"This is My Story; This is My Song

E. L. Minchin

This sermon on the topic on the blessings that become possible with entire surrender, was first given at the greatly blessed Week of Prayer in Tacoma Park Church, Friday, March, 1965.

You can download the sermon as an 8x11 PDF.

"There is no limit to the usefulness of one who, by putting self aside, makes room for the working of the Holy Spirit upon his heart, and lives a life wholly consecrated to God. If men will endure the necessary discipline, without complaining or fainting by the way, God will teach them hour by hour, and day by day. He longs to reveal His grace. If His people will remove the obstructions, He will pour forth the waters of salvation in abundant streams through the human channels. If men in humble life were encouraged to do all the good they could do, if restraining hands were not laid upon them to repress their zeal, there would be a hundred workers for Christ where now there is one."

Hebrews 12:1 "Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus."

We shall turn in the precious Book to the 12th chapter of Hebrews, verse 1, a very familiar, but a very wonderful message: "Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus."

What a message: Wherefore. What is the first word here? Why, my friends, there were no divisions of chapters when this book was written, you know, and in the eleventh chapter of the book of Hebrews, we have a very wonderful story, don't we? It's God's Westminster Abbey, isn't it? The stories of the heroes of faith. God's great men. God's great women. You know, when I was a little boy, my mother always provided books for me. We lived on a farm, and she was most anxious that her boy would grow up to love good books. And she would give me books to read about great men and great women. I think I mentioned the other night the first book I ever got in my little library. We lived on a farm, and we were struggling in those days. It was an MV book, a Reading Course book: John Williams, the Shipbuilder. Some of you may remember it way back years ago. It was printed and used by the Missionary Volunteer Department. Well do I remember putting that book into an old kerosene box. Mother fixed it all up and put little curtains over it. That was my library, and it was my first book. I gave that book to my boy when he left home, and told him to build his library around it. And well do I remember when I was reading that book. Oh, I would like to become a man like that—a great missionary to the South Seas.

Yes, friends, and in this wonderful chapter of Hebrews 11 we have the story of God's great men of faith and God's great women of faith. Perhaps some of you have been to Westminster Abbey in London. You see the epitaphs, you see the graves, you see the inscriptions to the great kings and queens, and the great men and women down through history. Here they are, friends, God's great men. Great men of faith. And oh, how God is longing and waiting to raise up tonight, young men and young women of faith. Great faith in a great God. I tell you, my friends, nothing else matters but that this church raises up today young men and young women who would challenge to do exploits for their God. There is nothing else worth living for, friends, and after all this wonderful recital, there's one young man mentioned in here. His name is Joseph. You all know his story. But, you know, I was reading about this illustrious young man the other day, and it thrilled my heart. You know, it says in Patriarchs and Prophets that when Joseph was taken down into Egypt, a teenager, think of it, seventeen years of age, being torn from his home at seventeen years of age, into that caravan, every moment being borne further and further away from his home, from his loved one, from his dear old dad, his father of faith, a man of faith. At first he gave himself up to grief. Then it says, "Joseph remembered the God of his fathers—the God of his father."

Oh, it's good, young people, to remember the God of our fathers. I remember the God of my dear father, the God of my dear mother. They have been resting for many years. I remember when I stood at the graveside of my godly father, a Baptist friend of ours who loved my father with a love that was so deep he wept like a baby at that grave, and he put his arm around me'—I was only fourteen—he said, "My boy, if you grow up to be half as good as your dad, you'll do. He was my best earthly friend." And I know that my dad and my mom were a man and a woman of great faith. You know, I was reading in the book of Timothy the other day about Timothy. He had a mother and a grandmother of great faith, didn't he? Lois and Eunice. You know, I'm getting a sermon ready, I'm going to call it "Grandmotherly Religion." Grandma Lois must have been a wonderful woman. She passed her faith on down to her daughter, and that faith was passed on to her son Timothy, wasn't it? Ah, it's a great thing to have ancestors of faith like that.

