In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the difference between walking in a normal regenerate state and walking in the power of the Holy Ghost. He highlights the radical transformation that occurs when someone is born again and filled with the Holy Spirit. The speaker uses the analogy of a rocket launch to illustrate the power of fire, comparing it to the power of the Holy Spirit. He also shares a testimony of a woman named Miss Swan who captivated a bored and tired congregation with her passionate testimony. The sermon concludes with a reminder that the biblical way of shining is through burning, which signifies being completely surrendered to God's will.

I'm sure you'd hardly believe this, but Jimmy left a quarter here on the desk. I'm going to play it safe tonight and preach a Baptist sermon. Not Spurgeon, you boys have preached him out. I'm going a bit further back. I'm going to borrow a Baptist preacher's message and it's rather strange to me at times that the first sermon ever preached on the baptism of the Holy Ghost was preached by a Baptist. Not many of them preach on it anymore, but the first sermon ever preached on ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire was preached by John the Baptist, that very fine Baptist preacher that I've found. And I did have a week preaching on one occasion with this very wonderful old man, he is old now, Dr. Vance Havner. And I remember he said that what the Church of Jesus Christ needs today is not a $9.95 tune-up, but the whole thing needs a thorough overhauling. And I think we're living in a day of very shattered theology. I think one reason why our present evangelism doesn't stand up to pressure is because it's almost void of theology. It's a flimsy storytelling pretty little thing that gives you the jitters and puts an itch in your feet. But it doesn't have much of what the old saints preached about. Now if I were to say to you how many baptisms are preached in the Bible. Well I guess you'd say well of course the baptism of water, we're good Baptists. And then John Priestley shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire, that's right. And then there's another baptism I never heard anybody preach on it. You do me a favor brother Morel and preach on it next time I hear you. And Jesus said I have a baptism to be baptized with. Are you able to take it? But you know there was another baptism, there are four baptisms. Because John the Baptist said this, that he preached a baptism unto repentance. So there's a baptism of repentance, there's a baptism that at least should signify there being regenerate. Now that's not always true. We're baptizing people that aren't even born. All you do is walk down the island say you feel like joining the church and hey presto you get in they're not even born. Now I never handle my Bible, I don't know how you handled yours, I never handle my Bible without a very deep sense of uneasiness every time I cross over from the old dispensation if you like, or from the Old Testament to the New. Because here's a barrier. I have to face this this white page. It hasn't a message on it. It's a white page but really it it comes a period of 400 years of total darkness. It has no message, it has a very eloquent message. It's another word God saying my spirit shall not always thrive with man. I don't toy around for too long with your rebellion and your unwillingness. And so when you come to that chapter, pardon me, to that page, I remember that the nation of Israel that God loves so much for the second time was going into captivity for 400 years and that's an awful long while. That white page is a period of darkness without any prophetic light. A period of awful stillness without any prophetic voice. Brother Norell writes to me on and he sparked me up a while ago. God said what did you do? My eyes sat in my chair one day and then I got down on my knees. I've got a nice little office behind the orange trees under a breadfruit tree there. I'm not many for one to talk sense anyhow. And so I stand there and I read and I pray. And do you know what I heard? One evidence of my grief over America or Britain at this time is this. You have no prophet. That's God's judgment on us. Preachers yes, prophets no. I'll tell you how you can judge whether your your your message is really scriptural. Because if it's really scriptural they won't lay the banners out and they won't welcome you and they won't give you the keys of the city when you enter. And you won't need a bunch of backsliders on the platform to back you up. I remember going to the doctor's office one day and he said Len you know I've really come to realize something. I said what doctor? He said you know I'm a prophet. Well he was the last man in the world to boast and I said doctor you're a prophet. He said sure. I said how do you know? Well every letter I get he said they're stoning me. And which of the prophets haven't been stoned? Huh? Huh you thought you're a prophet because I put your picture this side in the newspaper huh? Oh you got a great welcome from a group and they had a banquet to receive you. I'll tell you what nobody spread a banquet for John the Baptist. Somebody said do you know so-and-so preached before Mr. Nixon in the White House four minutes? I'll tell you something John the Baptist wouldn't have got back a second time. Elijah wouldn't have got back a second time. You see prophets are God's emergency men for crisis hours and if ever the world is in a crisis it's in a crisis of this hour. And the answer is that God sends us prophets. They're terrible men but God sends them. Now you've got to think of John the Baptist this way I think. You've got to remember what manner of man he was. I'd love to have seen John the Baptist. He comes on the stage after 400 years of stillness without any prophetic voice. A period of 400 years of blackness and then suddenly you get an incandescent personality. I'll tell you something for nothing brethren you never need to advertise a fire. I don't care how dumb and dead the world is. The world knows when you have a pulpit on fire and it knows when a church is on fire. It knows when a man's on fire. He's unmistakably baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire. Now I have a little word I hang on to. I'm very simple. I'm not brilliant like these other guys. I'm simple and the Lord deals with. One lady said to me one day do you have a favorite scripture and I said I sure have. As a matter of fact I ate just about all to myself nobody else wants it. She said what do you mean. My favorite text for 40 years has been this. The Lord preserves the simple. Now you need that you're too smart you're too clever but I need it. The Lord preserves the simple. Right now I see over the world a great stagnation except where there's a spot of revival in Indonesia and recently my good friend Norman Grubb got a letter from his headquarters in West Africa and you know he said he said when I read these letters I'm like one that dreams. The whole New Testament has come alive again. You see we're so subnormal that if ever we become normal we'll think we're abnormal. As I said last night J.B Phillips got a bit tired of sleepy orthodox Elizabethan English and he snatched for his New Testament began to read it and ignited him. He started with the actually apostles. He summarized it this way concerning the church. The fire baptized church. The spirit energized church. Most of our talking about the Holy Ghost is only a salute recognizing he's the third person. I can tell you this and you can't contradict it you know very well that 99 percent of our churches are not controlled by the Holy Ghost. We salute him we sing about him. Glory to the Father. Glory to the Son. Glory to the Holy Ghost. I've heard people say I trust the Holy Ghost comes tonight. Do you know if the Holy Ghost really comes and came tonight most of us would make a run for the door. This