Testimony, Harold Paisley

And I heard his words in my ears. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course.

I'm very thankful that I too have a story to tell. I was saved by divine grace, unworthy though I was. Likely not one in this company was as unworthy as I was to obtain the grace of God.

No one ever believed I would ever be saved. Hope was gone that I would ever be redeemed. And yet, on the 24th of March, in the year 1944, I came as a sinner to the cross.

Obtained mercy and salvation, which changed my life and my outlook and my priorities. That changed the character, the whole personality that was mine. And I became a Christian.

I'm so thankful that I'm a Christian and that heaven is my home. I'm sure, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that when my last day comes, if the Lord Jesus be not come, that my home is in heaven with Christ, through the precious blood of Christ. And it is our desire, and has been my desire all my life, to lead others to the Savior that we found that day.

Now, in turning to the record of Paul, I wanted to follow his example a little. Paul, when he stood before a vast audience, and in that audience was a king and bernies and a governor, he thought of nothing more effectual than to personally relate his own story of conversion. And so he went back and spake of his manner of life from his youth.

And then he outlined his pre-conversion condition. How he was an enemy of the gospel and of the people of God, persecuted them to strange cities. And yet he was religious, his own religion was his foundation of hope, but he knew not salvation.

And then suddenly, on the Damascus road, after having trouble in his heart, no doubt, from the death of Stephen, for they laid the garments at his feet as they stoned the first martyr. And I believe it was then that pricks entered into his heart, the pricks of conviction. As hard for thee to kick against the goals, God was speaking to him, though no one knew anything about it.

And there on the Damascus road at midday, he realized that he was not only persecuting people on earth, but he was touching the apple of God's eye. He was persecuting the head and heaven. And the Lord Jesus revealed himself to him on that Damascus road as the savior.

And as he related this before the king, he did it in order that he might have thoughts. And that all in that audience might realize, I need a day of conversion, or I'll never be in heaven. And the king was so impressed that he said, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.

It was not enough. And tonight I hope that it won't be almost persuaded, but that someone here, before you go back to your farm in the country, to the village where you live, or the city here, before you return, whether it's to a Christian home with your parents, or a stranger to your own home, that you might be almost persuaded tonight to receive our Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior. And have the matter settled for time and for eternity.

In Galatians 2, he mentions his conversion again. And I want to do this also in a synoptical way. The very grounds of salvation.

Looking back on a long life, he was able to say, this is my salvation, this is my conversion in a nutshell. The son of God. It's a person who loved me.

There's no love in my heart for him. There was no love in his heart for Christ. He looked upon him as an imposter.

But he said, the son of God who first loved me, who loved me. And then he added these beautiful words. He gave himself for me.

Every one of us here saved by grace. There are many differences in our background. And the stories that every believer could tell differs even as our faces do.

But there is one vital moment that came. In my experience, and in yours if you're a believer, it was this. He gave himself for me.

I remember the night that I saw that so long ago. And I was able to sing for the first time a hymn that I've loved to sing all my life. Bearing shame and scoffing rude.

In my place condemned he stood. Sealed my pardon with his blood. Hallelujah.

What a Savior. I wonder do you know anything about that Savior. What a joy it would be if you could lie down tonight and say, he gave himself for me.

He died for the ungodly. But in 1 Timothy chapter 1, he now tells it again. As the end is drawing near to his life.

He said, I was before a blasphemer. I was ignorant. I was in unbelief.

But the grace of God was abundant. With faith and love that is in Christ Jesus. And then he quoted that lovely verse.

This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And then he said, of whom I am chief.

I'm in the first rank. I was a sinner. And he saw that Christ died for sinners.

And that man was saved. No wonder he burst forth into that doxology. Now unto the king eternal, invisible.

God only wise. Be glory and honor now and through the ages to come. And that's what we feel like saying tonight.

To God be the glory. In Titus 3, he tells us something else. And this is an extraordinary thing about him.

And it applies to me also. He said, we were sometimes disobedient. Deceived.

Serving many lusts and pleasures. Living in envy. Hateful.

And hating one another. I was a very hateful man. Before I was saved.

You'd hardly believe that, would you? I very seldom tell my children what I was like. And they say to me, Dad, we can't believe it. Absolutely true.

