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(silence) (applause) Thank you so very much indeed. It's good to be here on this very wonderful occasion.

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I've enjoyed the program, I've met new friends, and I trust that we shall meet others. It's good to be here with Darrell Morgan. We were students together, so-called.

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Little did I know at that time that he would be handing out the retirement checks. (laughter) My estimation of him has gone up considerably, and that's the main reason that I recognize him now,

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because we're moving toward that particular time. But it's good to be here with all of you, another banquet. Now let me hasten to say, don't ever really start speaking to banquets. Nobody wants to hear you.

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I guess I speak at as many banquets as anyone in the state. Very seldom do we miss a night. We're at a banquet somewhere almost every night. Miss Thorne and I have just returned from a very difficult assignment in Honolulu.

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(Laughter) Don't laugh. It was tough. That Hyatt Regency is rough. But we had a very wonderful time. I told Miss Thorne I have to go.

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She said, "I'll go with you." Well, I said, "I'll be busy. I'll not have time to entertain you." She said, "I'll make out." She said, "I've got to have a bathing suit."

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Well, I said, "Patch the knees in the one you got in there, and let's go." Have you bought a bathing suit lately? Well, that's not a very good statement to make here, but, no, let's forget that. Seriously, we've just returned.

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We've been up in Washington, D.C., and Corpus Christi this last week, week in Memphis, Tennessee, and then back over into Mississippi, and speaking at banquets. Now let me say I have been to so many banquets, as a matter of fact, I have not bought a meal in 19 years. They tell me the price of food is just out of reason. I know nothing about

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it. I don't even buy a meal traveling. Every town you go through has got a sign out there, Lions Club, Optimist, tell you where to eat. I just go down there and get a piece of paper, write a few notes on it, doesn't matter what you put on there,

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just a few notes, and go to the door and just stand. There's something about this paper. They come and get you. You don't stand in line, they take you to the head table

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and bring the food to you. While you're eating your meal, They have a committee meeting there. They think they got two speakers.

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When they find out you're not the speaker, they're so happy, they forget to charge you and just move on to the next town. Oh, when Macmillan called me, he said, "Brother Thorne, I'm on a committee to get an outstanding speaker."

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I said, "We've tried everywhere to locate one." He said, "They're all busy. Would you come?" Well, I said, "Surely there's somebody." He said, "We've tried everybody that's anybody."

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Well, I said, "Under those conditions, I had better be there." And I'm glad that I did. It's good to be here. Now, let me take a few moments, and I do not want to take too much of your time, but let me speak on the subject of watching the world go by. You know, there is a verse of Scripture found in 1 Samuel that reads like this,

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"For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and he hath set the world upon them." In 1930, there came to the attention of people across this country a little book with a unique title of "Watching the World Go By." It came out during the Great Depression.

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Times were difficult. People were discouraged. And this little book came out and brought heart to so many. It was written by a preacher by the name of I.E. Gates. Dr. Gates was president of Whelan College.

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He became pastor of a church in San Antonio. And as he came down toward the end of his life, He said, "I want to put up on paper some of the experiences that I have observed." And in a very homely way, he penned the experiences along the pathway of life.

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And he entitled it, "Watching the World Go By." And I believe every one of us come to that place in life where we would like to just sit down and write a few words of our observation as we watch the world pass by.

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Now, I think that a preacher is in a good position to do so. Now, when I was a young preacher, I used to get so tired of people talking about the past. Everywhere you'd go, they'd talk about the past. I made a resolution.

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If I ever had the opportunity to be before people, I would not waste their time nor mine talking about the past. But you know, the longer I live, there's more back there. When I said that, there wasn't anything back there.

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But you know, every day I think about something of the past. It brings encouragement. And I think it's well for us. We can't live back there. But I think to remember some things of the past will help us today and tomorrow.

