Mr. Chairman, and ladies and gentlemen, I'm really
feeling deeply sorry for you, and even sorrier
for my poor, wretched self.
I've been in the ministry half a century,
but I've never had a throat like this
before.
And I can't blame it on Three Hills.
It started about 10 or 12 days ago,
with a dry spot somewhere down in the
Red Channel, and it seemed to reach its
naughty peak when I got here.
Now, it must be painful for you to
listen, but I'm going to make you a
promise.
I will not preach one minute longer than
two hours.
No, and if I find it's giving out,
you can hear how bad it is, can't
you?
If I find it won't hold out, I
think instead of speaking, I'll play for you.
Well, for that I won't.
However, we'll see.
You're not hearing me as my voice normally
is, so don't think too badly.
Then, there's another reason why I'm feeling rather
sorry for you.
I can remember when I was 16, that's
2,000 years ago, I can remember when
I was 16, sitting in a crowd not
quite as big as this, and a white
-haired gentleman came to address us, 67 years
old.
And I can remember sitting there and thinking,
Oh, what does a white-haired fogey like
that have to say to me, age 16?
But, you know, nature has a wonderful way
of turning the tables on you.
Now, you're the Sid Lord Baxter, 16, and
I'm the silvery-haired old fogey, and you're
sitting there and you're saying, what does a
wizened old creature like that have to say?
However, I have one advantage over you, that
you don't have over me.
Are you listening?
You see, I have been just where you
are, but you've never been where I am.
I know what it feels like to be
13, 15, 17, 19, but you don't know
what it feels like to be 93.
No, I'm not 93.
I don't think I'll tell you how young
I am.
I will tell you this, fellows.
You see, all my years I've been in
sports, I used to have a soccer team
of my own.
Wow.
And you know, to this day, I can't
see a ball without running after it.
Anyway, I feel like saying to you, now,
if you want to learn a little bit
of real wisdom, even if you won't listen
to your old dad and mom, please listen
to me.
I'm not going to preach to you.
I'll give you another reason why I'm sorry
for you.
I'm sorry that you have to hear so
many preachers and have to sit and listen
to so many sermons.
I think if I were in your place,
I'd get really fed up at times.
But never forget, there's another side to it.
If you think we're overdoing it, no, we're
not.
There's always some young fellow or some young
woman gets something from some address that passes
the others by.
I don't mind telling you that that white
-haired old wiseacre that I inwardly made fun
of, he turned out to be one of
the biggest blessings to me.
He said some things that have meant more
to me all through the years than I
would ever have dreamed.
And I thought instead of sort of preaching
to you, I didn't say preaching at you.
You know, I was converted when I was
16.
And when I started preaching, when I was
17, about four months later, I started preaching
when I was 17, and I've been preaching
ever since.
When I started, my mother gave me different
pieces of advice.
Now, my mother was a preacher.
Oh, she was.
She really was.
Mr. Chairman, she was blessed, you know, with
one of those voices.
Near to, it was nice and soft.
But in a big hall, it had a
kind, it was a wonderful voice.
It used to ring round.
And at home, she was the most impressive
private lecturer I ever encountered.
And, you know, she said to me, Sid,
in your preaching, never do this.
And don't keep saying, you, you, you.
Say, we and our.
I've never forgotten it.
You know, even when I pronounce the benediction,
may the grace of the Lord Jesus and
the love of God and the fellowship of
the Holy Spirit, I never say, be with
you all.
I always say, be with us all.
Don't you think that was a very motherly
touch.
Another, another, another thing she said to me
was, Sid, don't preach at people.
Preach as though you were sitting there.
Talk to yourself.
Be one with, oh, they were wise words.
Well, I thought this afternoon I wouldn't preach
at you or even to you.
I thought I'd like to give my, my,
my testimony.
Would you mind?
Nor would I.
And I'll tell you how it all began
with me.
You see, in our house, after I was
three years old, we had no daddy.
And, oh, I loved my mother.
If ever a little lad loved his mother,
I did.
