Section I of Mark Twain in the New York Times, Part IV, 1900-1906 This is a LibriVox recording, read by John Greenman. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit LibriVox.org. Mark Twain in the New York Times, July 7, 1900, two speeches, made in London by Mr. Chote and Mark Twain at a dinner to Sir Henry Irving. An event of literary as well as dramatic interest was the welcome home dinner given in London to Sir Henry Irving on June 9 at the Hotel Savoy on his return from his American tour. Mr. R. Doerle Cart was the Chairman of the occasion, on his immediate right at the dinner being the guest of the evening, and on his left the Honourable Joseph H. Chote, United States Ambassador. At the tables which were beautifully decorated with flowers, some fashioned to represent the Union Jack, and others formed into the stars and stripes, sat, among others, Sir L. Alma Tadema, Sir John Tenial, Mr. Pinero, Bret Hart, S. L. Clemens, Mark Twain, Anthony Hope Hawkins, Sidney Grundy, E. A. Abbey, Henry Arthur Jones, and Lawrence Irving. In reply to a toast to our American visitors, Mr. Chote said, I feel very proud to have been called upon to speak for the American visitors, who are so numerous and so noted at this hospitable board. I think I can say for them that they all feel very proud in having the honour to be here tonight, to unite in honouring our distinguished guest. Across the Atlantic they are listening at this moment, wondering whether you will be able to give him as hearty and as warm hearted a welcome, as they gave him a Godspeed, when he left their shores. We take great pride in congratulating him upon his worldwide fame and his success, which every year is outstripping itself. We are delighted to hear, too, from his own lips, authenticated by the emphatic declaration of the Lord Chief Justice of England, that this last triumph for his has been his best. Really this time he has surpassed all former experiences, and has discovered, made his own and brought home, the golden fleece. It was a veritable voyage of the Argonaut. I shall not follow the analogy too closely, but in this expedition of his there was a very close resemblance. He was accompanied by an enchantress, whose name he has mentioned, who helped him to soothe, to subdue, to captivate everybody whom he encountered. He found a worthy ship, he filled it with a noble crew of noble actors, and he penetrated to the heart of our great continent, where this wonderful treasure was hidden, and made it his own. How has he been able to achieve this mighty conquest? There is an old Spanish proverb which explains it fully. He, who would bring home the wealth of the Indies, must carry the wealth of the Indies along with him. That is exactly what Sir Henry Irving has done. No matter what treasure or reward we heap upon him in our country and in yours, he always gives us more than our money's worth. How much treasure he brought away I am unable to certify. I know that the withdrawal of so much made a serious disturbance upon the New York stock exchange and caused a perceptible contraction of the currency on our side of the water which occasioned a momentary panic in all our centres of trade. The spare overcame our people until he promised to return again next year, and then everybody once more felt happy at the prospect. He gives more than he takes away, because he does so much to elevate popular taste and judgment and to raise the standard of the stage, and in raising the moral tone of the stage necessarily raises with it the moral tone of the audience. I would like to put Sir Henry on the stand and hear his view as to the relative capacity of these two great peoples for enthusiasm. When I first came to reside among the English people, I had supposed from the account they gave of themselves that they were a cold and unimpassioned people, unwilling to give way to their feelings, and that when an occasional ebullition of enthusiasm broke out on our side of the water they said, That is quite American, you know. But that was before certain recent events which have shown them in their true colours before the relief of Ladysmith and Maffeking, in other words before the relief of London. When these wonderful events happened they went as wild as human nature could let them go. Never do I recollect, never have I heard in our history of such a wild outbreak of the human spirit as occurred on those two nights in London. It recalled the enthusiasm on the other side of the water when events made our experiment in self-government a final, an absolute, and a perpetual success. I hope that what I have read in the papers is untrue, and that Sir Henry will keep visiting our people for many years to come. Mr. S. L. Clemens, Mark Twain, in proposing the toast of the drama, said, I find my task a very easy one. I have been a dramatist for thirty years. I have had an ambition in all that time to overdo the work of the Spaniard who said he left behind him four hundred dramas when he died. I leave behind me four hundred and fifteen, and am not yet dead. The greatest of all the arts is to write a drama. It is a most difficult thing. It requires the highest talent possible and the rarest gifts. No, there is another talent that ranks with it, for anybody can write a drama. I had four hundred of them. But to get one accepted requires real ability, and I have never had that felicity yet. But human nature is so constructed, we are so persistent, that when we know we are born to a thing, we do not care what the world thinks about it. We go on exploiting that talent year after year as I have done. I shall go on writing dramas, and some day the impossible may happen, but I am not looking for it. When writing plays, the chief thing is novelty. The world grows tired of solid forms in all the arts. I struck a new idea myself years ago. I was not surprised at it. I was always expecting it would happen. A person who has suffered disappointment for many years loses confidence, and I thought I had better make inquiries before I exploited my new idea of doing a drama in the form of a dream. So I wrote to a great authority on knowledge of all kinds, and asked him whether it was new. I could depend upon him. He lived in my dear home in America, that dear home dear to me through taxes. He sent me a list of plays in which that old device had been used, and he said there was also a modern list. He travelled back to China, and to a play dated 2,600 years before the Christian era. He said he would follow it up with a list of the previous plays of the kind, and in his innocence would have carried them back to the flood. That is the most discouraging thing that has ever happened to me in my dramatic career. I have done a world of good in a silent and private way, and have furnished Sir Henry Irving with plays and plays and plays. What has he achieved through that influence? See where he stands now on the summit of his art in two worlds, a position unchallenged, and it was I who put him there, that partly put him there. I need not enlarge upon the influence the drama has exerted upon civilization. It has made even good morals entertaining. I am to be followed by Mr. Pinero. I conceive that we stand at the head of the profession. He has not written as many plays as I have, but he has had that God-given talent, which I lack, of working them off on the manager. I couple his name with this toast, and add the hope that his influence will be supported in exercising his masterly handicraft in that great gift, and that he will long live to continue his fine work. End of Section 1, July 7, 1900, two speeches made in London by Chote and Twain, read by John Greenman. Section 2 of Mark Twain in the New York Times, Part 4, 1900 through 1906. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain read by John Greenman. Part 13, 1900, Mark Twain's Homecoming, and The Hero as Man of Letters. Mark Twain's Homecoming, payment of his debts, though not legally liable for them all, a five year's absence, no plans yet to do him honour. Ere this the minnehaha may have poked her nose into her New York dock, and the doyen of American letters, Mark Twain, been landed together with his baggage, with which, according to a letter he recently wrote to Secretary Gage, the steamer would be loaded. It is a little over five years since Samuel L. Clemens left his native land, inspired by a loft emotive to which the history of literature cannot show a parallel. Six years ago the publishing firm of Charles L. Webster and Company, of which Mr. Clemens was the financial backer, failed, owing a little over two hundred thousand dollars. At the time it was known that the author was heavily involved, and that he would practically have to begin life over again, as the saying goes, but what was not even then suspected was that Mr. Clemens had assumed responsibility for all the firm's debts. This was made known later in a statement issued to the American public just before he sailed westward from Vancouver in August 1895. It has been reported that I sacrificed for the benefit of the creditors the property of the publishing firm whose financial backer I was, and that I am now lecturing for my own benefit. This is an error. I intend the lecturers as well as the property for the creditors. The law recognizes no mortgage on a man's brain, and a merchant who has given up all he has may take advantage of the laws of insolvency and start free again for himself. But I am not a businessman, and honour is a harder master than the law. It cannot compromise for less than one hundred cents on the dollar, and its debts never outlaw. I had a two-thirds interest in the publishing firm whose capital I furnished. If the firm had prospered, I should have expected to collect two-thirds of the profits. As it is, I expect to pay all the debts. My partner has no resources, and I do not look for assistance from him. By far the largest single creditor of this firm is my wife, whose contributions in cash from her private means have nearly equaled the claims of all the others combined. She has taken nothing. On the contrary, she has helped, and intends to help me to satisfy the obligations due to the rest. It is my intention to ask my creditors to accept that, as a legal discharge and trust to my honour, to pay the other fifty percent as fast as I can earn it. From my reception thus far on my lecturing tour, I am confident that if I live I can pay off the last debt within four years, after which, at the age of sixty-four, I can make a fresh and unencumbered start in life. I am going to Australia, India, and South Africa, and next year I hope to make a tour of the great cities of the United States. I meant, when I began to give my creditors all the benefit of this, but I am beginning to feel that I am gaining something from it too, and that my dividends, if not available for banking purposes, may be even more satisfactory than theirs. And now the bravest author in all literature has returned, not only with debts paid, not only with the sublime consciousness that he has requited a self-imposed moral obligation, but with the contentment, and it may be the pride, that such are the present unencumbered royalties from his books that if he were never to put pen to paper again, or never again stand upon the lecture-platform, he could pass the rest of his life far removed from the strain of affairs and the martyrdom of financial distress. In commenting upon this fine example of the very chivalry of probity, the London News has dwelt lovingly upon the closing words of what may go down to history as Mark Twain's Vancouver Manifesto, and said, The last touch is very fine, both as literature and as feeling. He has gained something, and that is the esteem of all men of honour throughout the world. This act is the best of all critical commentaries on the high moral teaching