Sinner's Prayer — Leonard Ravenhill

David's Prayer for Mercy and Cleansing

Reading from verse 1 into verse 13. Have mercy upon me O God, according to thy loving-kindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgression. Wash me truly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

For I acknowledge my transgression before thee, and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned. And done this evil in my sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.

Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from my presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee.".

The Hidden Sinfulness of the Human Heart

D .L. Moody said on one occasion, he was the evangelist, or the singer you heard about, St. Keith. And he said on one occasion, if God would give a man the ability to take a photograph of our hearts, none of us would sit for a picture.

And if we got it, we wouldn't show it to anybody. Is that true in your heart and mine? The Bible contains 70 books. If you went to Bible school, they told you 66. But they don't know much of Bible schools anyhow.

The Bible's Structure and the Living Church

You see the book of Psalms is a Hebrew hymn book, and it is divided into five books. So if you add four to 66 books, you have 70. If you take the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the fifth book is a recap of the other four.

If you go into the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, then you come to the Acts of the Apostles. What is the Acts of the Apostles? It's the church doing everything Jesus did. Isn't it? The church, the living church, kind of tingles my flesh.

Because you see one morning in England, one of our sleepy clergymen had had a pretty bad weekend. And Monday isn't a good day for preachers. And he turned around in his swivel chair and he reached just blindly for a book.

And he got his New Testament and he'd opened up the Acts of the Apostles. And he read it and suddenly it exploded. And from that J .B. Phillips began to give his great exposition, his translation of the New Testament.

It is a translation, it's not a transliteration, it's not this dirty thing down here, living Bible, a paraphrase, a bit of guesswork that a man had when he was sick I think. Phillips is a scholarly translation, it's got teeth in it.

And when he read the first few chapters of the New Testament church, this is what he said. This is the church of Jesus Christ before it became fat and short of breath by prosperity. This is the church before it became muscle-bound by over-organization.

This is the church where they did not say prayers, they prayed in the Holy Ghost. This is the church where they did not gather together a group of people to study psychosomatic medicine, they healed a snake.

Revival Begins With Personal Brokenness

My prayer is for this church. I pray for this church every day of my life, to never come back again. I'll still go on praying, that God will make it a New Testament church. If it does, maybe the preacher gets thrown out.

But anyhow, the thing is a lot of you get thrown out. You know everybody wants revival. You know I don't want revival to fill up the vacant pews. Many revivals enter the church before they fill them. God enters before he fills, he strips before he clothes, he casts us down before he lifts us up.

He wounds us before he heals us. Well that's free, it won't cost you anything but it's not in the message. The book of Psalms has a hundred and fifty psalms, roughly 75 of them are written by David. Many of the psalms are prophetic, some are historic and some are biographical.

Out of the 75 he wrote, 18 of them are autobiographical psalms. Out of the 18, 8 of them are penitential psalms. Out of the 18, out of the 8, one is the greatest psalm. This is the greatest psalm ever written as far as I'm concerned.

It's an amazing psalm in its construction, though we don't have time to deal with it all. But in the first two verses you have two different words, pardon me, you have three different words for sin in the first two verses.

You have three different words for cleansing in the first two verses. Three times in this psalm, brokenness is mentioned. Three times in this psalm, the spirit is mentioned, twice of the Holy Spirit and once of the human spirit.

Three times in this psalm, sacrifice is mentioned. Three times in this psalm, burnt offerings are mentioned. Did you notice that I tried to put an emphasis in reading it. The unique thing amongst others about this psalm is this, that it's a monologue.

David's Confession and the Burden of Sin

In the life of David one hand is stained with adultery and the other hand is stained with murder. And he doesn't go looking at the woman that nakedly sported herself. He doesn't obliquely refer to Bathsheba, not directly.

He says have mercy upon me, O God, according to the multitude of thy tender mercy. He's brought out my transgression, washed me foolish from my iniquity, cleansed me from my sin. I acknowledge my transgression, my sin is ever before me.

Now if you want to put into practice the commitment you made a little while ago. Maybe the thing is to draw a circle and stand in the middle of it and say Lord start revival right inside this circle. You know what's wrong with the deacons in your church, the pastor, somebody else.

