the name that Clarence stood down. He turned right around, sat on the platform, just like he'd be sitting there. I took my Bible and I started reading texts about flawed fear of salvation. Every time I'd read one like John Piper's going to go, that kid, 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 the Bible I was going to have about no, there's not a Bible in our house. He wrote to me some changes there, 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. One of his stores was about three dollars down. So he bought his Bible and started to read. Well, he hadn't been in school very much. He wasn't very well educated, if you can imagine, and his time. So I remember this night, Father Chapel, and Mrs. Chapel and I pulled up, and here was Clarence standing up at the top of the steps and the church steps with a great big sin in the straight and big Bible under his arm. He was the happiest fellow you ever saw. Just as we got to the top of the steps, he says, Brother Wilson, he says, you know what? I read him, join my Bible. He said, I was reading over there in the twenty-fifth of Matthew about those foolish Virginians. Brother Wilson. They were foolish virgins, you know, the five foolish virgins. But he says they were foolish Virginians. He couldn't read very well. Well, I said, Clarence or theology won't go through good over the body. It better not go up to Virginia and treat it like that. So then the next night he came to me, he said, you know, he said, I read about the goddess Cascarette, denying the law. And of course there was some medicine back in there he used to call Cascarette. But that's the way Clarence would read. I'm going to tell you today that man's history. He's alive today. I was in Raleigh a few years ago, just before I came down to Albany, and they said that 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 who were saved in your meetings had around here come in. We'll have some refreshments and just to get together. So that would be nice. So they did. So Grant was there and he said to Mr. Chatham, he said, I'd just like to have a little time tonight. And Chatham said, that'll be fine. So when his time came, he got up. He opened his Bible. He said, folks, they said, I'm going to start with this. Of course, I don't have the card with me. He said, there's the card. He said, because am I going to go into those meetings. He said, when I read that card on the front porch that night, read about those meetings and decided I was going to go. He said, that was what led me. And especially he said, these words down here, there'll be no collections taken at these early. So that card was yellow at this time and after the meeting. He said, would you like to have this, Mr. Wilson? I said, I couldn't do it. So I have it in one of my first collections. So that was some of the experiences there in Clayton where the Lord saved from fifty-one presses go at that time. I think we'll conclude with that and hope that they continue 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. These young converts insisted that they be taught. So Mr. Campbell practically arranged the meeting, and the next Saturday afternoon it was over for a Bible reading, and I had never taught Christians. I'd just have preached the gospel. And he said, look, 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 teacher. No, he said, these are your converts. He's got to teach. I said, Jimmy, I wouldn't know how to start. Well, he said, you've got to start. I tried my best to get him to take the meeting. When we got there, and all I could think about was John, James, twenty-seven, twenty-eight. I give unto my sheep, eternal, right, they shall never credit. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My father which gave them the astray of an oil, and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand. He sang a couple of colleges, and then prayer, and I said, well, let's open our Bible, and I turn to that verse. That was my first prayer, so I'll never forget. That speech in the young days. Started off, I've never spoken on it before. Isn't that any moan serenity? My sheep, that ownership, that he's a boy and that's his wife and that's mine. And girl she has a little dog and that's my dog. What a pride there is in saying it's mine. Proverbs chapter twenty three and verse ten. Proverbs twenty three and ten. But he knows the way that I take. When ye have pride me, I shall come forth as gold. We'll bring that text in and I'll show you a little later on why we read it. Harvard, twenty-three and ten. Twenty-three. Oh, excuse me. What's wrong with me? Joe, twenty-three and ten. My, this is getting serious. I forgot to pick someone up last Wednesday night. I shard down the wrong words tonight and gave out the wrong text. I'll show you one thing to stop your imagination from running riot. I'm not in love. Go, chapter twenty-three and verse ten. In fact, I assure you of the problems and stuff. Go, twenty-three and ten. But he knows the way that I take. When he hath tithed me, I shall come forth as gold. Of the last For Wednesday night we've been speaking about how the Lord led. In reference to our exercise for the ministry and our coming down south, and last week, if I remember correctly, we stopped that volley of North Carolina, how the Lord led there and what the Lord did. How we had that one campaign in Clayton, how the Lord so remarkably led into our taking that campaign alone. and how he came in and wonderfully blessed, and then he was saved, and after the beginning of my launching of Sinful Hand, although I did have a couple of campaigns, as you mentioned, in the middle of it, to the strange brother that I came from, this brother said, Lisbon. But the desire of my heart as a young Christian, and especially after the Lord put the burden on our heart for souls, for precious souls, that seemed to be the consuming passion of my heart. until one night. And the Lord taught me a lesson that has stayed with me, frankly ever since. During that campaign in Clayton, I think it was the night seven had stayed back and confessed Christ and poured up the land. That was a lot for me to see saved. Just starting out, it was fifty-one during these five weeks, but the night the