In this sermon, the speaker shares a personal testimony about his experiences preaching the Gospel and being led by the Holy Spirit. He emphasizes the importance of reading and studying the Word of God, as it is through the Scriptures that God speaks to us. The speaker highlights the principle of being empowered by the Holy Spirit to be witnesses for Christ, referencing Acts 1:8. He also mentions the parallel passage in Luke 8, where Jesus instructs a man to go and share what great things God has done for him. The sermon concludes with a mention of the upcoming topic of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and a request for the audience to turn to Mark 5 in the Bible.

Thank you very much. Now, tonight, in the will of the Lord, we'll be speaking on the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but it's suggested in the mornings we have something a little more informal, and I just thought I would give a testimony. Sometimes many of you don't know anything about us, and we're strangers. Sometimes it helps you when someone tells you how they get saved, and other things how the Lord led us into pioneer work, and so on. So, first, I want you to turn to the Mark's Gospel, Chapter 5. Mark's Gospel, Chapter 5. My microphone's over there, like that. Can you hear me all right? Is it up? Is that better? I've been waving my hands. I might knock things around here. When I talk, my wife keeps a little safe distance from me. You know, some people have to talk with their hands, as well as with their lips. The two scriptures that stand out much in my life, one is this portion before us, and that is since I've become a Christian, and the other one is in Genesis, Chapter 24, where the Abraham servant said, I being in the way, the Lord led me. And, we don't have to walk in the dark when we're believers. The Lord can lead us and direct us each step of the way in every aspect of our lives. We're yielded to him. Anyone who really wants to know his will, he shall know that the Lord Jesus and shall know the doctrine. Mark, Chapter 5, is a marvelous chapter. I'm just going to read the, most of you all know it, but let's read the Word of God. It's probably better than anything we can say. They came over onto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarene. And, when he's come out of the ship, immediately they met him out of the tombs of men, with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs. And, no man could find him, nor not with chains, because that when he had been lost and found with feathers and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the feathers broken in pieces, neither could any man tame him. And, always night and day he was in the mountains, and the tomb, crying and cutting himself with stone. When he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, and cried with a loud voice, and said, what have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou son of the most high? God, I adjure thee, by God that thou torment me not. For he said unto him, come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. And they asked him, what is thy name? And he answered, saying, my name is Legion, for we are many. And they besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. Now, there was nigh unto the mountain a great herd of swine feeding. All the demons besought him, saying, send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out and entered into the swine, and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea. There were about two thousand, and were choked in the sea. And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city and in the country, and they went out to see what it was done. And they come to Jesus, and see him that is possessed with the devil, and hath the Legion sitting and closing in his right mind. And they were afraid. Then the Lord told them how to tell to him that they were possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine. And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts. When he had come into the ship that had been possessed with the devil, prayed him that he might be with him. Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but said unto him, go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord has done for thee, and hath had compassion upon thee. And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him, and all men did marvel. Little boy had his blessing for this striking portion of his holy work. I read this in when his lady came and spoke to me. It was under the mosquito nest in the tent in the edge of the Sahara Desert in North Africa. Most of us are called to the Lord's work in this country to go some other country, but I was called in Africa, in Northern Africa, to go back to Prince Ebbot Island to preach the gospel there. And this was the verse in verse 19. Go home to thy friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee. It really just stood out in bold letters to me as I was reading that out there in Northern Africa. Northern Africa is a hot spot. It used to be 120 in the shade, and when that wind was blowing, it was like in a furnace. We used to put our metal tins out in the sun to get hot water to shade with, and it