Truth Archive

What a wonderful day it was in my life when this Gospel came to me 60 years ago. I had reached the age of 20, and I was convinced I was drifting like a piece of wood on the water. I said to myself, “Suppose you live to be 40, and live the way you are living now, you will not only be ashamed of yourself but your people will be ashamed of you, too. You must do something!”

I was away from home, when I decided that if I went home, I might get some help. My father was an elder of the Presbyterian church for over 20 years, at that time. If any man could tell me how to become a Christian, it would be him.

I asked him one night if he could tell me how to become a child of God and he said, “No, I cannot tell you how to become a child of God.” I asked him, “Who could then!” And he answered, “Maybe the best thing for you to do is go to our preacher and explain your situation to him, ‘Maybe he can help you’!”

I was only 20 and bashful and backward, and very slow of speech. I came to the conclusion I must go to that man and tell him, so I went to the preacher’s home. It cost me a lot, but I was desperate because I wanted to become a child of God. I hated to think of my life going to destruction. I went to that big mansion where he lived and rang the bell. While I waited, my heart was thumping. The servant girl came to the door. She wanted to know what I wanted, then said, “Wait, I will let you know if he will see you, or not.” She returned and said, “You may come in.” She brought me into a little room where there were two chairs and one table, and asked me to sit down. She told me the preacher would be there immediately.

He came in, and I stood up. He asked me what I had come about and I said I wanted to know how I could become a child of God. He said, “God bless you, young man. The fact that you talk as you do is proof to me that you are a child of God.” I said to him, “Why am I so unhappy then; why do I feel that if I pass away today, I would not go to heaven?” He thought a little while, then said, “The reason you are so dissatisfied, even though you are a child of God, is because you have never joined the church and taken an active part.” I asked him, “If I join, can you assure me the satisfaction and assurance that I crave?” And he said, “I can.” I asked him what to do. He said, “I can’t tell you tonight.” He made an appointment for me to go to his study on another night, for half an hour.

We sat down together, and he started teaching me about what I should know to become a member of that church. During that time, he wasn’t satisfied that I was wise enough to become a member to answer the questions he put before me. So, I came back, and at the end of the second session, he was satisfied and said, “Next Sunday is communion Sunday. We break bread and drink the wine, which is done four times a year. After that, I will preach my sermon and will come down from the pulpit and ask the choir to leave. Then, I will call the elders by name, one by one, to come from the congregation. I will call you, and you will take your place”.

Can you picture the situation? A preacher in a black robe! I was almost afraid to look at the man. He came down from the pulpit and asked the choir to vacate their chairs, then called the elders, and me and I stood in front of him, while 500 members of the church looked on. He asked the questions one by one, and I answered them one by one. He took me by the hand, and he said, “I am giving you the right hand of fellowship into this body of Christians.” He asked the elders to do the same. The Lord’s supper was served, and I took part for the first time. With a spirit as light as a bird, I said, “Now I am a member of the church. Now, whatever happens to me, I will go to heaven. I will go to heaven when I die”.

For three days I was very happy, until it dawned on me, “All you have done is go through a ceremony that has no dealings with God. He didn’t ask you to do anything you haven’t done before”. I became very discouraged, more discouraged than I’d ever been before.

My father couldn’t tell me how to become a Christian, and the preacher had told me something that wasn’t true. I’d been left stranded. Whatever will I do? I was brought up to believe that the Bible was God’s Word. In my desperation, I saw all that I had done. I thought, “Maybe if you read your Bible carefully and prayerfully, sooner or later you will get the something you are looking for”. I promised God that I would read and pray three times a day until I got to know Him. I started, and I was diligent.

I went to every religious meeting I could go to. I read my Bible and prayed three times a day. Sometimes, the situation was such that it was nearly impossible and after three years, I found myself going to six religious meetings a week and taking part in some of them. At the close of one of those services, a young friend of mine came to me and said he was a child of God.

He said, “Willie, I am going to invite you to a meeting such as you’ve never heard before.” I said, “I don’t believe you. You can take me anywhere that will assure me of hearing anything different. I have been to all kinds of churches and heard the best preachers anywhere and they’re all the same. Do you mean it when you say this preacher is any different from the rest?” He answered, “This man is living and preaching like Jesus, James, and John. He gave up a wonderful station in life and pours out his life for the sake of the gospel.” I said to my friend, “Is it true there is such a man living in Scotland now?”

Afterward, I remember, when I was only 11 years of age, just a young boy, I went to church with the rest of the family. Before every service and sermon, it was the custom to read a few verses from the New Testament. That morning, he asked us to open our Bibles to Matthew 10. I didn’t have a Bible, but I had two ears that were open. He read that wonderful commission that Jesus gave to his own disciples “When ye go, preach saying, The Kingdom of heaven is at hand, etc.” I said in my young heart, “That man is reading something he is not living himself.” I was sure we were paying him a bigger salary than any man in the congregation received.

