That I May Know Him — Leonard Ravenhill

Knowing Christ Through Resurrection, Suffering, and Death

Philippians chapter 3 and verse 10, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death. There are obviously four statements in this verse, that I may know him.

The second, and the power of his resurrection. The third, the fellowship of his sufferings. And the fourth, being made conformable unto his death. I'm always stirred when I read the epistle of Paul to the Philippians and Colossians, to remember that these are prison epistles.

It's amazing how little Paul speaks about the historic situations of his day. It was said that Augustine one day went right round the rim of that most famous lake, I suppose, in Switzerland, Geneva. That he was dressed like a monk, and he had a cowl over his head, and the weather wasn't so good.

And at the end of the long day, when he got off that mule, he said to somebody, hey what about that famous lake? Isn't there a famous lake around here? And they said, sir you've been round the edge of that lake for the last ten hours.

I never saw it, he said. Some people have criticized Calvin, because they said he never looked up from his desk to see the majesty of the Alps. The beautiful peaks that were covered with snow. Some people have even criticized the Apostle Paul, because he hasn't told us much about the days in which he lived.

He's riding here to the saints at Philippi. Philippi was named by Alexander the Great, for his father Philip. We're told that the great Roman Empire was born here, because, who was it? Brutus and, not Cassius, the other fellow Cassius, Cass, somebody.

Anyhow, they fought there, and we're told that this was really the birthplace of the Roman Empire. But Paul here is considering something infinitely greater than any perishing empire of men. Again it's wonderful to me anyhow, that here is this aged man, battle-scarred and worn, and notice his prayer, his aspiration never dies, his vision never be got, ever became dim.

The fever on his spirit never in any way got dull. He doesn't pray to be released from prison, he might have done that. He doesn't pray even that he may have a ministry here, though I'm sure he aspired to that.

He doesn't pray that his body may be healed, though I'm quite sure that while he wasn't diseased, I'm sure he was terribly weak by all the suffering that he had endured. But his aspiration here is this, first that I may know him, and usually the text gets that weight put on it, that I may know him, and sometimes the other part, the power of his resurrection.

The Resurrection as the Standard of Divine Power

Now there's no question at least in my mind about this fact, that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the standard of power in the New Testament. What is there after that? It's a miracle of miracles. I don't think an Easter Sunday goes by, indeed it does not, be what I think of a, just a little phrase from an old hymn.

Today he rose from the dead, and Satan's Empire fell. I hear people say sometimes, Lord destroy the work of the devil. He's already destroyed the work of the devil. I'm going to preach next Sunday on three, the three most amazing words in any vocabulary.

But to stay here, this is the proof, this is the standard of God's power in the New Testament, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The standard miracle in the Old Testament, was the deliverance of the children of Israel through the Red Sea, brought finally into the land of promise.

So in the Old Testament, the miracle is the raising of a dead nation, because they were in captivity. They were in Egypt, which is a type of the world, they were under the dominion of Pharaoh, which is a type of the devil.

And they were brought with what the Word of God says, God called them with a strong hand, he delivered them with a strong hand and a stretched out arm. And all the way from Moses to Malachi, there's a constant referring to, look what God did when he delivered Israel.

Now is anything bigger than that? Have you got a problem bigger than that? Can you imagine anything that made demands on God more than that? So he delivered them, he brought them out of captivity, he snapped their fetters.

And he led them by his own hand and his own arm. In the New Testament, the standard miracle, the standard of God's power, is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And then because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, there is of course, the resurrection of the individual from the dead.

Because we're told again and again, Ephesians 2 for instance says, you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and in sins. Now he doesn't just say that we were bad, he says that we were dead. And the same miracle power, that raised up Jesus from the dead, is the power that raised us up from the dead.

You know I don't think it put any strain on God to make the world. He just created it. He didn't put any strain on God to create light, he just spoke the word and said let there be light, and there was light.

But I'm going to suggest to you, that it in a sense, put a strain on God to raise Jesus from the dead. In this sense, that it tells us in Ephesians, what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us ward, who believe according to the working of his mighty power, when he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him as his own right hand in heavenly places.

Now there's a lot of, awful lot of energy there. It says the exceeding greatness, you see there are measures of God's power exerted through the Word of God. Sometimes a thing doesn't even cost God as much power as others.