And we were Methodists, and I was always
with my mother.
And one night when I was in, when
I was five years old, there was an
evangelistic campaign in our Methodist church.
And the services were in the sanctuary on
a Sunday, but during the week they were
in the lecture hall, seating about 400 people.
I think we got it pretty well filled.
Well, one night the preacher preached, and then
he said, those who have come under conviction
for sin and feel their need of a
Savior, will they please come along the aisle
and out at this door to the corridor
and go into one of the anterooms?
Well, I'd come under conviction for sin, and
I stood up, went to the end of
the form, walked along the aisle and went
through the door, and I went into the
first classroom.
And who should be there but a neighbor
of ours, Mrs. Dunkerley.
That was her name.
She lived at the other end of the
row, the row in which we lived.
And I'll never forget what Mrs. Dunkerley said.
Remember, I was only five.
She said, Oh, Siddy.
They all used to call me Siddy then.
Oh, Siddy, I'm glad you've come in.
You know, we've been praying for you for
a long time.
And you know, Mr. Chairman, for a little
boy five to hear a grown person talk
like that, I thought, well, well, they really
must have some concern for me.
And the text that she used to bring
me to the Savior was Revelation chapter 3,
verse 20.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the
door, I will come in.
And in my boyish way, as Mrs. Dunkerley
and I knelt down, I opened my heart
and took Jesus to be my Savior.
And then I went back into the room,
the main room, the lecture hall.
The meeting proper was over.
But in those days, Mr. Chairman, I think
it's a very, a very lovely thing.
They always used to have, they used to
let those who had to go home go
home, and the other people who wanted to
stay could stay.
And they used to sing a hymn or
a chorus, and then they would have testimonies.
And different people got up and gave testimony
as to what the Lord had done for
them.
And when a convenient pause came, I stood
up.
And in my little five-year-old voice,
I said, Well, my dear friends, I'm so
glad to tell you that tonight such a
big burden has rolled from my heart.
My sins have all been forgiven, and I'm
saved.
Now there were sitting on the platform just
in front two maiden ladies.
Do you know what maiden ladies are?
They are those who haven't got married.
And you know those two maiden ladies never
did get married.
And I'm thankful to heaven they never did,
because I would have been sorry for their
husbands.
But I keep reminding you I was only
five.
I heard one say to the other, How
ridiculous, a bit of a child talking like
that.
And suddenly my cheeks went red, and my
brain went all mixed up, and I was
confused, and I became suddenly dumb.
And I just sat down and nestled near
to my mother.
And I can remember she put her arm
around me, and I just wept.
Mr. Chairman, I never wanted Jesus after that.
I never wanted your blessed religion.
I thought it was all a grown-up
pretense.
And from that night, from the damage that
that woman did, I never wanted your religion.
And I grew up, I was never a,
I was never a bad boy.
God in his mercy kept me from all
of the grosser sins, blessed be his name.
But apart from that, I was a thorough
worldly.
I wanted a good time.
I enjoyed sport.
My passion was the piano.
I started my little career as a pianist,
you know.
But I didn't want religion.
I boxed, and I wrestled, and I tennised,
and I gamed, and I flirted.
You know what flirting?
But I didn't want Jesus anymore, except for
one thing.
It was in my dear mother, who never
preached to me.
She knew what was going on.
But it was in my dear mother I
first saw what Jesus can be to a
human heart.
Now we were in very poor circumstances.
I can remember twice my mother starting the
week with one penny.
Now I was, let me see, I would
be four years old on one of those
occasions, and about six on the other.
And my mother didn't know that her little
son was watching, but I was.
And on both occasions, I saw my mother
put the penny on the table.
She thought I was playing with my toys,
but I saw her put the penny on
the table, and kneel down, and just ask
God to send some money.
And on both occasions, when my mother got
up from the table, just excuse me a
minute, my nose is saying, well I'll be
blowed.
Do you use that expression here, well
I'll be blowed?
On both occasions, when my mother had finished
praying, she got up singing that little chorus.
I can't sing it to you like this,
but it goes like this.
A little talk with Jesus makes it right,
all right.
A little, do you know the chorus?
Let me play it for you.
Well you see, I feel better now, because
when you're preaching, it's always good to have
a few notes, isn't it?
Now, now we'll come back.
I was saying it was in my mother,
I first saw what Jesus can mean to
a human heart.
Well, when I was 16, there came to
our town two evangelists named the Brothers Wood.
Mr. Arthur Wood was the song leader, and
Mr. Frederick Wood was the preacher.
Little did I dream that I was going
to get converted, and a couple of years
afterwards that I would travel all over Britain
as their pianist in the National Young Life
Campaign.
But these two men came to our little
town of Ashton-under-Lyne, six miles from
Manchester, in the county of Lancashire, England.
And he announced his subjects in advance, and
he announced that on the Friday night his
subject would be the infallible detective.
That was enough for me.
You see, I was very fond of detective
stories.
I knew all there was to know about
Sherlock Holmes, and Nelson Lee, and Sexton
Blake, and, oh, I can...
Some depraved fellas here, they know.
And when he announced the infallible detective, I
thought, I'll be there.
And I was there.
And you know what the infallible detective was?
Be sure your sin will find you out.
That was it.
But I'm glad to tell you that that
night, it wasn't just the infallible detective's sin
that tracked me down and found me out.
The infallible saviour got me, too.
And when Mr. Wood invited those who wanted
to receive the saviour to go to the,
they called it the instruction class, that was
the after-meeting, I went.
And I was one who put my hand
up in that smaller meeting.
And what do you think?
The name was Mr. Barham Gold.
Do you sing, do you sing this tune
here?
Do you sing, do you sing this tune
here?
And the hymn was written by his cousin,
Barham Gold.
And when I became the pianist, I said,
I've got to be as good as Gold.
Anyway, he was the gentleman who dealt with
me.
And the text, would you believe it, was
the one that Mrs. Dunkerley had used when
I was five.
Revelation chapter 3, verse 20.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
If any man hear my voice and open
the door, I will, what?
Make him a Baptist?
Make him a Methodist?
Make him a Protestant?
Make him religious?
No.
Make him happy?
No.
Make him sad?
No.
If any man hear my voice and open
the door, just this, I, a living Savior,
will come in.
If you are here today, forgive me for
being so straight and blunt, but if you're
here today and you don't know my dear,
dear Savior, ooh, let me say this, don't
be under any delusion.
We're not trying to make you religious or
happy or sad or anything.
If you knew what you're missing, if you
don't know him, ooh, Jesus isn't a figure
of yesterday.
I've got him.
I've had him with me and within me
for over 50 years.
I know him better than I know anybody
else.
And it's difficult for me to think of
people living without him.
Anyway, if you're not converted, get this clear.
We're not trying to make you religious.
When Jesus makes that promise, he simply says,
if you'll open the door, I will come
in.
Well, Mr. Gold read that text and then
he got me to read it with my
name in.
Behold, I stand at Sid's door and knock.
If Sid hears my voice and opens the
door, I will come in to Sid.
He made me read it like that, so
I did.
Then he said, well Sid, did Jesus promise
to come in?
Yes, Mr. Gold.
And you want to receive him as your
Savior?
Yes, Mr. Gold.
Very well, we'll kneel down and you will
pray and ask him to come in and
I'll listen.
Oh no, not likely.
I've never prayed a prayer in my life
with anybody listening.
Well, but he said you need a witness.
Oh no, no.
I'll go and pray at home.
No you won't, you rascal.
You'll pray here.
So we knelt down and I suppose in
my own clumsy little way, I prayed a
prayer and I asked Jesus to come in.
And then he prayed a prayer and then
we rose from our knees and he shook
my hands and he said, let me be
the first to congratulate you.
Sid, has Jesus come in?
Oh, I think so.
You think?
Read the verse again.
So I had to read the verse again.
Now he said, Sid, has Jesus come into
your heart?
Well, I hope.
You hope?