You know what's wrong with yourself. It's easy to go out looking for scapegoats, but David is not doing that. David here says have mercy upon me, O God, according to the multitude of thy tender mercy.

He's brought out my transgression. Oh David don't get too worried about this. The man that wrote this psalm was a monarch. But do you know what he said, he had one of the most blessed experiences in the world.

And the blessedness was he was miserable about his sin. We try to get people saved and don't even believe they're lost. We try to get people to come to Christ as though Jesus is in heaven winging his hand hoping you'll give him a vote.

Forget it. You've got a hell of a lot of his concern. And I mean that. Because when he hung between two thieves on the cross he never said a word to them. You say to people Jesus is living in heaven to make intercession for you.

No he's not. I don't believe he is for sinners. It's for saints he's doing that. He's made an offering for sin. Once in the end of the age he appears to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Now David here has a thousand things tearing his spirit.

It's worse than a cancer in his breast. It's worse than a fire in his bones. It's worse than the weight that's striking him. My sin is ever before me. You see when he looked out of his palace window there was a guard.

And he remembered that the captain of that guard he'd put to death because he'd stolen the wife of that captain. And he heard a baby cry somewhere there a certain girl's baby cried. And he remembered the sin that he'd fathered a child without Sheba.

And so his sin was ever before him. His sin came in his ears. His sin came before his eyes. His sin burned in his conscience like a living flame. That's just about normal for a revival. We want an all the night sweeping in.

Now I'm not saying God can't do that. But every revival I've discovered is this. That has been a gradual approach to that. And something like a disease has spread amongst people. And they've had to say eventually foul eye to that fountain fly.

The Holy Spirit's Conviction and Holiness

Wash me Savior or I die. Have mercy upon me O God. According to the multitude of thy tender mercies. You know I'm very slow on the uptake. I guess you've already discovered that anyhow. I'm not being too humble about that.

But you know as I read that psalm again I felt something kind of turning inside of me tonight. When David says take not by Holy Spirit from me. You know I never discovered that until fairly recently, two or three years ago.

Why does he say take not by Holy Spirit from me? Now notice will you that he mentions the Holy Spirit at least twice. The Holy Spirit is exactly that. He's a spirit of holiness and he convicts of unholiness.

He's a spirit of light. He convicts of death. He's a spirit of power. He convicts of weakness. He's a spirit of fire. He convicts of coldness. He's a spirit of purity. He convicts of impurity. Now David says take not by Holy Spirit from me.

Why? Well just before David there had been a king by the name of Saul. You see in America we, we, we love to think we don't have a monarch. We don't have a king. But I'll tell you what at the coronation of a British king there are more Americans looking on than anybody anyhow.

You like to see the pomp and the circumstance and the Queen's chariot come drawn with the six horses and all the rest of it. But all when they anointed a king in Israel. It was far more than a social thing.

It wasn't something that somebody was at the top of the pyramid. It was God's selection and he had selected a man who in the poet's language was tall and dark and handsome. Apart from Goliath, maybe the biggest man in the world.

Tall handsome Saul the king of Israel and millions of people gathered and he was anointed. They took the horn of an animal and cut the end of it and filled it with oil and the priest took it there and, and he dropped the oil on the head of the, of the, of the king who was also the priest in this instance.

At least at the moment. He had the anointing. Oil is a type of permanent type of the Holy Spirit. And Saul the king of Israel is anointed and it says the Spirit of the Lord rested upon him and he had gifts of the Spirit because he prophesied.

But he died a suicide. You wonder the scripture says how the mighty fallen. You know the road of Christian living is full with a wreckage of has-beens. Men who want light in God. My wife and I were in a certain place.

I think it was California we were when I received a call from the president of the famous school in this country. And he asked me to go and teach for a month and then he asked me to join the staff. After they'd heard me preach a month they didn't renew the invitation.

But that's all right. I said to him but my accent on the Holy Spirit is not on gifts. It's on character. He said that's what we want. And he went down the list he said remember Saul and Saul. That man used to get ten, twelve thousand people in his tent.

