And I used to go up there and hunt with him, because you never had to worry about Burt ever being lost. He--he knowed where he was at and a good shot. But he was the meanest man I ever seen. He was so cruel-hearted.
And one year I went up there. And he used to shoot little, baby fawns just to make me feel bad. And I said, "Burt, you don't have to do that. There's no need to be shooting the little, baby fawns. We got plenty of time. Hunt a deer, one that is old."
"Oh," he said, "Preacher, you're chicken-hearted. That's what's the matter with you bunch of preachers." Said, "You're just chicken-hearted."
I said, "Burt."
He said, "I thought you was a hunter."
I said, "I'm a hunter, but I'm not a killer." I said, "That's wrong. I was a game warden for seven years just before coming into the ministry." And I said, "I'm a conservationist, and I don't believe in doing that." (Though it was legal to shoot a fawn, but not a dozen.)
But he--he would do it just to be mean to make me feel bad. You know, there's people like that in the world, will just make fun of you just to make you feel bad, say something evil about you. It isn't a person; it's the devil in that person. That's all. That person loves his wife just the same as you love yours and so forth, likes to eat, and sleep, and drink, and--and be sociable, and things... But they just do it because the devil has control of them.
That maniac in Gadara, that man loved and everything, but he was so possessed of the devil, until the--the devil used his tongue to speak, "We know thee, thou holy one of God. Why do you come to torment us?" That wasn't that man; it was the devil using his voice.
And a man can be so full of God, till God can use your voice, too. Did you ever notice a maniac, take several men to hold him; his power's so great, because he's so possessed with the devil. This man could break chains. If the devil can give a man that much power, how much more can He can give you in these wheelchairs, power of His Spirit to rise? Wheelchairs or nothing could hold you, if God really gets a hold, not when a preacher gets a hold. But when God gets a hold something takes place. Now, I'm not beside myself; I know right where I am. But I just feel religious.
If God really could take a hold of this church tonight, what would take place? He's here. His Spirit is here. He wants to do it. He longs to do it. If we'll just let Him. "I can if you will."
Now, notice. One year I went up to hunt with Burt. And we started hunting.
He said, "I want to show you something, Billy."
I said, "All right."
He reached down in his pocket (And he had eyes looked like a lizard, anyhow), and he looked over with them lizard-looking eyes. And he blowed this little whistle, and it sound just like a little, baby fawn crying for it's mama.
I said, "Burt, you wouldn't do that."
He said, "Oh, preacher, get next to yourself." Said, "Sure, I'm going to do it. I'm going to hang a string of fawns all the way across this room just to show them to you."
I said, "Oh, Burt, you're so wicked." And I said, "Why don't you be a Christian. You'd stop that stuff."
He said, "Aw, go on, Billy."
We went hunting that day, and there was about six or eight inches of snow, just enough to track good. It was a little late in the season... And--and so I had to work late, and I didn't get up there, for time my vacation.
And we started up over the White mountains, off of Highway Two coming from New Hampshire, down through New Hampshire from Berlin coming down through--going over to Lancaster, by the highway crosses only one through the Presidential range. We was going up towards Mount Washington. And it was a little chilly.
And we hunted all morning long. Deers were very scarce, been hunt--been hunted. And there were... Them little fellows, when a gun fires, they'd take for cover. You don't see them no more till the next spring. And they were hiding. And we hunted all morning and did not even see one track.
And we come to a little opening where there was a snow drift. The wind had blowed and the snow had drifted up, oh, three or four feet high. And Burt just kindy (as we'd call it) hunkered down. He reached back in his bosom here. It was about eleven o'clock. We always carried a thermos jug of hot chocolate, where if we got hurt, or got real cold, or--or something, we'd drink this hot chocolate. And kind of... The--the candy, the sweetness like in there would kind of warm you up. And maybe a sandwich...
Well, I thought Burt was getting hungry, so we'll just eat a sandwich here. And he just kind of hunkered down and went back in his bosom, but when he brought it out, it was that little whistle. And we were at a little clearing about three to four times the size of this--of this courtroom. And he looked up at me with that lizard-looking eyes of his. And he laughed to himself.
I said, "Burt, you wouldn't do that."
And he gave it a blow. And to my surprise, just across the place, a big mother doe stood up. Now, that's unusual. Oh, she was a pretty animal. Now, the doe is a mother. And she was standing there. I was so close to her, I--I could see her great, big, pretty ears sticking up.
And so he looked up to me again and them lizard eyes. And he blowed it again. Now, that's unusual that time a day for a deer to raise. But she heard the cry of a baby. And he blew it, and she walked right out into the open. Now, they never do that. They never do that, because if they're--if they'd even raise up, they'd stay under cover. But she walked right out into the open.
And he looked up at me and I thought, "Oh, Burt, you couldn't do that."
I heard him, the click of the bolt when that dirty, old stick throwed in a--a shell and locked it down. And he was a dead shot. And he leveled the rifle. I thought, "Oh, mercy..." She never walked. And she heard that click of the rifle.
And when she looked, them big ears stood up and those big, brown eyes. And she seen the hunter. Why, usually they'd be gone like a flash. But not her, she was a mother. A baby was in trouble. Though it meant death, her baby was in trouble. She couldn't help it. She wasn't putting something on. She didn't have a make-belief. There was something in her. She was borned a mother, and her baby was calling. Death or no death, she looked at the hunter. And I seen them steel arms lays down with that rifle.
I thought, "Oh, my, Burt, how can you do it? That loyal heart of a mother beating for her baby. And another minute when you squeeze that trigger when them cross hairs lay across her, you'll blow her raw heart plumb through her." That close, I was thirty yards from her. I thought, "There won't even be one piece of heart left in her, that heart that's beating so loyal as a mother. How can you do it, Burt?" I couldn't watch it. I turned my head. I said, "Heavenly Father..." in my (quietly)... "Don't let him do it. Don't... How can he do it when he sees that mother, something in her; she can't help it. She's a mother."
I kept listening and the gun never went off. I waited a few seconds and still the gun never went off. And I turned to look, and the gun barrel was going like this. He looked around to me and throwed the gun on the ground, grabbed me by the pant's leg. And he said, "Preacher, I've had enough of it. Lead me to that Jesus that you're talking about. I want to know Him."
What was the matter? He had went to church all of his life. He'd seen hypocrites and everything else. But he seen something real. He seen something that wasn't a put-on. He seen something that was really godly. And that old mother deer's display of loyalty as a mother led that cruel-hearted hunter to God right there on that snow bank.
Unloaded his rifle and said, "I'll never shoot another fawn the longest day I live." He's a deacon in one of the Baptist churches in New Hampshire now. What is it?
Brother, sister, wouldn't you like to be a Christian, as much Christian as she was a mother? Wouldn't you like to display your loyalty and your faith to Christ, no matter what it cost you, stand out there with something in you? You can't do it until it's born in you. If you haven't had that experience, something in there that makes you, that something that's real till you... Not because you belong to a church, because that Christ is in you, but something is real.
Would you like to have that? How many in here right now, while people with your heads up just raise your hand and say, "Brother, I'd like to be as much Christian in my heart to display the loyalty to Christ as that old, mother deer was to be a mother"? Raise your hands. God bless you. Let us pray.
