In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of how a person lives and builds their life. He uses the parable of the wise man who built his house on the rock and the foolish man who built his house on the sand to illustrate this point. The preacher addresses different groups of people, including those who have never built upon the rock and those who have but have not made much progress in their obedience to Jesus Christ. He warns that it is crucial to obey God now, as the storms of life will come and it will be too late to build a solid foundation. The sermon concludes with a story about a stormy night in Scotland, highlighting the urgency of making the right choices in life.

But we're going to make the most of it, and tonight I want to address your attention to some words in the end of the Sermon on the Mount, and then an additional reading in Luke's Gospel. I refer then to Matthew chapter 7, and at verse 24, Matthew 7, 24, and then from Luke 6. Our Lord Jesus has completed that wonderful Sermon on the Mount, as we call it today, and at verse 24 we read, Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house. And it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house. And it fell, and great was the fall of it. And it came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings, that people were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. And in Luke 6, verse 46, Luke 6, 46, we get just an additional word by the doctor, Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them. That's the key. Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them. Cometh, heareth, doeth. I will show you to whom he is like. He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep. I like that. And laid the foundation on a rock. When the flood arose, and the stream beat vehemently upon that house, he could not shake it, for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man, that without a foundation, built an house upon the earth, against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great. Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like. He is like a man that built his house upon a rock. My theme tonight is, does it matter how a man or a woman really lives? And I want to take this parable of our Lord Jesus, and answer that question in picture form. I want to catch up that wonderful solo, which again, is a famine in itself. Bless you, Ray. And bring it right home to our hearts. And I'm expecting two classes of people here tonight to be following me very, very clearly, and giving their verdict and their open confession about this at the close of this meeting. I'm speaking to people who have never built upon the rock at all. You've been building upon the sand. Tonight you're discovering how dangerous, how perilous, how futile that is. And you're going to change that. I'm going to talk to some people who have been building upon the rock, but my word, you haven't got very far. Your life of obedience to Jesus Christ has broken down. And although you're on the rock, that superstructure isn't going up. There isn't a house that is glorifying God. You're going to do something about that tonight. You're giving an answer, and you're going to give an answer courageously. You're not going to slip away in a sort of snaky, subtle, fearful, cowardice, or cowardly way. You're going to face right up to the challenge of Jesus Christ. And you're giving your answer. Now, my dear friends, as we look at this tremendous passage, I want to remind you again that our Lord Jesus Christ had just completed one of the greatest utterances of His entire ministry. He had preached what we now call the Sermon on the Mount. And this story about the two houses and the two foundations constitutes His conclusion. It's a dramatic, it's a startling, it's a vivid conclusion. I'm going to go as far as saying this is the sort of conclusion that isn't popular today. Preachers who preach like our Lord Jesus Christ preached are talked about as fear-mongers, are talked about as dramatic and over-emotional and sensational. But not so our Lord, for this is the way He concluded His sermon. And as Dr. George Buttrick has remarked, He sent His hearers away with the crash of doom reverberating in their ears. Our Lord Jesus never sent His people away with a sense of false security. He didn't pat them on the back and make them purr like a lot of pussycats. As they walked home after that memorable occasion, the analogy of the two foundations, the analogy of the two houses became something very personal. People went of their way home and they knew exactly where they stood. The people who knew that they were building on the rock went away with a wonderful sense of assurance and security and certainty. And they went away glorifying God that they knew they were on the rock, Christ Jesus. There were others who went of their way home with heads bowed, trembling in every nerve, because they discovered from the speech of our Lord Jesus and the figure of our Lord Jesus that they were on sand. They were on sand and not upon the rock. And the vision with which they went back home was that of crashing timber, rending masonry, reverberating crashes, doom and death and damnation. And my friend, I don't care who reads this Sermon on the Mount and especially the final illustration, who preaches on it today, the climax is just the same, the issue is exactly similar. We've got to come to the same conclusion. Either you're on the rock and you're set for eternity, or you're on the sand and you're in danger of complete collapse. And I want us to take this story and I want us to think of the