of his books. He needs all the encouragement of sympathy. He has paid his debts, but he has still to make another fortune, and he is sixty-three. Mark Twain did not return to lecture in the United States as he had expected. His itinerary in the Far East, however, was practically carried out as he had at first planned, a permanent record of which may be considered to exist in following the equator. But old Europe was loosed apart with one whom, from afar, it had regarded purely as a humorist, but who on near approach proved to be a finished man of letters, one in whom humor had gradually become a means, and not an end. About three years ago Mr. Clemens took up his abode in London, and thence would run over to the continent whenever his interests, or, let us say, those of his creditors, demanded his presence there. In this way he spent nearly a year in Italy, and a winter divided between Paris, Berlin, and Vienna. Everywhere a most cordial welcome was extended to him, not only by men of his profession, journalists, and men of letters, but by royalties as well. Someday he may write out for us his impressions of the German Kaiser, or his conversations with the late King Humbert, and with the Emperor Francis Joseph. In Vienna he lingered long. There no literary or artistic function was complete without him. On one occasion, on being entertained by the Vienna Press Club, to the surprise of its members, he spoke in German, discoursing with sparkling philosophy upon the terrors of German syntax. This speech, so rich in humor, yet with also logical and analytical as to receive serious consideration from German savants, was reprinted in the original, or in translation, throughout the world. It was the same in London, where he appeared before the parliamentary committee on copyright, and in one humorous discourse, interspersed with queries and answers, accomplished more practical results for British letters than had been achieved by the lengthy and learned arguments presented by his English brethren of the pen. Besides the lectures that occupied a considerable part of his European sojourn, articles and sketches have from time to time appeared in American and English magazines, showing that his pen has not been idle. Some of these have just appeared in book form under the title of The Man That Corrupted Hattenberg. So great has been the demand for him over there, and so indispensable has been his presence, that a record of his London sojourn alone would prove a most fascinating volume. Possibly the last words that he addressed to a British public before sailing were those uttered on the occasion of opening a reading room at Kenzel Rise London. The ceremony took place on the Saturday preceding his departure for America. Here is an account of the event, reproduced from the report in the London papers. Mark Twain formally declared the room open, and said he thought it a superbly good idea that the legislature should not compel a community to provide itself with intellectual food, but give it the privilege of providing it for itself, if it so desired. If it was willing to have it, it would put its hand in its pocket and bring out the penny rate. He thought it a proof of the moral financial and mental condition of the community, if it would tax itself for its mental food. A reading room was the proper introduction to a library, reading up through the newspapers and magazines to other literature. He did not know what they would do without the newspapers, and instanced his experience in obtaining news in the Sandwich Islands and San Francisco. He referred to the rapid manner in which the news of the Galveston disaster was made known to the world, which reminded him of an episode that occurred fifteen years ago, when at church at Hartford. The clergyman decided to make a collection for the survivors, if any, of a similar disaster, but did not include him in the leading citizens who took plates round. He complained to the Governor of the want of financial trust in him, and he replied, I would trust you myself if you had a bell punch, one of those articles used to protect bus and train companies against conductors. In reply to a vote of thanks he said he liked to listen to compliments. He endorsed all Dr. Crone, the mover, said about the Union of England and America. Mr. Irwin Cox, the seconder, had alluded to his norm de plume, which he was rather fond of. A little girl wrote him from New Zealand the previous day, stating that her father said his proper name was not Mark Twain, but Clemens. She knew better because Clemens was the man who sold the patent medicine. She liked the name of Mark, why Mark Antony was in the Bible. He replied to her that he was glad to get that expression from her, and as Mark Antony had got into the Bible, I am not without hopes myself. Mark Twain returns to America bearing with him the evidence of many distinctions and honors. Most of the leading associations and societies of merit on the Continent have taken him unto themselves. But how lightly he wears these decorations was once betrayed by him to a friend who had congratulated him on receiving the ribbon of the Legion of Honor. Few escape it, he remarked simply. It is doubtful if any of his Continental friends and admirers knew anything about the great task he was working out among them, to have told them would have been like revealing a domestic secret to a public that had no business to know it. It was therefore simply because of his mental attributes that they found pleasure in honoring him. There is more for Americans to honor in him than this, for he took us into his confidence at the very beginning. He told us about the task he had undertaken to perform. There was not an American heart which did not bid him Godspeed when he set out upon his mission five years ago. Now that he has overcome all obstacles, and has triumphantly accomplished the work he believed he ought to do, some peculiar recognition of this fact should come to him from Americans—something that should appeal to Samuel L. Clemens the man, rather than to Mark Twain the literature. Just what form this recognition should take is doubtful, for the case, as we have said, has no exact precedent. No attempt should be made to rival, even in significance, the decorations that have been bestowed upon him by the old world. They are things apart. A dinner, with a memorial of welcome, would perhaps be the most satisfactory and appropriate form of recognition. An extended inquiry among writers and publishers of this city has failed to reveal the presence of any plans for this purpose. Everybody, however, recognizes the appropriateness of such a demonstration and expresses the hope that one might be made. So much goodwill and friendliness should not be allowed to spend itself in isolated expression. It should be molded into some common and distinctive form. The question is, who will do the molding? The material is ready. No time should be wasted. Why not the author's club? End of Mark Twain's Homecoming. The Hero as Man of Letters 1. Mark Twain No American returning from a sojourn abroad has ever received a heartier welcome than that which awaits Mark Twain. As an author, he has longed down the invidious reputation of a mere maker of jokes which never should have attached to him, since even in his earlier, though perhaps not in his earliest works, there were, to the observant, the signs of serious powers. Since then he has had the right to echo Horace's question, What forbids to speak the truth in laughter? But since Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn and Joan of Arc, nobody whose opinion is worth taking has ever presumed to treat their author as a mere drole. Upon both sides of the Atlantic, his claim is established as one of the first of living writers of the English language. But it is not merely, perhaps it is not mainly, as an author that his countrymen have now most reason to be proud of him, it is as an American who has shown that the American standard of honor goes far beyond the standard set by the law. Many acts of commercial honor have been done by Americans, which showed as high and scrupulous a sense of what was due from man to man, as the assumption by Mr. Clemens of debts for which he was not legally liable. But the conspicuousness of the position of a popular author makes his example, in such a matter, more useful for edification to his own countrymen, and far more valuable to them as a vindication of the national character abroad. No foreigner will be apt to repeat without shame the old sneers at Yankee sharp practice, who remembers this signal exhibition of that sensibility of principle, that chastity of honor which feels a stain like a wound. This is not the first example that has been given of this chivalric sensibility, George William Curtis hampered himself through his early manhood by carrying the burden of debts contracted in his youth, which not the law but his own self-respect compelled him to assume. The very famous case of Sir Walter Scott is not quite parallel, Scott did indeed, as his creditors acknowledged, make unparalleled exertions to pay his debts, and did pay two hundred thousand dollars of them in two years. But they were legally, as well as morally, his debts, and they had been incurred in large part through his own extravagance. It would be an ungracious task to pick flaws in a fine piece of behavior, as Scott's undoubtedly was, and we are not attempting it. But the ideal of behavior which Mr. Clemens has exemplified is so exemplary, precisely because it has shown that, as he himself has said it, honor is a harder task-master than the law. In spite of his unparalleled exertions, Scott died in debt, and his estate was not free for fourteen years afterward, while to Mr. Clemens has been granted the boon of seeing the success of his exertions. Like Longfellow's village Blacksmith, he looks the whole world in the face, for he owes not any man. It is to be expected that the pride and admiration of his fellow craftsmen will arrange some suitable public expression for itself. Why should not the authors' club take up this matter? No welcome its members can give him will be too warm to express the pride and admiration that are shared by all his countrymen. End of The Hero as Man of Letters. October 13, 1900. Read by John Greenman. Section III of Mark Twain in The New York Times, Part IV. 1900-1906. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain read by John Greenman. October 16, 1900, Mark Twain home again. Writer reaches America after his prolonged stay abroad, greeted by many friends, talks freely of his travels, his experiences, and his triumphs, in the best of health. Mark Twain returned to America yesterday on the Atlantic Transport Line Steamship Minnehaha. As is well known, Mark Twain registers at hotels and signs checks under the name of Samuel M. Clemens. But it was the writer and lecturer Mark Twain who attracted to the peer so many friends and associates of former days. Mr. Clemens never looked better, was in a splendid humour, and greeted his friends with the most affectionate cordiality. As soon as the author had finished with the salutations of his friends, he was surrounded by a large number of newspaper men, and asked for a story of what he had been doing during all the nine years of his absence from his native land. Now that's a long story, but I suppose I must give you something, even if it is in a condensed form, he said. I left America June 6, 1891, and went to Ex-Leban, France, where I spent the fall and winter. After that I went to Berlin, where I lectured, giving readings from my works. After this my next stop was the Riviera, where I remained for three months, going from there to the Baths near Frankfurt, where I remained during the Cholera season. Most of 1892 I spent at Florence, where I rented a home. While there I wrote Joan of Arc, and finished up Putinhead Wilson. For the next two years I was in France. I can't speak French yet. In the spring of 1895 I came to the United States for a brief stay, crossing the Continent from New York to San Francisco, lecturing every night. In October of that year I sailed from Vancouver for Sydney, where I lectured, or more properly speaking gave readings from my works to the English-speaking people. I also visited Tasmania and New Zealand. This was at the time of the famous Venezuelan message of President Cleveland, and it did my heart good to see that the animosities engendered by that message did not affect the affection of a people in a strange land for me. I then proceeded to India, lecturing in Ceylon, Bombay, and Calcutta. I then sailed for South Africa, arriving at Delagoa Bay in April 1896. In South Africa I visited Kimberley, Johannesburg, and finally Cape Town. I met Ong Paul. I had heard and read all about him, hat, beard, frock coat, pipe, and everything else. The picture is a true likeness. At this time the Jameston Raiders were in jail, and I visited them and made a little speech trying to console them. I told them of the advantages of being in jail. This jail is as good as any other, I said, and besides, being in jail has its advantages. A lot of great men have been in jail. If Bunyan had not been put in jail he would never have written Pilgrim's Progress. Then the jail is responsible for Don Quixote, so you see being in jail is not so bad, after all. Finally I told them that they ought to remember that many great men had been compelled to go through life without ever having been in jail. Some of the prisoners didn't seem to take much to the joke, while others seemed much amused. All this time my family was with me, and after a short stay at Cape Town we took a steamer for Southampton. On arriving in England we went to Guilford, where I took a furnished house, remaining two months, after which for ten months our home was in London. All this time I was lecturing, reading, or working hard in other ways, writing magazine stories and doing other literary work. After London came Vienna, to which city we went in September, 1898, remaining until May of the following year, in order to allow one of my daughters to take music lessons, from a man who's spelled his name Leshetitsky. He had plenty of identification, you see, and with all seemed to be a pretty smart fellow. After Vienna, where by the way I had a lot of fun watching the Reichsrat, we returned to London, in which city, and Sweden, we have been until our departure for home some days ago. Now I am home again, and you have got the history of a considerable part of my life.  They gave you the courtesy of the port, didn't they? An intensely interested listener remarked. Yes, I wrote to Secretary Gage, telling him that my baggage was on a 16,000 ton ship, which was quite large enough to accommodate all I had, which, while it consisted of a good many things, was not good enough to pay duty on, yet too good to throw away. I accordingly suggested that he write the customs people to let it in, as I thought they would be more likely to take his word than mine. How about your plans?" he was asked. I am absolutely unable to speak of my plans, he replied, in as much as I have none, and I do not expect to lecture. At this point the question of anti-imperialism was broached, someone asking, How are you on expansion? Are you for the President? Or are you with those that style themselves anti-imperialists? Yes, as near as I can find out, I think that I am an anti-imperialist. I was not, though, until some time ago, for when I first heard of the acquisition of the present Pacific possessions, I thought it a good thing for a country like America to release those people from a bondage of suffering and oppression that had lasted 200 years. But when I read the Paris Treaty I changed my mind. You're going to vote for Mr. Brian, then, are you? was the query put to him by another bystander. No, I am a mugwump. I don't know who I am going to vote for. I must look over the field. Then, you know, I've been out of the country a long time, and I might not be allowed to register. You're still a citizen of the United States, are you not? Interposed a member of the party. Well, I guess I am. I've been paying taxes on this side for the last nine years. I believe, though, a man can run for President, laughingly inquired Mr. Clemens, without a vote, can't he? If this is so, why, then, I am a candidate for President. Dropping anti-imperialism, Mr. Clemens made the plea that he had been away so long that he really knew very little on the subject, as all of his information had practically been gleaned from foreign papers. Someone in the crowd asked him about his autobiography, that is to be published one hundred years hence. It is true, I am writing it, he said. That's not a joke, is it? No, I said it seriously. That's why they take it as a joke. You know, I never told the truth in my life that someone didn't say I was lying, while, on the other hand, I never told a lie, that somebody didn't take it as a fact. Well, it's not wrong, anyway, to tell a lie sometimes, is it? Was a question someone asked in a very conciliatory way. That's right, exactly right. If you can disseminate facts by telling the truth, why, that's the way to do it. And if you can't, except by doing a little lying, well, that's all right, too, isn't it? I do it. Mr. Clemens had become very restless by this time, and the many friends surrounding him on the pier managed to rescue him from the clutches of the newspaper men, who had been firing questions at him since he first appeared on the pier. I'll see you again. I'll be at the Erlington all the winter. I am not going to Hartford till next year. And with a pleasant nod of the head, the famous writer, accompanied by his friends, began a search for his baggage. End of Section 3 October 16, 1900 Mark Twain Home Again. Read by John Greenman. Section 4 of Mark Twain in the New York Times, Part 4, 1900 through 1906. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain read by John Greenman. October 18, 1900. Bazaar for Galveston Orphans. Mark Twain closes the benefit, net receipts estimated at $25,000. The bazaar for the benefit of the homeless Galveston orphans, which began Monday night in the Waldorf Astoria, was closed last night by Mark Twain. The attendance was the largest of the three evenings. Mr. Clemens, in closing the bazaar, spoke for about ten minutes. Some of the people present were Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish, Mrs. George J. Gould, Mrs. Joseph H. Chote, Mrs. C. H. Postley, Mrs. W. D. Dinsmore, Mrs. Walter Peckham, Mrs. Clarence A. Henrich, Mrs. Helen M. Gould, Mrs. John Jacob Astor, Mrs. Herman Ulrich, Mrs. Sydney J. Smith, Mrs. Edwin R. Lidew, Mrs. H. McKay Twombly, Mrs. Richard Dellefield, Mrs. H. F. Dimmick, Mrs. Seth Lowe, Mrs. Edwin Gould, and Mrs. Timothy L. Woodruff. The management of the bazaar estimated the net receipts for the three nights at between twenty-five thousand and thirty thousand dollars. It will be some days before the exact amount can be learned. Until the accounts are closed, an office will be maintained in the Waldorf Astoria. End of Section 4, October 18, 1900, Bazaar for Galveston Orphans, Red by John Greenman. Section 5 of Mark Twain in the New York Times, Part IV, 1900-1906. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, Red by John Greenman. October 20, 1900, Mark Twain and Grant, Major Ponds Tribute. After an absence of five years, Mr. S. L. Clemens, Mark Twain, returns to his home from a tour around the world to pay his debts. He is accompanied by his wife and family. On the fifteenth of July, 1895, he began his tour in Cleveland. The great music hall there gave him a send-off with an audience of over three thousand people who packed the building on a mid-July night with a mercury in the nineties. He had been very ill, subject to many annoyances from being dragged from a sick bed to appear in supplementary proceedings in New York the day before starting, and suffering from a huge carbuncle that had kept him confined to his home for seven weeks. In my announcement of the tour across the Continent, Mark suggested to me that traveling around the world was nothing as everybody did that, but what he was traveling for was unusual. Everybody didn't do that. From Cleveland he went by the steamers Northland and Northwest to Duluth, Minnesota, and St. Paul and Winnipeg, and over the great northern route to Puget Sound, Vancouver, and Victoria, British Columbia, where he sailed on the twenty-first day of August by steamship Warrimoo for Australia, having delivered twenty-four lectures in twenty-two cities. It was not until we reached Great Falls, Montana, halfway across the Continent that Mark was able to leave his hotel, except as he was driven to and from the lecture hall, or took a short walk. But a greater exhibition of courage and determination I never witnessed than in these struggles from day to day, to carry through the work he had planned for ridding himself of the bondage of debt. At Seattle he was interviewed by his nephew, Mr. Samuel Moffat, of the San Francisco Examiner, when he gave himself four years to make money enough to pay his debts. Two years from that time he wrote me from Lucerne, Switzerland, that he was now satisfied that those debts would be paid off a year earlier than the prophecy and without any further help from the platform, and that he was now a cheerful man, that he had managed to pull through the lecture campaign, although from the first night in Cleveland to the last one in Cape Town it had been pretty hard work, that he believed that in Cape Town he stood on a platform for the last time. Later I wrote, offering him ten thousand dollars if he would deliver ten lectures on his return home this autumn. He replied that no terms I could offer would remove his prejudice against the platform. He had lectured once in Vienna and once in Budapest for fun, not for money, that he liked to talk for nothing about twice a year, but talking for money was work, and that takes the pleasure out of it. I consider Mark Twain one of the greatest geniuses of our time. I think I know him better than he is known to most men, wide as his circle of acquaintances, big as his reputation is. He is as great a man as he is a genius to tenderness, and sensitiveness are his two strongest traits. He has one of the best hearts that ever beat. One must know him well, fully to discern all of his best traits. I sometimes think that he fights shy of having it generally suspected that he is kind and tender-hearted, but many of his friends do know it. He possesses some of the frontier traits, a fierce spirit of retaliation and the absolute confidence that lifelong partners in the western sense develop. Injure him, and he is merciless, especially if you betray his confidence. General Grant and Mark Twain were the greatest of friends. C. L. Webster and company, Mark Twain, published General Grant's memoirs. Yet how like and unlike are the careers of the soldier and citizen. Grant, poor, a tanner, a small farmer selling cordwood for a living, with fewer prospects for rising than any ex-west pointer in the army, then the greatest military reputation of any age, twice president of the United States, the most honored guest of peoples and rulers who ever made the circuit of the earth. Mark Twain, a printer's apprentice in a small Missouri River town, then a tramping jure printer, a Missouri River roustabout, guarding freight piles all night on the levee for pocket money, a river pilot, a rebel guerrilla, a reporter in a Nevada mining town, then, suddenly, the most famous author of the age, a man of society, the most aristocratic clubs of America and all around the civilized globe flung open to him, adopted with all the honors into one of the most exclusive societies on this continent, the favored companion of the most cultivated spirits of the age, welcomed abroad in all courts almost as a crowned head. Peace has its victories, etc. There is indeed another parallel between Grant and Twain. Grant found himself impoverished two years before his death, when was left to him the most heroic part of his life work to write his memoirs while he knew he was dying, for which, through his publishers, C. L. Webster and Company, Twain, his family received nearly five hundred thousand dollars, that firm failed in 1894, leaving liabilities to the amount of eighty thousand dollars over and above all it owed for Mark to pay, and which he has earned with his voice and pen in a tour around the world, paying every creditor in full, in one year less time than he calculated when he started in Cleveland on July 15th, 1895. Yes, there is a parallel between the two great heroes, more like than unlike. It is an enviable homecoming this most popular writer in the English language is having J. B. Pond. End of Section 5, October 20th, 1900, Mark Twain and Grant, Major Pond's tribute, read by John Greenman. Section 6 of Mark Twain in The New York Times, Part 4, 1900 through 1906. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, read by John Greenman. October 27th, 1900, Mark Twain's Imperishable Characters. It might seem that one of the great tests of an author's success, and especially of a writer of stories, is whether his characters are sufficiently well differentiated and clearly enough drawn to become stock allusions, to form part of familiar conversation, his people being so widely known and loved that the slightest reference to them is at once understood. If this is a true test of a book's or a writer's real value, it is easy to see that many and otherwise charming work fails to pass this ordeal, for the characters in fiction that will live and be known and quoted, and so become, in a fashion, part of our common daily lives, are all too few. Mark Twain has certainly succeeded in giving us a few imperishable characters, Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer being far more real to us than most of the actual boys of our acquaintance, and we hardly need Mr. Clemens' assurance that the one was drawn from life, while the other is the sort of composite picture of three boys of his acquaintance. His book being intended for grown-up children quite as much as for boys and girls, he has succeeded admirably in reminding us of what we were and how we felt, and thought, and talked in our own early days. It might seem that a certain boy, Tommy, whose strongest characteristic was sentimentality, might almost have been suggested by Tom Sawyer's adventures in Sherwood Forest. The den, and its association being far from an actual copy, but just possibly suggested by it, both Tom's being extremely fertile in finding a way. What could be finer than the Village School exhibition with its wig story, unless indeed it is our own favorite portion of Tom's adventures where a Saturday's task of thirty yards of board fence, nine feet high, to whitewash, was turned from an endless task into a glorious achievement by Tom's ingenuity. For by the most skillful management did he not contrive to make the boys think such work and honor rather than a task, so that when the middle of the afternoon arrived, Tom was literally rolling in wealth, derived from the boys whom he had allowed to do his work upon payment of all sorts of treasures. But while we are disposed to linger over Tom's charms, perhaps unduly, he is only one of the characters whom Mark Twain has given us, which are sure of immortality. Colonel Sellers, feeding his family on expectations, is equally fine. Who can forget the apparently cheerful fire which the accidental opening of the stove door revealed to be a candle burning behind the mica, or the plain family dinner, an abundance of clear fresh water and a basin of raw turnips, early makings imported by the Colonel himself, or all the other meals described which were far from sumptuous, but so talked up by the Colonel as to seem veritable feasts, this article having been sent him by some titled personage. The guest being told to sip the coffee, which had seemed horrible, slowly, so that none of its delicious flavor should escape him. The bread from corn, which could be grown only in one favored locality, and so on, until one might fairly think they were having a most exquisite feast. The Saltlick Branch Railroad, too, is inimitable, and best of all, is that, thanks to the powerful way in which Colonel Sellers himself is drawn, and especially his great faith in himself and his own schemes, he is able to renew and keep at a high level the belief of his family, his friends, and we might almost add, his readers, in all his big undertakings, regardless of their usual fate. The innocence abroad is probably considered one of, if not quite the best of all, Mark Twain's books, but it has never been among our own favorites, the one character standing out prominently and unforgettably being his poet, who would insist upon writing poetry upon all and every occasion, giving copies of his verses to consuls, commanders, hotelkeepers, Arabs, Dutch, to everybody, in fact, who will submit to the genuine inflection. The oracle and the interrogation point are interesting members of the Quaker City expedition to read about, but they do not become numbered among our friends, as do Tom, and the always delightful Colonel. Roughing it is a charming picture of vagabondizing, and represents a phase of our early history which has long since passed, so that this, and others of Mark Twain's western sketches, will come to have a historical value quite apart from the interest of his treatment. In this book will be found characteristic pictures of half-breeds, as, for instance, where the Indian who had been hired for a day's washing lighted a fire in a stove in the oven of which several cans of rifle powder had been hidden, and after the explosion which followed, sending even portions of the shed 200 feet, calmly looked on and remarked, Stove, heap, gone! and resumed his washing. The prince and the pauper seem as never to have received quite the attention it merits. The tale is charming in itself and in its treatment, while the lessen it conveys of the power of circumstances, environment, and even clothes, is an extremely valuable one. It is impossible to attempt to touch upon Mr. Clemens' later work, but a careful examination of his books will show other portraits to add to the gallery in which hang Tom, Huck Finn, and our beloved Colonel Sellers. The man who has given us these three imperishable creations might well rest satisfied with his additions to American literature had he done nothing else. End of Section 6, October 27, 1900, Mark Twain's Imperishable Characters, read by John Greenman. Section 7 of Mark Twain in the New York Times, Part 4, 1900 through 1906. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, read by John Greenman. November 13, 1900. Reception to Mark Twain. Humorist entertained at the New York Press Club. Three speeches were made by Mark Twain at the reception that the New York Press Club tendered him last night. Among the other speakers were Joseph I. C. Clark, the playwright, John W. Keller, Commissioner of Charities, and Colonel Abraham Gruber. To attend the reception, they were gathered together, such a crowd as the newspaper men had never had in their club rooms before. After Mr. Clemens had been introduced by the President of the Club, Colonel William L. Brown, in terms of the warmest eulogy, he arose and said, Gentlemen, your Chairman has presented me with compliments. I have often said that I felt like using a gun on anybody who treated me that way, but as I haven't the gun, I'll just give the Chairman a dose of his own medicine. I ask you to look at him, pointing at Colonel Brown. You behold, an old, old man, his features would deceive you. Apparently he is a person heartened to everything, a man dead to all honest impulses, one who has committed all kinds of unimaginable crimes, and yet these features belie themselves. Instead of leading a life of wickedness, he began in a Sunday school, and will end there. This man really has all the known virtues, but he practices them secretly. Gentlemen, you know him too well for me to further prolong this introduction. The speaker paused abruptly at this point and took his seat, which the audience, in an uproar of laughter, looked at Colonel Brown to see if he would successfully turn aside the joke on him. The Colonel did very well, simply saying that he had not known before that his friend, Mark Twain, was such a good judge of human nature. Then he introduced, as the next speaker, Joseph I.C. Clark, the playwright. When Mr. Clark had concluded, the guest of honour arose again and said, I get up this time without invitation, in order to defend myself. Colonel Brown, you need it, you need it. Yes, continued the speaker, and there are others, older than I, that need it more. What I was going to say was this, I don't mind slanders. The facts are what I object to. I don't want any of my true history getting abroad. I appeal to you, journalists, to keep it from the public. In saying good night, Mr. Clemens said, I shall have to leave you. I am old, cries of no, no. I have reformed. No, no. I am respectable now. I wasn't once upon a time. Now I must protect my good name. Before I go, however, I want to say one thing. There was a man here tonight that said that he had never read any of my books. That hurts me. And he seemed to be intelligent too. But he was not. Mr. Keller is the intelligent man. He said he had read all of my books. He fairly oozes intelligence. November 16, 1900, authors honor Mark Twain. At reception given to him he protests, he is not a monument of all the virtues. Samuel L. Clemens, Mark Twain, was the guest of the Society of American Authors at a reception given at Delmonico's last night. A number of prominent literary people met Mr. Clemens, his wife and daughter. The guest of the evening was introduced to the members of the Society by Rastus S. Ransom, and in replying to the address of welcome, Mr. Clemens said, It seems a most difficult thing for any man, no matter how well prepared, to say anything about me that is not complementary. Sometimes I am almost persuaded that I am what the Chairman says I am. As a rule the Chairman begins by saying something to my discredit, and he feels that he is clear off the track, and that he is really not telling the truth, and then he begins to compliment me. Nothing bites so deep down as the facts of a man's life. The real life that you live and I live is a life of interior sin. Everyone believes I am just a monument of all the virtues. Someday there will be a Chairman who will be able to give the true side of my character. I thought I had met such a Chairman the other night at the press club, but when he said that he had never read any of my books, I knew he was a liar. Following Mr. Clemens' speech a number of letters of regret were read. Secretary of State John Hay, in expressing his regrets that he would be unable to present, wrote, Mr. Clemens has long done his country honor throughout the world, and nothing we can do for him will settle the debt we owe him. Among those present were W. O. Stoddard, Elliot Danforth, Isaac K. Funk, Mrs. Theodore Sutro, the Reverend Thomas R. Slicer, Colonel Richard Henry Savage, Edward W. Bach, John G. Carlyle, Kenyon Cox, General Klaus, Count Lafayette, General Stuart L. Woodford, the Reverend E. Walpole Warren, John Kendrick Bangs, and Edgar Saltis. End of Section 8, November 16, 1900, Authors, Honor, Mark Twain, read by John Greenman.