I was a hateful person towards men. And envious. And wicked.

But the grace of God reached me. And I can say I never lost my temper since that day 52 years ago. My whole personality was radically changed.

And sweetness filled my breast. Was never there before. That name charmed me.

The name that once I blasphemed. The sweetest name on earth. When I was married 50 years ago, I asked a brother that is along with Christ to sing a solo at my simple wedding in the house at the reception.

And we were singing that the other day in celebration of our 50th anniversary. I made a recording of it and we sang it. And this was the hymn.

There is a name I love to hear. I love to speak its worth. It sounds like music in my ear.

Sweetest name on earth. And I can say tonight, that's the sweetest name to me. The name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I was giving my conversion once with three men shortly after I was saved. And one of them said, I was saved in a zoo. That's not impossible.

And the other one said, I was saved in a castle. That's not impossible. And I wondered what I would say, so I said I was saved on an island.

I was saved on an island. Because Ireland is an island. You don't often hear of Ireland being an island.

Well I was saved on an island. I was born on that island in 1924. The same day that I was born, 27th day of May 1924.

About 20 miles from where I was born, my wife was born on the very same day. I don't know of any man, his wife, that have been married 50 years that were saved on the same day. Or both saved on the same day of the same month of the same year.

So you'll know my wife's age. So it's a wonderful thing to think that I was saved on the same day. But, I was born a sinner.

My dad was saved from the Anglican religion. When he was a boy, he went to some gospel meetings in the town where he was serving his apprenticeship. And he had never heard the gospel.

And as he sat in that auditorium, the man preached that baptism cannot save. It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. And on the first night they sang an old hymn.

I am coming Lord, coming now to thee, trusting only in the blood that flowed on Calvary. And my dear father, he was a faithful servant of Christ for many years. He trusted the Lord Jesus in that gospel meeting.

My mother was saved too, in Little Gospel Hall in Edinburgh, where she was brought up as a girl. So whenever people ask me what nationality I am, if they don't like the Irish, I say I'm Scotch. If they don't like the Scotch, I say I'm a full-blooded Canadian citizen.

I'm very proud to be one, by the way. And here, I preached longer in this country than I preached in Ireland. They had a 50th anniversary for me, for the 50 years that I was commended to the work.

And I told them, I said, well I only really preached here for 20 years. I preached in Canada for over 30 years. And so this is really my home, and my hometown, and my home assembly at Eglinton Avenue.

By the way, if you don't like my conversion, the Eglinton Avenue brethren are to blame, because they arranged it. So I was born in Lurgan. It's a famous place for preachers and evangelists.

But I was born a poor sinner on the way to hell. You know, my earliest recollections of our home was like a prison, because I resented I had a resentment in my heart. The rest of the family didn't seem to resent the gospel, or the reading.

But I did resent the reading of the scriptures every day, and the mention of salvation. And when I would go to school, of course, the boys would call me the pastor's son. My father was a Baptist pastor in the town there.

And they would call me the pastor's son. I used to wish my father had a public house. Or that he had a bar.

Or that he was a gambling man, running a lottery or something. I didn't like to be associated with Christians. I resented it.

I didn't want them at all. And I didn't want to be at Sunday school. I resented it.

There was a deep resentment in my heart, enmity burned in my bosom, against the gospel, and against any mention of the Savior and his love. My old Sunday school teacher was still living. He presented me with a Bible from the Assembly in Ireland.

When he was 97 years of age, the Assembly asked him to give me this Bible, with the Assembly name on it. And he handed it to me, and I took it from him. And when I was taking it, I remember that man, when he was in the Baptist hall there, in the Baptist church there, when I sat, I remember him telling us about the Savior's love, and about Calvary.

And it did make some impression upon me, though very little. But I was able to tell him, I said, you know, Brother Clark, I'll never forget that it was at your feet, and you were faithful, and all those young men that were there, they all went away as I did, to the war. And they never came back.

But he sowed the seed, and who can tell what the result will be? Well, in the year 1939, I ran away from home. My father didn't know where I was, nor my mother, or anybody. And I went across on a little ferry to England, and I lined up with thousands of young men that came from the north of Ireland, and from the south of Ireland as well.

