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