my favorite verses in the Bible. The first chapter of One Timothy. One Timothy chapter one. We will commence reading in verse twelve. Most of you are aware that this evening if the Lord will help me and you will permit me, I would like to share with you how I came to know Jesus Christ. Speak a little of one's own feelings with the Lord. And what better words should I find than these were? One Timothy chapter one, we will commence reading in verse twelve. I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he tended me faithful, putting me into the ministry, who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious. but I have changed mercilessly because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundance with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am Jesus. How be it, for this bold I obtain mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him, your life ever lost. And now unto the king, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God. the honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. The Lord will bless the public reading and his own precious word. Just a word of prayer. Would you join me, please? Lord and Father, we realize very much that we think how much we need faith. We pray that in a very real way, the Spirit of God may take that which is on our hearts and use it that Christ might be exalted, that men and women may see in him the wonder of his salvation. Would thou then speak to our hearts, for Jesus' faith? Amen. I have a confession to make that I am giving my testimony this evening, because so many of you have been pressing me so to do. I don't find a great joy in giving my testimony. You see, I know what's going to happen. I'm going to go home tonight where I'm staying, and I'm going to remember things that I thought I'd forgot. And that's not going to be ever school. But if tonight I can speak of the wonders of the Lord Jesus, then I do it, and I do it willingly. I do it cheerfully, joyfully, to try and tell you how Jesus Christ, in his wondrous grace, methods and things. The story of the flood was read to us in the morning service this morning, at least a portion of it. We were reminded that Noah planned grace in the sight of the Lord. But one of the things that always strikes me about the story of Noah and the ark is the very simple fact that from the forest, from the field, from the mountain, from the valley, from every strata indeed that surrounded that place, there poured toward the ark, those animals that God has bitten come. The road they took was different. The road that the lion trod was not the road, but indeed other animals took. But although they came many roads, They all went through the same door. There were not two doors. There was one door. And your coming to Christ may be different than mine. My coming to Christ will be very different to most of you here tonight, I'm sure. But of this, never let us get away. That if you will enter God's salvation, then the door is Jesus Christ. and to him and to him alone. But you come to none. I wasn't brought up in a Christian home. Now please, please, and I don't want any one of you to be upset. I was brought up in a good home. I was brought up in a home where my mother loved my father and my father loved my mother. We were brought up in a good home, but it wasn't a Christian home. It wasn't a home where the name of the Lord Jesus is spoken of with love. It wasn't a home where the Bible was read. It wasn't a home where the things of God were revered. I never went to a Sunday school or chapel or church in the light. I was a man before ever I darkened the door of a place where the name of God was revered. It won't mean very much to you here in America, but I was brought up in a home where my father was one of the co-founders of the old ILC, the Independent Labour Party, the militant socialist movement of my country. Not quite communist, but almost there. And if we sang anything when I was a boy at home, it would be international, it was a wreck flag, it were songs that told us indeed of the march of workers. That's the surrounding that I had. My father was gasped in the First World War. So I just remember him as a boy. I was born in nineteen sixteen, so if you're good at some of the higher mathematics, you can work that out, can't you? But nevertheless, I was born in nineteen sixteen, and I was just a boy at the end of the war when my dad, I remembered him. I only know this, that when I started school in the Dutch and Ordinary English at the Ventry School, I never had any higher education. I left school when I was thirteen and a half. But I went to a school where every day it opened with prayer, and every day the Bible was read, as it always used to be read, not now, but it always used to be read in an English school. And so I suppose there was something in the back of my mind. I did, I suppose, as a child, learn something about God and about his word, although what I learned, I can't remember. I only know this, that when my father died, if we'd had poverty before, we had it then. My little mother, she didn't stand any higher than this. She was just a wee little John of a woman. I often used to say to her mother, you used to nurse me. There she was. But nevertheless, that little mother of ours had to work harder to keep her born. The school I went to was a school that one of the masters, anyway, was extremely