You know, I was at an academy a while back, and there was a little girl in that academy who was always talking about her grandma. She talked about her grandma to me. She stood up in a testimony meeting one night and spoke about her grandma. She came to see me one night, and I said, "Little girl, you must have a wonderful grandma." Tears came into her eyes, "Oh, Elder Minchin, she's such a wonderful woman. Oh, Grandma. She's the most wonderful grandma in the world." She didn't talk much about her mother. She talked about her grandma, and I discovered that that dear old grandma was a woman of great faith, who had great love for God, and she had passed it on down, and that little girl had come under the influence of her grandma a great deal. I wish we had a little more grandmotherly religion around us. Don't you? Some of our dear old grandmas of faith and love.
 
I tell you, young people, you have a glorious inheritance. Read chapter 11 in Hebrews. You know, it says of Joseph at first he gave himself up to grief. But then he remembered that God of his grandmother and his grandfather, his own father, and his mother, the things that he'd been taught about the true and the living God, it says that his whole soul thrilled with a high resolve to prove himself true to God. What a thrill!

Say, young man, have you ever had a thrill like that? That's far greater than any thrill this old world could give you, with its disappointments, its heartaches, or however challenging, however fascinating it seems, I tell you, young man, there is no greater thrill than to know the thrill of a great resolve to prove yourself true to God. I thank God I felt that thrill in my heart when I was a boy. I still feel it tonight. I wish to God it had been stronger and more passionate down through the years, that I'd been more faithful and dedicated. And do you know, when Joseph got down there into Egypt, taken there into that corrupt court, the most wicked and corrupt courts of the day, with the sights and the sounds of vice and wickedness and sin all around him, it says although he was surrounded constantly by the sights and the sounds of vice and sin he was as one who saw not, and as one who heard not! What a young man! A teenager. Because he lived in the presence of his God, he had a faith to live by. It wasn't a mere profession with Joseph. Faith was seeing. Faith was living. And it says that he would not permit his thoughts to linger upon forbidden subjects. Although he was surrounded by vice and wickedness, as our youth are surrounded today, he would not allow or permit his thoughts to linger upon forbidden subjects. There's the secret of victory, young man, young woman. Do you allow your thoughts to linger upon forbidden subjects? There is no sin in the temptation, but there is sin in lingering and contemplating it—when we focus our imagination upon something evil and sinful, when we take it to ourselves and dwell upon it and hold it to ourselves—there we break step with God.

But this young man refused to allow his thoughts to linger upon forbidden subjects. He was not ashamed of the God of his fathers, we are told. What a young man: clean, strong, beautiful, only seventeen, standing there amongst the corruptions of that court. What an illustrious example to the youth of today, as to what God can do with a young man amidst corrupt conditions.

Young man, young woman, if you purpose in your heart and get the same kind of a thrill and the same kind of a faith that this young man had, you'll have the same experience, and when the great temptation came to him, when that subtle, powerful, awful temptation came to him, offering to him concealment and favor and rewards and advancement and honor, and if he refused it would probably mean death or imprisonment and disgrace to him. And when that great temptation came to him, what did he say, what did he cry out in his young pure heart: "How can I commit this great wickedness against God?" And the Scripture says he got up and fled. He lost his coat, but he preserved a good, clean conscience, didn't he? Better to lose your coat than a clean conscience, any day, young man and young woman.

Joseph lived in the presence of God. If we cherish an habitual impression that God sees and hears all that we do and say, and that He keeps a faithful record, and that we must meet it in the last day, we, too, would fear to sin. God give us more young men like that these days.

Wherefore, seeing we're encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. They, being dead, are still speaking to us, telling us that it pays to serve God; and what God has done through others He can do through you, young people.

Talk about our fathers. I just wish that I could talk about more of them tonight, these great men and women of faith down through the years. Do you know, I read not so long ago a story about Mrs. Susanna Wesley. You know, we hear a lot about John Wesley, don't we? and Charles Wesley. Do you know who Mrs. Susanna Wesley was? She was the mother of John and Charles Wesley, the mother of nineteen children. They had families in those days, didn't they? And I think that John was about the fifteenth or sixteenth child. Oh, I tell you, John Wesley was a great man of God. He shook England with a mighty reformation and revival, and saved Great Britain from that flood of atheism that swept over Europe and France at that time. He was the founder of the great Methodist Church, preaching right until the time of his death at eighty-eight years of age. I have volumes of his sermons. I revel in them. What a man! What a man of faith, who stood against a nation and led people to know God and the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and the life of faith. He was a great man. Charles Wesley, preacher, singer, and composer of hymns. He, too, was a great man, but you know, those two men had a great mother and a wonderful father, too.