question, does it really matter how a person lives? Does it really matter how a person builds his life? You'll get the answer I'm sure before we're through tonight. I want us to look then first of all at the significance of this building. The significance of this building. And I want us to notice that Jesus explicitly stated that a wise man built, pause, and a foolish man built. Pause and consider. A wise man built, a foolish man built. Both of them were building. Both of them were building. You see, building is a responsibility and a necessity of life. What you build is determined by where you build and how you build. But I want to say that every fellow and girl, every man and woman who hears my voice tonight in this church and over radio, is building every time you draw breath. Since you left your home this morning and went out into life, you built, you built. You can't escape it. It's a responsibility of life. And either you've been building wisely or you have been building foolishly. But you've been building all day. You've been building all day. We are building day by day in our work and in our prayer, not with hammer blow and blow, not with timber sawing saw, building a house not made with hands. Following Jesus' perfect plans, little builders, all are we, building for eternity. You've been building today. But you're going to decide whether or not that building has been wisely done or foolishly done. The Bible is the best commentary on itself. As a matter of fact, there is a one law of interpretation which teaches that there isn't anything in the Bible which hasn't an illustrative mention. Scripture compared with Scripture is the best way to expound Scripture. And although I'm not pressing this into the story too rigidly, I believe there are three kinds of buildings to which the Holy Spirit refers in this holy book. And those three pictures we're going to consider right now in terms of the significance of building. And I'm going to ask you, have you been building wisely or have you been building foolishly? The Apostle Paul talks about our bodies as an earthly house. The Apostle Paul talks about our bodies as an earthly house. And there is one aspect of building tonight which I want to call body building. Body building. Something we do down here. Body building. And I want to say, my friend, that that body which is sitting upon that seat there as a unit today is something for which you're absolutely responsible before God. We talk about our spirit and we talk about our soul and we do so with great emphasis and with great significance. But you know why we're down here upon this earth? Because we are responsible for the way we handle and the way we build and the way we regard our bodies. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, says the Scripture. God's intention for every man, woman and child is that that body of yours, that body of yours which I'm looking at now, that body of yours should be the temple of God the Holy Ghost. And I understand from the Bible that there are three things that we ought to do about our Bible, our bodies. We ought to keep them absolutely fit, for one thing. We ought to keep them absolutely fit. Paul talks about bodily exercise, profiting for this little while. And the mystery of suffering, the mystery of suffering apart. A depth of mystery into which no man here upon earth can finally, can finally plumb and explain the mystery of suffering apart. God intends that every single fellow, man, woman and child should keep their body absolutely fit for God. I believe that our bodies should be the fit vehicles for the expression of the will of God. When our Father God prepared a body for the Lord Jesus Christ in order that He might express the will, the divine will to men and women here upon earth, He took great pains to make it a perfect body, a prepared body. And that body was cared for right throughout His thirty-three and a half years. I'm wondering if I'm looking into the faces of men and women here tonight who allow things to go into their bodies that, listen, spoil and poison the body. I wonder if I'm talking to somebody here tonight who calls himself a Christian and yet, and yet poisons his body constantly with the sort of things you eat or the sort of things you smoke or the sort of things you drink. If tonight, if tonight I were to drag into this church something utterly profane, something completely unrelated to the sanctity of this sanctuary here, two-thirds of you would be on your feet in protest because of my doing such a thing. And yet without any care in the world, you can sit in your home, you can sit in a pub or you can sit in a hotel and take into your body things that desecrate that which God intended should be a holy temple. God intends not only that your body should be, listen, exercised for Him, but He intends that your body should be preserved for Him, preserved for Him at His disposal. Listen to the prayer of the Apostle Paul. I pray God that your whole spirit, soul and body should be preserved until the coming again of our Lord Jesus Christ. I wonder, my friend, I wonder as I speak to you tonight whether that body is being preserved, a holy vehicle for His divine expression, whether every single member of your body is available to Him when He wants it. God looks down from heaven tonight and He says, Oh, what a job I have in this sin-stained world, broken lives all around. I want instruments through which I can express my love and grace, but I have no bodies, I have no hands through which I can work, I have no feet through which I can walk, I have no eyes through which I can look, I have no lips