interested in fighting. And he had a little boxing team. And entered from our school the British Federation boys' boxing championships. And at my race, I won the British Federation title. And they told me that I was the boy champion of Great Britain at my waist. I was not a lad. But this coincided with my father dying. And as I say that, I knew that we had poverty before. We had it then. And for one day, I packed my bag, and I left home. I didn't leave home because I didn't have someone to care in me. I didn't leave home because there wasn't someone who watched over me. I left home because mother had to keep me. And I knew that that was real hard work for her. I kept on this part of the way, and I walked part of the way to the city of Salford. It was town repair, a great sheep repair. And I knew at that sheep repair there would be what you call over here, the carnival, the peregrine. And I knew that on the peregrine there would be a boxing boot. And as I pegged them away there, I sort of said to myself, maybe I can get a pipe, maybe I can earn a shilling at this. And I eventually arrived at that fairground. I don't know whether you had Russian booths today here in your country. I know you used to years ago. But in our country, of course, years ago, we always had a booth in almost every fair. There were mostly poor white fighters, and they'd offer them to the crowd. And if someone could stand three rounds, with one of the boys from the fair, then indeed he earned himself five pounds. And the way I read, indeed, well, maybe I can have a go at one of these boys. I looked at them as they were presented to the crowd. I didn't shout for the gloves, but as soon as the show was over, I went to the owner of the booth, Sammy McCohen, and I said, Sammy, is there any chance of a fight? And he looked at me. Did he fight? Well, I would go to Europe if you like, and you can see. And I jumped up into the race. I said, just in the land, I'd held the Federation Championship, so I could handle myself, and there was only a land. He looked at me and said, well, what do you want? A fighter and you want a job. I said, I want a job. I'll do any work that has to be done about the blue star. I'll help your ship, and I'll do anything at all. If you give me a job, sir. How old are you? I'm sixteen. I wasn't. I was thirteen and a half. But I can pass, as we see. What he says, do your parents know where you are? I haven't got a dad, and the mum knows where I am. She didn't. But that was all. What he said, look, I'll give you a job. And if ever a boy wants to fight, you'll have to fight him. And make sure you're ahead of me around. I started your first job, just as a boy, a thirteen and a half. Working about in a boxing room. Doing any jobs in a carnival. earning to sell just a little money. For at the end of the week, and it was a Sunday, it was a good job it was, and I thought I'd have to shop it in sorcery. And on the Sunday they gave me five shillings, which would be the equivalent of a dollar then. And I started doing life. Ten years I traveled around during the summer months in the boxing rooms of the fairground. I wouldn't cross the road. Are you listening now? I wouldn't cross the road to listen to a man tell you how bad he seems. When God forgave my sin, he forgot it. The Bible says, let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. And I want to forget it. I only know this, that I didn't live the year as I lived, traveling as I traveled when I was falling into sin. It seemed to get worse and worse and worse as the years lit off. When I was about twenty-one or twenty-two years of age, don't tie me down to the exact date of ease. One Saturday night I went down to a pot where I used to drink. I was leaning against the bar, drinking a pint of beer, when suddenly the door opened. And a little Salvation Army lassie came in. Oh, God bless the Salvation Army. Just a wee bit of a girl with a puffed bonnet and a uniform. She had under her arm a bundle of war prize, the Salvation Army newspaper. They were a penny a time then, so you can tell it for a few years ago. And she went from one to another, and she said, when you buy a war prize, And half drunk, I looked with her, and I said, I'll buy a ward by Missy if you'll sing us a song. I never thought she would, you know. I thought that she did. She would have sung Daisy Bell or something like that. That was part of the plot then. But she about put me on the spot, and she said, I'll be very happy to sing at him. Will you ask the men to be quiet? Oh, I didn't like that. I mean, I didn't mind her singing at him, but I didn't want to be the chairman of a religious meeting in the pub where I used to drink. But she put me on the spot. And I thought, well, there it is, in for a penny, in for a penny. So I turned to the fellas and said, fellas, will you shut up? The girl's going to see. And I pulled hold of her. I lifted her up and stood on the bar. And there she stood, unruffled. uncomplaining. She looked to the crowd of drinking men who just a moment before had been casting and telling smuddy stories. And she sang, on a hill far away, stood an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame. And I love that old cross where the dearest and best for a world of lost sinners, right? I can remember it as though forty years and more has passed. I can remember it as though it was yesterday. I still