In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of prayer and dismisses the idea of fake religions that rely on visions, dreams, and hallucinations. He encourages the congregation to find guidance and communication with God through prayer and reading the Bible. The preacher shares a story about a godly preacher who was known for his lengthy prayers, highlighting the dedication and commitment to prayer. He also mentions his own experiences in building churches and dismisses the idea of a second work of grace, suggesting that one's initial conversion should be sufficient.

Keeping the chapel platform hot, Bob Jones University has kept its students, faculty, and staff prepared to serve God by presenting scriptural truths from godly men. We share these challenging messages from the past on the chapel platform. Today's speaker is the late Dr. James McGinley. This is a recording from an early Bob Jones University Bible conference taped on April the 6th, 1951. Dr. McGinley's text is Amos chapter three, verse three, and his message is titled, Can Two Walk Together? My text is found this evening in the third verse of the third chapter of the book of Amos. I wouldn't bother looking it up, I'll be through before you find it. The third verse of the third chapter of Amos, and the marginal reading of the revised version puts it, Can two walk together except they meet by appointment? I wonder how many of you, while reading your Bibles, have noticed with what frequency the Spirit of God employs the faculties of the human body to describe the Christian life? Look unto me, and be ye saved. There is the eye, hear, and your soul shall live. There is the ear, taste, and see that the Lord is good. There is the mouth, let him lay hold upon thy strength. There is the hand, but without fear of successful contradiction, I affirm that our feet are used oftener in the Bible than any other part of our body to describe our relationship to God. In Paul's epistle to the Ephesians, you will discover seven, if not eight, references to walking. Now, when I read in the Bible that my feet best describe my salvation, I am inquisitive enough to find out, if possible, wherein lies the connection. Now, do you know that physical culturists tell us today that there never has been but one perfect form of exercise, and that is walking? Not two, not three, but only one form of exercise that brings into play every part of our body from the crown of our head to the soles of our feet. And, of course, my friend, if anything else were true, it would be a reflection upon the intelligence of God the Creator. When He created the human race, He knew how necessary to good health physical exercise was. So He invented a form that has never been surpassed. They had no golf clubs in the Garden of Eden. They had no badminton courts in Eden. They had no rowboats in Eden. They had no dumbbells in Eden. I mean, wouldn't one? And yet, when God started off the human race, He gave to them the one and only perfect form of exercise. Now, what is salvation? I know some people who are well saved mentally. They believe the Bible from cover to cover and live like the devil. That is not salvation. You may be able to quote from memory every verse from Genesis to Revelation and believe them all and go straight to hell when you die. Then other folks are well saved morally. They say, never mind what you believe. It's the life that counts, just so long as we try to follow Jesus. There are millions in hell tonight who spent a lifetime trying to follow Jesus. No, my friend, I believe that when a man is truly saved, that he believes the Bible. And when he's truly saved, he is a new creature in Christ Jesus. All things have passed away, and behold, all things are in the process of becoming new. And as far as I'm concerned, the issue today is not between liberalism and conservatism, fundamentalism or modernism, but between Christians and unbelievers. And I don't care how holy a man is, how pious he is, if he does not believe that all Scripture is given by divine inspiration of God, that man is reflecting upon the integrity of Jesus Christ the Lord, and the sooner we put them in the proper category, the happier we will be. They are a bunch of godless unbelievers. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and the Bible is the divinely inspired and infallible Word of God. And salvation means that our mental attitude towards God's Word is correct, and our lives by God's Son have been changed. So just as physical walking exercises the whole body, so salvation saves the whole man. Then, if you ever see a man walking, you know he's alive, don't you? I've seen a dead man sit up, and he looked just as good as some of you. A dead man can sit up, a dead man can lie down, but a dead man can walk. And what is salvation? It has nothing to do with being good, it has nothing to do with ordinances, it has nothing to do with church membership, it has nothing to do with praying. Salvation, my friend, is a resurrection from the dead. You have the Quaken who were dead in trespasses and in