more and two. Enlarge the face of thy tent and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitation. Stand up, lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stake. Now, we'll see the significance of that text later on. And speaking on the leading of the Lord in our life and how God has led right from the conversion, our conversion on through, we're about halfway through now, and I think this is the message that First three years, as we've been telling you, was spent in Raleigh, North Carolina, meetings around Raleigh for those three years. And something happened after I was in Raleigh. Only three or four months to describe a blow to one state. And as you know, we stepped out in faith. I came to North Carolina, not knowing anyone down in North Carolina. And I let my parents depend more or less upon me. So I had to look to the Lord for my own need as well as also some to help my parents or something to help them. So in November, my father riding the work on his bicycle, the roads were icy and broke his hip and he never worked again. So that was a little test for our faith. See, we were just down south. And of course, the devil used that to say, you should have never left home. He would have stayed up there. See what happened. Well, I thought, God sent me down here, and he didn't help me take care of things, because he did. I'm going to tell you something. The first six months I was in the south, I received two hundred and thirty-one dollars fellowship. and didn't come from any one church or one individual. It just came a little bit here and a little bit there, and I didn't know who was sending it, but it came. Of course, back in those days, thirty-one years ago, I assume that would be somewhere around nine hundred dollars now for six months. But nevertheless, it was plenty. I got by on it. I was able to send a little to my parents. I've told you about meetings we had in Clayton, Six Forks and Wendell, places around Raleigh, and there were three other places, Swift Creek and Wilders Grove and a place called Ebenezer. These places were around about Raleigh. The furthest, I suppose, was twenty-four miles away. Some of those meetings ran seven weeks, and so between these campaigns we used to have libraries in the home. Well, then the Lord began leading me away from that area because the work was mostly rural work, and we found out that most of the folks were farmers who kind of a lot of cotton and there was always a lot of migrating it seemed in the spring of the year early because some of the farms had ten small farms about twenty acres each they were sub rented and every year there was a transit it seemed to be from place to place and a lot who got shaved seemed to move away that is especially father wanted to move some of the other members of the family had gotten shaved and wanted to remain but The work was such that we couldn't consolidate it. So then the Lord was exercising us to go up to Winston-Salem, which is about a hundred miles west of Raleigh. Mrs. Chapel, where I was staying for the first three years, Mrs. Chapel, home in Raleigh, by her parents lived in Winston-Salem. And she had often said to me to Mr. Wilson, I wish you'd be exercised about going up to Winston-Salem. said there's a great need in that city with a gospel, and I wish you would go. So it seemed the Lord was leading very definitely in that direction. So I decided in the spring of thirty-four, thank you thirty-four, to go up to Winston Sagan. I happened to stay with Mr. and Mrs. Crouch, Mrs. Chapel's parents for three weeks. And I tried my best to get a building to preach in. place to have meetings in, but I couldn't find one. And then Mrs. Crouch had heard about a man who had a tent for sale, and she wrote down and told Mrs. Chapel in Lolly that there was a tent for sale, and why didn't I get a tent and start preaching in a tent? Well, I hadn't had a tent on my own until this time. So then Mr. Chapel told me one night, he said, Wilson, I hear that there's a tent for sale up in the width of sales. He said, how about if we here in Raleigh buy that tent and you have a series of meetings up in Winston-Stalin and then bring it back here and teach some more around here. And I said, Jimmy, I've been around Raleigh for three years. I think that's quite a while. Now I said, if you want to buy that tent and let me use it wherever the Lord wants me to use it, I'll agree to that. But to agree to terms that you buy the tent with strings attached that I've got to come back down there after I have a series here in Winston-Salem, I will not agree to that. If you want to buy that tent for me, be to use it wherever the Lord may lead me, whether it ever sees Raleigh or not, I'll agree. All right, he says, go ahead and buy the tent. So I went ahead and went over to see this man, and I asked him if he had a tent for sale. He said, yes, he did. He took me out, and he showed me the tent in two big bags, and It's got kind of shapes in it. He said, it's good shape. He told me he'd only bought it two years before. Well, I said, I'd like to see it. Well, he said, I'll sell it to you just as it is. He told me how much it cost him, and he'd only been bought two years before. So I said, all right, I'll buy the tin. So he bought it and took it out to a lot that we were able to get on North Patterson Avenue. And I'm going to say this, if ever any of you are interested in buying a tent, never buy one in a bag without seeing it. But when I put that tent up, I thought I was in a planetarium. I could see stars and planets and everything else, all through the tents. It was just full of holes. And I went back to see the Mr. Jones. I said, you know an awful lot of holes in that tent? Well, he said, I don't know. I put it in there a couple of years ago. Evidently, he bought it and used it once