haven't looked at her. I don't know what your reaction was, and you will appreciate that I wasn't by any means a Christian. I was the absolute opposite. But I looked at that girl, and I said to myself, Why? That girl's got more guts than I got. I'd have caught anyone in the bar. I don't say I'd have beaten them, but I'd have caught them and enjoyed every minute of it. That I wouldn't have stood there and sung it in, not me. But here was a girl standing there singing about Jesus. I left him a pint on the bar and I walked back. I didn't even lift her down from the bar. I've never seen her from that day to this. I walked out of that bar and I walked up all the hill and I was saying to myself, man will I fool you. But you know what it's like when you hear a song that you enjoy, a melody that stays with you. It keeps coming back. You can't remember it all. You remember a bit of it. That's how it was with this. I'd never heard the hymn before, but I couldn't get away from this, that wherever I went I used to hear these words, For a world of lost sinners was slagged. For a world of lost sinners was slagged, not even the beginning of the hymn. For a world of lost sinners was slagged. And it followed me wherever I went. I couldn't get away from it. There came a time when I realized that if I was going to make any money fighting, I'd have to do a little bit more than boot fighting. I was unified in an open air show in Crystal Palace in London. I was sparring with a sparring partner who gave me rather a nasty knock on the jaw, knocked at two pounds. He could do that because he became the light heavyweight champion of the world, or Freddie Mills, my great friend. He gave me a knock that was a pretty hard one. I went along to see the dentist to have the stuff pulled out, and I said, listen, the beginning of July, I've got a fight on August bank holiday. Will I be all right? Oh, you'll be all right, he said, but you better not have a blow. You better just lay off in a bit. And I was like a fish out of water. I'd do the groundwork and the roadwork and the usual things that you did. But when it came to getting up between the ropes, I couldn't do it. And so I'd go for a walk. mostly down towards the park where I used to drink. I walked over the hill one day, and as I came towards the five-way hotel where I'd heard this girl being, right opposite the hotel, right opposite. There was a great marquee being erected, a great tent. I looked. There were no caravans. wasn't quite large enough for the purposes, and I knew where all the traveling boys were, and I knew they weren't few in our land. So I went across to the fence, and I said, Hey, what's going on? All said the young fella, We're going to have a gospel mission. We've got Victor Searle from Carly coming here to preach. Will you come? Why, really? I went. But you know, they put this tent right opposite the pub where I used to drink. and I'd walk down over at the hill, and I'd hear them singing. It was a tent, so you could hear it all outside, and I'd listen as I'd lean against the fence, because it was good, bright singing, and there were big crowns there. But I never went in. What evening I walked down towards the five ways, and as I did, I noticed that the service hadn't started. I was a bit early, so I walked up over the other hill, challenged the road hill. And as I was going up the other hill, coming down the hill was a young lady. Every person she saw, she stopped, and gave them something. I didn't know what it was. Might have been my town notes. I thought I'd go and get one of those, and I'd cross the road. And eventually my turn came, and this young lady stood in front of me, and she said, We're just going to start some gospel services in the big tent. Will you come down? No, I don't want to go down there. But this young lady could keep on. Now, I know what I'm talking about, because I've been married to her for nearly forty years. But nevertheless, she could keep on. And eventually, you'll see her, she's coming over on Thursday. Eventually, she got me into the tent services, took me to the door, and then I went. I spent the most enjoyable evening. I sat down in the tent and I spent the whole evening looking around to see who was there. You know, I knew everyone almost in the district. Oh, he's here. Oh, it should be too. Oh, I said something about her. Well, there it was. Oh, you know the sort of remark you made. No, I made. I spent the evening. The most enjoyable evening. The singing was good. There were no collections. And no one asked for a penny. And out I went. But you know the next evening, nothing else to do. I went down again. And the next evening, and the next evening. And it wasn't long before I was sitting right up the front. But all the while something was happening. I didn't know what it was happening. I'm hoping it's happening in your life. For all the while I was listening to the word of God being preached. And although I didn't know, and although I tried not to listen, it was making an effect. Somehow or the other, I got as miserable, as miserable as this. I began to realize that there was something wrong with me. I didn't know why it was, but there was something wrong with me. You know, one evening I went down to that place. I was determined when I went down there, I was going to have it out for the preacher. When the service was over, I went straight up to him, and I looked at him, and I said, Mr. Cyril, you don't believe all that nonsense you've been preaching, do you? And he looked at me and said, well, young man, it's not nonsense, and I do believe it. Go on, said I. You've got a jolly good job. What do you get? Five pounds a week. That was good wages before the war, you know. What do you get? My family? She looked at me and I had the wings completely taken out of my bed. Completely taken out of my bed. For he looked at me and he says, well, young man, I don't know what it's to do with you. It's really none of your business. But as a matter of fact, I don't have anything for weeks. If you're talking about a wage, I don't get anything. years ago I stepped out believing that the Lord who sent his disciples without scripture without curse was still alive and the Lord who when they came back asked them did you lack anything they said we lack not a thing and I believe that God's alive and I've been looking to him to supply my need and no one's ever asked you for any heaven so my heart went down in my I didn't know what to say. For this was the strange thing. No one had asked anyone for anything. You see, I'd always been taught that Christianity, and especially the church, their one purpose was to take from people. They never gave anything. They just thought. I was taught indeed that Christianity was just an opium for the workers. First tax now teach you, my dad used to say, first tax now teach you, is be content with what things as you have. Then if the boss takes your money from you and doesn't pay any wages, you mustn't strike because you're going to be content with what things as you have. That's what I was taught. And that's what I believe. Suddenly I find a man who wasn't interested in the financial private thing at all. He said, you know, they tell me that you don't believe the Bible straight. What, me? Of course I knew they told him that, you know. The first night I walked into the tent, they gave me a hemble. And then the man that gave me a hemble almost ran right up the front of the tent and got hold of the preacher. Oh, I know what they were saying. I know a little bit. He said, they tell me you don't believe the Bible's true. Well, it's not true, said I. Full of contradictions. Oh, he said, can you show me one? I'll show you a hundred and one. Oh, that's interesting. Come on over. We went and sat there. Now he said, yes. Where's the first one? Well, you know what I did. I did what every ignorant you've done. I looked at him and I said, Well, in the beginning there was Adam and Eve. No, I got him, haven't I? Oh, he's finished forever. I just as well give him. Oh, howling. He said in the beginning, I said there was Adam and Eve. They had two sons. One of them killed the other, and then the Bible says he went off and married someone. Who did he marry if he only had two sons? Got it. I mean, well, Paul would have done that. Do you know what that rascal of a creature did? Do you know what he did? He looked at me and he said, no, just a moment. You said you'd show me. And he handed me his Bible. Well, I didn't know where the story of Adam and Eve was. I mean, I don't know, but I expect I looked in Revelation for Genesis. I don't know. Oh, he said, is this what you mean? And he opened his Bible, and he read it as a color called Seth. You know, I never heard of him. Well, he said, here's what Adam's son, Seth. I said, that's not his name. It was pain and evil. What do we say, here it is, Seth? Oh, by the way, what do you do with this? He said, he forgets sons and daughters. What do you mean he only had two sons? Well, what sort of Bible have you got there? He asked. Well, he said, a Bible Bible. But that's not... Well, there it is, look. Well, he said, that's one. We've got a hundred more to go. What's the next one? Well, you know, the next one. The next one. Every ignoramious grows up. Well, I said, I don't know about that business about Adam and Eve. I'll have to think about that. That's always a good way to answer a question. Think about it. I said, well, there was a parable in the name of Joseph. And Joseph was told by his brothers. And he was told by his brothers. One part of the Bible says he was told to the Ishmaelites. And another part says he was told to the Midianites. If that's not a contradiction, what is one? Who was he told to? The Midianites were the Ishmaelites. You know what he did, don't you? He said, you show me. You show me. Well, if I didn't know where the story of Adam and Eve was, I didn't know where the story of Joseph was. But I want to say something to you young Christians here tonight. You're literally free. I thank God that day. I not only met a man who knew his God, but I met a man who knew his Bible. and he took his Bible and he opened it and he said to me, what do you mean? And he read it to me. I said, here we are, look, Israelite, millionites. Now I've got it, all the ten down, isn't it? He looked at me and he said, can I ask you something? What nationality are you? Paul, you know what I am, in the Englishman. Well, he said that's funny, I thought you were British. What do I am? But he said, you just hold me your English. Yeah, but I'm British. You're a Welsh woman. You're British. Suddenly it dawned on me what he was getting at. And he just looked at me and said, rightly you could say you're English. Rightly you could say you're British. No