They came from Wexford, and Leitrim, and County Cork, and they came from all over Scotland. And we were lining up, recruiting for the war. And I thought this was great, that I would go and be in the war, and be in uniform.

And so, I joined the RAF. The first thing I did was, I told a lie about my age. But then, nearly everybody did the same.

They never asked for any, any birth certificates at the time. And I remember standing before the recruiting officer, and he said, What is your name? I said, Harald Paisley. Any other name? I said yes.

I didn't tell him it was Spurgeon. You know, my father called me Spurgeon. He was a really wonderful Baptist.

I often wonder, he didn't call Ian Luther, but he called me Spurgeon. And so anyway, the great thing about it was, that I wasn't going to tell this man I was Spurgeon. So he said, What is your middle name? I said, Patrick.

I'm Harald Patrick Paisley. He said, That's a good Irish name. I said yes.

So I was registered as Harald Patrick Paisley, age 18 and a half, but I was only 15 and a half. And, and I went. You know, after that, I was sent to Cambridge University.

That's where we were billeted, in Cambridge, at St. John's College. And this last visit across, I had a phone call from the Midlands of England, from the Assembly of Northampton at Osborne Street. I didn't know anything about them.

But they said, We're setting aside our usual arrangements. We're booked up for a long time, but we heard you would be coming through Heathrow. And would you come and have a Bible reading with us? So I said yes, I will.

So I rented a car in Heathrow, and I said to my wife, You know, I want to go to Cambridge. Why do you want to go to Cambridge? I said because that's where I was billeted in 1939. And I've always wanted to go back to the university and see where I first drilled, and we drilled with wooden guns.

There was no, they had no rifles when I joined the RAF. And they had no equipment at all. If the Germans had invaded, we wouldn't have been here tonight.

It was the mercy of God that they didn't invade us too soon. And so I arrived there at Cambridge. I said to my wife, I want to go.

So I took her up in the car. It was a long journey on our way to this, this meeting we're going to have, Central England. And we got to Cambridge, and I said, I know where it is.

I went down, I found the college. All these colleges were occupied by the RAF cadets. And I was an RAF cadet officer and brought in there at 15 and a half.

And so we went in there to the Garden Court. And I, I saw the, the caretakers there. And I told them who I was and that I had come back to see when I joined the RAF.

And they took me into the archives. They gave me a great run around. They took me into the archives and they got out the old pictures.

And there was a picture of myself and these young men standing in the Garden Court. It was in the London Illustrated in 1939, these cadet officers standing. And I was there amongst them.

And then I said, they said to me, you know, we're so glad you've come. I want to take you into the dining room. They showed that old dining room, hundreds of years old.

And I showed my wife where I sat there as a young lad with little sense. And then they said, you know, we're so glad you've come. We want to get other men here.

And they were all younger men in their 50s come round to see me. And this older one said, you know, he said, there hasn't been one man that was here has ever come back. And I went out into that Garden Court.

I said to my wife, they all died. Every one of them. They never came back.

And God brought me back. I believe He had a purpose in my life. He had something for me to do that I didn't know anything about.

Preserved by Jesus when my feet made haste to hell. And there should I have gone, but thou dost all things well. And I stood there and I could hear because I have a very good memory.

And I could envisage what it was like when we stood there smoking and cursing and fearing no one. And I could hear their voices. And I could remember their faces.

It was a wonderful thing. It made me thank God that I was ever saved by His grace. And I wondered where they were today in eternity.

I'm going to say something to the young people here. Value the peace that we have. It was bought at a great price.

I have seen men. Oh, what sights. Sometimes I wake up in the night and think of it.

The sight of blood and death and suffering all over in a minute. But I did graduate and became a navigator and a gunner and a photographer. And I was sent to Old Sarum in Salisbury, Wiltshire to the Army Cooperation Squadron.

And our business was to go over the treetops and those Westland Lysanders, they were the forerunner of the helicopter, and take pictures of arms dumps and various things there. And find out where the Germans had their ammunition and their dumps and bring pictures back. And then, of course, in identifying aircraft and how a Fokker would look or a Messerschmitt, so on, on the horizon.

And my captain said to me, he was an Army captain, an Army cooperation, and the gunners, and by the way, there were no power turrets all I had was a .303 rifle and a swivel. Tremendous to be flying up against those men. They had better eyes, they had better equipment, they were tremendous fighters.