Welcome back after the break. We were looking and studying 1 Timothy chapter 3, verses 14 to 15, where Paul says, talks about how we ought to conduct ourselves in the house of God. And we looked at what is the house of God. He also says, the church of the living God. What is the Greek word for church? What's the Greek word for church? You all know it's ecclesia. And what does ecclesia mean? Church means, ecclesia means called out. The called out ones, those who are called out or called together for a specific purpose. And we all know that there is a call upon us as a body of Christ, as a family, as a church of God. And each one of us in the family of God, in the body of Christ, in the church, you know, are called to carry out specific roles and responsibilities, to carry out certain things, to carry out and do certain things. And we must go together and do things together and work together, you know, and not pull in different directions, okay? But follow the vision of the church in our local churches, not pull in different directions with the vision that is there. But fulfill the call, the mandate, the vision that is upon the local church that we are part of. So we all need to work together to, you know, fulfill the vision that God has given for our respective local churches and together as a citywide church, okay? He says the church of the living God, you know, so we are not the church of a person, you know, representing a specific person. You know, the pastor who is in church but we are the church of God, the church of the living God who lives and he has called us together for a specific purpose and we are all called to fulfill that specific purpose as, you know, people who are part of a local church and as a body of Christ. And then he says the church is also the pillar and the ground of truth, okay? The pillar and ground basically is the foundation of the church. So what is the foundation of the church? Sorry? Truth, yes. The foundation of the pillar of the church is truth. So as people who are part of the body of Christ, the church, you know, we are responsible to uphold and bear the truth of God, of His Word, the doctrines in His Word in the world today, in the society, okay? So how can we be bearers and upholders of the truth as the body of Christ? Any thoughts? How can we be bearers and upholders of the truth as the body of Christ? Any thoughts by walking in His Word, okay? Reflecting Him wherever we go, okay? Hello everyone else in class? There are supposed to be 12 people apart from Jeffina and me, so can I hear some of you sharing? How can we be upholders and bearers of the truth in the society? Always having faith that works. What I actually mean is that we should be preaching what we are living. What the Bible says, we should be living up to that standard. Not saying one thing and saying the other. There is an old Marxism which says, do as I say but not as I do. We shouldn't be like that. We should always do what we say and what the Bible says. Thank you. Okay, thank you, Lubega. Not just being... I mean good examples. Okay, being good examples, okay? So basically like you all said, we need to speak the truth, live the truth, walk the truth. Just everything that we do, the way that we live our lives, should be people who are upholding and bearing the truth. But sadly in today's churches, they don't value the truth. They don't know the truth. Okay, firstly they don't know the truth and they don't live the truth, okay? And hence we see those churches, you know, the pillars are very shaky there because they're building on shaky ground. There's not strong foundation. So Paul, you know, closes his entire talk which he's giving by saying that, you know, what is the truth? You know, and we need to know the truth. We must embrace the truth and we need to uphold the truth in the community because we are the Ecclesiast. We are the people of God. We are the body of Christ, okay? Verse 16, can somebody read verse 16 please? The answer chapter, it was 16. Can somebody read that please? And without controversy, great is the mystery of God in it. God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, sinned by angels, preached among the Gentiles, lived on in the world, received up in glory. Amen. Thank you, Lubega. To read this in the message Bible verse 16 says, this Christian life is a great mystery. Far exceeding our understanding, but some things are clear enough. What are some things that are clear enough that he appeared in human body, was proved right by the invisible spirit, was seen by angels. He was proclaimed among all kinds of people believed in all over the world and taken up into heavenly glory. Okay. So basically verse 16 says an early hymn that Paul is quoting which expresses the foundations of the Christian truth. So he's saying, hey Timothy, we need to be upholders and bearers of the truth. And what is the truth? So he's, you know, just highlighting the truth which is taken from an early hymn which is basically expressing the foundation of our Christian faith or Christian truth. And he's saying, you know, and without controversy, which means this, the wonderful summary of the Christian truth should, what he's mentioning below is should be without controversy. That means we need to accept this truth which he's mentioned in verse 16, you know, without arguing, without disputing, and without debating. But sadly these days, you know, Christians are basically debating to deny the fundamental truths or doctrines in God's word. So what are the truths he says God was manifested in the flesh? Okay. He's talking about the essence of incarnation, how God became man. The second person, the Trinity, you know, became man. He was fully God. He was fully man, 100% God, 100% man. And God manifested himself in the flesh. His life here on the earth, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, you know, and that he's alive, he's glorified. So this is the preaching of the gospel. And he's telling Timothy, you need to preach this gospel without compromise. This is the truth the church upholds in the world. And he talks about being justified in the spirit. Okay. He says God was manifest in the flesh and justified in the spirit. Now, what does he mean by saying he was justified in the spirit? What does it mean by saying that Jesus was justified in the spirit? Any thoughts? Justified means what? Hello class. What does justified mean? That means right standing with God. Right standing with God. Okay. So what does this phrase mean justified in the spirit? Thank you. She says declared righteous. So, you know, when we say that Jesus was justified in the spirit, we're not saying that in the sense that he was once sinful and made righteous. We don't say that he was, we don't mean to say that he was once sinful and made just, and he was justified. Just like we were sinful and we were made righteous. We were sinful and we were justified. But in the sense, it talks in the sense here that he was who he was declared to be always. He was always declared by the Holy Spirit that he was always completely justified before the Father. Okay. So Jesus was always right before the Father. He was always justified. He was once sinful and made righteous. So once sinful and was justified. But in the sense that he was declared to be by the Holy Spirit what he always was. He was always completely justified before the Father. Okay. And you know, Paul talks of how he was seen by angels. Where there are various instances when Jesus was seen by angels? Or the angels ministered to him? Yes, no? Yes. Yes. Okay. When are the instances when he was ministered in the wilderness? 40 days of fasting. Okay. When else? Yes. At the tomb. Thank you. Before the tomb at the Garden of Gethsemane. Remember? Luke chapter 22 was 43. When Jesus prays, Father take this cup for me at not my will, but yours be done. And then the angel appeared to him from heaven and strengthened him. Okay. And just like Lubéga said, you know, at the tomb in Matthew chapter 28 verses 22, 7. Okay. There was an angel standing at the door or the entrance of the tomb. And also the angel answered the woman in verse 5, the same chapter in Matthew chapter 28. Okay. And it says here that he was preached among the Gentiles. Okay. Believed on in the world. Yes. So this gospel has to be preached. Paul is saying that, hey, I've been also doing this. I've been doing my best to fulfill the statement of preaching to the Gentiles. And we know that Paul was busy preaching among to the Gentiles, bringing the word of God, the gospel to of Jesus Christ to the world, to the Gentiles. And then he says, you know, he writes and says he was received up in glory. So he's talking about Jesus' ascension. After he finished his work, you know, he ascended back to the father. Okay. So he's saying, you know, this is the basic truth, you know, of that we need to preach that God was manifesting the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, and believed on in the world and received up in glory. He's talking about his ascension. Okay. So he said, preach these things and, you know, teach these things and be appolders of this truth. And this is what we also have to do as a church where we have to be guardians, custodians, where we are appolding the truth and also preaching and teaching this truth to the world. Okay. Any questions? First Timothy chapter three, any questions? Any doubts? Any queries anyone else has? Okay. No doubts, no questions. Then we'll move on to chapter four. Okay. So can one of you please read chapter four verses one to five, please. Now there's clear, there's clear, there's clear things that in later times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience, seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving. So it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. Amen. Amen. Thank you Rosalind. So Paul is going on to once again reminding and warning Timothy about the works of the deceiving spirits and demons that promote all kinds of wrong teachings and ideas that can draw people away from the faith. Okay. So he says, now the spirit expressly says, so Paul is especially marking this as a revelation from the Holy Spirit. He's saying, you know, even though the Holy Spirit is inspiring to write all of these things, but here he's specifically saying, you know, that the Holy Spirit is telling him even as he's writing this or he's mentioning this, he's saying this is a revelation from the Holy Spirit that there is going to be certain dangers that would mark the latter types. Okay. What are some of the dangers that will mark the latter times? Sorry. Some will depart from the faith. Yes. What else? Appearance of the Antichrist. Appearance of the Antichrist that is deceiving spirits. Yes. And then doctrines of demons. Okay. So he's saying basically some will depart. He's talking about dangers of apostasy. Basically apostasy means falling away from the truth, falling away from their faith. Okay. Then he talks about the danger of deceiving spirits, which is the danger of deception. And then he's talking about the doctrines of demons, which is to talk the danger of false teachings. So in the latter times, you know, he's saying there will be danger of apostasy, danger of deception, and danger of false teaching. Okay. So we need to keep our eyes and ears open to all of these things. And he says, you know, some will depart from their faith. Now the faith means this does not mean losing the ability to believe, you know, but it is basically abandoning their faith in Christ Jesus. Abandoning their faith in the doctrines in the essential teachings of Christianity. And he's saying that men and women who are empowered by these deceiving spirits or these demonic powers will promote or they will teach, you know, or they will teach or they promote and they will speak lies in hypocrisy and they will have their own conscience seared. Okay. So speaking lies in hypocrisy. What does it mean? It basically describes those who will depart from their faith, their belief in the doctrines, the belief in the gospel, in the basic doctrine of the Holy Spirit or, you know, of Jesus Christ. And, you know, this points out to one who's willingly, you know, embracing falsehood just to justify their own sin or right. So why do they go back from their faith or why do they speak lies in hypocrisy? It's because they're willingly embracing false teachings or false truths of falsehood to justify their own sin and pride. Okay. And it also refers to those who claim to teach the Bible, but they claim to teach it, you know, basing it on their own selfish agendas just to support their own ideas or their own agendas. Okay.  