and put it back in the bag, and that's where it had been, and evidently, in his garage a damp place, and that's what happened. Well, anyway, I got started in my meetings, and I was preaching one week. Monday night of the second week came, and I saw the storm coming up in the distance. And finally, I was just about quarter of the way through my sermon when the storm reached such a pitch that the audience just wasn't listening to me at all. They were looking around. The old tent was just flapping like this. And so finally I said, folks, we'll have to dismiss the meeting. And they scurried out and got in their cars and took off. And I started battling with the tent, running from one side to the other, putting up a post over here and one over here. Finally I saw it's useless. My Bible pages were flipping over on the pulpit and I ran up and grabbed my Bible and got out the tent and just got in my car parked in front of the lot and away went the tent. Big gust of wind got up under it and the tent, the canvas started flying in every direction. Well, I sat there until I was taken no more, seeing the tent all torn to pieces and so I went home. All night long I was dreaming the tent going through the air. There was no dream. It was a reality. So next morning, the first thing I did was to get up and hurry up to the tent. Well, all of the standing were the posts and the ropes. Side curtains had fallen down on the ground. They seemed in pretty good shape. But there were the ropes, just as there as could be. I'll go, well, pick chicken. And all the canvas was all over the place. So I thought, well, I don't know what I'm going to do. I have to take a look at it in the morning. I was lying at the back of the lot, lying down on its back, and hymn books were scattered all over the community. So I went home to my room, and I got on my knees. I said, Lord, what am I to do? I felt I was in your will coming here to Winston-Salem, and things seemed to work pretty well. If you have this tent offered to us, Now it's gone. What does all this mean? I said, Lord, is this the end of my efforts in a tent here in Winston-Salem, or do you want me to get another tent and continue? I said, Lord, and I'm going to say this. I don't want you to do this very many times because it can be very misleading that he's just letting your Bible open. Now and again, it will work. When you're really wanting the will of God, then God knows you really want it. He can lead. I've tried it many times since and it hasn't worked. But here's one time it did work. I said, Lord, I want your will. Because the Lord knew I wasn't going to get a tent unless I had direct orders from him. I said, Lord, I want your will. And I've got to open my Bible. I want you to give me a text. That will be appropriate. And this is the text I've edited. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitation, spare not lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes. Now, you wouldn't have bothered the person I've got in your life. Well, I thought that's all I want. So I got off my knees, and I went over to Mr. Dye's, Dye's awning and tent manufacturer, and he's the one who's made that tent. Or he sold it to Mr. Jones. And so I went into his office. I said, guys, I have had a tent up on North Patterson Avenue, and it was destroyed last night in the storm. Yes, he said, I saw it this morning. I gave by. I said, quite a mess. Well, I said, you made that tent, did you? He says, yes. But he said, that was a bad storm. Yeah, but I said, that thing was full of holes before the storm hit. And he said, that couldn't have been our fault. That was waterproof, and he said, they'll do proof, because I don't see how it could have been that way. He said, it must have been neglect on the part of the man who had it, Mr. Jones, because he was in a damp place. Well, I said, I'd like to know how much a new fence on a crop, that is, will use the old ropes, and what will the canvas cost to put on those ropes? So I did a little figuring. Of course, we're speaking in terms now of twenty-eight years ago. Well, he said, I'll put new canvas on those oaths for a hundred and fifty dollars. Well, I said, now the second thing, what are your terms? Oh, he said, cash, of course. Well, now I said, I'm just going to greet you a little on my life. I said, I came down south trusting the Lord. I don't pick up any offerings of my meetings. I just trust the Lord for my life. And if you will state some terms, I'll guarantee you one thing, that your terms that we agree upon will be met. That faith in God will be met. He looked at me. Well, he said that you've got that much faith in God. I don't see why I shouldn't have that much faith in you. He said, seventy-five dollars down, and the rest in six weeks. voice within me says, go ahead and take them up. I had twenty-five dollars in a block. The voice kept saying, take them up. Well, I said, suppose when we make it fifty dollars down, the rest in three months. He said, all right. So we agreed to that. And I went up to the lot. When I got up to the lot, I found that the side curtains were gone. I thought, what happened to them? They were here. They were falling down the ground. They were all around the posts, around the tent. They didn't seem torn. Where are my side curtains going? I got in my car, and one of the ladies across the street said she saw some boys hauling them off. Well, I got in my car and drove around that community that the new development. Now, if I saw one tent, I saw twenty. There were little tents all around the backyard. I'll tell you who had the biggest one, the Methodist minister's boy. He got the biggest piece of canvas and he had the biggest tent. They got the side curtains and cut them up. So I went back to Mr. Dyes. I said, Mr. Dyes, I'm afraid I'm going to have to have side