And, of course, we weren't there to fight them. I wasn't there to fight them. I was there to bring these pictures home.

I remember the captain saying to me one day, what are those out on the horizon? I said, those are enemies. Bandits, that's what I called them. Bandits.

He says, what will we do? I said, hedgehog back across the channel. He that lives and runs away will live to fight another day. Run away.

It was a very wise, very wise thing. He said to me, Paddy, you're a wise man. And we got home.

But, you know, everybody didn't make it. Everybody didn't make it. We weren't supposed to war with those men.

Our business was to bring the stuff home. So it was a wonderful life. And I was there.

And, of course, along with it went all kinds of divers lusts and pleasures. And hatred. And vile language.

And so on. Just a careless boy on the way to hell. My father never thought I'd be saved.

And my mother, she believed I would. But the neighbors in my hometown, and the last time I gave my conversion, by the way, was when I was 50 years old. 50 years in Christ.

And in my hometown. And the place was absolutely packed to capacity with people that came. Because everybody knows me in my hometown.

They made me a free man in that place. And they honored me with many honors from time to time. And they always come to hear me when I'm there.

And, you know, this woman going out, she said, Harold, you were the nicest little boy. You were a little angel. I lived beside you.

And I always said, I like Ian, and I like Margaret, but Harold's a little angel. Well, I said to her, do you remember that lovely conservatory you had where you grew your tomatoes and you had all kinds of vines in it? Yes, I remember. Do you ever remember the day that a shower of stones came and broke every pain in it? Oh, she said, that was an awful day.

The boy that did that was a really bad boy. A really bad boy. But I was that bad boy.

But the people in my hometown, they thought I would never be saved. It was an interesting thing to go up to the Globe. The Globe was a bar.

And I fought up there on the street. It was a terrible disgrace to my father. The pastor's son was in a fight again.

And I fought there. And hundreds used to gather. And good as all, I loved to fight and wrestle and all that type of stuff.

But you know, after I was saved, I started the open air at the Globe. I told the brethren, I said, we should have an open air at the Globe bar where I used to fight with men. I want to go and tell the story of the cross where Jesus bled and died.

The first day I went up to the Globe and stood outside, those men came out and they stood around. They couldn't believe it. And I told them that my heart was one forever to a man I'd never seen at God's right hand.

I served in the RAF for two years. And then, I joined the mercantile marines. I was out of the frying pan into the fire because we were doing those convoys from Liverpool to Halifax and down to Tampa and up along the coast there and back over.

We joined the great convoys at Halifax. And when I go to the Bible readings, I always like to see that harbor where I sailed from. And on the hills, there were Germans.

The captain used to tell us, you know, we're being watched from the hills. The Germans were there. I don't know whether they were Canadian Germans or what kind of Germans they were, but they spied on the ships gathering.

And he said, we'll not be out a few days until the U-boats will be around us. And I know what it was to get up in the morning. Well, we weren't up.

We never had our clothes off for days. It's a forgotten people. The mercantile marines are forgotten men as far as the world is concerned.

But they brought the stuff. They brought what Britain wanted. Give us the arms, we'll finish the job.

And so we were bringing this across. And oftentimes, we'd hear the depth charges and the convoys sailed on. But in the morning, you would go up and different vessels that were around you were there no more.

And many of those men were caught in the great propellers. A watery grave and a sudden tragic death. It was terrible.

War is cruel. God preserve us from being ever at war again. And yet the world is turmoil tonight.

Violence is increasing and will increase until the Prince of Peace reigns in every heart alone. So I was two years in that. And then after that, I became a policeman.

Of all things, a lawbreaker. Becoming a peacemaker. But when I got into that police force, I met a young man.

He became my best man when I was married. And he was at my wedding, my 50th wedding anniversary the other day. He's the correspondent in the assembly where he was.

And this young man, he was different from all the others. He lived Christ among those police officers. And I got very, very attached to him as a young man.

And I realized this boy is a genuine Christian. And I found myself longing that I would be a Christian. I tried the broken cistern.

This great experience of the new birth happened to me in the city of Belfast on the 24th of March, the year 1944. I was awakened on Royal Avenue fully. I had thoughts about salvation.