contradiction. Absolute truth. Rightly they could say they were Ishmaelites. Rightly they should say they were Midianites, for one was but a tribe of the nation. You got ninety-nine more to go. And up I went. Oh, please, I'd learnt them like a parrot from the father. Please, I'd picked them up as I'd moved around in the carnival. I'd listened to every smutty story and every bloody joke that could be told against the Bible and I learned them all and I threw them all at it. And every time he'd look at me and say, you said, you show me, you show me, you show me, how shall I get ahead of you? And as we went along, suddenly it dawned on me that while I wouldn't accept every answer that he gave, It dawned on me that it was an answer. If I thought it was the correct one or not, that's a different matter. It was an answer. Suddenly I became silent and I didn't get anywhere near a hundred. And then he looked at me and said, now, I've listened to you. I want you to listen to me. He started to tell me that I was a sinner. He started to remind me. of the wickedness of my own heart. He showed me what the Bible said about him. And the strange thing was this, that as he opened the word of God and showed me what the Bible said about me, my heart said, yes, that's true. That's true. I was speaking to a young man this morning who trusted the Lord Jesus. We opened that Bible to the third chapter of Romans, and we read all of shame and come short of the glory of God. That's the first verse I read with him. And I said this to him. He's here tonight. I said this to him. He loved me so much that he sent his son from the house of glory down to this street. He told me that while the wages of sin were dead, God proved his love towards me, in that while I would get the sinner, Christ died for me. told me I needed to take that savior of life in here. And he put this life in, he washed it away. Well, I can't explain this to you. Madam, I can't explain this. I only know that as I sat there in that room, I knew there was a God. I couldn't have given you one good answer for why I knew it. I could there, but I couldn't then. But I knew there was a God. I knew that I wasn't kept to faith in, that unless God did something, I was helpless. I sunk on my knees, and I cried, God, I'm a sinner, saved me. I didn't know what it meant. But I knew this, that God had to do something, and something for the young was my life. You know, I hear folk tell you when they get saved that they would jump over the moon. You know, everything in the garden would be lovely. I was more miserable and richly after I asked God to save me than I'd ever been in the life. As a matter of fact, I nearly knocked the pallor on his back the moment I was saved. That's a way to get saved. You see, unknown to me, in the tent, at the back where they had a little canvas curtain. There had been two pallets on their knees praying, all the while Mr. Cyril was talking to me. And then they heard me being in a tent. They heard me say, God, I'm a sinner's baby. And one of them jumped to his feet. Hallelujah! I didn't even know what it meant. I thought someone had broken into the tent. They were trying to rot the tent. I jumped on my feet. I'm going to knock him down. The preacher put his arm on the shoulder, said, Go hide, go hide, go hide, go hide. That's the way to get to me. I rose from the knees, and after a while speaking with me and answering me, I said, Well, sir, I better get home. I'll see you tomorrow. Oh, he said, Son, I'll walk up with you. And up home at Charleston Avenue Hill, he came with me, all the while talking to me. about the Lord Jesus. He didn't spend one minute telling me, now you ought to do this and you ought to do that and you ought to do the other. He didn't spend one minute saying, you shouldn't do this and you shouldn't do that and you couldn't do the other. He spent the whole time speaking about Jesus, telling me how he sang the Lord Jesus with a very present heart in trouble. I got in the home and I said, well, good night for it. Oh, you said, I'm coming in. Never asked why you leave? Didn't knock the door, open the door and walk in. And there was my little mother waiting for me. He never gave me a chance. And he looked at my mother and he said, little poor chance got something to tell him. Well, I didn't know what to tell her. I looked her and I said, my... I got myself a bit religious tonight. The only way I knew how to put it. But something strange happened. Something strange happened. Suddenly that little mother of mine burst into tears. She started to cross. That wasn't my mother. You know, I was twenty-one years of age when she broke the last sticker cloth in the back. That was my mother. Twenty-one years of age, and now I was standing as she had a great dream. I'll show you who's ahead of this house, sir. I just stood and grinned at her. This night, I stood there and looked at her. She cried when late. And I'll tell you why she cried. She cried because she'd known where I'd been going. And in her way, she'd been longing for something that happened to her horse. She'd cried over me many a time when I rolled home drunk. She'd cried over me many a time when I'd come in, having been fighting and I was black and blue and wondered whether I could even walk for this day. Wept over me many a time then. Now I came in and she wept because she knew if it was true there