Do you know how he died? Do you know Saul and Saul? That man would have a great healing meeting and phone for a call girl on the way home. Do you know Saul and Saul? He went down the list and he said we need more than just terms and phrases and gifts.

We need holy living, holy character. And holiness is not a luxury it's a necessity. If you're not holy you'll never make it to heaven. God says nothing but the Father shall enter into heaven. David saw that king.

The man who stood and prophesied in the name of God. The man with great authority. The people got so thrilled they wrote songs about him. Saul had slain his thousands. They saw him cringing at the feet of a miserable spirit saying bring up Saul.

And when Saul came up you remember he said the Lord. No he said call upon my God. Not my God, not our God, my God. He said listen the Lord has forsaken me. And the prophet didn't say now of course he won't do that with you.

Particularly you being a king. You being the anointed one. He never does that. He never forsakes his own. Oh you can use scriptures and distort them can't you. When the man said the king said the Lord has departed from me.

Do you remember the answer of the prophet? He said the Lord has departed from me. Do you know the most miserable. Do you know the man who needs to be pitied most in America tonight or anywhere in the world.

He's not the man feeling his way down the road in total blindness. He's not those poor forgotten heroes in our VA hospitals that have been there from World War II. Minus legs, minus eyes, minus arms and they get nothing for it but misery.

He's not the man who lost it all on the stock market the other week. No sorry. The man who is the most pitiful object in America tonight is the man who once had the anointing of God and he lost it. There is no money will bring it back.

There is no way you can manipulate it for him. I often pray and thank God that the Holy Ghost is incorruptible. Some of you if the pastor said tonight I have a special privilege. I want you to be filled with the Holy Ghost.

It'll cost you a thousand dollars. You can whip your checkbook out and sign a thousand dollars but he still says your money perished with you. David had seen the misery of this man that God had left. And he says take not my Holy Spirit from me.

David's Psalms and the Need for Searching Repentance

This is the young man that sat on the hills of Bethlehem playing, playing a harp. Wrote maybe the most beautiful psalm of all. The 23rd Psalm. The Lord's my shepherd I'll not want. You want to hear it sung you'd have to go to Scotland.

It's their national anthem. Boy they can sing it. Like nobody on earth. The Lord's my shepherd I'll not want. And he gets so brave he says even the valley of the shadow of death I fear no evil. You remember what he did in Psalm 139.

He takes his heart out and he says search me O God and know my heart. Try me and know my thought. I dare you to say that right now to a holy God. Not to me. Throw it up to heaven right where you're sitting.

Search me as you search Jerusalem with a candle. Search me. Search all my thoughts. The secret springs. The mountains that control. The chambers where polluted things hold empire of the soul. Search till thy fiery glance hath cast its holy light through all.

And I thy grace and brought at last before thy face the frost. Alright he says there in that psalm he's brave. He's living as near to God as he ever lived. He was living in the fullness of blessing. And therefore he says search me O God and know my heart.

Try me and know my thought. And see if there's any wicked way in me. He doesn't say that to God here. He says hide thy faith from my sins. Don't come near to me I'm already tormented. What a tragic situation that this man is found like this.

He wrote this 23rd psalm with its balm, its healing. He wrote the 139th psalm with its boldness. He writes Psalm 51 with his brokenness. This psalm isn't written on paper. It isn't written with ink. It's written with blood and tears.

It isn't punctuated with periods and commas. It's punctuated with grief and psalms. And groans. And I believe that the groans of penitent men and women make more music in heaven than all the singing gallagherts he ever offered.

And all the music Handel ever put together. When a man loathes himself, woe is me, I'm undone, I'm unclean. God says that man's getting some place. I think one of the great tragedies of present Christianity is that we're, well we've such a shallow conception of sin.

We tell people to get rid of sin because it'll get rid of you. But the first point is you should get rid of sin because it hurts God. Not that it hurts you and hurts the folk you're sinning with. It hurts God first of all.

And after all what's this book about from beginning to end? It only has one subject. The subject of sin. The subject of redemption. The fall of man. The recovery of man. It's simplified very easily. There are two ways.