curtains. I went back up there to see the situation again. found the side curtains had been pulled off, cut up, and boys made a lot of tents all around the community up there. He kind of smiled, and he said, well, that'll cost you sixty more dollars, Mr. Wilson, two hundred and ten dollars altogether. I said, all right, and it'll be paid, too, on those terms, three months, seventy-five dollars up. Well, he went ahead, and I said, I appreciate you getting the tent made as quickly as you can. said, all right. So he told me when I could get it, and I went back, and the tent was there, and I had the seventy-five dollars that he asked for. And I paid him off everything within the six weeks that he, first of all, had. I had stretched it out for three months, but I met his terms. The Lord sent it in, people that I had never met. sent me some fellowship, and that's the way it was at. I didn't ask anyone for a penny. I didn't write anyone for a penny. I made no hints. The Lord just took care of it. And here's an unusual thing. When I went to get my pen, I noticed that I had all new ropes. So I went in to see Mr. Dyer, and Mr. Dyer, I thought I was having the canvas putting on my old ropes. I was expecting a little more cost. Yes, he said, that was the arrangement. He says, the foreman back in the office misunderstood the notice that I gave him that was to be put on the tamps to be put on the old ropes. So he says, that's our mistake, so you get the benefit. So I got a complete new tent, new ropes and all for two hundred and ten dollars. So we started in preaching in Winston's head. We preached for about five weeks and The Lord saved two or three fine souls. I remember it was after three weeks preaching a lady, the name of Mrs. Mayberry, was the first one to find Christ, and I think most of her children are in the assembly to this day. She is too, along with the husband, Mr. and Ms. David Mayberry. So we had a wonderful time there in Winston-Salem. That first campaign, even after the tent was blown away, and I might say there was a sideline to that. I went down to Raleigh after that campaign, see the chapels, and Jimmy said, well, Mr. Wilson, where's our tent? We bought you. I said, Jimmy, that's gone with the wind. This is my tent. The wind took your tent away. So he kind of smiled, and I used that tent in Western Salem for the opening up of the work there. So it shows you how the Lord can lead on this text that I gave you how definitely the Lord revealed his will and how faithful he was that everything was taken care of. Then there was something else that happened in Winston-Salem that I thought was very interesting. At the end of that summer we were going to put the tent away and Mr. Dye said that he would have it stored in his factory for a small amount. So we took the tent down and Mr. Vickley, a man named Mr. Vickley, had a trailer. So he said, I can put it on my trailer and then take it over from the lot to the die-zoning and tent place. So he did. Mr. Davis, lieutenant in the fire department, who had found Christ along with Mr. Vickley, the meetings we had had, Mr. Davis and I, we followed on three or four blocks behind Mr. Vickley as he was going on with his car and the trailer. As we were getting near Salem Station, I thought I saw a big brown bag lying out in the road alongside near the curb. I said, Use, her name is Use Dave, and I said, Use. George must have had a wreck. I said, I think I see that canvas bag down there. As we got close enough, we saw there had been a wreck. A big truck had stopped quickly in front of him. He was following two clothes and didn't see the light changed. The light changed, and so all George could do was try and miss the... truck and as he swerved over he rented a big fender on the opposite side of the street a car was parked there and the trailer turned over and threw the tent bags up against the curb so they they hurried up and got the traffic straightened out and George pulled his car and the trailer around the side well we were going to debate what we were going to do Mr. Davis said, well, if I know a man that's a pretty good mechanic, he said, friend of mine, nothing, if you take it up there, he gives a trailer. Well, this man had already come out and wanted to know what was going to be done to his fender. So we told him where to take his car up, and said, Vicki, he had the bumper torn off his and also a fender. So they both left. I stood there on the curb only about twenty feet from my mailbox, which was forty-one Salem Station as the sailor. I said, Lord, you know I don't have any money. You see the cost of this. Well, I thought it was going to be considerable. So I turned around and went into the post office and there were two letters, three letters in fact in my mailbox. One was from my mother. One was from Miss Lynn, an elderly lady who was saved immediately. We had six walks. I referred to that a little while ago. Another letter there from another Christian had fifteen dollars in it. So I had twenty dollars. So this time I thought, well, I've gone out to the garage. And when I got there, this garage man, mechanic, I just got through talking with Mr. Davis, Mr. Bigley. He told Mr. Bigley, he said, well, I've got a second-hand fender. He said, I think we replace yours. He said, I think I have a bumper too, a second-hand bumper that I can replace the one you had. He said, I don't think it's any necessary to be necessary to put any new on your car. He told the man, he said, I can save that at the bump in your fender for three dollars. Now, remember, again, this was twenty-eight years ago, and that three dollars would be about like ten today. So he said it'd be around twenty-three dollars, but he said, I'll let you have it for twenty. Well, that's exactly what I had. Fifteen dollars out of one letter and five