was going to be a change in our hearts. And hallelujah, it was true. Praise God it was. As a matter of fact, my mother was the first person I led to the Lord Jesus. It wasn't long after before she was saved. And then the blood of God said, Oh, God did wonderfully. But that was with God. I trusted Christ. That's forty years ago. Friends, and I say this here tonight, I look back over these forty years. I'm fifty-four years of age now, and I'm no longer a boy. And I look back over this last forty years. And I want to say this, and God is my judge. I am answerable to every word before him, and I'm very aware of that. but never once have I ever regretted taking Jesus Christ as the face. Never once. I've regretted not serving him well enough. I've regretted not doing all I should do. I've regretted not being the sort of Christian I ought to have been. But I've never regretted just. I went along to a little castle. A little company of Christians similar to those Christians that are responsible here. It was maybe a slightly different meeting. Lord, say morning when we gathered around the table to remember the Lord, there was a table there at the back and a board on it. And the board said, those in fellowship sit in front. I had to sit behind. They wouldn't have seen me under the fellowship. They wouldn't baptize me. They wouldn't do it for a very obvious reason and see if I want to say I thank God and will be eternally thankful they didn't. They didn't because I still carried on fighting. I still earned the living fighting. And they couldn't understand how any Christian would do that. There was a line of separation between those who loved the Lord and those who didn't. We had a dear brother in our meeting with a dentist, you know, like my friend Mr. Love here. And oh dear, every time I went to the chapel and I was there whenever it was open, he'd take me on one side, you know, give me a lecture. Pantia, Christian, Pantia, do you think that's right? Do you think the Lord would have done it? Do you think, until I got prepared up, I said, how do you get your living? He said, I get tea pad on a dentist. Well, I try and get them out another way, thank you. That's all I want. But all the time, I was facing this. It wasn't that I saw anything wrong with it. But there came a time a little while after. In our own fellowship, we always had a crowd of young men. And we used to go away with a new forest near where we lived, camping, right through the winter. We'll camp, you know, tents. None of these wooden huts you have over here. You can say you go camping. But we went in the tents. When he'd been along at the meeting, they said, Sam, Mr. Searle, the man that led me to the Lord, he's coming up for a young man's Bible camp. Just a weekend when you come. When is it? They told me the day. Said, sorry, I've got to fight upon it by the name of George Markham in Madison's Isle. I can't fight it. I can't come. Well, when you're fighting, Monday night, well, it'll be over by then. Try and come. So I spoke to my brother who managed me, and I said, Phil, I'd like to go to this camp if I could. Well, he said, you'll be all right. Just one day, go up on the Saturday and the Sunday, and then Monday you go for lunch. And he said, be sure you're there on time. I'll be on the certain train. You'll pick it up and say that. So off I went. Now, you'll appreciate that it was a Bible camp. It was a Bible class camp. There were a crowd of young fellows. Oh, when I say a crowd, don't understand me. Maybe thirty-five, thirty-eight of them. Young fellows, late teens, up to their thirty. We had a wonderful night. Monday came and I had to go up this right-hand to catch the train. Just as I was leaving the camp, I said to Mr. Searle, the man that led me to the Lord, I said, Walter, I'm on the way. He looked at me and said, well, we'd better have a word of prayer, haven't we? Well, I prayed about lots of things. Well, I hadn't prayed about fighting. We said, come on. We went into a bell test, you know. Old army bell test. And he knelt down on the ground. And he started to pray. Now, I've heard people pray all over the world. I've never heard such a bloodthirsty prayer in my life. You know, this man of God, and he was a man of God. He's only the Lord now, so he's more a man of God. But this man, drunk on his knees, and he said, Lord, this young fella's growing up London, fighting. You give him all the power in his conscience. You let him hit the other fellow up at us so we won't be recognized. You give him such... I open the eyes and look at him. And he was trained like an angel. When he finished, I said, Amen. I mean, what else would you say? And up I got. I walked out of a tent, and he came after me. And I looked at him, and he was a bit concerned. I couldn't stand him any longer. I stopped, put my hand on his shoulder, said, Mr. So, do you think you were both praying like that? Why, that's just why he prayed like that. He looked right at me and said, Son, if you're doing something you can't pray about, it's about time you gave it up. My heart went right down in the booth. I got on the train, we went up for the way in, and that evening in the past, and that would be past. I was waiting to go up. We were popping a bell, and I was waiting to go up a lot. Now I've been to a religious boy's camp. You understand? I don't know how many of you have done anything. But