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And let me share a few of the observations that I have observed in watching the world go by. First of all, I've watched the evolution of preachers and preaching. Now, my grandfather was a preacher, my father was a preacher, my uncle was a preacher.

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Someday I hope to be a preacher. I've been around preachers all my life. Tonight, all I've heard is Methodists. (Laughter)

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Well, I got on the elevator, and a lady on the elevator said, "Are you the speaker?" I said, "Yes." She said, "Are you a preacher?" I said, "Yes." She said, "What kind?"

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(Laughter) I said, "A good one." She said, "That's not what I mean. Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, what are you?"

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Well, I said, "What are you?" She said, "I'm a Methodist." I said, "So am I." She said, "Let me tell you about these Baptists." Now, you know, preachers, I've been around preachers.

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I like preachers. Now, let me share this with you. My grandmother was a Wesleyan Methodist. You already feel better, don't you? Wet, she's wet, but you know she lived out in the country and there wasn't a Methodist church there.

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But there was a Baptist church seven miles down the road. Out of this Methodist home came four Baptist preachers. Suppose that had been a Methodist church. I'd have been a bishop by now. I've been around these preachers when I was a boy you'd have revival meetings and the preachers would all stay with us

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And I can remember how those preachers would come they were always hungry They'd stay with us I had to move out on the porch We couldn't have a meal till I finished you could hear him in there Or they could mess a table up

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But I can remember the preachers and many of the great preachers of the last generation Were in our home as I read about them. They were in our home. I know preachers and You know, he called God calls all kinds of preachers

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There's some that are smooth and polished or I wish I could be like that They don't have to preach they just look so good They kind of glide up to the pulpit Words fall from their lips like honey from the honeycomb.

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But you know, Isaiah was that kind of a man. John Summerfield, Lee Richmond, great men. God has had a need of those. But I find that He's also called some that are noted for tenderness.

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Tenderness becomes the paramount part of their ministry. Jeremiah was that way. Timothy was that way. God has a need for some that are just tender. But I find He also has called some that are very bold, like Elijah and John the Baptist.

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Oh, listen, they just got right down to the problem right quick. There was no introduction. They just jumped right to the problem. But He's had a need for that guy.

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But he's also called some that are very crude and very difficult. Billy Sunday, some of you have heard Billy Sunday preach. He'd take his coat off, take his tie off, jump up on a chair, run up and down the aisle. A lady said to him, following one of his sermons, said,

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"Mr. Sunday," said, "I'm disappointed in your vocabulary." He said, "Madam, when I became a Christian, I lost three, four sons." But you know, God can even use it. I remember B.B. Crim. Some of you remember B.B. Crim.

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He used to take dogs. You, you--I can tell you, you remember him. He came, held a revival for us, had seven dogs in his car. He'd preach and then run those dogs all night. I can tell you, one of those dogs would holler, what, during his sermon.

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sermon, man, he'd cut her short. But you know, he did things others could never do. Now I've watched the evolution of preachers. Now let me remind you, I believe today we have more good preachers than we ever had because education, opportunity, but I believe we have fewer great ones, and I'll tell you

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why. I believe that we've made up our minds that we all have to be a certain way when God reached out and called a man he wanted that man to be himself developed to the sharpest point and dedicated back to God that's reading we're all different I can remember when I first started all preachers overhead

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look-alike black suit black tie black shoes black socks grab a black car black I did it. You couldn't be a preacher without anything but black. Oh, but you should have seen my drawers. But nevertheless, I've watched the evolution of preachers. I can remember when preachers did not worry about... I just put this in my hand. That's just psychological.

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They didn't worry about time. I used to get up with my grandfather up here to the little town of Alvord. Some of you know where it is, north of Decatur.

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We would go way out in the country to a church and stay all day. Gonna have dinner on the grounds if you ever got to it. I'd get down on the front row and those old preachers--

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listen, they looked like preachers. They scared you to death just to look at you. Brother, what'd they preach? 1130, 12, 1230, quarter to what?