through which I can speak, I have no brain through which I can think. People are far too busy using their bodies for themselves. God intends that your body should be exercised for Him, preserved for Him, yes, and thirdly, surrendered to Him. I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, says the Apostle, that ye present your bodies, a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Do you know, my friend, do you know, my friend, that that body, that body, that body I'm looking at tonight was bought, was purchased by the precious blood of Christ and God bought it in order that it might be separated entirely for His service and utterly surrendered to Him? I want to ask you tonight, and I'm asking, I'm asking Christians who've been in the Christian experience for years and years and years and years, some of you are established Christians, so established, so sound that you're sound asleep it may be tonight. I want to ask you, my friend, I want to ask you if you know what I have been talking about throughout this last fortnight when I used the phrase, totalitarian surrender. I want to ask whether every single faculty, every single faculty of that body of yours is wholly and completely surrendered to God. If you're not, if you're not, that house body of yours is being unwisely built. You're not building it wisely for God. You're a foolish builder. Now I'm going to say something to you and something perhaps you've never realized. Perhaps you've never realized. Do you know, my friend, that when you Christian people especially, you Christian people especially, stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and you've got to stand before the judgment seat of Christ, you've got to. You come tomorrow night and you'll hear all about it. You've got to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Do you know how you're going to be judged? 2 Corinthians 5 puts it very carefully. You're going to be judged. You're going to be judged in relation, in relation to the things you have done in your body, whether it be good or whether it be bad. We talk about our souls being right with God. It is well, it is well with our souls. We talk about our spirit being quickened to life. But God says, I'm not concerned about your spirit or your soul during the time you're down here merely. I'm concerned with your body because when you stand at my judgment seat, what you're going to be judged for are the things that you've done in your body. And I wouldn't be in the shoes, I wouldn't be in the shoes tonight of an uncleansed, unforgiven man or woman, Christian or non-Christian here, whose body is defiled by sexual abuse, whose body is defiled by indulgences of one kind or another, whose body isn't entirely at the disposal of God the Holy Ghost for the expression of the will of God through him day by day, whose body is not being used as a prepared body for God. I wouldn't be in your shoes. I'm asking you tonight, are you building wisely or are you building foolishly? For the apostle Paul puts it so clearly, our body, our body is our earthly house. And God's purpose is that it should be exercised, it should be preserved, it should be surrendered for his use alone, so that one day when we stand for judgment, he may be able to say, that was good. That was good. You used it for me. But you know, there is another kind of building I want to speak about tonight, and the apostle Paul is the one who treats it in one of his epistles. It's the building of your home. If a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? His own house. His own house. It's mothering Sunday, I understand, next Sunday. I didn't know that when I was praying through my subjects. You make a lot of it in this country, and I praise you for it, but I wonder just what significance it carries. I wonder, I wonder tonight just what sort of a home you're building. And I'm speaking to parents here, I'm speaking to young married couples here, I'm speaking to engaged couples here, I'm speaking to single people here, I'm speaking to children here, because you all, all, are part of the unit of a home somewhere or another. I'm going to ask you what sort of home you're building. What sort of home you're building. Have you ever realized, my friend, that the breakdown in home life in America today, as well as our country, is one of the matters of greatest concern. Even the optimists are becoming alarmed. Never, never in this age has there been such a moral landslide in the life of home. Do you know that the home is a divine institution governed by certain laws which God has laid down, and that the violation of those laws constitutes, constitutes one of the greatest sins that the Bible mentions? Do you know, my friend, that such sin is punishable with social disintegration? There is, there is a man of deep insight who has said against the British people, the British people, that the breakdown in home life is such today that if the British people don't stem the tide, they will have started in five years' time the process of extinction. I'm going to ask a few questions here tonight, and I want to answer. I want an answer, I want an answer from you. I want an answer from you tonight. Tell me this, tell me this. Is your home a place where God is honored? Is your home where the Lord Jesus Christ has first place? Tell me, is your home a place where the Word of God is opened every day and your family around you, you read that Word so that the Word has its sanctifying effect? Is it a place where prayer is offered? Is it a place where the sanctity of the Spirit is felt? Tell me, is your home a hell or a heaven? Are