sometimes the hardest part of a fight, you know, is while you're waiting to get up there, just wondering how good the other fellow is, trying to remember what you learned about him, how he punched, how you had to react, so on and so forth. And so generally, I would look at a paper, a magazine, or a book. But I'd been to a religious boy's camp, and the only books they had were Bibles. And I had a little New Testament. And I took it out of my bag, and I was looking at it. when suddenly a doctor who just examined some of the lads who hadn't been up for the way in came by. Now he was a very good fella, but he was a Jew and an Orthodox Jew, a very good doctor, and an Orthodox Jew. And he stood by my side and spoke to me, asked me how I was, and hoped that I'd do well, and then suddenly he looked and saw the testament, and he picked it up, and he looked at it, and he looked at me. And he said, Why, these two things don't go together very well, did they? I make them go together very well, Mr. And thank you. And I took it. And I tell you something. My heart went down in my boots for the second time. I suddenly realized he was a man who wouldn't even claim to be a Christian. And yet he didn't expect these two things to go together. I found out that even the world had a higher standard for Christians than I had them as well. I bought this fellow George Markham, and I knocked him down in a couple of rounds, and I was coming out of the ring, and as I did, a man put his hand on my brother's shoulder, and said, I want to see it. He was a matchmaker. He had a boy that he wanted me to fight. And so after, we drank, and so on, we went into the office to see it. Now, he didn't mean anything to it, please. He didn't mean anything to it. But he started to... Try and get my brother to sign a contract. My brother wanted a bit more money. Wanted to fight in a different place. And this one started to swear. Now I want to tell you this. When God saved me, he saved my tongue. To my utter, utter shame. I want to tell you I couldn't have put a sentence together without swearing. I had the filthiest tongue and ever a man could have. That when God saved my soul, he saved my tongue. And the proof I had when I was first converted that I was saved is that I'd never sworn from that day to this. And this fellow started to swear. And I looked to him and I said, hey, you don't want to swear at me, you want to get some costly sugar, wash your filthy mouth out. And he looked and I looked and I lost my temper and I up with my fist and knocked him down. I came out of the office, and please, I was a Christian. Some of you young folk don't know you're living. I walked down to that office. I got on the train going back to my hometown, and the wheels of the train said, Call yourself a Christian. Call yourself a Christian. Call yourself a Christian. Call yourself a Christian. I started the day by a man that I loved in Christ telling me, if I was doing something I couldn't pray about, give it up. I continued the day by a Jewish doctor saying, these two things don't go together. And I finished the day by knocking a fella down, and it looked as though I'd be in court for a thought. And I was trying to be a Christian. Sometime after. I knew I had to do something about this. I went along to a recreation ground. I said, and I had a testament with me, and I said, God, show me what to do, please show me what to do. I've been taught in the gospel hall where I'd been going every time it was open for six months, I've been going. I've been taught that Timothy was a young man. and that Paul wrote to young Timothy and so I said, I know what I do. I'll see if there's something in the epistle of Timothy. I don't think I even knew the word epistle. I might have by then seen my father. But I opened the Bible into the chapters that I read tonight. And as I read through, I came indeed into chapter three. And I read the qualifications of a bishop. And I read this. A bishop must not be a striker. Now I was no bishop, I didn't even know what a bishop was. And since then I've had to learn a little Greek, because you will appreciate it. And I'm pretty aware of the fact that that word striker has nothing to do with boxing. But I looked at it. A bishop must not be a striker. And I said, Man, that's how I get the living. If it's wrong for a bishop, it's wrong for me. And I didn't care who was there. I sank down on the tarmac in that recreation ground. I don't know if there was anyone else in the recreation ground. It might have been crowded and there might have been no one there. But I sunk on the means and I said, God, if you want me to give up fighting, you'll find me another job today. And I didn't want him to ask them a prayer. I didn't want him to. I got up on my knees. I walked down over Fifth Barrett Avenue. in to challenge the road here, almost opposite where I saw the ground that down the way will tuck me into the tent where I was made. And as I walked down the road, a fellow went by on his bike. Put on his brakes. Right, that was the matter. Nothing any right. What are you doing? Well, not much right. He said, I've got an acre of potatoes. The cost is going to ruin them. Will you come and dig them up for me? Have you ever dug potatoes? within minutes, please, minutes. And I'm not exaggerating. Within minutes was saying, Lord, if you want to give me that, want me to give it up, find me