seven stayed back and spoke of it and saved. Instead of rejoicing, as I thought I would, I shouldn't rejoice. I somehow went home heavy-hearted. Folks I was riding in, couldn't be riding with. In the car, the chapels, they couldn't understand why it was so quiet. But somehow I just felt heavy-hearted and hollow-hearted. I could not understand it myself. So I went immediately to my bedroom on getting home. As I did, I threw myself across the bed, and it was right at the window. And I asked the Lord why it was that I wasn't happy over the flesh in your feet. And I looked out the window and looking right down it seemed on me was a full moon. The moon was full. And as you know, sometimes they claim they can see a face in the moon. Well, it just seemed to me as though the Lord was looking right down. And this was the message that seemed to come to me right there. It's not service, even fruitful service, that truly satisfies the heart of the Christian is only right. I learned that lesson that night that if you saw a thousand saved, that wouldn't fully satisfy. It makes it happen. But service cannot replace the master. No matter how you engage in service or how much you are blessed in your service, only the Lord Jesus Christ can be satisfied. Because if your service is not fruitful, and at times you have a barren period, if your joy depends upon your fruitful service, you're going to be unhappy. Because if you're not seeing much done for the Lord, then you're not going to be very joyful in the Lord. But if you're occupied with Christ, even though you don't see much being done in the way of fruit in your labor, the Lord Jesus doesn't give. And therefore you have him and he only through his Cappel Club. I never will forget that night that I have taught you a lesson that I have confident for all months of this day. Another experience I had in Raleigh, as we told you, we stayed with the Chappels at night, you know, in some sense I had Raleigh. And one morning while we were sitting there, chatting, Mrs. Chappel said, Wilson, you know it's a strange thing. It says, we started building this home the same month that you got saved up in Canada. Six years ago. And you know, since that time, Jimmy and I have been praying for God to send us a preacher. We made that room that you're sleeping in. We made that room a prophet's table. We really didn't need an extra room. We had two other bedrooms, but we decided one night we were going to build an extra room on That was going to be the prophet's chamber. And from that time till now, we have been praying that the Lord would send us a young preacher to occupy that room and make this his headquarters. You know, we've had a lot of pictures come through, for she says most of them have to marry men, and we didn't see a vision inside them. So then she said, there were a couple of singles pictures came through, but one of them was those Scots, the people would understand. And the other one was Irish, and it didn't say that it's quite teaching, was quite true for people in North Carolina. So she said, Jimmy and I laughed like we talked it all over, and we felt that you were the one the Lord had sent to walk behind that roof. And I also said, if that were you, you'd accept it or reject it. You may have that roof, save it long as you like, and that is your room, and you can have your meals here, and it won't cost you a penny. He wants you to make this your... anymore. I stayed there for three years. The chapels were just like parents to me, and as the Bible says, they used to forsake a father and mother that they would still find father and mother. And I certainly found the father and mother in this meditation chapel of Galilee, North Carolina. But that was a very unusual thing, and another indication of the leading of the Lord. Well, about that time, Mr. Nugent go down saying there was a Bible conference in Newport News, Virginia, over New Year's, and would I like to go along? I said, yes, I would like to go along to the conference, so he came through wrong and picked the opposite. We went on down to Newport News for the Bible conference, a very large conference. It was held in the Warwick Hotel. We used the big auditorium in the hotel, and of course all the citizens and folks came from afar, stayed in the motel, and occupied about all the rooms while there were local citizens in Newport News. There were quite a number of them, and they did take some into their homes, visitors. But at that conference, there were a lot of men. I suppose I was the youngest creature there, and there were about twenty-five or thirty of them. Most of them were old pioneers, men that you wouldn't know if I mentioned their names, like the Bradford, Mr. McEwen, and so on. men who've been preaching the gospel for thirty and forty and fifty years. One night, Mr. Newton and myself were having supper. It was just before the Sunday night service. And one of the men in charge of the conference came over and said, he'd like you two men to preach tonight. And I said, yeah, pray it. No, he said, we want you to preach too. I said, no, I don't want to preach. I said, well, just trust the Lord. I said, just trust the Lord. So that was it. Well, I had just started my supper. I think I'd taken about four bites. I didn't take another one. I thought I was about to lose before I'd already taken. So I had to get up from the table and go up to my room hotel, and I'll assure you I was scared to death. I knew the audience would be there that night, especially all these veteran pictures, until I was the youngest woman of the crowd. So I set my time in my room and finally Fred came up to my room and decided to encourage me to go ahead. When I walked up on that platform and looked out on that audience and saw these two front rows that lined with these gray-haired veterans of the word, I felt like saying, well, now I appreciate very much that I could clap my wings a whole lot better if you'd rather than slip off and have a prayer meeting for me somewhere in one of these rooms. But nevertheless, the Lord, in his grace, came in and gave help on that occasion. So after that experience in Newport News, they asked us, emergent, to stay for a series of meetings, which we did. We agreed