man began to read began to read and he said the church. Well he wasn't a charismatic. He never trained the baptism of the Holy Ghost. He's scholarly. He's brilliant. He has degrees. Sure and as he read the Acts of the Apostles suddenly the thing came alive and he summarized it like this. This is the church. Before it became fat and short of breath by prosperity. This is the church before it became muscle bound by over organization. And this is the church where people didn't sign to say they believed in articles of faith or acted in faith. This is the church not gathering together a group of intellectuals to study psychosomatic medicine to heal the sick. This is the church he says not saying prayers but praying in the Holy Ghost. I don't know anything on God's earth more wonderful than being in a prayer meeting where the Holy Ghost is energizing people to pray. When you pray merely to give God a shopping list and remember the building fund and remember this. No no no no the prayer meeting's dead. But oh and God the Holy Ghost is. Now I can't tell you what happened about John his 20 years in the wilderness which I'm sure he has I don't know. I'm sure he was thinking God's thoughts after him. I'm sure there were many times you could have seen him maybe behind the rock praying as did Isaiah. Oh but that was render heaven. The uncircumcised Philistines at the place. People went to the tabernacle what did they get they got stones instead of bread. They heard a dignified man read pompously with beautiful eloquence the 35th of Isaiah. When the God moves the place will become like the Garden of Eden. When he comes the eyes of the I'll tell you something we'll never get a Holy Ghost revival while you think you can turn the Holy Ghost on at 11 o'clock Sunday morning turn him off at 12 switch him on at 7 at night. Do you think you're running God. Do you think you're going to lay down some petty little sacrifice and God. No sir never on your life. You know one of the wonders about John the Baptist he was born of a barren woman and my God the church has been barren so long I'm looking for her to bring forth. I say I hang on to a word. The last word that you find in enclosing phases of one of the great men we don't know too much about Malachi. And suddenly he looks through that darkness and he sees a twinkling light and he says yes there's somebody going to come and who shall abide the day of his coming. And then he says the Lord whom ye seek. We're not seeking the Lord we're seeking blessing we're seeking success. We're seeking crowds. Some people seeking miracles. But we've had 25 years and people swarming. When the miracles ended the crowds ended and the folk ended. They were not seeking God. But gentlemen ladies tonight listen we're shut up to God. If he doesn't come you better get ready for concentration camps. If he doesn't come we're in the biggest mess we've ever been in. Without a shadow of a doubt. But there's that little word there that little key word that always ignites me. It says the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly. I like that. We'll get in one meeting one night the Holy Ghost will come man alive I'll tell you we'll know he's come. Suddenly there'll be an invasion of divine power. While shepherds watch their flocks by night all seated on the ground. And suddenly there was a sound of the heavenly host. They were moping and groping there for 10 days in the upper room. And I don't think Peter was saying hey Thomas are you doubting. People say we don't need tarry meetings. We do need tarry meetings. We need tarry meetings to get emptied. We need tarry meetings to get stripped. We need tarry meetings to get humiliated. But as they were there so dismal day after day suddenly suddenly. I like that word it's wonderful. A group of people were meeting together it was a Wednesday morning precisely 11 o'clock Wednesday morning the 13th of August 1727. And there'd been theological squabbles and one day they said look we're grieving the Spirit of God. Can't we put on one side the points in which we disagree and can't we emphasize the major points in which we agree. And suddenly they got together all of one accord in one place. And just as the clock got to 11 o'clock. I guess the devil can remember that clock. I bet he can see it as big as this tabernacle in history. Because precisely 11 o'clock to those Moravians that Wednesday morning the 7th 13th of August 1727 the Holy Ghost came upon them. Did not happen. A thing that wasn't didn't happen at Pentecost. A thing that's never happened in church history did not happen. A prayer meeting was born that lasted for 100 years without ever having a moment of brokenness. Wouldn't you like to go to a prayer meeting right there. If you went at midday they were praying. If you went at midnight they were praying. Some days the old people were troubled. We can't limit all we do. And you can't lay down a track for him to come your way. But go back a bit this woman is a barren woman. The father of this man is a priest. He's right in line in the priesthood. He's going to do what he only would ever do once in his old priestly life. And that was to come and make the sacrifice at the altar. It was unrehearsed. He wore a heavy helmet there on his head. He wore a breastplate. He wore long garments. And he must come down the aisle and at nine o'clock in the morning there on the porch which was called Herod's porch. Suddenly there was a blasting of trumpets. And when the trumpets were blasting the doors were open. The priest moved down the aisle. The crowd were allowed to follow him. He comes to the altar preceded by somebody who took away the debris. Somebody else took a life call to be sure that this altar would burn. And as he comes down it says there in the first chapter of Luke there was somebody standing at the right side of the altar. Does it matter whether he's at the right or the left? It surely does. Because if he comes to the right side he has a message for an individual. If he comes to the left side he has a message for the nation. And here is a man already nervous. He's never rehearsed it. And suddenly his eyes look out under his might and brow. And he sees an angel. Maybe he's going to faint. And the angel says fear not. Angels always say that. Fear not. I'm not Justin Abrams. And thy wife is going to bear a son. As you know he said about that son he shall be great in the sight of God. Brother that's the only greatness I covet. I don't care how men rate me. I don't care if they think I'm a lunatic. And I'm getting too old. The doctor told me some couple of years ago now you you well you shouldn't even preach anymore. And but I forget about that. And uh you know I I get so thrilled about the gospel and then if I die somebody else will carry on anyhow. But oh man it's a wonderful wonderful wonderful thing to realize there's such a marvelous being as the Holy Ghost. And the Holy Ghost will come and minister and God will send angels if need be to minister. And he says say your prayer is heard. Your wife is going to bear a son. And he says I can't believe it. Well he said you will believe it and I'll tell you how you'll believe it. From this moment you're going to be dumb. You know if God struck everybody dumb here for unbelief I'd need to turn this into a healing meeting. Your wife is going to bear a son. Oh now come on my wife's 80 years of age. She said never mind never mind never mind. People say to me they write to me from all over the world. Brother Holland said tonight some of us don't have our wedding garments. Do you know who Jesus is coming for? Well I'll tell you one thing he's not coming for a widow. He's coming for a bride. And the bride normally is young and she's robed in white. We need a revival of holiness. I hear people say things are getting so bad I'm glad I'm looking for a rapture any moment. Do you know why? Because most of them are scared to die anyhow. And the