didn't take very long to heat the water. From 12 to 4 in the afternoon, it was too hot to work on the airplane, so we had a fiesta, and that's when I used to then read the word. All I had was a New Testament, and for four hours a day we'd be reading the word, and while I was reading it, God by His Spirit really spoke to me through this portion. It's remarkable that the Greek principle stood out here in the same principle as you get in Acts chapter 1. You shall receive power as the Holy Spirit come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me, for us, to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and unto the other more parts of the earth, and that's the principle that Paul has made as you compare it with Luke chapter 8, where you have a parallel passage. In Luke chapter 8, he says to him, return to thine house and show them what great things the Lord has done for thee. Here, he tells them, return to your friends and tell them the showing comes first, and it starts at home. The light that shines the furthest shines the brightest at home, doesn't it? Anyone can say they'd be a tie-broken Christian in a meeting, but how is it at home? What kind of a testimony do we have there? That's the big thing. He refers to return to his own house and show them by his light. Then, he was to tell his friends. Thirdly, in Luke's gospel, it says he went and he populated throughout the city at Samaria, if you like, and here the province, Decapolis, several areas there, and he populated throughout there. So, there you have the expansion of the testimony, and if that's what our lives should be, we also need to continually expand our youthfulness. You know, my father-in-law used to say that his olden years would be the most fruitful. It might be a fruit in old age. That was one of his favorite verses when he became older, and that's a great desire to have, isn't it? It would never be because I'm old I can't do much. Now, the greatest ministry is available to us as we get older, and that's the ministry of intercession. Ministry of prayer, which we're going to have in a little while. I just thought I'd give a little word of testimony. We have these things informal, give a little background. You can tell by my southern accent that I also said that's what I thought I was one time I spoke in Toronto, and one girl said to my wife, Walter, did you hear that fellow's southern accent? But, I was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, and baptized as a baby. Christian, they called it, but it didn't make me a Christian. That's the sad part, isn't it? And, you know, the people over in Denmark, I visited several times since, and my cousin said to me, you know, Stan, if a man is good to his wife and family, and makes an honest living, and goes to church once every three years, we consider he's a good Christian. That's what it is. That's the definition of a Christian. I had a great time to witness to him. So, that's what often people think. My father always wanted to come to Canada. So, in the depression in 1920, he lost his job, and while he still had money, he came over to Canada in 1929. 1930, he bought a farm, and sent for the family, a mother, and three brothers, and one sister, into a little place called Prince Edward Island in 1930. So, two churches there, one baptized by a merchant, and one was baptized by a straightening, and the other one was baptized by a straightening. They said, well, you're more like us than the Baptist. Anyway, both at that time. And so, you join us. So, they joined, and the next question wasn't, how much can you pay for the church every year? You see, the more families they had, the more support. But, there was never a question of us being born again or being saved, and I was raised in that neighborhood. It was a horse and donkey day, so there was no tractors when we came in that area. There was no electricity in that area, and we used to walk three miles one way to attend services, sometimes twice on the Lord's Day. We'd walk an afternoon and evening, walk 12 miles. The horses had to rest because they worked hard all week, but my father said, you're young, you can walk, and that's what we did. All the time. So, we did drive with wintertime when the horses were not working so hard, and I was 21 years old before I ever heard the gospel that I know of. We went there faithfully. I listened. I could tell that my parents, what the minister spoke on and all that, but I never understood the gospel. Then, the Second World War came along. My oldest brother was engaged to be married, and he was talking about joining up, but my second brother and I, we said, no, we'll join up. We had one bicycle, and we bought one, and we drove 40 miles to join the Canadian Army. That's quite a ride on a bicycle. You're not used to having it too much. You get pretty sore by the time you get there. I was really there for that. We joined the Prince Edward Island Highlanders. It was a Scotch Highlander. We used to wear the Glengarry, you know, and old Ben had the kilts on, and you Scot people might appreciate that. I was only in the army four months. We were stationed in Halifax, North Scotia, when the commanding officer came and called us to one side