you fulfilling the laws which God has laid down of loving, listen, loving husbands to wives, loving wives to husbands, the husbands, listen, consideration for your wife, wife, submission to your husband, children, obedience to your parents, thoughtfulness and carefulness for your children, not provoking them to rot? Tell me, is your home a home that's being built wisely or foolishly? Are your children tonight scattered all over the place because they're wild and uncontrolled? Are they set for jail? Are they set for prison? Are they set for suicide? Are they set for drunken lives? Because of the example, you have set them in your home. Because there's no parental control, no authority, the power of the Holy Ghost isn't upon your life, so you have no control whatsoever in your home. And as far as husband and wife are concerned, well, you could just as well be living in two parts of a town for any sense of oneness and unity in Jesus Christ. I'm asking you, my friend, I'm asking you, I'm asking you, overshadow the degradation, the utter, the utter travesty of home life today, which is called home. But I'm asking another question too, my friend. Not only the body building, not only the home building, but there is another building to which the Word of God makes reference, and it's the building of the church. The building of the church, the living church of God, is called the house of God. Paul refers to it as the house of God. The house of God. He talks about the house of God, which is the church of the living God. I want to ask you, my friend, what part you have in the building of the church of God. Yes, the church of God. Perhaps the most important building of the three we've mentioned, though we can't separate them. The church of God. You see, my friend, the foundation of the church of God has been laid once and forever. And that foundation is Jesus Christ. But the apostle Paul says, we've got to take heed how we build on that foundation. Let everyone take heed how he buildeth thereupon. And he goes on to show that building the church of God, building that superstructure upon that foundation, necessitates that we bring to that foundation living stones. Living stones rightly related to the foundation. And so the church of Christ goes up and up and up and up until one day it's complete. And I'm going to ask you a question or two here tonight. What is your part in the building of the church of God? In the first place, are you a living stone? Are you a living stone? It is my considered opinion, it is my considered opinion that one of the greatest blockages to revival, one of the greatest blockages, listen carefully, to evangelism, pure evangelism, listen, one of the greatest blockages is the dead wood in the so-called church of Jesus Christ. Your pastor stood up at this microphone last night and he addressed the audience when we had that mighty breakthrough last night. Your pastor said this, will you be careful, will you be careful for God's sake that you're not standing in the way of blessing. I wonder how many souls have been kept out of heaven and the kingdom and blessing this past fortnight because of dead wood in the church here. I wonder how many who claim that they know the Bible, they know prayer, they know evangelism, they know orthodoxy and everything else are no more living stones, no more living stones in the spiritual sense than this very platform from which I'm speaking. You're absolutely dead. You go through all emotions, you appear at the meetings, you do the business, you look like a Christian so far as the aping and pretending is concerned, but you're devoid of the blessing of the Spirit, you're devoid of the living Christ, you're devoid of the mighty working of the Holy Ghost in your life. I wonder, I wonder, I wonder, and I wonder how many of you have the humility before God, I wonder how many of you have the repentance before God, I wonder how many of you have the fraction of courage before God to come and stand here tonight and kneel before God and confess that you've never really been a living stone. Not only living stones, but stones rightly related to the foundation with symmetry and beauty and listen, and listen, every single, every single prime in evidence that the Lord Jesus Christ is central in your life. Central in your life, not only foundational, but as the cornerstone central in your life. I've been an evangelist for 17 years, and I know this, I know this, that my greatest problem, my greatest problem in talking to the unconverted people is when they turn around to me and say, Stephen Overt, don't talk to me about being a Christian, don't talk to me about being a Christian. It's been said here this fortnight. I have a fellow working in my office who calls himself a Christian, and if that's the Christian, I'm done with it. Don't talk to me about being a Christian. A fellow sat over the table the other night in the hotel and said the very same thing to me. He said, I've yet to find a man who's living the quality and level of life that you've been preaching, and when I do, I'll become a Christian. I'm putting it to you. It's as straight as that. I'm asking you, are you building? Are you building? Are you building wisely? Or are you building foolishly? That is the significance of the building. But I want to move quickly on, and I want to say this. We'll soon find out whether or not you are building wisely or foolishly, because I move right on to the question of the standard of the building. What does God expect? I'll tell you quickly. One building, one house, fell not. The other house fell, and great was the fall of it. One house