The Gospel by John chapter 9 verse 1.
And as Jesus passed by, he saw a
man which was blind from his birth.
And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who
did sin, this man or his parents, that
he was born blind?
Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor
his parents, but that the works of God
should be made manifest in him.
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.
And when he had thus spoken, he spat
on the ground and made clay of the
spittle.
And he anointed the eyes of the blind
man with the clay, and said unto him,
Go wash in the pool of Siloam, which
is by interpretation sent.
He went his way therefore, and washed, and
came seeing.
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.
And therefore said they unto him, How were
thine eyes opened?
And I always think that that's a wonderful
question.
You see, the people were gazing upon a
man who had been blind from birth, and
now he could see.
And they very naturally asked the question, How
were thine eyes opened?
And if that was a good question, it
got a good answer.
Listen to the answer.
Verse 11.
He answered and said, A man that is
called Jesus.
You see, the answer to the whole thing
was not a party.
It wasn't a party that had done this
thing for this man.
And it wasn't a place.
And it most certainly wasn't a pilgrimage.
This wonderful thing was done by a person.
A man that is called Jesus.
No one else.
That's who did it.
Just a person.
A wonderful person.
Our wonderful Lord.
But he went further with the answer.
He said, A man that is called Jesus
made clay and anointed mine eyes.
You see, he didn't only talk about the
person, but he talked about the work that
the person had done for him.
That's a good answer, isn't it?
When you begin to talk about the person
and the person's work for you, that's good
preaching.
But he didn't stop there even.
He went further.
He said, A man that is called Jesus
made clay and anointed mine eyes and said
unto me, Go to the pool of St.
Norman and wash.
And I went and washed and I received
sight.
You see, he began by talking about the
person and then by talking about the person's
work for him and then by talking about
the person's words to him.
That's what I came to talk about this
evening.
About the person who has done so much
for me.
About the work that he accomplished at Calvary
whereby I am free.
And about his words that makes me absolutely
sure about what I'm talking about.
May God bless to us the reading of
his word for his namesake.
Now, in giving what has been told so
often, my life story, I want to make
two things perfectly clear at the commencement of
this meeting.
First of all, I want a word with
all the young believers in this place this
evening.
You see, there are folks who were just
saved this week, praise the Lord.
And there are folks in this building this
evening who are only saved a few weeks
and maybe only a few months.
I want to talk to all you young
folks in Christ this evening first.
And I want to say to you, my
young brother or sister, that if everything surrounding
my coming to know the Savior doesn't just
tally exactly with everything surrounding your coming to
know the Savior, don't let me upset you.
Let me teach you this.
That there are many ways that lead to
Christ.
There are many ways that lead to Christ,
but let's get this clear.
Only Christ leads to God.
Let me illustrate it for you.
You know the story of Noah and the
ark.
And you know there was one door into
the ark, one door and only one.
And you know that the animals all came
by different ways to the door.
The lion would leave the darkness of the
jungle and it found a pathway, directed by
God of course, to the door.
And the eagle would leave its proud perch
in the heavens and it found a different
pathway to the door.
And they all came by different ways, but
only in through the door men salvation.
So there are many ways that lead to
Christ, but only Christ leads to God.
So young friend, if you've got Christ, you
can shout hallelujah.
Because Christ will take you all the way
to heaven.
He's leading many sons to glory the Savior.
And then the second thing that I want
to make clear right at the commencement is
this.
The whole bent and objective of my heart
just now is to glorify my Savior.
That's the objective.
Putting my cards on the table just that
you'll see them.
I shall work every faculty I have and
every ounce of strength and every bit of
ability that God has given me to the
one end, that I shall speak well of
my mouth.
That's what I think.
I'm sure that I'll shock some of you
when I say that I'm the youngest one
of a family of 17.
There were only 17 of us, that's all.
And I'm sure I'll shock you more when
I say that there were 16 boys in
our family and one girl.
She had the time of her life looking
after us.
And of course when I make the statement
that I'm the youngest one of a family
of 17, you're all old-fashioned enough to
know that I could never at any time
in my life have been a spoiled boy.
You see, when there's one wee laddie in
the family, well, grandmother will come round and
spoil them, or grander will come round and
spoil them.
Or if there's one wee lass, well, she'll
be spoiled.
