Hospital Experience — Bud Robinson

Bud Robinson’s Humor, Scholarship, and Ministry

Raymond Browning, a well-known Holiness preacher in his own right, called Uncle Buddy the most unique speaker in the American public. On the surface, Bud Robinson's appeal was a bubbling humor. It tempered tense situations.

It made you laugh. It often carried the bite of double meaning, which had a spiritual application. But look at Uncle Bud a bit longer. His humor was only an icing to the cake. He was also a Bible scholar.

Contrary to most elementary education, the Bible was Bud's first reader. At the age of 21, on August 11, 1880, Reuben A. Robinson met Christ. The Bible was his textbook from then forward. A humorist and a Bible scholar.

This is a strange combination, but still hardly reason for the wide appeal and universal message of Bud Robinson. His success story lies in the fact that a simple, stammering Texas cowboy placed his life in the hands of a loving Savior.

As a result, millions of early 20th century Americans were witnesses to a miracle of the grace of God, and thousands of lives were transformed through his message. In his 61 years of ministry, he traveled more than 2 million miles and preached more than 30 ,000 times.

This man, without the benefit of formal education, authored more than a dozen books. The money which came in as a result of his writing went to educate more than 100 young preachers who have in turn gone out to preach the gospel and to bless the world.

Uncle Buddy died in 1942, but his messages live on. This one, given in 1940, will thrill thousands who knew him. And for the ones who know him only as a name, this message will immortalize the unforgettable Uncle Bud.

Paul’s Sufferings and the Furtherance of the Gospel

And lay for near six months ago on my bones back, some people seem to know better about my condition than I did. And they told all the country that I had back slid and the Lord was trying to reclaim me.

I'm doing a good job at it. Never worked with anybody yet that believed that St. Paul was a backslider. Since I've worked with, of the denominations that I've worked with, 73, but what, claim St. Paul.

They all take him and quote from him. Our Baptist friends, they just let him decide. They take him to prove they don't like much of having him. Did you ever read the 24th chapter of Acts and the fifth verse said this, we have found this man a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition among all the, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.

He is the ringleader. Believe it or not that he was the first general superintendent. Well, you say, why are you judging by? Well, he is the ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. And now I'll show you that he wasn't backslid, but I'm going to show you the good time he had in enduring and suffering.

The 11th chapter of 2nd Corinthians begins at 24th verse. It said of the Jews, five times, received I forty stripes, save one. Took him out five times and horse whipped him, laid 39 lashes on his back.

Twice was I beaten with a rock. They took him out three times and beat him with a club. Once was I stoned, taking him out and beat him with different times. A night and a day, I have been in the deep Mediterranean, probably a hole into a little piece of a broken vessel.

Man, I could just get out on the decks of the old boat and sit right along. Here's where Paul was floating and the whales come over and looked him over and said, there's no use to swallow him. We couldn't digest him and we couldn't keep him down.

He belonged to the hole in his outfit. But that is all. He said in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fasting often, in cold and nakedness. Preacher that ever lived ought to have had enough clothes.

Cometh upon me daily the care of his bishop. If he is a Presbyterian, he is a Baptist. He was a president of the Baptist Association. Whatever he was, he's the head of it. Paul's letter to the Philippians, first chapter and 12th verse.

But I would you should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel. His afflictions, he says, added instead of detract. Him to establish the minds and hearts of the people that they've never outgrown.

Moses, David, and Paul as Servants of God’s Word

God raised up three men for three things. God raised up Moses to write the law. He is God's lawyer. He wrote the law for the whole world, every nation and kindred, the tongue and people. God raised up King David to write the hymn book for the whole world, the best one that's ever written.

And he raised up Saint Paul to write the theology for all the churches of the world. And Paul wrote it. He was God's theologian without a doubt on earth. But on top of the earth. It has made for over three years.

The Burden Before the Accident

Passed it down that city for me such as I'd never experienced. I didn't know what it was nor how it was. Threw it and around it. And I begun to pray and fast. Before it broke up, I hadn't touched food.

I come down the first day of June. Morning such a strange feeling come over me. Got out and prayed and I didn't go to breakfast. I prayed down till just before preaching time and walked up to the church Brother Cornell preached.

A great number at the altar. After preaching the afternoon at 2 .30, I went back to my room. Didn't go to dinner. Got down to pray. The burden got still heavier. Didn't know what it was. I couldn't explain it to you.

Been hanging over me for some time, but not so heavily as at that time. When I got there, Brother Cornell said, I said, buddy, are you sick? I said, no, I'm not sick. Said, have you had any bad news? I said, none.

He said, there's something a matter with you. No, I said, not a thing on earth. I'm as easy as a dead man. Said, there's something ailing you. I preached that afternoon on why. I believe in scripture and women.

There's the order. And God sanctified every one of them. Good night, but I couldn't go to supper. Got down and prayed. And the burden hung over me so heavily. I was nearly afraid to leave my room. Didn't know what it was.

But on my knees, just before I walked up to the church, I said, Lord, if I'm gonna die tonight or get killed, I want you to get me a good place ready, right on the banks of the river of life. I'll be there before my heels get cold.

Be right up in heaven. I walked up to church. Brother Cornell brought a great message. The altar was lined with secrets. A man didn't take me to my room at night in his car, but that night, he was down on his knees with one arm around the poor fellow playing with him.

And I didn't bother him. I walked out of the church. It was on 19th Street, in the middle of a block between Mission and Valencia. I walked up a half a block to Valencia. Down that street, three blocks to 16th, was where my hotel stood.

Across the street, Hotel Crown. Marooned, I was 404 in that hotel. I broke up that night, taken to the emergency center, hardest night I ever spent. Then went to the great hospital there. Marooned, I was 303.

After weeks of suffering, they said I was able to go to Pasadena. They sent me downtown, sent me to the hospital. Marooned, I was 202. I got able to travel and went to Malton. And they put me in a nice hotel.

Marooned, I was 101. For the real help said, buddy, you're coming back to the earth. You're coming back. Well, they said, don't amount to nothing. No, I don't suppose it did. But, street corner, I was weeping as loud as a man could weep.

And I couldn't tell you why. Looked up in the clouds and asked God to do a certain thing for me. It hasn't been done yet. I don't care if it's never done now. I started to cross the street, got hemmed in between two automobiles and a streetcar.

The Streetcar Accident and Miraculous Preservation

I seen some of them was gonna knock me out. I jumped in front of a car onto the streetcar track. The great car was almost against me when I leaped off of the track. But there was an automobile by the side of it trying to outrun it.

I knew I couldn't jump beyond that car, but I made the leap. I heard the crash and felt the pain. I fell down to 30 feet. The only time that I lost unconsciousness was as I was going through the air. It seemed that I was flying.

But when I laid on those cobblestones, I felt the jaw and I heard some more bones popping as the big automobile was rolling over me. They hadn't stopped it, but rolled over me. Just as the car got off of me, they begun, the woman jumped out of the car and begun to scream, oh, she said, we've killed you.

And we wouldn't have killed you for nothing in the world, but I said, I'm not dead. She said, no, but you're dying. I said, I don't think so. I feel like I'm in heaven, but I don't think I'm dying. She said, you are.

And we wouldn't kill you for nothing in the world. The crowd begun to gather. The police ran across the street with a club in his hand, a cousin, the man, and I reproved him. Said, don't do it. And then he went to hit him.

I said, don't hit him. He went to arrest him. I said, don't do that. The gentleman couldn't help it. He said, don't you want me to arrest the man that killed you? I said, no, sir, don't do it. Then they tried to take me up, and brother, I was so mangled that it looked like they couldn't get a hold of me.

My right arm was broke here above the elbow and drove right up, and the arm bone come out through the muscle, through my undershirt, top shirt, comes through my coat sleeve, and my arm bone come over here and stuck in my chest and cut a hole in my coat, my arm bone.

Then it was broke between the elbow and the wrist, and then every one of those fingers was turned back the other way. My left arm was drove down about three inches and broke off an inch and a half below the joint, and the bone, the x-ray showed, split open down to the elbow.

Then my left kneecap was knocked off and knocked down, and the leg pulled apart. That's the most painful thing I ever had. Mother, you'll thank God for a good knee and a good kneecap. Then the leg was broke between the knee and the ankle.

Then the ankle was jerked out of socket and whirled around the heel, come out in front. Awfully smashed. Then I bruised on the other side, down to the ground. But they picked me up with my clothes and got me in the car and take me down to the emergency.

