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THE KING’S BUSINESS
realize. It has not only invaded and deso lated this earth, but it has invaded heaven, but Satan and his forces will be ultimately triumphed over. Satan is oftentimes rep resented as king of hell. He is nothing of the kind. When he gets to hell, he will be a prisoner, not the ruler. A t the “Rapture” will every regenerated person who will be living at that time, be “changed” and caught up in the air to mee l the Lord, or only those who are looking for Him? All who are in Jesus in this dispensation are a part of the bride of Christ; and all those who have already fallen asleep in Jesus, whether they had been properly instructed as to the Lord’s coming before they had fallen asleep or ncft, will be raised and caught up, and all those believers who are still living will be changed and caught up to meet the Lord in the air, irrespective of how much light they have regarding the coming of our Lord (1 Thes. 4:14-17). Which do you believe to be the better, to hold to a prepared outline or to wholly depend upon the guidance of the Lord when speaking in the pulpit or in evange listic meetings? Certainly one ought not to go before people either in evangelistic meetings or regular services, if he has an opportunity for preparation, without making thorough and prayerful preparation; and anyone can speak more intelligently and more force fully and his words will be remembered longer, if after prayerful preparation and thought he makes an outline of what he is going to say. It is entirely possible to do this and still “rely wholly upon God for guidance.” God can guide a man while
he is preparing as well as he can while he is speaking. While this is true, a man ought not to depend too much upon his preparation and the outline which he has prepared; for oftentimes the best things a man has to say will be directly suggested to him by the Holy Spirit while he is on his feet. We should be ready to throw all our preparation to the winds, if God so leads. He does sometime so lead me, but if I have opportunity for preparation, I never enter a pulpit or- got before a class without having made as thorough a prep aration as possible. Even if I have spoken on the subject many times before, I always, if I have opportunity, go over it afresh for every new meeting. One cannot obey, the specific command of God in 2 Tim. 2:15 unless he goes over prayerfully and care fully what he is to say. Oftentimes it is well to write out quite fully what one is going to say, but we must be on our guard about being tied to our notes. As a rule I think no one ought to take any notes with him into the pulpit. He should have thoroughly mastered his subject before hand and he should have his outline in his mind, not on a slip of paper. No mat ter how thorough a preparation one has made it is altogether possible to depend upon God after one goes into the pulpit for every word one speaks. There are times, of course, when we are called upon to speak, or when we are moved to speak, where there has been no opportunity for previous preparation, and then one can depend upon God to give him the thoughts while he is on his feet, but not to prepare when one has-opportunity to prepare is not trusting God; it is laziness and God never approves of or honors laziness.
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