But, you know, I was reading about Mrs. Susanna Wesley, that mother of nineteen children. She taught her own children for twenty years in her own home. Every day, for five days a week, she taught her children in her own home. Furthermore, that mother had a little room in her home, and she took each of her children in turn into that little room and talked to them personally and individually about their own personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and about their own selves and their own hearts, their own faith, their own personal relationship to Jesus Christ. What a mother. Nineteen children, [ten of whom survived to adulthood!] Taught them all for twenty years.  And in turn took each one of those children,—I think ten of them— grew to manhood and womanhood only, but she took those children and labored with them personally and talked to them lovingly and earnestly about their personal relationship to Jesus Christ. No wonder she gave to the world such sons as John and Charles Wesley.

I think some of us take too much for granted, don't we? We think that because our children are reared in the church, they're good Christians and Seventh-day Adventist Christians. That mother took nothing for granted. And do you know, friends, that woman also conducted a Bible class in the kitchen in her home for the women in the neighborhood. They said that so great was the crowd of women that came in to listen to Mrs. Susanna Wesley expounding the Scriptures, that there wasn't even standing room many a time for the ladies of the community who came in to listen to Mrs. Wesley expounding the Scriptures.

Oh, the God of our fathers! "Wherefore, seeing that we're encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us..." I could go on talking about the Covenanters. I've been up there in Scotland. I've been up in the great churchyard there, where there's a big inscription; I think there are 127 names of Scottish Covenanters who gave up their lives for Christ during those days. And do you know, friends, I read a story about those Covenanters. You know, Margaret Wilson and her brother and her mother and father were among the Covenanters who were hunted up there during those years when those men and women of Scotland would sooner give up their lives than bow down to a form of worship which they regarded as little less than popery itself. And they refused. They were hunted, and they were put to death. They fled out into the wilds and out into the mountains. Most of the Wilson family were captured—one boy fled to Flanders—but Margaret, a girl of sixteen, was captured, and she was taken and put into prison down in a little town by the seashore there. I've been by that town. I've forgotten its name now. And, you know, she and an older girl, an older condemned woman, another Margaret, were put to death. They were led out one foggy, cold morning, down by the seashore, and they were taken. First, Margaret, sixteen years of age, was tied to a stake, right out in the sea there when the tide was out. The older Margaret was tied further out.  The younger Margaret was tied closer to the shore, to a stake. They hoped that when the younger Margaret saw the older Margaret being covered, she would give in. They wanted to spare the younger Margaret's life. All day long, the tide crept up and up, and a little group on the shore cried. The mother was there, calling to her daughter, "Margaret, Margaret, g'n ...." A soldier came out when the waters had come up to her waist, and loosened the bands around her, and whispered to her, "Give in. Give in, Margaret. Say God save the King, and take the oath, and you'll be saved." And she called out "God save the King," but she refused to take that oath. It would mean a denial of her faith. And they said that all day long, that young woman, that teenager supported herself by quoting whole chapters of the Word of God—whole chapters. Do you know, they said that she quoted the whole of the 25th Psalm. When you go home tonight, young people, read it, will you, when you go to bed. Think of a young woman ready to give up her life for Christ, quoted the whole of the 25th Chapter. I'd like to stay to read portions of it to you, but I dare not. But listen, the waters came up and up. When the water got up to her chin—she was standing there tied to that stake, and the older Margaret had disappeared under the waters, —she lifted up her face, she called out aloud these wonderful words from the last few verses of Romans 8: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ; shall, tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us, for I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." And they said, as she completed those words, the sun shone through a hole in the clouds onto that face, as it swam in the waters, and thus perished Scotland's maiden martyr.

