Billy Bray

Think of the proverb this morning of Proverbs 27, 17.! It's by walking together in fellowship that we can spur each other on to love and good deeds.

We can sharpen each other's faith and hope and love and prayerfulness and godliness and gratitude. So as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

Now surely this proverb refers to living people of God who have a positive effect upon others. But I believe the same principle is possible in part even with dead people.

Now this is what I mean. That through biographies we can walk a mile with them and by rubbing shoulders with them we can be sharpened. Better off spiritually for having done so.

In other words, not all the sharpening people of God are still living. Some have lived their life and gone on to heaven. But these being dead still speak and by reading we can walk a mile with them and have our spiritual lives sharpened by them.

And that's something of what I've been experiencing walking on the Stairmaster with Billy Bray. Most of the materials this morning will be coming from this book, Billy Bray, the King's Son.

It's by F.W. Bourne. So we begin with Billy Bray's conversion, his upbringing and conversion. Billy was born in 1794 in the village of Twelve Heads, England.

It's right down at the southwest tip of England, that little finger that reaches out into the sea. Right down there in tin mining country that Billy was born, the Cornwall District.

Billy's grandfather was a godly man who helped build the Methodist chapel in town. And Billy's father was also a godly man, but he died when Billy was very young. So he and his brothers and sisters went to live with their godly grandfather.

At age 17, Billy moved away to Devonshire, where far from godly influence and instruction, he says, I lived a bad life.

He plunged himself into a life of sin and later would say that the Lord saved him from, quote, the lowest hell. He became a drunkard and the friend of drunkards.

He often said, the Lord was good to me when I was a servant of the devil or I would be in hell by now. Several times he had close calls with sudden death as an unbeliever.

Once when walking home late one night drunk with a friend, they met a large horse in the way. And the two of them got on the horse's back and it wasn't long before it stumbled and fell and nearly crushed them both to death.

Another time he was working down in the mine and he heard a noise up above and he ran for it. And just moments later, there was 40 or so tons of material right where he had been working.

Well, these close calls with death had some impression on him. Indeed, they were to be the source of many fearful nights.

And yet, he continued to plunge himself in a life of sin. He was fired at the mine for being insolent toward his superior.

He moved to another part of the city. Of all places, he lived in a beer shop. He says, there with other drunkards, I drank all night long. But I had a sore head and a sick stomach.

And worse than that, horrors of mind that no tongue can tell. I used to dread to go to sleep for fear of waking up in hell. And though I made many promises to the Lord to be better, I was soon as bad or worse than ever.

After being absent from my native county seven years, I returned a drunkard. He tells of his poor wife having to fetch him home night after night from the beer shop.

At one time, I remember I went to get some coal. There was a beer shop in the way. And coming home, I went in and stayed till I got drunk. My poor wife was forced to come for me and wheel home the coal herself.

A drunkard would rather spend his money and drink than give it to his wife and children. But all the while, he says, he knew better because of his upbringing and because of his conscience that was condemning him.

He says, I never got drunk without being condemned for it. Conscience tormenting him by day and dreams terrifying him by night. Then someone gave him a book by John Bunyan.

It's called Visions of Heaven and Hell. In the portion Visions of Hell, Bunyan talks of two lost souls in hell cursing each other for being the author of each other's misery.

Bunyan said that those who love one another on earth will hate one another in hell. I'm sure you've heard some say, I want to go to hell because that's where all my friends are.

A little calculating what their friends will be when every last bit of common grace has been removed from them. They will be more like beasts than like men.

Total depravity, given full expression without any restraint by God. And so Billy had a buddy that he was close friends with. They worked together, they got drunk together, and like an arrow piercing his heart came this thought, shall this friend and I, who like each other so much here, torment each other in hell?

And from that time as a 29-year-old, Billy had a strong desire to be a better man. Doesn't mean he was converted, it just means he wished he were better than he was.

Well, his wife had grown up in the church, but then had forsaken it during the years that she married Billy. And at this point, when Billy was 29, she told him, no tongue could tell what they enjoy who serve the Lord.

Well, Billy urged her to begin anew with God. For then, he said, I may begin too. Under great conviction, he knew it was his duty to pray for mercy, but he says the devil had such a hold on him that he was too ashamed to fall on his knees in front of his wife.