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You're waiting for dinner. About 115, they began to kind of rock. I never heard one of those old preachers finish a sermon, they just give out. I've seen them just slump down, they still try.

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Finally you can't even see them, they're behind the pulpit, their voice is still coming out. When they get down to the floor, 2 deacons just drag them over, lean them against the wall. And another preacher jumps in there and takes over. About a quarter to three, they'll dismiss.

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I'll run out that door and there the tables are set between Dan and Beersheba, loaded with all the good things and oh how they could cook. I'd get a plate and a fork and get in line. This is it. Then they'd call on Brother So-and-so to pray.

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He'd start in at the Garden of Eden. By the time he'd worked us up to the Red Sea, I'd had it. Now, you know, really, I've watched the evolution of preachers and preaching, And I am filled with confidence that in the unique plan of God,

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it is His purpose that we be different personalities, but still to proclaim the same truth that comes from Him. But I've also watched the evolution of church buildings. You know, every time I pass a church, I've got to look and see what it is.

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If I ever get killed in a car wreck, it'll be out trying to see somebody's church. Now, if you've got a church that doesn't have a sign on it, for heaven's sakes, go put a sign on it. Everybody wants to know. I enjoy... I can remember in the study of church architecture, during certain periods, all churches were built alike.

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I can remember when all churches had to be high, had to climb those stairs to get up there, you know. They were all that way during that period. I can remember it. Have a half basement filled with water all during the week.

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I can remember our first little church was right out in the country. Now, we Baptists, we're strong on that water. I'd baptize in a little surface tank. We'd go a few miles from the church and there was a little surface tank

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and that would fill up with water and the mud's real fine. I was raised in a city, I don't know much about that, but for some reason the mud in those little tanks is just as fine. You just can't march out there and baptize, you'd lose a candidate.

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That mud. The deacons would go out on Saturday and put a tarp and wait it down, and then you'd go out on Sunday and stand on that to keep them sinking in the mud. In the winter it would freeze over.

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If you're going to baptize, you have to take an axe and go out there and... If a preacher was scared to death, they're going to have somebody converted in the winter. You never heard good preaching in the winter. You never heard of a winter revival. It's always a summer revival.

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Next little church we went to, we baptized in a little stream. A little stream ran through there. We'd go down there to baptize in this stream. A little stream had snakes, little snakes about that long. Wiggling around in there. I'd put a man down here with a limb and he'd hit the water, keep those snakes back.

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Then add one down here, he'd hit the water, keep them back, and then I'd baptize. The Methodist church was growing like fire. I think I know the reason why. Our next little church, it was a wonderful...we had a baptistry inside, inside.

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On Saturday, the deacons moved the pulpit, rolled the rug up, lifted the trapdoor up, filled it, put the trapdoor down, rolled the rug up, put the pulpit. You'd get up there and preach, and when the time would come, you'd back up, the deacons and moved the pulpit, rolled the rug up,

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lifted the trapdoor up. You'd baptize, you'd put the trapdoor down, roll the rug up, put the-- all friends, it was wonderful.

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[LAUGHTER] When I was in Lubbock, about a half a block down the street from us, there was a Methodist church, and the preacher and I were good friends.

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And we always kidding one another about one thing or another. And one day he called me. He said, "Bill, I've got a problem."

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I said, "I'm aware of it." He said, "You don't understand." I said, "You're the one that doesn't understand." I said, "All right, what's your problem?"

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Well, he said, "A man joined our church Sunday, and he wants to be immersed." Well, I said, "Immerse him." He said, "We're unprepared." Well, I said, "We're baptizing Sunday night.

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"Why don't I baptize and I'll dismiss my crowd? You bring your crowd down, you can use our baptistry." Well, he said, "Do you think that's all right?" I said, "It's better than what you're doing."

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(Laughter) So I finished and I dismissed my crowd. I went up to my office. I told them where the dressing room was,

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and a little while I heard the worst racket you ever heard in your life. What happened, my Methodist friend came down, he brought his crowd, he went up in the dressing room, and hanging on a nail was my baptismal suit. That's a rubber suit you can just put right on over your clothes, right up under your arms,

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put your robe on over it, you go baptized, take that off, just take those off and go right on. He saw those things hanging there. And he gave them to the candidate. (laughter)

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He gave them to the candidate. Well, when I heard that racket, I came down, and I saw the feet of my suit sticking out of the water. And my Methodist friend was just standing there.

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The janitor was there. I said, "They're going to drown this fella. Let's get him out." The janitor said, "How?" Well, I said, "I don't know. I've never approached it from this angle."

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I said, "If we pull him out feet first, we're going to drown him. Pull him out head first, all that weight's going to pull those breeches off." So we finally just rolled him out, and that water just poured out of there. I went outside the building and leaned up against the wall.

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I said, "That's the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life." And my Methodist friend came by, and when he passed, you know what he said? "I'm convinced more than ever we Methodists are right. That's just too much trouble to go through."

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He thought we did all of them that way. Oh, listen. I enjoy church building. Now, I enjoy a parsonage.

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I've watched the evolution of a parsonage. A parsonage is a little lean too. That they feel to get the preacher out of the elements. I was born in one, lived in one, I've never lived as a normal person. I can remember those days, oh brother.

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I can remember the rainy seasons, my dad would holler in the night and we'd grab buckets and pans. We never missed a drop. People used to bring us stuff, had those old poundings. You remember the poundings for the preacher? Oh, you can remember, I can tell.

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Brother, I can remember, they'd make an announcement. They're gonna have a pounding, thrills everybody to death. Gives them a chance to clean out the cellar stuff, they pray deep. We didn't know what to do with that stuff.

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You couldn't, we got it stacked, we couldn't throw it away. The chairman of the deacons was a trash man. (laughter) He used to bring this, he used to bring this cantaloupe butter. They'd take a cantaloupe just before it's totally gone.

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(laughter) And they would whip it into a butter. never ate it, but it's good to give." I can remember they brought all that stuff in, and my dad said, "Well, just put it on the breakfast room table. We'll sort it out in the morning."

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He just stacked all that stuff in there. We went to bed. I guess it was the heat of the house. A lady concocted something. We never really found out what it was, but about 2 clock, it couldn't take it anymore. It exploded. You'd never heard such a racket. And it just shot straight up, hit the light fixtures, ran down the walls, down the drapes, down

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to the floor. And, of course, we all came from every direction, mother and dad and my brothers and sisters. I never really knew how many was in our family, but there was the mob of them. They came from every direction. There that it was a mess. My father, rather calm sort of fella, looked it over. He said, "It could be worse." My mother, not quite

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as calm as he was, was dancing around there. She said, "I'd like to know how." Well, he said, "We could have eaten it for supper." Oh, I can remember that. I remember that. and remember the parsnage. Now we laugh and live, but let me say this. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. We had the dearest friends, and I believe that it was the richest

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time in all of our life to live in the parsnage. But then again, I've watched the evolution of weddings. You know, since I've been at the college, I've not had many weddings, and I'm so grateful. My father had a little sign out in front of the house, "Reverend Thorne." People come by and decide to get married, just come in. He'd marry them, they'd give

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him fifth sense and leave. You hate to live on the misery of others, but time's tough. But not anymore. A wedding is something that's so difficult. They have a long list of questions. I'll say, "When do you want to have this wedding?"

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And the little girl will say, "Saturday afternoon at 2.30." Right during the ball game. They'll do it every time, right during the ball game. She'll say, "We want this formal."

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I say, "Wonderful. I've just bought a new $200 tuxedo." "Well," she said, "we've decided to use blue ones." You got to go down and rent a blue tuxedo, $20.

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They tell me if you get a clean one, it's $25. You go down to have the wedding, they want you to go to rehearsal. I don't need it. A man cannot have a wedding Wednesday after Wednesday, or he'll be in no spiritual condition

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to preach on Sunday, I'll tell you that. There's always an end in California. Boy, let's move on now. I don't need to rehearse.

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I can do it backwards, forwards. I can watch him and tell if I'm getting off. I don't need to rehearse. I could perform a wedding in my sleep.

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As a matter of fact, the other morning I woke up and had two dollars in my hand. There's a happy couple out there somewhere. I don't need to rehearse. Then you have the wedding.

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It just takes a few minutes. Just a few minutes. They never pay you then. Never.

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You got to go in that parlor all afternoon. That old white sugar cake, that's putting more preachers in the grave than anything I know is eating that old sugar cake waiting for their honorarium. They couldn't sell that stuff anywhere, you know that.

00:26:30.480 - 00:26:54.480

And then that punch, you never notice, it's always green. It's got foam all over it. People drinking that stuff. Everybody you talk to has got it all over their chin. About 4.30 you get nervous. If you don't get that suit back by 5 o'clock, they're going to charge you another day.

00:26:54.480 - 00:27:21.480

Finally they'll come over and give the janitor $25. We had to furnish his uniform. Then they'll say, "Reverend, how much do you charge?" "Brother, I cut out that charge and it's cash. It's cash right there." "Now why do they say how much? Why don't they pay?"

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"I used to say whatever you think she's worth. I never paid all of it." But I have a new one whenever they say how much do I owe you I say pay me according to the beauty of your bride So boy said how much do I owe you I said pay me according to the beauty of your bride He gave me two dollars. I

00:27:46.940 - 00:28:14.240

Lifted up the veil and took one look at her and gave him a dollar change Oh, I've watched the evolution of weddings. But let me tell you the shocker in all we preachers who face this. You know, we're still as young as we ever were.

00:28:14.240 - 00:28:35.240

But let me tell you, isn't it something when you're having the wedding for the children of those that you had the wedding for? My, I've watched the evolution of the wedding. Then again, I've watched the evolution of the church.

00:28:35.240 - 00:29:01.760

You know, we've gone through a period, I think, of churches that desire promoters more than preachers. What a tragedy. But in traveling across this country, I have found there is a deep desire for a return to the great verities of the faith.

00:29:01.760 - 00:29:35.840

For we need them, not only in the pilgrimage now, but in preparation for eternity. You know, tonight we've had a good time together, and I don't apologize for that. I'm always afraid that people will take our laughter as minimizing the belief that we have in the Word of Almighty God. I proclaim it every opportunity that I get.

00:29:35.840 - 00:29:56.640

But yet I think it is important that we have a time of fellowship together. The Bible says, "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a downcast spirit dryeth up the bones." We ought to be the happiest people on the face of God's earth. We'd be a lot healthier.

00:29:56.640 - 00:30:14.000

A few years ago I wrote a little book. If you do not have it, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. We just have 90,000 left. This is a little book that we wrote, a banquet talks, kind of like we've made tonight,

00:30:14.000 - 00:30:27.740

and on the back is the president of Lions International, when I received the citation of serving as the chaplain of Lions International and being at their convention. They're little talks like this, a few stories in them.

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They're Bible-based, and you ought to get it for two reasons. First, it'll be an asset to your intellectual clime. Second, I need the money terribly bad, and I trust that you'll get-- There's some good stuff.

00:30:47.840 - 00:31:05.640

You know, a fella came up to me the other day, and he said, "I want to know something. Who wrote that book for you?" Well, I said, "You tell me who read it to you, and I'll tell you who wrote it for me." He said, "Send me the book. If it's any good, I'll send you a check."

00:31:05.640 - 00:31:20.120

I said, "Brother, you send me a check. If it's any good, I'll send you the book." Now, if you'd like to have a copy of this book, we have a new one. [ Silence ]