out of the other. He said, I'll do both jobs for twenty bucks. So I was all right. The Lord saw me through that. So these are some of the ways in which the Lord led in the beginning of the work in Winston-Salem. His guiding hand was very evident. And these things encouraged one, because in those days I was just young. I was dependent entirely upon the Lord. It was my first real pioneer effort when I was down in Raleigh. Why? There was a fine group of Christians there that more or less were behind me in everything I did and assumed much of the responsibility for going to Winston-Salem. I was alone. I want to say this. I don't know any place where I witnessed the presence of the Lord more than I did in Winston-Salem. I believe the Lord does that when one is young and venturing out for special encouragement. After a while, as you get older, he wants you to walk by naked feet without any special encouragement. By this time, you ought to be able to trust him by just taking matters word. But when you're younger, the Lord in his grace does things a little out of the ordinary just for your encouragement to strengthen your faith. I remember when we used to break bread in Mrs. Sneed's home. In Winston-Salem, when only about four or five were there, the peasants of God was so real at that worship meeting, where we used to meet to remember the Lord on Sunday morning, that sometimes I was afraid to get on my feet because the atmosphere was so charged with the presence of God. You didn't have to open your eyes. You could just hear the Christians were five or six who were there, sometimes only four or five, and they were all sobbing. Tears were plenty, and there wasn't a him being sung. No brother was on his feet. Everything was quiet. The presence of the Lord was so real, the hearts were softened, and Christ was made so precious, that they just sat there and meditated upon the Lord. And I never since had such experience as we had in Mrs. Snee's home back at that time. So we had our discouragement, but we had our impediments too. The last campaign I had there, after five years, there were forty-six professed to be saved, and about thirty-seven of them came into fellowship, and at this time the assembly was ninety in number, in fellowship, and that was where we built our first church, and it's a flourishing chapel today, quite a lot larger than this in number than fellowship. One other thing I want to mention more concluding. That is, during that campaign I've just referred to, I had laryngeals. Very little trouble I ever had with my throat. But here's another thing the Lord taught me the lesson in. Because the crowds were coming, we could hardly see the people. Place was packed night after night, night after night. People were getting saved. And I had this case of larynxitis, and I just couldn't speak a whisper. When I get up in the morning, I couldn't speak a whisper. I try and talk. There was no sound at all. And I swallowed everything from courtesy to power stream. Everything anybody would suggest, I'd try. And, you know, all kinds of remedies won't cost you a penny for prescriptions. You get something wrong with you, and everybody's got the remedy. Well, I took all the remedies. So I don't know what went down my pipe. I know song wasn't very palatable, but I thought I'd get something that would clear up this laryngeal. And I'm going to tell you that you, Lord's word in my hand. I've gone to that tent at night. The men were there, helped get things ready. And they said, Mr. Wilson, how's your voice? And I couldn't answer. I just pointed my throat. No need to be saying it's bad, but I couldn't say it. There wasn't any sound. just nothing came up. And I thought to myself, this is the most foolish thing I've ever seen in my life. Here's a crowd of people, and I got a priest. And I don't have a boy. I got Mr. Bigling. We take care of the singing. There I sat, waiting him to get through, and I thought, well, this isn't embarrassing. When he stepped down, he said, I'll turn the meeting over to Mr. Wilson. Well, I stepped up, opened my mouth, My voice came out just as clear and just ringing right out as if nothing were off. That happened night after night for about two weeks. Finally it cleared up. You tell me how it happened? I will. But I know one thing, I was in the Lord's way. The Lord knew those people need to hear his word. And it just shows you how God can overrule. It wasn't any great faith on my part, I'll tell you that. and it was just the faithfulness of God. And that was another lesson I learned early in my Christian life and as a servant of Christ, a minister of the gospel that strengthened and fortified my faith for other tests that came later. So that's the experience of how the work began and the stock included in Winston-Salem, leaving it there with a lovely new church building with a large fellowship And we'll tell you next Wednesday night, we're willing to go and have that film on the missionary work, how the work went on there on the Mr. McKay and how I went on screen for him to start another work there. The next message follows immediately. Psalm sixty and verse nine. Who will bring me into the strong city? Who will lead me into the city? the last message because of our going away next month up to Canada. God willing, we'll have three or four more messages when we return, God willing, in September. So now we get to Greensboro. I might say during the five years that we were in Winston-Salem, and we built a lovely new chapel there, I only made two trips to Canada, and I'm saying this for a reason. I could drive to my parents' home in Canada in two days. It was eight hundred and fifty miles. During five years, I only visited them twice. In other words, I felt that the Lord's work came first. And I'm saying this because it seems some people, they