sin, and before we may take our first step along the road to heaven, we must have life from above. He that hath the Son hath life. Sinners are not bad, and Christians are not good. The distinction is that sinners are dead, and Christians are alive. Then, if you ever see a man walking, you know he's going somewhere, don't you? In Scotland, we differentiate between walking and sauntering. Oh, I know that you laugh at the way we talk, but we suffer from no inferiority complex. We just regret exceedingly that the rest of the world's education has been so sadly neglected, and that's why you laugh at us. But in Scotland, we don't even waste words, and we know the meaning of words. For example, in Scotland, if you don't want to go anywhere with a person, you don't say let's take a walk, because a walk presupposes a starting place, a destination, and a definite route. That's the meaning of a walk. But in Scotland, if you're not going anywhere, you say let's take a wee donner. And a wee donner means it doesn't matter where you begin, doesn't matter where you arrive, and doesn't matter the road you follow. The Christian life is not a donner. It's not a saunter. It's a walk. And the word walk, my friend, means a definite starting place, a definite destination, and a definite route. If you see a man walking, he's making progress. For every step he takes leads him one step nearer to his goal. But a lot of Christians, when you say to them, how are you getting along with the Lord? They say, I don't smoke, I don't drink, I don't dance, don't play cards, don't go to shows, I don't do nothing. Why, the best behaved people in Greenville tonight are in the cemetery. There are people in that cemetery who haven't had a smoke in 20 years. People in that cemetery haven't had a drink in 50 years. People in that cemetery who've never been to a picture show. There are people in that cemetery who've had no lipstick on their face since the undertaker put it on. These are good people. And young preachers, before you begin to preach, learn to distinguish between morality and spirituality. For we've got thousands of people in our churches today whose morality is exemplary, and spiritually they are absolutely useless to the service of God. You can be moral and be an atheist. Morality is negative. Spirituality is positive. And the reason that the Christian life is likened to a walk is because it is progressive. We grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And then, if two men are going to walk together, they must agree as to where they'll begin, where they'll arrive, and their topic of conversation on the way. Now suppose you and I are going to take a walk tonight. If we're going to walk together, I say to you, where will we begin? You say, we'll begin outside the auditorium door here. I say, all right, I'll begin outside the hotel door downtown. But you're 21, and I soon will be, and this is a free country. And the Bill of Rights has granted us freedom of choice. So you can begin here if you like. And I can begin at the hotel if I like. But if we're going to walk together, we've both got to begin at the same place. Supposing we say, where will we go? You say, well, we'll go to Asheville. Well, you go there if you like. And I'll go to Chattanooga. Well, no harm in that. But if we're going to walk together, we'll both go to the same place, am I right? And then if we're going to enjoy the walk, we better decide on a topic of conversation. Supposing I'm a Democrat and you're a Republican, and I say, well, who do you think will go in? You say, the Republicans. Well, I say, the Democrats will. Right? You say, that's your opinion. Well, I said, I know they will. Well, you think they know. Now, look, if you're a good Republican, and I'm a good Democrat, right, if we keep up this conversation for 15 minutes, we'll either be fighting or brutally polite to each other, which is just as bad. Don't you believe this nonsense. Let us agree to disagree and resolve to love. The only people I know who can agree to disagree and resolve to love, where principle and truth are extinct, are modernistic preachers, Christian scientists, and embassies. But there's so much disunity in the world, and there's so much fighting in the world. You go to your church, and I'll go to mine, and let's walk the road together. Your church believes the Bible. My church doesn't, but let's not quarrel about it. Your church believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. My church, by implication, believes that he's the illegitimate offspring of a fallen Hebrew maiden, but let's not quarrel. There's so much good in the worst of us, and there's so much bad in the best of us. That it ill behooves any of us to shout against the rest of us. Clean and adulterated bunk. And I would think God's people would rise up and say that this is it. And to the devil's crowd, you've gone so far, and so helpless. God, you'll go no further. And I'm not going to make a fool of myself. Walking with somebody in the rain, and he says, my, isn't the sun shining beautiful? So in