other thing they don't want to suffer. Oh God let his darling church go into tribulation in Russia. He let his church go through misery there in China. But us darlings who think he's going to disturb us in our Cadillac. Why do you think he gave us wall-to-wall carpeting and all these beautiful things. If he's going to punish us. Not on your life. We deserve far better treatment than this. So he gives us the treatment we want. Leaves us without any profit. What a price. Well this woman was to bear a son and soon the child was in evidence all right. And he went across the way to see her cousin Elizabeth. And when he got to see her cousin Elizabeth he said the child leapt in my womb. But I want to tell you something. The child never leapt in a womb until he met Jesus. And you know it's uh. This is rough on our theology isn't it. Somebody should rewrite the Bible to fit our theology because it's an awful habit of rupturing it. You know what it says. It says the moment the child leapt in her womb when the child came to Jesus. Well well I'm going to tease you a little I must. How do you get on with speaking in tongues as the initial sign. He couldn't even say mummy yet. I mean how could he speak in tongues when he couldn't say mummy or daddy. He wasn't even born yet. It says about John the Baptist was it. And the Lord didn't want his mummy to feel shabby. So he filled the mother with the holy ghost. And he didn't want the old daddy to be left out. So he filled Zechariah with the holy ghost. And it doesn't say one of them spoke in tongues. Can't be right. I wonder what the amplified says. I did check on that. No it's not there. It just says they were filled with the holy ghost. Look you could get tongues without being filled with the holy ghost. And you could get the holy ghost without being filled with tongues. I'm sure of that. Now you better not tell. You know let's say like a friend of mine did. Look a horse couldn't drag me to that altar to get filled with the holy ghost and speak in tongues. And you know what they did? The Lord got him to the altar and he spoke in tongues. Because he tried to tell the Lord where to get off. I have a friend who for years and years and years has no need to anybody. Never tells anybody he has a need. Never sends any letters of any kind. When I listen to that man I think I'm listening to a man out of another generation. And he was a Plymouth brother. The gifts died everything else died at the end of the dispensation. He had it all dispensationalized you know. And one day after he'd been in a meeting and he was feeling pretty dry. He got down before the Lord and he said to the Lord. Lord I don't care I'm desperate that you fill me with the holy ghost. And God filled him. And within an hour he spoke in tongues. He didn't know what in the world to do about it. And you know for six months he didn't tell anybody. And then one night the Lord said you tell the people. And he told the people. And do you know what they did? Oh they believe in the Holy Spirit all right. But do you know what they did? Showed him the door. He never got back after that. And I don't believe that's the only sign. I don't believe it is a sign. I believe it's a gift. And I believe it's a gift of the day in which we're living too. Because if you say that passed away. Well you'll have to say all the others passed away. Knowledge it shows faith. It looks as though it has in the church too. And wisdom looks as though we never had it anyhow. Oh I heard Jimmy say and I think I know what he means. Holy ghost we welcome thee. So John was filled with the holy ghost from his mother's womb. And his mother was filled with the holy ghost. And his father was filled with the holy ghost. And then I don't know when. All I know is that John disappeared. I wish some of you guys had disappeared too. Isn't it a strange thing don't you think it's a strange thing that Jesus Christ as far as we know never preached a sermon until he was filled or anointed with the holy ghost. You think because you're born of the spirit that gives you the right to preach nonsense. It doesn't. Jesus was born of the spirit sure he was. But Jesus was anointed of the spirit. And he went forth to preach in the spirit. Now again I say I don't know where John disappeared to. But I want to tell you something. Don't you think he came into an easy situation. We're getting badly smitten with self-pity that nobody ever lived in a lousy generation like ours. But I want to tell you something. Every generation has been lousy. The world's been a disaster area since the first sin committed in the garden of Eden. I'll tell you what kind of a nation he came to. Because the beginning of chapter 3 in Luke says in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar Pontius Pilate being the governor. Herod being the Tetrarch of Galilee. His brother Philip the Tetrarch of Arturia. Philip the Tetrarch of Arturia and of the region of Trachonitis and Lysanias the Tetrarch of Abilene. Amos and Caiaphas being the high priest. Now isn't that interesting. It's refreshing in a mouthful of sand. But I said that to say this. He came when there was chaos in the world. I like a phrase that was said recently by one of the Christian intellectuals of America Dr. Dr. Kuhn. He said remember this. There are six million slaves, a sophisticated totalitarian. I don't know if I told you this but last year we looked on the rim of the southern rim of the Grand Canyon and I read a plaque there that said that little yellow ribbon there. Oh come on let's be common sense here. Have some common sense and logical here. How do you expect a bunch of men in the upper room without any money without any prejudice. But they didn't. Well why shouldn't something of the same miracle happen in the day in which we live. John comes on the scene. Everything's against him. He has no committee. He has no forward. Now I'm not facetious when I say some of you ought to go hide or at least six months. I mean that. Do some of you preachers a world of good. As far as I know I've spent most of next year. I haven't got an engagement and I don't want any. I could have dozens but I don't want them. I'm not saying I won't come out. I may come out but I'm going to find a year and get alone with God because I tell you something's got to happen. It's going to happen. And I don't want to miss it when it comes. I don't want to be left on the beach when the tide goes out. I don't know where John went. I know the scripture of putting the bits together says he was in the wilderness until the day of his showing forth. He had his dwelling with the wife. He wasn't knocking on the door of this church. He wasn't knocking on the door of the church. He was away for about 20 years. That's my guess that maybe what the Jewish boy calls his Baal, what Baal Victor is it he calls it. That that's about the time he went like Jesus went to the temple when he was 12. I think he disappeared then. And he has almost 20 years in the wilderness alone seeking God. You see John knew something that we preachers seem if we ever knew it we've forgotten. John knew this thing. He didn't have very much time to preach. He had much time left. I think just now as a great prince who ruled in the pulpit in England there Dr. Parker in the last century. And he said one day we need an awful awful number of men who will preach repentance. John came. Did nothing about the gimmicks we know about. Nobody ran in front of him with a flag. There were no posters all around Jerusalem saying go down to Eden and Salem and hear the finest preacher in the world today. No picture of him standing with his Bible doing something like this like these very humble preachers do these days. John could have said what every preacher ought to be able to say and if he can't say it well you should pack up and go. The choicest thing any preacher could ever say was said by Jesus. It was said prophetically in Isaiah 61. The