But it says here, the exceeding greatness of his power toward us, who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead. There's a very tragic thing happened during the past week.

A young couple with a very beautiful child, discovered the child was missing. Sounded an alarm, eventually they received a phone call to say the child will be returned unharmed, for just a couple million dollars.

The child happened to be the grandchild of one of the great tycoons in South America, a man who's made multiplied millions of dollars out of ten. Immediately contact was made with him, and of course he got everybody stirred up about this awful tragedy that happened in Europe.

A child had been stolen, the demand was two million dollars, and he said well pay it. Now do you think it took any energy for a man to reach over and take his checkbook, and when he'd ten million dollars, just write out two million dollars.

That demands no energy to write a check. But I'm going to suggest his heart wasn't torn up, there weren't a thousand fears. He wasn't wondering will they really pay? Will the child be dead? His hopes, his fears, everything was tormenting him.

There was nothing in writing the letter, pardon me, nothing in writing the check. There were awful anxieties and problems in his spirit, in his mind, when he thought about all the possibilities that there were, in getting that child back.

I mean to interpret that this way, that I don't think God said let there be light. There was light. But he didn't say let there be Calvary, and there was Calvary. You're dealing here with modern spiritual principles.

You're dealing with powers of darkness. Now Jesus Christ was a lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And I think again that we forget so much of the agony of the father, from the time Jesus left the ivory palaces, to come into a world of woe.

The loneliness was on the behalf of the father, because the father had no one in heaven way to do it. As a hymn writer says, thou didst not spare thine only son, but gavest him for a world undone. But you see Calvary is the expression of the love of God.

Calvary expresses the love of God. The resurrection explains the power of God. How many hymns do we sing about the blood of Jesus? How many do we sing about the resurrection? It's equally as important.

There is no difference in them. If you have no resurrection, Calvary is no good. We sing tearfully were the whole realm of nature mine. That's all right, I don't mind about that. But remember the Apostle says we're not just saved by his death, we're saved by his life.

Paul's Unrelenting Desire to Know Christ

You think of all the colossal epistles that this man has written. Why this man, why does he need to worry he's in prison? He's got the most amazing track record of any man that ever lived outside of Jesus.

He's raised the dead, he's opened the eyes of the blind, he's cast out demons, he's written more epistles than all the other men put together. And yet he says I want to know him. It isn't that he doesn't know him, he says there's a fuller revelation of him.

I've been thinking about this text for a few days, and I moved some letters off my desk. And I didn't know they'd been there so long. But I read this letter over again and discovered it was written in 1975.

Now sure enough I'd answered it. I'd some in 1973 I hadn't answered, so I answered them. But this one's from my old 96 year old friend, he's 96 years old now. And it just fit in where I was thinking. He said Ravenhill I've been thinking about that word, where Paul says that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection.

Now look he said for 60 years I've been trying to fathom that, but I do not understand the mystery of it. There's something there I can't unearth. It reminded me of when we were in Ireland, there was a little godly man by the name of Busby, in a town called Dunganon.

He was a strange character for sure, that's why he liked me, because we're both strange. And he had some strange customs. He used the old folklore for healing people. And I used to shudder sometimes at the things that he did.

But you know what, he had a mighty power in prayer too, and sometimes he wouldn't touch those things, and people would laugh at him. And he'd go to prayer by himself, and he'd stay there until victory came, deliverance came.

He had a marvellous ministry of prayer and healing. He went to his little house, wasn't much more than a shack one day, and he said, well I got it, I got it. He got what? Well do you remember I told you there's no water around here?

He has a hog farm. And so he sent up to the University, Queen's University, and a man came with a string of degrees, and a geologist, and he examined the soil, and he examined the rocks, and he went all around his little farm, and he said, no water here, not a drop, forget it.

You can't expand your farm, you can't get more hogs, you've no water. Well he said, I'm sure there's water. No, no, listen, you don't question me, I've got so many degrees, and I've got this and that and the other, I tell you that geologically, there's nothing around here.

But he said, right over the fence there, you see that spot there, I've been over there while you were awake, there's water there, can you get that? And he said, no sir, that belongs my neighbour. So he paid the fee, which he thought was exorbitant to the man, and the fellow went off.

Now don't ask me how this works, I don't know. But he took a switch out of the hedge, from a hazel tree, like a letter Y. And he got all of the two ends here, the other Y's pointed at the other ends there, you know, down.

And he walked, and he got to a spot where the thing started going like this, and he said, there's water there. Do you know, you could reach out of his bedroom window to it. And he said, it's there. And I'll tell you, it's not more than about 15 feet down, if it's there.

Well, the man that lived with him, the bachelor friend said, I always thought you were a nut, but now I'm sure. You've cleared it all up for me, you are an idiot. What are you going to do? Dig a well.

Now digging a well there, you don't just make a little shaft, you dig the well however wide you want it. So he starts digging a well four feet in diameter. It was a heartbreaking job, but he's a muscular man.

He'd been a weightlifter, though he's only about that height, he's a tremendous physique. And he went down and down for about, I don't know, 14 feet. And then he came, a slab of rock, as hard as any rock you ever saw in your life.

And his friend said, well smarty, there you are. What are you going to do now? He said, shift the rock. For what? He said, right, and you know what that rock is? He said, yes, it's a rock. He said, it's a plug.

And when I pull that plug, he said, that water's going to come, like that. Oh man, he said, are you crazy? So he fixed a tripod up, and he put a windlass there, and he got a chain underneath, and he started.

Do you know, he just turned that rock over on one side, and that thing went up like that. He could hardly get out of that well fast enough. And he took me round to see it. He said, look, the water's coming out so quick, I've got a four-inch pipe, and I'm letting it come out, it's kind of an artesian well, and I'm flooding it into an area, and keeping that water there.

You just think, that I've been round here, I've had to carry water for years, and here it is, in front of my doorstep. Come round here, and he showed me, he said, look, you could lean out of my window, and drop a bucket in that well, and get that beautiful spring water.

And I've been without those resources all the time. You know, when I thought of what my old friend said, I thought, that's right, there's something in this word resurrection, that as yet, we have not fathomed.

There's a plug here, if you like, we've got to lift it, and discover what there is, lying underneath it. Because Paul says, despite his wonderful history, man, I would be intoxicated with joy, if I'd had a ministry like his.

I get people sometimes who say, you wrote me a letter, it turned my life round. Well I thank God, I can be his servant in that. But he's written letters that turn millions of lives round. Starving people have gone to his epistles and found strength.

Thirsty people have gone and found something to drink. The weak have gone and found energy in them. The hopeless have gone and found hope. People who were just at the end of their tether, suddenly struck life.

Because this man had an inspiration. And yet he says, despite that, you won't spoil me. I may have written epistles, I may have raised the dead, and he had, and I've done this. But he said, I want to tell you something.

I want to aspire, and I want to know him, and I want to reach out in life. I want to know that resurrection life. You see, no other religion in the world has a resurrection. This is the crowning miracle of God.

As I said, Paul builds his pyramid like this, all his epistles, 14 if you put Hebrews at the top. He turns them all over and balances them on a fine point like that. And he says, but look, with all I've given you, about the mercy of God, the majesty of God, predestination, all the future, it all is balanced on one thing, the resurrection.

And if there is no resurrection, you're through, you're yet in your sins. Well what is unique about it, didn't Jesus raise people from the dead? Yes he did, yes he did. Because he said, I am the resurrection.

The resurrection isn't part of my theology, the resurrection is a person. Paul made it clear in the 24th of Acts. He says, because Jesus rose, everybody will rise. You know sometimes again, I don't know if you ever feel you're dumb, maybe you're too smart to feel you're dumb, but often I feel I'm dumb, I'll tell you that.

I think that somehow one day a man lifted the latch as it were, you know like sometimes you've opened the door and everything in the cupboard was falling out, you try to get it back and somehow it wouldn't, you thought, oh well let it go, out it comes.

You've all done it. One day a man lifted the latch and he let iniquity come into the world, and by one man's sin, he polluted the whole human race. What a hell hell will be for that man surely, unless God in mercy met him somewhere.

To pollute one life is bad, to pollute millions and billions of people since creation. Then Newman says in his hymn, which isn't quite right, O loving wisdom of our God, when all was sin and shame, a second Adam, no not a second, if there's a second there might be a third, he was the last Adam.

Loving wisdom of our God, when all was sin and shame, a second, a last Adam, to the fight and to the rescue came, all wisest love, but flesh and blood which did in Adam fail. I can't prove this but I'm sure that one day Jesus said in eternity to his father who was heartbroken over the sin of the universe, father will you let me go to earth and show men you can live in flesh and blood and be a perfect example of your holiness?

