I'd like to read two verses or three perhaps that we read on Friday night in the prayer meeting with you. Those of you who were present, I'd like to read them again. I want to link them to the story of the sinking of the thresher. There won't be time this afternoon to take up a message and minister to you. as we ordinarily would have done, and then also tell you the story of our association with Dawn and Marion Keaster at the time that the treasure was done. But I read these verses and say a little word in connection with what my two brethren have said, and then tell you the story. These two verses that we're going to read were associated with Marion Keaster. in the time of her bereavement. Luke's Gospel, chapter twenty-two, reading at verse thirty-nine. And he came out and went as he was wont to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples also followed him. And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation. and he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast and kneeled down and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me, nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. Two thoughts were here in association with prayer. And one is the blessing there is in prayer, and it is strength, and to the condition that must govern prayer, and that is subjection to the divine will. In connection with my brother Van Ryan's message on the yielding of your body, many years ago, to be exact about ninety, there was a dear servant of Christ, a missionary to Africa called Fred Stanley Arnett. Now, his name likely is not known here in the building today very well, but many of your American missionaries who've gone to what we call the beloved strip in Africa know the name of Fred Stanley Arnott. He opened the continent to our missionaries from the Assembly. He left about ninety years ago after his first furlough and he took practice in a number of missionaries. There was a large farewell meeting for them in London before they sailed. Each of the missionaries outgoing was asked to give a testimony, and a countryman of my own, a man called Robert Johnston, he gave his little testimony, and he read the verses that our brother has read. I came across this story in a magazine in a brother's home down in New Bedford, Massachusetts. I had never known story. He reached Africa, but was carried off the ship a course, and buried a little way inland. He never reached the field. To this day his letters are preserved, which he wrote on the boat. But at the farewell meeting, he read those words, and he said, I would just like to leave two thoughts with you from this verse. And one is that the Lord does not command you. The Lord beseeches you. Two, he said, he does not threaten you, but he says he beseeches you by his mercy. It was the two thoughts beseeching and mercy. No gun at your head saying you've got to go or else. And that, I believe, would be the basis of true consecration. Knowing that he befeatures, I willingly respond. So, young folks, in the matter of consecration, don't for a moment think that you're going to be pulled into God's service and made to live the life holy for him. That absolutely rests with you. There are no conscripts in the service of God. Everyone is. a volunteer. Now you make the choice, but let me say, from one who has made the choice, the best choice we ever made was not so much that the night we got saved eternally that is true, but so far as this life is concerned, the best choice that ever we made was not when we were nine years of age, but when we were seventeen years of age and he said, Take the world, but give me peace. In connection with my brother Milo's message on the Lord's Supper, I would like to tell you two little incidents. Sometimes I speak on the breaking of bread, and the reason I'm going to do this now is it had been in my mind to pick up the breaking of bread for my message this afternoon, and I was going to ask a number of questions. And one question would be, who should break bread? Another question, what is the breaking of bread? Another question would be, then, and when should we break bread? And another question would be, why should we break bread? In connection with what is the breaking of bread, it's simply the remembrance of the Lord Jesus. Simply the remembering of the Lord Jesus. So, at sixty one we went over to the old country and I traded my car on this side of the world for an English car to be picked up on the other side and it would be it was to be equipped with left-hand steering such as we have for this country I arrived on the other side and I got the car it was waiting for me at the dock as a matter of fact and we had it from the first day we arrived a few days afterwards I was in a parking lot And when I came out, the attendant was standing beside my car, and when I approached it, he said, Mr. you're from America, aren't you? Yeah, as I said, you don't go into details, you just say, yes, you're from America, big country, and that's who we're from. He says, I knew it, because he says, you know, look at where your steering wheel is. Yes, I said, that's where we need it for the other side of the world. He says, I wonder if you'd do something for me. if you're from America. What is it? I said. He said, would you find my boy for me? He's over there. Yeah, I said, maybe I could. Where is your boy in America? He says, I don't know. Well, I said, now, if you don't know, remember, it would be difficult. because they haven't any conception. You smile at them, but they don't appreciate the vastness of the country. Tell me, have you no address where he ever was? Yes, he said, did you ever hear of a place, is it Vancouver? I said, yes, but do you know where far it is from where I live? It's almost as far as you are from me here. No, I said, yes, but tell me, you