apostle Paul could say it I'm sure and I'm sure this man could say the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because he hath anointed me. So if you just want to be a little evangelist and make a lot of money and be popular go ahead be silly waste your life. When John Baptist came in the wilderness there was no advertising. He had no fellows pushing around. But I'll tell you what way way down in that unique place before long if you read in Matthew. Matthew gives a lovely description of him. He tells us how successful John was. And I don't care how you measure him whether you measure him socially, whether you measure him geographically, whether you measure him spiritually. Every way you check up on him John Baptist was a success. Jesus the son of God. Thinking of Moses and Isaiah and others said there was nearly he's the last of them. I preached in a certain place a man came to me afterwards and he said you know Raven has you lacked some things. I said brother I lack a bucketful. What do you suggest? I suggest you go and lose yourself for six months and ask God to give you the ministry of healing. And he said I think you could fill any tent in America. Well I said thanks for the information. Very nice. I'm not a bit interested. The greatest evangelist met that you can't find a revivalist that ever had a ministry of healing as such. The book very very clearly says this my friend. People were not running after him. I have mercy on my son he's a lunatic. They were not saying. I don't care which way you measure him. They flock from Jerusalem. They flock from Judea. They flock from Samaria. The soldiers came. The publicans came. The people came. You know if you had a great big building on fire in the city here. I remember a fire now when we were living in England. I came home from a meeting one night and it was nearly midnight and I drove in the house. I said Martha come quick let's go uptown there's a huge fire. No but this time and oh I said I'd like to see it. It's possibly one of these great cotton mills and you know they've a lot of oil in them and my how they burn. Come on I said let's go. I mean it's nearly one o'clock in the morning it was and I I said let's go. I mean you know this time of night there won't be anybody there. We'll get a grandstand view. We'll go right up and sit. You know when we got there we could get in blocks of the place. It was burning at this night. But man alive to see a conflagration like that. People had left their beds. They'd got all cuddled away in the distance. The burning. Yeah but I want to tell you something. If you'd seen John there. Oh no he didn't go copy the other guys. He didn't wear phylacteries. He didn't wear a priestly garment. Sure enough he had a pair of leather shorts and he had sandals on his feet. That didn't make him a hippie anyhow. But while he was very unconventional as I've said often enough. He was different in his dress. He's different in his diet. He's different in his doctrine. No question about that at all. But listen let's put a bit of emphasis here. He was different in his doctrine. You see this man had such a. Mr. Finney says this. That when the power of the Holy Ghost is on the people. They pull people out of the world. And they come and pack the house of God. When that power isn't there. The world has more power and it pulls people that way. I think he's pretty right. But you know soon the big shots came down and they said we shall have to investigate this. The president of the Bible school and all the bunch came down and they saw this scraggly looking hairy man. And they couldn't get near. People were sitting up in the trees and on the banks of the Jordan and everywhere. There were thousands of them. You see that's why nobody came to church last Sunday. That that's why we're the building funds going down. That's why. That's why we're not getting money. This little whippersnapper. And they tell me he never makes an offering. Isn't he a fool. He ought to cash in while he has a chance. And so here he is breaking every rule in the book. And they looked down my noses and said. Who art thou. Of course he said it very culturally you know. Finest Hebrew around. Who art thou. And the rough old boy down there said. I'm a voice crying in the wilderness. What did you say. Maybe that's the only place you're going to be able to cry before long. But you know what he did. He preached a baptism of repentance. If I heard you preachers I'd know I'd know whether you're really tickling the ears of the crowd and wanting to be popular. By how much emphasis you laid on repentance. Poor Bill Bright. I read his book recently. Bill Bright admits he made 25 million mistakes. Not many men would do that. Now he doesn't call them mistakes. He calls them little tracts. The four laws. But he hasn't got a word of repentance. And I know a man a lawyer who faced him up with it as soon as he published it and said. Look you haven't got any repentance. Oh he said. I don't want campus crusade to be known as negative. Well that's a slap in the face of Jesus because Jesus preached repentance. John preached repentance. On the day of. Cost you five dollars to go past. But still. As soon as he might my marvelous shadow can heal people. I don't have even to speak the word like Jesus did. I've improved on that. I mean I'm Peter. Oh we've got men like around these days that would do that. They don't care about the Holy Ghost or God or anybody as long as you fill those pockets with money. We were in a town the other week where they said there's a fellow down there with a big tabernacle. He has three healing lines. A dollar healing line. A five dollar healing line. A hundred dollar healing. And you know fools go every year every week. And pay to get healed. I'd put him in jail. John preached a baptism of repentance. That's the basis. I don't care where you start your theology. I'll tell you where your theology must end. If it's biblical it must end with his recorrection. It's all traumatic. Oh when John preached his message I'll tell you he left blisters on the soles of men and women. Nobody ran and asked for his autograph. Nobody ran and asked for his photograph. No. In the book of Leviticus chapter 14 and verse 14 there's a little thing that's very interesting. It's a leper coming to be cleansed. Do you know that a priest wouldn't offer cleansing for a leper until he admitted he was totally covered with leprosy from the crown of his head to the sole of his feet. He couldn't say my hand is dirty but I'm pure as well. No sir he must say I'm totally corrupt. And then they put blood upon his ear and blood upon his thumb and blood upon his. You can get other spirits and there are a lot of evangelists around. 95 percent of the converts hitting the altar. And they put the meal down and every day it ate it ate it ate. One day the dog was brought in. The dish of food was empty. The man rang the bell and the dog salivated all its way but there was no food but it salivated the same way. Because you'd produced a reaction. It was a stimulation which was merely psychological. And we say now look get rid of the article. Now don't get mad you fellows that made so many. You'd go in the wilderness and hang your head if you did that. It's harsh it's Why do you pray to heaven? Brother Billy said that Jimmy said to a very famous for the next time God's on the media. If we need anything in our day from the center to the conference of the world we need a baptism of repentance. Repentance is to. I'm constantly being asked what about. And if they're still rebels after. And if you tell them to rebel even against the status symbol of all the. When fellows can take the blood of Jesus Christ and the holy ghost and say to a bunch of kids turn on to Jesus. Not turn on to Jesus. Do you know if most of these kids are really getting born again. They've left broken hearted. And he didn't even ask to go back to. Oh no. Now some of these