(Steps Towards Spiritual Perfection) - Paul's Sel — A.W. Tozer

I'm still in Philippians 3, and you know it. I'll not grind it out again by reading it once more. In 7 to 15 of Philippians 3, beginning with,. But those things which were gained to me I found it lost for Christ.

As for the knower, he said, they found in him not having thine own righteousness, but the righteousness which is of God's own sake. For by this, his same ends I might attain, and not as though I had all already had attained, either were already perfect.

But I follow after, and I forget the things that are behind, and I press forward, and let us therefore as many be perfect be as much. Now, this man, this most aggressive man, this boldest man, this surest footest man, and this sincerest man.

Paul's Confidence and Self-Distrust

And if you think I'm overstating it, let me read to you some things he said tonight. The Holy Ghost witnesses that in every city bonds and afflictions await me, but none of these things know me, neither count I my life near unto myself, so that I might finish my course in my ministry.

1 Corinthians, he said rather heartily, Only when you have ten thousand entrusties in Christ, you have one father. You have not many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.

Therefore be followers of me. 1 Corinthians again, fifth chapter, he said, I have judged already what to do concerning this man that has done this deed. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, with the power of the Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one that is taken for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

2 Corinthians, he said, In this hope let no man trouble me. Let me alone. I bear in my body the remarks of the Lord Jesus. Now those are only five texts. If you'll find them all through Acts and the Epistles, there was a sure-footedness about the man.

And it was crawling on his tummy. This man knew what he believed. He knew where he stood. He knew his job. He knew his confidence with a great cosmic confidence. But that same man was yet the most self-disgustful man.

Listen to this, late 1 Corinthians, I am the least of the apostles, and I am not meant to be called an apostle. It is only by the grace of God that I am what I am. 2 Corinthians, We have this stranger in earth and vessel, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

3 Timothy, This is a faithful faith, and worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of which I am chief. Romans, For I know that in me dwelleth no good thing. Now I haven't exhausted these texts.

I've only given you four or five proof texts on each side. And therefore we may properly conclude that Paul's great personal triumph from his side resulted from an entire and radical distrust of himself.

And that's what I'm going to preach on tonight. Self-distrust as the last great obstacle, or self-trust as the last great obstacle to spiritual triumph. And this man, Paul, didn't trust himself. Before man was bold as a lion, before God, he couldn't say too much against himself.

He had no confidence in himself at all. And the confidence of the man in God was in inverse proportion to his confidence in himself. As far as he trusted himself, he did not trust God. As far as he distrusted himself, he was thrown out before God.

Self-Trust as an Obstacle to Spiritual Triumph

Now, self-trust, respectability, and self-assurance, which comes by education for what you hear about yourself, and what your friends tell you about yourself, and all the tests you make of yourself, self-trust is the last great obstacle to go out of the light.

I shall claim, after the thing is gone, it shall be gone. And that is why we wait around the deep river of God as animals around the waterhole, afraid to go in. We never do quite get in. There was an old man that I want to quote a little tonight, not boringly.

He had a wonderful name, I think, Larenzo Cipolle. I think that's a wonderful name. Well, Larenzo Cipolle was one of those strange prophets who, during his lifetime, he had a rather running life, more or less, and was considered, more or less, a heretic because of his angelical views of the way back before 100 years.

And this man said this, this trust in yourself is so necessary to you in this combat, that without it, you must hold it certain. What I liked about the, what the man had said, Paul and others, is the clear, sharp, blue language they use, and without an as-it-were stuff, without any of that, of course, as-it-were and so to speak, and possibly, none of that.

He said, this trust of yourself is so necessary to you in this spiritual combat, that without it, you must hold it certain that you will not be able to obtain the desired victory. This trust of self. And he said, we are much too easily inclined by our corrupt nature to a false opinion of ourselves.

Without any foundation at all, we could be soon failing in our own search. Now, this, to continue, is a defect very difficult to understand, and most is leaving in the eyes of God, who loves us and desires in us a loyal recognition of every grace and every virtue conceived from him alone, who is the fountain of all good, and that nothing, not even a good thought, can come from us except it be of his will.

Now, you can be converted, born again, and walk around, testifying for a hundred years, never find it out. For most of us, we haven't been around a hundred years, but we haven't found it out yet. But I have found out that for all time, I have been, goodly quote, put away.

