W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest

trump, will give one tremendous heave and from the deep recesses of his coraline beds, throw forth his
clumbering millions. But I always had faith for God to put His omnipotent arm under the ship and keep her from
going down.
Once in Georgia I was booked to go on a train, but something detained me till the next one. When I heard that
the train was wrecked and a number of people killed and others wounded, I saw the hand of God in keeping me
over. My whole life has been amid perils seen and unseen, but He has in mercy kept me till I can finish my
work. Glory to His wondrous name!
Chapter 13
LIFE'S EVENING
I am now in it and appropriating the quaint maxim, “Old men for counsel and young men for war.” Preachers, as
a rule, are superannuated and laid on the shelf before they reach my present age.
If the Lord had not in mercy sanctified me in 1868, I would have been laid on the shelf in the Kentucky
Conference ere this. But instead of superannuation, (which is only given when the preacher is so worn out that
he is no more wanted by any of the people,) instead of that state of things in my own case, I have wide open
doors enough for a thousand men, -- splendid openings for ministerial usefulness which I would be much
delighted to enter. Why do not all the preachers get sanctified, as a sure guaranty against superannuation, which
they all dread worse than their coffins. Only get sanctified, and you will never be superannuated.
I am still as competent to preach the Calvary, Pentecost and Transfiguration Gospels as I ever was. I've only had
to give up the Sinai Gospel, which requires thunder, in order to its real efficiency, as well as the lightning. We
frankly admit that the thunder does not kill anything all that is reserved for the lightning to do, but it is
exceedingly useful to scare the devil, which is of great importance, if possible to precipitate him into a
stampede. The Sinai Gospel actually needs a trumpet voice, which I have possessed in my youth and vigor, but
it is worn out and gone. The Sinai Gospel, whose province is conviction, is the potent enginery to reach the
impenitent, wicked people. The awful roar of Sinai's thunder peals, accompanied by the trembling, quaking
earth and the rending rocks, is God's provision to wake up the souls, by millions, slumbering on the brink of
Hell. This is the Lord's war against Satan, in which the young people with crocodile constitutions, alligator
mouths and lion voices, find a boundless open door to walk in and enjoy the grandest privilege in the universe,
I. e., to spend and be spent for Him who gave His life for us all. I have toiled long and hard at the front of the
battle, seeking the thickest of the fight, where the shot and shell rattled down like a hail storm, shouting the
battle cry,
“Come one, come all,
This rock shall fly
From its firm base,
As soon as I.”
“The glory summons to the martial plain,
The field of battle is the field for man;
Where heroes war, the foremost places claim,
The first in danger and the first in fame.”
This was written by the melodious old Homer, three thousand years ago, who had in his mind the warrior's
fame. Of course we now substitute for it the glory of God.
The little remaining remnant of my pilgrimage legitimately belongs to the didactic department of the Gospel. To
preach means to proclaim, and realizes the value of a clear, stentorian voice.
Teaching is another signification of Gospel preaching, which only requires vocal power enough to be heard and
understood. The example of our Savior along this line gives us all a lesson of pre-eminent value and importance.
Three days would have been sufficient for Him to come and lay down His life to redeem the world from sin,
death and Hell; but we see He imperatively needed those three years that He might have time to teach His
disciples so to qualify them to launch the Gospel Church. During this time He was a constant fugitive from His