"

"Wherefore, seeing we are encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us, here in Takoma Park, March, 1965, let us. What's the use of talking about them, unless it stirs us to action and to faith? This is a day when God wants to raise up great men and women: great young men and great young women, who know their God—young men and young women of faith, I tell you that that little girl could never have stood that test if she hadn't fortified her soul, if she hadn't learned to walk with God before that. Somebody said to me once, "I don't think I could ever face a trial like that! I said, "My girl, if God wants you to die a martyr's death. He'll give you a martyr's faith." If I have victory in the little trials of today. I'll be a victor in the greater trials and tests of tomorrow. I tell you, saints are not made in a day. Young men and young women like that, my friends, are not made in a day. It's become a habit of life, of faith that they've developed through the years.

Now is the time, young people. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us. You see, young people, there's a race before us. There's a race, a race for the kingdom of God. A race for eternal life. Oh, it's a glorious race, and we're in it tonight. But we must lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us. Who would think of trying to run a race loaded down with weights?

So, young man, young woman, are you running for God tonight? The Scripture says that because of the witness of the youth who've gone before us, the men and women of faith, love, goodness, and truth, down through the years, God wants to raise up some great champions of righteousness and truth tonight. Young people. He cannot do it unless we heed the instruction and the counsel here. "Let us lay aside every weight." Who would think of trying to run this race tied down with weights?

There are some people in the church today who are just creeping along. This Scripture says, "Let us run." This isn't the time for walking. Not a time for creeping along. This is the time to run for God. Don't you think it, young people? The hour is late. Think of what's happening all around us. Think of the dramatic fulfillment of prophecy. Think of the signs that we see. But the King is about to be on His way. The work of God must be finished, and God is looking for young men and young women who will be willing to lay aside every weight.

What is a weight? It may not be a sin. It might mean just a habit. A friendship. A pleasure that I'm permitting in my life that is slowing me down. It's like a weight—something that is dragging on me, and I can't give a victorious testimony for Jesus Christ. I still go to church. I hang on, as it were, but I have no joy in my experience, no elasticity in my step for Christ. I'm not active. I'm not happy with my walk with God. I just come to church. I've been reared in the church. I know it's the place I ought to be, but I am not running for God because I'm weighted down with all kinds of inconsistencies—weights. Is it a pleasure? You say, 'What's the harm in it?' When you hear young people say, 'What's the harm in it?' I always feel it's a danger signal. Instead of saying, "Why can't I?" I would hear young people talk like Joseph, "How can I?" That's a better question to ask, isn't it? "How can I?" That pleasure that you're permitting yourself, that you know very well is spoiling your testimony for Christ.

I had a boy come to see me the other day. A good lad. He made a confession to me. He said, "Brother Minchin, I'm not bearing the testimony for Christ that I ought to bear." One of his problems was that he was gripped by the showplace and the theater. He was still coming to church and doing things in the church. But this was a weight, and he knew it. I had not mentioned it. I wasn't talking about that at all. Oh, he was permitting something in his life.

It may be a pleasure. It may be a friendship. Say, if that friendship isn't helping you, it's hindering you! That friend of yours. Is he or she helping you? Are you able to give a good and sincere testimony for Christ before him or her? Is that friendship helping you, or is it hindering you? It might be just a sheer weight. What you are reading! How you are spending your time? Some habit! Something that's perhaps not altogether a sin. I might not think of it as a sin, but it's a weight; it's holding me back. I am not running for God. Oh, if God could find in this church a hundred young people, and I know we have some of them, I've met them. This week we've heard their testimonies here, night after night, and I thank God. But what if we had a hundred young people who would also cast aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets them? 

You know, the writer of the book of Hebrews has just been talking about the great men and women of faith, and it seems to me that the sin which does so easily beset us, and that he is talking about here, is the sin of unbelief. How's your faith tonight, my friend? The evidence for our faith is overwhelming. 

I talked to somebody just last week who had doubts. I said, "My friend, the Scripture speaks about the evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God, and the greater amount of unbelief in men's hearts today, my friends, is here: the evil heart of unbelief! We're wrong in our hearts. We are living wrongly. And it's easier for some people to try to get rid of God than it is to try to get rid of their sins. If they faced up to God, they would live different kinds of lives, so it's better to say there isn't a God, to their way of thinking. 

Ah, my friends, oh for men and women of faith, young men and women of faith. Faith, young people, is something we seem to think is intangible. Faith is something very real! We exercise faith every day; we live in something or someone, aren't we? And I say again, the evidences for faith are overwhelming. I'm so glad, my friends, that my faith is resting upon great, solid, and eternal facts, not upon a theory, not a beautiful story, but the glorious fact. "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came to this earth to die for sinners, of whom I am chief." That's what my faith rests upon tonight, a great and glorious unassailable fact.

