Bill Cripps

Yesterday when I went to our mail box there was a little paper in it from the Apostolic Faith Church. It reminded me of what happened some 55 years ago when my mother received a little Apostolic Faith paper from Portland, Oregon. It was full of victorious testimonies of men and women who were saved and had the old-time religion. In that paper it told how you could pray your way out of a life of sin to a life of victory. It wasn’t just a halfway deal or a hope-so or maybe so; but they had really prayed and God had saved them—turned them around about-face and started them up the stream of time, against the sins of this world.

My mother saw it was real. She prayed and God saved her soul. She began to read that Bible to us children, and I found out there was a Heaven to gain, that there was a Hell to shun, and that I had a never-dying soul that was going to face eternity. I found out through Mother reading the Bible that there are only two places to spend eternity: one of them is Heaven—where they say the streets are paved with pure gold, a place that the eye has not seen, the ear has not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who will serve Him.

Then she read a little bit about the other place to me and said it was a lake of fire and brimstone—prepared for the devil and his angels; where there would be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. I was told that eternity was time without end, that I would spend eternity in one place or the other.

I was told that eternity was time without end, that I would spend eternity in one place or the other.

I found out something else: that it is up to each individual, and it was up to me where I would spend eternity. I began to count the cost. I thought if I should gain the whole world, live to be 100 years old without an ache or pain or care of any kind, and then spend eternity in that lake of fire and brimstone, I couldn’t see where this world held any attraction for me. I couldn’t look upon it with any degree of satisfaction at all.

I used to spend my younger days running around with a preacher’s son. He made the statement that if he went to Hell, he would have plenty of company. Even if my friends were down there, I couldn’t console myself with having company in that lake of fire and brimstone. I didn’t think anybody would walk up to me and say, well Bill, we are here! How about it! Everyone would be weeping and wailing.

I looked at the other side of the picture, and I said: If I don’t have anything in this life, just barely get by, and when it comes my turn to cross over the Great Divide, I can enter in through the gates into that beautiful city, whose builder and maker is God, where the Bible says, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” And for those who serve Him! I thought Heaven was cheap at any price.

To show you how bad I wanted it, I left everything in the State of Illinois and came all this way to Portland, Oregon, for no other reason than to get saved.

I made up my mind that if God would save me and give me this old-time religion that these folks talk about, then I would give Him my life. To show you how bad I wanted it, I left everything in the State of Illinois and came all this way to Portland, Oregon, for no other reason than to get saved. At the altar of prayer at Sixth and Burnside Streets over thirty years ago I prayed. I didn’t get saved then, but I went several times to the altar to pray. I would listen to the testimonies, to the sermons, and then I would go and pray some more.

One night down at the altar of prayer at Sixth and Burnside, I asked God to have mercy on me a sinner. That night I wasn’t mincing matters; I wasn’t beating around the bush. After praying a while I looked up and said “I feel free!” One of the brothers who was praying for me said, “Whom the Son of God sets free, he is free indeed.” I went home that night a-singin’ “There’s a new name written down in glory, and it’s mine!”

I have been through all sorts of tests since that time, but I have proven God to be a real friend in the time of trouble, and I wouldn’t exchange this hope of mine for the wealth of the whole round world. I could give a long testimony here tonight; but I want to say out of the depths of my heart—I thank God for the old-time religion.