kids will need teaching but don't you teach them to rebel. Well I preach against the establishment but I let people know that I preach this way. But I wouldn't preach in some church. Now if you're going to blast them you shouldn't take a penny from them. If you do you're a hypocrite. Do your shouting outside. Double your crowd outside. But don't accept their hospitality and then tear them apart. Jesus didn't do that. Jesus preached not once he did go in the temple and upset. But most of the time he was outside. You know there's an awful lot of poor little crippled children in the world. Crippled physically. Do you know why. But when the doctor delivered them he he he didn't handle them properly. And you know it wouldn't take more than five minutes sometimes to cripple a babe that's been born. If you don't really get it to birth that little kid can be crippled with its head of some other. It's a very risky thing. My my dear wife. You may know that. But look if a doctor is going to be careful about delivering a newborn babe. Brother can you just get a crowd of excited kids there and say it's all right. Turn on to Jesus and shoot it up with him. If he was going to put on in New York. This this record that sold over the world. I think I read recently this record Jesus Christ Superstar has sold nine million copies. And they're going to make a play of it on Broadway. A dirty bunch of unregistered. Jesus Christ they make mockery of him. Brother no wonder we need the Holy Ghost. There's an awful lot of stuff to burn up. But you know this man I anyhow. Socially everybody came. Soldiers came. Drunkards came. Religious people came. Geographically read the third chapter. It says they came from Jordan and Jerusalem and Judea. That's an awful big area. And remember there were no blacktop roads and no cabs. But they came. Here is a man. He is our hope. Here is a man that loves the living God. My how he baptized those people so wonderfully. And they got quite excited and said you must be the greatest fellow that ever lived. And he says look please please. You see a man with the Holy Spirit never wants to be the center of attraction. As I said last night Peter said look on us when they needed help. And then he said look not on us. But you know some of us are such thieves we'd steal the glory of God if we'd half a chance just to be famous. Don't look at us. John says listen you think I'm somebody. You know there's somebody coming and honestly I'm not I'm not even worthy to unloosen the dusty sandals on his feet. You think that I'm wonderful. Look when he comes he's not going to baptize you with water to repentance. He's going to baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. His fan is in his hand. He'll thoroughly purge this floor and gather the wheat into the garner. And the rest he's going to burn the chaff with unquenchable fire. I think John must have been terribly excited. He couldn't be otherwise. He's a human being when that one day all the things he'd dreamed up. All the groanings he ever groaned and I'm sure he traveled in birth. He was filled with the Holy Ghost. And one day for Jesus not only died between two thieves he was baptized between this bunch of unregenerate sinners. And there's a dirty sinner hiding Jesus. And Jesus suddenly stepping forward and a dove comes from heaven and settles upon him. And John suddenly took off and he says that majestic voice of his. Behold. My. I think that behold not only went down the Jordan Valley. I think it went down every every every avenue in hell itself. St. Eugene having a role until now. And he's going to bear the sin of the world. What Aaron could not do. What Moses could not do. The church never had more. Get the fire on it. I can't help but think when I turn to this of a very fine Englishman. And in Canada recently I was reading about him. I didn't know that he did go. He went to Toronto Academy to become the head of the music department there. But he was a preacher in England and he was a successful preacher. He was a very fine preacher. He had a full church. They had plenty of money. But one night he went home and I guess in in your heart of heart preach a thing tonight. Well we just let it up and say well that's the law of averages. You do have a bad meeting now again. Edwin Hatch went home. Went into his office though it was dark late at night and he got down there and he began to stammer out his. Breathe on me breath of God. Fill me with life in you that I may love what thou wouldst love and do what thou wouldst do. And then he grabbed a pencil. He thought this is something of God. And you know you'll get the baptism of fire when you want it as desperate as that brother. Yes theology will go to dust. But when you say. We've acquired a cultured, refined, wonderful. And the Archbishop of Canterbury is saying with churches. And they tell me that you never baptize your converts. And you never have the sacraments of the Lord's Supper. And these are two of the final commands of the Lord. You must baptize believers and you must give them communion. And if you don't the Lord will totally reject you. William Booth wrote back courteously to the Archbishop of Canterbury and said I thank you sir for the warning. May I return it? For the same Jesus who said do this till I come said wash each other's feet. Do you do that? Oh you can always knock a guy down with a little bit of theology of God can't you? William Booth stepped down to derelict humanity. Religion had taken a dip. Methodism had lost its anointing. He designed a little flag. The Salvation Army still have it with blood and fire on. He wrote a battle song one night there in his little room. Do you remember what he wrote? Thou Christ of burning cleansing flames send the fire. Thy blood brought gift today we claim. Send the fire. Look down and see this waiting host. Give us. I say again I don't know whether we want it but brethren we need it. And then he says to make these weak hearts strong and brave send the fire. To live a dying war to say send the fire. To burn up every tree. Successful preachers. Do a theological juggling act and everybody. Wasn't that marvelous? He went and got along with God one night. He said Lord there's something I don't have the anointing. The thing you talk of I don't have. A behold sought God and the Holy Ghost came on him. I'm going to ask brother Jimmy next. I don't know when I'll come next year anyhow. But in the conferences next year you can get a whole stack. I trust you'll get them in paperback. A book called the Deeper Experiences of Christian Men by Gilchrist Lawson. It's out in paperback. It's been free and three dollars fifty cents for a long while. You can get it for a dollar now. It's a fantastic book. Read every one of them. Oh God came different ways. He baptized this man with the Holy Ghost and fire. A Quaker said he knew he was born again. He knew that all right. You see we did have a man that nobody talks too much about now. He knew he wrote a few chapters not pages in church history. His name was George Fox. He sewed himself into a pair of leather britches because he was always tearing the others anyhow. And he had revelations. He had visions by the Holy Ghost. He made prophecies by the Holy Ghost. I've been up the very hill that he walked up. I've fellowshiped in the old hall where two hundred years ago he'd built that hall. It has old mullion windows and I've been in that hall and worshipped on a Sunday morning with the Quakers. You talk about a baptism with the Holy Ghost. You talk about the anointing of the Spirit of God. Read it. Read it. Do you know why he sought the Holy Ghost? Because he said I'm all right in the pulpit. I'm all right but there are certain areas in my life and you know I can't keep sweet. I burn with temper. Jesus never burned with temper. See our problem is we get mad about things that shouldn't disturb us and we're not disturbed about things that should make us mad. That area of carnality in your life I don't care what you try to excuse it with. You know you can make all the excuses you like for the old Adam living in you but I'll tell you what your neighbors want. If your neighbors hear you bawling they say ha ha listen so-and-so. The preacher's home again. The evangelists you can always tell them they're always having rows shouting. Oh yes they preach about peace that passes all understanding and the Lord can do a miracle. Hasn't done much in them has he? Why I'd like to hide a tape recorder in some preacher's home. Pick it up three months after it would be interesting wouldn't it? Friend of mine was mean enough to do that once in a house. The night after he asked me to sit in the same chair and I didn't know a thing about it. And he said well sit in the chair I'll tell you something. He said last week my wife said oh um friends are coming to supper tonight. Friends oh I thought we'd have a free night. Now we've got well they're not really coming to supper but they wanted to have a chat and they're going to drink some coffee and have some cookies you know and uh who are they? So-and-so and his wife. Oh not her. Not her. She'll turn oh oh she she she got a degree on inspecting garbage. She's a genius. She knows all the junk around. All the oh brother she's the biggest guffet. So he said I thought all right. And he said I put a microphone on the back of the chair and I got a long line and I uh I hid my tape recorder. And she talked a solid hour without coming to the surface nearly. She criticized the church and the elders and I don't know who she didn't blast. And when they were going home the fellow said well boy it's a bit late we'll have to go. We have to go right across the city. It was in Birmingham. No stay. Now you're going to have coffee before you go to bed and some cookies aren't you? Well yes but when they get home well we'll have them here and then go. Wife made some new cookies they're great. So why not stay? Hey and by the way you you like a bit of I mean let's face it I mean everybody in the church knows you're a bit of a gossip. Would you like to hear the latest thing? Now this is genuine the latest thing. It hasn't really got out yet. Would you like to hear it? Mm-hmm. Yeah sure yeah we'll take coffee let's hear it. Well. Man he said I was trembling. I I as I went in the kitchen he said I switched it on and she was Oh brother what's she going. And you know what I think about and you know the pastor did this and you know Mrs. Daunty you know the elders and he came in with the coffee. She was as white as day. This is me. Isn't this me? He said yeah. I mean this is what I said tonight. Yes I took a tape recording of it. What are you going to do with it? Well I thought it would make a nice Christmas gift for the pastor. No one would give it to the pastor would you? Well why not? I mean you're a Christian you never do anything dirty or rotten do you? You never gossip behind anybody's back. You never scandalize. You're a saint. You're living as Jesus lives. Nobody could ever catch you blasting and bad-tempered. I mean you're a saint. You're a preacher. Come on. Jack give him ten dollars for that. No you can't buy for ten dollars. Give him twenty dollars for it. You can't have it for twenty dollars. You know I said to my husband before we came I'm not so sure we should have come tonight. I'm sure we shouldn't. I don't want coffee and cake. I'm going home. Come on let me go. Are you sure? Would you take twenty-five dollars for the tape? No I won't take twenty-five dollars. I'll never come in your house again. He said well that'll be all right. I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll give it to you. You give it to me? Yeah I give you. No chance. No chance. No no. Here take it. Here. There you are. Now take it home. What are you gonna do with it? Play it over? Burn it. Burn it. You don't have a copy do you? No. Going out she thanks him. She says I'm just gonna destroy this. I'm glad. I'm glad. I'm glad. I can't get home quick enough to put this in the furnace. I'm gonna burn it. I'm glad there isn't a copy. I didn't say that. You didn't. Didn't he just say he didn't have a copy? Well I still say I don't have a copy. Somebody else has a copy? Mm-hmm. It's gonna be played on the judgment morning. Every man's works. Every man's words. They're gonna be played over. That which was said in secret is gonna be yelled from the house door. Huh? That'll be interesting won't it? All right let's wrap this up. If you go back through hymnology you'll be amazed how many times these great souls, and I mean great souls, have expressed their desire for God in terms of fire. They don't sing it much now. I used to like to hear it sung, Lest I forget Gethsemane. Lest I, Brother Holland sang that song last night. I've been sticking it together in my mind all day. I know it's a fantastic hymn about Gethsemane. We don't hear much about it. Lest I forget Gethsemane. You know you, I only know two hymn books that have the last verse of When I surveyed a wondrous cross. The fifth verse is in the old, old Baptist hymn book. His dying crimson like a robe spread o'er his body on the tree. Then am I dead to all the globe. And all the globe is dead to me. Maybe we better not sing it because it isn't true anyhow is it? And Lest I forget Gethsemane. The last verse says fill me O God with thy desire for speak of Calvary. And the little crippled woman that looked after thousands of children over the years away there in India. That's love you know. When you take a bunch of rebels like that. Dirty little scabby filthy smelly children. Illegitimate kids. Some of them only just out of the womb a few hours. They found them. She clothed them by the hundred by the thousand over the years. And she wrote some of our loveliest hymns. Amy Wilson Carmichael. And do you remember what she wrote? Well one thing she wrote was this. Give me a love that leads the way. A faith which nothing can dismay. A hope no disappointments tire. A passion that will burn like fire. Let me not think to be a clod. Make me thy fuel flame of God. You see the cast of shining the biblical way is burning. And burning means some of these just being destroyed. That's all there is. And that's a big price to pay isn't it? Let's say quickly this is what it does. Doesn't it? Fire hurts. Did you ever get burned seriously? Just 20 years from now I was caught on the fourth floor of a burning hotel in Chicago. And I endured that fire. And I don't walk too good at least physically. I hope I walk better spiritually. Because I brought my back and my legs and my feet in just seconds. And was laid out off work for a couple of years. And really proved God there to be faithful without sending any letters. And we paid every bill. Thank God I don't owe a dime to a living soul today. But you know that fire really hurt. Some of us would like a baptism that doesn't hurt us eh? But doesn't scorch us. Fire hurts. It sure does. It hurt Jesus. Fire releases. The three Hebrew children went into the fire. What did it do? Nothing. Just burn their fetters off that's all. It's the only way some of us will get our fetters burned. Humble ourselves and say Lord send the fire. He'll release you all right. You find a piece of metal, stone with base metal in it, lead and different alloys and gold. You wouldn't take a knife and start picking it out. You put it in a little crucible and press the buttons on a modern induction crucible. And hey presto the thing melts. And gold is heavier than lead. Gold will sink to the bottom. And you take the scum off the top and look again and it forms another scum. And you take it off and it forms again and it forms again. And then you look at it and the man walks away. And you say why didn't you take something off? He says because it's pure. How do you know? Because I can see myself reflected in it. That's why I know it's pure. Do you remember when we used to sing before we got these jittery things about Manson over the hilltop? Do you remember when we used to sing a little hymn about that? Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me. All his wonderful passion and purity. All thou spirit divine. All my nature refined. Till when the refiner looks in he sees his image reflected in me. Holiness is not a luxury it's a necessity. Fire will hurt. Fire will release. Fire will destroy. Now I baptize every convert that I've ever seen come to the Lord. When I, after a long, a good period of testing I'll tell you that. But I want to tell you something. The old man can swim too. You can't drown him with water baptism. But I'll tell you what we'll do. I believe if a man was really regenerate the old man would be dead then too. Putting off the old man and his works. But we don't preach a regeneration like that. We don't even preach Christ. We say do you want to go to heaven? I'll come up I'll pray for you. Do you want peace with God? Fine. If you start preaching real biblical repentance and then you have to take up your cross and follow him you'll lose a lot of your converts. But I'll tell you what you'll have better ones. There was a great fire of London in 1666 until that came. They carried the dead out literally by the hundred every night. Because the plague was on. But once the plague came on the city every germ was burned up. Every rathole the plague went down and all the germs were destroyed. Nobody died of the plague after the fire came. My soul for yours if you're living in just a regenerate state and you haven't. I don't care how you turn it. Sanctification baptism of the Holy Ghost. But you could call it some other phrase. But if you know that there's been a place of total surrender and the Holy Ghost has come and applied the blood. Because the blood must be applied before the oil was put on the leper. He must have that blood applied and then he must have the oil on. I'll guarantee you know a greater difference between walking in a normal regenerate state and the power of the Holy Ghost. And unless you were a terrible sinner than you did as an average church member when you got so-called born again. It's so radical. Read again that book and see. The other thing the final thing here is this. That fire is power isn't it? Millions of people watch that rocket go up. And I heard one commentator say you can't look. You stick blue glasses on and even then it's terrifying to see the white heat. The fierce heat. What did that thing weigh about seven million pounds? Well if I take a feather it doesn't go up it goes down. And here's the thing that's built almost like a factory and they shoot the thing up into the sky and it goes beyond the pull of gravitation and it gets way there up till he gets around the moon and whatnot. I suppose we'll be coming back now. But listen I want to tell you that any power that science has is a firecracker compared to the power of the Spirit of God. When he really has his way. I don't know how you what you came to church in tonight but I know this. That when you turn the key there it doesn't matter how polished your car is. It doesn't matter how much gas you have in it. Doesn't matter if you've got radial tires on it and it's all fancily trimmed and it's well insured. If you turn that key and there's no firing in it you've got problems. You won't get home. Oh if only we could bring so much of this polished stuff that we have. But you know what? God won't take it like that and use it. I've heard people say no that fella's brilliant. If that man got saved he'd be marvellous. God never looks for brilliant. The trouble with a lot of our, the finest preacher I know was a man I lived with for a year and a half. Do you know when he had to preach at half past six Sunday night? Some nights at a quarter of six. He didn't even have an outline. He didn't have it. I've seen that man just go get a cup of tea and get something and make an outline like that and preach. You'd have thought that man had prepared just about about two weeks. He was a natural orator. He's one of the greatest preachers in Scotland today. That's not an advantage in the Christian life. It's a disadvantage. People say I had a crusade and man from that I went. Do you know what I wish? I wish every evangelist the first six crusades we have were all a dead flop. Because he'd sweat and pray to find out if God really called him or whether he's just acting on the personality and charm and eloquence and a retentive memory and knowing when to put the emphasis there and knowing how to gesticulate. Oh brother when God the Holy Ghost comes you don't care whether the guy's handsome, whether he doesn't have to wear flares and a lot of fancy clothes. You go there because God the Holy Ghost is on him. And you listen to that man and you know that out of him there's flowing rivers of living water. In a minute I'm gonna have you sing a song but let me say just one illustration. Turning that song I nearly said to brother Sonny have it but then I thought no let's leave it and we'll have it at the end. But I I like I like that lovely song. I will praise him, praise the Lamb for sinners. I like the end. Glory to the Father, glory glory to the Son, glory to the Holy Spirit. I like the middle verse. When God's power upon the altar of my heart was set ablaze, my ambitions. You know all those things some of you designed for tomorrow. Oh they're so big. You know what they'll be if the Holy Ghost comes. A pile of junk burned up. My ambitions. Oh they're not God's ambitions for you they're your ambitions. You've got it all maneuvered. You're gonna do this, do that, go here go there, then God's power. Now can you get up there when you're down on your belly and your ashes and look up on your back and say I'll praise him, praise him, praise him. Here's a simple illustration. Some of you heard it before. You've heard some of this message before not all of it because God gave me. A lot of it recently. I went to preach one night in the, with one of the great preachers of the Nazarene Church. It was a place called Perth in Scotland. It's a beautiful little town. And as we went there that Saturday afternoon, we went to the building. There was a big sign up and it said James Baxter McLagan, Reverend James Baxter McLagan of Glasgow will preach the annual anniversary service on Saturday at three o'clock. And as we went in I teased him. I said my the letters are nearly as big as you. He was only a little fellow. He had a wonderful voice. He was a good preacher. And he said you know they're going to be disappointed. I said why? He said I'm not going to preach. Oh I said who is? He said you're going to preach. Well that's a fast one isn't it. Kind of thing Jimmy might do on you. But I said I'm going to preach. You're going to preach. I haven't got anything. Well get something. I'll lead the service. I'll sing a couple of solos. I'll introduce you. Well I got up and said what I felt the Lord wanted me to say. And I said this you know you know it all comes down to this. That lots of us want plow and blessing and anointing our way not his way. Lord do something in me but don't tear me apart. Let me meet you in my prayer room. Nobody knows after I've made a good bit of hypocrisy. And I haven't been a prophet. I've been a puppet. I have little strings pulling me. String of popularity. String of the purse you know with some money. And string of this. I've got little strings maneuvering me every time I want to move. This string says be careful it'll spoil your personality or your popularity. And this says be careful because they won't give you a good love offering you know if you preach too hard. And be careful and you've been maneuvered. As I finished that meeting I said look if some of you would be honest. And just say to God Lord I take my hands off myself. You would say I'll come to the altar and give you all I have. Spirit, soul, body, mind, faculty, my will, all I have, all I'm going to have. And I'll never take it back. And if you come something else I'll bring it to the altar. You see our problem isn't that we take things off the altar. The thing is we don't take things to the altar we should be bringing. Now I didn't know who was in the meeting. How do you know who's in the meeting? I don't know who's in this meeting. I said if you're a believer consciously born again but conscious of failure and powerlessness, some form of impurity, some itch for praise, you've been stealing God's glory, you've been. Look why don't you come right down here and get down before God. No no I'll have you go in that room there and treat God and say Lord here I am let the fire fall burn me up and you do what you like with the ashes. Will you do it? And I said if you will raise your hand. They raised their hands and I said that I don't often count but I said I see that the twelve hands are raised. Bow your heads. Now I have to be down at the depot around the corner in just five minutes to catch the train back to Perth with my friend. But I said we'll sing Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me. And if you're coming run down the aisle go in that room and meet and don't get up till you've met God. Twelve hands are raised. This is a thirteen. A little woman at the back put her head out like this and she went like that. And I said I saw it a thirteen. And that's not unlucky. Now I said you get up and come as I leave the platform. And I said come on I'll start it. I started Spirit of the Living God and I walked off. And that woman was off the seat down the aisle and in there just the quickest I ever saw a woman run. I said well praise the Lord. Fifteen years later my wife and I were in a big missionary conference in Manchester. It was an afternoon meeting. The meeting was heavy. The preacher didn't even get off the runway never mind get airborne. He just struggled and man he missed every gear and whatever airplanes do he couldn't get off the runway. And he sat down. And the chairman said now I wonder since we have 15 minutes before we have our tea and cakes would you like to hear a testimony. And they said amen amen. You know anything's better than this kind of thing. Yeah let's have a testimony. And he said let's so and so. And that little woman jumped off the chair. She came. There wasn't a microphone. And you know in five minutes she had that old congregation on the edge of the seat that had all been bored and tired like this. It was a hot heavy afternoon. Man I listened to that little woman and my wife too. Dear Martha sitting there. Now she was sitting with me. We had to come in late. We'd been delayed and I sat at the back. And they said little soul she could hardly see over the desk and I could see her red hair and she was so bright. And she said well it's nice to be here but I'd rather be back in Africa. I'd go back tomorrow but they say I have to stay at home a whole month and a whole year but I'd love to be back. Oh she said praise God. Nice. She said things are so different in England. The churches are so dead. I've just come out of a breath of revival in Africa and it seems cold around here after you've been in revival. And she went on. She said I live in a little hut right right in a wild, one of the wildest parts in a terrible forest. I minister to pygmies and others. And she said God's been giving us a touch of revival. And she said you know some nights when I'm just turning over not sleeping so well I hear her you know at the door. It's nothing just a lion. And she said I just turn over and say well good night sir I'm not on the menu tonight. Oh it doesn't worry me at all. I get to sleep knock at the door. Yes. Oh missy please come. Wife's very ill, very sick, many miles away. All right wait a minute. She said I put on a cover and I light my lamp and I get my medical box and here's a great big black fellow and I follow him and we get to the river and there's no bridge just a slimy log. And he says missy I take I take your things you follow me. And she said he takes the lamp to light the way and he has his lamp in his hand and my box in the other. And he goes over there he can do it almost running. And I go and it's slippy and he says don't look down. Well you always do what you're told not to don't you. I mean if he'd said look up she'd have looked straight forward but he said don't look down so she did. And there was just one cavity that's all. Just one cavity. And she said no that hippopotamus doesn't frighten me and she struggled over and there was some crocodile. She went over through the forest she heard the beast howling. She saw a snake slide over. She went and delivered a baby. Stayed with the lady another hour. Said I'll come back tomorrow she's all right everything's okay. And he said I'll see you home. No you don't need to take me back. Well there's a tiger there's a lion I'm here eating. That's all right. He promised me that he'd shut the mouths of lions and he'll take care of me. Nothing will happen. But she said you know fifteen years ago if a mouse ran over the floor I jumped on a chair and screamed. And now I'm not afraid of lions. Fifteen years ago I got embarrassed even to talk to a white man on the street. And now I could follow a man I'd never seen who'd been a savage not very far before. And there was some savages in the area. And I follow him to deliver a baby. And I follow him into a terrible infested jungle. I follow a black man. She said you see fifteen years ago I went into a mission hall called Cherryfield Mission in Dundee. We had come up from Perth and went to Dundee. That was the time. Oh I thought Cherryfield Mission. I preached there only once in my life. And she said I went to hear Baxter MacLagan. He didn't preach but Brother Abner did. I see he's there at the back. And I felt a bit embarrassed. And she said you know he said one afternoon if you'd come and put all on the altar and let the Lord burn up your fear and your own silly plans and everything else and fill it with the Holy Ghost. You couldn't tell what he'd do. And she said you know every time people said something like that Satan said to me it's not for you. All you do is sweep the floor of a factory anyhow. It's only for special people like deacons in churches or ministers or missionaries. It's not for ordinary people. Somebody should have told her that the good book said it's not for us only but for you and all that are far off. And then she said Brother Abner said why don't you bring what you have. You don't have much. Bring it and let God's fire burn it down. She said you know that stirred something in me. I was sweeping the floor of a factory. I couldn't even write a letter with a decent hand. I couldn't spell. I misspelled words and my handwriting was shocking. But he said I when he gave me a chance he said I just bolted down and I got down in that room and I said Lord I'm going to take the preacher's word because I believe it's your word. Look here I am. This is me on the altar. Everything everything Lord. There's not much. You see the devil will torment you. You don't have much to bring to God. That's not the problem. It's how much he has to bring to you. She said I just prayed simply Lord here I am. I'm a believer. I'm not much good. I'm full of fear. I'm nervous. I'll be sweeping a factory all the days of my life. If you don't I won't even get an office job but Lord here I am. My spirit my soul and body of the preacher said all I know and all I don't know or my present my future here my hands go off me forever. She said God did it. A few days after she said I wrote in the best handwriting I could. I wrote a letter to to Palm Grove a holiness Bible school and asked them would they take me in and I said I'm I'm really raw material. And the raw is all in capitals R A W raw. And she little faithfully thought she said you know by the time I