Now tonight I want to read to you a story from the Old Testament, which is a very precious one. If you've got your Bible with you, you might like to turn to the first book of Samuel, chapter three, and commencing to read at verse one. I think most of you know that during this week, We have been studying together the characters of the boys and girls in the School of Faith. We've been meeting some of the old boys and old girls of that grand old school of faith. If you're a Christian, you've come into the same school. You're sitting on the same benches and sitting at the same desks, learning the same lessons, being taught by the same masters. facing the same examinations, the same headmaster, the same grand old school motto, the just shall live by faith. And every year there graduates out of the school of faith, men and women with a good report. And we have been meeting quite a number of these lovely old boys and old girls. Now before I read you this lovely story, I want you to know that in Hebrews eleven, which we've called the chapter that portrays the school of faith with the boys and girls, the old boys and girls who were there long ago, in verse thirty two, the writer exhausts himself. He says, What shall I more say for time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Samson and of Jephthah and of David also and Samuel and of the prophets. So it's just the one name there, Samuel, but he was an old boy and he's one of the most wonderful characters. I don't know a finer character, a greater prophet of God in the Bible than Samuel, who saw the days of the judges turn to the days of the kings, who anointed David the shepherd boy and saw his reign. And Samuel lived a long life, serving God, tremendously important in his nation. And he's the character we are going to look at tonight. Now let's read one Samuel three. And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was precious in those days. There was no open vision. And it came to pass at that time when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim that he could not see. And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep, that the Lord called Samuel, and he answered, Here am I. And he ran unto Eli and said, Here am I, for thou callest me. And Eli said, I called not, lie down again. And he went and lay down. And the Lord called yet again. Samuel rose and went to Eli and said, Here I am, for thou didst call me. And he answered, I called not, my son, lie down again. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him. The Lord called Samuel again the third time, and he arose and went to Eli and said, Here am I, for thou didst call me. And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child. Therefore, Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down, and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down in his place. And the Lord came and stood and called, as at other times. Samuel! Samuel! Then Samuel answered, Speak for thy servant heareth, and the Lord spoke to Samuel. Now I'm going to call this boy by a title as I've been doing all the characters. I'm going to call him the boy who knew his lessons. You know, it's a wonderful thing to see a boy moving from grade to grade to grade and passing out of school and college, absolutely knowing his stuff. And you can turn over the pages of two long books in the Bible and find Samuel... This man that grew in the things of the Lord, his word came out to all Israel. It seemed where he lived was the hub of the national life spiritually, was literally a man who knew his stuff. But you know, it had a beginning. And tonight this could be the most wonderful night in some life, the night of a new beginning. It's possible tonight that a precious boy or girl, a young man, a young woman, it may be an older person, will from tonight be able to say, I know whom I have believed, and with glad assurance, go out into a new experience with Christ their Savior and Lord. If I came to you and I said, have you ever been born again, would you have to whisper, well, sir, I don't know. If I asked you if you were a true believer and disciple of Christ, would you say, well, I'm trying my best. I'm not sure I would like to know. Oh, the number of people who are in the place that Samuel was. but all of a sudden he passed out of the place where it says in verse seven now Samuel did not yet know the Lord neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him to a place where he could say I know whom I have believed now do you know that verse seven is some verse that you ought to mark or underline in your Bible in that great chapter one Samuel three It's very important. I was meeting with a group of missionaries who came from the ends of the earth and they were in conference. Andy Chairman of this missionary conference decided one day to ask all of us missionaries, at what time in our lives the Lord drew near to claim us and we responded to his love and tasted of his salvation. When the slip of paper came to my hand, I took my pencil and I put down twelve. For as a boy of twelve on a Sunday night, face to face with Jesus Christ, I made my decision, Lord Jesus, I will trust thee with my soul. Do you know some of those old veteran missionaries, men and women, who had spent twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years on the battlefronts, wrote down six, eight, ten, Some