Well, he went to bed without praying that night, but about three in the morning, he awoke thinking that if he waited until his wife was converted, that he may never be saved. So he jumped out of bed, got on his knees and called on the Lord for mercy.

And he says, I found that the more I prayed, the more I felt like praying. He prayed until noon. It was payday. And the habit of the miners on payday was to go to the ale house to eat and get drunk together.

Billy had been the worst of the lot, the wildest and most daring in his blasphemies, such that even his wicked companion said, his oaths must come from hell, for they smelt of sulfur.

He was the life of the party, used his quick wit and his sharp mind to get a laugh, turning holy things into ridicule. But now he headed to that ale house with his companions as usual.

But when one of them swore, Billy said, you must give an account for that someday. And his reproof brought great ridicule and laughter and persecution down upon his head.

So on this first payday that he came home sober, for many years his wife was greatly surprised and asked, how is it that you've come home so early tonight? He answered, you will never see me drunk again by the help of the Lord.

And she never did. Praise the Lord, he can cure drunkards. Such were some of you, but you were washed. You were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

1 Corinthians 6.11 Well, that night he went upstairs and prayed. The next day I did not go to work.

I took the Bible and Wesley's hymn book and went upstairs and read and prayed all day. When Sunday morning came, it was very wet. He went a mile to a place where the Methodists who were called Bible Christians went, and that's because they carried their Bibles.

And because it was so wet, none came. And his first thought was, if a little rain will keep the people away from the house of God, I shall not join here. But he later changed his mind and joined himself to them and spent 40 years in their fellowship.

So not finding any at the meeting place, he returned home and alone with God, his Bible and his hymn book. He spent all that day reading and praying. Billy was having fierce temptations and thoughts that came to his mind that he would never find mercy with the Lord, that he had out-sinned God's mercy.

But the promise he kept clinging to as he prayed and sought mercy from the Lord was, seek and ye shall find. So he prayed on for mercy.

Monday morning was spent in the same way. Afternoon, he had to go to the mine to work, but he says, all the while I was working, I was crying to the Lord for mercy. He was so sad to see him in that state that his fellow workers pitied him.

He's not like Billy Bray, they said. He used to tell us lies and make us laugh, and now he's determined to serve the Lord. But no relief came to Billy. He went home, asking for mercy all the way.

He got home at 11 at night, and the first thing he did was to go upstairs and fall on his knees and beg God to have mercy on him. Everything else was forgotten due to this one thing that was most pressing to be right with God.

He couldn't sleep. The next morning he was spent crying to God for mercy. He had no appetite for food. In the afternoon, at the mine, conversation with his partner all but ceased.

That day passed, and nearly the whole night on his knees, crying for mercy. He says, I was glad that I had begun to seek the Lord, for I felt I would rather be crying for mercy than living in sin.

Well, the next afternoon, the devil was tempting him that he would never find mercy. Billy says, But I said to him, Thou art a liar, devil. And as soon as I said so, I felt the weight gone from my mind, and I could praise the Lord.

Hope began to spring up in his heart. He went home. He skipped supper, and went up to his room. And I said to the Lord, You have said, They that ask shall receive, they that seek shall find, and to them that knock, the door shall be opened, and I have faith to believe it.

In an instant, the Lord made me so happy that I cannot express what I felt. I shouted for joy. I praised God with my whole heart for what he had done for a poor sinner like me.

For I could say, The Lord has pardoned all my sins. I think this was in November 1823.

But what day of the month, I do not know. I remember this, that everything looked new to me. The people, the fields, the cattle, the trees. I was like a man in a new world.

That's precisely what Paul says. If any man be in Christ, we have in our translations, He is a new creature, or a new creation. But the Greek has, If any man be in Christ, new creation.

As if he suddenly dropped into a new world. Nothing's the same for a man in Christ. And that's what Billy found. He says he spent the greater part of his time praising the Lord.

I could say with David, The Lord has brought me up out of a horrible pit of mire and clay, set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings, and has put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto my God.

I was a new man altogether. I told all that I met what the Lord had done for my soul. I've heard some say, when they're converted, that they have had hard work to get away from their old companions.

But I sought mine out, and had hard work to find them soon enough to tell them what the Lord had done for me. Some said I was mad, and others that they would get me back again next payday.

But praise the Lord, it's been now more than 40 years, and they've not got me yet. They said I was a mad man, but they meant I was a glad man. And glory be to God, I've been glad ever since.