Every time I depart with friends, in order to push on, haven't you? So, you've put things behind you, haven't you? Yes. And if you humble yourself, now you may trust yourself. You're up there, you're getting somewhere.

It's gotta be God's help. But you may expect victory now. Now, that's self-trust. Most all the joy the average Christian has is the back scratch. All the pleasure he gets. Back in Pennsylvania, that brother knows when hunkering down, he's hunkering, just, you know, crouching.

I think that's an old Scotch word. And quite familiar to me as my boy. Well, he can't do that because they love to be scratched. Cow come put her head over the fence, and scratch her between the ears, and pet her, and she'll love and stand there.

Well, now, self is always scratching the ears of the people of God. And the further they go on into the will of God, and the deeper they go, the more back scratching they get. More ear scratching. And self says, well, certainly you know better.

You've read Tom Sikander's. And you, you, you're different. You love the old him. And you, none of this junk for you. And you're a separated Christian. None of these movies for you. None of this crazy modern stuff for you.

You're, you're better. And you don't know what's happening to you. You're, you're, you're feeling good. And your feeling good is strictly you're being scratched by a self that hasn't yet died. Your self-trust is there after you think it's gone.

Why Self-Trust Robs God

Now, why is self-trust so wrong? Self-trust is so wrong because it robs God to give to man. God says, you have robbed me. And you say, where in have we robbed you? Well, that was under another context.

But we rob God, and we take away from God the, the, this thing that the brother wrote about. That he is, that God is the fountain of all movement. And that nothing, not even a good thought can come from us except it comes from God.

We take that away from God, and we give it to our converted and sanctified selves. And it's just as bad, just as bad as it can be, because it takes away from God the ultimate, the final trust. It misjudges God and man, and holds God to be less than he is, and man to be more than he is.

And this is mainly the trouble with it. We think God's less than he is, and man's more than he is. And we can go to school and study theology and learn how God is the source and fountain and all the rest, and learn about the absolute, and still in our hearts, still believe God is less than he is, and we're more than we are.

And thus, it's like, it's like the moon. Suppose the moon could talk and think and have a personality. And the moon should begin to say, well, I shine. I shine on the earth. And I, every time that I'm around where I can reach the earth, I see the earth become beautiful.

And somebody would come and say, listen, don't you know that by yourself you're a bird's ash? Don't you know that you've been discovered and found out? You don't shine at all. You reflect. It's the sun that shines.

And I could see myself telling the moon, well, you're letting your light shine. You're doing a good job. I notice when you're not up, the whole side of the earth lies in darkness. But when you come, it lightens up, and you begin to see the roofs of houses, and you do a fine job.

And the moon would nod and say, well, the glory belongs to God, and by the grace of God I'm like this. But all the time, the moon thinks it's shining. When the moon isn't shining at all, it's reflecting.

And St. Paul could boldly shine and talk about it, because he knew that he wasn't shining at all. He knew that he didn't have the thing that was set for heaven. It was the grace of God in him, and it was God and not of him.

He completely and radically distrusted himself. Now, no man ever really knows about himself. He doesn't know how he feels, just as no man really knows what he sounds like. Everybody thinks he sounds right, until he hears himself on tape.

One of the most humbling things ever happened to me happened about ten years ago, when I had my first sermon preached on a record. After I heard that, I never could stand the sound of my own voice. Well, that thing didn't lie to me, and I heard myself on tape, studying the signs, trying to work something out that I could do.

But it always sounds terrible. But up to that time, I had been told that I had a prime teaching voice, people coming, good voice. But I heard that stuff. Nobody needed any more to talk to. I heard it.

I listened to it. I'd been forced to hear it. But no man knows the sound of his own voice until he hears it. And no man knows how weak he is until God's exposed. And nobody wants to be exposed, but God has exposed.

And what we consider our strength is our weakness. If you will, think over your life, reverently and carefully in prayer, and put down on the pad the things you think are your virtues. Those are your weaknesses.

And those very virtues are your sources of trouble. And the only way you can deal with yourself is look away and look under him, as I've been telling you. Stop thinking about yourself at all. Now, nobody can know how weak he is, and nobody can know how bad he is until he's been exposed by the Holy Ghost, and nobody wants to be exposed.

Biblical Examples of Human Instability

And nobody knows how unstable he is. You remember that fellow in the Old Testament that said, he's thy servant of God that I would do a thing like that? Apparently meant it. Went straight home and did it.