But when they cuddle 16 of them before
you arrive, well, you sort of laugh from
the looks, you know.
It's a wonderful thing, belonging to a family
of 17.
I don't know if you've ever seen 17
knives all dabbing at once at the one
quarter pound of butter.
I don't know if you've ever seen it.
There's one thing, you know, when you get
16 big fellas round the table, you never
grumble about your dinner.
Because if you took time to grumble, the
dinner would be over.
So you just locked it up, you know.
My father was a sergeant major in the
old Ulster Volunteer.
And with many another gallant Ulster man, he
laid his life down at the Battle of
the Somme on the 1st of July, 1916.
That's something that in Ulster we shall always
remember, and we shall always be very proud
of, our gallant Ulster men who fought so
well.
Because that left my mother with a great
problem, didn't it?
1916 and 17 of a family, and the
war on.
I needn't tell you that she didn't have
to look round the corner for her troubles.
British government, of course, didn't give her her
war pension until the war was well over,
1920 or thereabouts, before she got her pension,
so that we had all the trouble of
the day.
I'd like to say a word about my
mother, just quickly.
She was a little woman, just about four
feet six or thereabouts, but she was a
godly woman.
Very proud of this.
You know, we were read like this, that
no matter where we were, we must be
in at ten o'clock at night.
And we'd all come in through the door
as ten would chime, and then she would
wait till the last one was in, and
then she'd march up to the front, and
she would kneel on the tiles by the
fire there, and we would all kneel together,
and she would pray for us.
She would always pray for each one right
down the line, she didn't miss any, and
then she would pray for me last, because
I was youngest, and I can always remember
this bit.
I can remember her wavering old voice saying,
Lord, bless Willie, someday save him, and make
him a man of God.
Many times, of course, I wondered why we
had to come in when all the other
boys prayed.
Of course, she would let the bigger ones
out again, they'd go out after the prayer,
but I had to go to bed, I
was the wee fella, so I was put
to bed.
Although I had a godly mother and was
reared in that sort of atmosphere, unfortunately, I
became the black sheep of this family of
ours.
When I was fifteen years of age, I
can remember this only too well, and I
know the very start.
I can remember two men who were much
older than me took me into a pub
for my first drink.
I don't know why the barman served it
at all, but he did, and I can
remember standing just a lad of fifteen at
the bar and drinking this booze, and I
can remember that I always wanted to go
back again, and before I was sixteen years
of age, a good wee bit before it,
I was a confirmed boozer.
Every hipney I found and stole, I went
and boozed it.
Drank everything I could get, and many times
I'd come home and fall in the door,
and my brothers who didn't do this sort
of thing, they would fight with me and
batter me, and my good old mother would
try to defend me, although it was her
heart that was breaking most.
And when I was just sixteen years of
age, and one month to be exact in
the dates, my old mother took a seizure
one day when I was in the house,
and I gripped her, and I laid her
down on the couch, and I knew she
had gone to heaven.
I can remember her very last breathings as
she looked up and talked to her Saviour.
I can see her white face now as
she praised him, and she went in to
be with him, and for her it was
far better.
You know, I was a silly boy, but
I knew this much, that at that second
as I laid her down there, that I'd
lost one of the greatest friends I'd ever
had.
Nobody cared for me, and nobody stood up
for me like my mother, you know, and
I knew she was gone.
And I stood and looked at her form,
and I wept, and I can remember this,
I put my hand on her brow, and
I said, Mother, I make this promise just
now, that I will never be drunk again.
And I was very sincere about that, you
know.
I can remember my hand being up on
her brow, and saying, Mummy, I'll never be
drunk again, dear, I'll never touch it again.
And two hours later, I was stupid drunk,
of course.
You see, many times I made up my
mind, and many times I thought I'd get
rid of this cursed thing, but you know,
it defeated me, it had licked me, it
mastered me, I was a defeated man.
And don't go scolding these poor fellows, don't
go romping and raging, you've never stood in
that man's shoes, and you never saw things
through his eyes, but don't be too quick
about it.
You can curse him, and batter him, and
scold him, and scorn him, but that won't
help him, you know.
He's gripped, mastered, defeated.
If you start to pray for him, you
might get some place.
Here I was, boozed up again.