for six weeks in the Chapel in Newport News. Then I went back to Raleigh, and they were there especially among those focused places where we had been preaching. The summertime grew on, and another thing had happened back in Canada, as I told you, my parents more or less depended on me when I left them and I came south depending upon the Lord only with no salary of any kind, with no promise from anyone but a penny, just a living God in heaven beneath my knees. Well, I left in July and in December my father fell and broke his head, riding his bicycle at work on the icy road, the bicycle went out from under him and he broke his head and his working days were over. But I got news of that and just simply mentioned It was up to me to shoulder that responsibility financially, which I thought to do. I thought to do from that day on. So then the time came when I thought to go home, as I said, was wanting to go to Canada, and we went on up to Canada to see our boats, and from there we went over to Chicago, and Mr. Kennedy, who was here last Sunday morning, Jim Kennedy. He was one of the first men I met there in that big chapel, Robinson Royal, one of the largest in Chicago, and we met Mr. Kennedy at that time, and I've known him ever since. He's a real companion, a real Claire Parkinson. So we had this seven-week campaign in the Robert Memorial Church in Chicago, and then we came back down to Raleigh. Well, after the blessing we had seen in Newport News, the brethren there wanted Mr. News and I to come back and operate the tent. In the summer, so we did went back and had eight weeks of meetings right in Newport News in the Big Ten. Well, that was the last campaign that Fed and I were together. The Lord came in, and lots of people were saved. Crowds came every night, and a couple of times, Carlos came down from Raleigh, down to Newport News, distance of a couple hundred miles. Fed said to me one night, he said, Mr. Lester, why are they coming down from Raleigh? Well, at least they were coming down from Raleigh was. They wanted me to come back to Raleigh. They thought possibly I was going to stay down Newport News. Well, to tell you the truth, I was caught between two currents. I thought a lot of Fred Nugent, and we had seen a lot of lessons together, and yet I felt that God had taught me a lesson, as I mentioned last week, that my place of labor was in North Carolina. So I told Fred, I said, They want me back in North Carolina, and I think I'll go. Well, he didn't seem to like it very well, but anyway, we decided to return a couple of days later. I was to leave on the boat. We went across from Newport, New York, and the Norfolk, getting the train on back to Raleigh, and Fred and I stood on the dock there. This is where my text comes in. Fred said, Lester, when are you coming back? Join us. I said, Fred, I just can't. Well, he said, I believe, if I know anything, I believe the Lord teamed us up together. I believe we brought us together, labor together in the Lord's grace. Because I think possibly the Christians from Raleigh are leading you out of the Lord's path. Well, Fred, I said, the word says this, he knows the way that I take, and that's the next of it. He said, do you know the rest of that text? I said, no, I don't. I'm not. And well, he said, listen to that. When he has tried me, I shall come forth with hope. He said, if you're in the Lord's will, it's true. He knows the way that he is. But he's going to be punished. He said, I enjoy you're going to leave it. But I enjoy being with you. I mean, that's a happy time if you're jealous. I'm sorry you're going. I think you're going to be chased. Once again, I said, glad we know it the way that I did. And so by this time, I went on to the boat and let him stand there in the dock. He thought a lot of each other, and still did until I left, as you know, before years ago, and went to Canada and took to New Zealand. But after that, the Lord so blessed us back in North Carolina that said New Zealand was such a godly man, a man who feared God, that he could see that I had chosen the right path. And afterward, he had met many times, scattered. He was home, he moved back to Canada, and he realized that I was in the Lord's building going back to Rome. There was a Lord's blessing. So then we went back to the chapel, the place I referred to a little while ago. But there was an experience that happened in Newport News. It would be well to refer to, to strengthen your faith. Because in those days, the Lord was... strengthening mind, putting into experiences that increased my faith. I remember this experience. Board day came. I was staying with Mr. and Mrs. Newton at that time. I used to pay them for seven and a half dollars a week, which was fifteen dollars for two weeks. So I had to pay every two weeks. Well, board day came, and I got up that morning. I had three dollars in my pocket. So I did some prayer. Oh, the Lord, I needed fifteen dollars that day. And the mailman came and he left and he didn't leave anyway, except a car. But on that car it was that a parcel was down the postal office for me. And it says carrying charges gave the price of the parcel two dollars and seventy-two cents, postal charges or carrying charges extra. I said to Fred, what does that mean? said it means if it's been there after so many days, he paid so much for day, for a day for staying down around a whole lot. I didn't tell him he didn't know that what I was a millionaire. I had three dollars in my pocket, four days, and I thought of all days for this thing to come along. So we went on down to the postal office and he said to Andrew, I said, no, he'd pay up my card with it. I didn't know what to do with more than three dollars. I didn't want him to see that I just had three dollars. I'd ask him less, he said. I said, no, I said, you stay in the car. I won't be in there unless you know. He said, I'll be in. So he came in. I had to clerk, he picked the pod, and looked at it and read about the property. One of the books I had my mother sent down to me. I said, how much I owe you? He said, two, seventy-two. I said, no carrying charges. No, he said, that hasn't been here five days before. I thought that's fine. I had twenty-eight cents left. still