The prophet said, you're going to murder your master. He said, he's thy servant of God. The prophet didn't reply. He went home and put a pillow over his master's face and smothered him to death. You remember a certain great old, bold fisherman who stood up and said, let everybody else run from you, Lord, I'll not.

The Lord said, before the cross grows Christ, you will. And he did. And you will find that nobody knows how unstable he is. And that's why it's dangerous to trust our good health. That's why it's dangerous to trust our virtue, because we're unstable.

Now, how then do we learn to self-discuss? Well, this discussion is indeed the work of God's hand, says the man. And he's accustomed to give it to his dear friends in four ways. So, I want to tell you, this takes the hide off, but here are the four ways that God teaches distrust.

There may be some others, but these four are valid ways. He says, it's the work of God's hand, this discussion. Now, I can't put it to room for you. That's too bad. I saw a cartoon once of a fellow with a hole in the top of his head and a funnel, and somebody was pouring it in.

And I've always had a kind of a goofy longing that I could do that with congregations and so on. Just trip tandem, don't they call that? Put a funnel in and pour it in, but you can't get it that way. All any preacher can do, and I don't care who he is, all can do is preach to the Lamb of God, and it's not the preacher's fault necessarily.

If he hasn't been quite honest enough, hasn't been quite severe enough, hasn't been quite powerful enough, maybe, but at least if he's done that one thing, that's all. Now, there are four things, says the dear old man of God, and what he says is supported and confirmed by almost all of the devotional writers and the great hymnists and biographers, or persons about whom biography works.

Holy Inspiration and the Knowledge of Grace

He says, sometimes it comes by holy inspiration. Now, that'd be the best way to get it. The best way to find out you're no good is to have God flash a holy inspiration into your soul and just let you know about it.

I think that's happened to some people. I think it has. Brother Lawrence, you know, Herman, Nicholas Herman, Brother Lawrence, said it happened to him. And he said for 40 years he never was out of the presence of God's love, never out of the conscious presence of God.

And he said, when I took the cross and decided to obey Jesus and walk this holy way, he said from reading around and hearing, I gathered that I have to suffer a lot. And he said, for some reason, God never counted me worthy of much suffering.

He just let me continue to trust him. He said, I put all my self-trust away, and I'm trusting in God completely. Paraphrasing it, carrying his cross, he said, and believing that he's in me, and around me, and near me, and praying all the time.

And he said he'd never given me very much suffering to do. And I have told you, it's cited quite a little bit of attention around over this country, about little old Julian. There's Julian, Lady Julian.

And they're searching for her books and all the rest now. Well, she only wrote one. And outside of that one experience she had, when she got her three wounds, she never had much suffering after that. God gave by holy inspiration light to her heart, and she knew instantly she was no good when Jesus Christ was everything, and she stayed right there until she died, growing every day.

Well, that'd be the easiest way to get it. We're being to the Lord, becoming just by a sweet, sudden, holy inspiration within our hearts in the scriptures to tell us how bad we are. But you say, Mr. Clodagh, I already know I'm bad.

I'm a believer in total depravity. You can be a confirmed believer in total depravity, and be as proud as Winston, and trust yourself so as to shut out the place of God and prevent victory. See, Lord, this is total depravity.

It isn't what you make here at all. I happen to be one of those who believes, according to the scriptures, that man is incinerated by, what is it, birth, and an alien by birth, and incinerated by choice.

I believe that. I never believe anything. I never have any trouble with theology. Some people are always ready to learn difficulties with theology. Either I don't have sense enough, or the spirit of God preserves me, because I never have any worry about total depravity and all that, and how I can inherit the evil from my father.

I don't know a thing about it. All I know is, as soon as I was big enough as him, I went into the business. And I know that every child I've ever known or seen did the same thing. No matter who you are, I said to the boys upstairs, I said, you know, every race and every nationality has its vice, doesn't it?

Everybody, and he said, yes, all but the Irish, Max, he said. But every nationality, everyone has his own vice, but the vice that stands out. Be the next one to 18, be something else, and they all have one vice.

And what's the reason? At least one. God knows there may be thousands, but at least I'll send, because we're all like, we're born that. And we can believe that and accept it and teach it only to others.

And those who most trust themselves may yet be the ones who are most often fooling. Fooling all our righteous messes, our filthy rags. Careful to put the F on the end to confirm the fact that it's not singular but plural.