But I was awakened on the streets of Belfast. A man was walking with me along the pavement. And he stepped off.

I was about to follow and step with him. And he was run down by a bus. Seemed to pull in.

Knocked him down. And they picked up his body later. And I heard them say, he's gone.

And I went back into a doorway there. And I stood and I realized, if I was gone, where would I be? I realized I'd be in hell. I've sinned for years.

My life was a pattern of evil and wickedness. Drunkenness and debauchery. Filth.

A blasphemer. A hateful, injurious, wicked man. I remember in that doorway I said, God be merciful.

To me, a sinner. I need Christ as my Savior. It reminds me of what happened in this city some years ago.

I got a phone call from a young man. He's here tonight, I think, in this meeting. He's in fellowship.

He rang me from a donut shop at the top of the woodbine. And he said, I'm sitting here in misery. I'm lost.

And I would love you to come and tell me how I could be saved. I said, I'll be right up. And I found that young man.

And as I looked at him, dejected in that corner. He hadn't gone into the sin I'd gone into. But as I looked at him, I said, that's just what I was like the day I was saved.

And I sat down beside him, and he wept, and I wept. And I said to him, listen, the Lord Jesus on the cross died for sinners. And I knew it because I was a sinner.

The vilest sinner likely in the country. And I saw He died for me. And you know, I was able to point that boy to Christ that day in that donut shop.

I knew a man in Belfast who was a Christian. And I went up to his home. And I remember that when I went to the door, I said, what will I tell him? I said, I know that he'll understand that I'm not here without a cause.

But he wasn't there. I went down that little street there in Deli Street, and there was an old air raid shelter standing. I remember going into that air raid shelter.

And I knelt down, and I said, oh God, I'm a lost sinner. I need help. I need someone to explain to me.

Although I know it so well. And that man and his wife, they heard I was there, and they came out, and I heard their voices. And they brought me into their house.

And the first thing they did was this. They called the Christians who lived all around. It was the assembly at Ormer Road in Belfast.

About 50 of them came, and they started to pray. And the woman said, you know, he's a real sinner. He's a bad boy.

And we need to pray for him. Well, one and another came and spoke to me, but they gave me a little Bible, a little hardback Bible that somebody had got in the Sunday school. I was lying open at 1 Peter chapter 2, and I read these words.

Who has owned self? Bear our sins in his own body on the tree. I read it again, and it said, By whose stripes ye were healed. And I realized for the first time that my sins and all that they were, and God knew them, he laid them on his beloved son, and he bare them in his own body on the tree.

And when the man came in, I said to him, listen, Harry, I'm saved. Oh, he says, don't say that. I said, I am.

I know I am. The Bible says he bare our sins, and I've seen he bore mine. And that was how I got saved.

That was the start. My father came up in the morning because they rang him to the next door neighbor because my dad didn't believe in the telephone, but he used the next door neighbors. But anyhow, he came up, and I remember when he saw me, the first thing he did, he smelt my breath.

No drink, finished. Finished with that. Last night, I remember he and I went home in the train together.

I went along the street, and my mother was standing at the window. Many a time I'd come along the street, but I never went in when I was drunk or fighting. Always waited until we were in bed.

And she came out, and I said, Mother, don't tell me. I know. I said, it's true.

Christ is my Savior, and Heaven is my home for all eternity. I got baptized. I came to God's assembly as a boy of 19.

I saw it in all its beauty. You know, many people had to sit back for months. I sat back one Lord's Day and they didn't receive people quickly.

And the two old men, they said to me, Harold, is this true that you were saved? I said, it is. And what did you think of the meeting this morning? Oh, I said, I loved it. Would you ever like to break bread like that? I said, I certainly would.

He did so much for me. I would do everything for Him. When? I said, as soon as it would be possible.

So the one looked at the other and they said, we'll have a meeting. And I was brought in there. You know, the grace of God was abundant, faith and love that is in Christ Jesus.

I can hardly believe they were so kind to me. And then I went to preach. I had an old bicycle.

I had a good job, but I used this bicycle and I went preaching up into the hills and the open air. Everywhere. And every time I preached, people were anxious to be saved.

I saw them kneeling in the hedges. The first man I saw saved was our brother Albert Aiken, who was here preaching. And during my life, I've had the joy of pointing 16 men to Christ that are full-time servants in the Lord's work.