He talks about hypocrites, right? Does he do that? In his, you know, when he walked the earth here, did he talk about hypocrites? Did he want people about hypocrites? Sure. Yes. Especially when it was referring to the Pharisees. Yes. Thank you, Lubega. When he was talking about Pharisees, you know, in Matthew chapter 23, Jesus declares, he says, go to use scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. Why does he call them hypocrites, Pharisees and scribes? Okay. They were especially displaying something different from what they actually mean. For instance, they would conceal, they would conceal their evil desires into their law, like in the respect of the Sabbath and so on. Yes. True. What did you say? Thank you, Lubega. What did you say, Jefina? They would share their own ideas. Yes. So he, basically Jesus in Matthew chapter 23, he's condemning them for not practicing what they preach. Okay.  Okay.  Okay.  Basically, Jesus is pointing out, what Jesus is pointing out here is to condemn them as hypocrites in their judgments when they make about others based on their own pride rather than, you know, their own godly desire to, their own, you know, the godly desire that they have in them to correct somebody because of their sin or the godly desire in them to address sin. So they're not doing it out of a godly desire to address sin, but they're doing it based on their own pride, saying, hey, we don't do this, you know, you are and condemning them. So based on that, you know, Jesus is basically condemning those who are hypocritical because of their self-righteous judgment. Okay. So we see that Jesus also speaking about this.  And he says, having their own conscious seared with a hot iron. What does this mean? Having their own conscience seared with a hot iron. Any thoughts? Any thoughts about having their own conscience seared with a hot iron? What does it mean? I think when it's your own consciousness like a judge to you or when it is like the one kidding you say, what you're doing, what you're doing is the opposite, what you're trying to create. Something over the sword. Okay. Thank you, Lubega. So your consciousness basically tells you what is right and what is wrong. It blows the whistle when you're doing something wrong, saying, hey, you know, this is not what you're supposed to be doing. This is wrong. But, you know, so our conscious tells us what is, what we're doing is wrong. It tells us what is right. You know, so when our conscience are alive to certain things, to certain sins, you know, we know that our conscience blows the whistle. Okay. But if we continuously overlook that, our conscience becomes dead to that part of the sin. You know, so for example, if a terrorist takes a gun for the first time and shoots somebody, I'm sure for the next one week, one month, he's just going to be terrified that he's shot somebody. But then he comes to a place where his conscience is so dead to killing that he can take his rifle and or his gun and he can shoot at random, not looking whether it's a baby, it's an infant, a child, a pregnant woman or older person, whatever just can go on a shooting rampage. Okay. Why? Because his conscience is dead to sin.  I mean, what I'm doing is right. You come to a place where you think you're doing is right. So at one point in time, we would have our conscience convicting us of the sin or convicting us, hey, that we're going away from the right doctrine, from the truth. Okay. But when we continually keep heeding to the lies, you know, it comes to a place where our conscience is dead. In a sense, he's saying here our conscience is seared. It is as if the nerve endings of their conscience has been burned.    So he's saying basically your conscience is dead. So that is why your conscience is dead to the truth. And that's why you're continuing to preach the truth, speak the lies and hypocrisy and, you know, lift the truth and teach the truth. And then he goes on to verse 3 says, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from food which got created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. So this describes, you know, legalistic teaching of those who have departed from the truth, departed from their faith, you know, and now they begin to teach what is, you know, or they're following what is man-made rules, you know, and they're trying to justify that and bring it as something that is important in God's sight and saying that, hey, if you eat certain kind of food, follow certain kind of days, follow certain kind of rituals, you will be more holy to God.  He's saying such people, when they preach and teach, they would bring out their own man-made rules and listen. They're saying that you have to keep this if you are to be holy before God or if you are to, you know, receive his blessing. So he's saying, you know, they are saying, you know, people should, what are some of the things they're saying? They are saying that you need to, you know, refrain from maddening and abstain from certain kind of food, okay?  Instead, Paul, you know, lets us know that for those who know and believe the truth, he's saying, hey, you can eat any kind of food, okay? Because he's saying these kind of teachers are saying, you shouldn't marry, you shouldn't, you should abstain from certain kind of food. But Paul is telling us, you know, for those who know the truth, who believe the truth, we know that we can eat any kind of food, okay? Why can we eat any kind of food? All, and how can we know that food is right and blesses us? He's saying all we need to do is sanctify that food and cleanse it with the word of God and prayer. That is why we say grace before we eat. And then he says, nothing is to be refused.   But yes, what you eat is very, very important because that can affect your health, okay? But that does not make you more righteous or less righteous.   You know, we need to be careful with the kind of food that we eat and that is why in the Old Testament, we see God gives people certain kind of food that they eat.  So if you go to doctors or cardiologists, they say, hey, switch on to olive oil.  So, and we know that, you know, all of this was what God gave them as food for his people, his chosen people. So it's important that, you know, yes, we can eat anything and everything Paul says that, nothing seems to be refused. And because nothing is, food is not going to make us less righteous or more righteous before God. But it's our faith, our belief in God that is, and the work, the finished work of Jesus on the cross that is going to make us righteous. But we need to be careful what we eat because it affects our health, okay? And moving on towards also reminding us that again, he's talking here about conscience, okay? What he spoke in, spoke in chapter one and chapter two. Before we move on to verse six, anyone has any questions, doubts? Any questions, any doubts? Okay. There are no questions, no doubts. Can somebody read verses six to verse nine, please? Can somebody please read verses six to verse nine? If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine, which you have carefully followed, but reject profane and old wives' fables and exercise yourself toward godliness, for bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance. Amen. Thank you, Rosalind. So verse six, he says, in the view of all of this demonic activity in promoting the wrong doctrines to deceive people, draw people away from the faith, he's reminding Timothy about his responsibility. What is his responsibility, his role as a spiritual leader? The role of a spiritual leader, the responsibility as a spiritual leader is to instruct believers, is to teach them, preach and teach the word, the truth, the right doctrines, teach and preach the word of faith and the sound doctrines. That is his responsibility, and so he is reminding young Timothy. And believers need to be taught the truth, they need to be rooted in the truth, in the words of faith, in the sound doctrine, and they need to be built on it. So as a preacher, as a teacher, as a pastor, you need to emphasize on ministering the word of God, teaching the word of God, so that every believer is strengthened and built up in the word of God, especially in the times that we are living in, because there's so much of apostasy, there's so much of wrong teaching and wrong doctrines, and the best way to combat false teaching, false truth is to have people establish, rooted, built in their strong foundation in the truth, in the doctrines of God's word. And for that, it's important that we as ministers of God, we need to be a good minister, you know. So he's telling Timothy, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and good doctrine, if you carefully follow all of these things. So it's important that we as ministers of God should be good ministers. We need to be established in the words of faith, in the sound doctrine, the good doctrine, carefully follow everything, you know, in our own life, then we will be able to instruct and teach and build others and nourish others in the faith, okay. What's the 7-9? He says reject profane and old wives' fables, okay. Like I mentioned in Romans, you know, basically these Jewish people who were becoming Christians or coming into the church, they were bringing their own, you know, homeless genealogies, old myths, fables, tales and everything, you know, and they were teaching it to the Gentiles. They wanted them to follow it. They wanted them to follow the rituals of food and the way to dress and everything, certain days that they had to observe. So Paul is telling Timothy, reject all of these things. The priority must be on God's word, not on what these false teachers are teaching, not on the words of man, okay. And Paul cautioned Timothy to keep focus on the word of God, not on things that are being taught, not on things that are being discussed, you know, just teach purely the word of God. And then he says exercise yourself towards godliness, okay. The ancient Greek and Roman culture, you know, they put high value on physical exercise. So in that context, Paul is telling Timothy, you know, the same works good, you know, for godliness as well. You know, the same work and commitment that others put towards physical exercise should also be towards, you know, the pursuit of godliness, work in the same way, committed in the same way in the pursuit of godliness. So he says, godly exercise profits a little, you know. Yes, he's saying godly, you know, he's saying bodily exercise, sorry, profits a little.  Okay.  