and shatter the spiritual life. And then I don't think for a moment that Judah meant to sell the Lord Jesus Christ at the beginning.

He was one of the selected twelve. He had hopes of the Messiah's kingdom. He desired to be in that kingdom. But as the hopes began to fade and the cross loomed up in the distance, Judah spurned to an old weakness.

John said he was a thief. He kept the bag and he bared what he took from that bag. That's the idea of it. Oh, I expect he meant to pay it back. I expect it was to be squared up but just a little helping of himself from the bag.

A little dishonesty. But the time came and he felt the whole thing had failed concerning Jesus of Nazareth. What will you give me? And I will betray him to you. Thirty pieces of silver down his head. For the love of money, as one man said, is in every man's heart.

And he's got to quench it for it will get the better of him. And he got his bag of silver and he never spent it. He went back and threw it down before the priest and went out and hanged himself. The whole how great a matter.

A little fire of kin but a little fire of dishonesty. A little fire of filth. A little fire of hatred. A little fire of disobedience and you can carry it on and on and on. Why in one of our early meetings about five to seven young fellows came into the inquiry room one night and a father who could see his two sons teenage lads coming out to the Lord rushed up to me and said can I speak to the boys Mr Ridley?

I said yes if you'll be brief. He said I don't have a word to say to them and they were sitting round a table in the vestry and the father said oh boys listen to me you've come out for Christ I'm telling you boys keep clear of sin.

A Small Wound and the Consequences of Sin

It will get you in the long run and I'm speaking as a man that knows. He quivered with emotion he didn't know. He realised that sin boomerangs back. You know on this platform a way back 46 years ago the first time I ever came to Stanmore in uniform there was another comrade of mine in uniform and another one named Len Greenberg who was going in for the ministry under Clue Black.

You know that comrade only about two months after I stood here on that 11th or 14th of September 1919 that same comrade who was preparing for new life in the land that he loved and had fought for who had been through Gallipoli half of Gallipoli campaign and through parts of France and had got back safely and was welcomed home was rushed to hospital.

His father rang me one Saturday crying, crying for Alex he said pray for him John, oh pray for him. I said what's wrong with him he said he's got blood poisoning. I said how did he get it. And he said he scratched a pimple in his nose last Wednesday and this is Saturday the poison was racing through him it raced through many of us.

I nearly died myself with blood poisoning after World War I where our blood was low they didn't have the same medicines and things to deal with it and when I rushed out to that coast hospital that Saturday afternoon he was in a mad delirium and Monday he died on Wednesday I followed him to the grave helped to carry his coffin out of St. James Church, Sydney with the Union Jack right round it marched behind a gun carriage and heard Chopin's funeral march in all its pathetic stride and I thought through Gallifrey and France and he scratched a pimple dead, dead within a week.

Behold how great a matter a little friar pimple. Behold a man who had been through so much taken so quickly by scratching a pimple and you can go on scratching the pimples of pollution in your life and the sores of sin in your life.

Keep on scratching them as the years go on never winning the victory never gaining the supremacy by the Holy Spirit always trifling with sin until perhaps at last being in hell. He lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom and said, Father Abraham send Lazarus to dip his finger in water and cool my tongue.

I'm tormented in this rain son. Remember. Remember the past. Remember there's a great gulf between us. Fix, we can't go to you. You can't come to us. Behold how great a matter a little friar pimple. But look out for the spark of the fire.

Don't let it get to the flame. Oh the texts are true my friends. They're true when it comes to sin. And all of us know they're true when it comes to sin if we're honest with ourselves. But listen the texts are true when you come to the Saviour.

The Smallness of Christ’s Birth and the World’s Redemption

When you come to the Saviour do you remember that Christmas morning long ago that you walked and sung about away in a manger. Picture it for a moment that maiden mother wrapping up that tiny little thing.

A little child just born in swaddling clothes. And placing that little bundle in a manger for a bed. Think you can see the shepherd racing in and gazing at that little bundle there. No one could be smaller humanly speaking than that little child just born but bound up in the swaddling clothes is the great matter of the world's redemption.

Yes he grew up in favour with God and man. There was no trifling thing he left undone. God would or man would. And when he came to thirty years of age he came to John at Jordan to be baptised of John.

John said no I have need to be baptised of thee. He said suffer it to be so now. Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. And John suffered him baptised him. And as Bernard of Clairvaux said wash the waters white as he baptised him.

No little point of his father's will would he fear from or divert from. Suffer it to be so now. Thus it becometh us us to fulfil all righteousness. And he grew up and he went out to his ministry and he gathered that great company of five thousand men besides women and children.

And he said when shall we buy bread that these may eat. Oh two hundred penny worth of bread is not enough to feed this great company. But the lad, a little lad with five loaves and two small fishers was brought by Andrew and was willing to surrender his little lunch to the Lord Jesus.