Our righteous messes, our filthy rags. Now, you see, it takes the Holy Ghost to tell you you're bad and make you sick. It takes the Holy Ghost to tell you you're weak and make you sick. To tell you you're weak and you can go through and get a degree that long and come out and still go proudly out to be a preacher or proudly out to be a missionary or a Bible teacher or whatever.

He says, God is beginning his friends with telling his holy friends, speak them self-discourse. Sometimes with holy and free. Hold on a second. Sometimes with harsh courage. That's more where I come from.

Harsh Scourging and Job's Humbling

Sometimes with harsh courage. I don't know who we could use for a better illustration than the man Job. We pity Job's soul with human sympathy and we sort of have to take Job's part against God if we don't watch ourselves.

And we certainly take Job's part against his wife. The only good thing I know about all that was that she was never heard of again. I don't know what happened to her but she got out of the picture. But have you noticed that this man Job was a long way from being a humble man.

Have you ever noticed it? He was a praying man and he was a man who made sacrifices lest his children had sinned the night before at their party. Couldn't think of a better time to put Job on his knees and pray for him than he did.

But listen to him. Now long before the entire church of which all were Job's people knew, it's terrible. And I know a better word for it than terrible. You see here what it says in the Mark of the Lamb.

As I was in the doors of my house and the people of God were before my presence. When the almighty was yet with me and my children were about me. When I washed my steps with butter and the rock poured me out rivers of oil.

When I went out to the gate to the city and when I prepared my seat in the street. He was the big shot you know that's what they did then. This didn't have a city hall they had a place at the head of the street and there the big shot sat.

When the young men saw me he said they hid themselves and the aged rose and flew up. Who is this coming down the street? Don't know but he said here I am lying on this ash pile a miserable wreck. They cast me out nobody broke for me.

He said the day was when I went down the street the young people hid themselves the old people stood up. And princes were plain talking they laid their hands on their mouth. You think brother Job was an ordinary rag picker?

Brother Job was a great man and he knew it and that was the trouble and that's why he had to have all that happen to him. If you're great and don't know it nothing will happen to you. But if you happen to suspect it and you love God things will start to happen to you.

And if they don't it's because you're not far enough along for the Lord to touch you. So the nobles held their peace and their tongues cleaved to the roots of their mouth. When you heard me bless you so and I delivered the poor when they cried to me.

The blessing of the poor was upon me again. That was Job. He was just telling them the kind of fellow he used to be and they were all so smart about this. This was a half crack. It was a half crack. He had been for I don't know how long sitting on an ash pile with his enemies all around him.

But a time when God went on and he fell on his foot and the scourging began to bounce into the soul of the man. And then we're not going to look but you know how that time came when he said oh God I've been talking and talking and talking but now I'll shut up.

I'll put my hand over my mouth. I am by oh God. And when he got that lesson then the Lord said all right go now pray for your for the rest of them. So he prayed for the rest of them. And God gave him back twice as much.

Well harsh scourges. You know I sound as if I belong in the 17th century. Nobody talks like this anymore. You don't hear anybody talk about it. That's why everybody has to ring a cowbell to get a little bit of pleasure.

That's why they have to bring in a talking horse in order to have any fun. Say John 3 16 bring in the horse. And they all quote John 3 16 and then have the horse paw the ground to show how many apostles there were.

Twelve times for an apostle. That's why because nobody wants to hear anything about our dear heavenly father. They want to teach his children self-trust by this trust by harsh scourges. Now some of you'll say that man told you the hard and you like to lay on the light.

You know what if I could I'd preach on the 23rd song every day for a year. Every Sunday for a year. Then after I was through the 23rd song I'd take up the 53rd Isaiah. Then when I was through with that I'd preach on 1 Corinthians 13.

But if I did that you know where you'd be in the meantime? You'd be the spongiest, softest, sweetest bunch of no good that God ever got together. God has to give us harsh scourges sometimes. It'd be like feeding your family nothing but sugarcoats.

You know what would happen to them? They'd lose their teeth when they're 12 years old. There has to be some solid stuff. The harsh scourges. We talk about it briefly and pass it by. Nobody puts any emphasis there.

Violent Temptation and the Growth of Self-Distrust

Then the third way is sometimes with violent and insuperable temptation. When we're violently tempted and for a moment insuperably tempted we're inclined to throw in the white towel and say God this is no use.

It's no use I'm no good. I've read about Moody and Augustine and all the rest. But no use God you don't want me. I'm finished. Forgetting that God is wont to teach his friends self-distrust sometimes by violently insuperable temptation.

And sometimes when something blows up on you that you thought was dead and buried years ago instead of your taking it as a proof that you're not a Christian yourself you ought to take it as a proof that you're nearer home today than you were yesterday.

And that your heavenly father is letting this thing happen to you to show you you're no good. Now back to Brother Lawrence again. He said that he walked with the Lord all the time. But he said if ever I make a slip anywhere he said I never let it give me much trouble.

I go straight to the Lord and I say now Lord that's me. And if you don't help me that's what you can expect. For that's me. And he said God forgave me and I went right on to him. Not much trouble. We are told sometimes by men who are trying to help us and they are trying to help us that repentance is a long drawn out affair where we have to beat ourselves a long time.

And I believe in that kind of repentance too. But there comes a time when we realize that the best way to handle anything, as Spinolan said, the best repentance is turn toward God and don't do it anymore.

That's the best repentance in the right world. You did something last week that you're ashamed of and sit here under conviction and condemnation about. You say how can I repent? The best repentance is to turn to the Lord, tell him, and then don't do it anymore.

That's the best repentance in the wide world. And these temptations just let you fall down sometimes. What are they for? Are they proof that you're not too Christian to fall? No. They're proof that your conscience is tender, you're very near to God, and that the Lord is trying to teach you that last lesson of self-distrust by a violent temptation.

You remember Jacob's temptation, don't you? And you remember Peter's. And all down the years we've been illustrated. In the name of the Lord, we are having the Father who wants to teach us self-distrust by other means not understood by us.

Unrecognized Means of Divine Guidance

By other means not understood by us. You know, we're all born below this. When anything happens, we all would like to run to the scripture and be able to quote it and say, now that according to this verse right here isn't it, Father?

Yes. What does that say in the margin? We've got it. And we have a certain confidence in ourselves. We know just exactly what's going on. That's why the old saint of God said, sometimes God teaches you self-distrust by a method.

You don't know what that means to you. Have you ever been in that picture? If you haven't, and I think this is the ninth sermon on this text, and if this hasn't happened to you over the last weeks, I ought to be in Troy because I'm doing no good here.

But if you don't know, if you don't know, you say, well, God won't even show me what's taking place. Well, he knows your theology. And he knows that you're so proud of the way you rightly divide the word of truth and that you can just disjoint the text just like a butcher getting your chicken ready for it.

And the word lies all out there carefully laid out, you know, just where to put your finger on this and just where to put it on this. You're too smart for God to bless you, brother. You know too much.

And you can identify everything. And the dear heavenly Father knows that you don't know much after all. And so he lets things happen to you that you don't know what's happening to you. And your friends don't know.

And when you go to somebody you trust and you feel that, oh, that man's a saint, he'll be able to tell you. He looks blank and he can't tell you. And that's good. That's wonderful. It'd be terrible if we had some holy Saint Francis where everybody could go to find out where they were and all about it.

But God loves you too much. And he's trying to teach you to trust him and not people, not lean on people. I have been so scared that people would start trusting in me, leaning on me. God picks the crutches out from under there once in a while, if he can trust me.

Now, these names that God uses, you don't know what they are. And you can't locate yourself. If you're a Christian, you know it, and you love God, and you're sick of all the nonsense in the world, and you're sick of all the nonsense in the church, and your heart's crying after God as though you're rolling after the water boots, and your heart and your flesh cries out for God even though you're living with God.

And yet, here's your self-sacrifice. You still trust yourself. You're born again. You can say that and testify to it. You love your Bible. You have your prayer. You're a good Christian. But you still trust yourself.

And it made it harder for you to get rid of it because nobody talks about it anymore, only a half a dozen of us. We're left in fundamental circles, I guess. They don't say anything about it, at least around this area.

God's Loving Discipline and Spiritual Growth

If you're a Christian at all, everybody scratches back your neck and says, Lord, it's God, brother, you're born again. But the Lord says, that's only the beginning. This baby that was three months old, born in Germany, and I saw the father, Captain Gisk, and I said, hello, Captain.