But he's saying exercising unto godliness is good for all eternity. Okay. So when you exercise in godliness, it's good for all eternity. That's why he says godliness is profitable in all things, having promise of the life that now is. So Paul here is basically explaining the value of godliness, both in the present sense and in its eternal sense, saying godliness makes the life that we're living now better. Okay. And we should not hesitate to believe it and to tell people this. And he's saying as a man of God, he's telling Timothy, Paul is encouraging Timothy to exercise towards godliness. That means train yourself towards godliness, train yourself towards godly living, holiness. Okay. And godliness, holiness and growth in spiritual things, you know, comes through training, comes through commitment, comes through pursuing it, comes through being diligent and committed and focusing on it. Okay. And we know that, you know, when we do physical exercise, you know, physical exercise daily, pushing ourselves to do physical exercise is not very easy. It requires discipline. It requires hard work. It requires sacrifice. You know, I have to walk every day for half an hour. And sometimes it's very, very difficult, but you know, it requires discipline. It's hard work. I'm just sometimes keep constantly looking at my time when, you know, the half an hour is over, I go back home. It is a sacrifice that we make. So he's saying similarly, when we do this in godly, you know, bodily exercise, it's important also to develop and grow in godliness. So even godliness, you know, it requires discipline, hard work, sacrifice. We need to be willing to train ourselves. Just like bodily exercise has some benefits, it says godly exercise, godliness has benefits both in this life and the life to come. Okay. And he's saying this is truth that is worthy of all acceptance. That means that everyone should embrace it and readily accept it. Okay. Any questions? Any doubts before we move on to verses 10 and 11? Okay. There are no doubts. Can somebody, Zealotoli, can you please read verses 10 and 11, please? To this end, we both labor and suffer repose because we trust in the living god, who is the saver of all men, especially of those who believe these things, command and teach. Amen. Thank you, Zealotoli. So as ministers of God, you know, we are to be laboring towards this. What are we to be laboring towards? What are we supposed to be laboring towards? What is Paul being telling Timothy? What have we been learning? What should we labor towards? To be a good minister. Okay. Thank you, Rosalind, to be a good minister. What are we also supposed to be laboring towards? Thank you, Jeffina, to be upholders of the truth. You know, we need to establish God's people in the truth of God's words, sound doctrine and faith. Also, we need to exercise ourselves in holiness, godliness. You know, as we labor towards this, you know, he says we can also suffer reproach. We can be spoken bad of. We can be despised. We can be hated. But what does he tell Timothy? Trust in the living God, who is our saviour. So he knows that, you know, Timothy is laboring towards this, establishing people in God's word, teaching the sound doctrine. You know, he's exercising and living towards godliness and holiness.  I know you want to run away from Ephesus because you are suffering reproach, but he's saying trust in the living God, who is our saviour. Okay. So I think this should be the great motto of the Christian life, that we need to trust in the living God. Okay. Whatever is our situation, whatever is the circumstances, we need to trust in the living God. You know, in 1 Samuel chapter 17, verse 26 and 36, you know, David was challenged by Goliath. But David challenges Goliath in the name of the living God. What does David say? I don't come to you with sword and shield, but I come to you in the name of the God of Israel, the name of the living God. So our trust should be in the living God because it's the living God who empowers us to accomplish great things for his glory. Okay. And so he's saying that, you know, put your trust in the living God, the saviour of all men, especially of those who believe. Saviour of all men. Paul is emphasizing the idea that when we preach and each our priority must be kept on the message of Jesus Christ. And what is the message that he's a saviour of all of mankind. Now, when we say this phrase, saviour of all men, does it mean that, you know, all men will be automatically saved in a very universalistic sense? What do you think? No. It means that, yes, Jesus is the saviour of all men.  But it also means that, you know, each one has a choice to make. Okay. It means that there is only one saviour for all men that is the Lord Jesus Christ and also that, you know, even though he died to save all mankind, there is also commitment on our path. There's a choice that we also need to make. And so Paul is saying in verse 11, his commanding Timothy, encouraging Timothy, he's encouraging Timothy to command and teach. Okay. The word command can be translated to order. So he's telling Timothy, hey Timothy, you know, when you go to the pulpit to preach and teach, don't preach and teach with speculations, opinions and theories of men, but, you know, be fearless and fearlessly proclaim God's word as a command and don't give in to the fear of men. Okay. So what does command and teach these things refer to? So when Paul says command and teach these things, he's referring to the instructions that he has already given Timothy in chapter 4 verses 1 to 10. Okay. Chapter 4 verses 1 to 10, you know, he says you should warn the flock of false teachers, avoid it himself, and you should discipline himself in godliness and train others to do so. But, you know, however, you know, these instructions were just not just Timothy, but also for all the saints at Ephesus. Okay. So another good quality of a good minister is that they need to preach and teach the word fearlessly with the authority that God has given to them. Okay. Verse 12. Can somebody read verse 12 please? Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Amen. Thank you, Rosalind. So here he says, you know, Timothy was young, but Paul is encouraging him to set an example to the believers. You know, he's saying as a leader he has to set an example, set the standard, be the role model, and let no one look down on him because he is young. So what are the ideas he's asking him to set an example in? First in word. Okay. Which means in speech, what he says, how he says it in conduct, which means in the manner of life, in his behavior, how he's living his life.  So, you know, in our behavior, in our lifestyle, how we handle money, our finances, our family, our friendships, our personal appearances, our work, our entertainment, all must seek to glorify God. Okay. So he says, modeling godliness in our daily conduct in the things that we eat, drink, and everything else. So he says, model godliness in all things and at all times.    And in faith, you know, he's basically talking your faith to God. Okay. And then he says about purity and holy living. Okay. This is specifically very important for Timothy, especially important for Timothy, even as he's fostering the church at Ephesus, because, you know, Ephesus was known for immorality because of the, of the, of the goddess they worshiped Dina. You know, this, this great temple had great many prostitutes. There was immoral sex that was going on. And this immoral sex was one way, way, way that means that people used to indulge in, you know, to please the goddess Dina, to seek her prosperity.  So in the context of the church, you know, Paul is telling as a pastor, as a spiritual leader, Timothy, you need to model purity, both in conduct with young women, which he goes on to talk in First Timothy chapter five was two, and in his thought life, you know, and we see that purity is not just outward issue, but it's a heart issue. Okay. It's a heart issue which is translated in an outward living because Jesus in Matthew chapter five was 28. You know, he says a man is already committed adultery when he looks lustfully at a woman. He doesn't have to commit the act, but just in his heart, in his eyes, in his mind, he's already committed adultery if he looks lustfully at a woman. So here, you know, he's talking about modeling or being pure and holy living. So as good ministers, you know, we need to model godliness in every area of our life, even in the area of purity and holiness and living a life that is honoring in God's sight. Okay. We'll stop here. We'll continue with verse 13 in the next class. Anyone has any questions? Any questions, any doubts? No. Okay. Thank you all for joining class. Have a blessed weekend or refreshing weekend and see you all on Tuesday.


Alrighty, I got a construction update for you guys today, and it's gonna be, this was all filmed in one day, by the way, it's gonna be crazy. It was filmed in one day.  So as you see there, the blue pool has been repainted. The brickwork is placed on top of the tunnel, and now they're building the fence. By the end of the day, that will be completed. So that's really exciting. Again, a lot of these areas looked like they weren't gonna be ready for open, but they're getting everything put together. This is what I assume is a new drink refresh station. So that's an assumption, by the way. It's not on the park map, and I've actually not heard anything about this, nor do I think this was planned that far in advance. But yeah, Timberkits is setting up what I think is a new drink stand. Really cool. Again, Wonderland has received a lot of feedback to have more drink stands. So it looks like they're taking that feedback. Really love that. The mountain reworking has gone on on the tunnel. A fence is being installed. Again, you'll see all this completely done by the end of the day. I flew twice this day, so it's crazy. I suspect that they're gonna cover this tunnel, and I can't really explain why I think they're gonna cover this tunnel, but I have a feeling they're gonna cover this tunnel and we won't be able to see inside. I'll be really shocked if they don't. Outside of that, Elpin is a disaster. I don't know what they're gonna do when the park opens this weekend. Are they gonna fence most of it off? Are we just gonna walk over this? A really cool thing is the Vikings Rage has received one of its original paint schemes back on it. So it's been retrofitted to be electric, and then it's also received its original kind of color scheme. So that's really cool. I love that. Most of this arcade building is receiving a new roof. Again, it did have a tendency to leak whenever it rains, so it's got a new roof, and they're redoing all the shingles. Leviathan and Behemoth, I think Yukon, too, are gonna help these little self-serve kiosks where you can buy your single-use fast lanes, I believe. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you'll be able to buy single-use fast lanes at those rides and they'll have little self-serve machines there. So that's really cool. Here's a super zoomed-in shot of the mountain rework. Here is a shot of the brickwork. So as you can see, almost done here, but you'll see they come back after break and it'll be mostly done. And yeah, so why do they have those little car guard rails? I'm not gonna remember the name, I'm sorry. It's because they didn't redo the tunnel beyond that point, so they probably don't want any cars driving over the old part. Again, it's a ride area, so you don't want heavy equipment driving over, and then it crumbling down if it's going to be a ride underneath. There's this weird little kind of like big cutout in Extreme Sky Flyers Plot O'Lan. There's a lot of work going on around this. You'll see it in the video actually. I don't know what it's for because the water main is just up above it. You can actually see it flooded with rainwater. They drain that later in the day. Here's that closer shot of where I think that self-serve kiosk booth is gonna be. You see that little cement pad there. And yeah, the Metaphare building is looking amazing, super excited about it. This park is getting a ton of money thrown into it. So really excited to see it in person. Here is that Timberkits drink stand. Yeah, so I'm really curious to see what is gonna happen during the season with construction. I have been informed by the park that construction will be taking place throughout the season. And yeah, you'll get, I think a further comment about that on Friday when I'm with the park. So super excited about that. And yeah, front gate's looking really good. I do like the new color schemes. I think from a far the wood paneling looks a little awkward, but in person it's gonna look really good. They are wrapping that up nicely. So super excited to see that. The park has needed a new front gate for a while now. This isn't the front gate that I would have imagined. I would have liked to seen the building completely redone, but now we know that's not gonna happen because they wouldn't have invested this much money into the building structure if they were gonna do anything with that. Nothing too noticeable about Extreme Skyfire again. Here's that concrete pad for behemoth self-serve kiosk as well. So yeah, from what I understand, you might even be able to get your wristbands for your fast lane there, but we'll have to see. I don't believe that myself because that's a lot of trust in the customer. So action theater. So action theater is showing signs of a demolition or a selective demolition at minimum. But I will tell you in this footage today, you actually will see them gutting the haunt maze. So that to me is confirmation that the haunt maze is going. You'll see them removing the walls and you'll actually see them removing a lot of the duct. So here is that wood fencing that's been added to the second maintenance tunnel, sorry, the maintenance tunnel. I keep calling them the tunnel numbers from original. So the maintenance tunnel has its fencing that's gone up. You can see those little gates there have the fencing on it as well. It's really tall.  