Such was his testimony to his dying day. So, as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

And I found my own heart sharpened by just the testimony of this man's conversion. It reminds me of the power of God to save the most unlikely converts, even those whom, as George Whitefield called, those that are the devil's rejects.

God saves. It reminds me of the work of conscience, and of the Holy Spirit convicting. Even when a man is plunging himself headlong into sin, there was yet that witness of conscience that condemned him.

It reminds me that the natural response to those convictions is just to promise to be better, to try harder at self-reformation. But faith in the promise, mercy of God in Christ, won out against all temptations of not finding mercy.

It reminds us, too, of this wonderful reality of a new creation, a new start for all who are in Christ Jesus. So, the conversion of Billy.

Well, secondly, Billy's response to this mercy. He had no ordinary struggle. We read this in the testimonies of some. You remember John Bunyan struggled long and hard before he found peace with God.

And not everyone, at the first asking, has this assurance that I have found pardon with God. And so he struggled till he became confident of mercy through a crucified redeemer.

Though the conflict was fierce, the peace and joy that came from believing was all the sweeter afterwards. And it filled Billy with a holy joy that nothing could restrain.

He could no more help speaking of Christ than the sun could help shining. So no sooner was he saved than he began to seek the salvation of others.

His wife was the first to hear and to turn to the Lord. And then his companions and his workmates had to hear of what the Lord had done for him. This was not so pleasing to many, he said, but it was not long before some of them were as mad as I was.

He says, there were men who professed to be converted before I was, but who did not love the Lord enough to own him, or at least not enough to pray with us and to tell us that we were going to hell.

But when I was converted, praise the Lord, he gave me strength to tell all the persons I met that I was happy and that what the Lord had done for me would do for anybody else who would seek his face.

There was nobody that prayed in the mind where I worked. But when the Lord converted my soul, he gave me power to pray with the men before we went to our different places to work.

Sometimes I've had as many as from six to ten men down on their knees with me. And when praying, I used to say, Lord, if any of us must be killed or die today, let it be me.

Let not one of these men die, for they're not happy. But I am, and if I die today, I shall go to heaven. And when I rose from my knees, I could see the tears running down their faces, and soon after, some of them became praying men too.

Billy's candle had been lit, and he was resolved to give light to all that were in the house. There was an old man named William who together with his son used to work near Billy.

And Billy says, Since they were not converted, I used to tell them what the Lord was willing to do for them, and then I would kneel down and pray for them until the tears came into the old man's eyes.

But such was the power of the devil over this sinner that soon after I would hear him swearing at his son, and I was tempted not to pray with him again.

But thank the Lord I did not yield to the temptation, I continued to pray with him, and before the poor old man died, he was made very happy in Jesus. Billy's earlier companion in drunkenness was a man named JT, and when Billy was converted, he would tell his comrades what dangers that the wicked were in and where they would go if they died in their sin.

He says, They persecuted me and called me a fool. But JT used to intervene, and he'd say, Leave that man alone and say nothing to him, for I knew him when he was a drunkard, and now he's a good man.

I wish I was like him. And JT was soon converted too. A family of Irish Catholics by the name of Burns came to live close to Billy.

He used to skip into the house and say, Lord, save this dear little Irish woman. Mrs. Burns hated him and his religion until she found that many of her neighbors who had been converted were transformed from wicked men and women into godly, God-fearing people.

This set her to thinking. She attended the meetings and in the end became soundly converted herself. The family immigrated to South Australia, and Mrs. Burns lived on to bless God for his grace and Billy Bray, who showed her the way of salvation.

Somebody described Billy this way. He was one of those happy, unselfish men who love everybody and with simple earnestness spoke to all, rich or poor, about the love of Jesus.

He gloried in religious revivals and shouted for joy when he heard of souls being saved anywhere. Now, when we read those words, we shouldn't just think of that, okay, yeah, he got excited.

He really shouted. He'd shout glory, and he'd march around the room or he'd dance outside shouting glory, and so he became known as God's man with a shout.

Well, around one year after his conversion, his name was put on a list of local preachers, and he began to preach, calling men to repent and to receive Christ.

He had a rather unconventional style of preaching. It wasn't like the usual where they would give out a text of scripture and exposit it. He didn't usually start with a biblical text, usually recited a verse of a hymn, a little of his own experience and a simple story from life.

It was definitely his own style. He was uneducated, an unconventional preacher. After all, he was just saved a year, and yet he was well-liked.

Throughout the whole district, no name was more familiar than that of Billy Bray. If you met him, you could not be long in suspense about who he was, a little wiry man with happy wrinkles around his eyes and a broad smile.

If you gave him half a chance, there would certainly be a straightforward question about your soul in wise, pithy words. And if the answer was what it should be, the lanes would ring with his happy thanksgiving and glory shouting.

Well, Billy could not tolerate deadness. He was fully alive, and he wanted the other people of God to be fully alive. And speaking of one preacher's sermon, he said, I believe there was not much good done that day, for it was a very dead time with preacher and people, for he had a great deal of grammar, but little of father.

And so walking with Billy Bray makes me want to be more zealous in telling others what the Lord has done for me and is willing to do for any others.

Billy's response to mercy was to tell others. It was also a bubbling joy. Edward Payson said on his dying bed, if men only knew the honor and glory that awaited them in Christ, they would go about the streets shouting out, I am a Christian.

I am a Christian. That men might rejoice with them in the blessedness of which they were soon to partake. Well, that's just really about the way Billy Bray did it.

The effects of his salvation had upon him was one of exuberant joy. His life exemplified the words of Philippians 4.4.

Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice. That's one thing Billy knew how to do. He would refer to himself as the king's son, hence the name of the book, the biography.

And he always thought that king's sons had abundant reasons to rejoice. He was an adopted son of God, the king of kings with all the royal rights and privileges belonging to him.

his sonship was a living reality. Often he would say, I must go as father. Just as much as a child would say about their earthly father.

He was a real father to him. He could smile through his tears. It was said that when his wife died he was so overpowered with the thought of his dear joy having escaped from earth's toils and sufferings to the rest and bliss of heaven that he began to jump and dance around the room exclaiming, Bless the Lord!

My dear joy has gone up with the bright ones. My dear joy has gone up with the shining angels. Glory, glory, glory! And sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, Paul writes.

He used to say, Here we have a little bitter but it's mixed with a great deal of sweet. Hence there's always reason for rejoicing. Once he was visiting a chapel and several people in the testimony time were speaking of their trials and Billy rose to his feet clapping his hands and smiling.

He said, Well, friends, I have been taking vinegar and honey but praise the Lord I've had the vinegar with a spoon and the honey with a ladle. He had trials as others but he would say it was not worthwhile to speak or write anything about them.

Was he not on the road to heaven and why should he not praise God every step of the way? He often said I would rather walk to heaven over the roughest road with bleeding feet than to ride to hell even in a fine carriage.

Billy would say I have a heaven while going to heaven. And giving out the song Oh for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise Billy would sometimes say but many of you don't sing with the one tongue you do have and a bird that can sing and won't sing ought to be made to sing.

Well, it seemed natural for Billy to sing and shout to leap and dance for joy for he seemed as free from care as glad and frolicsome as a young lamb dancing in the meadow.

His joy was always fresh and pure exultant and even full to overflowing like that beggar at the gate to the temple when he was healed went walking and leaping and praising God.

So did Billy Bray literally. Speaking of the Lord Jesus he said he's the best master and gives the best wages. The devil gives sorrow for joy but the Lord gives joy instead of sorrow.

Beauty for ashes the oil of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. He came into a friend's house in Devonport praising the Lord aloud on one occasion saying I've just seen a poor man down there with crutches and useless legs and I haven't been able to help praising the Lord ever since for my sound ones.

I can't help praising the Lord as I go along the street I lift up one foot and it seems to say glory and I lift up the other and it seems to say amen and so they keep on like that all the time I'm walking.

From what I can piece together there were lots of shouting there was lots of shouting in their service when someone asked why can't you worship the Lord without making so much noise he responded it's not my fault.

If a person above were to pour water into a basin already full standing on that beautiful tablecloth and it was splashing all about you would not blame the basin.

You would tell the person to stop pouring the water as it was splashing all about such that you could not enjoy yourself. I'm only the basin. My heavenly father is pouring down the water of life freely and if you can't bear it call to him not to pour so much.

And I'm reminded of what Peter said in 1 Peter 1 8 and 9 though you have not seen him you love him speaking of Christ and even though you do not see him now you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy for you are receiving the goal of your faith the salvation of your souls.