Read the verse again.
I read it again, then he said, Sid,
has Jesus come into your heart?
Well, uh, I, uh, I, uh, I what?
Read the verse again.
So I read it again.
He paused and then he said, now listen,
Sid, you know that you're a hell-deserving
sinner.
You know that Jesus has committed himself to
this promise.
Do you believe that Jesus really made that
promise?
Yes, Mr. Gold.
And did you really ask him to come
in?
Yes.
Well, if he promised and you asked him,
has he come in?
Yes.
So he shook my hand.
He said, there, that'll do.
Good night.
And he left me.
You see, so long as I was thinking
and hoping and imagining, he knew I was
in boggy ground.
But as soon as I said, yes, he
promised it, he knew I had my feet
on solid rock.
And I took Jesus as my savior then.
Are you getting tired now?
Nor am I.
Oh, but I think I'd better be stopping.
All, all I would like to add, dear
young fellows and girls, I've never told anybody
in public before how old I am, but
just in case you're curious to know, I'm
not going to tell you today.
Let, let me just think carefully.
Yes.
Do you know?
Oh, since then, since then, life gets better
and better with him.
You know, when I go back to my
hometown and I meet the fellows I boxed
with and wrestled with and soccered with, and
some of the girls from our school classes
and the girls I knew in our town,
I'm not in a morbid mind when I
say it.
Do you know I'm sorry for them?
If you knew the mess some of those
fellows and girls have made, all because they've
just lived by their own will and their
own wisdom, and they've bungled things.
You see, when we're young, we do things
with a sort of careless abandon, and we
don't know what it is to suffer when
we're young, but by the time you're 37
and 38 and 40, and you suddenly realize
you've made a mess of things and you
can't go back and start again, it's about
that time of life that you begin to
wake up and wish that you'd listened earlier.
Oh, you say you sound like me father
now.
No, I'm not saying it in that way.
I'm leading up to this.
You see, my life, because I gave it
to the Savior, it's been such a happy
life.
I've had trouble, and I hope you'll have
trouble.
I do.
Those people who never have trouble, they're just
in the shadows of life when you get
married, and I hope you never will get
married except for true heart love.
After our conversion to Christ, the most sacredly
important thing in life is our love.
Never joke about love.
If folks want to joke about sex matters
and love and wedlock, let them.
They are the idiots.
They are.
Now, my dear wife, I wish you were
here.
You'd only have to give one glance to
know why I fell in love with her.
My dear Ethel and I, we both, well
before we went to school, we used to
play together when I was six years old.
And then we both went to the same
day school, and we both went to the
same church.
There was nothing of Hollywood romance about this,
you know, love at first sight and divorce
on the second sight.
And we both got converted in the same
evangelistic campaign, and both went to the same
follow-up meetings, and both fell in love
about the same time.
But before I spoke a word about what
was in my heart, I prayed about it
for nearly a year, and when I spoke
to her, she'd been praying about it.
And ever since then, when we've looked into
each other's eyes and known how we loved
each other, and on top of that we've
known that Jesus brought us together, our married
life has been a paradise on earth.
And that we've had trouble, I began to
say, when you get married and go to
the marriage altar, you'll think you love each
other, and I hope you do.
But you'll never know how much you love
each other till you go through trouble.
And we've had troubles, and it's been then
that we've known most deeply how we loved
each other.
And we've always had one purse, which I
have yet to see.
But I can't grumble because she's the best
economist I ever knew.
She allows me one dollar spending money a
week.
And on Friday nights I have to account
for every cent.
And if I can't account for every cent,
she thinks I'm wasting my substance in riotous
living.
But oh, fellows and girls, you mustn't think
you're abnormal if, when you're 17 and 18
and 19 and 20, there's a longing for
fellowship with one of the other sect.
That's natural.
It's beautifully natural.
And if there's one point at which Satan
leads young fellows and girls out of the
will of God, it's there.
He knows that if we love the Savior,
he can't trick us by something that's obviously
evil.
So he comes to us through something that's
beautiful.
The important thing, the supremely important thing, is
make it a matter of prayer that God
will guide you to the girl, or to
the boy that he has for you.
You'll never regret it.
Take a look at me.
You can see I'm not miserable.
And I can, now that I'm in my
90s, I can look back and I can
see how God has wonderfully guided.
Do you know after my conversion, my mother
bought me a Bible.
Not this one.
It was a Bible, almost this size, with
big print.
And do you know what she said to
me?
She said, Sid, I bought you a Bible
with big print because you're going to read
this book more than any other, and you've
got to look after your eyes.
Don't have a Bible with small print.
Have a Bible that's easy to read.
And do you know what the text was,
the motto for my life, that she wrote
in it?
John chapter 2 verse 8, whatsoever he saith
unto thee, do it.
And I've got such an obtuse brain, such
a stodgy old mind, that I'd had that
in my Bible 10 years before I saw
the point of it.
It was the mother of Jesus who said
to the servants, whatsoever he saith to thee,
do it.
And it was my mother saying to me,
for him.
You got it?
Yes.
And you know as I look back, I
can see now the wonderful plan that God
has had for my life.
It goes in 325.
25 years leading up to the ministry, 25
years in the settled ministry, and now I'm
in the third 25 in this wider ministry.
And now I'm praying as to what I'll
do with the fourth 25.
But you know to look back Mr. Chairman
and friends, and see how wonderfully God has
guided, it just makes you want to go
to everybody and say, oh for your own
sake, get into the will of Jesus and
keep there.
Well I've finished.
Have I kept you too long?
Thank you.
Oh and what a foghorn this is, isn't
it?
Dear me.
Well anyway I'm through and thank you for
listening so courteously and so patiently and so
sympathetically.
My last word is this.
You know I think some of you young
men, I'll come to the girls in a
minute, I think some of you young men,
as I look into your faces, some of
you young fellows are meant to be in
the ministry.
It's the greatest of all callings.
There's only one thing I can think better.
Of course it is the ministry too.
I always wanted to be an overseas missionary.
So did my Ethel.
We wanted to go to Africa.
But God didn't call us there.
I don't know why.
I'm not the missionary type.
I'm not, I can't rough it like missionaries
in some places.
Oh but in some places they have a
very easy time these days, don't they?
I mean so far as domestic things are
in in places like India.
Anyway the Lord never called us there.
But young fellows, when you get towards the
end of your year's honor, you'll know how
true this is.
It's the greatest business in the world to
be in the service of the King full
-time and winning souls to him.
Oh nothing like it.
And you girls, I say it is like
a father's talk, this isn't it?
Look how thrilled they all look.
Well I don't think I'll try and give
advice to the girls.
Some of you I know you'll land out
there on the mission field.
Others of you will be here in the
home country.
Dear girls, take my word to heart about
the young man who may have to come
into your life.
Make sure that you keep in the will
of Jesus.
You'll never, never, never, never regret it.
Never let a young man take advantage of
you.
I'll tell you this, you see we're a
mixed audience and you're young people and I
must be careful to speak with proper propriety.
If the two of you are living in
the will and in the love of God,
that keeps everything else in the married life
sweet all the way through.
But apart from that, oh there are such
unhappy tragedies as you know.
And you know when once that tragedy has
happened, if there's been divorce or anything like
that, there's something gone out of life that
can never come back.
And what I'm saying is meant to anticipate
possibilities of that kind.
Make sure that you keep in his dear
perfect will and you'll never, never, never be
sorry.
Are there some of you here today, and
if you're told the truth, you're a bit
skeptical of us preachers.
You wonder whether we're as real as we
seem on the platform.
Are there some of you here today and
you're not really converted?
Don't you think that it's time you understood
this?
We're not preaching religion.
We're offering you this dear, dear, dear, dear
Savior.
And he's knocking at your heart now.
And if you'll ask him to come in,
he'll come in.
And when you've got him, the Savior, you've
got it, salvation.
That's the beginning.
Amen.
Shall we bow in prayer?