Suffering, Sin, and Testimony in the Hospital

And all men ought to suffer there. They received me, but two young men were going to pull the clothes off of me, just like taking the heart off of a mule, and I begged for mercy, and they didn't have it.

I sent them the little cigarette and begun to smoke in my face. I said, young gentleman, I'm an old minister, so mangled, your tobacco smoke makes me so sick. I said, would you have mercy on me and not smoke in my face?

One of them let out a mouthful right in my face. Oh, I said, captain, if you're a preacher, you're going to need all the grace to use on yourself that you've been given to the other people. Haven't you heard talk of the tender mercy of the devil?

That's it. You may not agree with me down here, for they have so much tobacco, but listen. The cigarette mill, brother, will rob you of your manhood or your womanhood quicker than the old brown jug. You may not agree with me, but I'm right.

If you drink liquor, you'll get all sorted by yourself, and thank God, if you smoke cigarettes, you smoke them in the face of everybody on earth, anyone in the world. They take all the rights to themselves.

They don't grant you any privileges in the world. They just smoke you anywhere in the world you go. But come on, I laid out that night without any help. I suffered death, I think. The next morning, my arms and legs was twice the natural size.

I could work the thumb on my right hand, but that arm has broke all the feet, but I could work that thumb. I couldn't move a finger on this hand. I couldn't move the left leg in any way, shape, form a second.

I could work the toes on my right foot and the thumb on my right hand. That's the only thing I could move. But I lived all night. At the break of day, the Holy Father come in. I had never gone to concession, but I'd heard of me in a going.

The Holy Father come in, he went around, and brother, he dug up concessions of everybody. And listen, I thought I knew a little bit about sin. I didn't. I never heard such things on earth as some of the men confessed that they're guilty of.

Didn't know the such crimes on earth as I said they had committed. Well, the Holy Father went around from place to place and mummified him left and went on. He finally got to me and got down over me. And oh, he smelt the song of liquor and tobacco.

I was nearly dead. And he got down close to me and I could smell him. It was awful. And he said, have you got anything to confess? I said, I have. I want to make a confession. He got down close to me and told me to make it.

I summoned all the strength I had. Didn't know but how to be dead. Want to make the confession. I looked him in the face and shouted, I said, I'm saved and sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost. And shouted, glory to God!

And of all the running that a Holy Father ever done, brother, he done it. Man, man, he moved. They got to move on him. Just think of it. He'd lived in all of that dirt and vice and he seemed to be at home.

But one man to testify to the saving grace of God and brothers like to scared him to death. The poor sinner nearly had a fit. He got way back down and he held on to the door and looked at me. Wild eyed.

After a while he said, anything else? I said, one or less. I've been a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ 49 years so that he can save sinners and sanctify believers. I said, hallelujah! And of all the running that you ever saw, that's the last time I ever saw him.

The Surgeon’s Reluctance and the Power of Prayer

He never got back. Lived a while longer, brother Cornell and brother Smith and brother Corlett come and brought the great surgeon from that great hospital. And he looked me over and refused to take me case.

Said, the old man's mangled. He was just robbed by the age. And refused to take me case. But brother Cornell talked about the previous life. Said, you don't know how much we love him. You don't know what his life meant to us.

We want you to take him and we'll stand by you with every dollar that you're required to save him. Then he looked at me. He said, if I take your case, I want to know how you believe. Well, I said, I preached the gospel of Jesus Christ 49 years.

He said, I don't believe the gospel. Well, I said, I do. And he left me. Gone a little while, he come back. Oh, he said, I reckon your religion's all right. I said, I know it is. Glory to God. Then he said, if I take your case, I want to know what you've been doing morally.

How have you been living? Well, I said, I haven't touched liquor in my life. Haven't touched tobacco since God saved me. And I was never down low in my morals. And never dissipated in my blood. He said, your blood's as clean as a baby's blood.

I said, it ought to be. Then he said, will you bear? Then he said, I will. Then the avalanche man come for me. Brother Corwin, get down on his knees. Put one hand on my brow and put the other on up. I've never heard a young man pray.

It's on all the days of my life that that man prayed. He said, Uncle Budger and all of that thing. But he said, we need your word, sir. Then they drew up in heaven. And we're gonna keep you. Pray at hospital.

Couldn't operate on me. Said, you'll die today. Said, I don't aim to do it. I don't aim to die today. They wouldn't operate. Said, you'll die before night. I said, no, sir. Nothing to do with it. That night, they wouldn't operate on me.

Said, you'll die tonight. I said, I don't aim to do it. I'll be right here in the morning. And I was. You've got the evidence of it right here. I didn't die that night. I was in such a meek. They brought in the table to put me on.

Rolled it in. And the old doctor examined me. Said, I just breathed a prayer. The loving Jesus stood by me. Said, I'll go with you through the whole thing. Some over my face, I heard a sizzling noise.

And the next thing I know, it was 12 o 'clock that day, from 7 in the morning to 12. But I regained consciousness down in my room. Oh, what a fix this is. This arm had been split open here. Pieces of bone taken out and set here and here.

And a big can't put over it. A hole in the can't to clean out that hole. This arm couldn't be put in the can't, but it's bound right there. My left kneecap was put back in place. My left ankle was set and the bone set.

The ankle put back in place. And the big can't from down to my toes, up over my ankle and up over my leg and up above my knee. And I couldn't move that. And when I come to, though, I gained consciousness.

I could work that thumb. And when I went to shouting as loud as I could yell to save my life, just to work at that thumb. But by the next day, my left leg had gone into convulsion. It looked like, you see, I can just raise it up and I'd scream.

Prayer, Healing, and Recovery

The big doctor heard him calling me, but he said, buddy, you would die if you could, but you can't. That was encouraging. My wife had come and she went down and called Dr. Goodwin. God bless old John.

About 150, 200 Nazarenes there. They all got on the knees, they claimed. And every one of them prayed at once and all prayed loud. As loud as they could yell. Now notice, while there's a praying, not a day is a praying.

That was a stream of liquid gold. It dig around, it popped on, come right down from heaven above this leg here. Went right down the leg, to the toe and up here, and down on that side, and back down there and disappeared.

Praise the Lord. When that leg, easy as my knuckles. I know people said it couldn't have been that way. Well, it was my leg, looks like I ought to know, don't it? It was so full of beautiful cut flowers, had to take them out, they come down from, they come in great quantities, fine cut flowers.

Then when I finally got able to leave, when the garden was full of Pasadena hospitals, never ordered one down, never picked, don't know who done it. But after I got out of the hospital down here in Oklahoma, a young man told me that he was acquainted with a big oil man there, that one time had been converted in my meeting, and he'd taken up with the hothouses in Frisco when I died.

Pasadena went down and furnished all that could be used. Then he didn't tell me another man did. I don't know whether he did or not, but surely be their God. Another thing, mustn't forget, this arm was so bad in a few days, doesn't come in to clean it out every morning, broken bones every day.

And it's so painful, brother, that Rome didn't help me this, to say, I'll have to have it nine times a day. He'd come every day to clean out my arm. He'd work on it and I'd shout, and finally tell him then how much I loved him.

Sometimes it was the Christian on earth, said, I'll take it back. Said, we've got one. He's got one. He said, he's got the real thing. I knew that when I went there. Another young doctor said, how do you know?

Why, I said, you know when I work on these other men here in the worst fix I ever saw to live? Broke all the pieces in one arm, looked like it'd rot off. While I'm cleaning out his arm, he said he shouts all the time, and then tells me how much he loves me.

He said, he's got it. Got so bad, I thought I might have to take it off. With him and another young doctor, and a bowl of liquor. Couldn't say a hallelujah and glory to God. I said, look, I don't see how I can go up and down the country with one arm gone and the other just a piece.

Why get that big? Why just cut him up down like a butcher shop every day? But God had his hand on it. Working on cleaning that big hole down there. But the old doctor, he'd taken out his doctorate and said, I was able to shout that morning, and God wants him shouting and going on, and he made him do it.

The Lord made him do the job. He's doing a good job. In this arm sitting case, after a week, that big hole down there, you could see the bone for three months. They wrote it off, what it looked like, going through.

And they said, it'll kill you. I said, it won't do it. They said, it'll never heal up. I said, it will. They said, your left knee will be just as stiff as wood. I said, it won't. Said, your ankle will be stiff.