“Wherefore, seeing that we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,” let us here tonight—will you do it, my friend, I invite you, I challenge you, young man, young woman—to lay aside every weight. You know it. Every time you come to revival meetings, maybe God will speak about something. You come under condemnation about something. My boy, I want you. I want your heart. I want your soul. I want your service. I want all that you have! And He'll put His finger on something—a habit, a friendship, or an indulgence of some kind, some lack, some failure, and I refuse to surrender it, and I go my old way. I tell you, friends, it's a terrible thing to do that. He appeals to us to lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us.

I suppose everyone here tonight has a besetting sin. You know it. Besides the sin of unbelief, there are other besetting sins. The devil studies every life with fiendish intensity. He knows my cultivated and inherited weaknesses. Are you willing to hand that over? You know it. You say, "Brother Minchin, I'd give anything to. You told me to do this, and I want to do it, but how?" It's all here. The secret is all here. "Looking unto Jesus." Say, my friend, look away from yourself and look up into His face tonight—your God, your Lord, your Saviour, your Redeemer—right into His face, and keep looking, friends, every day. Take time. Young man, young woman, are you taking time to be alone with God? Are you taking time to look in the face of God?

 

Do you know, I was up at a Bible Camp in Michigan last year, and it was my pleasure and privilege to take a series of studies on the science of prayer to those young people. We talked about prayer: how to pray, and the problems of prayer, etc. And each night I would say to those young folk, "Young people, let's go out by the lakeside, out under the stars and pray, really pray. Many of you young people need to get out alone with God. Too much of our praying is so often in community. The only praying we do is when we're in a crowd—perhaps in MV, or church, or Sabbath School. But how many of you young people know what it means to get down outside under the stars, or in a room by yourself, and look up into the face of God and expose your whole life to Him; talk with Him and open your heart to Him; talk to Him as to a friend, to your own God, your own Saviour!" I said, "Young people, perhaps some of us need to get out alone tonight, altogether alone with God. Perhaps you would like to go out with a friend, with a buddy, or perhaps if a little group of you want to go together, that's all right. Let's go out and put prayer into practice tonight, let us really pray." And out they went. Several hundred. And, oh, it was beautiful: the lovely moonlight, the most starry night, the lake, and little groups of individuals. I joined a group of about four boys. Oh, it was wonderful to hear them pray. And we put our arms around each other's shoulders, and we just talked. And you know, one night, one of our workers came to me after it was all over. There were tears in his eyes. He said, "Brother Minchin, I heard the most beautiful prayer in all my life tonight. You know, in that meeting tonight, I felt I needed to be alone with God. We ministers need this too. If the people need it, if the young people need it, we also need it. Oh, that God could give us a generation of men and women who knew how to get alone with God, to talk with God, to become intimate with God. And do you know what this man said, "Brother Minchin, I went out to pray all by myself. I wanted to go underneath one of the trees over there, right by myself, and just talk to God myself. I felt I needed it. And I went out there underneath a tree, and before very long, a little girl came along, one of our teenage girls. She didn't see me in the shadows there. And she stopped just a few yards from where I was. And she knelt. And she had her hands clasped. I couldn't hear what she was saying for quite a little while. Then I heard her sobbing a little bit. And then I heard her saying something like this. 'Dear God, I don't think I've ever known you before. You know I've been brought up in the church. Mom and Dad are Sabbath keepers. But God, I don't think I've ever really known you before as a friend. Dear God, will you speak to me? Will you tell me that you love me? Dear, God, will you be my friend? Will you teach me how to pray' And that brother said "I wept too as I listened to that little teenage girl talking alone with God."

Things happened to that camp, friends. Some of those young people went back from that camp to bring great revivals back into the academies. They told me in two academies in Michigan that within a few weeks those academies were almost turned upside down by those young people who came back who had learned how to pray. And they formed prayer groups.