Inexpressible glorious joy joy unspeakable full of glory that was Billy Bray don't have time to tell much about his chapel building but all over the district Billy would build chapels after working a half day in the mine he would gather stones from quarries digging them up getting them to the place where he was going to build the chapel great sacrificial labor physical labor that he did he was a poor man after all he'd been drunk till he was 29 he had nothing he was a poor laborer and he would beg money for the building of the chapels some of his tactics we wouldn't use I'm sure but it showed his zeal to see the buildings go up as he was not too ashamed to beg to have the Lord's houses built no sooner would he be finished building one chapel than he was on to build another in another place and he would say of each chapel if it stands just a hundred years and only one sinner a year is saved there that would be more than worth it for one soul is worth a thousand worlds of course he needed he needed furniture and pulpits for these buildings that he was these chapels that he would construct and so we have a story of how he came by one pulpit he was a place at Curly Downs the chapel was up and Billy began to think where the pulpit should come from at last he looked about among some furniture at an auction sale his eye fell on an old three cornered cupboard the very thing cried Billy the very thing

I can cut a slit down the back of an and strengthen the middle of an and put a board up in front of an and clap a pair of steers behind an and then the preacher can preach out of an pretty and with much glee turned to someone near him and asked what do you think they'll want for that there cupboard the man looked and gave it as his opinion it would go for six shillings Billy told him what he meant to do with it and the man said why you're Billy Bray here I'll give you the six shillings to buy it after a while the cupboard was put up Billy knew nothing of auctions all eager to have his pulpit he cried holding out his hand here Mr.

Auctioneer here's six shillings for un I do want un for a pulpit of course there was a great laugh at Billy's expense as it passed away the auctioneer cried six shillings going for six a nod from behind Billy was quickly caught seven said the auctioneer seven shillings no cried Billy tis only six there's the money of course down went the hammer and much to Billy's astonishment the cupboard was not his well father do no best said he in a rather disappointed tone but anyhow I must give the man back his six shillings well the man was gone nor was Billy likely to see him again this was a new and even greater trouble I'll I'll be gone down and tell father about it said Billy as he started off for his little chapel with faith renewed and a comfortable assurance that it would be all right he was coming from the chapel when he saw the cupboard going up the hill in a cart I'll follow on anyway he whispered and see the end they carried it to a house and tried to take it inside but it was just too big to get in they twisted and turned and pulled and pushed but it was of no use here's a mess said the purchaser angrily

I've given seven shillings for un and shall have to scat them up for firewood then as his eyes twinkled Billy stepped over and put his hand on the man's shoulder as he stood hat in hand wiping his forehead I'll give you six shillings for un if you'll carry it down to my chapel that I will said the man pleased at being so well taken out of it bless the Lord cried Billy tis just like him he knew I couldn't carry on myself so he got this man to carry on for me it gives you a sense of Billy's zest and zeal and his faith his relationship to his heavenly father some thought Billy was silly and said so but he remarked wise men could not have preached in these chapels if silly Billy had not built them and so he rejoiced that the gospel was going forth he practiced pure religion the kind of which James 1 27 says this is the true religion the kind of religion that God our father accepts to visit to look after the widows and orphans in their need and so though he was poor he cared for the poor there are stories of him being out of bread and going to his boss at the mine to beg for five shillings and receiving it and on his way home he meets with somebody that's in greater need than him and he gives him five shillings and he goes a little further he meets somebody else that's in worse need than the other and he says I surely can't give him less than five so he gives the other five and he gets home and his poor wife she's about to be done with him she says we'll soon be in the poor house and he says oh father father will take care of us and it wasn't long before the provision was there but he he practiced true religion

Billy continued to minister right up to the end of his life at age 74 he grew sick and called for a doctor and when he arrived Billy said to him now doctor I have sent for you because people say you're an honest man and will tell them the truth about their condition after the doctor had examined and Billy said well doctor how is it you're going to die Billy instantly shouted glory glory be to God I shall soon be in heaven hopefully not into the stethoscope but he then added in a low tone with a concern that marked all of his life when I get up there shall I give them your compliments doctor and tell them that you will be coming too and that doctor later said that that made a deep impression upon him Billy maintained his old love for shouting to the very end saying if he had his life to live over again he'd shout ten times more a few hours before his death one of his old friends asked if he had any fear of death or of being lost