just can't stay away from mother and daddy two weeks. They've got to go and see him. Whether it means missing the Lord's table or what? They've got to go. Well, the Lord didn't mean for... me to do any more than he means for any of his children. In other words, we've got to put him first. I don't mean by that you don't have to go and see your mother and father twice in two years. If she's living somewhere nearby, why, I believe you should go more often. But not too often to put loved ones ahead of the Lord. Now our building is complete in Winston-Salem, and a nice assembly there of some ninety Christians remembering the Lord. My Sunday school started, and one day, just as it seemed, I was settled down to stay in Winston-Salem for three or four years. I began getting some letters telling me that I was making a mistake. The Lord had called me to do evangelistic work, and here I was settling down and becoming a pastor, and doing nothing else but looking after one flock of sheep. And the possibility was I would have to stay there until that new church building was paid off, which was not the case. But the Lord had his plan. So one day I was praying, and the Lord very definitely laid it on my heart to go to Greensboro, North Carolina. That's about thirty miles east of Winston-Salem. And the moment that thought came into my mind, go to Greensboro, I said, well, Lord, who's going to take care of Winston-Salem? Here we have about ninety Christians, and most of the men had just gotten saved in the last year. The last campaign we had, there were forty-six prophets to get saved, and thirty-five of them or thirty-seven of them came to the fellowship, and seventeen of them were men. Before that we only had three or four men. And so the men were quite young in Christ and unable to handle the responsibility of that flourishing work. So I said, Lord, I just can't. Leave this work now. We've just built our new chapel. And if I were to go to Greensboro, who's to take over the work here? And the voice came. In fact, I believe I stopped praying. It was so clear. A voice behind me said, Go and see Harold. Well, immediately I thought of Harold McKay. I'd only met Harold twice and that very briefly, and yet he came within forty miles of my home in Canada. And at that time he was laboring up in Virginia, in Bristol. And the voice said, go and see her. I thought, well, I don't know anyone, but what I've heard, I don't know anyone that I would be free to leave this work with, like her, but what I've heard. We're both about the same age, and he's the one we've reminded you of time and time again who has a tumor on the brain. Brother Marshman and Evelyn met him when they were up at Bristol. One of the most talented teachers, I believe, we have in America today, and yet here he is, handicapped because of his tumor on the grave. Harold and I have been like brothers for these many years who've lived together. So, the day or two after, I get in my car and I drove up the distance to Bristol. I knocked at the door, and when Harold opened the door, he stood and glared at me. Of all things, He said, if I haven't been thinking of you the last two or three days, he said, it was only yesterday. I took a map out, and I figured out how far I was down to Winston-Salem, and I said to Gertie, that's his wife, Gertie, I'm going down to Winston-Salem to see that work. I've heard so much about it. I want to go down and see it. And he says, here you are, stand in my door. He says, come on in. So I went in, and I said, well, Harold, I'll tell you what my mission is. And I told them what I just told you that I was praying. And all of a sudden the Lord told me to go to Greensboro. And I said, Lord, what am I going to do with Winston Salem? The Lord says, go up and see Harold. He looked at me and his wife heard he was there. Well, he said, that could be the answer to all our prayers. We have felt since we came back from Canada last Christmas. And if I remember correctly, this was in April. He said, we felt that our work here was done, that the Lord was stirring up our nest. And yet he said, we didn't know where we were going. We just felt we were through here. And we just didn't know where the Lord wanted us. And we've been praying ever since. Well, Lord, if you don't want us here, where do you want us to go? There were so many evidences that the Lord didn't want us here. Our nest was being stirred up. But where we could go, he said, this could be the answer to all our prayers. So we decided that he would come down. and have a week's meeting and just see how the lord would lead so he came down on the saturday and sunday we had such a happy time the monday morning he said let's look for a house he was ready he wasn't going to wait a week he was ready right then to get a house and live well we looked around town and as we came back after looking around couldn't find anything we were standing in front of the chapel and the man who's a neighbor there at the chapel neighbor of the chapel, walked up and he says, you know, that man in there wants to sell that house. It was the house right next to the chapel. So we walked up to the door and we said, you want to sell this house? Well, he said, sell a rent one. Well, you do want a rent. He said, yes, he said, I want a rent. Well, how much do you want? So he told us, and the rent was very reasonable. It was right next door to the chapel. So Harold and myself, we looked around and Harold says, well, I don't have enough furniture for this many rooms. And the man overheard us. He says, you know, he said, he said, I'm not taking all of this furniture with me. He said, I want to leave all of this furniture in this room, this front room, he said, in that front bedroom. And he said, there's a stove at the back. He said, I want to leave that here or sell it. We