I can live there and obey you ever if the gates of hell come upon me. And it's awesome to think that what he did, the Word of God says as he was so we in this world, God expects me to have the world afresh and the devil under my feet.

I'll get bruised, my emotions will rise and fall, my days will be dark or light, it has to be that way, it is the way the master went. I was reading today where Paul said sorrow came upon me. I read it of Jesus going into the garden and it says as he went into the garden he was in great heaviness of spirit.

Don't let the devil trick you on your emotions, that doesn't change your standing with God because your feelings change. I get up one morning I could conquer the world with two fingers. I get up the next morning I feel if somebody blew on me nearly I'd fall over.

I know I wouldn't, but emotions are so uncertain, they're so unpredictable. You can't chart a cause for them. Sure Jesus says I am the resurrection and the life. Oh I love, I love, I love to think of old Parker, maybe not the greatest preacher but sure a great preacher of England.

The Empty Tomb and the Uniqueness of Christ's Resurrection

Visualizing that resurrection morning when the stone was put over the grave. And those precious women, they get criticized, sure they do, everybody does. But remember this, they were the last at the cross, they were the first at the sepulcher.

And that precious woman, can you imagine a precious woman she was going to carry the body of Jesus? Do you know what? If he'd been dead she'd have done it too. Because there are times when with your zeal and human love you can do things you could never do.

She would have taken that body if she could. But no, she got there and the stone was there, just before she got there anyway. And then over the stone the wax, and over the wax the seals. And then the soldiers.

And then finally, I can see Satan saying I'm not sure if I can manage this. And some demon says your majesty, let's roll the sin of the world against the stone. Now we've got him, the stone, the wax, the seal, the soldiers, the sin of the world.

Well I'm not sure that we'll keep him captive. And the demon says your majesty, supposing every demon puts his shoulder against that stone, we've got him now. When I hear about a Cape Canaveral, a countdown, I always think friend you're 2 ,000 years too late, because the countdown was the resurrection morning.

Well Lucifer says we've got him now, hold him, we've got the stone, the wax, the seal, the soldiers, the sin of the world, every demon. Hold it, hold it, hold it. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five. It got to two and he was just gonna say one, and the Holy Ghost slipped in and raised up Jesus from the dead.

How do I know? Because Romans 8 says that. The spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead. It's wonderful that he raised me from the dead. Perpetuated that miracle in me. You had to eat quick and you were dead.

Not only bad, we were dead. Some of us would even admit more than that. We stunk as well. We smelled, we made other people feel the rottenness of our lives. And Jesus says I am the resurrection. I like that.

I laugh when I see the Pope. I don't know why they call him Holy Father, when they dress him like Mother. But anyhow, he's got his skirt on and he's got some keys at the side. And he says he has the keys of the kingdom.

Baloney. I happen to know at the end of the Revelation, Jesus says listen I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive forevermore. And I have the keys of death and of hell. And friend you won't die one minute before God wants you to, if you're in his will.

I don't care whether you're rot in a concentration camp or what. He has the time of your death. He has the time of my death. He has the keys. Nobody will destroy us. He has the keys. All power is given unto me he says.

Well I say there were resurrections. Yes but they were all different. You know Jesus was quite comfortable in the presence of death. It didn't trouble him. I've heard people say you know I've been to see some dead people.

Did you ever touch one? Oh no I'd never. Oh I'd die if I touch somebody dead. Well I didn't worry Jesus anyhow. Who did he raise from the dead? He raised Jairus his daughter. He raised the widow of the, the son of the widow of Nain.

And he raised Lazarus. Three people he raised from the dead. What's the difference between their resurrection and his? Oh a lot. Because theirs had no vicarious power to it for one thing. The second thing they were all called forth from the tomb.

He wasn't. The third thing when they all came from the tomb they were all down with hands, with clothes, headbands and their feet. And you know Jesus walked out of it. Samuel Chadwick used to say do you know I don't knew it was Jesus?

Because it says that his clothes were over there and the napkin was lying by itself somewhere over here. Now what happened with the people raised from the dead? They had claws on them. They were bound.

Jesus didn't have to be unbound. He slipped out of those claws like a, like a caterpillar slips out of a cocoon. And he got up from the couch and he come over here and he took the turban off his head and he put it down there.