Billy said what me fear death me lost why my savior conquered death if I were to go down to hell I would shout glory glory to my blessed redeemer until I made the bottomless pit ring again and the miserable old Satan would say Billy Billy this is no place for thee get thee back and then up to heaven I should go shouting glory glory praise the Lord a little while later he did say glory for the last time here and went to add his praises to the saints above he died may 25 1868 at age 74 Charles Spurgeon the preacher of London was 34 years old when Billy Bray died Spurgeon wrote a book called eccentric preachers it's an interesting book and then he has a chapter called Billy Bray the uneducated soul winner and while there were many doctrines and practices that we may not agree with that Billy held and practiced and we may not agree with his eccentricities and erratic mannerisms

Spurgeon encourages us to graciously make allowances for educational disadvantages for circumstances for companionships and realize that for all that we cannot all that we cannot agree with Billy Bray nevertheless brought no small glory to God you see we don't have to agree with everything that he said or did to appreciate something of the grace of God and Billy and to learn from him I really wondered as I thought about this what we would do with Billy Bray if he attended Grace Fellowship Church we'd certainly try to straighten him out on a few things after reading I'm sure of that I don't know maybe we'd all be shouting glory and dancing a jig in the aisles but I think there's something here that we can learn from and maybe it's because of those eccentricities and erratic ways that we can handle rubbing up against Billy better in a book than we could in person if you know what I mean we can maybe we'd be so put off by those mannerisms that we wouldn't learn anything from him but because we're meeting him in a book and we see this and we can as

Spurgeon said graciously compensate and look and remember who he was and what his disadvantages were and rejoice in what we do see of the grace of God so I found that in rubbing up against Billy Bray and the steel of this man though simple and eccentric I found at least these three things did me good number one his sense of sonship in a very simple childlike way he often referred to himself as the son of the king it's how he thought of himself his father was the king once he was out asking for contributions for one of the chapels that he was building he went to the house of a wealthy man and he and a man who was along with him were heading to the front door and the man says oh don't you think we ought to go to the back door and Billy said no I'm the king's son we go to the front door in a way that was as natural as a child would say of his father when faced with a dilemma he would say I must go talk to father about this that father was very real to him he lived upon him he word he took joyfully everything in life that came along as from the hand of his loving father he was once in a fearful place and he countered his fears by saying

I am Billy Bray God is my heavenly father I just thought how many times would it do me good to say I am John Heaney and God is my heavenly father he was a man who lived more upon his privilege of sonship than I do once he was walking home from preaching one Sunday night he stepped in the mud and got stuck he was so stuck that when he pulled out his foot the sole came off he took off the shoe and he held it up to heaven and he said here father thou knowest I have worn these shoes and thy cause and I have no money to buy new ones help me and God did and you can read of the way that the Lord provided for Billy so that's one thing I learned his sense of sonship may we treasure the father in heaven that we have and then he never got over the wonder of his salvation that God would have mercy on him and that had two grand effects his uncontainable joy what Peter calls joy unspeakable and full of glory it overflowed something of the joy of heaven spilled over into his journey to heaven and yes the angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner that repents and and

Billy rejoiced over any sinner that repented joy in his own salvation joy in that of others and whether I ever go dancing down the street shouting glory I know I have more to learn about rejoicing in the Lord always and about this unspeakable and full of glory joy that is mine in Christ and lastly it created compassionate witness what Jesus did for me he'll do for you Jesus has made me happy forgiving my sin he'll do the same for you he wanted others to share that joy of sins forgiven of being an adopted son in this family Proverbs 30 in verse 10 Proverbs 11 30 says the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he who wins souls is wise Billy might not have been wise in the eyes of this world but he did win souls and those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever how he maintained his soul in such a condition may be seen in an answer that he gave once as he was calling on someone in their home the question was this how long should I pray at a time to keep my soul healthy how long should I pray at a time to keep my soul healthy pointing to a polished vessel on the mantle he replied do you see that piece of brass if you give that five minutes rub every now and then you'll keep it bright but if you let him go a long time without it you will have a long rub to get him bright again I think that's his simple illustration of Paul's words pray without ceasing constantly coming back shining the vessel keeping the contact with God close and personal and persevering well me our king sharpen us for rubbing up against his adopted son Billy Bray we're dismissed you