bought the whole business for a hundred and fifty dollars. So he got enough furniture for the house, plus what he was going to bring down with him, and the house was rented right next door to the chapel. So he moved in, and that's how the Lord provided. So now it was Greensboro. Well, I went over to Greensboro to see the lay of the land. Of course, I didn't know anybody in Greensboro. When I got over there and began talking around among folks, I happened to meet one or two Christians. and tell them what I was interested in. They said, well, you can't have meetings in this town. What do you mean? Well, for two years they have barred the use of any tent in Greensboro. Well, I don't understand that. Well, they have a purpose for it. So I went to one of the city officials and asked if that were true, and he said yes. The reason for that is he said that a seven-day Adventist man came in here and touched a big tent and didn't tell anybody who he was, let them believe that he was here for the benefit of all denominations. He was interdenominational, and then finally he came out with his seventh-day Adventist doctrine, and he caused an awful lot of commotion in town. Then he said, last year, a holiness man came in here and touched a big tent, put on a big show, and ran up a lot of bills, and he pulled out overnight. The next morning the lot was vacant and all his equipment was gone and he said he left such unsanitary conditions behind that the city fathers got together and they passed the bylaw. There'd be no more permits granted for tent meetings within the city limits of Greensboro. Well, I thought that's strange. Now here, Brother McKay, he's moved down to Winston-Salem and the Lord told me I was to come over here to Greensboro. I go over and I find this situation. So I went before the Lord about it, and that's when the Lord gave me this text, and it was, Who shall bring me into the strong city? Will it not thou, O God? I think the real rendering is, who shall bring me into Petra, the rock city? Will it not thou, O God? So I thought, well, the Lord will do it, and the first thing I thought of was, to go and see Chief Anderson, who was chief of police, a real Christian who had been attending our meetings. When I was having these meetings in Winston-Salem, he had an architect of policemen, eight big husky policemen, admire how they could sing. He used to bring them to our meetings, have large crowds there, and to see those eight big men standing up the block there singing, it was just beautiful. So I went to see Chief Anderson. I said, I understand that they've got a law over in Greensboro that prohibits anyone from having meetings. He sent meetings inside the city limits. I said, isn't that unconstitutional? Do we not have freedom of religion in our constitution? Well, he said, they've got a reason for it. They've got a purpose for it, and I'm sure they wouldn't. Well, I said, I kind of found out why they passed that law, and I told them. Well, he said, I'll tell you what I'll do. I know Chief Jarvis over there in Greensboro, Chief of Police, he said, and he's a Christian. I'll give you a letter of commendation to him. Be glad to do it. Now, it's very seldom you'll find two chief of police in two cities like that, of that size, both of them wonderful Christians. And so he wrote a letter of commendation. He gave it to me, and I went over the next day, and I went in to see Chief Jarvis. And very fine gentlemen. And I handed them the letter. And he read it. He says, Well, what can I do for you? I said, Mr. Jarvis, I want to have some meetings in this town. And I understand that there's a bylaw for pivoting the erection of any tent inside the city limits. And that's what I've got as a tent. Yes, he says there is a law. But he said, What do you preach? I said, I preach Christ and Him crucified. No, he asked that. He said, what do you preach? Christ and Him crucified? I said, yes. risen, glorified, coming again. He said, amen. And then he reached down and opened his drawer at his desk and he pulled out a hymn book. He was the choir director of a Baptist church in Greensboro. And he started coming through the book. He said, no, this is for him I love. Free from the law or happy condition, Jesus have bled them. There is remission. I said, amen. It was my time to say amen. Because I had known that hymn ever since I was a boy. My was so fundamental. I thought, well, here's a man who really knows Christ. And as he thumbed through that hymn book and pointed out some hymns that he loved to say, here I was talking to a real warm-hearted Christian. He was the chief of police. So after a nice time of fellowship, he said, well, Mr. Wilson, I can see by talking with you that you would have some good meetings here. He said, I do all I can to help you. Well, I said, I want you to understand, Chief, that my meetings are not radical. There's no shouting going on. There's no begging for money. We just conduct our meetings on a dignified way, in a dignified way. And we preach the gospel. We want men and women to be saved. our object. And then we want to teach them the truth of God's word act. Well, he said, I'll tell you, you go on over and see Mayor Lewis. That is, while you're going over there, I'll phone over and you'll have to see him because, after all, the bylaw will have to be handled by the Board of Elements, the Mayor. So I went on over to Mayor Lewis, and by the time I got there, I didn't get right in to see the mayor at that moment because someone else was in there and I sat in the waiting room. Finally my turn came to go in and as I walked in the mayor was very cordial and welcomed me very warmly. He said, well, Mr. Wilson, what can I do for you? He said you've come highly recommended from Winston-Salem and he said that Chief Jarvis has given you the His infestions