W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest

above the Oriental horizon; she the herald proclaiming the delectable rising of the gorgeous king of day,
climbing the skies in his flaming chariot, drawn by steeds of fire, thus chasing away the dismal darkness of the
long, dreary night. Thus the Sun of righteousness in His unutterable glory arose on those brokenhearted
penitents with healing in His wings, chasing away their dreary midnight.
Until this time, I, with my two young men, had lost no time in visiting the people, going everywhere, preaching
on the street, from house to house, and doing everything in our power to bring the people to God. Now since the
light had come and souls were passing out of darkness into light, out of death into life, out of despair into hope,
the glorious Sun of righteousness was climbing the beautiful Orient with healing in His wings, flooding dozens,
scores and hundreds of weeping penitents, backsliders and hungry Christians with His glorious effulgence, and
wonderful reactions and revolutions began to develop on all sides. People rose up spontaneously and after the
good old style, characteristic of Southern hospitality, took us all to their homes and strove with each other for
the privilege, as they wanted us everywhere. Meanwhile, to my surprise, many publicly confessed to me their
unkind criticisms, and begged my forgiveness; at the same time making confessions to me and others and
mutually asking pardon. Oh, how delightful to see those old factions united in peace! They who had filled the
church with strife, animosities, bickerings, calumniations, talebearings, emulations, controversies, jealousies,
envy, prejudice, bigotry, selfishness, self-love, ambition, avarice, egotism, and many other things which
reflected much discredit on Christian character, fellowship, philanthropy, generosity, hospitality, liberality, and
all the beautiful and amiable graces which constitute the brilliant constellation which shines so brightly in every
true Christian character.
The meeting ran on, all told, four weeks. One hundred and forty-three were gloriously converted and a large
number sanctified; while the church got wonderfully revived. While I was preaching the Sinai Gospel, it seemed
that we had no friends there at all and many regarded me as an enemy. But the reaction was so radical and
complete that everybody became my friend, all classes, even the slaves. The presiding elder threw open his
whole district to me and begged me hard to traverse it and hold other meetings. This I did to the extent of my
opportunity, as I was flooded with calls.
Soon after our meeting at Paris, we went to Brownsville, Tenn., which is said to have the largest Methodist
Church in the Memphis Conference. There of course, as usual, I began preaching the Sinai Gospel in order to
secure conviction on the people, without which we can neither have conversions, reclamations nor
sanctifications. Conviction is the corner-stone of any true revival. A revival is the best thing in the world and a
fuss with the devil the next best. Rely upon it, we will have the revival or the fuss with the devil, and the bigger
of either the better. We frequently had the latter, winding up without the revival. You see it would have gone that
way at Paris if the presiding elder had not come, but his and was on me and held me. It was always a question
whether the preacher would have the grit and grace to hold me while I preached the Sinai Gospel, which was
indispensable to conviction, as the people dread it as a child does the extraction of a tooth. If I had begun on the
Calvary Gospel, preaching nothing but the dying love of Jesus, I might have had a church joining, but no
revival. That is the reason why so many revivals are superficial, and evanescent, because they have no bottom.
As a rule, almost any preacher would let you preach Sinai if his people would, but when it comes to blowing
them up and tearing them all to pieces with dynamite, they flicker. I never knew a case where they received the
Sinai Gospel and did not get convicted. The plan of salvation is perfect. The reason why the world is full of
sinners is because they are not convicted; if they were truly convicted, like Saul of Tarsus, they would refuse to
eat or sleep till they get saved. The province of the Sinai Gospel is to reveal Hell in all its gorgon horrors, and
shake people over it till they conclude they are dropping into it; then, in every case, you will see thunderbolt
conviction, followed by radical repentance and glorious conversion.
The reason why genuine revivals in the churches are not at all common is because the Sinai Gospel has gone out
of the pulpit the reason of this is because there are so many unsaved people in the churches that, in many
instances, they live the control of them, and actually rule out the Gospel of Hell and damnation, from the simple
fact that it renders them so uncomfortable. They require their preacher to comfort them and make them feel
good, which is actually helping the devil to ease them down to Hell. But God commands us rightly to divide the
Word of truth, 2 Tim. 2:15. That means to preach the Sinai Gospel to sinners and backsliders all the time until
you get such a conviction on them that they will cry to God night and day till He comes down and delivers