order to keep peace, I say, yes, isn't it? Yes. And when the water's running down my back, I say, then give me some ungin tea for my son. And that's where God's church is today. We stand for nothing. Stand for nothing. Now, friends, if you're going to walk together, you've got to begin together. You've got to finish up together. You've got to walk the road together. And you've got to enjoy fellowship one with the other. And therefore, you must base your conversation upon a subject that is mutually agreeable. Otherwise, arguing, this rough fellowship, differing one with the other, is not conducive to enjoying the walk. Now, God is asking the question, how can he in heaven and we on earth walk together? We sing, I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses. And the voice I hear falling on my ear, the son of God discloses, and he walks with me, does he? And he talks with me, does he? And he tells me I am his own, does he? And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other have ever known. Is it true? Experiment. Have you walked with God today? Have you talked with God today? Have you fellowship with God today? Or is the song a mere pleasant palatable platitude that we've put to music, and in a church service we sing it in order to faust upon a credulous congregation, a truth that experimentally is not so? Do you believe that we can walk with God here on earth, do you? Do you believe that we can have fellowship with God here on earth? Do you believe we can actually talk with God here on earth, eh? At your leisure, not now, but afterwards. You read three chapters in the book of Exodus. Chapter 25, chapter 29, and chapter 30. And you will learn that there were three places where God met his people. Listen. One was the mercy seat. The other was the altar of burnt sacrifice. And the other, the altar of burnt insect. Thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark, and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat. You remember that there was the holy place, and then the veil, and beyond that the holy of holies. And in the holy of holies was the mercy seat. And once a year the high priest went in beyond the veil, and he sprinkled above and upon the mercy seat the blood. And on the merits of that blood that was sprinkled at the mercy seat, once a year God met his people. The New Testament interpretation of the Old Testament mercy seat is propitiation. And in Romans 3, Paul tells us that Christ is our propitiation. What the blood-sprinkled mercy seat was in the Old Testament, Christ dying on Calvary's cross is in the New. And my dear people, every single solitary soul that ever goes to heaven will go to heaven exactly as I'm going, or they will never go at all. And you say, oh my, you're right. Everybody else is wrong. Too bad, I'm sorry if you're wrong. But it so happens, my friend, that I have the one and only plan of salvation that Almighty God ever gave to the human race. And every single solitary soul who ever goes to heaven will meet God exactly where I met Him, or they will never meet Him at all. Now, at the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away, it was there by faith I received my sight, and now I am happy all the day. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. And there is only one place where God could be just, and at the same time justify the ungodly, and that is at Calvary's cross, in the portion of our propitiation, the Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son. There's no salvation in Hinduism, no salvation in Buddhism, no salvation in Confucianism, no salvation in Zoroastrianism, and no salvation in modernism that denies the blood. And you can be a measureless Presbyterian, Baptist, Lutheran, Episcopalian, anything you like, but you are not a Christian, you are not a child of God, you haven't taken your first step to heaven until you have stood as a lost guilty, hell-deserving sinner at Calvary's cross and accepted Jesus Christ as your propitiation. The Old Testament saints were saved looking forward to Calvary. You and I are saved looking backward to it, am I right? And don't you let anybody tell you that God will meet a sinner anywhere at any time. God will not. God will meet a sinner only at the cross. And let us be dogmatic, let us be narrow-minded, and the most damnable enemy that the gospel has today is this salvation by works. Churchianity instead of Christianity. And God said, I'll meet you at the mercy seat. Then the second place, this shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generation at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord, where I will meet you to speak there unto you. Read the chapter carefully. And you will find that the second meeting place was at the outer door of the tabernacle. Not once a year, not once a day, but morning and evening of every day the people came and laid their sacrifices on the altar. And on the merits of the sacrifices placed there by the people every day, God met them the second time. The first, propitiation, what God did for us. The second is consecration, what we do for God. I wish somebody would show me where we Calvinists preach, that you are saved by the grace of God, and then you can live like the devil and live as you please, and you will go to heaven. Who says that? Do you know anybody that preaches that? Eh? Our standing before God is once and for all settled when we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior. But our fellowship with God is dependent upon how we live. The one is Romans 3.25, the other is Romans 12 and 1. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto Him, which is your reasonable service. Is this in order to be saved? Eh? No! Do we present our bodies a living sacrifice in order to get salvation? No! Christ presented His body! We don't get saved by presenting ours. And there's a multitude of God's people tonight who are not happy. Do you know why? Because they met God at Romans 3.25 and on their way to Romans 12 and 1 they got stuck. Eh? And they're sitting along the road there like a bump on a log. And they're as miserable as they were before they were saved. Why? Because God said to them, at Romans 3.25, now so long I'll be seeing you at Romans 12 and 1. And they never showed up. I was saved in the city of Toronto one Tuesday night. And I was there when it happened. So I know it was real. And ten months after I was saved, I was more miserable than I was before I was saved. All that I gave to God the night I was saved was my soul, and I kept everything else to myself. And I fooled around for ten months. And every time I went to church on a Sunday, I thought that somebody had been watching me Saturday night and phoned up the preacher, and he sat up all night getting a sermon ready with which to molest me on Sunday morning. When I went to the world, I thought everybody was watching. I was miserable in the world, miserable in the church. And yet I'm saved. Now don't tell me I wasn't saved. I don't give a hoot what you are. I was there that Tuesday night when I was saved. And I'm telling you, if ever a man was born again instantaneously, miraculously, it was James McGinley. And if nobody else believes it, glory to God, I do. Ten months later, if you had said to me, are you saved? Well, I certainly am saved. How do you know it? I came as a poor lost sinner of the cross. I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior, and God's word said I'm saved, and I believe it. Yes, I'm saved. But if you'd said to me, are you having a good time? Are you enjoying fellowship with God? Is your life amounting to anything for God? That's another story. So I accidentally got in to a Christian businessman's supper in Buffalo. And I enjoyed the supper. Of course, I was, you know, I could put on a good front. And after supper, they were having testimony. And these fellows were getting up and telling about being at the mission yesterday, and on the street corner, and down at the jail, and preaching the gospel, and telling about the souls that were saved, you know. And then they introduced me as a Christian from Toronto. I was really a Jonah from Joppa. I didn't have anything to say. Then they went on their knees on a terrazza floor, and they began to pray. And I went down with them. My knees creaked as I went down. I started off on two knees. Then I got on one knee. Then I got on the other knee. Then I got on my hunkers. Now, you see what you miss by not being born in Scotland? You don't know what your hunkers are. I got on my hunkers. Then I sat down. Then I counted how many had prayed, and how many potentials were left. I counted how long it had taken this batch to pray, how long it would take the remaining batch to pray. Then I got on one knee again. Then I got on the other knee again. Then I got on the hunkers. And I said, the thing may come to a close suddenly, so I better get on both knees, so I'll finish up looking good. For one hour and a half, I was in a veritable hell. And if you don't believe it, my friend, you Christians who are just saved and trusting the finished work of Christ, but you've never consecrated your life to Christ, you get into a Holy Ghost prayer meeting and get on your knees for a couple hours, and you'll find out that what I'm preaching tonight is true. You will be in mental agony and in physical misery. I could feel the calluses on my knees lifting me like a jack lifting an arm. Misery. Absolute agony. The nearest thing to hell I have ever been in, in this life, was the hour and a half I spent on my knees listening to a bunch of men getting through to God and in joy. And like the prodigal, I came to myself. And I said, Lord, what have they got that I don't have? And God said, nothing, except I've got them, and I haven't you. All you gave me that night in Toronto ten months ago was your soul to save after you were dead. But your life you've held on to. And for about five minutes, I reasoned with the Lord. And I said, Lord, I'm not happy. I know I'm saved. And I said, tonight, I give you my life. And whatever you want to do with my life, from now on, it's yours to do with what you like. And