are, you know, he said, what can I do? So I told him, well, he said, you know, that's too bad. He said, we had our council meeting last night. And he said, if you'd only had your application in, he said, we could have discussed it last night. He said, you fill out an application, and when we have our next meeting, two weeks from last night, why, we'll take it up. Well, I said, the mayor and of course I'd have a little experience about the enemy with the enemy don't give them too much information don't give them too long to work I said you know if I wait two more weeks then it'll give me another week to get my equipment up there's three weeks and the summer is kind of short and I like to get in two seven or eight week campaigns in one summer and if I get delayed two weeks now that'll push me into the fall and you know we get cold nights into the fall September And I would like to get started just as soon as I can. And I would appreciate if you consider that point, I'd like to get the best weather I can for my meeting. So he said, well, I'll tell you what I'll do. He said, I'll call the aldermen, or eight of them. And he said, I'll greet them on what we've heard from Chief Anderson and also what Chief Jarver says and what my own professions are. They said, if five of them will pass it, he said, then we'll give you the permit, and it'll just be a formality when the meeting comes up to reach hands. He said, you come back in a couple of hours, and I said, I'll do that. So I went back in a couple of hours, and he was very happy. He said, it's all right, Mr. Wilson. He said, go right ahead. He said, they're all favorable. He said, except one, you are favorable, but he suggested that you get the permission of the Ministerial Association. I thought, this is it. Because they're the ones who will block, if they can, if you're not there in their particular denomination, if you're undenominational, you're going to preach the gospel they're opposed to. And, of course, they had memories, I presume, of this seven-day Adventist and the trouble he caused, and of this holiness creature and the trouble he caused. So I thought, well, I guess that's it, but I thought, well, God says he'll bring me into a strong city. Everything's been going good up till now. I'll go and see him. So I went to see the President of the Ministerial Association, and after, he was a little cool to begin with, and he asked me a few questions, and I answered them. So finally, he said, well, I don't see any reason why we can't let you go ahead. We don't want to be the only one blocking you. All right with us. So the Lord gave us favor with him, and we were all set to go. So then we went to the radio station, and talked about getting time on the radio station, and Maker Ridge, who was in charge of the radio station, said, well, it would be four hundred and some dollars for a number of broadcast that I want at that time. We were only eight dollars of broadcast. The only station in town. Well, I said, what are your terms? Well, he said, pay in advance. I said, what do you mean? Pay all that four hundred and some dollars in advance. No, he said, you have to pay a week in advance. week in advance. Well, I said, all right, I'll take it on. Well, I only had about enough for a couple of weeks, broadcast, only about that much money in my pocket. Well, anyway, I paid a week in advance and started my meetings. And one night, one day, rather, a lady phoned me up and she'd been attending the meetings that I had, and I want to say that I fixed my tent right across from a cemetery, so I had those dead in their bodies or across the road and those dead in their sins in front of me in my audience. But there's a music, kind of an amusing angle to this. I said to the chief of police going back a little, I said, where do you think I might get a good lot? Well, he said there's one out here and he started playing around the town and I went around trying to find these lots. I found a couple of them, but discovered I couldn't get them. And I was driving down this road and I saw this nice, big, beautiful cemetery. On one side, I thought, well, I won't be able to get many folks out of there to my meetings. But there was a good community all of the other three directions. And I saw this nice lot, and so I went to the city hall and found out who owned it. Went to see him, and I got to the rental. So then I went back to see the chief. Well, he said, did you get a lot? I said, yes. Well, he said, I don't see why anybody said, Jack, you're getting a lot. and along. And I told him, hold on. He said, that's just two goers for me. Well, he just got through saying. He didn't think anybody should object. So what did he say? Well, anyway, I went ahead and put up my pen, and he was a real blessing to us. And I could see how the Lord led in deep God at being there because he did some things that really protected us from some vandalism. But It was kind of amusing on two or three occasions. He'd come home from the office sometimes quite late. When he'd go in the driveway and talk to his wife, he told me that after he'd say to the wife, Mr. Wilson must have a tent full tonight. He said, I hear him two blocks away, please. And I used to really shout in those days. He said, soon as I get supper, I'm going to slip up. He said, I know he must have a tent. And he said, I'd walk up there and you had three people sitting on the back bench. And that was true. I preached to three, four, five a night and all would sit right in the back row. And when you pitch your own equipment and leave your own singing, no pianist, I had a piano there but didn't have a piano player. And then do your own preaching, lock up and go home and do your own complaining. And back the next night and the same day. But anyway, the last night of those five weeks, two