But yeah, I really, again, still really curious to see if we're gonna be able to see into the mountain upon opening. Here's them almost done the brickwork. So again, a lot of work done. There's that structural beam, W beam there that's meant to go inside the mountain soon. Again, that is a significant structural piece of beam that is heading into the mountain. So really curious what that's for. Can't wait for the park to be able to speak more freely about all the work that's gone into this project. I would love to know exactly the amount of work that's gone into the project. So really, really excited to be able to talk to the park after they announced the ride, the amount of work that they're doing. Again, it looks really good. I'm impressed. Again, with all these multicolored tones on the mountain, it does look a little sloppy over time, but hopefully as it dries, which it will, it'll get a lighter tone, which it will. But yeah, the mountain is definitely splotchy all over due to patchwork that's happened. And there's nothing we can do about that, but yeah, it is what it is. Outside of that, again, Alpin is very sloppy. They have the sinking footings that they did, you can see there. The footings are sinking. In the same day, you'll see them actually trying to fix that. So when we get in, maybe it'll be fixed. But yeah, again, I'm really curious why they didn't just dig them. I get prep work, Grace even said it in her video with CB24 that they had a lot of land prep work to do for this future development. So yeah, outside of that, today, there was continuous work going, the telecarrier is carrying out stuff again. I could only imagine how empty it is in there. But yeah, Tiny Tom's is coming along nicely. There's a new cash card kiosk there under Thunder Run there that purple building we're used to be able to buy your VR tickets. The new drink stands coming along nicely, trying to think what else is going on. The bat is still valid, Vikings Rage, nightmares, nothing else going over here. The VIP area is gonna be multifunctional. So the VIP area is gonna have the VIP area and then it's also still gonna be a catering facility as well. So it'll be interesting to see how that works in its entirety. I'm trying to think if there's anything else. A little tidbit guys, from what I'm hearing, this is just rumblings and speculation, but there is no more restrictions on adults riding the kids rides in Kidsville and Planet Snoopy. So if you wanna ride Snoopy's Racing Railway, my understanding is you can. If you wanna ride Taxi Jam, my understanding is you can. Now take that with a grain of salt, obviously wait till you get into the park, don't cause a stink if they say no, but I am hearing rumblings that you'll be able to do that. So we'll see if that's true, hopefully. Cause some of you wanted to get on Snoopy's Racing Railway or some of you don't have Taxi Jam's credit and now you'll be able to get that. Outside of that, there's nothing else to report on MedFair other than, you know, even the castle, Canterbury Theater got its upgrade. So as you see there, there's that giant circular crater that's really far down right there on extreme sky flyers plot of land. All that gravel there is actually just storage for them to do brickwork around the park. It's not being used on this plot of land. Whew, I'm out of breath. This is a long video. This is my second last video before the park opens or before we're in the park at least. Here they are moving along nicely on the drink stand building. If that's, it is what it is outside of that, nothing else to report on. I know there's more, but it's one of these videos where I set it up to show you the progression through a day. Backlot Cafe is coming along nicely. I guess its new name is World Expo Eatery is coming along nicely. Really, the only thing that I'm really weary about is it said that they was gonna have an all new outdoor seating area that they was gonna be refined as well and they haven't started on that. So I have a feeling Timberkits will be doing that. So I have a feeling that restaurant is in opening till summer. So just be prepared for that. Coca-Cola was throughout the park getting all the drink stands all set up and all that. There's the fencing being set up at tunnel one. These shipments were all arriving today. This was for action theater actually. All the stuff you see here is for action theater. So I thought it was for the mountain at first, but no, it headed on over behind action theater and then a lot of it was moved in. So really interesting what's going on inside action theater. Again, as you see here, duct work is being removed, which is typically a sign that yes, there is plans to get rid of this building if they're removing some of those, the duct cleaning up about, or sorry, not the duct cleaning, the duct work up inside the building. But again, take that with a grain of salt until we see more evidence of this building going. I would love to see them reutilize it for a ride in the future. I think Wonderland needs more dark rides and I would love them to use that building for that purpose, but I just have a sneaky suspicion that this park desperately needs storage. So that's what it's gonna be. Moosehorn Falls is moving along nicely. Again, we need the footings to be complete on Moosehorn before this team goes and works on project 2025. So this is the same team that's gonna work on project 2025. So we definitely need them to wrap up. They are almost done. They are finishing the staircase or what I can tell and one more major component footing for the ride as well. So as soon as they're done with their caissons, they'll move on over to project 25. So that's what we're waiting for. We don't have to wait for them to start assembling and finish assembling the water slide. We just need the caisson team to finish with their caissons before they move on over to project 2025. Speaking of that, assembly of the slide pieces is well on its way. Lots of work been going on over there, so really excited about that. And I think that's essentially it. I believe that's it. I can't wait to be in the park. We'll be in the park Saturday and Sunday and then we'll also be at the park on Friday for a special little video with the park. So super excited about that. Stay tuned for that. Keep an eye on my Instagram stories as I'm gonna have a little kind of questions for you guys to ask that maybe the park will be able to answer in that video. Anyways, thanks so much guys. Have a good one. Bye.


Hello everyone and welcome to Prophecy Files Briefing. We're glad that you've joined us today. I have been talking to you over the past few weeks about the Rapture Ready indicators, the setup for the take up. And we described about three or four things the last time we were together in this briefing concerning the signs that are showing us that we're Rapture Ready. One is the vacuum of leadership that we talked to you about. Two is the global system that's taking place with the gathering of the UN and the World Economic Forum and other entities and elites across the globe to make one government, one structure that certainly will be used by the Antichrist.  And now on the horizon, we're watching as the potential climate lockdowns much like the pandemic. Now it's about the climate and all that is taking place in the environment that will potentially be something used for locking down society, much like the pandemic. Today, I want to share with you, and this is something that you're hearing a lot about in the news right now. And that is the artificial intelligence deception, AI, and how that is reaching the ability to have the intelligence of humans according to the article and there is one that is out there now that has literally put together the AI Jesus that you can consult with for your problems, your situations, that you can feed it into the AI and it will return back to you what AI says Jesus would say. Well, I don't have to look to AI, I can take the Bible and find out very clearly what it's all about. And many people are dealing with the issues and talking about the issues of AI on the horizon, some in just the past 24 hours that I was watching a program that was describing AI, I can assure you that is far more advanced than what the average human being is really understanding. It is reaching to such a level of human reasoning and human calculations that are far beyond the human's ability to do and to process. In the coming weeks from now, you're going to see more and more advertisement on a brand new movie coming out all designed around AI and the taking over of the world. But what was intriguing to me was the title. It is called The Creator. My friends, we are seeing the actual conflagration that is coming together between God and man's human ability and knowledge in AI that is wanting to take over and much like Lucifer in the beginning, rising and saying, I will ascend the throne. I will take over. I will be seated in that position where God is.  I want to take you to the book of Luke very quickly where Luke says in Luke 21 and eight, take heed that you be not deceived. This is what AI is bringing upon our society. And while there may be good things that comes out of it, I can assure you that the Antichrist will certainly tap into the power of AI globally and all the way down to individuals like you and me. The recent unveiling of the chat GPT is absolutely stunning and it is now has the ability to write the thesis and whatever that it may be for a sermon that was delivered in churches. It is being consulted and information is being asked of chat GPT and others just like it concerning world issues and world peace and about countries and alignments and borders and so forth. And AI is very much involved in the decision-making process in our world today in every way, both economically in our banking system, financially of course, all the way down to your personal bank accounts globally in the interest of the elites, global elites that are trying to decide what to do with society, with the climate change that's going on. Every aspect of our life is being fed into AI for these decisions. That's the reason why Jesus said in Luke 21 and eight, take heed that you be not deceived. For many shall come in my name saying I am Christ and the time draweth near, go ye not therefore after them. According to the book of 2 Timothy 3 verse 13, but evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived. According to Matthew 24, 11 and 12 and many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many. And because iniquity, the very intense of the heart of man, iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. Matthew 24, 24 says this too, for there shall rise false Christ, false anointings and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders in so much if it were possible that it should deceive the very elect. My friends, we're on the edge of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as I show you from the articles today and there's so many, I don't have time to show you them all. Dealing with AI, with artificial intelligence, I wanna let you know that you need to bypass the artificial intelligence and go straight to divine intelligence. God and the mind of God can be known through the word of God and direct your path according to the power of the Holy Spirit. Today's a day to lift up your eyes towards God and recognize that our redemption is drawing nigh. The signs are all around us for a rapture-ready group of people called the bride of Christ. Are you ready? If you're not, today's the day of salvation. Give your life to Jesus Christ and be ready because I believe Jesus Christ is coming soon.


And the 13-U Northern Heat Team won their state championship 4-0 on the weekend and a 2-0 win over Baxter in the title game. They'll be going to Nebraska for the regionals.