wrote fifteen, nineteen, but very few over twenty years of age. And when they took the average, they found that the average of those missionaries, several hundred of them, was the ridiculously small age of nine. In other words, men and women that God is going to use for a lifetime on the battlefields are boys and girls who have responded to the claims of Christ in the days of their youth. And I said quite frankly to that man sitting here, if you are forty years of age and you've lived selfishly and without Christ, and Christ meets you tonight, you can more or less rub off the thought of ever being a missionary to learn Hindustani or some strange tongue in the Amazon jungles. You may find a happy and useful steer here. But you will not get the calling of God across the seas to the battlefront. Do you know this? The bulk of people in America today who count for God were saved in the days of their youth. And every year that passes by, and you miss the opportunity of meeting with Christ and responding to his love, it's a year lost. And the older you get in the structure of your national life, the harder it becomes for you to honestly play the man and woman and bow to the claims of Christ. Life gets so full and occupied. You have your interests, your own philosophy on life. And as the message of God comes to your soul again and again, you seem to avoid the issue. It doesn't rub off on you. And tonight I want you to face these solemn words. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him. Now picture the story of this boy. One day the dear old man of God Eli, who was getting rather old with a big rounded back and dimming eyes, was sitting on his seat by one of the pillars of the temple at shadow, watching the flow of people coming in and out of the big old house of God. And as he watched, he saw a woman. And as he watched, he thought that this woman was very agitated and excited. He thought she was misbehaving herself in the house of God, and a suspicion came to him. I'm afraid she's come to the house of God under the influence of drink. And of course I can't allow that. Getting up from his seat he moves across and he touches her and says, Woman, you're drunk. You mustn't be in the house of God in this condition. And a woman's face looks up into his, that's filled with pathetic sorrow. And she says, Oh, sir, I'm not a woman drunken. I'm a woman of sorrowful spirit. I'm pouring out my heart's longings to God, and I'm asking him for the thing that's dearest to my heart. The best men make mistakes. But it's only a brave and good man who will acknowledge his mistakes. And Eli saw he was mistaken. He had done the wrong thing. And he said, I'm very sorry. Do forgive me. And I ask God to prosper your prayer and give you the desires of your heart. And the woman called Hannah left the temple. The years passed, and Eli served God in the temple, and he was troubled in heart. His own boys weren't following in the way of the Lord. They were setting bad examples amongst the people. In fact, they were sinning, and the older they got, it was harder for him to rebuke them. And after some years, he saw coming into the temple a woman, and by her side was a little boy. I'm not quite sure how old, but just a very little chap. And as he looked at them, the mother said, Sir, do you remember me? You remember you asked God to answer my prayers? This is the answer to my prayers, the little boy that God gave me. His name is Samuel, which means ask to God. And I brought him to give him back to the Lord, because the Lord answered prayer and gave him to me. Could he be any use to you in God's service in the temple? And the old man looked at this boy, and there was a pair of straight shoulders and a straight back, and there were keen little eyes looking up at him. And the only thing that God can make a man out of is a boy. And somehow he saw the makings of a fine man of God in that little chap, and he said to the mother, Yes, you can leave him with me. And when you come up to the various feasts, you can see how he's getting on. And so Samuel went out as a little chap and waved mother goodbye, and he was just as brave as he could. But as he saw darling mother going round the corner, the tears began to stream down his eyes. And when he went back into the great big temple, it seemed so vast and cold. It wasn't homey like the old home where Mum lived. That night when he went to bed, there was no kiss and no one to tuck him in, and he felt really dreadful. But he was brave, a fine little fellow, and quickly he began to learn to do things, using his little muscles, to open the doors and close the doors. He learnt how to trim the lights. He learnt how to keep the sanctuary in good condition. And all the time he was listening to this old man of God, handling the laws of God and teaching the word of God, and a little fellow drank it in. She looked forward to the coming of his mother. Every year she would come with a new little coat. She had made it herself, and every stitch of the coat had a prayer behind it. Oh, God bless my darling boy and make him a man of God. And every year it was a little bit bigger because he was a growing boy. You know how boys grow? And at last he reached the age of twelve. We are not told this in the Bible, but we are told this by Josephus, the Jewish historian. And you know, twelve is a tremendously important year in the life of every growing child, just before they move into those tantalizing teenage, you know. And do you know that God does more work amongst boys and girls, age twelve, than any other age group? It's no chance that in Mark's Gospel the Lord tells us in the Word of God that the little girl, Jairus' daughter, was just dead. In fact, there was a dispute whether she was dead or alive when the Lord raised her from the death. She was twelve years of age. And many believe, I think again, Josephus says this, that our Lord Jesus was twelve when he turned to his mother and said, I must be about my father's business. And you know, being one of the twelve-year-olds, I was saved as a boy of twelve, happy-go-lucky at school, I have been surprised at the number of boys and girls who have grown up to manhood. I meet them on the mission field. We compare notes. And they say to me, you know, I was saved about twelve too. And let me tell you if there's any boy of nine or girl of eleven or girl of thirteen or young fellow of fourteen under these trees tonight, this could be your hour. If you've grown up and you've been careless at the call of Christ, this could be your hour. But, sir, I tremble to think of Americans who can grow up in God-blessed America and still be without Christ and without His salvation at the age of thirty, forty, fifty, sixty. You ought to be concerned about your lack of concern, sir. The fact that you can go to meetings and listen to it all and shrug your shoulders and say it's not for me. You ought to be concerned about your lack of concern. Some of us who've worked across the seas and seen the response to the gospel in heathen tribes and seen people responding to the message when they hear it for the first time are concerned about the homelands that are called the Christian lands and those who pass by boyhood and girlhood days without bowing at the cross of Jesus in true repentance and without yielding their lives to the risen Christ to enter into eternal life. Now, this story is this. One night, the darkness came down, little Samuel shut the doors, and the lights are growing dim, and it's time to go to bed. And the old man, Eli, climbs onto his big bed, and Samuel snuggles in to his own little bed. When all of a sudden, in the quiet stillness of the temple night, our voice is heard, Samuel, and instinctively the boy throws back the blanket or seat, puts out his legs onto the oilcloth or whatever's down there, and runs across the temple and stands by the big bed. And he sees the big old bearded prophet of God lying there. And he says, Yes, Eli, what do you want? What can I do? And the dim eyes of the old man look at this boy, twelve years of age, and he said, Son, I didn't call you. Go back to your bed. And rather puzzled, he goes back to his bed and pulls up to his chin the sheet or the blanket, and he's snuggling down to sleep when all of a sudden the voice comes again. Samuel! And instinctively he pulls it back and runs again to the bed, and he says, Yes, Eli, what do you want? The old man looks into his face and said, Son, I wasn't calling you, I didn't call your name. Go back to bed. And it's here that this vital verse comes. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord. Neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him. How intensely sad this is, because if you examine this boy's life, you will find that this boy, asked to God his name means, was a child of a mother's prayers. And the biggest, finest, most glorious thing in any growing young life is a godly mother who prays for you. You saw that a few nights ago on one of the films. And again in the Concade film last night behind that boy was a godly mother who prayed. You may have a mother who prays for you. You may be a big strong man or woman tonight. You may be looking back as I speak to the days when you knelt at mother's knees with little hands and said, gentle Jesus, meek and mild, look upon a little child, but today you're careless and thoughtless. And somehow, let's face it, the voice of Jesus has spoken to you far often, far more often than sometimes you like to admit. Yes, he speaks often. But not only are child of mother's prayers, here was a boy who was listening to God's word every day and storing it up in his mind. You could ask him Bible questions and he could tell you all about the creation, all about Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel, all about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, all about the Exodus, all about the possession of Canaan and the building of the temple. Heal you at all. Day by day he sat under the sound of God's word. It rang in his ears. But Samuel did not yet know the Lord. Neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him. And you know, if I came to you and tested some of you out, Believe me, you know far more than you admit of God's word. You think of Sunday school days. You think of the teaching that reached you in years gone by, line upon line, precept upon precept. You're not ignorant of the things of God. But even further I noticed that this voice served the Lord. It says so. It actually says in chapter two verse eighteen Samuel ministered before the Lord. He was one. Chapter three verse one. The child Samuel ministered unto the Lord. Yet Samuel did not yet know the Lord. You know, I was in a campaign as a witness with Tom Skinner of the Bronx, New York City, a converted gang leader. I think it was the Harlem Lords he led as a gang. And he got converted a few years ago at God's amazingly using him in British Guyana, Barbados, Bermuda, Nassau and other places. just a negro twenty-one years of age, for the power of God is loosed in that life, and he's reaching especially his own people. Do you know, he told me, he said, I was the son of a Baptist minister. He said, I was the leader of the youth group in a Baptist church. He said, I sang in the choir. But my other life during the week was head of the lords, the Harlem lords. And he said, we were a cruel lot. We used to go into battle against the other tribes, the other gangs. And he said, I often take a Coke bottle and I've knocked the bottom of it off and had the jagged end there and pushed it into someone's face and screwed it round. And he said, if we captured one of the other gang, we'd pin him up against a wall, strip his shirt off and put a razor over his back and make some patterns. One night listening to the word of God, an old preacher preaching, on there will be a new creation. All things can pass away and all things can become new. Tom Skinner said, Lord God, if you can do that for any man, that's what I want. God did it. Oh, I tell you, you should listen to his testimony. He said, do you know, six months after my conversion, I led my father to Jesus Christ, and the father was a Baptist minister. He said, I left the gang, and he said, I just went out to preach on the streets of Harlem. And he said, I've seen the gangs gather around in the crowd, and even get up their weapons out to do me in. But as they listened to me preaching, he said, they put them away, and some of them came and said, Tom, Tom, good luck. Wish we could do it too. Now, I'm not going to joke with you when I say this, that a man here and his life as it's outwardly seen may be even religious. He may be even serving the Lord in the house of the Lord. And yet Samuel did not yet know the Lord. Neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him. Now the third time the call comes, he's in bed, and the voice rings to the temple, saying, Oh! And up he jumps, and he runs to Eli, and with all the emphasis of a little boy of twelve, he says, You called me. The old man looks into his face and said, Son, I didn't call you. But you did. I'm sure you did. And then we read these vital words. Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child. Looking into his fine little face, the old man said, Son, go back to your bed. And if you hear that voice are calling again, don't come to me. Just stay where you are. You see, son, wherever there's a voice, there's a person behind the voice. You knew that, and three times you've come to me, but I didn't call you, didn't speak to you. But the person who spoke behind that voice wants you to respond to him. And you mustn't come to me if he speaks again. Just stay on the bed and answer the voice and say, Speak, Lord, thy servant heareth, and he'll talk with you. The boy goes back. I can see him snuggling in again. He thinks, well, it won't come again. But all of a sudden it comes, and this time there's the amazing double emphasis of God's dealings with human beings. Tell me, Oriel. Tell me, Oriel. Every instinct of a boy is to run to Eli, someone he can see and touch. But he's dealing with the unseen, for God is a spirit, and the Lord God wants this boy to have a spiritual life and be a man of God to handle the things of God. And touching at the bedclothes, I hear the boy saying, Speak, Lord, thy servant here, And from that night Samuel knew the Lord. From that night he could say what every Christian who's been born again can say. I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him. This is life eternal that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom they are sent. And just as Samuel learned to know the Lord God, you can learn to know the sent Jesus Christ, your Savior, your Lord, tonight, if you will only deal with him. His voice will speak. Behold, I stand at the door knocking. If any man or woman, boy or girl, hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in. It stands today. And you can respond to that voice. And responding to that voice, you can know your Lord Jesus. as your own Savior, that you are his, and he is yours. And just like Samuel, you will not fear to tell others about it. You will grow in the things of the Lord, and the word of the Lord will grow in you until you become a useful man and woman of God. In this weary old world, instead of drifting on, there will be purpose in your life, and you will be a man that will be a channel of blessing. a woman that will display Christ to others. And so he draws near to speak to you. I've met so many in my service who are the children of mother's prayers. The naughtiest boy in my first Sunday school class as a young Christian when I began to serve the Lord. The boy that puzzled me. The boy that gave me so many problems. He would always try and get round the lee of me, and he knew how to pull faces and make fun and get the whole class of rocking at their young teacher. If ever a boy drove me to my knees, it was heartless then. Do you know I was out in the Amazon jungles as a missionary, and I got a letter from my mother. She wrote in the letter, she said, we've just had a very happy service tonight at the home church, the home assembly. She said, we've had a baptism of about eight or nine fine young people. And she said, you'll be very pleased to know that your old boy, Hartley Fen, was baptized. And she said, after the baptism, his mother came up and said, Mrs. Wildish, You know, I've never had the opportunity of telling you or Harold your son, but one Sunday he came home from Sunday school class and he was very quiet at tea and I said, Hartley, aren't you well? Do you feel ill? And he said, no, Mom. And after tea he had lost all his liveliness. And then he came and he looked into his mother's face and put up his hands and pulled her head down. He says, Mom, I have something to tell you. She said, what's wrong, Hartley? He said, nothing's wrong, Mother. I've something to tell you. I gave my heart to the Lord Jesus this afternoon in Sunday school. I didn't know about it. It came as news to a missionary in the heart of the jungles of the Amazon. But do you know I have never been back to England in the last twenty-five years without staying in the home of Hartley Fen? He's a bank manager in Exeter, Devonshire tonight. His wife and his children in his home, a lovely Christian home, open to us at any time. A bedroom, a spare room. Come any time to us. And that was the most difficult boy in my class. the child of a mother's prayers. And she looked into my mother's face that night and she said, I prayed for Hartley every day before he was born, every day as a boy. Until that day he came home from Sunday school and told me that my prayers were answered. Some of you have got mothers and grandmothers. You've got a godly heritage. You can look back and feel that you're a child of mother's prayers. And yet written over your life could be these intensely sad words tonight. So and so that you does not yet know the Lord. Neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him. Yes, Samuel not only had a praying mother, but he listened to the word of God. And I am amazed how people can listen to the clearest teachings of God's word, and yet these words have to be written over them. Do you know in one of the villages down in South America the missionaries came to preach the gospel? The people gathered round and night after night around the campfires. They used to have splendid meetings until there was a group of converts. They decided that they would form a local church and they built an outfetched building. Later on they put a more permanent building and the work of God was established in that growing village. And there was one boy, a little negro boy. And this little negro boy listened and listened and knew it all, attended the meetings, knew it all. and grew up to be a big, strong man, knew it all, but never made the decision to let Jesus Christ be Lord of his life. And this is the story he tells today, and I believe he's still alive, telling it down there as I'm speaking to you. He said one day he went out of the village and he had crossed the river he was hunting. And when he came back by another fording, as he came fording through the river, the water was up to his waist when all of a sudden something laid hold upon his ankle. Perhaps you can guess what it was, an alligator. Now he knew all about alligators, but the alligator had attacked underwater and laid hold upon his ankle and began to try and get him off his legs and tug him out into the deep water. But he tried to keep the other foot on the ground and he tried to keep back, but slowly and steadily that alligator was pulling him into the deeper water. Now on land, if an alligator gets you, you go for his eyes. Push your fingers in his eyes, attack his eyes. I don't know why, but he opens his mouth. Oh, and lets you go. It's a chip. Well worth knowing that. But under the water, he couldn't do this. And he was having a losing battle when all of a sudden this wise Negro boy said, oh, he's a man, said, I'll pretend to be dead. I'll give up my struggles. And so he just flopped back. And he felt the alligator pulling him, pulling him, pulling him. He just didn't struggle. He just lay back and allowed himself to be pulled. And after some time the alligator pulled him round the bend and under a big overhanging bank of the river and still pinning his foot down to the bottom, waited, and he just rested there as best he could with his mouth above the water level. Then very gingerly the alligator pulled him up into the shallow water and he just lay back like a dead log And then the alligator, after watching for a long time, began to loose him, and he lay still. The alligator watched him, and then edged away, watching. And then the alligator went. You know what for? Some other alligators. You see, one alligator can only pull you about in the water like this. But if there's several, they can pull you to pieces. And as he was gone, the man got his strength and catching hold of an overhanging bow pulled himself up onto the bank and collapsed. And he tells how he saw the Alley-Jetors coming back. And he said, as I lay there, he said, holding my foot exhausted, I knew that I had been delivered from death. And he said, all the accumulation of the teaching of the word of God and the gospel thrust before my mind And I knew that God had allowed me another chance of getting worse with God, another chance of responding to the Savior's call. And he said, on that bank in my weakness, I said, Lord Jesus, you gave me back my life, you shall have my life. And I entered into that wonderful thing that Jesus can do when he takes a life to pardon and cleanse and protect and make it his own. And he nipped back into the village and told the story. And for years he stood up in that village chapel and gone to other chapels around telling how God saved him the day he escaped the alligators. And he said, I knew the word of God. I knew the way of salvation. It was as clear as anything up here. I knew what I ought to do. I've never done it. That man did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord revealed unto him until that moment. The third thing in Samuel's life was simply this, that he served the Lord. And I want to tell you this, as I come to the homelands of Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, America, Canada, the Christian lands that send out missionaries. My greatest concern is for those who have heard the gospel and taken a position as Christians and say, I'm a church member, I'm doing the best I can for everybody, I'm full of work and service, and yet when you talk to them you find they've never been born again, they don't know the Lord of their personal Savior, and they're still without that life in Christ, and they've never bowed at His cross in real surrender to taste of eternal life. And if you're in that condition, whether you're young or old, oh, I plead with you, nothing in my hand I bring. Just as I am, and waiting not, just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, O Lamb of God, I come. Yes, you've got to come. You can't bypass that cross. You can't come by any other way but real repentance and confession of your need as a sinner and to trust in the finished work and precious blood of the victor of Calvary, who can step into that life of yours and cleanse and pardon and in power and make you a new man and woman in Christ. Oh, why don't you come? You know, a little girl came to my meetings down in British Guyana, that troubled land. And every time she came, she would come up to me and she would say, Mr. Wildes, can I help you at all? And I said, yes, you can do this or do that. And I don't know anyone who helped me so much in that children's campaign as that precious little girl. One night I took my subject as two daughters. Two daughters. And I said, now look, here's two doors. And these two doors, one is the door of your heart and the other is the door of God's home. And I said, it's just possible that you have faced this fact never before. Jesus comes to your door. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. And if that door is shut and you don't let him in, there's another door that will be shut. And they will come to it and say, Lord, Lord, open to us. I never knew you. Why? Because you never knew me. Now I said, if this door is wide open and you let Jesus into your heart, the door, the wonderful door of heaven, will be wide open to you. If you keep that door closed, that door will be kept closed. If that door is wide open, this door will be wide open. And I gave the boys and girls a little talk on the two doors. She came running out after the meeting and she said, Mr. Wildish, is there anything I could do? I said, yes, my dear, pick up the handbooks and put them away in here. And she helped me and was the last to go. She got to her home and she found the door closed. She knocked, no answer. Her mother had gone out, had been detained and she blocked up the little cabin where she lived. The little girl found that she would have to wait for mother's return, so she sat down on the top step with her back to the door. And all of a sudden it dawned on her, if I came to heaven's door and knocked, and it was closed, what an awful thing it would be. And then she began to examine her little heart, bravely and honestly. The little girl who, as it happens, was a child of mother's prayers. As it happened, it often come to meetings and knew the way of salvation. As it happened, her nervous swung the heart's door open to Christ to receive him. She thought, oh, if I actually stood at that door, it was closed and a voice said, I never knew you. How awful it would be. Is this heart's door open? Have I ever received the Savior? Oh, I must do it. And sitting on the top step with her back to a closed door, that precious little Guyanese girl bowed her head, and she by faith invited the Lord Jesus to come in through a wide open door and claimed his promise, I will come in and stop with you. And do you know it was a little girl dancing with joy who told mother the story that night? And the next night, the mother brought her to the meeting and came up to me, and she said, I want you to hear the story of my little girl. Do you know that God saved her last night? I said, no, I didn't know that. I thought she was saved a long time. Oh, no, said the mother. You listen, and she told me this story. I say, some of you girls and boys are getting older. The age of twelve is passing. And you are children of Mother's prayers, and you've sat under the word of God, and you are actually trying your best to be a Christian and live a good life. But you are conscious that something's missing. The door has been kept closed. The living Christ has not yet been received. Tonight he's calling you. The voice will ring out. Samuel Earl, your voice will ring out. And you mustn't turn to the preacher, to mother, to the dearest friend, to the chapel leader. No. Lord, speak thy servant heareth. You must speak to the one who speaks to you. If any, hear my voice and open the door. I will come in. I want to close with a story. And I want you to patiently and quietly listen to it. One of the tremendous advantages of growing old, for a servant of God is he can look back and see the development of God's truth in lives. When I was a young preacher, I was asked to a certain place to preach, and to my horror, they told me that they had planned on a Friday afternoon a mother's meeting. Now to a young preacher, that's a horror. Being a very nervous young wildest fellow, I rather shrank from this mother's meeting. Well, I went and they treated me very kindly. They were awfully generous to me. They let me speak to them and they seemed to appreciate it. And in a very professional way at the close, I went to the door to shake hands with the mothers at the end of their mother's meeting, about four o'clock in the afternoon as they were going home. When all of a sudden a woman, a lady came up to me and by her side was a little boy about ten or the most eleven. So I looked at him and I was having a joke with him. I said, well, it's grand to have another man here. I said, I felt a bit lonely till I saw you, two men in this meeting. And the mother laughed and the boy smiled and we talked. And all of a sudden the mother said, Well, Mr. Wildish, I must be off. I've got to go home and cook a meal for my husband. He's coming back from the factory. And I'll see you again on Sunday night. Goodbye. And I said goodbye and patted the little chap on his shoulder. The last words I heard that lady say was, I'll see you again on Sunday night. And she meant she'd be back to listen to me preaching on Sunday night. Sunday night came and I stood up to preach and I'd forgotten all about this. As I knew at the end of my talk, I said I was going down to the door to shake hands and if anyone wanted to speak to me, I was wanting to speak to them. And as I went to the door, it was swing doors and we pushed them open. I was the first one out because I was going to shake hands and the people needed. As I went out at the swing doors, a man met me. I won't try and describe him except to say I could see he was deeply agitated. He was passing through great strain. His hair flopped over his brow and a worried look on his face. And he came up to me and caught me by the lapels of my suit. And these terrific words came from his lips. He said, could you come at once? My wife's dying. I said, tell me about it. What's happened? Oh, he said, could you get Mr. Riddell and could you come at once to my house? My wife's dying. And I could see he was under great stress. And I said, tell me where is it? And he told me the name and the number of the road. And I said, all right, I'll tell Mr. Riddell and we'll come just as soon as we can. And then I was shaking hands. Mr. Riddell was a businessman, a man of God. I told him about it. He said, we'll go at once. We went through the town and we came to a house and we rang at the door and the door opened and the same man met us. And he said, Oh, thank you for coming. He said, Follow me. Mr. Riddell stepped in first. I stepped in second and the man led the way across the hall and up the stairs. And I was left to close the door. As I closed the door and followed across the hall, I heard a noise. that made me look into the room at the side, what we call in that country a drawing room. And as I looked in, I saw a couch, and on the couch a boy lying full length, and he was sobbing. Now I loved boys, and I felt I couldn't pass him by. I slipped into the room and sat on the edge of the couch, put my hand on his body, it was heaving and sobbing, and I knew why. Mother was dying. The doctor had come, I could even smell the smell of that which he had given an anesthetic for one in pain in the house as I came into the hall. And I tried to comfort the little lad a bit, and then I left him and climbed the stairs and walked into a bedroom and joined three or four around the bed. and looked into the face of a woman who said to me on Friday night in health and strength, I'll see you again on Sunday night. She never dreamt and I never dreamt that we would meet at what turned out to be her deathbed that night. Thank God she was a Christian, ready for a call into eternity. ready to be absent from the body in which she has lived her earthly life, to be present with the Lord, to wait the resurrection of the body and the great future of eternal life with Christ. But as we were round the bed, we voiced some of those great old scriptures. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. as we quoted the scriptures and commended her to the keeping of the Lord in prayer for his will to be done. We turned away from that bed, and of course I've never seen her again. Next morning we heard that she had heard the call into eternity in the wee hours of the morning about three. I went to South America. Five years past I was married and went back to South America for another four years with my wife and our little girl was born in South America. Came out to the West Indies because of malaria and two boys were born in Jamaica. Every five years we tried to go back to our old homeland for about eight or nine or ten months of what we called leave to refresh ourselves. And eleven years had passed. And I was back in that little town of Sudbury. And I was preaching in the same chapel on a Sunday night. And I felt the Spirit of God coming to brood and do His gracious work in hearts. And as I closed, I said, if any of you want to get right with God and want God's salvation, as I dismissed this meeting, will you stay? Come and take a front seat. I want to talk to you. Be earnest. Be real. The congregation moved out into the night and three precious lives stayed for counselling and I sat and talked to them. After a little time of talking over the word of God and prayer, they seemed to be clear, they seemed to have made the great decision. I couldn't feel it was necessary to keep them any longer. And I was just about to say goodbye to them when those swing doors, listen, that I had stood by eleven years before on a Friday and patted the little fellows, I had instead glad to have another man with me. The swing doors that I went through to meet the sobbing, troubled man who said my wife is dying, were flung open. And a young Englishman, twenty-one years of age, it turned out, turning to twenty-two, came in, striding right down the middle pathway. And he came to the front seat and stepped down and buried his head in his hands. The three I was talking to left, and I went over and sat by his side and put my arm around his shoulder. I said, what's wrong? Can I help you? He told me, he said, I want to get right with God, and I tell you when any man looks into my face and says, I want to get right with God, I know he means business. I told him God's terms of salvation. I told him how he could get right with God. And we bowed the knee together, and I heard one say, Lord Jesus, my thanks for Calvary, my heart and life with all its need is open to thy coming. And that boy, as it turned out, afterwards passed from death to life. Christ became his Saviour, and salvation was his that night. As he ran my hand, and I said, Good night to him. I said to him, Tell me how long is it since you've known that you should have done this thing tonight? Oh, he said, Ever since the night Mother died, He said, how long ago was that? He looked rather startled at me. He said, you know, sir, you were there. I said, I was there. He said, yes, don't you remember that Sunday night when you came to the house that mother died? And I saw the little boy of eleven sobbing on the couch. The little boy standing my mother's side on the Friday. It all flashed back. She said, do you mean to tell me that since that Sunday night you've known that you should give your life to the Savior? She said, yes. I said, why didn't you do it? She said, I don't know. It seemed so hard at school. I thought the other boys would laugh at me. She said, I thought it would be easier when I left school. I kept putting it off. He said, you know, Dad got me a job in a factory, and he said, in the factory the men used to curse and swear and gamble. He said, it seemed tougher even there. He said, I just put it off. I just lifted. He said, I heard you were coming back to town. He said, and I came to hear you, and he said, when you made your appeal, I knew I should have stayed. But he said, I didn't. I just lifted out with a crowd, and I went down the street, and he said, under a tree around the corner. I had a tremendous battle. I knew that God was giving me another opportunity which I ought to take, and it was slipping away from me. But he said, I determined I'd come back to see if the lights were burning in the chapel. He said, I saw they were and came in. Thank God he's gone on well for the Lord. Married with a family and a nice home in that town, one who's engaged in the service of God. But listen, oh, listen. Listen carefully to this. He had missed opportunity after opportunity, and years had passed by, and all the time he had known in his heart what he ought to have done. Listen carefully to my text. Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him. Listen. And the Lord came and stood and called, as at other times, Samuel, Samuel, he's giving you another time, young lady. Will you take it? He's giving you another time, sir. Will you take it? Now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. Worse not thyself of tomorrow. Thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. Your drifting will get you nowhere. Some of you are drifting on. Tomorrow he promised his conscience. Tomorrow I mean to believe. Tomorrow I'll think as I ought to. Tomorrow my savior esteem. Tomorrow I'll conquer the habits that hold me from heaven away. But ever his conscience repeated one word, and one only. Today, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, the day after day it went on. Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, shall youth like a vision had gone. and age and its passions have written the message of faith on his brow, and forth from the shadows came death with its pitiless syllable, now. And they're slipping into eternity the children of mother's prayers, who've heard the word of God all their lifetimes, who've even tried to serve God in his church. But they've never said, Speak, Lord, thy servant, here in glad obedience to let thee come and take this life and make it what you want to be.