And do you know why they knew? Because they knew the way Jesus folded his napkin. I'm sure they did. If you put ten people around our table at home we always, we always had linen napkins. None of these terrible paper ones.

So we always had linen napkins. Do you know we were in a hotel a while ago they serve linen napkins. I nearly wanted to take it as a souvenir. I couldn't believe anybody ever served them. They get stolen so often.

But you know when the disciples saw the way he folded his napkins they said that's it, that's it, that's it. He's risen. He's risen from the dead. So he didn't need anybody to call him forth. Do you remember one man tried to intimidate him and he says listen you better watch your step mister because I'll put you to death.

And Jesus says you know sir there's nobody living can take my life from me. I like that. That was more insulting if it spit on him. Do you know who I am? I'm the power of the Roman Empire. I don't care if you're the power of all hell behind you.

There's nobody on earth can take my life from me. He said I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up. Brother that's power. Sometimes you need power not to use power. Sometimes you need power to be dumb instead of tell somebody off.

It takes power. So everybody else that was raised from the dead. Number one, somebody else called him. Nobody called him. Number two, they were bound with with cloths and he wasn't bound with cloths. Number three, they all went back and died again.

Didn't they? At least I haven't seen them around so I kind of figure they must be dead. But what does the scripture say about the Lord Jesus? Well let me read it to you I swear. Let me see Romans. Oh man this puts the clincher on the whole thing.

Now he says in verse 8. Now if we be dead with Christ we believe that we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him. Man that's worth a thousand hallelujahs.

If you say one I'll forgive you. Death hath no more dominion over him. Yes sir. The others died twice. It is appointed unto man once to die. Some of them poor souls are denied twice. That's pretty rough isn't it?

You say well Enoch and Elijah didn't die did they? Hey you wait, get to the end of Revelation what happens? Hmm? Who lies in the streets of Jerusalem? So God's going to fulfill. You see we live under a moral law.

God has said whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap. And if God says in Adam all die, they're gonna die. But he says Jesus came knowing that Christ being raised from the dead he dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him.

Regeneration and the Power of New Life

Let's step back a minute. I say the spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead is the spirit that quickens us because a man is dead in trespasses and in sin. That's why sometimes you can't drive home to people how bad they are.

Sometimes we say they sit and reject the gospel. They never heard it. They never heard it. With these ears yes. I think I caught it through heard the other day where when Moody came to England he upset a lot of the preachers because they were so you know nice English stuffy Englishmen with their academic degrees and everything.

Moody was a murderer. Well I mean he murdered the English language anyhow. Man he couldn't say Jerusalem in three syllables, he said Jerusalem. He called Daniel, Daniel. He took the English about a week to figure out what he was talking about.

He murdered the King's English. And Alexander McCarran the king of the pulpit in the north of England was on the platform and he listened with amazement. He wasn't even a good-looking man. He'd never have got away with it in our day.

Hadn't a toothpaste smile and a nice personality. But brother I'll tell you God was on that little shoe, shoe salesman from Chicago. There's no man swept England since. Graham didn't touch anything like like dear old Moody did.

And one day in a big auditorium a man came down the aisle weeping and he collapsed at the altar. And Alexander McCarran just, he was watching and praying you know. And he saw his main deacon come to the altar.

The main deacon of the First Baptist Church in Manchester that colossal city at the altar listening to an illiterate American. He said I went down to him and put my arm around his shoulder and said to him brother Smith or whatever he was.

What are you doing here you're a deacon. He said yes sir I'm I'm a deacon in your church. But I don't understand he said as a matter of fact brother look you know I'm considered a great preacher. I preached on this text about three weeks ago and you listen to every word.

And he sent right straight back to him but I never heard a thing you said. He heard it. But the inward ear was not open. He was dead. He was unresponsive in that sense. No man comes under the Father except the Father draw him.

You hath he quickened. Now listen if he quickens. I don't believe that necessarily somebody gets saved in the first meeting that they hear the gospel in. I didn't for sure. I think there are times when just like a worm eating in somebody's heart that spirit of conviction comes until people get sleepless and troubled and worried and anxious.

And then finally you don't have to coax or beg or threat threaten. The Spirit of God has done his work but we don't like it in these days. I'm making no excuses I'm just saying this that the old-fashioned way when you know people didn't used to get saved like they get saved anymore.