Isn’t it strange that it was this thought that pierced my soul and impressed me so much? At the table, I said to my father, “Wasn’t that a wonderful portion of scripture that was read this morning?” He said, “What was so wonderful about that portion of scripture than any other?” Jesus was telling his own preachers how they were to preach, and what they were to do. The thing that impressed me most was “Freely ye have received, freely give.”

I said, “You know, Dad, he is not living like that.” My father gave me a look I won’t ever forget even if I live a thousand years. He said, “God doesn’t expect ministers to live like that”. I dismissed it from my mind; I felt I would never meet a preacher like Jesus.

Now this young man was telling me he was going to take me to a meeting where I’d hear a preacher like that. It was a Special meeting where 120 people were gathered. All but me were walking in the way of truth. Eight workers got onto the platform.

When the meeting hour came around, I looked at them, and said to myself, “Where’s the preacher?” Every preacher I had seen was dressed in a certain garb. They generally buttoned their collars at the back, instead of the front. As I looked at those eight men, I thought, “This friend of mine has invited me to go to a meeting with no preachers.”

By and by, one of those men got up and gave out a hymn. We were taught to stand when we sang hymns so when the hymn was announced, we all stood up to sing. They sang from their hearts, and I tried to keep up with them. We sat down again, and the man of God got to his feet and said, “I wonder how many of you sang this song and were playing the hypocrite.” I thought, “He isn’t different than any other preacher I’ve heard. I have come here to get some help, and he insinuates I am being a hypocrite.”

He went on to say, “It is very possible that here some sang those words with no intention of making them a part of their life.” He then said, “We are going to sing the hymn again, and if there is anyone who doesn’t want to live these words out, would you be honest enough to keep sitting while the rest sing.”

I thought that was straight talk. I read the first verse, and said, “Now I know what he means. If I stand up and sing those words, I am placing myself before God as a hypocrite. I don’t feel capable of living what these words speak of; I cannot and will not sing them the second time.”

“Send me forth O blessed Master, etc.” No, you can’t do it because you’re not even satisfied that the life that you are living is according to the mind of God. By and by, the hymn was sung again just as heartily, and I sat in my chair with my head down. God spoke to my heart and gave me the consciousness that I had been led to that meeting for the purpose of something being done within my soul as it had never been done before. Everyone sat down, and the man of God got to his feet and spoke to us, not preached to us.

He didn’t tell us how bad we were, but we knew how bad we were by the way he spoke. He didn’t tell us we needed to be saved; yet, I knew I wasn’t saved. In 10 minutes, I said to myself, “I have never seen anything like this before.”

The next day, it came to me that the reason he had made it so clear was because he, himself, was living it. He was a living witness who testified what God has done in his life. He spoke of those living in his day and he spoke with authority. I asked myself, “Now, if you live this, you will change your way of living, and what will your father and mother think? What will they do?”

I was convinced that everything he spoke was exactly opposite to what they believed. They would be against me. But the thought came to me that your father will only be your father for a few more years until death takes him away but today, God, the Everlasting Father is speaking to you.”

I asked myself, “Is it better to live so your father and mother will be pleased with you or be misunderstood by them, and have the smile and approval of God in heaven?”

I said, “If I take God to be my Father today He will be mine forever, even after my natural father has gone to the grave.”

Even in that meeting, I said “I have never lived for God before but I intend, by the mercy of God, to begin living for Him.” That meeting lasted a long time. Maybe it has taken that long for the light of the Truth to penetrate my heart but I settled it that I would walk with Christ.

When the meeting ended, I was sitting at the back of the hall. I felt I had to go up to that worker and tell him what had taken place in my heart. I went right up to the platform and told him the wonderful experience he had led me into. He had never seen me before but when I spoke to him, I saw tears well up in his eyes, not tears of sadness but joy, gladness, and thankfulness for the God who used him that afternoon as a messenger so the Word was effective in my life. CHe took me by the arm, one thing my own father had never done, and said ”Let’s go out and have a visit together.”

I began to ask him questions, and he answered every question of mine. I asked him a question that nearly killed me afterward. I asked him “Do you think there is any possibility of me becoming a preacher like you and what you’ve been talking about, a man like Jesus that is willing to forsake everything and preach the Gospel?” He hesitated a minute or two then said, “What are you working at, and what are you doing?”

I told him, and he said, “How long would it take you to get out of that job?”

“I would have to give two weeks’ notice,” I said. “Well, you go home and tell your boss that you will leave in two weeks and I will have a companion for you then”.

I went home that night and said, “You certainly put your foot in your mouth! You didn’t even stand up and declare that you would live it, and now you are launching out in a life that you are unqualified for.” Then came such sweetness into my soul, and I remembered Jesus calling Peter, James, and John. He said, “Follow Me, and I will teach you how.” I said, “I am prepared to start out like Peter, James, and John, even though I am unworthy and incapable.”