immediately, I could feel the calluses subside. And then, to my own amazement, for the first time in my life, I prayed audibly. The prayer meeting lasted another half hour, and I could have gone on for two and a half more. I was mentally refreshed. I was physically rested. And spiritually, I was in heavenly places. Did I get any more of God than I got that night in Toronto? Listen, friends, I don't know what God did for you, but the night I met God at Calvary's Cross, God gave me everything there is to give. There's nothing more to get. Ten months later, it wasn't God who gave to me, but I gave to God. And when I placed my life on the altar of burnt sacrifice at the outer door of the tabernacle, God met me there. And the walk that had been disrupted between Romans 3.25 and Romans 12.1 was resumed. And the next day at one o'clock, I began to preach the gospel. I got myself two sermons. Why, I became pastor of a church when I had two sermons. One on Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and the other on the flood. I burned them in the morning, and I drowned them out at night. The afternoon between the two sermons, the deacon said, could you come back for a revival meeting? I said, revival meeting? Well, I said, I've shut the works now. I said, and when I'm through tonight, there's nothing more. Well, they said, couldn't you get a couple more sermons? I didn't know that preachers are supposed to have books. I didn't know you're supposed to have a study. Well, I said, the best time to have the meeting is within the next two weeks, because I had registered in the university after I gave my life to the Lord. So I said, I'll stay on. And they announced at night, the revival begins. I had, I had no advancement. I didn't know they existed. I knew nothing about. So Monday night came, and I had no new sermon yet. So I reversed the order, drowned them first. Tuesday night, I had no new sermon yet. I burned them up Tuesday night. So I went around the farms all day, and wherever I was at supper time, I had a bite of supper, and then asked the farmer's wife to give me a pencil, a piece of paper, and I went in the living room for about half an hour or 40 minutes, and I made up my sermon. And I read the top of the page, you know. You know the title. I didn't care whether it's Old Testament, New Testament, or Apocryphal tradition. I just said, and I keep, you know, God's purpose in saving the remnant of Israel, you know. They're a proof of lying prophets, eh? The abomination of Jerusalem. Well, that sounds a good thing. I've got those sermons today. I wouldn't sell them for ten thousand dollars. What I didn't know, would fill a library. And I'd be gone about ten minutes, and I had nothing left. I just used to fill the bottle, thirty minutes, run in, and then pull the bong, and then ten minutes it all run out. And let me tell you, that during the four years I was at school, I had the joy of building three churches. And six years from the night I said, Lord, take my life, I had the joy of building four churches to the glory of God. Now, don't you go out and say, McGinley says, that you get converted at one place, and then ten months later you have another experience. Old fella came up to me one day with some black stuff running down his chin. Looked like molasses, but it didn't smell that way. And he said to me, McGinley, do you believe in a second work of grace? I said, when I look at you, I certainly do. He said, what do you mean? Well, I said, whatever God did for you the first time, it's time he was taking another try at it. He said, you mean to tell me that there's anything in the Bible against me taking a wee chew of tobacco? I'm about 70 years old. I said, no, there's nothing in the Bible against chewing tobacco. I said, in fact, there's a verse in favor of it. He said, is there? I said, yeah. He said, there's a verse in the Bible in favor of tobacco? I said, yeah. He said, what does it say? And I quote it. Passing through the valley of Baca, they made it a pool. I used to have a good sermon on the valley of Baca, until these Bible scholars ruined it on me. Here's an old fellow. He's not spending his time finding out, say, how much he can give up for God and be blessed. He spends his time finding out how much he can hang on to in this life and still go to heaven when he dies. And there are millions and millions of born-again Christians tonight in that predicament. I've got them in Brooklyn. Say, going to heaven, thrusting their blood. And they're not one bit further along the road spiritually than they were the night they came to Jesus. Have you met them? Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee. And if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you'll ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. And if you don't abide in me and you don't let my words abide in you, I'll take my salvation from you and you'll go to hell. One, my friend, is our relationship to God. The other is our fellowship with God, am I right? The last place and we're done. Thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection after the apothecary, tempered together pure and holy. The third beating place was the altar of burnt incense. Incense in the Bible is typical of prayer. Prayer is indicative of conversation. We begin at propitiation, what Christ did for us. We go on to consecration, what we do for him. We continue in conversation what we do for each other. How does God talk with us? Through his book, am I right? Have you read the book today? If you haven't read the book today, you haven't heard from God. Well, you see, preacher, I haven't read the book but I had a wonderful vision last night. I have them quite frequently myself and almost every time I can attribute it to drinking coffee or eating a ham and egg sandwich before retiring the night before. Friends, God's revelation to man is now completed, am I right? And if you have a vision or have a dream, if it corroborates the scripture, it is of the Lord. If it contradicts the scripture, it's of the devil, even though you saw Jesus Christ in flowing robes walk into your bedroom. A lot of folks have had Christ come to their bedroom and tell them what is not in the Bible. That, my friend, is unadulterated humbug and you pay no attention to it. Hey, nearly every fake religion we have today started with somebody having a vision. We don't need any visions, we don't need any dreams, we don't need any hallucinations. Glory to God, every message that God has for you and has for me is in this book if we read it. And how do we talk with God? We talk with God in prayer, eh? Well, you say, preacher, I pray for 15 minutes in the morning and I pray for 15 minutes at night. That's good, but that isn't what the book says. The book says we have to pray without ceasing, isn't that so? Well, you say, preacher, I can't be down on my knees and my eyes closed all day praying. You don't need to go on your knees to pray and you don't need to close your eyes and pray. The Bible says watch and pray. Some women, they spend their time praying at the sink filled with dirty dishes. I don't believe God hears your prayers until you get the dirty dishes out of the way. And if you don't have time to do both, my friend, then wash the dishes and pray while you're doing it. Best prayer meetings I've had while I'm driving along the highway. I sing a few songs to myself and I talk to the Lord, but I don't close mine. The incense should always be on the altar so that immediately the match of devotion is put to it. It sends up a sweet-smelling savor unto the Lord. You know the stories being told so many times of the old preacher who lived in a community. He was so godly that when sinners shook his hand, they trembled. And one Monday morning at the minister's meeting, he was absent and the preachers began discussing. And they were curious to find out how long he prayed. They delegated one of their members to sneak into the old man's room at the boarding house while he was down to supper one night, hide under the bed and find out how many hours he spends on his knees in prayer. About 7.30 the old fellow came up and he got out his Bible and he started doing some translation work. And about 10 o'clock he closed the book. He undressed, put on his old flannel nightgown and his nightgown. He lit a candle, blew out the lamp, and the preacher under the bed said to himself, he'll begin to pray now. He heard the old fellow come over to the bed. He laid the candle on the table beside the bed. The preachers thought he'll begin now. The next thing he knows, he hears the mattress above him creaking. The old fellow's in bed and no prayer. And the preacher said, oh, oh, wait till I tell the brother he prays in bed. And then he thought, he's in this comfortable bed and I'm on the floor. He'll pray for hours. He waited for him to begin. The next thing you know, the old fellow blew the candle out and pulling the quilt up over his shoulder, he turned his face to the wall and he said, good night, Jesus. I'll be seeing thee in the morning. And he fell asleep. He had walked and talked with the Lord all day. So when bedtime came, there was nothing left between them except to say, good night, Jesus. I'll be seeing thee in the morning. How I wish I lived like that. And when we walk with the Lord in the light of his word, what a glory he sheds on our way. When we do his goodwill, he abides with us still and with all who will trust and obey. Then in fellowship sweet, we'll sit at his feet. We'll walk by his side in the way. What he says we will do, where he sends we will go. Never fear, only trust and obey. Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but trust and obey. Thank you for joining us on the chapel platform. If you'd like a cassette copy of today's message, send a check for five dollars to audio services, Bob Jones University, Greenville, South Carolina, 29614. Please mention the speaker, the late Dr. James McGinley, the message titled, Can Two Walk Together, and today's date. The chapel platform has been sponsored by Bob Jones University. Please join us again for the chapel platform.