fell not. The other fell, and great was the fall of it. What determined whether or not it fell? One thing I want to point out quickly. So far as the story makes out, it was through the appearance of it. Not the appearance of it, but the durability of it. Some of you are so beautifully whitewashed. Some of you are so newly painted with synthetic Christianity that it's very difficult to discover on first looks whether or not you're really one of those wise, wisely built houses. But one day, the standard, the test is going to press so hard that we'll soon discover. You see, there's a two-fold test. There's the test of time, and there's the test of eternity. The test of time the Lord Jesus spoke of again and again, it's tribulation. It's tribulation. In the world you shall have tribulation. The Lord Jesus never promised that Christians were going to be rid of tribulation. He told them that they were going to be persecuted, they were going to go through tribulation, that right up to the end age, when the Savior comes back again, that tribulation was going to become hotter and hotter and hotter for the quality of Christianity that He demanded of them. And I want to say, my friends, whoever you are, whatever being your successes, your joys or your pleasures, you're yet to pass through tribulation. You're yet to pass through tribulation. It may be domestic tribulation, it may be business tribulation, it may be personal tribulation. And the fact that you've escaped it now is no guarantee that you're going to not face it. Some of us have faced it already. Others of you are yet to face it. And I'm telling you, my friend, I'm telling you straightly from my heart tonight, whatever you think of what I'm saying, whether you smile it off, whether you sneer it off, whether you snap your finger and say, I couldn't care less, when tribulation really strikes at your life, if that house of yours, that house of yours isn't built on the rock, if that body house of yours, if that home house of yours, if that church house of yours isn't built upon the rock, it'll collapse, it'll go to pieces. I've seen it happen hundreds of times. I could stop tonight to tell you story after story. I could tell you about the most charming religious people. I could tell you about some of our lads who've gone away from my own church into the fortress with a courage in their eyes and their set chins and they said, Pastor, we can take it. We don't want to be necessarily keen. Don't press us on this question of getting right with God. We'll come out clean. And the letters have come back. They've been shattered. They've been shattered. The pan has opened up and they've gone down like a pack of cards. Their lives have been ruined. Bodies have been ruined. Bodies have been ruined. Homes have been disgraced. And the church has been brought low in the dust. But I'm going to go a little further and I'm going to say this. If tribulation and the test of time doesn't find you out, eternity will find you out. Eternity will find you out because there's coming as sure as my name is Stephen Olford and God is true, a day of judgment. God hath appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained whereof He hath given assurance unto all men in that He hath raised Him from the dead. A day of judgment. And as you will hear tomorrow night, I believe that day of judgment is very, very, very near. I do. I'm absolutely sure about that. This world can't go on just as it's going on with impunity endlessly in this present state. God has to act from heaven All I can say tonight is this, that the hush, the hush, the hush of heaven is the hope of humanity. Because when God breaks into the air again, when God breaks into history again, it's going to be, it's going to be judgment. Judgment, men and women. Judgment. Amen. Any warning? The clouds begin to gather from every direction. The sky becomes overcast. Night seems to fall upon creation. The wind that blew those clouds into position almost as suddenly disappears again. And there's a quiet calm, a hush, a hush. I've seen it happen so often I can almost see it happening now. I see the little ant crawling away under a boulder. I see the bird seeking shelter. I see the animal quietly moving away out of the tremendous wake of what is now going to burst upon the land. Then there's the flash of lightning. There's the thunder roar. I've seen lightning catch a tree and burst it from its topmost branches right down to its roots and break it wide open. I've seen as it were the very fountains of heaven burst open so that rain came down in such deluges that I've seen an entire house taken from its foundations and carried away to destruction. I've seen cattle taken, birds taken, men taken. And I stood there and I've seen a storm demonically beat itself upon creation such as our Lord Jesus describes here. And I've looked back and I've said my, oh my, oh my, my God if that is nearly, if that's nearly a symbol of what's going to happen when thou dost break in judgment upon this earth oh God! I fly to the rock of ages for safety. The hush of heaven is the hope of humanity tonight. And because there's a hush in heaven, my friend there's a chance for you to get right with God and to get right with God tonight and to get, get built upon that rock and to start building a house wisely for God whether it be your body whether it be your home or whether it be your church. Judgment, judgment! Judgment will find out the standard and quality of your house and where it is built. The significance of the house, the standard of the house. But oh I hear somebody saying to me, Stephen Oldford you