Nice to see you again. We had a nice handshaking time. And this good fellow said about his baby, I said, how old is the baby? Oh, he said, not much of a baby anymore, Brother Paul. I said, no? He says, three months old.

He wasn't kidding. He meant that. He said, he's the only father, you know, the only one he's had. Three months old. Well, sir, now that's, that's so natural and normal that they watch every move that he does, in the first instance, in everything.

And our Heavenly Father loves his people like that. He loves you like that. And don't let anybody frighten. Don't let anybody come along with wild stories. If it was true that everybody that ought to be killed, God killed them, we'd have a different preacher here tonight.

If it was true that every time a Christian rebelled, God took his babies, he'd have lost all seven of ours. If it was true that every time you fail and miss the will of God and blunder out and do something wrong, the Lord put us on this shelf, I'd have been a piece of statuary by this time.

I just don't let them tell me those things. I know that. I know God. And God isn't that kind of God. He isn't that kind of God. He only judges when there's nothing else to do. When a lifetime of rebellion and hard unbelief and sin-loving and violent refusal brings judgment, then judgment falls.

But the Scripture says it's God's strange work. God doesn't like to do it. And when God is sending or allowing violent and insuperable temptations and harsh scourgings and strange means that you can't identify, he's not judging.

He's watching you grow. And if I could use that word about God, he's proud to see you grow. Zephaniah says that he will rejoice over us with joy and he will joy over us with sin. And if that isn't a picture of a father singing over his family, I don't know what is.

And back in one of the late chapters in Deuteronomy, it says that the beloved of the Lord dwells between his shoulders. And as a lad, I carried my baby brother that way. Think about it. God picks us up and carries us, makes all our bed in our sickness, and understands our thoughts and knows what he does.

And he's loving and patient toward us. And so God isn't judging. God isn't angry. God is just wanting his children to grow. And he has sometimes to give them some harsh scourges. Well, now, what are we to do?

Trusting Christ Rather Than Ourselves

Well, we're to trust him and love him and absolutely count on him. Do you know anybody we can count on continually? We can count on? Do you know anybody we can count on? You say to yourself, well, let me see, would Brother so-and-so, would I count on him?

Well, do you know anybody to count on if you were wrong? Well, we can all count on our friends if we're right. But suppose we went wrong, do you know anybody we can count on? Great old French preacher once said, my friends would pull a great cathedral.

My real friends could occupy these seats here. Now, it wasn't a stint. It was a reality. Do you know anybody you can count on when you're not right? Well, I can tell you somebody. His name is Jesus, and God hath made this same Jesus Lord in Christ.

So what you're to do is trust him completely and let him work. And don't push him. Don't struggle. Don't beat the bench and say, God, you've got to do it now. If you're in the hands of God and obeying God, God's leading you.

And know absolutely that God will never let you down. He'll never, never let you down. And then, third thing I say to somebody is look around for a footprint where you are. You don't know where you are.

God is trying to teach yourself this trust, and one of the hardest things that as long as you know what you're standing on, they tell me that an earthquake is one of the most shocking, excuse this pun, it's not pun intended, one of the most shocking things.

If it's a flood, you see it coming. If it's a typhoon, you see it coming. If it's lightning, you'll hear the rumble. But when an earthquake begins, they say that lose confidence in your equilibrium. Lose confidence in kind little Mother Earth that's been solid.

Long you can remember she was solid. When you put your foot down on her, she never failed. Then one day she suddenly said, and you almost lose your mind. Say that the shock was frightful. When you're suddenly confronted with distrust in the Earth itself.

Well, self-confidence is like that. Gently put your foot down on your virtues, and on your reputation, and on what you are. And then when God sends a little earthquake and upsets you, and cracks up and breaks up, even that old confidence you had in yourself begins to go.

It's a terrible thing, brother. But remember this, that you're not alone in that battle. Look around for footprints. The only footprints you'll see, you'll see his. And you'll see the footprints of all the great things that ever have lived down here.

Oh, brother. Out in Hollywood they say they have a place, kind of a ungodly upside down Westminster Abbey, where they immortalize some of those size bulls in concrete. Some great, some great actors, great names, until he's put in concrete, and you let it harden, and see the footprints upstairs.

Fear for the bulls, even the horn, and what would happen to that footprint. Well, I'm not interested in that kind of footprint. They're aimed in the wrong direction. They're aimed back the way I aimed, and I ain't going back there.