You know even the Pentecostals that I know of don't have any tarrying meetings anymore. They used to when we were kids. You used to say to a deacon going out you know I believe that I know there's something wrong in my life and I'd like to come to a tarrying meeting.

I want to tarry. And they used to have tarrying meetings. They had a select company of deacons who stayed in that meeting until people met God. They wanted to be endued with power from on high. I don't care which way it's done that that's not the point.

But I'm saying that the longer seems to be that inward deep conviction of the Spirit of God where men's women say fowl I to that fountain fly, wash me saviour or I die. Again we offer people heaven. We offer them peace of mind.

We offer them forgiveness. I've never heard Graham clearer than about a month ago when he said one night look I've come to this conclusion that salvation means this. Is your heart occupied by God? I don't know why he said the other day I expect to meet Elvis Presley in heaven that puzzles me that knocks the skin off my nose.

I don't I don't understand it but that's his business. But isn't that what it really is Christ in you the hope of glory. You see again Paul runs his flag to the Corinthians of all people if there's a stress pull on earth it was Corinth.

And Paul runs his flag up there in the second epistle what is it chapter 5 and verse 17 where he says if any man I love that I never say to myself or pray for what I get goose pimples. If any man be in Christ any man anywhere at any time if he be in Christ he is a new creation.

God isn't in the patching up business he doesn't plug you where you're leaking he makes a man a new creation. Don't we sing it in that lovely hymn of Wesley's love divine all love excelling finish then thy new creation pure and spotless let us be.

Wesley was right when he said justification is sanctification begun. Sanctification is instantaneous and progressive. The Christian life is process crisis process crisis except it's uphill. If it were level it wouldn't be so bad but brother it's uphill.

Union With Christ and Walking in Newness of Life

Now when a man is born again of the Spirit of God what does it say in Romans 6. If it's really happened therefore we are buried with him in baptism and like we are buried with him by baptism unto death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life for if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.

And writing there you remember to the Colossians he says if ye be risen with Christ the if there is not a question it really is it's a bad translation in one sense because you're risen in Christ seek those things which are above.

Now when Jesus was raised from the dead he just shuffled off that coat he was wearing that cloak and he left behind. Now if a man is a new creature in Christ all those habits are going to break away. Do you know why?

Because habits are the clothing of the soul and if you have filthy habits when you're born again of the Spirit of God and become a new creation those dirty filthy rotten habits will drop up just like that.

I remember preaching the first day of World War two I was to start an eight-day crusade in the head church of the Nazarene in Glasgow Scotland it's in Parkhead outside the town a suburb and sure enough what we had feared most came upon us that night before the meeting they announced World War two had begun.

Well that shattered our meetings I'll tell you it was a big church I don't think we got more than 50 people that we started to have the meeting in the side room and I preached my heart out every night.

One night I just said look if you have business to do if you do not know you're born again of the Spirit of God if you're still bound and fettered and burdened and your conscience lashes you and the fear of death and the fear of judgment torment you come and receive Christ confess your sin ask for cleansing ask for the Holy Spirit.

And I said we'll wait we won't sing. You just walk out into this side room if I remember right three people walked out we prayed we talked with them then I looked back and there was a fine rosy cheek Scotch boy there and he beckoned me and I went to him.

I said hello and he said my name is I think it was Donald. I know his next second name was Wilson Wilson. It used to be Martha's name that and so he says in his Scottish way Mr. Ravenhill. I'm not a Christian.

I believe I'm a very good boy but oh I need Christ. So I said well that's great if you know that it's a wonderful thing. I said do you come from a Christian family. And he said no he says my father my father he says my father is a communist and he's a very very vicious communist.

What about your mother. Ah he says she was a Christian but she's backslidden. I said well how do you know. He says I know she goes to movies. You see when you're born again over in Europe movies go right out.

You never enter a movie house. You're feeding the devil's children with God's money. You're spending time there. I'm just telling you what he said. But then he asked me about salvation. I told him what it meant that he he not only got rid of his sins he gave his life to Jesus and Jesus became not only his Savior but his Lord.

And also if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus as it not it means let me lay the cards on the table. It means if you repent of your sin and you take Christ as your Savior you go home. And when you get in you shut the door and you put your arms up like this and you say to your daddy will your daddy be home.