Then we carried her remains away to the
cemetery, and laid her mortal remains to the
last resting place, and then we came back
home again, and my elder brother, who was
very well to do, he looked round at
some of the other brothers, and he said,
well, tell me, you take this fellow home
and look after him, will you do it,
he said to one of them.
He said, no, I can't do it.
I'm rearing a small family, and I'm not
bringing that fellow home.
Then he said to another one, what about
you doing it, you've got a good home.
He said, no, I'm not taking anything to
do with it, because I could see this
thing being shuffled around, you know, and I'm
not casting any reflection on them, I've got
enough sense to know now that they were
right there.
To take a boy like me in among
a small family, just would never have done
at all, they were quite correct in what
they did.
But you know, at sixteen I thought I
was a big fellow, and I just lifted
my coat like that, and put it over
my arm, and I said, alright, you're going
to look after your families, oh well, go
ahead, and I walked through the door.
And that was the last time I saw
the inside of the house for the next
three and a half years.
I just became a tramp, that's all.
And I can remember, you know, bedding in
these very streets speaks back to me so
vividly, I can always remember going up that's
my lady's room, and knocking at the doors,
and I hadn't shoes in my feet, I
was on my bare feet, I was only
sixteen and a half, and asking for pennies,
and when I got them I bruised them
of You remember that too well.
And you young fellows know this, that when
you get out into the world, and you
have no good old mother, and you haven't
any fears about God, and no dread about
hell, you know the devil just plunges you
down into the very depths of the gutter.
And that's exactly where I went.
Every day took me deeper, and deeper, and
deeper.
And three and a half years of real
darkness, and mud, and muck, and sin, was
my awful portion.
And then when I had gone for three
and a half years, I came back to
the town where I was read.
I can remember the day I walked in
through the railway arch that was there then,
and I was almost 20 years of age
now.
I'd got a beard on, just old torn
shirts, and a pair of uppers, and old
soles in the shoes, walking on the bare
feet.
And I entered into the town, and well
boys that I went to school with didn't
know me of course.
I don't think they wanted to.
And you know the horrible thing is this,
that I look back to those dreadful days
when I was going down, and down, and
down, and down, and there wasn't a Christian
in the land it seemed, who would come
and put his arm round a wee fella,
and try to tell him about the Saviour.
I'm sure I would have argued, but where
were God's men?
Why some of us are so stiff and
starchy.
Oh you can sing the hymns all right,
and the hallelujahs, I know all about it.
But the poor fella that's going to hell
before your eyes, some of you never touch
him.
You're like me, the man that passed him
by on the other side.
Well not like the Saviour at times, you
know he came and lifted him.
Nobody seemed to care.
And I came into the town, and I
was ashamed when I walked down the main
street, so I turned into the first alley
I came to.
Couldn't describe it to you tonight, it was
a little alley with tumbledown shacks.
And as I walked into the alley, I
saw an empty one here.
I knew who owned these tumbledown shacks, so
I just walked round and found the little
lady who owned them, a little lady called
Mrs. Orr.
I said, Mrs. Orr, I'm Willie Mullen, and
I want that empty house that's up the
alley.
She said, what do you want it for?
I said, to live here.
She never debated anything, she just lifted the
key and gave it to me.
And so I came up and turned into
the alley and turned the key in the
door and walked in.
Just a tumbledown shack it was, a kitchen
and a room and an old upstairs that
was falling down when the rain came in,
you could count the stars through the slates
and all that sort of thing.
And I went down to the little shop
at the corner and with about the last
opens I had, I bought a gas mantle
and came up and put it on, and
that was all the furniture I had.
So that if some of you young ones
are thinking of starting up a house, you
know, if you can get the gas mantle,
you can start, I can assure you about
this.
But you know, friends, this is the saddest
bit of my story because this tumbledown shack
became the greatest den of iniquity in our
land.
There are policemen here tonight, that's Ted Constable
sitting over there.
And if the police records were open tonight,
it would be proved that this old house
was the greatest den of iniquity that was
in this land.
I'm very sad that I was ever connected
with it, but I was.
It's true that my name was on the
rent book if there was a rent book,
but it's equally true that about a dozen
men came in there every day to gamble.
And they gambled all day and they boozed
all night.
And when you gamble all day and booze
all night, friend, you don't work.
And when you don't work, you need money
for this booze and you need money for
this gambling.
And they just got it, that's all I'm
saying to you.
They just got it.
And some horrible scenes I've seen here.
I've awoken in the morning with a man
lying under the stairs, one in the hall,
another in the kitchen, and so on.
The whole place was drunk men.
And that's the environment that I found myself
in.
I think I've painted the picture far enough.
I've painted that dear brother just a piece
there.
And when I got to that stage of
the journey, one evening we were sitting around
the card table, and I heard a little
noise at the door, and under the door
came a little white square bill.
I went and picked it up and read
it.
It was announcing a gospel mission at the
Baptist Church at Newton Arms.
The late Dr. Tucker from Temple Moore Hall
was to be the preacher.
I took all that in as I looked
at the little bill, then I screwed it
up and threw it down.
Said to some of the other boys, it
doesn't really matter, it's only a gospel mission,
it doesn't concern us.
And that night we went through the usual
routine of boozing and gambling, and in the
early hours of the morning, very early in
the morning, I found myself waking out of
a drunken sleep and seeing all this crowd
around me.
And I got out through the door into
the alley, and as I went down the
alley and just turned the corner, I came
face to face, almost bumped into a young
fellow going to work.
He was going to work about half past
four or a quarter to five in the
morning.
And I knew who he was.
He was a fellow who did a lot
of preaching on the streets.
We used to see him standing with his
Bible out preaching on his own, because I
thought he was a fool, you know.
And the moment that I bumped into him
at the corner, and I was half drunk,
I thought about the bill and I said
to him, I say, you're going to have
a mission at the Baptist Church, you see.
He said, yes, we're going to have a
mission.
I said, you know, I was thinking about
coming along somewhere.
I had no notion of going along, of
course.
I was only wanting to talk nice to
him.
And you know, the moment that I said
that I was thinking of going along, I
could see his eyes were open wide.
He nearly fainted.
But then, being an old Baptist, you see,
he soon got his breath back, and he
said to me, well, if you're thinking of
coming along somewhere, I'll come up for you,
and I'll go down with you, and I'll
sit with you.
And then it was me that nearly fainted
now.
Like that sort of crap, you know.
But you know, just the way the young
fellow looked at me and said, I'll come
up for you, and I'll go down with
you, and I'll sit with you, it came
like a challenge.
And I said, you know, I have no
notion of going to the gospel meeting.
I said, if you're as keen as all
that, I'll really go.
He said, will you?
I said, I will.
I'll go one night.
And we made the date there and then,
and I was determined to keep it, and
I kept it.
I can remember the night, all right, when
they took me to the Baptist church, and
I sat in the back seat, and I
can remember this old man coming out to
preach.
And I remember saying this to myself, I'll
listen very carefully to what this old fellow's
got to say.
And I can remember where he read from.
He read from the book of the Revelation,
where we read that the kings of the
earth, and the chief captains, and the great
men, and the burnt men, and every free
man, hid themselves in the dens and called
on the rocks and mountains to fall upon
them, and hide them from the face of
him that sitteth on the throne, and from
the wrath of the Lamb, for the great
day of his wrath is come.
And that was the subject that evening.
The old man was talking to them about
the coming day of wrath for this world.
And mind you, we're nearer it tonight.
We're much nearer it.
My Kennedy, Edge, Khrushchev, they are weak, but
it will not always pay off.
This world will shake yet from storm to
storm, and this book will be correct, the
kings of the earth.
Wonder will our queen be among them?
I am the chief captains.
I am the mighty men.
I am the burnt men.
They'll all cry for the rocks and the
mountains to fall upon them, when the day
of his wrath is come.
You know, I was over preaching at Queen's
University some time ago, and when I preached
to all the students, one of the professors
came along and said to me, Mr. Mellon,
will you write that thing out for me
that you quoted, just the thing I quoted
last night?
He said, will you write it out for
me?
I said, I will.
And I started there and then, and I
scribbled it out on a piece of paper,
and as I handed it to him, I
said, what do you teach in here?
He said, I'm an atomic scientist.
I'm only over giving lectures.
I work with Dr. Penny, the great scientist.
So I knew that I was near to
a man now who knew a lot about
something that I knew nothing of, and I
thought I'd better ask him a few questions.
I said, now look, I don't know anything
about this thing.
I want to ask a simple question, and
if you can answer it, if you're not
allowed to, don't bother.
Tell me this, sir.
Is it possible to bring a plane over
Belfast, and some man in the plane to
lift a little bomb and throw it out,
and 500,000 people are killed in a
split second?
Tell me it cannot happen.
He tells me.
And here's his answer.
I noted it very carefully.
He looked at me.
He said, Mr. Mullen, it's ten thousand times
beyond that.
He said, we can bring a plane over
here, and something can be launched out, and
you won't see this wee island of ours
anymore.
They could put it off the map tonight.
Put it off the map.
And when the day of God's wrath is
come, and this world begins to shake, I
and the kings begin to cry, poor last
sinner, you'll be in a terrible state just
then, when the day of his wrath is
come.
You're living in the day of his grace,
and you should praise the Lord for it.
And so I listened to the old man
preaching, and I might as well tell you
my conclusions.
I thought he was the greatest fool I'd
ever heard in my life.
That was the conclusion.
I want to talk to the preachers for
a moment or two.
You know, sometimes we preachers, we count heads,
and we count names, and we count numbers.
And you know, if we examine it all
just a short time afterwards, you'll find there's
not very much in it.
We have seen this in Belfast a thousand
times.
And the old preacher, because I preached with
him many times afterwards, he said to me
when he was just dying, a day or
two before he died, he said to me,
Willie, when I look back at all my
preaching, I preached at Newtownards at that time
for three weeks and I never saw a
soul save.
But you were the outcome of that meeting.
And he said, Willie, I'm looking back and
that was the best mission I ever had.
Then let's get into the habit of counting
numbers or names or signing cards.
Now we need a watch from God.
You know, friends, I went out of the
meeting and thinking the old fellow was a
fool, but he had done something that night
that I've always endeavored to do since.
And it was this.
He very carefully, and I'm sure carefully, buried
a part of the word of God in
a poor sinner's heart.
I took it out with me, you know.
And that's a living word.
That's not a book out of the library,
you know.
That's the living, impregnable, unchangeable, unalterable, eternal word
of the living God.
That's God's word.
You know, friends, I needn't say that I
didn't go back to the mission.
I had no notion of going back.
I didn't go back near it.
But about three weeks after the mission was
over, the boys sat around the table and
they said, you know, there's a certain place
that we could go and we could lift
quite a lot of money, but we need
somebody to make the plans properly.
When they were looking for plans to be
made, they always looked at me.
I was the youngest one of two, but
unfortunately I was the brains.
And they sent me out this day and
I went out to search the land.
And I jumped into a field just to
have a look round, see how we could
get there, and when the police came, see
how we could get away.
And I just jumped into the field and
was standing in the grass and having a
good look round the land when something said
to me, what about this day of wrath?
You know what was happening?
It was this seed that this man planted
in here.
It was beginning to germinate.
But you know, I got so hardened and
so rebellious that I said to myself, there's
no day of wrath.
There's going to be no God and no
heaven and no hell and no anything.
I was going to plunge on.
And then the voice came again, what if
there should be a day of wrath?
What if you should meet God just in
the next step or two?
Tell me, dear, have you ever thought about
meeting God?
You know, missus, you'll meet God.
Listen, young fellow, you'll meet God.
Listen, father, you'll meet God.
Every breathing soul in this building this evening,
sooner or later, individually, we're going out into
eternity to meet God.
Are you prepared?
To meet God?
Horrible moment for some of you.
Do you know, this made me pull up
to meet God.
When I looked at the hills and into
the valleys and round out just 20 miles
of earth that I could see, I knew
quite well there were millions and millions and
millions of miles of earth that I'd never
seen.
And God had made the heavens and the
earth.
I knew there was a God to meet,
all right, just there.
But you know, I got the silly idea
that God had somehow stepped out from behind
the clouds and said, I'm here, and you're
going to meet me, that he might lift
me and righteously down me in the deepest
hell.
That's what I thought God had come to
do.
I can remember saying these actual words.
I said, oh God, you're there, and I'm
a rebel sinner, and you're going down in
hell.
Well, it's all right, I deserve it.
I thought that God had come to down
me.
But you know, like a flask in this
world, what are you trembling about?
Sure, God loves you.
You know, I just couldn't get that.
I stood there.
I couldn't get the hold of this.
I thought God loved the people that went
to church.
God loved the people that said prayers.
God loved the people that carried their Bibles.
I couldn't get this, that God loved a
down-and-out rebel, scarlet, reptile sinner just
like me.
I couldn't get that.
And then like a flash, it came.
This is what these men pitched at the
corners, that God so loved the world.
I was beginning to get it.
Did God love the world but me?
Or not.
You know, friends, I was getting this clear,
that God loved the world of sinners lost.
And I was just one of them.
And then it came like a flask, that
God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten Son.
You know, I was beginning to follow this
right through, that God's lovely Son had come
down and had gone to dark, rugged, blood
-stained Calvary.
And on the old rugged cross, he had
died for the ungodly.
Oh, how it came into my soul that
Christ had died for an ungodly sinner just
like me.
And he had so finished that atoning work
that he rose from the dead, and there
was a living Savior for me.
And if I would personally, experientially trust him,
I would never perish but have everlasting life.
I could see the light of the gospel.
You know, friends, just at that moment when
the light of the gospel came in like
that, I was almost singing.
Oh, but the devil doesn't give you up
like that, you know.
Devil said to me, what about your pals?
What about the booze?
What about the gambling?
How are you going to fix up everything
that you're in?
What about your sin?
And oh, friends, I stood in between the
two.
You know, I could take you to the
very spot on the field where I stood.
And on that side was my sin, and
my pals, and my booze.
And on this side was the cross and
the Savior who died and rose again.
And I knew that if I would only
give my life to him and trust him,
I would really get saved and start for
heaven.
But I was turning.
I can remember very well what I did.
I took my cap off now, and I
screwed it into a rope.
I stood there.
And then I knew I've got to make
this great decision.
And I turned very definitely with that old
screwed cap in my hand, and I said,
Lord Jesus, on this spot, just now, I
will give you my whole life, and I
will trust you now as my own and
personal Savior.
And I was saved.
I was saved.
Hallelujah.
You know, there was no picture there, and
there was no card to sign.
There was nobody to tell me what had
happened.
I was all alone, but I had met
the Savior.
I knew all about this now.
I crawled out through the hedge now onto
the road, and there's a big fellow coming
down the road.
He's about 25 years of age.
I said, hey, boy, can you see that
field in there?
I met the Savior there a few minutes
ago.
You know, he ran away to the other
side of the road.
He thought this was some rude thing that
had got out of down factory or something.
I can see him yet.
You know, one of the Protestants of Armstrong,
yes, yes.
Dark as night, you know.
Didn't know a thing about what I was
talking about.
There he was running away up the road.
I went down the road a little bit
and met another big man, over six feet
high.
I said, hello, mister.
See that field in there?
I met the Savior there five minutes ago.
Oh, this fellow didn't run, but.
Oh, no.
This fellow belonged to the people called brethren.
The Lord blessed them.
Amen.
So hallelujah.
What do you think I told about it?
He says, did you meet the Savior, son?
I says, I have met the Savior, and
I have accepted him, and I'm saved.
You know, I can see this big man,
the tears rolled out onto his face.
He put two big hands on my shoulders,
and I'll never forget what he said.
He said this.
He said, son, fear not the unknown model.
Dread not the new demands life makes of
thee.
For the one who saved you today, he'll
keep you for all eternity.
Isn't that lovely?
And we went down the road together, you
know.
I know he wouldn't let me into his
hall tonight, but it doesn't matter.
You know, when I left our very dear
brother at the crossroads that day, it was
then that I almost only came to my
senses.
I was like Peter.
I was out of the prison, all right,
and the shackles were off, and my heart
was bubbling over.
But I began to think about the things
I must face.
And you know, I was thinking about the
crowd down in the house who were waiting
on me.
And when I began to think about them,
I got to think about every rack to
me.
There were twelve men there, and I would
say that eight of them carried loaded revolvers
every day they lived.
I'll say no more about that.
But I knew that when I went down
and went in through the door, that there
was going to be trouble.
And I don't mean an argument.
Those boys don't argue.
You could lose your life in this thing.
If I walked in and said, boys, I'm
finished, I'm not going with you anymore, they
would all get scared.
They'd think you were going to tell the
police on them.
And you could lose your life in a
thing like that.
I wasn't any better than they were, because
every day I walked those roads, I had
a belt around here, and I had an
open razor in there.
It was in a special pouch, specially made.
And the hook of the razor just came
over the ends of the pouch.
And I used to practice in a looking
glass of just doing that and taking it
out.
It was open now.
I could just stand like that, put my
hand there, just like that, and take it
out.
Just like steep lightning.
And the faster you got it out, the
better.
And you know, when I stood at the
crossroads, I was trembling.
I said, Lord, I'm saved.
And I'm not going back to those things.
I'll go down and tell them.
I'm the first man that said a word
about you.
And before they knew it, the hand in
and the razor out, I said, Lord, I'll
cut their head off.
A good start, wasn't it?
Oh, I'll get the sack after this night.
Paisley will sack me after this.
Ah, but you know, you know, friends, I
was a rather good alright, wasn't I?
Yes, this was not the way at all.
This was not the way.
And you know, the Lord taught me a
lesson that very moment when I had the
razor in my hand.
And he taught it to me very simply,
but it's a very wonderful one.
You know, at Newtonards in those days, they
were teaching young pilots to fly.
They had an old plane for teaching the
men called Finney and the White.
It's still there.
In fact, I was talking to the man
who bought it.
And just as I had the razor in
my hand, the aeroplane went over my head.
It must have been the Lord who spoke
to me.
He couldn't speak to me through scripture, for
I didn't know any.
And it must have been the Lord who
spoke to me, because the Lord said, now
that's how they teach young pilots to fly.
It was a twin control plane, two seats,
two sets of control.
Put the young pilot in the front, the
old pilot behind.
And when the young fellow's coming down, if
it's not accurate, the old man can switch
off the young fellow's control and switch on
his own.
And he just levels her out.
You know, the Lord said, you'll better switch
off your controls and give me control.
I learned a great lesson.
Jesus not only came and died and shed
his blood to be my savior, but he
rose again to be my Lord.
And I must give him absolute control.
I learned the lesson the day I was
saved.
And I kept towed over to a little
bridge, and I dropped the razor down into
the river.
Mind you, I felt lonely without it.
I'd been reared with it.
And I can remember in trembling faith, putting
my hand in the hand of the Savior.
And I said, Lord, you have to look
after me and help me and fight for
me.
I have only you.
Oh, little did I know, I didn't need
any more.
But I was just simple, you know.
And I can remember going down to the
old house with the Lord.
And you know the old devil, he's on
the job all the time.
Just as I got to the little corner
of the alley, the worst one of the
crowd, there was one who was really worse
than the rest.
He came round the corner.
A big fellow, about six feet three, about
17 stone, as broad as a door and
as dark as night.
Man, he came round with a big blue
jersey, a big sailor's jersey.
I made him look worse looking than what
he really was.
And as he came round the corner, I
knew there was trouble there.
And I placed my feet right, you see,
because I was always taught to look after
myself.
So I got forward and got into position.
If there's going to be trouble, I'll do
my best anyway.
Nothing like getting ready for the thing, you
know.
And I said, Paddy, just a minute now.
I said, I've got something to say to
you, and you just listen very carefully.
I said, I've got saved.
I've met the Lord Jesus.
And I can't go with you fellows anymore.
And I was watching him dead on.
I never flinched.
I looked into his eyes.
I would see him coming all right.
And I thought he would come like a
tiger.
And when I had said what I had
to say, I could see his head fall
and the tears come out.
He put out a big hand.
He said, Son, you know, you're all right
now.
I wish to God I was saved.
I never thought he would say that.
I thought he would try to kill me.
And I can hardly believe it to this
day.
He said to me, if you've changed and
turned to the Lord, come on up and
I'll put them out for you.
And I can remember walking up the alley
behind this big cellar.
It's like a dream, you know.
He was so big.
I was so small.
And I could see him fling the door
to the wall.
There were at least three revolvers on the
table.
He said, lift those guns.
Lift the money.
Pick up those cards and get out.
Here are his own words.
He said, this fellow has become religious.
You've got to leave him alone.
And nobody dared argue with him.
They slowly lifted these things and then they
filed out past me.
Nobody spoke.
And when they'd all got out, they turned
around.
He says, God bless you, son.
And I was left alone with the Lord.
Can I say this humbly?
You know, I shut the door.