warped. But then something else goes over to me a minute or two later. Fred says, you know, it's like children's night. We used to have children's night on Friday night when it was. We didn't have about a hundred children from us. One of us was mixed with a slogan, the other creature we had all grappled. We used to treat them every Friday night. We used to give the juncture something to eat. And it used to cost us about a dollar a piece, about two dollars. Oh, I thought. I got twenty treats. and moving on. So he said, well, we get the kids tonight. And I said, I don't know if I'd let's go over to five and ten cents or a person who's in my mind. So we went over to five and ten cents store and just we walked in the night in face-to-face with the candy counter and all I saw there was a great big table that we sit wrapped up in paper. And I saw him ten cents of pound. My mind began working pretty quickly. I got ten cents of pound. five pounds, that's fifty cents, twenty-five cents for him, twenty-five cents for me. And I said to the girl, I said, how much, how many of those pounds, if you raise them up to me, about forty in a pound, that's two hundred, that's two fifty-six kids. I said, sure, that's all right. He said, well, I guess you'll be all right. I said, sure, that's plenty, that's plenty, okay. He said, all right, well, I hand over my quarter, I think that's it. Well, He had the meeting that night, and I was still thinking about four days, three pennies when I thought, after meeting his brother, the name of John Lloyd, he came up to me, he said, well, he wrote to me, he said, here's a letter. He said, I forgot to give you last night. He said, it didn't be last night, but he said, I brought it to me. But he knew what I thought again, because I got the letter and As soon as I got an opportunity, I opened it and it was fifteen dollars. So that was about nine thirty that night, and I saved my board on board there. Not until the Lord had reduced me to three pennies. So they were one of the experiences I had in Luke what I knew. The Lord was seeking the lead and the direction of faith. I see our times have gone up half-assed, and I'm not going to go over this time. So next week we'll continue on the Lord's leading with the fact that we're all going to see what is in there, and then after that we'll swallow Winston, Salem, and end up, I suppose, about six weeks from now down here in all of them. We go through chapter by chapter of key leader needs, ensuring that God is the same today as he was two thousand years ago or four thousand years ago. He still leads the truth. He still meets their needs. He tests and he prizes. The Lord requires a simple childlike faith. And we'll find out, although it's true, we know the way that I take, yet when we have pride in it, I shall comport with you. The child's out of that end that he might comport with gold. Gold that the streets of that which abides and stands the fire. You know, you read in Corinthians, Here's a citizen's life brought in to review, and one man has wood, hay, and stubble, and all that's up in smoke. There may be plenty of wood, plenty of hay, plenty of stubble. It looks big and pretentious. The poor man, when he's put in the fire, nothing but ashes next. That's the light of some citizen. But what is it that abides the fire? Wood, hay, and stubble is what burns, is burnt up in the fire. gold, silver, precious stone. These are the things that abide the fire. The fire in that case is the presence of God, for our God is a consuming fire. He will consume everything that's not done according to his will and for his glory. That which is done according to his will and for his glory will will abide his presence and be rewarded at the judgment seat of Christ. And so the gold found heading the list of that we provide the presence of God and will pay to his honor and glory as well reward for that. So when he hath pride made, I shall come forth with those who only go to keep his ministry directly faithful in our trials and comfort in day to day, and that will suit the goal of a rise of presence and be rewarded by women in that sweet summer day of reward. Charles thirty-two. And verse eight. Psalm thirty-two and eight. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye. And another text in first Corinthians sixteen. First Corinthians sixteen. and verse nine, verses in sixteen and nine. For a great door and effectual is open unto me, and there are many adversaries. Now in the last five or six weeks we've been speaking on the Lord's leading. That is, in my own personal life, I strive to bring out the way the Lord leads, and trusting it will be a stimulant to all our faith. And at each week I sat down for a little while in the morning, To recall some of the things that happened twenty-five, thirty years ago, I've been amazed how gradually they seem to float back out of the past and happy thoughts. And I reminisce over those days gone by how God led so definitely. We're going to continue these messages until we end up right here in the hall. There's a Lord's meeting and release one, he may leave another. It's a feeling that we might my patience or some encouragement to you. That's wonderful. So tonight, we want to get back into Raleigh. Last week, you remember, we went down to Newport News and got back to Raleigh where it seems the Lord had signally pointed out that he where to reside. On the way back from Newport News to Raleigh, North Carolina, I didn't have a card at that time. I told you how the Lord stole the one I had before I left Canada. So all the way back by bus from Newport News to Raleigh, I was driving down, looking out, watching the signs of the approach to Raleigh, and I saw a big sign, C-Rall for Utah. Well, as I say, I didn't have a car, and I realized I needed one. So when arriving back in Raleigh, I began praying about one, and the next day as I was uptown, I saw a car go by, and it was a That may go back to your own son-in-law, but many of you remember that year and the car they drove at that time. But anyway, as I saw that car pass, well, that's the kind of car I want, and I just somehow failed her. So the next day I was in my room, or not in my room, in the front room of this chapel residence in Roy. This chapel had gone out. This chapel was working. It was a pharmacist. So I was in the front room on my knees, praying that the Lord would make it possible for me to have an automobile, but I knew I needed one. Well, I had seventy-five dollars in my pocket, and I knew that was a long way from buying an automobile, and furthermore, I needed a suit. So while I was on my knees, there was a knock at the door, and I got off my knees to answer the door, and Mrs. Herbert Viddles, who's still alive in Raleigh, she was at the door, and as I answered, she said, Mr. Wilson, the Lord has made something on my heart, and I thought I'd come around and give it to you. He says, here's fifty dollars we need to buy a car. Help us to buy one. Well, now this was around twenty-nine years ago, and you know what fifty dollars was right then and what it was worth. Why, but it was equal to one hundred and fifty to two hundred a day. Well, I said, Mrs. Riddle, do you know I was just on my knees praying with the Lord that enabled me to get an automobile? And I certainly thank you for this. He says, well, I hope you'll be able to do a few minutes. So the next afternoon, after some more prayer, I thought, well, I'm going uptown to see what I can do. I got a hundred and twenty-five dollars. I went to the post office to mail some letters, and as I came out on the other side of the post office, I looked up, and here I saw on the top of this big building, Wallview's car. I thought, that's the sign I saw coming in on the bus the other day. So I went over there, and one of the salesmen walked up to me and he said, When he helped you, I said, well, what kind of used cars have you got? Well, he said, well, he's got some good used cars. I said, have you got any civil aid? That should be got a nineteen thirty-one civil aid. He goes, and that's just the car I wanted. So he went downstairs, and said, well, they're all used cars downstairs, and of course that car up to me, and it was a maroon and black. This is exactly what I want. I said, that's the car I want. Well, he said, that's a year old that far. And he said it was seven hundred and fifty dollars. I'll think of getting a car new for seven hundred and fifty dollars. That's what a nineteen thirty-one Chevrolet cost in nineteen thirty-one. And this was a year later as well. I said, how much do you want for now? Well, he said, let's go for a ride for it. Then he did. He robed it around the block. I said, what do you want for it? He said, do you have a car to trade in? I said, no, I don't have a car. Well, he said, no, we generally have two prices. Well, if anyone being in power knows that, if you've got cash, you get little pieces. If you want to trade in, turn it another price. So he said, well, we'll sell it for three hundred and twenty-five dollars. Well, I thought that was pretty good. It had twenty-one thousand miles on it. So I said, well, I'll trade about it. So he went upstairs, and I went out on the street in Raleigh and Costco, and I met Mr. Allen. Now, Mr. David Allen was the one, as you know, who made us a loan on this building. I said, David, I've been over at the Rawls, and I missed him in the car over there. There's a good used car. He said, for the time the car isn't, and I told him. Well, you know, I do all my car buying at Rawls. I get a new car there every second year. He said, I'll go over and see Mr. Rawls. So he went over and saw Mr. Rawls, and when I came back a couple hours later, Mr. Rawls said, Mr. Wilson, he said, you either had that car for two hundred and seventy-five dollars, including the lights. Well, that was fifty dollars off, but the salesman told me, it's three twenty-five. Well, I said, I'll take it. And he sat down, figured out, he said, the down table is losing the license. There's a hundred and four dollars. I said, that's fine. So I had my car. When I went down, he was driving away, why, I told the salesman what I was given it for, and he was mad. He said, I could have got three hundred and some dollars and three hundred and ten. But after this morning, he said, Mr. Rawls wouldn't come down from the price this morning, from three twenty-five. He said, that was the price. He wouldn't come down. I could have got more than that for this morning. Well, anyway, I'd done it for at least seventy-five in a few years. Right. And then, as I say, it cost a hundred and four dollars. So I had twenty-one dollars to buy a chute with. I went uptown and I met one of the Christians there, Mr. Horace Martin. He still is alive in Crawley. And I said, Horace, if I was practically new around there, I said, where's the good place to buy a chute? Come on over. I'll show you where I buy mine. It's very quickly over. And it was the door operated by a chute. So finally, I'm looking around, and I saw the suit I wanted, and a few pair of trousers, and I said, how much is his suit? So Horace took this fellow's side, whispered something to him, and I didn't tell Horace how much money I had. I didn't say anything to anyone. No wonder I just had this twenty-one dollars in my pocket. So finally, they had a good conversation. I did what Horace said. I don't know, but He came over, and I believe Morris was kind of sitting in the aisle a little because he wasn't too happy. Well, he said, I'll tell you this is for eighteen fifty, two pairs of pounds. I said, thank you. I'll take it. Well, I got home with a car in the suit and two dollars and fifty cents. So I thought I did pretty good. So that was the way I got my car in Raleigh, and that was just one of those many incidents that happened back in those early days. Then we began to get exercise about another place for some meetings. Mr. Chapel already referred to. He was a pharmacist, one of the chief pharmacists in the King's wholesale drug company in Raleigh. He used to wait on a lot of doctors and so on to come in there. And a doctor, O.L. Ray, who was head of the Board of Education out there, came into the pharmacies one day. And Mr. Chapel said, Dr. Ray, do you know of any... deacon buildings out in the country. He said, like school buildings or community buildings that are available for a campaign. Ray said, what time in the damn day? Well, he said an evangelistic