fine souls trusted Christ. And the biggest crowd we had was when Chief Jarvis brought the whole choir over from the Baptist Church to sing for us one night, and that was the biggest crowd we had. But we thank the Lord for that. Anyway, going back to this other incident, one of the ladies was attending those meetings. She called me one day, and she said, Wilson, could I see you downtown sometime today? She said around noon time. I said, yes, I'll be free to meet you, any place you say, or any time. So we decided on the place, and the time was to be half past twelve. So when I got there, I recognized her having attended the meeting. She said, I want to ask you something. She said, I've been attending your meeting. You go and ask for money. I said, that's true. I trust the Lord. She said, well, I've been going to some other meetings, going to yours, and there were other meetings too. said another man he's been begging for money every night he wants to get a typewriter for some missionary and she said some other things and it runs into about four hundred dollars and night after night he was saying I believe there's someone out here that would like to help toward this and you've got the money she said three or four times I was just about to put my hand up and something said don't you do it so she said the Lord just kept bringing you before me when I was just about to do it she said I just wondered whether I don't know where you get your money from, but would you accept some fellowship from it? He said, it's my time. I'll tell you that right now. It's my time. I don't know why I've allowed this much to accumulate, but it's my time. And she said, I just wonder if you would accept it. Well, I said, if you will give it as unto the Lord, yes. That's the way I live, just from the Lord's feet. Well, she said, here it is. She had me a check for two hundred and fifty dollars. So I walked right over to the radio station and plunk that down. So I was paid up for quite a while. So that's the way the Lord was leading back in those days. And I say the first campaign, there were only two professed in the last night. And then the next campaign, we had six weeks and about fifteen professed to get saved. And the next summer, we had another campaign for eight weeks, two campaigns, eight weeks each. A lot more were saved. Then we bought the horse having a tabernacle. It was a rotated Baptist church with sixteen Sunday school rules and auditorium seating about four hundred. Hughes and all, I got it for five thousand dollars. So that's the course that's been renovated, added to. Today Mr. McKay is there, and that's one of the most thriving assemblies. I would say one of the most solid assemblies in the country. Every Sunday morning about two hundred fifty sit down and remember the Lord and their Sunday school has gone up around five hundred and fifty, I think near six hundred. But a wonderful work is going on there and so that's how the Lord led us to dreams about. I'm going to give one little illustration of how the Lord led. One night I went to my room and I took my coat off. I always used to take my pocketbook out of my coat. put it on the table. This night I put my hand in there and there wasn't any pocketbook. My eyes broke out in perspiration right away. I had some papers in there that I didn't want to lose. I had my passport and estates and other papers and all the money I had within that pocketbook. I didn't have any bank account or anything. I tell you, I was sweating. I thought, what happened? So I immediately jumped and ran out of the car, looked around my car, walked all around in the front. I left the folks out of the front of the house. I went up the driveway with my flashlight and looked all around. I couldn't find anything. So I got in my car and drove on out to the tent. And I got my flashlight and walked all around up and down the front of the tent and out to where my car was parked. No. Couldn't find any sign. So I went home. And I said, Lord, I don't know how I'm going to sleep tonight. And you're going to have to give me some sleep with this on my mind. So I did. I went to sleep. Next morning I got up and the first thing was on my mind. I thought, well, I couldn't find it last night. I'll hurry out there this morning or daylight and maybe I can find it. So I went out, couldn't find it. I came back and I got on my knees and I said, Lord, If this is a permanent loss or I'm not going to recover it, just let me know and I'll dismiss it and rest in the fact that it is your will. But if I'm to recover, tell me where it is so I can get off of mine and get down to my study. And that voice came again. Put on your best coat. I thought, well, that's a foolish thing. Put on my best coat. voices put on your best coat. Well, this is what I wore the night before. So here I was in my church sleep, and I got off my knees, and I went to the clothes closet, and I took my coat, and I put my hand in, and the first thing I grabbed was my pocket, which was studded, right here in the top of my coat. Now what happened the night before, I'd thrown my coat over the car, the front seat of the car, And I presume that the parable slipped out here into the sleeve. And when I pick up my coat and took it in the house, it just dropped down into the cloth of the sleeve and there it caught. And I'm going to tell you the truth. I tried fifteen times to make that parable stick in that sleeve after I'm done with good and good. Now how in the world is it stuck there? But the Lord said, put on your coat. I put my arm down with the sleeve and I grabbed my pocket. Well, I said, thank the Lord, and I got down to my study as usual. These are some of the leading to the Lord, the way the Lord led, God willing, we return from the north by Ruth and Tidium, along to Burlington, Silas City, Durham,