I would to God that as a result of this week, we would see young people forming groups for prayer. I believe we've already got a corps of young people in this church who have started a movement like this, and this is only the beginning, isn't it, friends, of something greater? I wish we could see a movement for prayer among the youth in this church, and then broaden out, not only to pray, but to work for the souls for whom we're praying, and to go out in "Voice of Youth," branch Sabbath Schools, and winning of our young friends, and bring them into the meetings. And why not give time in your young people's meetings to open your own hearts in loving testimony for Christ?

You know, the world is waiting for testimonies like that, a testimony for Christ. You young people could give a testimony for Christ that would grip your fellow youth in a way that we could never do. There's something powerful about youth—clean, consecrated, dedicated, who have found God. There is a power about it. We need such testimonies,

I wanted to tell you that during the years of my ministry, and I thank the Lord, young people, that He called me to know Him and to love Him when I was a boy. I lost my parents at fourteen and fifteen, and I'm so grateful that my mother's dying prayer was that her boy should go to college and become a worker for God. She never lived to see her boy go to college, but she did live to see him give his heart to Christ. But I didn't know what I wanted to be. I went to that little academy over there—we call it an academy—a junior college, I suppose—over in Western Australia. Before I went there, we lived on a farm in the West, and I hated school,
We had a horrible teacher. A little State school. Fourteen children. Godless teacher. He used to drink and smoke and swear and blaspheme. He would drink all weekend, and then we would have the results of his drinking bouts during the week. I hated that teacher. I hated school. I used to cry on Monday mornings when I'd get on that little pony and ride four miles through the Australian bush to that little school. That man called me a dunce and a blockhead. One day, he hit me over the head with a pencil case and told me I was a blockhead and he might as well talk to a post outside as talk to me. And I believed him. I really did. I just felt I wasn't any good. I couldn't learn. I hated school. I had developed an inferiority complex, and friends, not until I went to that little academy where I came for the first time under the influence of Christian teachers and Christian students, did something happen in my heart that told me that God could take me, and use me. That happened in the very first chapel talk that we had in that school by the godly principal, Elder A. H. Piper. He's gone now. A man of faith, I think of him when I sing about the faith of our fathers. Yes, he's gone now, but during that first chapel talk he gave that wonderful statement from the Spirit of Prophecy that I memorized years ago: "There is no limit to the usefulness of one who putting self aside makes room for the working of the Holy Spirit upon his heart and lives a life wholly consecrated to God." He said, "Young people, that's a divinely inspired statement, and that says there is no limit to the usefulness of one" —he didn't say which one—only the one that is willing to put self aside, and give God a chance in His life. It means the girl from the factory, the lad from the office, the boy from the farm. And I was sitting in the back of that chapel, and said to myself, "I'm the boy from the farm." Something happened in my heart. I had already given my heart to the Lord, but I didn't understand what He wanted me to do or to be. I didn't know the plan He had for my life. I didn't think I was worth much anyway. "There is no limit," that statement says, "to the usefulness of—how many is it?, just one—"who putting self aside makes room for the working of the Holy Spirit upon his heart and lives a life wholly consecrated to God." And there sitting in that chapel that morning, God spoke to my heart, and I said in my heart, "O Lord, could I be one of those 'ones'"?

Young people, I am not worthy of it, but He put His hand on me back there. He put His hand on me, and said, "My boy, I want you. I want you to be my servant. Later, He told me, "I want you to be a preacher." I didn't know then, young people, that He was going to put His hand on me and one day send me to the uttermost parts of the earth to preach to His young people. And one day, in 1965, I would talk to young people in the Takoma Park Church. No, no. I couldn't have believed it! I was unworthy of it. I have never been worthy of it. I marvel at His grace toward me. I really do, friends, but all I know is that He put His hand on me and said, "My boy, I want you. Will you be willing to put self aside?" There is the battle, there's the struggle. And, friends, when I fail it's when I haven't been willing to put self aside.

Oh, what God could do in this room this evening. What God could do with the youth here tonight, the few that we have. There is no limit. Do you believe that, friends?
Do you really believe it? What God did through Wesley, what God has done through other great men and women, and young people, down through the years. Just read a little bit and strengthen your faith, young people. What God could do even in this last, last, last hour, if He could find a group of young people. One young man. It may be he is here right in this audience. A young man or a young woman that God is going to use in a powerful way because he is going to be willing to let self go.