And the saviour took that small lunch insufficient even for a ball. Let alone for a vast multitude. And he gave thanks and he broke the bread and the fishers and gave to his disciples and kept on giving and kept on giving and kept on giving and kept on until the vast multitude was fed until it was over for him.

They had had enough. And there were so many crumbs and pieces on the grass that he said gather up the fragments of the mind that nothing may be lost not a crumb lost of that gift given to Jesus. And I've often thought of it if a person truly unreservedly gives himself back to Jesus Christ not a hair of his head shall be lost.

He'll redeem, he'll rescue every hair of your head from the power of the enemy no matter what he may do to you in this world. Oh no despising about Jesus Christ. He didn't despise the little children suffer them to come unto me and forgive them not for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

He didn't despise the little woman who broke the alabaster box of ointment and anointed his feet and his head. And they all found fault and said to what purpose is this waste. The money should have been gathered from sales and it would have served the poor.

Let her alone he said. Let her alone. Whatever this gospel is preached. This that this woman has done should be told as a memorial of her. Oh man in that mansion of ours tonight. How great a matter that little fire kindled whatever this gospel is preached.

It's going to be told of this all through. At the same time when he went through Jericho he stopped there under the tree where the little man of the city had climbed up. The detested man small in size small in reputation undesired despised sneered at disliked hated.

He stopped just there and said that he hath laid haste and come down for the day I must abide at thy house. And he made haste and came down and received him joyfully. And they were all offended. He was gone for good for a man like that a sinner.

Oh but he didn't despise the little man. The Lord deals with little things. Little things. Yes the people that are not so important and big as those that have headlines in the paper. The Lord has time for them.

Thank God and loves them. And for these little people that will be humble enough to receive him and to love him. He went through. He went through to the cross. He didn't despise the weeping daughters of Jerusalem.

He didn't despise the brutal soldiers driving in the spikes to his hands and his feet. Father forgive them. They know not what they do. He didn't despise the repentant thief when he cried Lord remember me when thou comest to thy kingdom.

There are the eyes I pray unto thee today. So thou be with me in paradise. Oh paradise. Did you ever think of paradise. Did you ever think of the beauty and blessedness of the garden of God heaven's glorious golden garden.

Did you ever think of the fact that Paul was caught up in the paradise. Did you ever think of your dying tonight where you'd be with Christ in paradise. And he was a sinner right to the closing moments or hours of his life.

An awful sinner. But he was obedient to the repentance call. He was obedient to that dying redeemer. Remember me. He didn't despise the poor suffering mother at his feet on the cross woman behold thy son.

He didn't despise a world lying in wickedness. For he went into the unterrible darkness of the three arrows of the cross. And no one can fathom that. He didn't despise us when he died. The death that was the deal the death row to sin and coming out as the darkness began to break away.

Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished that the scriptures might be fulfilled then. He didn't despise the scriptures. He's thinking back to the 69th psalm in my thirst. They gave me vinegar to drink.

It's not been fulfilled. But the scripture might be fulfilled said I saw the Roman soldier met that thirst with the sponge dipped in vinegar. And when he had received the vinegar he cried with a loud voice it is finished.

Oh perfect life of love. All, all is finished. Now all that he left this home above to do for us below no work is left undone of all the fathers in this hall, this hall one by one the scriptures have fulfilled.

It is finished. And I take a glance up as I often do in these days in the earth of mine. And I see that vast heavenly home. And I catch a glimpse by sight of those millions that no man can number clothed in the white raiment that glistens and with the palms of victory in their hands.

And I hear the song of that triumphant multitude warring as the lamb that was slain. And I think they are like him. They look like him. Their garments scintillate like his garments their faces are like him.

Behold, how great a matter that little bundle as kindled the text of truth when it comes to the Savior. And they're true. Certainly you'll bear with me a few minutes. They're true. Certainly when it comes to the salvation of the soul.

Naaman and the Simplicity of Salvation

Oh, they're true. There who has despised the day of small things in the salvation of his soul. Captain Nyamundi here he's come from Syria a leper to be healed of the leprosy. And he comes to the door of Elisha to the gate of the prophet.

And the prophet goes in. Or rather the servant goes in to tell the prophet. And the servant comes out and simply says go and watch in Jordan seven times. And he turned away in a rage. He threw him to the land.

We sent him deep in the waters of Jordan when the great rivers of Damascus stood meeting his knees. I thought the scripture tells us he said. I thought that the prophet would come out and strike his hand over the leper and call on his father to heal the leper.

I thought why must I do that. And he would have gone back with his leprosy to the last hour of his life. And he's awful dead. But his servants were wise enough and warm enough to say my father if the prophet had given you some great thing to do you would have done it.

Who has proven it. If I could just erect my tower of good works to each heaven I'd do it all right because I get the praise I get the honor. But that's not God's salvation. Why not rather wash and be clean.

They said yes. He said you're right. You're right. And he turned back a humble man. And he went down to Jordan and he dipped in Jordan's water seven times. And then lo his flesh has come to him like the flesh of a little child.

He's like a born again man. And he went back to the prophet humble rejoicing in the God of his life. Of course you always do that. When you get down low you rejoice in God's salvation. It's such a wonderful thing that he saves us without worth.

He saves us on the ground of sovereign grace. As Father Tidey says he saves us in the simple little way. That's so easy that men who are proud and women who are horses and even young people with their self confidence thrust it back into wisdom.

What said a young fellow to me in the inquiry room. It's too simple for me something to that effect. But if that's the inquiry room unsaid you wouldn't do the humble thing all you've got to do to be saved.

Two little things trust that's the first. Only trust it. Only trust his word. Only trust his precious blood that cleanses from all sins. Only trust his invocation. As many as received him to them gave he power to become the children of God.

Only trust his call. Come unto me all you that labor in the heavy laden I will give you rest. Only take him at his word trust him no doubt on him and trust him. Trust Jesus. That's all you've got to do.

Except one other little thing but must follow and testify to him. There's no escaping that no escaping in Romans 10 and 9. It goes the other way about whosoever or either confesses Jesus as Lord confesses with his mouth Jesus as Lord and believes in his heart.

Trust. God raised him from the dead shall be saved. But the order of God generally in the scripture is believe and then testify. Trust trust in the fact it must be balanced or true. Permit me to tell you this story as I close when I was up in Townsville with the chaplain in World War II and right there in the Baptist Mansion one night there was a great company of servicemen Air Force men soldiers and amongst them a group captain in the R .W .A .F. name was Fred and I knew him in our earlier days.

Fred’s Conversion Through Trust and Public Confession

I knew his family very well. And Fred suddenly said in the course of general conversation round that room in the burning heat of a summer night in Townsville. And he suddenly said John did you ever hear how I was converted.

And I said no Fred. I'd love to hear it. Tell the fellows tonight how you were converted. I always like to get a person to get out there converted to never know what might leave another person to be converted.

So I wanted him to tell the whole company what he said. John you remember my old mother. Don't you. Wasn't she a godly Christian. I said she was Christian through and through. Fred a lovely woman. Yes dear old told he said I know that I caused her a lot of trouble.

I was the black sheep of the family and he said in due time I went off to sea to get away from all that song singing and him singing in the home. I wasn't having any of it. And he said I came back several times doing marine engineering and then I landed home once when I was pretty well set set in the rut of resistance to God and to Christ and I was home for a few days.

And another time he said to me Fred I wonder I wonder would you drive me down to Chatswood church tonight to hear the Reverend William Lamb preach. He's my favourite preacher and he's a great preacher on the second advent.

Would you drive me down tonight Fred. What he said. William Lamb. Mum that's the chap that says something about put up your hand if you want to be praised for. Stand to your feet stand to your feet. Not from me mum.

No I won't take you down I said and turned on my back turned away from her and walked away. And when I went outside I thought fellows he's telling all these boys you know. I thought fellows he said what a cur you are.

Your mother's done everything for you down the years and you couldn't take her just to hear her favourite preacher when she's old. You can't go without some help. Yes. What did she say there as I went out.

Alright Fred I can't go then tonight. Oh I must take her. So he said. I went back with very bad grace and I said alright mum I'll take you down to your Lamb tonight. Oh she said thank you very much Fred and your brother and sister will come.

Alright they can come. I'll take the lot of you he said. I tell you I wasn't very pleasant till I got in the car and drove them all down there that night. And when we got inside that church the church he said was packed out.

I thought that's pretty good now see a church packed like that on a weeknight. And he said my mother and I got along with my sister into two seats right at the back of the church and he said a man was beckoning Liz and myself to come right up to the front he said before I knew where I was.

I was right down underneath the pulpit he said by the organ the last place I won't ever get to boys. But I was caught in there. Oh I was feeling bad and bitter about things. And he said the service started with a few hymns and suddenly Mr Lamb said let us quarrel as we bowed our heads.

I opened my eyes and I looked up and he said I saw him gripping that cushion on the pulpit with all his might and praying as though his soul was going up to heaven. My I thought that man's earnest no doubt about it.

He's not fooling the things of God. It sobered me. Boys he said. I listened. I listened to him preach for an hour or more on the second axis and I said I drank it in. It was remarkable that. And when he came to the close he said now let's bow and pray.

I thought it's coming now. It's coming now. I know that it will come. And then yes sure enough. Hold up your hand if you want to be prayed for tonight. Just up with your hand where you are. And he said.