The broad way and the narrow way. There are two gates. There are two masters. There are two kingdoms. Not three, two. You're in one, you're in the other. There's a broad way that leads us to destruction.

Sin, Sacrifice, and the Cost of Discipleship

Dear pastor was saying tonight about sacrifice. My God, I'm an honest before God. We don't know a thing about it. You've got some ungodly neighbors you see. We've got some drunken filthy folk around us.

We've got some adulterers and liars and cheats and thieves. And they fight and they swear and they shoot and all the rest of it. Okay. Did you ever think to ask them if they tithe? To who? To the devil.

You think an ungodly man says, well of course I take out my billfold. I only give the devil a tenth of what I've got on gambling and smokes and drinks and nightclubs and all the rest. I never give more than a tenth.

Do you think he says, well of course I'd like to go out for the night but I'm always in bed by half past ten. So, oh no. Go through Las Vegas and see if they ever go to sleep. Ten fifty derby this week I noticed.

Man, people go from the ends of the earth to watch a bit of horse flesh run for about three minutes or less than that. And it'll cost them thousands of dollars. You remember the apostle Paul going down the, that fantastic man.

Oh, I don't know how you read him brother Peter, but I, I always finish up on my face when I read about Paul. He began in the ancient capital of the world, Tarsus. He ended up in the military capital of the world, Rome.

In between he went to the religious capital of the world, Jerusalem. He went to the intellectual capital of the world, Athens. He went to the rotten capital of the world, capital of sin, Corinth. But do you remember in Athens he argued with intellectuals there.

He knew their poetry, history, philosophy, so forth and so on. But when he went down the street he said, I saw altars to unknown gods. And in the sleepy Elizabethan English, which is still the best translation.

The King James by the way is still the purest of all the translations. And in the King James version it says that when he went down that street his spirit was stirred within him. I like the amplified when it agrees with me.

And it agrees with me in that 17th chapter because it says he was angry in his spirit. Why? You go down the street, ah, see there's a new kingdom hall there. Isn't it pretty? You ought to hold your nose and vomit.

Beautiful Catholic Church, for what? Tells me that the Virgin is equal with Jesus, Cori-dentric, forget it, blasphemy. You go down another street and you see something else, it doesn't move her. You go to Washington for the bicentennial, most likely you'll go to the 30 million dollar Roman Church and look round it and some other things.

But when he saw these rivalries, you see he was so madly in love with Jesus he hated the devil's possession of every man and every woman, every thought, every desire they had. It'll take that brother Peter to get men on fire for God.

You say that's pretty insolvent, sure it is. Now it's going to get worse, better I hope. Jesus was insolvent, didn't kiss the Pharisees as far as I know, did he? Didn't put his arms round the neck of the high priest.

Missionary Zeal and Costly Christian Service

I preached at the great Carrizal convention for missionaries in Japan a few years ago. And afterwards, maybe two years after, I saw a man's name mentioned and I said to Martha Threaty, the director of that great conference is in town, let's go see him.

So we went along. And after the meeting I said to him, well how are you going? And he said fine. I said where were you yesterday? He said well these marvelous days I was in Japan. Did you have a good trip?

Yeah, yeah, wasn't feeling too good. Oh what upset you? Body, stomach, time lapse? No, no, no, no. I thought Japan things were a bit cheaper, I'll get a haircut. So he said I got my haircut and the man said, you know slipping away, are you a Yankee?

No, yeah, no I'm not really a Yankee, I'm American. Oh, oh, I see, I see. Businessman? No. Tourist? No. Well what are you? I'm a missionary. Oh good he said, I am a missionary too. Oh I thought you were a barber.

Oh yeah I'm a barber from 8 in the morning till 5. Then I go home for supper and I bathe. And then at 7 o 'clock I go out and I have a little attachment and I have some material and I have some phonograph records and I go from house to house.

You know this new philosophy they have, Sagagaki, which is a combination of religion and politics. And I go from door to door and I go in a house and I sit down there and I, I play my records and I give them instruction and I move on and I move on and I move on from 7 at night until 2 in the morning.

How many nights a week? Seven. You don't go to bed till 2 in the morning. I didn't say that. You, you said that you were out from 7 at night till 2 in the morning. I don't go to bed then. I go home and for two hours I go in a little shrine and I kneel down and I renew my strength.

It sounds a bit like Isaiah 41, they that wait upon the Lord. And I spent 2 o 'clock till 4 o 'clock every morning. And the mystery said I began to feel pretty mad about this. Is it even propagating of devilish doctrine?

And he starts at 7 o 'clock at night till 2 in the morning. Then he needs 2 hours to recover and he gets into bed at 4 and he's out of bed by 7 and he's at business by 8. And I said well how long have you done this?

He said for 7 years. Does that make you feel bad or sad or mad or glad or what? You don't have a deacon in your church as fiery as that do you? Some of you pastors can't remember the last night you stayed out of bed.

You know I'm convinced of this if the church has anything she better say it right now because nobody else is saying anything. If she's got anything she better stand up speak up or shut up. And when you've tried to find fault with this that and the other and where the weakness is.

The whole problem in the church of the Living God tonight as well as the world is a problem of sin. The one thing that God desires of his people is that they be pure in heart. Blessed are the pure in heart.

Not that they shall see God. They do see God. They see him now. They see him in his majesty. They see him working. God made his ways known unto Israel. His acts known unto Israel and his ways unto Moses.

The Prayer of a Sinner: Mercy and Repentance

All right there are many threes in this chapter I've already quoted. Let's say there are three prayers in it. The first prayer is the prayer of a sinner. I don't like David's sin. I'm sure you don't adultery and murder.

But I like his confession. He begins in the first verse by saying Lord have mercy upon me. That's a great great word mercy isn't it. Oh go to Scotland and hear them sing the 23rd time. Go to Wales and hear them sing Cumbranda.

And stay there until they sing the deep deep love of Jesus. And then when you're just about saturated wait until they sing another beautiful hymn. Great God of wonders all thy ways displayed. I'm absolute divine but countless acts of pardoning grace.

Above all other wonders shine. Who is a pardoning God like thee. Oh who has grace so rich and free. I said last night wouldn't it be awesome to have been that wonderful man John Baptist when he was the only man in the world with the truth of God.

Well I want to put it on you tonight. You know it's equally as responsible that you're a Christian with the only true message of salvation in the whole world. Every other things are fake. There is none other name given on the head whereby men can be saved.

If you say you know I'm looking for Jesus coming. He may come tonight. You forget it he won't come tonight. Why won't he? Because the gospel must first be preached to all nations and we're not even pushing the gospel.

There are more heathen people at this given point of time tonight than in all the periods of history. And this generation of Christians is, is responsible for this generation of heathens. David here says have mercy upon me O God.

Oh we think of sin we classify it so many ways. But let me just leap over and say this. Do you remember that the Apostle Paul used this very word. No, no, no, no he wasn't an adulterer. He was a man of impeccable morality.

He was of the tribe of Benjamin of the seed of Abraham. A Pharisee of the Pharisees. He belonged the greatest holy club in the world and they guarded it day and night that nobody unclean would get in.

And with all that pedigree and he writes one day to a young friend and he says but God who is rich in mercy. So maybe God needs more grace with Pharisees than he does with adulterers and unclean people.

They're going to get there on their own merits, on their own righteousness, on their own goodness. As we were singing tonight I was thinking of one night, I, I, one afternoon I preached at a Catholic convention in London England in a church called Orange Grove.

It's a beautiful old Gothic church with stained glass windows, the pulpits all magnificently cast. And I got hold of that pulpit like this and I rubbed my feet there and, and I gripped there and said to myself you know this is, this is nice to stand here.

Because the pastor of the church was a man by the name of Poplady, many years back. And he wrote that lovely hymn Rock of Ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. And he had such a conception of sin because this is what sin does.

You either get rid of it or it gets rid of you. And when he saw what it was he says, fowl I to that fountain fly, wash me Savior Lord I die. Now if you die with sin in your heart you won't go to a third-class heaven because there isn't one.

You'll go right back to hell itself. You don't hear much hellfire preaching of your pretty Sunday morning groups do you? Those pretty boys that want your money and have nice little girls swinging their hips and clapping their hands and saying to a world that's doomed and damned something good is going to happen to you.

The biggest lie ever told that they tell it every week. We're heading for judgment. We've had more light than any people in history. Yes sir I spent two years in the subculture of New York with David Wilkinson amongst prostitutes and jailbirds and yuck.

Thought they'd have sex relations with animals, every devilish thing. But I'll tell you one thing, you never had to have to prove to them they were sinners. And I remember going in the chapel one morning, usually I just had the privilege of talking to the staff twice a week.

And they said, would you take the chapel this morning? And I went in and this side of the room was filled with girls and this side with young men. Some of those girls were the prettiest girls you'll find in New York and the most expensive prostitutes.

There's a little Puerto Rican fella there. I remember he stood there that morning his face radiant and you know he talked very very quickly and he said, well praise the Lord here we are this morning but the rain is going to stop.

Isn't it wonderful to be here? And let's stand up and sing our song. What do you think they sang? Oh my they sang, they sang, they sang better than any choir you ever heard in your life. You know they sang and they sang with tears running down their faces and they sang it with their hands up.

They sang amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. And you know what? Every one of them believed it. I was lost, now I'm found, I was blind, now I see. We sang the last stanza and we'd been there ten thousand years.

A little fella said, Mr. Rennie could we sing another stanza? I said, go ahead sing all you like. And you know I look round and those girls blouses were all soaked with tears and those boys who told me they used to pull out the switch blades and cut a man's belly open if he wouldn't give them his pocketbook.

And they'd raped women and they'd done every devilish thing and there they were standing with tears running down their faces and I'll never forget it as long as I live. Amazing grace how sweet the sound.

You see the man that wrote it used to raid the coast of Africa and steal slaves. And then he got so bad they made him a slave. And when he'd been to hell and back Jesus rescued him. And the trouble is that some of us we've been so good all our lives that after all we should have made heaven even without redemption.

And after all when your uncle's been a deacon and your grandmother bought the stained-glass window in the church what you can't do much more can you? Amazing grace. Then I went to a church and it wasn't about this.

Sunday morning a few months after. The little doll down here she was very beautiful. The Avon lady had worked on her about three days before she came to church. She'd as much paint on as the Queen Mary maybe and boy I don't know if she'd hair or a wig or what but one of the hairs kept spraying and she was singing amazing grace.

How, how, that saved a wretch like me. I once. Well she was three streets behind by the time we finished the hymn she hadn't got through the second verse hardly. And I felt saying you dumb doll what are you singing?

You're not a wretch. If I told you you're a wretch you'd get mad. If your husband told you you'd get a divorce I suppose. But you're not a wretch. You're singing something that doesn't mean a thing to you.

Conversion, Grace, and the Rescue of Sinners

The Banner of Truth book group have recently published a, or republished a book by Brown Law North. He was a grandson of Lord North. And he went to the devil and eventually ended up in the gutter in Paris.

He got so bad even wicked women didn't want him and wicked men left him. And one night he went down to the sign there. He stood on the edge of it and he said this is the only way out. There's no other way.

Here I go. Years afterwards in Scotland there was a banner across Main Street. Come and hear Brown Law North. Brown Law North. The man went in the meeting he scribbled a note and said would you pass it to Brown Law North quickly please.

And Brown Law North was just going to come on the pulpit when they handed him a note and it said hey Brown Law this is your old buddy so and so. You stand up there tonight and I'll stand up and expose your immorality, your perversion, your lying, your depravity.

Boy will I have a time. The man with him said he went as pale as death and he stood for a minute. Are you alright sir? Yes I'm alright. He went up in the pulpit and he said somewhere in this great crowd there's a friend of mine just sent me a note.

He's going to tell you about my life story. Would you kindly stand up? I don't know where you are, I haven't seen you for years. Stand up, stand up, tell them, tell them, will you tell them? The fellow said standing up he was shrinking down, down, down, down like this you know.

He didn't, he didn't want to get up at all. He didn't want to say anything. And Brown Law says let me tell you what he said. He said I was with the vilest women in, in Paris. I went with the most rotten of the prostitutes.