damn day. Why, he said, who do you want to preach? Well, he said that the young Canadian is staying with me. He's been with me now for about a year. And he's going to locate around here. And I was just wondering if there might be a place out in the country, because he wants to get out into the other great places. He said, yes, as Dr. Ray said, there's a place right up at six o'clock, only about a half a mile from my home. It used to be a Christian church, but it hasn't been used for two years, and the windows were all knocked out. He said, and the dirt garbage had taken over. The doors were open, and he said, the kids had been in there doing a lot of damage. He said, as far as I know, there's only one elder left of the boards of one deacon and the board of deacon, that church, and that Mr. Lynn, he used to be church many years ago. And he said, Father, I know he's the only one who has any faith to about that building, but he said it's in a mess. How long does this fellow want to preach to us? Mr. Campbell says, oh, maybe six weeks. And he said, Lord, laugh. And he said, why, they couldn't get anybody to go there once a month. How are you going to get anybody there for six weeks? And you do well to get people that come in for a week around our place. They just don't go to church. because it was a rural section. Well, anyway, Mr. Chaffer came home and told me about it, and we went out immediately and contacted Mr. Lynn, and he said, I don't see any reason why you can't have it. No church has been held there for two years, but the building will need a lot of fixing up. So the next Saturday afternoon, a number of the men at Raleigh in the chapel there in the south, we went out and went to work cleaning up that building. And some were putting in the glass panes, others were getting all the dirt out of it and other scraps and shaking up the sheets and washing them. While we were doing that, I was going to a cabin that was up at the front of the platform. I came across a card with some other papers and Sunday school papers that had been left there for two years. As I looked at it, I said, tell us, look at this. And this is the text I read it to you here a while ago. A great door and effectual is open unto me, and there are many adversaries. And just then a man stepped into the doorway. And he smiled and said at the time of day, come to find out that this denomination that owned this building had sent him down there to try and get that thing going again. I thought, well, sure enough, we've got an adversary right here. After we'd got permission to use the building, we were cleaning it all up, getting ready to start a campaign. It was a way out from Raleigh about nine miles. And here's a man sent along by the denomination that had practically abandoned the property. And now he wanted to get something going on. Finally, by the old testimony, the old membership. Well, anyway, he had a little talk, and he seemed a little bit disturbed, but he couldn't do much about it. He seemed already got the old pay from the only living He went ahead and started meetings, and for six weeks, he preached in that church, settling the place was packed night after night. And Mr. Dr. Royal Ray said to me, he had me over his house for three or one evening, and I think Mrs. Ray got saved in this meeting. He said, Wilson, you know, he said, I was very apprehensive about you having meetings here. I didn't think that people would come out. He said, no, I only missed one night myself, he said. Well, he didn't think anybody would come for one week, let alone six, but he admitted that he enjoyed the word of God. And the entire number stayed during that time. I think over twenty-two, if I remember correctly, found Christ during those meetings. I was thinking just before I sat down of one unusual case, the name of Mr. Stevens. He said that whenever Mr. Stevens, he was a farmer living about a half a mile from the old church building, And when you hear him out plowing, you could hear him cursing all over the place. He had a very loud voice in his old mule, just kind of stubborn at times, and he had touched that mule out, and the other farmer said he could hear him almost a mile away, touching and touching that mule. Well, Mr. Stevens came along to those meetings, and he got saved, and he was a happy little. After that, he used to hear him singing hymns all over the country time. It was quite a change, and folks used to say, well, I tell you, Any man got changed around here during the old campaign meeting Mr. Stevens there. So remember the day we were going to have the baptismal service that night. We had to have it in Raleigh because we didn't have a baptismal service out there. I went around that morning visiting the young Congress and Mr. Stevens was out in the field. And he was going on down the field with the clown and the mule. And I said, Mr. Stevens, He's still going to be baptized tonight. He said, Amen, brother. He said, if I could get you some water, I'd baptize the moon. He said, I'm going to be the Lord. He was just that half. And he found baptism was in the Bible and he was going to be baptized. So they were some of the happy times we had at this point. Then we went over to Wendell, a place twenty-four miles east of Raleigh. This was quite a place. It was a community building near a little town called Corinth. And the amazing thing to me is there are so many little villages around there. The Bible name, for instance, is a place called Zebulun and a place called Corinth and so on. If we heard about this community, it was a very wicked community. A lot of bootleggers lived there and they said they didn't go to church and there was a lot of heights going on in that community. So we saw this big community building and it's hold about seven hundred people. It was a service held there once a month, and the preacher came from quite a distance to hold this service. They had twelve men on the board of deacons, and the only pay that preacher got was his car loaded down, was carless gained from potatoes, and vegetables like that. He got no money. All he got was vegetables. But he went back, won't have to sit and squat him in the back seat long with it. That was his salary. So we got the use of this building. In fact, the preacher and the congregation couldn't say much about it because it was a community building and anyone could preach in it but a Roman Catholic or a Communion or in a Jehovah's Witness. That was what it was really. So we got the use of the building and started these meetings. And this preacher used to come for his afternoon service once a month so there was no conflict with the time. We went right on through Christmas and New Year's. And I think that was seven weeks. It rained five weeks out of the seven. There were four miles of dirt road from Wendell over to the church building. And I'm going to tell you those roads are just a little. Mr. Allen pulled the battery right off the bottom of his car one night and had it stuck in the mud. Yes, there in the mud. He used to see people walking in several nights. He left Raleigh to go out there and about twenty-four miles up there. Actually, I thought it would be for us to go. The weather was so bad, and the rain was coming down, and the rain all day, and I'd say to Jim Campbell and his staff and some of the other fellows going up. He was going to go tonight, Mr. Wilson. I said, I don't even hear this, but we'll go. If even one person comes, if they're coming out in weather like this, they deserve to be sick too. If you know, we'd get there and see sometimes as high as three hundred. At times, we'd meet mothers within two miles of that church. Rubber boots off, raincoat off, and a bit of an umbrella, and one little child in her arms, or if it was able to walk, it was trudging close to her, and another one trudging behind through the mud, and they had another pair of shoes under the raincoat, and then they got to the big building, and they take off the rubber boots and put on the other shoes and go on into the road. And that happened time and time again, walking two and two and a half miles just to hear the gospel, way out to open country. I thought, well, if people are willing to do this, to hear the word of God, I'm going to go everywhere. We had some tragic things happening there. One night, Mrs. Chapel came in, and the shoes were quite long. I suppose there were anywhere about fifteen feet or eighteen feet in length. And the people used to, about, pull them right up near the front. And Mrs. Chapel came in, and so they moved over to make room for her. And as she sat down, We made room for her, and we all seemed to sit down and sit down together. That board broke, and as they sat down, the girl next to Mrs. Chapel happened to have her leg back up under it, and her leg was broken badly. So we had to have that taken care of. She was carried out in the meeting. It eventually came back before the campaign was over and found the law. We just stopped the murder right across the street from that building. One afternoon I went out visiting. One of those young ladies had found Christ in the farm right across the street, and I thought there was something wrong when I pulled up. I heard some screaming in the house. I heard two or three girls calling, go, go, go, go. Finally, I went around the house, and here I saw a man chained with blood. And he had two big walks in his hands. He was covered with blood. I said, what's going on around here? And then he recognized it. And then he did why the door opened and there stood the other man, his brother, on these two girls. And he had an axe handle in his hand. His axe had wasn't on the handle. It was a brand new handle. And it was a chain of blood. And these two men had gone out and were both this chain of blood. And it hadn't been that those two girls had cheated in, pulling their brother in and slamming the door on suddenly there was an emergency. It had finally got the two of them together and They decided to call it off. And this one left that community when I was there. And I heard him for months after I checked on it and came from back. But that was the situation. Then the Lord began to work, and this preacher began getting a little jealous. And I found out he was spreading it around the community that I was a Catholic. And he had attended one or two of these. So I found out the meeting the day he was going to have his service, and I went out. I sat in the listening room, and when the meeting was over, I went up and his agents were gathered around him, and he was surprised that I was there, but I walked up to him, and I said, Mr. Lawley said, how are you? He looked, and I said, I'm all right. I said, I just want to say this, that I hear that I'm being accused of being a Catholic. I said, any man who has heard me preach one sermon and says, I'm a captain, he doesn't know any more about God's salvation than a hockey puck. Of course, the priest was the one who spread around and he dropped his head. Well, I didn't say it, but quite evidently did. The other didn't call his hand on him. Anyway, the opposition continued. As you said a while ago, there are many adversaries. One night, I received a letter to the effect that if I came out that night and preached, It would cost me my life. As I say, it was a very vicious community, a lot of bootlegging going on, fights and so on. So the chapels were quite perturbed, and they said, go to go. I said, yes, I'm going. So finally, some of the other men came around, and this poor Martin already heard a few while ago, and Ed Smith, finally Mr. Campbell decided he would go along, and there were five others rather than myself, and he went up. There weren't many cars in those days. We used those old Hoover carts. Most of the people walked. So we got there. There wasn't anybody in the building. There was a crowd swimming all around the outside. So we pulled up in the yard. And I said to fellas, no, I said, you just stay out here. I'm going in myself to see what happens. So we went in and walked in the building. And nothing happened. I walked right up to the front. Just my foot off, went down on the queue, sat down with my Bible, was ready for meeting, and nothing happened. After a while, some of the others began coming in, and so we got started in the meeting. About two hundred and fifty people were out that night, and at the end of the service, I said, well, evidently, there's some opposition to our having meetings here. Maybe we could find out the cause of that. I said, I've just been preaching the gospel. I'd like to know who are opposing the preaching of the gospel, and why was my life threatened? I said, for those who are responsible and opposing what I'm preaching stand up, no one stood up. So then there was a fellow, and he just got off the county road in five years in jail, five years in the county road, and he's been guilty of facing the murder, very hard character. He's been attending the meeting, and he jumped right up on the seat. When no one got up, He got up on this street and he said, Folks, he said, I gave this piece of property for the building of this structure. And he said, To my knowledge, it was to be used for the preaching of the Bible. But also he said, For other purposes, community purposes, but no one who is a Catholic or a Jehovah's Witness or a communist could preach here. Now he said, I've been coming to these meetings. I'm no Christian. No professor there. But I'm a whole lot better than some of you folks who say you are. Now they said, I want some of you men who are opposing Mr. Wilson to stand up here. Let's take a look at it. No one dared stand up, and I'm glad they didn't, because the way he was talking, they were like it in a fight. Anyway, we found out after the meeting, before that service was over, I asked all who did these meetings to continue, and everybody stood up. It wasn't one except their people. Soviet continued those meetings. We found out afterwards the reason, and they really meant business, those who wrote that letter, a group of young men about my own age had gotten together. When they heard about the press and they made known to these men, they said, You lay your hands down, Peter Wilson, and we'll take care of you. And there were about fifty men, young officers, who got together and got the Lord used them to prevent any harm or danger. There were a couple of interesting things. These men, when we'd get there during holidays and we'd see the rest of the place, we'd get there at night and they'd all be standing around like sometimes I suppose you'd see the cowboys and they're standing there with a hat cock on one side, two in the back of smoking, sitting on the stove and everything else, in the cold weather. And none of them were dressed up, they were just in the armed clothes. And they were hard men, but some of them looked as though they had seen a razor and three beasts. They'd come in there and walk around and jabber and swear and spit and all the rest of it until we were ready to start the meeting. One night before the meeting, I got my friend Thomas. I'm surprised at you then. I said, I said, you come in here like a heretic camel. You have no respect for this place at all. We're preaching the gospel, and I think the gospel deserves reverence. And you come in here, and you stand around the stove, you smoke, and you tell stories and you spit all over the stove and over the ashes. Now I said, this is a church building. We're, if you're going to have leading this. And you should respect it. I suppose you took quite a chance in saying that, but you know it was the most amusing thing. And I think to this day, if you should open the chapel this, you get to about three to five laps. The next night, None of those men came in the building until he got up to see if he was opening him. And then they saw him. They saw him. They saw him. As soon as they got inside the door, they picked their hats off. And then on tiptoe was not a word on them. They all sit right up in front about the first few of the day, Lord. Those fellas came night after night. I never saw one of them save, but I saw many of them standing in deepening. Now, whether any of them have gotten saved or not. Only God knows. And I'm going to share one more incident with this director, and then our time has almost broken down, but I believe. When we went there, one of those twelve deepens, an old fellow, couldn't read the write. And he came up to me two things nights after his campaign got started. He said, Mr. Rooks, he says, you know, I know what you're talking about. Forty years ago, he said, I was saved in the quarantine. I could take you to the very spot. He says, where I got saved. For I trust the Lord, and I know I was saved, and I've known it for forty years, and I can't read the Bible. And I know he says when it's been free. And I think he was the only one of those frail demons that need Christ. So he said to me one night, he said, of course I don't have any money, but he said, I'd like to do something for you. I'd love to hear the word for you. He said, who looked at her as seen in his life? Well, there were about twelve curtsine lamps lit up that building. Well, I said, as of now, I couldn't tell you. There was one thing going on about three nights, and I know he put curtsine. He said, can I do it? Well, I said, you can't. He said, if you do that, you want to do it, it's unto the Lord. He said, yeah, I'll be glad to do that unto the Lord. I want to do my part. So it's a little kind of a vintage store, about two miles down the crossroads. It's all gas and groceries. This old fellow spoke of it, he was saying, man, I suppose, about sixty-five at that time. And he used to go down and get a gallon of gas and a five-gallon tank. And about every week or night, he'd go down and get a gallon of gas. Well, they have never known a revival to go longer than one week out there. So he had gone on, and he had his gallon of gas and went back, and he went on two weeks, and nine months or four weeks. And so he went on down that right now. He said, it was going on the fifth week. He went down on the Monday night and said, I want some more gas, more currency. The man says, how much longer is that fellow going to preach up there? And he says, and how much currency do you want this time? He says, send up the can. He's going to preach so Jesus knows. So anyway, the old fellow was quite a bit enthusiastic, and since then he's gone, oh, she was the most. And there are just some of the experiences we've had in our early days in Raleigh, North Carolina, and around there. Now, next week, we'll continue on, work around Raleigh, and then we move on to the next week.