and said, we have to take you home, boys. Your oldest brother's funeral. We didn't even know he'd been hurt. The officer kicked him, and he never complained. Gangrene set in, and in four or five days, he was gone. Turned black all over at the age of 25, and that was the beginning of God working in my life. God has to speak to us very loudly sometimes before we listen, and it was through a crisis. For two years, we were a very, very close-knit family, and I missed my brother so much. He was the oldest. We were knit together for two years of searching. Well, after we got rid of the mail, out with all the mail, and my father then looked after the farm, I joined the Air Force, and I think Mrs. Moody is here. Is she here at this moment? She was here, but she went to a little church in St. Thomas, Ontario, and for the first time in my life, at 21 years old, I heard the gospel clearly preached. It was a wonderful thing, isn't it? I'm sure you have felt like you're the only man in the audience. It was just like our heads and shoulders above everyone else sitting there. He was looking right at me and preaching to me. Somebody had told him all about me. Isn't that it? That's the Holy Spirit, isn't it? Well, he really speaks to our conscience and to our heart, and I remember preaching that night. If you were to die that night or the Lord should come, where would you go? And I wasn't ready. I was laying on a bench on a sunny morning. My heart was pumped. The Holy Spirit was working. I was late at night. I couldn't go to sleep. I was restless, rolling and turning. Where would you go? Are you ready to meet the Lord? And the word of God came to my mind, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Well, I qualified. That's the place we have to get to. We know we're sinners. And then he said, hidden there cometh the meal, lo, I cast out. He took him at his word, laid in my bunk, and accepted him. And I tell you, the joy of heaven filled my soul. I was a happy man. Oh, the burden that holds off. I couldn't go to sleep with joy, and I was picturing myself up in that country church where I'd gone so often, and I was telling my friends how to be saved. Well, I had that joy. Later on, after my first year at Emmaus Bible School, I had the joy of going home, and the first time I ever remembered in that, I just mention this by way of how the Lord leads, though having a week of evangelistic services. There's a low profile mind. You're not much clear gospel, but because I was a student at Bible school, the minister took me up to the platform and asked me to read the scriptures. I said, well, if you only would have said a few words. He said, yes. So, I gave him a testimony of how the Lord saved me. And the old evangelist, he got kind of warmed up by the testimony. The first night to tell me he really preached the gospel. But, that was Friday. And Sunday, the minister had us home for dinner in between the afternoon and evening service, and so I said to the minister, isn't it too bad the meeting has to stop? Now, the people are just getting interested. Well, he said, we're going to preach. Dr. McKenzie can't stay any longer. Well, I said, I'll preach. Well, he said, I'll have to talk to the elders. So, he did, and that night he announced there'd be services next week. And I'll tell you, I never in all my life, before nor since, have ever seen the Spirit of God working like it did in those four nights and five nights of meetings. People were actually trembling. So, who was judging? The old Dr. McKenzie, when he gave an invitation in the last night, he had people stand right up. So, I followed his critique. I said, now, if anybody wanted to be saved, stand up. And, each night, folks stood up. And the crowds doubled during that week, and that was the beginning of that work on Pentecost Island unknown to us. We never knew we'd be coming back again. Then, you see, we'd gone home to tell our friends what great things the Lord had done, and now there were some new converts, and they needed shepherding. They needed looking after. So, that way, we went back again to P.I.F. the next year at Emmaus Bible School. So, I must tell you, too, is am I boring you with coming to this? We don't want to bore you, folks, because sometimes you talk too much about oneself, you know. It doesn't take me more than one morning to relate some of these things to you. But, when I was overseas, the only Bible school I knew about in Canada was one out in western Canada. And, I wanted to go there, but I couldn't get my day job. The way wouldn't open up. But, I had been overseas with a friend by the name of Stan Stanford. Stan and I, we used to send our leaves together, and we used to go to and preach the gospel, you know, in Hyde Park, and give attractions, street corners. We just sent our whole leaves of serving the Lord. It's a great privilege, you know, and I'll never forget. I'd never preached in my life, but we were standing with some men in Hyde Park, a group of men that had opened their meeting, and preaching the faithful gospel. And, in the afternoon, we were with them to supper, and I just want to tell you one incident here. One man sitting right across from us, he said to my friend, what's your name? You know, he said, Stan Stanford. Well, he said, you have nothing on me. My name is Paul Carlson. So, he said, Stan Stanford, you're nothing but a big seal. What's your name? I said, Stan Christian. You're nothing but a big seal. Christ is everything. Well, then, we were at the meeting that night again, and the man was preaching. He suddenly got down. He said, now I'm going to have my father here give the word, and he pushed me right up. Well, I thanked the Lord. I left the word of God with Paul today for big fun. And, the Holy Spirit just took, you know, when you come into a meeting like that, how blessed it is to have the word of God in your heart, and in your mind, and your soul. And, I preached for half an hour. It's unbelievable. The first time in a perfect way. The Lord just took me up, and took a couple of souls to save that night. That was the best part of it. A lot of folks get it. But, Stan was a great friend of mine, and I'm coming back to what I was telling you. I wanted to go to Bible school. I couldn't get into the airport. Then, I had a note from Stan Straight. He says, I'm going to a Bible school in Toronto. The Emmaus Bible School. It just opened this year in Central Gospel Hall in Toronto. They opened the Emmaus Bible School in the basement. So, I again called the authorities, and they not only let me out of the airport, but they sent me to Toronto to be discharged and paved the way 400 miles. And, that's how we come to go to Emmaus Bible School. The Lord opened the way. He led, and that's where the Lord has a wife for me. I think we were the first couple that were admitted in there, and were married. The first couple to be married from Emmaus Bible School back in May of 1946. The Lord has given me a wonderful helpmate. Like for you, if you're not feeling too good, like you're to pray for her. If she didn't come this morning, you didn't feel up to it. But, like you're to pray for her. She's a wonderful wife to me, and I really appreciate it. So, when we went to Emmaus, we went to one assembly, one church. All the time, we wanted to be faithful, because we believed. You see, I had no home church to preach the gospel, and we wanted to go someplace where they would get to know us. You know, those great men came to Toronto. There were great preachers in Toronto. Dr. Irons Eyes used to come up there. There was a great TT, Dr. TT Shields, and some of those men, and I never went to hear them once, because I wanted to be faithful. Now, sometimes I wish I had gone to hear some of those great preachers, and learn something, you know. But, I wanted to be faithful to that local assembly, that local church. So, after we were there three years, I approached the brethren, and asked them, you see, that we're exercised about going back to Pittsburgh. I remember, go home to thy friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for thee, and have compassion on thee. And, these dear brethren, and all the gospel chapel in Toronto, they commended us to the Lord's work in May 1948. I want to tell you something. God is a great and a faithful God. He really is. I remember these people up there had a farewell thought. We were to go down to Princess Island, that young couple, and some other students came down with us as a team. I just tremble now when I think of it. Here, I was only saying, it was about three and a half years, or four years, when we took a team of students down there to start a work. We kind of frown as a bit of a young fellow. I think if we're doing that today, sometimes we forget, as we get older, what we can do, what young people can do. And, we went down there. My father-in-law said, do you want to go down and tell some of the different assemblies and churches about your exercise, and what you're going to do? I said, no brother, I'm going to trust the Lord. I'm going to look to him, and not just look to men. And, exactly what we did, because we hadn't proven anything. I hadn't done anything, and we thought the man ought to prove himself in his work. So, I remember a man at a farewell we had. He shook my hand sincerely, with his eyes a little moist, and he said, Stan will not forget you. And, I thought to myself, oh boy, that's good. We've got someone here you can, that's going to be telling us something once in a while. He said, oh father, no I never heard from that dear brother since. Never put your confidence in man. Man at best is madness. If you look to the Lord, and trust him, that's so much better. And, we went down to Prince Edward Island to labor. Now, remember this was, I would call pioneering. No, no testimonies established, but hardly a Christian out at the altar here and there in the old churches. But, most of the people were not saved, and we were in the pioneering. It was something to take a girl from the city back into a back area with no electricity, where we saw horses and train them one at a time. Horses wagging one at a time. We've got an old basin farmhouse, had a paper doll inside, and cleaned it up to live in with a little girl six months old. And, the water was out in the yard, and I had to let a bucket down the well, and haul it up. And, and the outside conveniences out there too. That's uh, it's always, but you know I never thought a thing about that. The Lord was so faithful, and how he supplied our needs. And, then we started doing, having vacation Bible schools, and schoolhouses. You have to run a community, and see three or four trustees, and get their permission. Often the thing is a ministry. There's always a ministry. You can do it. If it's not, you can't. You know, you had always that type of thing to say. And, that's how the work began. It was hard going. Got a few soul slaves to take, and you had to keep them the word, and trust them, and see them baptized, and come and down, and it was our first communion, breaking the bread service. It's thrilling, but I'll tell you there's a lot of hard work to it. When you first start, you don't have anybody to do anything. I remember coming to the, we, the first meeting we got, an old Church of Scotland building. The sheep were using it for a shelter. So, it holds all of the roots, and the grass, it was just a network of grass. We worked on it for a week, but Alan Weaver helped us on it, and it was a lot of hard weeks and weeks. We had to even clear the land, great big trees, all of it, clear the land around it. It was a much, much hard physical work. And, then once you start the meeting, the meeting floor, you come there early, you light the stoves. We had gas lanterns then, and we had to put them all up, you know. Then, after you get all that work done, there's not no place to wash your hands. You get up and eat the thing, and preach with dirty hands. Wash them all the best that you could. When you look back at that, it's a little different than what a lot of folks call pioneering today. When we started the work in, in, later on in Charlottetown, and this is before the power saws, and so, I thank the Lord, he gave me a good strong body, but we went in single-handed and cut all the lumber, and the wood, hauled it to the mill, or the truck, and then hauled it into the chapel. And, then a lot of that, and that doesn't save, and we pour the old cement with a hand cement mixture, and built that chapel. It's almost a year. It has three carpenters only for five, six weeks, and the rest we did ourselves. It was hard going, but now you see, it's wonderful when you look back, and you see what God is doing, and how these different assemblies are growing. The first little country assembly we started up in the country has carried on now for many years on their own. It's been hard there, because people keep moving away because of lack of employment, but now, just the last couple of years, there seems to be a new blessing on that work. Several new couples have come into it, and another young brother has been commended, fireshop there, and the Italian island boy, he's helped them some. He lives about 15 miles from there, and we go out and help them some, and the work has been growing. And my own son, Timothy, some of you know Timothy, who came here, and Timothy wants to be remembered too. We had another woman yesterday. Timothy's a real help there, and on the 10th of the 26th was his mother's birthday, so he said, mother, I spoke to them on raising children, and I think much about you on your birthday. So, he visited that morning. He doesn't do all of them in by any means, but several of them take part, and they take turn in visiting the world. It was encouraging to see what was established in that old Church of Scotland building. They put on an extension to it now, with several more Sunday school buildings, and it's good to see that work moving ahead. It's all a different way, you know, when you go out and find that you've got different works. One area, like there, we started the Sunday school, and the Cajun Bible school, Bible studies, and it grew into a work. In Montague, a town about 60 miles from there to the center of the eastern part of the island, we started to work there with open-air meetings, and it was a thrill to see people listening to that. We had tent meetings, and also Bible school, and the work was established at Montague. And, boy, thank the Lord, it has been growing steadily the last few years. It was encouraging to see that. Now, as one, there's still needed places up in that part of the world, in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Pinnacle Island, and Newfoundland. There's areas they can go into where there's no gospel preached whatever that is in the community. Modernistic churches are just ritualistic. Some places there's enmity, too. We try to get into the testimonies to a place deeper there. Strong Roman Catholic area with Irish and French background a lot, but they're very, very strong and bitter. They're just looking back now 25, 30 years. We went up there. We had a portable altar. We set it up on the street, and started to pray, and on a Saturday night, people all came to town. You see, from all around the town area, and in no time, there were about 300 people gathered, and, boy, did they like the singing. A few of us were singing, and all liked it. But, whenever you started to speak, then opposition came. It wasn't very long. My wife was there. I'd come home from there flattered, and that's true. We were flattered with eggs, and tomatoes, and what have you, whatever they could find, and the priest, and the lawyer that was there, strong Roman Catholic, put them up to it. Well, it's so intensified that they even stoned us. One sister, she stoned him, and we had to hold up for a moment, because the days, you know, and the Mounted Police, as they're still out there, said, we just can't protect you any longer. Remember, we were there the last night, and that crowd really mocked us. An old father was at once up there. He was preaching for 30 some years, an old fisherman. He started the word in his boat, and saw these principles of the word that we believed so dearly, and he said, in all my 32 years as a Christian, it's the first time I feel like a soldier of the cross. I'll tell you, it weeded out the boys from the men when you went up there, but it was a great joy. I want to tell you an incident that happened there one night. We'd just finished the singing, and I said, I was going to open and pray, and the fellow came right up. He was drinking. He said, you're not going to pray tonight. I said, I'm going to pray. The minute you pray, they're going to hit you. He said, close your eyes, and I'm going to hit you. Another chap came up, whom I knew, a partisan fellow, and got in between us. He said, you go ahead and pray. So, we prayed, and nothing happened. All the time that night, that priest, these two fellows were shirking me. Oh, the other fellow, the fifth clint, the way he distracted us. You cannot distract me. If you can preach, and hold attention, and that's it. It's good training, isn't it? But, these are some of the things that we have enjoyed, that we have tried to serve. The Lord has been faithful, and in our years in Prince Edward Island, we had the joy of helping with our poor families, and we just had the joy this summer of having another one between the two main cities on the island. I just had a letter from them yesterday. I'll probably, I can hand it to me. It's having families there, meeting together, and they are kings of encouragement. We'd like to pray for them. A little village, sort of a center, where different communities come into, by the name of Hunter River. A little newer family just established there for the Lord. Now, it's all worth time. If anybody has any questions they want to mention, or something like that. Well, yeah, that's right, because as far as the record says, they went into the climb, the climb went down into the, and we're all choked. It doesn't mention what happened at the end. I guess we'll have to wait to get the evidence, if I may. I guess any answer would be speculation, wouldn't it? Unless somebody else knows the answer, I don't know. You see, right, and that's a good point. You see, I believe that there's a real point there, if the Lord wanted to, he could take us to heaven as soon as he sees us, isn't it? But, no, he says, I want you to go and be a witness here. I want you to seek to bring others with you. We're left here as ambassadors for the Lord Jesus. Isn't that a marvelous thing? We're here to represent him. We're just, this is not our home. We're just passing through. Heaven is our fatherland. We want to be the inhabitants, and the Lord has left us here to witness. You want to go to be with him? He said, no, we can't, as I think. And, I believe, if you follow the scriptures, that later on, through this man's testimony, the way was opened up for the Lord through groups of other people there. And, you check it out. Oh, all right. He went to the ball, says that he bore the mark of his body. Well, I bear the mark, and my body too, of Immanuel Bible Camp. Stan Strait, the dear brother that's laid up in the island many years together with us, came up the time we came up. Stan is an excellent, lovely brother. To tell you a quick little story about Stan, the same minister that asked me up on the platform at that time, and we had those gospel meetings. When it was the funeral on, he was always a gracious old scotchman. You know, any other preacher, he'd ask up on the platform, and Stan was inclined to be a wee little bit on the late side. So, after the funeral had just started, Stan came in, and he stood behind the Paul Barrett, and the old Mr. McLeod, who was hard of hearing, you know, and he whispered very loud. He did like this for Stan, and Stan didn't come. So, right in front of Stan was a man by the name of Norman McLeod, with a little bit hunched back, and he did like that, and Norman called him, and he came up, and he didn't know Stan was behind him. He whispered very loud, Stan Strait! The old boy straightened up. He said, I thought Stan was straight as the rest of them. That really happened, but with the camp, Stan, we built it in 1954. The folks had given us a gift, and we bought some shingles and things, and as soon as January 1954, we announced the camp. We had 5,000 camp holders printed, announcing a chance to open July the 3rd with a $3.21 building fund, and you know the Lord really undertook. A camp was built, and the first year we had 80 campers, but oh, I've seen the Lord supply in wonderful ways. One night at a time, I think I'll continue tomorrow night. So, we'll tell you a little more about how the Lord supplied. Let's have a word of prayer.