I've operated 72 tents in my lifetime. I preached for 49 weeks a year for the first 25 years of my life. I carried the gospel to every island, to every continent in the world.

I asked no one for any favors. I begged nothing from anyone. I lived by faith.

I saw all my family saved. I was able to point my father-in-law to Christ my wife's sister and her husband, who is a full-time worker today, and my own children, one by one, to the Lord. And many hundreds of people in Ireland that were saved.

The first tent I had was in a corner of a lot in a little town where the gospel has never been preached since or likely before. On a Saturday night, I went in on my bicycle and I saw hundreds of people. There was no entertainment in those days.

Everybody went to the little town and walked up and down the streets. And I thought this would be an opportunity for me to preach the gospel. And so I stood in the street and I preached how that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners and how His blood was shed on that old rugged cross and how that men must be saved to never be in heaven.

And they stopped. There was as many people in that town as is here tonight. A thousand people, maybe more.

And I preached up and down that street for hours till midnight. And I thought this is where I'll have my first tent. So I walked into a grocer's store and I said to the man, could I have that garden? He says, what for? I said, I want to preach the gospel.

He said, midnight? Yes. That was a hullabaloo, he said. Well, I said, I want to have a hullabaloo in your garden too.

And he looked at me and he said, how much will you give me for my garden? Well, I said, I'll square you up when I'm done. Because I had no money. It was penniless.

I'll square you up when I'm done. And he said, where are you going to get the tent? Oh, I said, the one I serve and what did you do for a living? Well, I said, it was in the war. Oh, you're a next serviceman.

I said, yes, you can have the ground for nothing. Thanks very much. But I did give him something afterwards.

That's where my first tent was. People came on their bare feet, some of them, across those grounds. They came in buggies.

John Steen of Bolton was a little boy and his sister came down on a buggy with their father. No one had automobiles, cars. And the horses grazed around the tent.

It's over 50 years. They grazed around the tent and there was no loudspeaker. The first loudspeaker I had in a tent, the assembly down the road said, poor Harald is gone loose.

Got a loudspeaker. But there was no loudspeaker and I didn't need a loudspeaker. I preached and the horses galloped and the people trembled.

And when the meeting was over, I can see men, some of them were godless men. One man was really godless. He waited down the road with stones in his pocket to stone me.

And so on. But, you know, I saw that man knelt down in the middle of a tree, in the middle of a field where he was working on his knees calling for mercy. And around that tent, the people wept their way to Calvary.

What days those were. Blessing and salvation. You need Christ tonight in this meeting the same as I did.

And there's not one of you as far away as I was. His love is more than tongue can tell. The fear of hell made me tremble.

The darkness of my sin caused me the greatest unrest, the burden of sin. It didn't save me. Do you know what saved me? A sight of a man that I had never seen dying in agonies untold upon a cross and my many sins laid upon him.

And I realized the Lord Jesus Christ died for a sinner like me. And I trusted him as my Savior. I trust that you will do the same tonight for his name's sake.

Our Father, we bow to thank Thee in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ for Thy marvelous grace and Thy wondrous love to reach out into a world of lost sinners and choose a Paul and to reach out Thy hand again and choose a sinner as I was before Thee. O God, many times we feel humbled before Thee that ever Thou wouldst take knowledge of us, a stranger to Thy grace, and to give us new desires and a love for the Scriptures, a love for the people of God that once we hated, a love for Thy beloved Son who gave all that He had at Calvary. And we pray for sinners here that we might have compassion in our hearts upon them and that tonight someone in this gathering, a prodigal that may be wandering, someone that's longing to get away from under the sound of the gospel, that tonight Thy love may reach a sinner's heart, the love that Jesus had for me to suffer on the cruel tree.

That precious blood, thank God, it cleanseth from all sin. To have all our sins forgiven and a home in heaven, a place among the people of God, to be allowed to stand here on this gospel platform and to preach Christ, what wondrous love, who before time was a blasphemer and injurious and a persecutor. To God be the glory.

Bless Thy precious word, then, and if there should be any whose heart has been touched, grant that they may come this night or tomorrow night or the next night, that many souls may be saved here in our gatherings. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.