Saved From Crime Testimony — Willie Mullan

Because you can sin before you're born. And I don't need to go into that this evening because you won't be out till the morning. All the hours that you've given me won't do for that. You see, when Jacob was just about to be born, there were twins there.

Sin Before Birth and the Lord’s Answer

Jacob and Esau were twins. And you know, Esau was first. Oh, but when the twins came, Jacob's hand was on the heel of Esau. Now, I'm not going any further because I shall waste the time just making you think.

But here is the Lord's answer on this day. Jesus answered, neither hath this man sinned. And that's really answering the question, isn't it? He's not trying to say you're crazy. He says, neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

Jesus as the Light, Resurrection, and Bread of Life

I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day. The night cometh when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. That's a mighty statement. And sometime when you have time, if you go through John's Gospel, you will find that our Lord Jesus made seven of these mighty statements beginning with I am.

And each time he makes a statement beginning with I am in John's Gospel, he's face to face with a human problem. And he's just trying to tell all in Thunberry that he's big enough to meet the problem.

You see, he's face to face with a man who was born blind, who has been in the dark from the moment of birth. And he's coming close to this man, maybe touching him, and he's saying to the crowd, I am the light of the world.

I can give him light. And he gave him light. And you'll find if you go over a chapter, he comes to the grave of Lazarus, and he's dead four days, and he just stands and he looks at the problem. The man is dead.

And he says, roll. He turns to the crowd and says, I am. I am the resurrection and the life. I can do this. And he did it. Oh, yes. You come into this meeting thinking that Jesus Christ was nobody. I'm afraid you're a way backwards somewhere.

I'm afraid you don't know. When 5 ,000 wait on the mountainside and they're hungry and some of them are fainting, he said, I am the bread of life. And he did meet their need, you know. Oh, what a wonderful Savior.

You can find the other four times on your own, can't you? They're all there. Let's go on with the story. Verse 6. When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground and made clay of a spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay and said unto them, said unto him, go, wash in the pool of Silo, which is by interpretation, scent.

He, the blind man, went his way therefore and washed and came, see. The neighbors therefore, and they which before had seen him that he was blind, said, is not this he that sat and begged? Some said, this is he.

Others said, he is like him. But he said, I am he. I'm the man that was born blind. I can see now. For said they unto him, how were thine eyes opened? Oh, what a question. Of course the neighbors have got a right to ask this sort of question.

This blind baby was born into the neighborhood. They remember him when he was a tiny little baby running about blind, a baby, and then a baby boy, and then a young man, and now this man can see. How were thine eyes opened?

It's a real question. What an answer it got. Listen carefully to the answer. He answered and said, a man that is called Jesus. Oh, I know the camel's not there, but I'm stopping there just now. He gave the credit of this whole thing.

He gave it to a person. It wasn't a place that did this for him, you know, and it wasn't a people that did this for him, and it wasn't a pilgrimage that did this for him, and it wasn't a priest, and it wasn't a pastor, nor a padre.

It was Jesus. He began to talk about the person called Jesus, man that is called Jesus. And then he went on with the answer. He said, a man that is called Jesus made clay and anointed mine eyes. You know, he not only talked about the person, but he talked about the work that the person had done for him.

Because, you know, when you're brought to give your testimony, you don't only talk about the person, but you talk about the mighty work that he did for you. Then he went a little bit further with the answer.

He said, a man that is called Jesus made clay and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, go to the pool of Siloam and wash. And I went and washed, and I received sight. You see, he talked about the person, and then he talked about the person's work for him, and then he talked about the person's word to him.

He's got it all over all right, because that's what I've come to do this evening. I've come to talk about the person's work for me and the person's word to me, and mostly to talk about the person. Sometimes, can I take my coat off?

Is this all right? You're tied to it. I have money in this room. Will the policemen down there watch him carefully, please? Yes, I want you to get the hold of this, because this is tremendous. Sometimes when somebody is kneeling beside me and they're giving their life to the Lord Jesus, I kneel with them and put my arm gently around them, and I say, you know, it's the work of Christ that makes you safe.

Christ’s Atoning Work and the Assurance of Salvation

It's his atoning work, his substitutionary sacrifice. It's the work of Christ that makes you safe. And then I turn to a verse to make them sure. It's the word of Christ that makes them sure. This is just where this fellow got to.

He talked about the person and then his work for him and then his word to him. Sometimes I squeeze him and put it round another way, and I say, it's the blood of Christ that takes your sins away. It's the work of Christ, of course.

And it's the word of Christ that takes your doubts away, because I'm depending on the efficaciousness of his blood this evening, and I've got his word for it that I'm right for heaven. So that's what I've come to do, come to talk about the person and his work for me and his word to me.

Poverty, Family, and a Mother’s Prayers

Now I'm going to shock some of you when I say that I'm the youngest one of a family of seventeen. I'm going to shock some of you. And I am the youngest one, you know. Yes, I don't know if you've ever seen seventeen knives all dab at once at the one quarter pound of butter or not.

I don't know if you've ever seen this. There's no etiquette about cutting the butter. It doesn't make a matter what side you cut it on. It's not there in a moment or two. And I don't know if you've ever had the experience of sleeping six in a bed, that's three at the top and three at the bottom.

It's all sorts of feet and faces, you know, that sort of thing. Yes. And I'll shock you a little bit more when I say there were sixteen boys in our family and one girl, just one girl. And ladies, don't go putting up tiny little prayers for her just now because I'll tell you this.

She was the oldest one in the family. I was the youngest one. And she thunked the life out of all the boys. You see, when I was growing up, I didn't know whether she was my granny or my aunt or my mother.

No. She used to wash my face going to school in a very old-fashioned way. She would spit on my face and then... That's why I'm good-looking. Yes. My father was killed at the Battle of the Somme, 1st of July, 1916.

If you look into my face carefully and count right back to 1916, you will know I wasn't very old. But I left my little mother in the midst of the World War with a big family and no money. Yes. And she didn't need to go round the corner to look for her problems.

We had many problems. Yes, I went to school on my bare feet. Sometimes I'd go to lecture at Queen's and I was looking at the TV one evening and I saw one of the professors and he's lecturing on the children now.

And unless they get three square meals every day and milk and all the rest of it, they're never going to grow up. And I could stand and watch them listen to him talking. I'm going down the corridor the next day and I meet him and I say, Hello, Prof.

Saw you on the box last night. He said, Did you see me, Willie? How did I do? I said, I've never heard so much tripe in all my life. He said, You know, Prof, you haven't a clue about it, so you haven't.

He says, You know, I went to school all the days of my life. There was no such thing as milk given to you. Not a bit of it. On your bare feet on the screenings in the schoolyard. And I'll tell you this.

We had two slices of bread and I don't think it was Orwell. And I know it was Marg that was in between because you could tell Marg from Butter in those days. But, you know, we were glad of it. And, you know, I wasn't the only kid at school with a couple of slices of bread and Marg.

And I can see them now. Now they've grown up to fine looking men. I said, Prof, you know, you want to be sent away to Cambodia or somewhere like that for a day or two. Oh no, we had our troubles. You know, my mother's a very proud little woman.

Though she was poor and we were very poor. You know, we had some fun there. I can remember us. She had a couple of old aunts, you know, that had money. And I'll tell you where they lived. They lived just out there at the crossings outside Cambodia.

And they had a bit of a farm out there and they made money. And sometimes they would come to see her and she was so proud that she would hide us. And she knew they were coming, she'd put them up to bed, you know.

And she'd say, not a cheap out of you now, whether they... And we had some bits of rows up there in bed. You can't have a whole lot of kids like that without fun. And, you know, in the bed where I slept there were six boys.

Three at the top, three at the bottom. And we had the big soldier's overcoat over us. That was the main blanket, sort of style. And, you know, my big brother, he would just grab it and turn it round him.

And there you were. You were brought up out in the open, as it were. And on this particular night with my Aunt Finn, my little brother got really annoyed. He wasn't allowed to call down the stairs, but, you know, he went to the top of the stairs and he's trying to put on a nice voice.

He says, Mummy! Tom has pulled the sleeve out of the blankets. The trouble with some of you people is you never saw blankets with sleeves in them. That's the trouble. But the thing that I remember most, you know, is this.

That each night she would make us kneel. And I can remember this. As a little fella, she'd make us all kneel on the floor. And she'd say, Fold your hands. And you had to do it quickly. And close your eyes.

It was the sort of sergeant major religion it was. And you had to be still. And then she would pray. I look back with pride at that, you know. I was so proud of her. Sometimes I say to God, would to God she had been here now, I would make her a queen, you know.

I'd give her a lot of things she never had. But she's in a better land. And many a time as a young boy, I would open my eyes as she was praying. And I can see this yet. See the lines on her face. Many of them.

See her hands up like this. And her face is turned towards the heavens. And she'd pray for every one of us. And as she would come to the end of the prayer, I was the last one. I was the youngest one. I can still hear her voice saying, Lord, save Willie.

And make him a man of God one day. And although, Mother, she was in a back street and she hadn't two coppers, and she was nobody as far as this world was concerned, God heard her prayer, you know. So, Mother, if you're here, you got a wee fellow that's a bit of bother, just pray on, dear.

Just trust the Lord till you see how it works out. But you see, out of all her children, I was the one that sort of broke her heart. See, when I was just 16 years of age, I went to the bookies one day.

Alcohol, Crime, and the Consequences of Sin

Of course I wasn't allowed to go to the bookies. Oh, no, she would have really went for me had she known I was at the bookies. But then I did lots of things that she never knew about. Went to the bookies, and the boys won a lot of money.

Little fellow, Glen Binning, came out with a wad of notes. Oh, you should see them. I don't know how many pounds he had, but we boys never had money like that. And he said, let's go down into the pub.

I'm 16, and I wander into the pub, too. And that was the first time that I got strong drink. And I got drunk, and I knew, although I was drunk, that when I went home, I would get a hiding. But I want to say this.

You know, something happened to me. Something happened, and it gave me a sort of a crave. And I went after strong drinking, and I drank it, too. And I drank it night after night, and I got hidings night after night.

And when I was just a little bit over 16, we were standing in the little house in the kitchen, and she said to me, there's something wrong. She grasps her breast, and she couldn't get breath, and she had taken a seizure, and I held her tight and laid her down, and in two minutes, she was dead.

And you know, although I was a sort of fool, and I had broken her heart and given her many sorrows, and I had stolen her money a thousand times, that's the bit that I'm most sorrowful about. Any time I took her purse and took all the money she had, she knew I was taken, she knew somebody took it, but she sort of knew it was me.

I left her broke for the week. I stretched her out, and I knew now, you're on your own. Now, if you're here tonight, son, and you've got a good old mother at home, let me talk to you, I think you'll listen to me.

You know, maybe she couldn't pass the 11 and maybe she couldn't just write the copybook the way you can, and the word mathematics would scare her. Let me tell you, she's your mother, and she's had a whole lot of experiences, and she knows a whole lot of things far better than you do, and you should learn to respect her, and don't ever do anything else.

Never be ashamed of her. And you know, she was gone, and I can remember walking into the little room when she was in the coffin and shutting the door, and I can't become a hypocrite now, there's nobody there, and I felt her brow, it's the first time I ever touched a corpse, and she's cold, ice cold, and I cried, and I said, Mummy, I'll never be drunk again.

Now, two hours later, I was full. They're all good at saying this and that and the other. Just like Peter, I will not deny thee, and then it just happens, doesn't it? Then we came home, you know, from the funeral, and my big brother said, What are we going to do with you?

What would they do with me? I do it all now, you know, and I don't blame them. Nobody wanted me, that's a plain fact. You young fellows, that you know you'll reap what you sow. Some of you kids think you're clever.

Reap it, you know, you just don't get off with it. Oh, I had fooled around and stolen money and got drunk and all the rest of it. Now comes the reaping time. Nobody wants you. Then you're so thick and you're so stupid that you stand up and square your young shoulders, and I said, Okay.

Homelessness and the Depths of Sin

Look after your houses, and I lift my coat, you know. Big fellow. Put it over my arm and walk out into the night. I walked for miles, and I can tell you this, before God just now, that I never saw the inside of a house, nor did I lie on a bed, nor did I get a breakfast or dinner for the next three years and a half.

It's what you call serving your time, and I served my time. But I was so desperate and horrible. I was so stiff-necked that I would never turn back nor give in. And if it wasn't for Christ, I would be the same yet, because the same old nature's inside here somewhere.

And I could keep you for the next two or three hours about some of those nights, you know. Terrible nights. Walking all day in the rain sometimes. And you'll never really guess this, that some days I walked for over 30 miles.

It's a long old stretch. And it would rain the whole day. You haven't got any sort of really decent clothes, and it comes through your old jacket and through your little bit of a shirt, and then it runs down your back and it runs down your legs, and then you plod on and you set your face like a flint and you go on with it.

And then night comes and you get over a gate and you lie down at the foot of a big tree, and then the weather changes in our land and it begins to freeze and the old wet rags become as stiff as a board.

And in the morning you're easing the shirt from your skin. You go through this. Let me say this. I'm not trying to tease you. I'm just telling you that when you go through this and you're out on a wild, wild world, as it were, and you have no mother and you sort of think there's no God and there's no heaven and there's no hell, let me say this carefully.

There is not a sin on the calendar you won't stick to. Oh, you become a sinful creature. And I shall tell you this. The devil takes you through the gutter of sin until there are sins that I've committed.

If they were written on the wall, I wouldn't come here. Not even now, although I know they're blotted out. You know, I climbed over a wall one night into a big firm not to break in or anything. Stood in the shadows as the watchman went by.

He got a gun in his hand, I could see it. And he was so scared if I had a sneeze he would have shot me. And I watched him go by, so I stayed there all night. And I got out early in the morning and at nine o 'clock I'm coming down and the police car is there where I go over the wall and the bobbies, you'll allow me to use the word, I know the chief constable is here, they'll allow me to use this word, the bobbies are looking at the marks I made on the wall.

So I nose around a bit and I find out there was a lot of money taken that night. I didn't get it, but I was there. Now, you know where I am now? I'm sailing close, very close, to going up to the Kremlin for the next five years.

And I have no notion of going, you know. So my best bet is to go to the pub. Walk into the pub, no money. Look around, saw Johnny Sansone, start a yarn with him and then he buys you a drink. I've got to linger over this drink for a long time and I've got to talk about everything under the sun.

And a fella came in and he said to me, hello, were you over in the firm last night? I said, yes I was. He says, there was a lot of money taken. He says, if they come round for you, I would advise you to confess your guilt and you'll get a rap, but it'll not be too much.

And then he puts his hand in his pocket and brings out a wad of notes and he says, look, there's two or three fibres for you, it'll help you. And he didn't know the coffee he was talking to, because I knew this is the boy who was over the wall after me, you see.

Crime, Betrayal, and the Loneliness of Sin

And then you see, there's no honour among thieves. So I went down the street as quick as I can and walked into the barracks and said, want to see the head constable. He was the head constable in those days and he was very good to me.

And I say this, he was a Roman Catholic and he was the most decent soul on God's earth. He says, what do you want to see me for? I said, I want to see you alone. He said, come on into the room. I said, are you looking for the boy that stole the money out of the firm?

He says, yes we are, we're on the hunt. I said, he's up in the pub up there, if you go up now you'll get him. He says, you're sure? Well I said, now you go up and try it and see how much money's on him and then you'll find out.

So they're up like hares, you know these policemen, you know. And they're glapping them under their hats, you know, I've done more. Yes, way to go. And it was the boy. And if he thought I was going to do his time in the Kremlin, he went and did it himself.

But you know, you get into a world like that and it soon becomes a very lonely path and there are no friends. And all the boys that's on the same pathway, they become your enemy too. And it's a terrible world.

A Den of Iniquity and the Violence of Criminal Life

And after three and a half years, I came back to the town where I was read and I was walking up a little alleyway and looked at the tumbled down shack of a house in the alleyway and came to the conclusion there and then that I'll get this house and live in this house.

Now you should have seen the sight of me after three and a half years. My shirt's torn into ribbons and my toes were sticking through the shoes and the old coat was pinned with a great big safety pin and I was a mess, of course.

I had a beard. I looked at the house and then I knew who owned the house. Little lady called Mrs. Orr and she's still alive. And I was in seeing her the other day. I walked into the shop where she was and I said, Hello Mrs. Orr, do you own the house up the alley?

She said, I do. I said, I would like to get it to live in. She said, who are you? I said, do you know that well who I am? She said, you're Willie Mullin. I said, that's right. And the wee woman just turned around and lifted a key down from a nail.

She says, there's the key. It's yours. Your mother was good to me. Your mother was good to everybody. Came up, you know, and I thought I was something. Now I turned the key in the door. This was my house, you should see it.

It was a tumbledown shack ready to fall in. Smaller than the little houses even across the street. And the roof was bent and all the rest of it. And there I stayed, of course. And I can tell you this, I just had a few coppers.

Go down to the little shop at the corner, bought a gas mantle. It was gas in those days. Come up and put this on very carefully. And that's all the furniture I had. So if you're thinking of getting married, if you can manage a gas mantle, you're right.

You're on your way. And here I slept on the floor for months. Here I came wandering home night after night, stupid, drunk, and lay down and all the rest of it. But men begin to know you there. And in no time at all, there was a gang of men here.

And I shall tell you this, they were the worst men that ever lived. And I can say this with my hand to God tonight, that it became the greatest den of iniquity in all of Ireland. And I saw things practiced, things planned, things carried out from this old home.

I wish to God I knew nothing about. It was terrible. Sometimes there would be a dozen men there, and they'd be all drunk before the night was over, and they'd be lying across the floor, and they would be sick and spew, and they would lie in this sickness, and, oh dear, what a terrible place it was.

And your head was reeling and all the rest of it. And the trouble was that some character came in with a load of guns one evening and handed them out to all the boys. Now, let me make this very clear.

In these days, this was not a part of military thing of any kind. All classes and creeds were here. There was Peter so-and-so and Pat so-and-so, and they were all mixed. And when the arms men marched on the 12th of July, Pat and Peter and all the rest marched with us, not on any lodge.

The lodge wouldn't have let you in. No, no. Just marched on the side of the road. And when the Hibernians went on their day, well, we all went with them. It was all the same thing to me. It was a sort of a crowd that hardly knew who they were.

Certainly they didn't know God or anything about God, on either side. But it was the most dreadful thing that ever happened, that these guns were let loose. And if there's a young fellow here this evening and somebody has been daft enough to give you a gun and help you along in this sort of war that's going on, for heaven's sake, throw it under the neck and get away from him.

Don't only get yourself into trouble. Listen to somebody who knows now. And I'll tell you this, there were dreadful things happen. You see, we played pontoon here and I became an expert at gathering up cards.

I could gather up a pack of cards even tonight. And as I gathered them up, I would know where every card was. And I could shuffle them, you know. And I'd win the round, you know, after it was over. Quite easily.

It's terrible. And you know, there were nobody here working but everybody got money from one place and another. And sometimes in the kitty, as they called it in the centre, sometimes there would be 200 pounds there.

And when you're going back, oh, nearly 50 years ago, you know, friends, it was money. 200 pounds was money. And I remember robbing the school, that's all you could say. Put the money in my pocket and walked out.

Walked up the old rickety stairway. And I had the feet behind me. And there was a little man following me up the stairs and I knew there's trouble here. I could sense it, you see. I went on to almost the top and then turned round but he's got the gun in his hand.

You don't think you're taking the money, do you? But I didn't let him finish that sentence. I knew what he was saying. And I kicked him. But the bullet, I can hear it yet. It went just by me and out through the roof.

But that was his last chance. I put him down the stairs. Oh, but those guns were used sometimes. And they didn't miss. Terrible. The other day, all together, huddled in. You see, of necessity, tonight, as I get round this, I've got to talk about myself.

The Sinner’s Darkness Reveals the Saviour’s Power

And I'm painting the picture of the poor, lost sinner that I was. I'm painting it as carefully as I can. And sometimes I'm tempted to deepen the lines. I don't really want to do that. But I was a dark, desperate, diabolical sinner.

That will do for it. Because I want to paint the picture so that I can show you what the Saviour can do. That's what I want to get at. Because I need to talk about the Saviour. And you know, we're sitting round the table one evening, playing this palm tune, and I hear footsteps outside.

And the little fellow beside me had a gun on the table. And I said, lift that gun, there's the bobbies. Lift the gun, put it in the pocket. Oh, very cute little man he was. And it was the bobbies. And in those days, they just opened the door.

And he said to the little man, it's you, come on. We're taking you in. And he was cheeky, the wee fellow says, got a warrant for me? But they were not so soft in those days. They had a warrant, all right.

Nearly lifted him out of the chair, just roughly. And he deserved it. I think there were times, never mind. Where they went and they had the gun in the pocket, you know. And I was cheeky enough to say, Constable, what are you taking him for?

He says he's got a gun on him. So I said to the boy, you won't see him for another five years, thank God. It was a blessing to get rid of him, so it went. That's just how much we loved one another. Well, he wasn't away 15 minutes till he's back again.

In through the door, pulling the trousers up. I said, did they not get the gun? He says, there she is there, yes. Had the gun in the hand. Now what he did, as they took him out, he bored the muzzle of the gun as he walked down to the barracks, through the lining of the pocket, and dropped it down into the tail of the big coat.

And they searched him all over, you know. So he walks out with the gun, back again. This is the clown, we're working this. Now the night we're sitting, and I said, look, lift that gun, there's the bobbies.

It wasn't the bobbies this time. It was some believer, I don't know what kind of believer, Brethren, or Baptist, or Pentecostal, or Free Presbyterian. I have to say, I hear he's over here somewhere. I knew he would break out here.

A big man has them trained to really move you. Yes. And you know, whoever it was, they put a little white square bill in under the door. There's an announcement in the Baptist Church of Newtownards. And I rose and lifted this and read it.

It was the late Dr. Tucker who was going to preach at the Baptist Church of Newtownards. And to be honest with you, I didn't know where the Baptist Church of Newtownards was. But you screwed it up and said, that doesn't concern us at all.

Threw it into where the fire should be. We never had a fire. And that night, some of the gang broke into a pub. And they lifted a lot of drink and brought it home. And everybody was drunk and they'll die.

And you know, about four o 'clock in the morning, at least I think it was, I'm not sure of the time here, but I was so sick and so tired and fed up. And my head was reeling. I stepped over these drunken men lying on the floor and stepped out into the alley.

And I was drunk. I know I was drunk. I was reeling from side to side. And I went down slowly talking to myself. And I'm honest about this. I would have given my right arm to be rid of the whole thing.

Sick of it. And when I got almost to the end of the alley, I was so drunk I didn't hear the man coming. But a man rushing to work came around the corner and nearly knocked me down. And I thought in my drunken state that he attacked me, knocked me against the wall flying.

And I had a knife in my pocket or at my belt, and I didn't draw it, you know. And in the last moments I saw who he was. He was a fellow who preached on the streets. He'd come along the picture queue while you were standing there and he'd read the Bible.

And if you'd give him a kind look at all, he would stand beside you and you'd get a lecture for long enough. And your best game was to turn your back on him and let him go on by. But he was a servant of the Lord.

A sort of dedicated loner who went on his own. And the minute I saw him I knew he didn't attack me. And it was a good job I saw him. And I said, Hello, I see you're having a mission at the Baptist Church.

It was this old bell, you know. And if you're drunk at half four in the morning and you meet one of these Baptists who are on the warpath for the Lord, you'd better have something nice to say. So I said, Hello, I see you're having a mission in the Baptist Church.

And then I put my foot in and I said, I'm thinking of coming along one night. I had no notion of going along. Oh, but he knew my bluff. He wasn't just a softie. And he came across and taught me by the colt and shook me a little bit.

He said, You know what's wrong with you? You're afraid to go. And that was too much for me. And sort of too big for that. I said, I'm not afraid to go. He said, Are you afraid to take me? He says, I'm not afraid.

I said, I'll come for you whatever night you say. And we made the date there and then. And he came for me and I went to the mission. And because I was a tramp and with no shoes on and all the rest of it, I sat in the back seat.

That doesn't mean the boys in the back seats are not aware. Bless you, you did keep away back, didn't you? Yes. And you know, I can see this old preacher, those of us who remember him. And let me say that old Dr. Tucker was probably the greatest prophetic teacher in the country at that time.

He was a great character. And he came out onto the platform. He was lame. He had arthritis. And he had to be helped onto the platform. And he read from the book of the Revelation. From that great portion where it talks about the kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief captains and the mighty men and every born man and every free man hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne for the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand.