Recounts The passage's early ministry experiences in Canton and Raleigh, North Carolina, highlighting the definite leading and filling of the Holy Spirit. It details profound spiritual encounters, including unutterable groaning in prayer and an overwhelming sense of God's presence, which confirmed his calling to full-time service. The narrative then shifts to the challenges and triumphs of evangelistic meetings in Raleigh, where The passage, initially hesitant to preach alone, experienced God's empowerment and saw fifty-one people profess faith in Christ. A significant portion is dedicated to the conversion of Clarence, a notorious local figure, illustrating the transformative power of the gospel and the importance of trusting God's provision over human reliance.
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Women of Day twenty-six. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we are, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with zonings which cannot be uttered. I want you to notice those words with zonings which cannot be uttered. Last week we were speaking about how the Lord led us get our visa and some of the experiences we've led up to our feelings of the custom and also some other definite feelings of the Lord as to our coming down south.
I think we finished at the border. But in reflecting upon some of the experiences we had prior to crossing over, I thought of one or two that would be almost, I think, wrong to omit them because so much dependent upon them. And that is the definite leading of the Spirit of God in one or two cases, especially. We've been pointing out how the Lord was putting the pressure on us to go out into the ministry, and I was backing up, more or less trying to get out of it, but the pressure was too great. The Lord finally hedged me in until there was only one step to take, and that was I. But I remember one night, I would say, a month or two before things really began to develop.
I was working nights in the railroad shop in Stratford and my mechanic was Jack O'Hara and he was a Navy. Strange it may seem, although he was a Navy's, he did allow his boys to come to our Sunday school and be in my class, and yet he was a Navy's. Strange thing, but nevertheless he seemed to respect our views on the Bible and He allowed his boys to come. Well, Jack and I were working one night. He used to get off between one and two. That was our time to get off for our dinner during the night. Whenever Jack got through eating his lunch, he would lay down and have his sleep.
Sometimes he would sleep beyond the allotted time. Well, I used to take strong coffee with me, a thermos bottle full, because I'd get so drowsy and yet I wanted to study. Coffee used to keep me awake. Whenever I got to my lunch, I wanted to spend the rest of the lunch hour in study. This night I took with me Tully's book on prayer, and it's a very challenging book. That night I was deeply troubled about and concerned about the path that seemed to be opening up before me. I remember as I read that book toward the end of the time allotted for our lunch, drownings began emanating from within.
This was a new experience to me. I couldn't understand. In a few minutes, I called to Jack that the time was up for us to go back to our work, and at that time we were going to start taking out the grapes out of the boiler of a big locomotive. And first of all, the mechanic, he went in, and he took out the cotter pins and so on, and loosened all these grapes. Then he would put them up. through the fire hole, and I would take them from there and throw them down at the pit and afterwards put them on to truck. But as we left the dining room, this groaning kept continuing. Now, the only way I can describe it, and I very seldom mention this publicly, is like Higgins.
It's something I had no control. I couldn't stop. And it occurred every fifteen minutes, about every fifteen seconds. And I was so embarrassed, seemingly, because knowing Jack was an atheist, if he'd asked me what was wrong, I wouldn't have been able to have told. And so I kept about ten or fifteen feet away from him, as we walked from the dining hall to the big erecting shop where the locomotive was, where we'd worked the rest of the evening. So I kept back and kind of loitered behind as he went on, and finally he got up into firehole and down into the boiler. I climbed up and I sat in the cab where the engineer general sits, and Jackie had about an hour's work to do in there, loosening all the carter fence and getting the crates ready before he could put them up to me and I could put them up.
Now that kept up for just about two hours. And you could hear that I'd say a good fifteen feet away, groaning, just like a person who was in deep pain or agony. I am no control over. And the only scripture I could find was this scripture that I read to you in Romans eight twenty-six. Likewise the Spirit also helped with our infirmities, wherefore we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself or himself, make an intercession for us with Rome, which cannot be uttered. During that time, I had a burden for souls.
That's all I thought about was precious souls. And it was a groaning of the spirit of God in my heart. Well, I've never had that experience yet. But I had it that night for about two hours. And it was then when I was right in the midst of God's dealings with me about going into full-time service. I'll never forget that experience. A few days after, I was back on day work, two weekdays and two week nights. And I remember going down the railway shop because it was a long repair shop. I would say supposedly about four blocks long. And the big pile that we used to walk up and down in, the various men going from different departments, the board department, machine department, electric department, plumbing department, just like the main street on a busy day uptown.
And, of course, the different men going in different directions at their different jobs because there were about thirty-six engine locomotives in there being repaired on at the same time. Well, the street ran right alongside the local motor's power shops. This day I was going practically the full length of the shop, at the Gaza Boiler Shop, and I was going up near the Tooth Shop. That's where the locomotive was over that big pit where we were working. The mechanics were on the inside and I had a scaffold underneath the boiler between the frames. And as I was walking along, I looked out and I saw people walking down the street. And I began longing to see people saved again.
The time I reached my job, I got underneath and got up on the scaffold where I was ready to my part on the outside if the mechanics were ready on the inside. And such a sense of the presence of the Lord, I had never known in my life, it came on me so much that I actually, out loud, I asked God to lift his hand. I couldn't take any more. I couldn't hold any more. I thought I was worse. And that was another experience I never forgot. And it was just a case of God convincing me that he had called me, encouraging me, and his presence was so real, I just couldn't say no. Few days after, I was telling you about the ships we made to London to get our visa to meet the consul.
One of those ships I went alone. I remember walking down the main street toward the consul's office, and it was looking a little dark right at that moment. Some of you recall some of the things we mentioned. But I was walking down the main street to the consul's office, and I never was so conscious of someone walking at my side in my life, someone who wasn't human. just like somebody was walking right down, just about the nearness and the reality of a human being. And the peace that flooded my heart, I just couldn't get discouraged. So there were three experiences that I had, the definite leading and filling of the Spirit of God before I crossed over the border to come start.
So I thought we'd share those experiences with you because the filling of the Holy Spirit is a real thing. Now I left Canada on July the ninth, nineteen thirty-one. I came down south with Mr. Fred Nugent that he referred to in these messages, and we arrived in Canton, North Carolina. Well, that was in nineteen thirty-one, and I've never been in Canton, of course. I hadn't been down south before in my life. Canton was new to me, so I decided I was going to stay with the Nugent while I was there. So Fred and I, we got busy and put up our tent. It was his tent, put it up, and we preached for five weeks out in a little mountain cold.
We had quite a good interest there. A lot of people came, and a few found the Lord. So we moved the tent after five weeks into Canton, and we erected it again up on a hill outside the busy, simple, busy little town. It's quite a city now, hoping we'd get some of the folks in the new development to come. They didn't. So one day, Fred received a letter. I speak with Fred because Fred was just like a brother to me, although he was sixteen years my senior. And he received a letter from Raleigh, North Carolina. And the letter was the effect that they would like to have he and myself come down and conduct a campaign, a evangelistic campaign.
So he told me about... content with this letter, and my first reaction was, I'm not going. Well, now he said, Lester, he said, you better pray about that. I said, Fred, I told you, when I came south, I was going to pioneer. I wasn't going to go around churches having meetings. I was going to pioneer. I was going to go into out-of-the-way places and try and get something started from scratch. And I wasn't going to go around preaching in churches or assemblies. I'm going to be a pioneer, but I'm going to be any of it. Well, now he said, maybe I should acquaint you with something, or you should have noticed something by now. I said, what's that?
Well, he said, we're expecting an increase in the fans. And he says, as you know, we only have two bedrooms, the one you're in and the one we have, Gladys and I. Gladys the sister's coming down to be with her during this time and we're going to need the bedroom that you have. Now, he said, I think it would be a good thing if we accept this invitation down at Raleigh. They said they'd like to get acquainted with you. They had a little hand with your getting over the border and they'd like to meet you. I think it would be a good thing if we go down there and have these meetings. And he said, I may have to leave you any night. I don't know. But I do welcome back here to be with my wife and then at our return if the meetings are going good in Raleigh.
And then you can come back after my wife's sister has left and we work around here. I said, well, under those circumstances, I'll go. So we went down to Raleigh and we started meetings there and meetings were very good. We went on two weeks. And Tuesday night of the third week, Fred received a phone call and Gladys told him he'd better come home. So the next morning he got up early and had two beds in the home of the chapel, J.C. Chapel of Raleigh, North Carolina. I remember Fred getting up quite early, quite excited to get back to Canton and said, well, goodbye, Lester.
He said, I hope the Lord helps you. And he said, keep the meetings going. If the interest keeps up like it is, keep them going. Well, I felt like an orphan boy was dread leaving me because I leaned so much on him. And I didn't do everything. I just liked to hear him preach, and I had to lean almost entirely on television. Godly man, very experienced man. So I preached that night alone, and also the Thursday night and the Friday night, and I said, these meetings closed Sunday night. I'm not going on alone. I felt I wasn't qualified at that time. And I said, I'm not going to preach on alone. So I closed the meeting on Sunday night.
The brethren said, We wish you'd continue. The interest is good here. No, I'm not going on. I just looked for the postman every day for a letter for Brad Newsom to say the day we had come that I could go on back to Canton. But Tuesday days passed, and one day I became deeply burdened up in my bedroom, and I came downstairs, and Mrs. Chapel, who was a very godly person, I don't know if any of you have ever met her, Mrs. J.C. Chapel. I don't know a person that has a greater knowledge of the word. I'm more spiritually taught as a woman. So she said to me when I came down, she said, I've often been burdened about Clayton, North Carolina.
The moment she said it, it rang a bell. I said, Clayton, where is it? She said, it's about sixteen miles east of here. I said, how can we get there? I didn't have a car. I said, how can we get to Glitch? She said, I don't know. I'll phone Mrs. Riddles. So she picked up the telephone, and the phone hardly rang before the receiver was picked up at the other end. First thing, I was standing right there, and the first thing Mrs. Chappell said, you must have been right at the phone to pick it up so quickly. Yes, Mrs. Riddles said, I was just sitting here wondering what to do, and I was just about to phone you when the phone rang. Well, Ms.
Chapel said, Mr. Wilson wants to see Clayton. Could you come and take him out to Clayton? She said, I'd be glad to. I'm just wanting something to do. So Mrs. Allen, that's the wife of Mr. Allen, who loaned us money on the building of this chapel. Mrs. Allen and Mrs. Little, who were sisters-in-law, Mrs. Cooper and Mrs. Chapel and myself, we left and went over to Clayton. As we entered Clayton, there was a big white church. about the size of this auditorium, I would say, as well as a lot of Sunday school rooms at the back, train structure, and the moment I looked at it, the voice said, there's the place for your meeting.
I thought, so how would I get that building unless I was in that denomination? We went on through Clayton, we looked at town hall over, and I couldn't find a place suitable to have meetings. And the voice kept saying, go back to that meeting, that building. So we drove on back, and I asked them to go around the other side of the church that we did, and I saw a lady out in the yard, and I went over to her, I said, what kind of a church is this? She said it's a Christian church. I've got a denomination up there, what they call a Christian church, very close to the Church of Christ. They differed a little on baptism, and I did find some pretty good men among them. They're certainly not as stringent nor legal as the Church of Christ.
But nevertheless, I found some nice men among them. And I said, well, who's the preacher here? She said, Mr. Denton. Well, where does he live? Well, he lives over near Puget Springs. Well, where's that? So she told us how to get the fruit of Puget Springs, and I thanked her. She said he's a farmer, but he's a fair time. He has this pastor and one of two other churches. So I went to the ladies in the car. I said, do you know where Puget Springs? Oh, sure, we know where that is. Well, Mr. Jensen lives the little drawly side of Puget Springs. Well, we'll go. So we drove over there, and we found his farm, and around the side of the house he came out and we met.
And I said, Mr. Jensen, I was over to Clayton, wondering if... I could get the use or rent your building over there for a series of evangelistic meetings. He said, what do you mean rent the church building for evangelistic meetings? He said, if you preach the gospel, you can have it. And he said, I don't know you. Of course, the Bible says lay hands suddenly a whole man. He said, and I just don't know you. Who do you know in Raleigh? Any preacher in Raleigh? I said, yes, I know Luther Wilson. Luther Wilson had been a Baptist minister for seven years before coming into the fellowship of the Assembly in Raleigh, and he had just been in there in about two months.
So Luther and I had become quite friendly. So soon as I mentioned Luther's name, he said, you know Luther Wilson. I said, yes, well, he said, Luther filled my apartment a number of times. He said, if Luther Wilson will endorse you, you certainly can preach in that church, and that without any rent. So by this time we had reached the car and my Schofield Bible was on the seat and I picked up my Schofield Bible. I said, this is the Bible I use. He said, he said, he said, any man who uses Schofield Bible, he said, he's all right. He said, I think you'll be able to have these means all right. If you use a Schofield Bible, I said, that's what I use. So anyway, he said, well, I'll talk to Luther.
And he did. He went right in and Luther Wilson by this time was working in the capital printing company in Raleigh. And Luther said, by all means, let Mr. Wilson have your church. You'll never regret it for me. Well, I would back out to see Mr. Denton, and he said, now I hope you can help that congregation. He said, I tell you the truth, I can't. He said, I've been there pastor for so many years. He only preached there once a month, because he had three or four churches. He just went there once a month, and he said, next. My next appointment there is to be my last. I had told them I was going to resign. He said they have no other feature in mind, and he said, if you can help them, I wish you God's feet.
So we arranged that I would have the meeting and get the building and get started the next Sunday night. So when I got back and told the folks in Raleigh all about it, of course the ladies knew a good deal, but then they didn't know anything about the second visit we made out there, that we were to get started on the next Sunday night. So Mr. Campbell and Mr. Allen, a couple of the men there, quite a small testimony in Raleigh at that time. Only about sixteen or eighteen were in fellowship at that time. Of course, it's very large now, two hundred and fifty in fellowship. But when I told the men about it, they said, well, that's time. Well, now listen, I'm not going to start these meetings with Mr.
Newton. I'm not going to do that. Oh, yeah, you better go ahead. I said, oh, I'm not going to start these meetings. I'm getting in touch with Mr. Newton right away. So I hurried him, tear him in a letter off, tear him in a letter off to Mr. Newton, up in Canton. I told him I was Mr. Newton. He's got the opportunity to use a fine church building to start meetings in and are you coming down? Well, he moved right back. He said, well, I can't. He said, uh, uh, Maybe hasn't arrived yet, he said, but I'll see you many times in the next week or two. So, you go ahead, he said.
You go ahead and start the meetings, and I'll get down and help you just as soon as I can. Well, I didn't want to. Nevertheless, the brethren Raleigh, they encouraged me, and I said, all right, let's get some advertising started, and we put up a big sign. We decided to put up a big sign out in front of the church, and also get a lot of cards present. I said, now I want you men to put on those cards that Mr. Nugent, S.W. Nugent, is going to share these meetings and also get that put on the sign in front of the church. So when the cards came out on Friday to be distributed on Saturday, they didn't have Mr. Nugent's name on there at all. And the big sign out in front of the church, they didn't have Mr.
Nugent's name on there at all. And I looked at the sign, and I'm going to tell you, I was provoked in one way, and yet I was more afraid than anything else, to tackle a campaign alone. I leaned so much on Mr. News. Well, this is a poem that I've carried, and that's the exact poem, and this is thirty-two years ago. On the Friday, prior to this, I had gone over to Mr. Chapel's library, had quite a library, and I pulled a book out, and the title of that book was Pountain of Night. And I just thumbed through the book, and I think I turned every page in that book, and I put it back in his library.
Saturday afternoon, I was pacing up and down the chapel hall, whereas the big front dining room, or sitting room, with my hands behind my back, and I was just worried about this campaign. Mr. Newton's not being here to start with me and to take the burden. And almost unconsciously, I walked over to the library, the big book, Rochelle, and I pulled out the same book. Now, why I would do that? The same book, I don't know, but I pulled it out. And as I did and opened it, this track that I hold here, you can see it's yellow with age, it fluttered from the book. And I picked it up.
And this is the poem. And from the text I read to you, the Hebrew translation in Proverbs four and twelve. This is though the Lord spoke to me that Saturday afternoon. Child of my love, fear not. The text is, as thou goest step by step, I will open up the way before thee. Child of my love, fear not the unknown morrow. Dread not the new demand, light makes of thee. Thine ignorance doth hold no cause for sorrow since what thou knowest not is known of me. Thou canst not see today the hidden meaning of my command, but thou the light shall gain. Walk on in faith upon my promised meaning, and as thou goest, all shall be made plain.
One step thou seest, and go forward boldly. One step is far enough for faith to see. Take that, and thy next duty shall be told thee. for step by step thy Lord is leading thee. Stand not in fear thine adversaries counting. Dear every peril, say to disobey, Thou shalt march on all obstacles surmounting, for I will look strong, will open up the way. Wherefore go gladly to the past to find thee, having my promise, needing nothing more, than just to know where the future find thee. All my journeyings, I go before. When I read that, I just felt as though I was standing in the Lord's bed.
And I stuck that little pamphlet of that fact, or poem in the front of my Bible, and there's where it stayed for many, many years until even the glue came off when I had to take it out. That was God's message to me. So we started the next night in the church, and the church was packed. And people had to even bring their seats out of their cars and put them on the big portals in front of the church, one of these churches of five or six big columns, and quite a nice big long veranda. They'd have the windows open, people sitting around the outside on the seats they'd take out of their cars, which we used to do a lot of them those days.
The Lord began to save. Well, up till that time, we hadn't seen too many get saved. But the people started to get saved night after night. I'm time to tell you one or two. I may tell the big Lord willing some unusual cases that were saved then. But as the people began staying back, others coming up, telling us they'd gotten saved, I kept sending letters off every day to Fred Mugen. Hurry up and get down here. This thing's getting out of control. He kept telling me back, one time they took Gladys to the hospital and I turned on take her back home again. And so he couldn't understand it, and I couldn't either.
So anyway, people continued getting saved. And I'm going to tell you, it sounds kind of ridiculous, but several nights going from Raleigh over to Canton, I was in the back seat of the chapel car and I had my hand on the door and I was going to jump out that car and take off through the field and let anybody preach who wants a free car, one won't preach. I was scared to death to get up and see that great crowd, that place packed. Many a night when I got there and Mr. Chapel pulled up and stopped his car, I get out of his car and go right around behind the church in the field and get down on my knees in that grass. plead with the Lord to send someone along to preach.
I didn't want them to. And yet when I'd get up in the pulpit and open my mouth, it was the easiest thing in the world to preach. It just seemed to have poured out. And people were getting saved. One night, seven professed to get saved. Well, it was quite evident that as the meetings grew on, Fred wasn't going to get there. The meetings went on for five weeks, and there were fifty-one professed to get saved. And I think the baby arrived the last week. It is a little over a month delayed. But that was a lesson for me. The Lord wanted me to trust him, to lean on him.
He had a work for me to do, and he saw that I wasn't going to develop. All the time I was with Mr. Newton leaning on him. And so that was the beginning of our work in North Carolina. Although I loved Mr. Nugent, I never did return to Canton. I made it in Clayton until he came down near Christmas time. We went to the Newport News Conference. I had meetings in Newport News, but I never went back to Canton where he lived. But that was an experience I had in Raleigh, North Carolina. How the Lord overruled in this. How he led in the manner of the David's late arrival, and that had its place in God's pattern, in God's plan, and how God enabled me to step out at the top of him and not to lean upon man, and he blessed, and it was amazing the way he did bless.
So these are some of the ways in which the Lord led in our beginning in Raleigh, North Carolina. We'll have another Wednesday night for a wedding. on Raleigh, North Carolina before moving on to other places. I will say this much that the connection with some of the converts is one with him of Clarence Chula. Clarence is still alive, I'll tell you, this incident. This boy, he was a catcher of the baseball team, man, young fellow, about my own age. In fact, he was exactly my own age. We weighed about two hundred and some pounds, and he was darkly built.
His head seemed to sit right on his shoulders, and he was one of the toughest fellas in town. He was always into a fight when they played baseball. They said that when Clarence used to get drunk, he lived right near the mill. He'd get a revolver with a real live bullet in it, and he'd been known to line up some boys against that wall and make them do certain things or else. Fortunately, he never did pull the trigger, but he's that way when he got drunk. When we started these meetings, of course we took these cards around to all the homes, and he was sitting on the porch, so he said later, and his wife loved the porch, and this card came. He'd only been to church once in his life, and that was to a funeral of a friend.
At that length of time, he'd only been in church once in his entire life. So he began reading the card, come and hear the gospel preach. Evangelist yesterday wrote to a young man from Canada, nightly and so on, and underneath, no collection taken at these services. The gospel is free. When he laughed, he said, if I sat the new one, Canadians must be different than Americans, because they want the money. He says, this is not going to take up money. I'm gold. This is something to see. All I've heard about evangelists is they want the money. So he came along that first night, and I never will forget him sitting just inside the door.
He had a big little sweater on, and a two-cut, which wasn't too popular back in those days, and he was tough. So he sat just inside the door of the church that night, and he listened to the gospel. He went home. When he went home, he found out somebody had stolen all his chickens while he was at church. Well, he hit the roof. He said, the first time I go to church to hear a preacher, he says, all my chickens get stolen. That's enough. I'm not going to church anymore. So the next night, he was sitting out on the lander after a hard day's work. He began thinking about the meeting.
He thought, well, what's he sitting home? My chickens are gone. I haven't got any to watch now. They thought, I'm going up there again. He came back. This time he came up about two or three rows. And every night he came, he didn't miss a night, he would come up a little closer, a little closer, a little closer. Finally he sat over like about where that row is, right up at the front. When I got through preaching that night, I was preaching on the new birth. As I went to get down off the platform, Clarence came over that big chunk of a land, and he was sobbing like a child. He said, who else? He said, something happened to me night to night while you were preaching.
He said, I don't know what it was. It's never happened in my life before. Well, I said, Clarence, by this time I learned his name, I said, Clarence, sit down. He turned right around and sat on the platform, just like he'd be sitting there. And I took my Bible and I started reading texts about God's way of salvation. Every time I'd read one like John five or twenty-four, if that's it, he says, that's what happened, that's what happened. He didn't mind the crowd looking on because he was quite a notable character in town. So Clarence had gotten saved. He said, now the first thing I've got to get is a Bible. I told him about, no, there's not a Bible in our house. As you will see, I'm ashamed to say, it's not a Bible in our house.
I've got to get a Bible. So the next day he went up and he bought a Bible for about a dollar. Out of one of the stores, of course, it would be about three dollars now. So he bought his Bible and started to read. Well, he hadn't been in school very much. He wasn't very well educated, as you can imagine, man of his kind. So I remember this night, Father Chapel, and Mrs. Chapel and I pulled up. I'm here with Clarence standing up on the top of the steps of the church steps with a great big grin on his face and a big Bible under his arm. He was the happiest fellow you ever saw. Since we got to the top of the steps, he says, Father Wilson, he says, you know what?
I read him during my Bible. He said, I was reading over there in the twenty-fifth of Matthew about those foolish Virginians. There were foolish virgins, you know, the five foolish virgins, but he says they were foolish Virginians. He couldn't read very well. Well, I think Clarence of theology won't go so good over the body. You better not go up to Virginia and treat it like that. So then the next night he came to me and said, you know, he said, I'm reading about the Judith Cascarette, Denying the Lord. And of course there was some medicine back in there that used to call Cascarette, but that's the way clients would read.
But I'm going to tell you today that man can treat us. He's alive today. And I was in Raleigh a few years ago, just before I came down to Albany, and they said so many people came in from the surrounding territory where we had meetings those days. that the chapel said, let's have a get-together, and let all those folks that were saved in your meeting to head around here come in, we'll have some refreshments, and just to get together. I said, that would be nice. So they did. So Clarence was there, and he said to Mr. Chapel, he said, I'd just like to have a little time tonight, and the chapel said, that'll be fine.
So when his time came, he got up, When he opened his Bible, he said, folks, he said, I'm going to start with it. Of course, I don't have the card with me. He said, there's the card. He said, that was the cause of my going to those meetings. He said, when I read that card on the front porch that night and read about those meetings and decided I was going to go, he said, that was what led me. In effect, he said, these words down here, there will be no collection taken at these circles. Well, that card was yellow at this time, and after the meeting, he said, Would you like to have this, Mr. Wilson? I said, I certainly wouldn't have it. So I have it in one of my choice collections.
So that was some of the experiences there in Clayton, where the Lord saved some fifty-one precious gold at that time. I think you're conclusive of that and possibly contingent next Wednesday night. I might say this, however, and we'll leave Clayton. that the first time I had the opportunity of teaching, all I was doing was preaching the gospel. I wasn't too interested in teaching Christians, but these young converts insisted that they be taught. So Mr. Chapel faculty arranged the meeting, and the next Saturday afternoon we would go over for a Bible reading, and I had never taught Christians. I just had preached the gospel.
And he said, Mr. Rook, you've got to take this meeting. I said, you're not talking to me. I'm not teaching. I'm not a teacher. I'm just a gospel preacher. No, he said, these are your converts. You've got to teach. I said, Jimmy, I wouldn't know how to start. Well, he said, you've got to start. And I tried my best to get him to take the meeting. But when we got there, and all I could think about was John ten, twenty-seven, twenty-eight. I give unto my seed eternal life. They shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them unto my hand. My father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them unto my father's hand. We sang a couple of choruses, and then at prayer, and I said, Well, let's open our Bible.
And I turned to that verse. That was my first experience, and I'll never forget, at teaching young days. Started off, I've never spoken on it before. I didn't have any notes or anything. My sheep. I thought, that's ownership. I said, here's a boy, and that's his wife. He said, that's mine. Girl, she has a little dog. That's my dog. What a pride there is in saying it's mine. Lord Jesus says, my sheep. Whether it's a dollar a bite, will it cost money? And so it taught the Lord Jesus Christ a lot to tame us and save our minds. Well, that's the way I started off.
My sheep. and now they hear his voice and so on through that verse. I never will forget it. I didn't take any notes. I haven't written down, but I never will forget the first time I tried to teach several days in practice. Well, that's our start of our work in the process.