another job. I didn't want that job. And it didn't fit me. I looked at him and I said, well, am I free of payers. What do you tell I give you the rate? And the rate for digging potatoes in our country that day was thirty-seven shillings a week. Not very much more than what? Four dollars. And I said, well, if that's the only job you can find me, Lord, I'll take it. I went to you getting paid. I worked harder in five minutes than I'd worked in the twelve months. And they gave me thirty-seven and six-woods at the end of the week. It was a wonder my hand didn't shake to take it. But I said, God, if you will, I will. Oh, please, I didn't stay there. We had something better than that, which we'll appreciate. Got a bit of money fighting, and I was able to buy myself a little farm. But that was the start. That was the start. I said, Lord, if you will, I will. I broke the contract. It cost me a lot of money to break. But apart from two or three occasions, When first I was converted, I wouldn't do it now. Of course, at my age, I couldn't. But then I fought two and three times so that I could have the privilege after which you was about before. And I thought that apart from that, I've never fought for it. But I started to live for the Lord. A fellowship that I'm still in fellowship with. I applied to join the fellowship and to appear before the brethren. Well, you young mothers don't know what you do. And it's time to pull the boat. They said, yes, we're baptizing. A bit of a difficulty, though. We don't have a proper baptistry. I only got a tank. Put a pair of slacks in it. You'll have to go down the slacks. We'll pull them up. The man that led me to Christ came over from Cardiff. He went down in the tank first, and I followed him. And he said, I'll put you under. You better get up the best way you can. Down I went. And a joy came into my heart first. A joy came into my heart that I wouldn't trade with any one of you. I know Jesus Christ. He's done this to me. My sin or the bliss of this glorious alt. My sin not in part but the whole was nailed to the car. and I'll bear it no more. I could stand before God today for one who's been forgiven because Jesus paid the price for my thing. And I said, God, if you did that for me, there's only one thing I can do. That's to give back to thee whatever light I have. I told you I was thirteen and a half when I left war. You know, I look at some of you young fellows and girls here today. You've been to college. Some of you have been on to university. What are you doing for God? With all the knowledge you've got. Most of you are just sitting in that and just sitting in that hole. I realized that God had something better. I've just gotten education all over again. went and sat in a class with a crowd of little tackers, and almost, not quite, but almost to learn my alphabet over again. I was twenty-six years of age when I got from the tribulation, and it was hard, hard work, but I got it. The Lord in His mercy called me into His service. From that day to this, in this and thirty more other countries it's been my joy to have told men and women of Jesus I've never asked a soul for a penny and I've never taken a collection in any meeting and I've never sent out a prayer letter which was just a hidden begging letter I trusted the Lord and I want to tell you this he never failed he never failed I want to tell you young men here tonight on the broad road that leads to hell. There's a Christ that will put you on the narrow road that leads to hell. I want to tell you, girl, that if you'll trust Jesus Christ, you'll have in your life such a purpose for living that you'll wonder however you manage without Jesus Christ. I want to look into the face of you Christians here tonight, and I want to ask you something. I want to ask you, what have you done for God? What are you doing for God? With all the opportunities you have in this lovely country. What are you doing for God? Thank God many of you are doing things. Some of you are not. Tonight Jesus Christ challenges your heart. To you who's never taken him as your savior. Who find yourself tonight filling your thing. He says come unto me. Him that come upon to me shall in no wise be cast back. He's willing to receive you as he received me. You Christians who've been playing the fool, he still says to you in the words of the fourteenth chapter of Hosea, I will heal thy backsliding. I will not be freely, for my anger has turned away. Those of us that are seeking to live with Jesus Christ, he says to us tonight, Oh, will you face my face? Do you think to live for me wholeheartedly? Friends, worthy of God, may I ask you that I serve? What will you do with Jesus Christ? Oh, please, I know this. I spent a long time tonight talking about myself. I only did it because you asked me, you asked me to do it. I would much rather have talked about the Lord Jesus. I hope you'll come back tomorrow night and give me a chance to talk about the Word of God as we speak of the rise and the fall of the end of Christ. But tonight, this is the question. What will you do with Jesus Christ? Will you attract him? Or will you reject it? The choice is yours. I thank God that as a young fellow of twenty-four years of age, I bowed my knee and said, God, I'm a sinner, Satan. Will you say that tonight? God help you do not. Where his name is. Amen. Just two verses of four hundred and fourteen