Are you planning great things for yourself? Or are you saying, "God, what do you want me to be?" And, friends, I'm trespassing on my message tomorrow morning. I'm going to, God willing, throw out a great challenge to our young people to help us finish this work tomorrow morning. Pray about the meeting, won't you?

I'm very much in earnest tonight, friends. When I think of what our God has done through other young people. Young folk, would you take that statement and dare to make it yours tonight? Some of us are getting older. Every year, they're passing off one by one. Today I was reading the Review and Herald of the 1926 General Conference Session, and I looked at the pictures of the men who are leading God's work today, and there's just a handful—two or three of them—left. All gone. And here's a new generation.

Young men and young women, is the work of God going to be safe in your hands? Are you going to rise up and finish it. Can God count on you? Are you willing to put self aside? I say, young people. There are some young people here tonight, I know, who would gladly come forward and give just a simple little testimony. Couldn't we have fifteen minutes before we close this meeting for your response to this message tonight?

Is there a lad? Is there a girl?—and this is open to our boys and to our children, and to our young people especially tonight. I wonder if some of you wouldn't join me. The world is waiting for your testimony. It's waiting for you to declare yourself. Isn't it time, young people, we come out in the open and declare ourselves and our allegiance? Other great movements are demanding that of youth. Communism is, isn't it? Why one of our men came back from behind the Iron Curtain. He had attended a great Communist youth rally over there—12,000 youth,  Communists! And do you know, friends, they were chanting while the leaders were marching onto the platform. 12,000 Communist youth were chanting' "We are changing the world. We are changing the world." A godless ideology is gripping and fascinating the imagination of millions of youth.

Say, young people, we serve a living Christ who is soon coming to this earth again, and He's counting on you and me to declare His name and His love with the passionate love that the disciples and early Christians had. And the world is waiting for your witness. It's waiting for your testimony. What are you going to do about it? Are you going to lay aside every weight? Has something been holding you back? Do you want to be willing tonight to lay aside every weight and the sin which has so easily beset you? Maybe it's just the sin of indolence, of self-indulgence, of careless indifference. Will you lay it aside tonight and say, "O, God, lay hold of me, stir me, take hold of me, make me want You want me to be, O lord. Take me." Tell me, what does Christ mean to you? Your Saviour—have you met Him? Have you found Him? Are you message-reared young people who have not truly met Jesus Christ?

I was over in Germany at a Servicemen's Congress, and a soldier boy came to me one night after the meeting, and he said, "Elder Minchin, can I talk with you?" I said "Yes." And we went for a walk down among the trees there. He said, "Pastor, tell me, tell me what is Christ doing for you? What does He mean to you? I hear you preaching. You know, I've done everything that is wrong. I've drifted away from God. And I hear people talk about what Christ can do for them. I wonder if He's really doing it. Pastor, is He saving you from your sins? Can He save a man from his sins? What's He doing for you, Elder? What has He done for you? What's He doing for you now, Pastor? Will you tell me? Is He giving you victory over your sins now? Can He do it? And that soldier boy pressed that home to my heart. I've never forgotten it. I tell you, friends, I couldn't stand before that boy and talk to him about what He did for me ten years ago or twenty years ago. No,  He wanted to know what He was doing for me now. That's the testimony the world is waiting for tonight. Not a dead testimony of past blessing, but a living testimony of what Christ means to me now.

These beautiful young people have come up here night after night and have borne their testimony for the Lord.  Say, young people, I've spoken out of a full heart tonight. God alone knows your struggle. He knows your battles. He knows your temptations in a great, wicked world. But, oh, I offer to you the Lord Jesus tonight, in all His glory, in all His wonder, and all His beauty, the precious Jesus. He's worth living for, friends, and He's worth dying for, isn't he?

I wonder if we couldn't have half a dozen or a dozen young people to join me on the platform, just to give a simple, loving little testimony as to your decision, your purpose. To close our evening meetings, let this be your testimony; let this be your song.

How many of you would do it? You know what the Scripture says over there in Romans 10:9: "If thou shalt believe in thine heart and confess with the mouth the Lord Jesus, thou shalt be saved." God bless you, son. While we sing, let a few more come on.

Let us close with the song "Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine"