In All Judea and Samaria

In All Judea and Samaria IN ALL JUDEA AND SAMARIA
By C. M. Pullias

We are very much gratified tonight that our Living Heavenly Father, by his good grace, has permitted us to live to the present, and now resume our studies in Acts of Apostles.

There was a time, in the history of the Church, not many centuries after its beginning, on the Day of Pen-tecost, in Jerusalem, when it is said, that they hardly knew that there was such a Book in the world, or that such a Book had ever been written, and it looks to me sometimes, as I look over the matter of the pulpit and of the press, that time may come again.

If you were to take the heart out of a man’s body, he could live just as well as if you took Acts of Apostles out of the Bible and away from the plan of salvation. If you were to remove Acts you would take the heart of the Bible out. Without it Christianity is impossible, and for that reason we have selected these subject's here from that Book, and our first subject was the beginning at Jerusalem; our second subject was the Apostles’ Doctrine—tonight; in all Judea and Samaria, after the Church was established,—they must have some message to impart to the world, and that is termed the Apostles’ doctrine; and in going out of Jerusalem and all over the world they have no message save that, and they undertook to use nothing else at all except that, for the recovery and the restoration of a fallen and lost race.

I used to think that the Bible, especially the New Testament, was thrown together carelessly. I have thought that way in some time, and I have changed my views—I believe that the first four books of the New Testament are first, because they belong at the first. I believe Acts of Apostles is the fifth Book, be-cause it could not be placed logically anywhere else, it belongs there. I believe the 21 letters follow Acts of Apostles, because they belong there, and Revelations closes the New Testament, and the Bible, because it belongs at the end of Revelations.

I would like to say to you that the progress of the early Church is marked in the words of the Lord: Be-ginning at Jerusalem, and Jesus said, “You shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you, you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.” If we were to read the Book of Luke, and then the three other books associated with it, that tell the story of Jesus Christ while on earth, and then right on through Acts of Apostles, we would have a continued story. The Book of Luke closes with the Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ and his resurrection, and the Book of Acts begins with that—just as though we were to weld two pieces of iron together, and we must have both of the same heat, in order that they may be welded together; so then these two Books are welded together and then we have a continued story. Their Chronology, for a shrt time, deserves our attention I believe it might be well to say that there are some things about the Bible, from a chronological point' of view, that are absolutely uncertain, that we cannot rely too much upon chronology—that is, in every particular. There is some of its chronology that is absolutely certain and definite.

Likewise might we remark that so far as the geography of the Bible is concerned, that altogether is not too reliable; part of it is altogether certain, and other parts absolutely uncertain; for when Columbus discovered America there was not a geography in the world worth a dime, and for that reason I make mention of these things merely that we may eliminate a lot of study and worry and time. I believe we ought to know all about the geography of that country possible, and everything about the Chro-nology that we can know but after all, there is much of it that is indefinite and uncertain; but there are some things in connection with it that are absolutely sure. The Acts of Apostles is divided into certain divisions, we might say the first part' of it complies with the Books that we read on the city of Jerusalem. I might say this, that the idea of the Geography of it is to gain time, and drawing that as a radiating center, we come until we reach the uttermost boundary of the inhabited earth.

It is mighty hard for us, in leaving our homes and going across to the other side of the world, to ever ac-complish much. And so they began in Jerusalem and their labors were confined to Jerusalem. Then next they were in Judea, and Samaria, the countries immediately adjacent to Jerusalem, and thence to the uttermost parts of the world. Acts of Apostles is written with regard unto this order, and unto those three points, as they are suggested.

Jerusalem was a city in round numbers of 200,000 population. The first seven chapters of Acts, with the first four verses .of the eighth chapter, gives us the story of the City of Jerusalem. Beginning with the 5th verse of the 8th chapter, of Acts and ending with the 12th chapter of Acts, we have the story of Judea and Samaria. Beginning with the first verse, first chapter of Act's, we have the beginning of the first part of the earth, when Paul went out on his country wide tour, and ends with the 14th chapter. The first 35 verses of the 10th chapter tells of his visit after his return from that tour, about A. D. 50, when they returned to Jerusalem. In the 16th chapter of Acts, it starts on the story of Missions and closes with the 18th chapter of Acts. Beginning with verse 24 of the 18th chapter of Acts, and ending with 8 of the 21st chapter, when his first missionary tour was incomplete and intercepted by his arrest in the City of Jerusalem, we have the most stupendous undertaking in the history of the world by remarkable men, and that is to evangelize the whole earth. The remainder of that book is covered by his arrest and imprisonment, covering approximately a period of five years, and when the Book closes he is still in prison, in the City of Rome, waiting for the time he can answer for himself the charges that are lodged against him. Briefly speaking, we have the outline of this re-markable Book. Our attention, in the former subjects, has been divided into the Jerusalem Church and its establishment, and if you want to know everything you can about it, read the first seven chapters and the first verse of the 8th chapter of Acts of Apostles. There we have the Church, whose membership went into thousands, on the occasion of the first sermon preached there, at the rate of three thousand a day, and the next day the number of members leaped to five thousand, and then by such leaps and bounds until the author tells us that multitudes of men and women were added to the Lord.

I tell you my friends there must be a secret in such success, and there must be a cause for such remarkable progress. But in about two years—1 am persuaded in my own mind—the Church began in the spring of 34, in the City of Jerusalem, and about two years after that tune we have the subject that we have for tonight. The 8th chapter of Acts—these first seven chapters, have covered about two years of the history and the work of the Church in the Holy City, when they thrived Jerusalem with their Doctrine, and later they turned the world upside down with it; and tonight I call your attention to the. breaking away from Jerusalem.

I don’t blame those men for coming from every auarter of the earth, until the hills and valleys were filled with them all over that country, because the apostles were there, and they were ministers of God, and they had been with Jesus, and had heard him, and talked with him. and slept with Him, and even ate with Him, saw him when he died, saw the open grave, saw him come up, saw him resurrected, and heard the messengers say, “As you have seen him go, so shall he come again.” Also, it was to them that he, gave the message that was to become age-old and w orld wide. They are pouring into Jerusalem from every quarter of the earth to sit down at Peter’s feet, and John’s, and James’, and the apostles, and listen to them tell the story to every nation and to a weeping wrorld. With all my years that are upon my head, with all its troubles and cares, I would be willing to work my way as a stoker upon some steam vessel, to go to the City of Jerusalem, to sit dawn for one hour and listen to John talk, and Peter talk, and James, and the rest of those inspired apostles, who leaned upon his breast, who ate with him, and drank with him, who saw him bear the cross and suffer, time on time, for the sins of the world, and I don’t blame them. This went along for about two years. It was a period of education and opportunity, when the Word of God should be planted in human breasts, and when the two years were finished, one of God’s noblest men made a speech one day, and we might say he was lacking in diplomacy, if he had lived in your own age; and they rushed onto him,.......and stoned him, and I saw that man lift his face to God—“Lord, receive my spirit”; then I saw a man lift his broken, bleeding, battered body, and carry it away t'o bury it .

I just want to say this, many things happen to us that we think ruin us and are destructive. The disciples were under a shadow and cloud. The persecution that began back yonder over the healing of that man that had lived forty years as a beggar, that had never walked a step in his life; it began there and continued to grow until it culminated in the death of one of God’s noblest men, a man full of the Holy Ghost, full of moral courage, to tell the story of God as it was related to him; but notice, my friends, when he was dead, that' a great persecution broke out against the church. The Book tells us that they carried on in great lamentation, devout men did—they were brokenhearted, there was a shadow on their hearts, their very existence was threatened, and they felt they were ruined, but I want to say to you, in the language of David, “And I speak not in the exact words, but in substance, that God in olden times—that he makes the wrath of man to praise Him. The very thing that broke out in the church that resulted in the death of Stephen, was the best thing that could have happened; and if Stephen could have lived until now, and preached every day, he could not have done in all his years what he did in the hour of his death, when that mul-titude of disciples were scattered abroad and went everywhere preaching the word. This then is the beginning of an evangelism that pertained to the country districts, and hamlets, and towns, resulting from Stephen’s death—which resulted, in other words, in the scattering of the church. They would have to leave home, they are in the city of Jerusalem no longer. They must break up camp, their tenting time is over; they have stacked arms so to speak, and must leave the old camping grounds. The Book says they were scattered far and near and went everywhere, preaching the Word. To scatter means to diffuse in drops, and they went in every direction, hundreds of thousands of them, perhaps. Per* haps one hundred thousand Christians left Jerusalem at one time, in every direction, and wherever one found a home, or a hamlet, or a cross-road, or a store, or a place with a person in it, he is preaching the Word of God. I tell you, sometimes we think things happen to us and ruin us, and we want sunshine, and flowers and friends, money and clothes, and I am not sure but what maybe tears have done more to bring hearts to God, or poverty and persecution, than all the things men have had to wear or eat.

“Nothing can befall his children that will be to their disadvantage.” I have thought', in this connection, of the statement that Paul made, when he said, “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God;”

Suppose something were to happen in the town of Abilene, Texas, in which we are situated tonight, and this great company of Christians, by reason of the. persecutions, on account of that happening:, should be scattered—that you would have to move your homes or property, or whatever you had, and be scattered, just going' hither and thither. Fow many men of the church in Abilene, Texas, would have the moral courage, under those conditions, to preach' the word of God wherever they might be? We would be afraid to open our mouths. I tell you tonight what’ the church of Christ wants & to be tied to the Word of God, and have the moral courage to speak it anywhere, to anybody, at any place, just simply because it is the Word, of God. They went everywhere, everywhere, preaching the Word, and in a day’s time it had spread over Judea, over Samana, and all that adjacent country about there. One hundred thousand Christians, perhaps, going- in different directions. Suppose that the church of the present time in tins town, or any other in your community, should be scattered abroad, and many of them wrere t’o go out to preach. And where would be the result? How many of them could preach the Word of God? How many of the members of the church are sufficiently familiar today to tell a man what to do to be saved? In the State of Texas I can point out to you men who are in the eldership of the church who could not quote the Bible to save their lives. I was impressed with your dean the other day, talking about the inefficiency of teachers. How can a teacher teach something when he does not know it himself? Therefore how' can we go out into this world and preach the Word of God unto men and women, and boys and girls that are perishing on hill and plain, when we don’t know what the Word of God contains. “Study.......handling aright the Word of truth,” is the language of the apostles, and when ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again what be the first principles of the oracles of God. For every one that useth milk is a babe, unskillful in the word of right-eousness. And in these two years people were so proud of the Word of God, when they were driven out of their homes—the greatest persecution ever experienced up until that time, they went everywhere and preached the Word.

We depend on a preacher who will come around about once a year and preach ten days and then he is gone, and then we can live on that until next year, and that is our food; and if you did not eat with me you would not live another year. And when Jesus Christ said, “men shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God,” I am just' as sure as anything that a man cannot live without the Word of God—he must take it daily, systematically, he must enter into it, in prayer, in seriousness, and in all gravity. There.were numbers of them that went abroad from Jerusalem, so we will just take up one of them and digress: In the fifth verse of the eighth chapter of Acts, we have the conversion of the Samaritans, and some other matter that is linked therein, but which in substance comprises this work. In commencing it is said, here — “That Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them.” Now, that is just one man out of the great multitude that was in the city of Jerusalem, and each one of them did that, they were all doing it, and I would to God that we could learn tonight, and “If any man speak, let him speak the oracles of God,” and if every man who gets in the pulpit tomorrow would only speak the Word of God, what one of God’s preachers does, every one ought to do, then nothing but the word of God would be preached. He went to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them; and the next suggestion I want to make about this is, that any way leading to Jerusalem is up —every time they went up to Jerusalem, they went down from Jerusalem.

It is said of Mary and Joseph, “They went up every year from Jerusalem to worship after the custom of the Feast.” It is said a man went down from Jerusalem into Jericho. And Philip went down from Jerusalem to Samaria; and so that is, so to speak, a promonitory, from our point of view, and it is this from which the light radiates to the uttermost corners of the world. You can just make your decision as to that, I am just telling you what the Bible says about it.

It may be well to state, too, that the city of Samaria was directly north of the city of Jerusalem, a number of miles, and that the waters flowed from the north to the south and if we were talking about' it now, we would say up to Samaria, and down, if we were pointing to about southeast; but from Jerusalem, if it is north that' is down, if it is east it is down, if it is south it is down, if it is west it is down. And so Philip went down to the City of Samaria and preached Christ to them. You will notice that Samaria is the capital of the country, Judea in the south and Judea inf the center, and Galilee in the north, and therefore he is in the city of Samaria now, and the Book tells us when he reached there he preached Christ. I do not suppose there is any difference, any man who preaches Jesus Christ must preach the Word of God and vice versa; and any man who preaches the gospel and leaves Christ out of it, is certainly not preaching the gospel that we read about in the New Testament. The book tells us he entered there and the people became stirred and excited, and multitudes of men and women were coming to the preaching, and he was per-forming miracles, and they were excited over it. And they had already been baptizing in that city, and then Philip says, when he was preaching the things concerning God and of Jesus Christ—they were bap-tized both men and women. Now, I take it that when-ever a man preaches Christ he preaches on conversion. Philip went to Samaria and preached Christ, and when they believed he was preaching Christ' in the name of God, they were baptized. Did you ever notice that is the universal statement in the Book of Acts, that whenever the people believed the things that were preached, they were baptized? Here comes the preacher, preaching the Word of God to the sinner, and the sinner understands and believes, and before they leave, it is midnight or some hour in the day, and he is baptized. In these days modern revivalists come along and set up a big tent, and have contribution boxes as big as plates to pass around; and when he preaches nothing of Christ' they will flock to him in great numbers. And he will take the train and never baptize a soul. I tell you there is a marked difference in the preaching of the apostles and that of modern evangelists. Whenever people accepted what they preached they were in every case baptized. Would it not be a great thing for us to copy apostolic precedent, and follow in their teaching? I don’t mean to be harsh. Somebody once said I was hard- boiled, but I don’t mean to be. I just want to be frank with you. My soul and salvation depends on what I do with the word of God, and so does yours. A man asked one of these big evangelists in a certain big town, if he would not preach a sermon on baptism. He said, “I could do it, but I am too busy preaching Jesus Christ, and I do not believe that the man lives that can preach Jesus Christ and leave baptism out of it. I tell you that when the name of Jesus Christ is called upon, and a man enters into it, he is baptized. There is not an abundance anywhere where we could draw an exception to that' in Acts of apostles. When they believed that Philip was preaching the things of Christ they were baptized. And here are modern preachers, and they believe everything he preaches, and not a soul is baptized. And I am suspicious, there is something wrong with that kind of preaching. This man Philip went to Sarparia and preached Christ to them, and when they believed the things he was preaching, in the name of God and Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Now there are three statements which are synonomous—that whenever one preaches the word of God the same thing is preached of Christ, and whenever a man believes in the things preached, he believes in Christ. Now, you hear a man say that is just a sort of myth, and he would be evangelical without that. That is what we mean by a saving faith, a faith caused by hearing the Word of God, faith as a means without pleasing Him, and that is the theory produced all over the world.

I would to God that preachers of today could learn that lesson—preach the Word of God, that faith might be produced in the hearts of the hearers, that faith might overcome the world and please God.

I read a striking little statement in the book of Rom-ans, that' said, “Whatsoever is not of faith is a sin.” Why, of course, everything that is in the Bible, is of faith, if the Bible says it, we can do that by faith, and if not we could not. Therefore, that would confine our activities unto the Bible alone. In the midst of this meeting, great crowds coming and people being baptized in great numbers, we observe that an angel came on the scene one night, in the midst of a big meeting—and one of the biggest ever held by the disciples of the Lord, outside of Jerusalem, and it is a remarkable success, a wonderful meeting; and one night, in a most exciting moment of it, an angel came and said, “Philip, get out of this town, go away from the city, go in a southerly direction, to a road which leads from Jerusalem to Gaza.” A preacher told me once that he thought it was best to preach in town, that he could reach so many more folks. Well, maybe it is not the quantity, maybe it is the quality that counts, that reaches them. We sometimes get very anxious to get additions, where the preacher has more additions than the Lord has.
I am glad to see.so many people observe God, but it pains my heart when a man or woman, or boy or girl, would do it from no motive whatever other than for obedience to God. I feel sure that you catch the point. At any rate Philip was like most preachers of the time—he just did it because God said so. Sometimes you hear people say, “How much faith does it take to save a man?” “Well, it takes just so much.” Just, “God said to do it.” And he replies, “Well, I think it would be best to do this.”

I understand this—it does not matter what people think, the question is what does God think, what does He require. “My thoughts,” God said, “are not your thoughts, my ways are not your ways.” And before Christ left the earth he laid down the general terms to the Disciples: “If a man come after me, let him deny himself ..."
And here we are, constantly telling what “I think about it,” and have to say about it, and “my way,” and “my Church,” and “my doctrine.” I am ashamed of a preacher who would talk that way, because that is not the way the Bible talks.

God says, “Philip, get out of the city, get out in the wilderness.” He says, “Well, nobody lives down there, it is a waste down there, it is barren down there, and this is a thickly populated center, this is a magnificent town, this is a capital.”

Yes, a few years ago, they made most wonderful speeches all over the country. We must have Jesus Christ, not only in the capital of the nation, but just where there are souls to save. It is all right to have a revival in Washington, but it would be just' as well to have one in Abilene. Washington, in God’s sight, is no better than any other place.

We learn that Philip left overnight, or the next morning, and he went down into the wilderness, and he told him, “There is a road down yonder, going to the northeast,” and after a while he came to that road, and there he stopped. He was at the end of his road. He had gone to the extremity, and that was as far as he knew, and he stopped. And I would to God some of my brethren would stop where God’s word stops; but we are filled with so much speculation and curiosity, that our curiosity begins to work on us.

He stopped. He was at' the end of hi& journey. That was as far as he could go. He stays there until some-body speaks to hijn again, and that somebody must be the One on High. Standing by that roadside, there was a chariot came by, and there was a lone man in it, and he was reading from the Holy Prophets, from the Scriptures—his head was buried in the book—he was reading aloud, and was so overawed and verwhelmed in the Scripture recorded in the third chapter of Isaiah, that he did not know there was a man or a human about—reading from the Holy Scriptures.

Going back, I want to talk to you about that. Here is Philip away up here in the north, and here is the other man ‘way off down here, going to Gaza, in a southwesterly direction, and Philip going down to this road, and this man having left Jerusalem and got there at' a certain time, when the preacher came to the crossroads, and the man was driving by. How did that happen? You just let the Lord manage that and how they got there at the same time. Don’t you try to help the Lord out. You listen to what he said—you be certain to get it, and when you get' that, just do that and everything will come out right, and nothing whatever can be wrong. I have thought many a time of that time, that God knew just' when that man would leave Jerusalem, and the time Philip would reach this crossroad and intercept him. And when Philip is there the chariot came driving by. .

Let me illustrate, Paul. Notice this fact, that Paul made a tour about eight months afterwards and he came to Athens, and from there to Corinth; and did you notice, at exactly the right time Claudius of Rome drove every Jew out of the city, and then there came Aquila and Priscilla, and they formed a nucleus, and worked together, and in eighteen months they established a wonderful church of the Corinthians in that Metropolitan city. God worked that. He brought that about. And the more we study the Bible the more we ought to know by now, that “All things work for good to them who love God .......” And how it is beyond our power to trace out! But mark you, if you will just let Gd have his way and follow where he says, whenever we get to the place he assigns he directs us. Then he will give to us another step, one step at a time—the sun setting, but the Holy Book on High says, “Shining light, that shines more and more to the perfect day.” You don’t have to weep all the way until you see the gates of pearl, even to the gate that stands ajar.

If you go out tonight with a flashlight, just see if it doesn’t go ahead of you, and there we have the il-lustration, just as it works, just as his commands require. Just satisfy him and by the words of God, “and the more and more let the light shine about you until the sun goes down at the end of a perfect day,” and in the language of the Old Prophet, “It shhll be light’ at even time.” But notice when he came in contact with this man. This man had been to Jerusalem to worship. And we think if a man went to Jerusalem t'o worship, that he is going- to heaven. There are a lot of people who wor-ship, but what do they worship? But a man can wor ship any way he pleases, even worship God after the commandments of men, but it won’t get him anywhere. The Bible says: “We know now that all things work together for good to them that love God.”

We know now that when a man worships God and leaves the worship out of it, it is not worth the snap of a finger. This man did worship God. You tell me that he was not in fear. He must have been one thou- and miles away from home—he lived in Ethiopia, and he didn’t' even have a Ford. Suppose you were going that far in a Ford? And who was he? He had charge of all the money of the Queen of that country. He was her treasurer, and so far as I know did not carry the stub of a check along. He left all that back home. And yet there are brethren who can’t' sit here for an hour to worship God, when God is so anxious to save, and people are dying and starving all around, and they can’t close up a little ten-cent store to come to worship God. “I am hired out” one man said to me. Well, this man was hired out, not only that', but he had a big job, he had all the money of Ethiopia, but he managed to get away and go one thousand miles, in an old rickety chariot, to worship God one day. It must have taken him a month or six weeks. “What would become of my business?” I don’t know—I am not looking after that. “A man can take care of his own business and make all the money in the world....... ” And yet you can’t leave God out of it. He deserves first consideration, and he deserves more than to live off the rags and the crumbs and the bazaar sales in this country. We have put Him out on the streets, like a beggar selling shoestrings for a living, but he does not appreciate it. This man had gone one thousand miles to worship, not only that, but he was forty or fifty miles on the return trip, and he was so imbued with it, and full of it, running over with it, that he is still reading and meditating and studying the Holy Scriptures, he is absolutely filled with it. And I have seen brethren today who will come to the Lord’s meeting with a bunch of papers, red and green —a big quantity, as big as a bundle of oats or fodder, under their arms, and they will sit back there and never render songs or prayer, and look at Andy Gump, and Mutt and Jeff, and Winnie Winkle, and the rest of them, all the time the preliminary services are going, on and they manage to lay it down in time to eat the bread and drink the cup.

Gentlemen, I believe a man is unfit who enters in such fashion. A man should enter in the service of our God seriously, with all gravity, meditating on it, and working all hours to prepare and fit and open the heart for the spirit of worship, that we might' give Him the best that is in us.

I am not certain but what these Sunday papers ought to be done away with. Brethren, instead of getting up there and reading the Bible lesson, will read the news in the Sunday papers.

Now, brethren, I don’t mean t'o be harsh, but let’s lay that aside, and let’s acquaint ourselves with the things in the Bible, and when we come here filled with the Bible, and new thoughts, and new inspiration, with the view of drinking from the Holy Fount that morning, and go ahead, gentlemen, in reverence, in the august presence of Jehovah, and break the bread and drink the cup, then we shall act fittingly to the honor of him who loves us so, and who died to save us from our sins. But this man passed along reading the Bible, and Philip stood there—he didn’t know what else to do, and then the Spirit of the Lord came to this preacher and said, “Philip, go and join yourself to that chariot.” I know sometimes we talk about feeling moved to do so and so. What'moved you? “Well, the spirit moved me.” Oh, no—the Spirit said, “Philip, go and join yourself to that chariot.” That is the reason he ran and joined it. And I read yonder—seven times repeated in the Book of Revelations—“He that hath ears let him hear what the spirit says.” And it won’t make any difference to you whether you never hear anything else—you won’t be any worse off after you cross the divide. And therefore Philip stood there like a stone wall, until the Lord said, “Philip, go and join yourself to that chariot,” and he ran out to it immediately. I saw a picture of that. We have a lot of picture- makers in this world. Some make faces better looking than the subject. One made a picture of Noah’s Ark once, and on one side of that Ark he had fourteen windows with glass panes, and the one I read about in the Bible didn’t have but one window, and that was on top. But now this picture that was made, made Philip on the south side of that chariot. How he ever got around on the lower side of it I don’t know. Philip came down from the north, and when he reached this chariot then he joined the chariot, but the picture had him on the opposite side, down there across the road. Now, you can believe what you wish about that, but I am just mentioning* the little discrepancies in these pictures. A lady was telling her Sunday School class once, in Lebanon, Tennessee, about Jesus being baptized. She said John led him down in that water, which was about knee-deep, and picked up a shell and poured some wa-ter on his head. “Now,” she said, “Children, I did not read that in the Bible, I saw a picture of that when I was a child, and I never forgot it.” Some pictures are not correct and do not correspond with what' the Bible reveals about it. But Philip did not wait for an introduction. I don’t know what he would do now. You know, if somebody, some new person, comes into a town, that somebody can’t' be visited now until someone introduces him. I was in a little town recently, where a woman was about to bleed to death, and a man and his wife came there, and when we stopped the flow of blood and her life was saved, this lady says: “Why, I would have come over, but I had just forgotten whether you came in the community before me, or vice versa.”

Now, Philip did not wait for an introduction, he ran up by the chariot and said, “Do you understand what you are reading” ?

Now, my friends, there is not a man on earth, or woman, that can become a child of God, who does not understand something. The Bible tells us they must understand from their heart. The Bible tells us it gives light and understanding, that “If you continue in my words, then you are my disciples indeed, and the truth shall make you free.” If you do not understand what you are reading, you had better understand before you read any more. This man says, “How can I know unless somebody else comes up here and guides me?” Philip got up in the chariot and opened his mouth and began preaching him the same scripture and doctrine of Jesus. Now, there is preaching Jesus, and preaching God, and whatever one means the other means, and whenever anybody says, “I am too busy preaching Jesus to preach baptism,” why, he has got to preach Christ to tell it. Preaching Jesus—“How can I, unless some man advise me” ? How is he going to relieve that stupidity and ignorance, that darkness? Why, he opens his mouth and preaches to him Jesus, and they went on their way. “What means it to me to be baptized.” And if there is a man or woman here or anywhere else that can preach Jesus Christ and say nothing about baptism, I would just like to hear him try it. Suppose I tell you just a minute about that. I am going to preach Christ. I will tell you about the birth of him, wrapped in swaddling clothes, in the manger; and I will tell you about the flight.......about the sojourn in Egypt.......And going back into the land of Canaan. I might tell you about them taking him to Nazareth and bringing him up to Jerusalem when he was twelve years old. I might tell you about him coming back, after they found the lost boy. Eighteen years passed and I could not tell you anything. But I could tell you when he was thirty years old—when he worked the last day in the old dusty shop, and had been there day in and day out all these years, struggling and toiling to drive the wolf from the door of his widowed mother, and of the orphan children, when a boy of twelve—beginning when he was a boy eighteen years of age, struggling, but his tools had become his companions, and the last day he worked in the shop, he caressed every one of them, methinks, and laid them aside; and when the day’s work was done he closed up his kit of tools and came out of the old shop and closed the doors behind him, never to go back there again.

Let me tell you, it is a crisis in a man’s life when he goes to leave his parents, and as much as.he has wandered from the hearthstone of the old home and parental roof, there is a yearning and restlessness in the earth that can never be satisfied, because there is nothing left there to which he can return in after years. The fruit trees are failing and the fences are falling down and there is no one left to love, maybe, now in that old home. And in the language of another, “Backward, turn backward, Oh Time, in your flight— make me a child again just for tonight.” Could we but lean on our mother’s knee and listen to her counsel—could we but hear her sweet lullaby, could her wrinkled hand but straighten out our tresses, could her lips kiss away our tears, and heal our wounds. Oh, I will tell you, it is a crisis in any man’s life.

Jesus is thirty-one years old when he leaves home, and the Book tells you he came to Galilee, to be bap-tized by John. I would have to tell you that, if that would be my subject, and the Book tells you that Je.sus said, “Suffer'that to be so now .......” And I can see John, as he led Christ into the waters of the Jordan, raised him up, and I can see Jesus, as he lifted his eyes to heaven and breathed the prayer, and the Spirit of God descended and rested like a dove on Jesus Christ, and I can hear the voice, from the lips of God saying, “This is my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” I would have to tell you that, and I don’t know but what any m^n on earth that teaches Jesus Christ would have to do the same thing. Then, in about three and a half years after that, when he is about to go on his way to heaven, he said to his disciples, “All power in heaven and earth is given to me, Go therefore and preach to all the nations and baptize them.......He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” Would I undertake to preach and leave those things out? No, my friends, I am going to tell everybody, as long as I live, that Jesus was baptized in the Jordan at the beginning of his public ministry. And I am going to tell you, when he was about to go away, to come back no more, he commanded the apostles to go and preach to all nations, “And he that believeth and is baptized is saved.” He was so true to that that every time he preached and people believed him, they were baptized, throughout the Acts of apostles.

But, my friends, just another word: This man says, “Let me be baptized.” If you believe with all your heart, you may. “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” They tell us that is not enough, that that is too simple. Do you know there is not a shadow that that does not embrace, not a bleeding heart that that does not embrace, that there is not a law, not a professor, there is not a Psalm, nor a- book or chapter, or verse out of the Old Testament, or the New, that that does not embrace; and whenever a man says, “Out of my heart, I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God,” he must take the whole doctrine, and he must continue in it. "Oh, yes,” a man says,- “I believe that Christ is the Son of God, but I don’t believe that story about Jonah and the whale, I don’t believe that has got sense.” Jesus Christ says Jonah was three days in the belly of the whale. Do you believe that Christ was the Son of God? He said he knew what he was talking about. And you say you don’t believe that story. Well, then, you don’t believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. We can say that the whole Bible is so linked together that if you reject one part you reject all. But he said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And then they got out of the chariot and went down into the water and he baptized him, and the spirit of God caught Philip, so that the eunuch, saw him no more, and the eunuch went on his way rejoicing,

I wonder if a man were to preach out here and a man believed Christ was the Son of God, and he said, “Here, I want you to baptize me.” Well, he would have to wait until he called the elders of the church to open the doors of the church—that would be material.

I remember once a preacher said, “I don’t know what I will do tonight, because there is no one here to open this church,” and I don’t know either. But, now, my friends, do you see anything like that in the Bible? “Oh,” but they say, “We have got to have somebody to vote on him to see whether he is all right or not.” “What Church is he a member of”? Now, We are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus—“For as many of you as are baptized into Christ did put on Christ...” And this man confessed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and was baptized. And Philip went on his way until he came to Caesarea, and there we have the last pen scratch of it. But we can only say this, as an exaltation of the Word of God, and if we want to con-vert men, why, we must do it from that standpoint, and that is the thing by which your destiny and mine will be satisfied. It is not by what preachers tell you or what some enthusiastic instructor will tell you. When God comes to settle with you it is going to be according to what our God says: “I saw the good and bad standing before God and the good and the bad were judged according to their works.” As I told the boys this afternoon, the preacher is the dumping ground of the community in which he lives, and is big enough and good enough to share with them in their sufferings. I know of a man who came to me, having a life in-surance or sick benefit policy, and he wanted a certain kind of settlement, and I opened that policy and looked in it. He said the agent said to me he would pay me so and so in case of a certain accident, if death overtook him, he would do certain things. But it did not matter what he told him. “Here’s your contract and the signature, and you will have to settle with that Company upon what is written in the face of the policy.” And that is what God meant, when he said, “If the king would give me his house full of silver and gold I could not do any more than God’s word.” When you reach the Judgment Bar, and the Books are open, and your works fail to correspond with this work here—what you can do about it? What are you going to do about it—when you listen to something that is in the Book and that is not a part of the Book ? Those that obey God’s Word, his will---those that look unto the perfect law of liberty and continue therein, shall be blessed for what they are doing for him....... and “fear God and keep his commandments.......Blessed are those that do his commandments.......and enter into the gates of the city.” And he is the author of the whole situation, not some preacher, not some enthusiast, not some secular church. I beg of you tonight to give us just one convert to that. In conclusion, we are going to extend an invitation tonight. Maybe someone wants to give his heart to God, and therefore we are not going to withhold from you that opportunity, but beg of you and plead with you to come to Christ. That night when Jesus was leaving Jerusalem, upon the last day of his labors there; when he crossed the Kidron and climbed up the slopes of Mt. Olive, and with great tears rolling down his cheeks, and disap-pointment in his heart as heavy as moulten lead that day, and he looked back and said, “Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not.” It broke his heart,'it made him to lament over the situation, but “you would not.” Just look yonder at the storm cloud, listen to the pealing thunder, with the lightning, and then the rain begins to patter against the window pane, and look at that mother hen out there, as she gathers her chicks under her wings and exposes herself to the wind and the driving rain and the storm to save her babies—and there is the picture. “I would have gathered you under my wings many a time, but you would not.”

Won’t you come back under the wings of Jesus tonight and let him save you, hold you and keep you on his lap and under his wings, through sunshine and shadow, until you reach the light of happiness and light of liberty. Won’t you come?