This sermon emphasizes the importance of returning to the old paths of prayer, fasting, and personal devotion, as exemplified by the stories of William Booth and the Salvation Army. It encourages a focus on deepening one's relationship with God through prayer and seeking His presence, rather than seeking worldly success or recognition. The speaker shares personal experiences of the transformative power of prayer and devotion, highlighting the need to prioritize spiritual growth and intimacy with God above all else.

Edward Payson, he read that too. In essence, their brother is saying exactly what you say, go back to the old palace. He'd ask me, well, of course, he and the guy that used to be up at up the street at the, um, what do you have the minister up there? Agape. They're very much fashionable. They used to read William Booth. They read the stories of William Booth and the old men come to me and tell me more about Booth. Tell me more about the nights of prayer. Tell me about the days of fasting. Tell me about your street meetings. And, uh, I need to warm up to it. You know, we want to get back to that. And, uh, because of those mysteries, you don't like God rules. Men are long lined up, but anyhow. How would you want people to remember you? Oh, I don't know. That's a nuisance. I think when your reward is like, uh, I can't do it now because I've got so many people, but say three or four years ago, I'm only going to spend two hours and then write back and say, you know, from another country, I'm fasting out in New Zealand. And the turning point was when I came to see you, I got more in two hours with you than I got two years in seminary. I'm reading the whole armor of God. I'm reading this. I'm reading some history of the Salvation Army and, and areas that they hadn't broken into. And, uh, all I know is I've stressed as much as possible the, the life of prayer and personal devotion. Immediately you get cold there, you get cold outside. If you keep fueling yourself, you keep reading Isaiah 6 over and get visions of God and visions of a living in the book of the revelation. And, uh, you don't understand all of it. You don't ask to. I say, God can't be explained. He can be experienced. And that's all that matters. I mean, I sometimes fear, like I preached my heart out on Sunday in a threefold vision. I wondered after, am I trying to get people to come up to the altar? I don't know because I've never been to the altar before. But, uh, nobody's going to jump. I mean, I got saved at 14. I'm 84, almost 85. So I've been 70 years. I've seen all kinds of tragedies in the church, wars and rumors of wars, popular men gone popular and so forth. But keep looking up to Jesus and reading the word and remembering these old paths that my daddy used to talk about. And all the other looks like trivia. Guys now laugh at me because I live on my social security. I've, I've, I've done counseling in this room for 13 years and the whole aggregate, somebody leaves something behind. It's okay. They haven't left $500 in 13 years. So I don't do it for the money. A man called me from Houston last year. They said, can I come and see you? I said, yes. Next one, a van came. 10 of them came with the pastor at 10 o'clock and they stayed till one night tore my heart out. I'm going out with them and said, you're not expected a remuneration for this. I said, no, I said, I live on my social security. Anything above that, I divide in the middle between my missionary son and myself or the other boy. So this fellow said, well, we should leave you something. So he goes to the door, takes his billfold out, takes something out. And he came back and he put it on the table, put his hand on it. And he said, I'm leaving this for you because I know you'll share it with your son. I said, I sure will. So they went and I went to Martha and I said, darling, they've gone now. I said, but they left us some money. Isn't that a miracle? She said, well, we don't get that. I said, well, I don't know what it is, maybe a hundred dollars or a thousand. He's left us because to always share it with Paul. She said, well, let's go. So he came in and left us $5. I said, well, one thing, we'll get drunk anyhow. No, I'm just saying that because everything has money in America. What annoys me, well, how much will it cost? How do you come for a week? I said, if you start that way, I'm not even going. I don't go. No, I think we're moving now. In one thing, it's terrible that things like swaggots happen and so forth. But it gives the church a new start. We're going to start on a new level of holiness. We're not going to be entertainers. We're not going to bother who comes and doesn't come. We don't have to join in every effort that they're making in the city to have a revival. Forget it, we've been doing that for 20 years. Stay at the place of prayer, no matter who comes to town to preach. We're going to stay together and pray Friday night from 9 to 11 and 9 to 12. I've done that always. Every city I've been in, I've started a pastor's prayer meeting, usually on a Monday when they're washed out and tired. And they come from all denominations. There's no alternative to prayer and obedience.