haven't said anything on how of how I may start to build what is the salvation of this house of mine, this body house of mine, this home of mine this church of mine what's the foundation and how may I start to build Jesus put it so clearly he said it this way he said, whosoever cometh to me and shareth these sayings of mine and doeth them I'll liken him unto a wise man that built his house upon the upon the rock, upon the rock and will you notice the three things Jesus said first of all he said, you've got to find me, you've got to seek me, whosoever cometh to me, seeking Christ is the first step, seeking Christ, that's finding the rock, that as Luke puts it is digging deep that's going beneath the superficial sandy obstruction right down to rock bottom that's going deep, I'm not talking about something emotional tonight I'm not talking about something superficial tonight, I'm challenging fellows and girls and men and women to use your intelligence to use your mind you've never used it before if you had you'd have gone further than you've gone go deep with God tonight, dig deep don't be satisfied until you find Christ in this service go deep with him, I tell you go deep with him and find the rock and thank God the word of God says they that seek me early shall find me and having found the rock I want to say another thing, having found Christ trust Christ having sought him, trust him, whosoever cometh to me and heareth these sayings of mine in Jesus, Jesus means by hearing, trusting for faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God having found the rock my friend will you hide in the rock, will you hide in the rock, will you make the language of your heart tonight, rock of ages cleft for me let me hide myself in thee thank God for a cleft rock thank God for a riven rock, thank God for a rock into which you can hide tonight and be safe when the storms come, thank God that you can put your foundation into the rock and you can begin to build but there's something else Jesus said, not only have you to seek him, not only have you to trust him, but you're to obey him, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, and doeth them, you know ladies and gentlemen you've come into this place dozens of times it may be during this crusade, either morning or evening or both, and some of you to this very hour have heard all I've preached and not one of you have translated that yet into obedience, I'm challenging you tonight not only to find Christ, I'm challenging you tonight not only to trust Christ I'm challenging you tonight to go through in obedience to all the will of God whatever it costs whatever it costs even if it's going to go clean across your friendship, even if it's going to mean opposition, even if it's going to mean the paying of bills even if it means the writing of an apology tonight, even if it means getting cleared up throughout the hours of this night before you go to sleep, you're going through with God, you're going to obey him whatever it costs, this book is going to be your guide, you're going to start reading it tonight, you're going to pray over it, you're going to make it your meat and drink, and you're going through with the will of God to the end of your day you say, supposing I do that supposing I find Christ tonight by digging down deep, supposing I with all my soul is the rock of ages for me supposing I go through in obedience Jesus says, that man will build upon the rock, that man will be secure, that man will be saved, that house will be saved in tribulation and in judgment, so we have seen the significance, the standard the salvation of this house, and confronted with this tremendous truth and challenge I'm asking you at this moment I'm asking you at this moment what is your answer to Jesus Christ will you seek him will you trust him will you obey him for remember this is the summer time of God's death salvation winter is on its way and when winter begins and the rains and the floods listen and the tempest come it'll be too late it'll be too late the story is told of the little thatch cottage up in the highlands of Scotland where lived an old grandfather and his daughter it was an isolated cottage one night this dear old man went to his bed never to rise again he was aged and he was ailing the granddaughter was conscious of this and wouldn't go to bed and decided that she was going to sit by her dear grandfather a tremendous storm sent itself outside, raging and blowing and rattling that little cottage the atmosphere was eerie darkness had fallen, no friends around and the storm beat demontly outside as the daughter leant over the old man she could see that her loved one was failing fast and thinking it the right thing to do she went and she picked up the old family bible and quietly she opened it and she began to read, and the moment she began to read the old man opened his eyes and smiled very sweetly and said, thank you daughter thank you for reading the old book but have no fear have no fear my lassie have no fear my lassie I'm ready to go I'm ready to go, listen listen I thatched my roof while it was still summer I'm ready to go I thatched my roof while it was still summer my friend I'm asking you spiritually speaking is your roof thatched, are your walls strong, is your foundation secure are you on the rock of ages are you building wisely have you found Christ, have you trusted him are you abiding in him, are you obeying him are you safe for time and eternity if not, I beg of you tonight, will you pray down deep in your soul thou blessed rock of ages I'm hiding in thee tonight, let us bow our heads in prayer