have the address, give me that address. I have friends in Vancouver, and they'll find him if he's there. Well, he says, I just don't have it on me. But mind you, I have it at home. And he said, if you'll promise to come and see me again, I'll get it for you. I said, you do that, and I'll be here again. First day I get the chance. You'll get me that address, and I'll write my friends in Vancouver when we try and get your boss. When did you last see him? Oh, he hadn't written for years and years and years. Now I said, and I said, no, he said, and by the way, he said, maybe you'd find my daughter for me. I said, have you a girl over there too? He says, yes. And I said, where is she? Well, he says, I don't know where she is now, but I'll tell you where she was. The last we heard, she was in Buffalo. Oh, now I said, we're getting on our doorstep. But there's only sixty miles from where I live. We might be able to find her. You get her address? No, he said, but I have it at the house, and I'll get the two of them for you. Good. You do that. Bring them down, and I'll see you. And we try and find them. Now, to end that part of the story, I never again found the old girl. The old man, he never came back. I went with it all and I never again was able to trace him. And that's the end of the story for that point. Because everybody wants to know afterwards, well, what did you do about it? I'm going to do now. But now here's the point. After he told me all that and so pleased and I was going to do this, he said, would you like to see the picture? I said, well, yes, I'd like to see the picture. So he pulled an old wallet out of his pocket and he pulled out a postcard, a familiar... size of a picture. I remember when I was a little lad with my two, three sisters and brother, dad and mum getting our picture taken, family group, and that was something like that. And I said, there's my boy. And here was a little fellow standing with his little stockings right up to his knees in the old country style dressed, neat little fellow. But I would say seven or eight, and here was a little sister, and she had a great big head of curls falling down round her shoulders. I said, actually, that's my girl and that's my boy. And then idly, not knowing why I did it, I turned this child over. And when I did, these were the words that I wrote in Faith Pencil. These are the children I love, but they have forgotten their dad. I went out of that parking lot and I said to my wife, out across the ocean... to get that illustration of the Lord's Supper. And on a Lord's day morning, when the seats are vacant and the friends are absent, I think I hear the Lord Jesus Christ say, These are the children and I love them, but they have forgotten me. So on a Lord's day morning, when I take my seat and sit down in his presence, thank God I am able to say, This is what he wants me to do. According to thy gracious word, in meek humility, this would I do, O Christ my Lord, I would remember late." The other incident, Milo was talking about the first day of the week. In the north of Ireland, there was an old Baptist preacher, and he was a saved, a solemnly saved man. But he couldn't say that were his daughter, but he had baptized them and received them into his church fellowship. But they were not believers in Christ. I believe the old man knew it too. But a gospel preacher came. You heard Bill Morden speak last night of the man that was preaching seven weeks called Sam Mature and his uncle, John Knox Mature. And John Knox Mature and came to this little Irish town to preach. And these girls came to the meetings and they were saved. And when they were saved, they were baptized again and received into fellowship, into the assembly. And the father never said, boo. I believe secretly he delighted to see the erratic change in this world. But one day he did say this. Tell me, girls, you never go to any parties now. Any show. Please, if you'd like to go to when you were in church with us, why do you not do that now? And one of the girls with a little bit of a smile said, you know, Dad, you gave us good advice, although we were Christians. And you said that when the communion Sunday came around, we should never go to any place of question for three days before it. or for three days after it, and she says, you know, we have breaking a bread every Lord's day, and with no days left for any place to go, the expression of our. So, brethren and sisters, it's to remember him, and thank God it's every Lord's day. In the month of August, I met John in Mary's Easter. I'd known of Mary's father, but I'd never met him. I had never heard of John before. But they came to Camp Maria where I was ministering for two weeks with another servant of the Lord, and we enjoyed a wonderful time of fellowship. So much so that John said to me, he said, Brother Kirk, you should come to our assembly in Washington. Well, I said, maybe I'll get there someday, and if the Lord will, we'll go. So the Lord willed it. There's no question of that. He did will it. And we got there the following string just about the time of the disaster. I remember that Lord's Day morning when we arrived in Washington, I was told by Mr. Weinberg that I was wanted by the teachers to spend Lord's Day with them. So on Lord's Day morning we got round to the Sunday school before the breaking of bread and we sat down, but Sunday school had started. John was up at the front and he was holding, as I found out later, a bunch of quarters in his hand and he was saying, now who's going to say the verses? You. A boy would get up and say the last two verses of First Thessalonians Fund, call them up, give them a quarter. I was enjoying this. One boy, one girl after another, rising up, and he saw me very interested, I suppose, and he said, Brother Kirk, could you say them? I said, I would for a quarter. I didn't mean that really, but it was out of me before I could think. Well, he said, get up and stay then. And I got up and I said to him, he said, come up and get your quarter. And so I had to walk up and get my quarter from John. I believe that was a habit that John had, giving away quarters. We had a lovely break with bread meeting. I remember the Lord gave me something to minister on after the breaking of bread that we hadn't spoken on before. I saw John writing, writing, writing, writing, writing, and apparently, as I learned afterwards, he made all the notes of the message. And the next day, after Monday afternoon, when he was leaving home to go to join the sub, he said to Mary, and I'm taking your Bible with me, your little Bible, and Brother Kirk's notes. I'll have plenty of time to digest them down in the... So, and they asked me then to dinner, and I don't know why this happened. Marion often spoke to me about it after, what in the world got into Dawn's mind? Because after we had dinner, we sat down in the living room, he brought out his wedding album. And we were over this wedding album. We knew so many of the friends who were present at the wedding. We knew this one and we knew that one. And all by a week changed that much. And it was really a very happy Lord's Day afternoon. Then John said, excuse me, I've got to run upstairs a minute. And he ran upstairs and came down. He'd been up phoning. He says, good. He said, I haven't joined the sub till tomorrow. So he says, we'll be free to spend the day with you. We haven't even till tomorrow. Then I said, well, now, John, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to go to a room and get a little rest and get ready for the meeting this evening. He said, fine. And do you know I couldn't rest very well, nor could I study very well, because for some unknown reason, he decided that Mary Lee would sing to Ed. And the singing was she said. Now, I don't know whether it's my going back because of this tragedy, but I'll tell you truthfully, as I sat in my room that afternoon and my hands on the dead, I couldn't concentrate a bit. I had to listen to those two singing those beautiful hymns. And whether it was for the premonition or not, I don't know that they were spending their last large day afternoon together, but that singing was precious. They sang one of the hymns, I believe maybe two, at the memorial service later on. Then came the evening meeting. It was a very happy meeting, too. After the meeting, I got a telephone call from Brother Weinberg, who's the Philip, the Washington lawyer in the assembly. He said, Brother Kirk, my little granddaughter wants to talk to you. And a little trembling voice came on the floor. She was, Mr. Kirk, I got saved when you were speaking at the night in the meeting. Neat her little memory, you see, of that particular Lord. But now what interests you would be, I said, well done. I'll have to say goodbye. Yeah, he says, for I won't be here. I won't see you again because I'm going down in the sub. Now what a prophet said. He meant he wouldn't be there for the week. I was going to have some meeting. He would be down in the sub. He would be away. So I had decided before the Lord that I would speak on prayer on Monday night and on Tuesday night. So on Monday night I spoke on a number of blessings associated with prayer. And one of the blessings I preached on was strength. Men are always to pray and not to faith. Now I said, someday a telephone bell will ring, and you'll get the worst news that ever you heard, news that you wouldn't for a thousand worlds in one day years. Now what are you going to do? Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer. I was quoting the lines of that lovely hymn written by one of my countrymen. He was born twenty-two miles from where I was born. He was engaged to be married. And within three weeks of the wedding his fiancée died. It broke his heart. He left Ireland. He came to Canada. He became a tutor in a wealthy man's home. And twenty years later, romance came his way again. And for the second time, within a few weeks of the wedding, disaster struck and he lost his second fiancée. And when he lost his second fiancée, that's when he penned those words, and I have a copy of the original writing of the poem in my possession. Have we trials and temptation? There is trouble everywhere. We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Oh, the peace we often forfeit. Oh, the needless pain we bear. Oh, because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. So I say to my audience, When the bell rings, and the worst news that you could hear comes, beloved states, remember, take it to the Lord in prayer. Mary went home that night, and she didn't sleep for hours. When the telephone bell rings, take it to the Lord in prayer. What did she do? Father, why did she say that? This is what she told me after. Why did she say it? Now, I can remember her in that meeting. Isn't that strange? She was sitting over my right. She wasn't sitting on her back right against the seat. Rather, she was sitting sideways with her arm on the seat. And she was listening. And her eyes, I don't believe, were taken from me. I remember that later on. Then the next night, I spoke on conditions with governed prayer. And I said, beloved saints of God, there's something we've got to remember. Whether we like it or whether we don't, we'll better say, not my will, for thine be that. The first time I preached on that subject, it was in the city of Detroit, and I told the story there. And after the meeting, a dear sister said to me, we're coming home in the car. She said, when you told that incident, I told it from the Bible of the king, who rebelled against God's will. God says that, and how shall an order for those shall die and not live. He says, give me more life. Spur my life. God said to Isaiah, tell him his life has spread for fifteen years. And then that was born. And the master reigned for over fifty years and filled Jerusalem with the streets of blood. And I tell you, that man Hezekiah would have said, Oh, good God, I said, I will be done. So this sister said, We had a sister in Arasenbe, and she had a baby born to her. And the baby was very sick, and it was only a year old. And the sister simply took it in prayer, and one night they prayed for that baby. And when the prayer meeting was over, this sister said, I called her on the phone and I said, I wish it'd been the prayer meeting tonight. You would have heard the brethren pray. And every one of them prayed that God would recover the baby if it would be his will. And she screamed over the telephone to me. She said, it's got to be God's will. It's just got to be God's will. Well, what could I say, brother? She said, that baby did get better and lived to be twenty-one years of age. And when that baby was twenty-one years of age, she would say, James and his family. So that night Mary went home, but this time she called me the phone. After I hung up on the phone, I said to the sister in her room, I was saying, how long was I talking on that phone? She said, Brother Kirk, you were forty-five minutes from now. No, I said, I know that I'm... It was Mary. And she said, here it was Mary. And I said, I knew when I answered the phone, it was Mary. What was wrong? Well, I said, I said, I didn't know. What was in her mind? Well, I said, really, what she was talking about was something in connection with the school the children were going to and the possibility of doing some work for the Lord in that school. I said, really, I don't understand that. Because, you know, I listen just practically all the time. And she said, well, of course, I don't have to spend the day then, well, I said, that's it. The next morning, which was Wednesday morning, and that was the morning of Sub-Saharan, the next morning, it was home-like again. It was Marion. And when I hung up for the second time, I said to the sister, how long that night? She said, forty minutes. That's the biggest mystery I know. That girl who's talked to me last night, and she's talked to me this morning, and I couldn't repeat, there's nothing I could repeat that I believe would be worth repeating what she said. Now, now we'll anticipate. Later on when I got talking to Marion, I said, Marion, why did you call me on the phone? She said, Brother Kirk, I just couldn't go to bed. And that was all I could do. She said, give me some kind of comfort to talk to you. Actually, you didn't talk at the dawn. No, she couldn't trust me to talk at the dawn, but she said, when I went to bed that night, I couldn't sleep. The night before it was, the telephone bell rang, and you get the worst news, whenever you're going to get what are you going to do, take it to the Lord in prayer, there's nothing going to happen so on. But to say, I will be done. Oh, I couldn't say that. Oh, she said, surely, surely there's nothing going to happen in it. For I don't think I could say that I will, but still I must. She said, Lord, teach me to say, if it is I will, I will be done. Now, we hadn't seen that. When Wednesday night came, I wasn't at that hall. I was another hall in the city preaching. I came home with some bread in the car. And then I arrived at the house where I was staying. The sister ran down the steps of the sister who came out of the day and looked at her. She was trying to get her, catch her breath. And she was holding on to the side of the car and speaking to her, oh, she's a brother, Kurt. And the thrasher has gone down and there's no trace about that. And She says, Marion's been calling you on the phone. Oh, there's no trade. She says, come in, however. There'll be a new splash at ten o'clock. So he went in, and at ten o'clock, the screen flashed these words. The pressure had gone down, and she gave it the estimated three in which the pressure had sunk, and there is no trade, but they have found oil slick. Then the phone rang. And she answered the phone, and when she answered the phone, oh, she wrote it to her history, it's So you married one, the two, are you at home, yeah, and you're to go. I don't know why. Two, what? Two. Will you take me and see one of the best? Sure, take it for me. So when I went to the house, there was a number of sisters already there, and I think there was some of the brethren there too, but Mary was lying on the couch. And there was a very little problem. And I thought she was, don't you? So they went over and they spoke to her and they said, Mary, Mr. Kirk said, She'll keep their eyes. And she put up her two hands like that. But I put her hands in my hand. This was what she said. She's staring at me. Would you know the Lord sent you to prepare me for this? I said, I don't know, Mary. I didn't know that I had room. I never thought of you ministry. But she said, I can stay. I will be. So we sang popular vile. And I felt him, and then my soul left, and stubbed on down and never looked him up. I said, Mary, there's just two verses of that you would like to gather for you. And my brother, Van Ryn, led one of them yesterday, who was measured the waters in the hollow of his hand. The other one was all his saints in my hand. So I said, now, Mary, maybe dawn's day, maybe... Sub will never rise again. But let me tell you this. The deeper that sub-sink in the ocean, the deeper John sinks in God's hand. So the youngest of the three children, the younger boy, the youngest family, when his mother went to see him, late that night, comfort him, she told him that I just told you about John sinking deeper in... the little fella said, well then mummy says, Daddy's safe isn't it? Daddy is safe. Well that really brought comfort to Mary and I found the little fella saying that Daddy is safe. Now then, on the following Monday, that was where in the States, the following Monday, not the presidential claim, but the claim of the chief of the Admiralty was placed at her disposal and she was chosen to be the guest of honour and was transported up to the base of the sub for a memorial service. And traveling up in the plane, the chaplain came over and sat down beside her, and he said, Mrs. Keister, I've been watching you very carefully. And you're not under sedation. Am I right? He says, I've nothing. He says, I could tell by your eye that you're not under sedation. Now he says, tell me, what is your secret? He says, you're the calmest woman who will just stay in this afternoon. That was morning. What is your secret? So she said to me, you know, Brother Kirk, I was able to tell my secret. And I told him about how I had ministered on prayer. The will of the Lord be done. We may not always pray, not to say, and that that is faith in all of others' minds. He pulled the paper from his pocket. He says, there's my sermon for the day. This is what I'm going to do with it. And he tore up the shreds and dropped it in the waste paper basket on the presidential plane. Where is that for? He turned it up. Deuteronomy thirty-three. And he says, that will be my sermon for that was afternoon. He told the story that I've told you to the point about the little boy when he learned... that daddy was sinking deeper in the hollow of God's hand than my daddy's safe. There were six thousand people there. The commander's widow was there. He was called, you remember John Wesley Hart. And after that service, that crew of Mrs. Hartley, she came to Marion. She put her arms around her shoulders and she said, Oh, Marion, you know where your dawn is, but please tell me where is my heart. What could Marion do? She couldn't tell her the comfort that she was enjoying. Then, two weeks later, we had the memorial service in Washington and the Universal Day, and I never will forget that. You know what I'm reminded most of all about that. There must have been sixteen hundred people there, and some of us prayed, and some of us ministered with word, but Brother Claxton came to the... death. And he says, you know, we are not going to sing the praises of John Keaster today because of his inventory genius. John was all that, and the presence of the Army Chiefs today acknowledges genius. But what is genius to us in our dawn is that dawn was a child of God and lived through faith. He said, I didn't know when I read in the Iowa papers that John wasn't bored the treasure, for they misspelled his name. But when I read the treasure had gone down, I said to myself, I wonder, was there not someone on board that boat that when she was sinking could tell some dear young sailor, who was already crying out in agony and soul, what must I do to be saved? Now, Brother Clarkson was quoting from Sunday. The Titanic was built, and by the way, there's a brother here, Brother Nora Hill, Atlantic and he knows all about this story. When the Titanic was sunk in nineteen hundred and twelve she was built in my native city where he worked as a boy too. And when that boat was sunk there was a couple of passengers found themselves drifting together hanging onto a piece of wood and one was a godly Baptist minister. His name was Thomas Harper. And Thomas Harper saw the young man floating beside him. He cried, young man are you saved? Young man said, no, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And they drifted apart. Minutes later they came to gather again and the old preacher said, young man, are you saved yet? He said, no, sir, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. At that moment Harper lost his grip on the wood he was clinging to and disappeared in two miles of water. And as he disappeared in two miles of water, the young man said, clinging to the piece of wood I had underneath. I trust that Christ and God save me. Now John, Brother Tartan, saw that. And he said, when I learned John wasn't bored that subterranean, and as it was taken its final dive, maybe in those last agonizing moments, was someone crying white face. What must I do to be saved? I hear John's voice ringing out clear and clear, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Mary had been touched with me for a long time. And she sent me all the correspondence. She sent me, I don't know how many letters. There must have been sixty letters that she sent to me. And I read most of them, glanced through every one of them. There was one from President Kennedy. And then I found them. You know, there wasn't one. Not one of those letters could bring a grain of solid comfort for Marion and the children. They spoke of Dawn's genius. They spoke as an ability, and incidentally, in case you didn't know, the dive that that ship took was to test John's invention in acoustics. And the fact that the current ship lost all three so quickly proved that the invention won eight percent. John didn't need to have gone down in that ship. He could have sent one of his subordinates. But he chose, because it was his invention, to go down in Tetris, and much was made of that in the letter. Everyone lauded, gone to the skies for the genius that he was, and gave his life to his country. But as I said to Marion, Marion, you found your comfort elsewhere. She found her comfort in the word of law. So then we're not going to go through that experience again. But we're going to have to be Marion and John Peaceburg. you need a comfort. Good. So no matter what, the days may bring. No matter what the trials may be, thine go on for his comfort and clinging to God. May the Lord bless the room so as you are.