I said, it won't. Won't be stiff, neither one of them. And they're not, look at there. The Lord won't. I couldn't do it. Comforting with God, and the blood. Use the word for it, rise and resolve, and tell about what the great man said.

Christ’s Commission and Returning to the Work

Why, there's a damn big preacher now. Time's come to have a religion. We're going to throw the Old Testament over the fan as it's interpreted. Oh, tell her, brother, he needs to be washed again. Look in the sky, heaven which is full of music, and the ocean is of water.

And I was right in among them. And all the blood-washed army, more beautiful than the angels. Had no way to number them. And Jesus come from somewhere right up in God's big home, and come and took before me and talked to me.

He said, your work is not done, and I'm going to send you back to get sinners converted and believers sanctified. And man, I wouldn't go into one of the world if I couldn't preach holy. I wouldn't preach anywhere on the face of the earth.

They haven't got enough money to hire me. Well, Jesus talked to me, told me work wasn't done. He's going to send me back. My angels come for me. The band of angels had taken me up. They come back down through that city for miles and miles and miles.

Come out the big gates and started back to this world again. Come down over those rolling walls and got back inside of Fresco. And our band of angels come down just like a narrow plane that's circling over a city, coming down.

And down through that city we come, a mean sky, right over the city and around over my gray hospital there and right down through the roof, right down to my bed and laid me down on my bed. Set this kind and tender as a mother laid down her baby and told me goodbye and it was gone like lightning.

I begun to shout, oh man, heaven was 10 feet deep around me. My little nurse got awfully excited and run for the doctor. I said, nurse, I'm not dying. She said, I think you are. I said, no, I'm not. I've just got back from heaven.

And I know by that I'm not dying. I've just got back. I ever stayed down there for several weeks. Finally the time come to set a table to come to Pasadena and Brother Smith and Brother Corlett and among them Cornell all come that morning to see the doctor and paid him up.

The Journey Home and Fellowship Among Believers

And he come in and dressed me well. My little nurse said, you'll stand it fine. But I want to know if you love me good. I told him I did. That's when she told me goodbye. I wasn't a teen anymore. An hour or two went by and he walked my big doctor again.

Oh, I said, you'll stand it fine. But I want to know if you love me good. I told him how much I loved him. He left out of the second or third time, but then I come four or five times through the day. Every time he'd come in, he'd say, you'll stand it fine, but I want to know if you love me good.

Finally the last time he come, he stood before me. He said, I want to know if you love me with your whole heart. I'm going to take him to tell him how much I loved him. And he patted my cheek and told me goodbye again.

Wasn't a teen, he said, anymore. Walked around the foot of the bed and got his hand on the door knob and stopped. And brother, he bawled out just as loud as a yearling nearly. Big old doctor just foiled around then and run back and reached down and patted my cheek.

He said, buddy, I want to know if you love me with your whole heart. I told him how much I loved him. And then he looked me in the face and his face was bathed in tears. He was bawling loud. He said, I want to know if you love me with your whole heart.

I said, I love you with my whole heart. Then we had another shout and fell. I said, will you meet me in heaven? He said, I'll meet you there. I'm going to go to heaven with you. I'll meet you in heaven.

Patted my cheek and left. That's the last time I've seen him. After a while, the ambulance come and we got in it. They put me in and my little wife with me went down to the city and on to a boat and we sailed across Oakland Bay.

Put me in a little pink trough and up through the window and into a nice apartment. My wife a little rocking chair by me and the train pulled out at five o 'clock in the afternoon for Los Angeles. Nearly 500 miles down the valley.

Brother, I had one shout and fell, 500 miles long. Say, you're crazy. No, I wasn't. Down the valley we went. I could hear the cow wheels a-clucking beneath me. I'd say, hallelujah, glory to God. And then I'd begin to laugh.

I'd laugh like a boy in a circus and maybe laugh for 50 miles as hard as I could lay it on. Then have another shout and fell. I laughed and shouted all night long. Never slept a wink. Didn't look like I'd ever get to sleep anymore while the world stands.

Next morning, after daylight, we pulled in below Bakersfield and zigzagged up over the big mountain. I could turn my head and look out and see a fir tree and I'd hoop as loud as I could yell to save my life.

I'd look at a mountain and a fir tree. Went on over the mountain, got on the valley above Los Angeles. By that time, I about give out. I couldn't shout. That is, I couldn't speak words, but I could make noise.

We pulled in a little town. They'd blow the whistle. I answered every single whistle and every time the ring the bell, I answered that. They'd blow the whistle and I'd say, whoo! And then I'd laugh. Then we'd pull on up.

They'd ring the bell and I'd say, whoo! No, I wasn't. I had religion. Actually, I had religion. Going, oh, we finally got to Los Angeles. Pulled up in that big Union station there. That's a big town, you know?

Community Support and God’s Provision

And I pulled up and shouted as loud as I could yell. When I got there, I heard them singing. One of their oldies called up there and I'll be there. A great band of my friends had come. Said, Uncle Buddy'll die if we don't see him.

That day when they take him off the train, we'll never see him alive. Mr. Reynolds, a Presbyterian elder, one among the finest men in the nation, running a fine abalance in a great undertaker's establishment.

He brought his abalance and his driver and come over and got me and brought me across from Los Angeles up to Pasadena, taking me out home and unloaded and put me on my bed and let me dinner down, come back and got me, take me down to the hospital in Pasadena that afternoon.

But he made me a good proposition. He said, Buddy, I'm gonna bury you when you die. I said, I'm not gonna die now. He said, you are. He said, I'll bury you. It won't cost your family a cent on earth. I'll bury you for what you've done for this old world.

It won't cost your family a cent on earth to bury you. I'll give you the nicest burying lot in this city and bury you as nice as a man can be put away. It won't cost your little wife a dollar in the world.

He said, I'm gonna do that for you. But I said, you won't get the chance now. I don't aim to die. Buried me yet. But they come on and they put a little, kind of a truck up through the window and got me on it.

And I went down, head forward towards the abalance. I come down, I shout as loud as I can yell. And they're singing on the road, it's called up down there, I'll be down waving the handkerchief. And they're taking me down and putting me in the abalance.

My family got in with me. They got around the abalance and sung. A little deacon had got out and rode with a driver. And on down the city, we pulled out from around the big deep one, started down through the town and rode over a streetcar track and jolted.

I hooped as loud as I could hoop. I said, whoop. He said, what's the matter with you? Well, the little deacon said, that's how everybody's been to heaven. Well, I'll have to go back anytime now. Run on a little bit, run over another track and I hooped.

He said, there he goes again. Yes, sir. Well, I had a shouting filled out 15 miles long. One 500 miles, then one 15 miles. And pulled up the depot, or I mean the hospital. And take me out and put me in my bed there.

I told you my bed there was room of 202. When I got there, my room was full of flyers. I stayed there for months and months. And my bills run up, they never was less than 150 a week. And I stayed there for weeks and weeks until it run up over $3 ,000 altogether.

And every dollar of it comes through the mail. And from all over the world, from people I've never seen in my life, but never seen them, there's as much as $50. Went to the hospital with $10. And when I come out, the little nurse tied up a handkerchief full of money like that.

Oh, it didn't have holes in it, wasn't dirty. But piled on it in dollars and fives and tens and put in $600. Was piled up and tied up in that rag. And $600 tied up in a rag. And I went to the hospital with $10, paid all the bills and come out with $600.

Glory be to God. If I'd have stayed there much longer, I could have put up a bank when I got out. I went out for those weeks and months. You know, I was weak and tired of laying there. But when I'd been down in the hospital a week, one morning a young lady come down to notify me that I had to go off that day, but he had got down on his knees and prayed and said, Lord God, I want you to save me.

He said he'd been miserable ever since I shouted from Los Angeles to Pasadena that he couldn't sleep at night, but God saved him. Sent a young woman all the way to the hospital to notify me that he'd been saved.

Jesus’ Presence and the Furtherance of the Gospel

But when I'd been down to the hospital later, 10 days in Pasadena, one day I looked over to my right and Jesus was right there by my bed. Oh, the loving gentle Jesus. I went to shouting. My little nurse got so excited.

She run after the doctor there. I said, nurse, I'm not dying. I'm getting well. Jesus was right there by my bed. Son of Christ that can save and sanctify and take care of you even in a hospital. But I would, you should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather under the furtherance of the gospel.

Glory be to God.