I was trembling.
I shut the door and I went in
and I fell down on the floor.
I just wept and wept and wept and
wept from that evening at half past six
it was till five o'clock the next
morning.
I just wept and said, Lord, Lord, you've
saved me.
Lord, you've saved me.
You've delivered me.
You've been with me.
It was God that saved me.
Here I am tonight.
I'm in my right sense of mind.
Friends, that was the turning day of my
life.
And everything I have tonight and everything I
am tonight and everything I ever hoped to
be, I owe everything to Jesus Christ, God's
son.
It was the Lord that delivered me.
You know, friends, I was pitching at Great
Victoria Street Baptist Church some years ago and
the lady who is a teacher at the
university came in to see me.
Very well-spoken, well-dressed, well-educated lady
and she closed the door in the inquiry
room and she said, she said, I don't
like your pitching.
Oh, I said, dear, you're not the first
one.
That's not worrying me.
I said, what's up with you?
What's worrying you?
She said, you know, you seem to try
to get it over every evening that unless
a person personally trusts the Lord Jesus, they
will never be in heaven.
I said, is that what you think I'm
preaching?
She said, yes, I said, very, very right.
She said, I don't agree with this.
Well, I said, you tell me just what
I'm wrong and I'm willing to listen.
She said, I'll bring an illustration to you
and you answer the question.
She said, well, suppose we have two ladies
here.
One is a moral, upright, honest, church-going,
religious, noble, loyal lady.
The only thing we can't say for her
is this, she has never personally trusted Christ
and the other lady is a harlot from
the streets.
She has broken bodies and broken homes and
broken hearts.
She's a down and out rebel sinner but
in her last moments, she trusts the Saviour.
Are you telling me that this woman will
be in heaven while this woman will be
in hell?
I said, yes, that's what I'm telling you.
She said, you explain that to me.
I said, that will be a privilege.
Sit down there.
Got her sitting down.
I said, you know, you're over at Queen's
and you're old-fashioned enough to know that
there are many kinds of life.
I said, you know, there is vegetable life.
You can see the flower growing, coming into
bud and then blooming.
And if you tread on the flower and
squeeze it, it won't squeeze enough because it
has got life but it has not got
world conscious life.
It's got vegetable life.
And I said, you know, there's another kind
of life, don't you?
That's animal life.
And if you hit the horse, he'll jump
or he may kick because he's conscious of
what's going on around him.
But that is only animal life.
The monkeys at the zoo can do many
things that imitate a lot of folk that
I know.
But you never see them getting down on
their knees and praise.
Now, friends, I want you to get this,
that there are different kinds of life, vegetable
life, animal life, and now we've got human.
And you know, there is moral, upright, honest,
religious, human life.
Yes, we've got a lot of them in
the city.
But I said, madam, there is still another
kind of life, and that is spiritual life.
And you don't get spiritual life until you
accept Christ as your Savior.
She said, all right, prove it.
And I opened the book and here's the
verse for you this evening.
It says in 1 John, He that hath
the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life.
Is this your Bible?
You'll find it is.
It's saying this with us.
He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son hath not
life.
If you are here tonight and you haven't
accepted Christ, all you've got up to now
is an existence.
You've never really tasted life through God's book,
sir.
My friend, life with a capital L is
spiritual, eternal, unchanging, impregnable life, and you get
it in Christ.
Only when you personally, experientially, wholeheartedly accept the
Savior do you get life.
In that day, standing in rags, when I
screwed my cap and turned to the Savior,
at that moment I was born again and
I got new life, and I shall never
perish.
Friend, I want to tell you this tonight,
that God in his infinite, wondrous, marvelous, matchless,
boundless grace has come to this place here
tonight to offer the gift of eternal life
to you in the Lord Jesus.
The gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ, our Lord.
You know, you could get life tonight, but
you'll never get life without Christ.
But if you come and accept Christ, you'll
get life and it'll be eternal.
Wonder what you'll do.
You know, it's very possible that God might
help someone at the crossroads of life in
this meeting this evening, and on the one
hand you can see your sin and your
folly and all that leads you to hell,
and on the other hand you can see
the cross and the Christ and the Savior,
and if you trust Him, you'll start from
heaven.
And whether you're standing in between the three
points and God is waiting on you, what
will you do?
What will you do?