October 18^th,1961 “Enter Ye In At the Strait Gate” LATE MR. N. DANIEL

Matt. 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate. You must be born of the Spirit. That is the strait gate. There is a broad gate. By taking baptism and confirmation, are you a Christian? Is there fruit in your life? We should be sure and not deceive ourselves. Do you want to go with the crowd? Only a few choose the strait gate and the narrow way. They realize that they are sinners. It is easy to preach. God tests me always. Am I following the narrow way? Am I in the strait way? It is easy to be flattered. We cannot deceive God. When everyone around you tells lies, will you tell the truth? That is the narrow way. You want to give your vote to a rich man who has a mistress? In the town where I studied a big lawyer was in church. He gave 500 as an offering. It was a big sum in those days. Everybody came to know about it. He ruined 500 souls as well. Will you favour wicked men?

I used to receive very little money to spend. I used to carefully spend it. Once God asked me to give up the extra morning milk and bread for one month. I never would borrow money. People thought me mad when I stopped the milk and bread.

God won't allow you to be taken in by sudden emergencies. God will make you ready to meet such circumstances. I knew many women who as soon as they are employed began to buy a lot of clothes. They would pay in installments. They confess these things to me. They felt that if they did not wear fine clothes, they were worth nothing. They were satisfied with good clothes.

During summer holidays I would travel around to preach. My mother had stocked herself to feed me on delicacies, was disappointed that I would not stay at home. I went from village to village preaching. Sometimes I had no food. It was the narrow way.

Are you living for yourself? Choose the strait gate. I used to start out with one set of clothes, and wash them, hang them out to dry, and continue on my way. I used to travel without foot wear although I would encounter snakes on the way. But God would save me. Once it rained around me but it did not rain on me. God knew that I had no other dress to change if I got wet. God wants to work through you.

Young men indulge in talking filthy things. They die at twenty or thirty. They disappear from sight. My classmates who sat by me left this world early. They chose the broad, immoral and unrighteous way. God taught me the story of Joseph while I was young. Every day before my meal and before I went to bed I asked God to make me like Joseph. Some pray that God should be like a policeman watching around their bed, so that they may get up in the morning to live in sin.

God says, don't ask for food. People of other religions usually do. You should seek God and

His righteousness. You read of such lives as Joseph's, Daniel's, Moses' and David's life. Are you studying these lives? While at High School, I read the Bible on Sundays on my knees. I marked it carefully. "Lord, make me like that" I would pray. My Bible worn out with my intense study. The winds would blow and carry my bible pages away. I was asking God for another Bible. A friend invited me to dinner and presented me with a good Bible. Thus God would meet my needs and build my faith.

Do you choose the narrow way? Some parents guide their children into the broad way. They think their daughters must marry rich men with big degrees. It does not matter to them whether the men drink or live bad lives. Their God is money and education. But they go to church because of a superstitious bent of mind. People like to use God as a doctor and a security person, to take care of them. As soon as sickness comes, God must come and after the healing, He must go away without asking for any kind of fees! Do you ever repent and worship God with real love? Have you begun the life which begins with rebirth? Nicodemus met Jesus in his old age. "Be born Again. You never ever entered the narrow way", He said. Have you never entered that strait gate? You say, “I am a teacher. I know Mosaic law”. Jesus says, you missed the gate. Do you know that you have caused the wound? Don't dilly dally with the truth. Do you know you have been lifted up from the miry clay? I know it. My parents brought me up well. But still I was very prone to sin. If I were thrown into a company of wicked men, I would have been wicked. The church protected me.

I used to tell lies, even though the Word of God was given to me. I knew that I should obey His word. I played games and practiced wrestling. Games prevented me from sins. They would engage my energies and refresh my mind to fit it for study. But who will save the heart? Eze. 36:25-29 Ezekiel was a prophet eight years before Daniel. God spoke to me through his words. I believed them. Who can give you a new heart? If you have a new heart, when you pray, it will be heard in heaven. The angels will know your voice. Who is praying? Daniel! The lions' mouths were controlled by the angels.

One certain deputy collector's son was smoking while dying. I prayed over him. But he had no faith. O smokers, why do you prepare your lungs for cancer? That boy died, leaving a young wife and a sick child. Men live in sin and want beautiful girls for their wives. They load their body with sins. They bring sickness to the wife and death to the children.

Hell is in your heart. It wilt burn you, your wife and children. But God wants to take away hell from you. 'I will give you a new heart', God says. Eze. 36:33-36. Jer. 25:31,32. A whirlwind will come if you want to continue in adultery and in living for yourself? Are you prepared to enter the narrow gate?

Satan offered me the post of a Headmaster in my town - a desirable post in the Canadian Baptist Mission. But God called me to Madras. After five years I lived in Madras, the threat of Japanese air raids seemed imminent on Madras. Should we flee from Madras? We asked God. God spoke to both of us through Jer. 42:10. Then what about the bombs? One night as we were praying, at 11 p.m. Japanese bombs fell on the sea shore. They did not fall on the city. God is mindful of us. God saved us from the bombs.

I would be tempted to choose the broad way but God would stop me. The tree is known by its fruit. Everything seems to go well in the broad way suddenly some quarrel arises. You take a knife as a stick to vent your anger. Your life takes a downward trend.

The certain maths teacher who was teaching classes IV and V would not teach properly. I had to teach the final grade VI. This man wanted to spoil the result of the final year so that the blame would fall on me. He got leprosy. This sickness created an ugly emergency in class one day. He suffered shame and had to leave the school. Some wanted to go against the children of God. Do not slander. There is a higher authority in operation above us. When people did harm to me I would pray, "Lord, don't take them away. They have children". A certain man who lived in adultery went about abusing me. He could not stand my preaching. His own sin destroyed him. God did not allow me to retaliate in any way. Don't scandalize God's children. Such people will not escape. God is going to judge them. They have no fear of God, II Thes. 1:6. When a man of God speaks the Word of God, you should humble yourself. You must tremble even if you are a big man. Pharaoh would not humble himself but he asked Moses to bless him. How would that be possible after he had done wickedly? Many live wickedly and go against the Word of God. Are they above the Gospel? If they are against the Gospel, God's judgement will come upon them. A preacher comes with the Word of God and with blessings. A certain communist threw stones at us while we were preaching. He died. In another place a communist kept shouting abuses at us while we were preaching. His wife became mad.

If you are born of God and if you are in His will, you will be surrounded by soldiers of God. Be on the Rock. The wind will come. But it will only touch us and go away. We won't fall away. “It is my child's house. O flood, don't touch it”. God will say.

Some want to patch up their lives as people patch up a damaged garment. They want to be good in some sections of their lives Don't put our new teaching in your old bottle. Go to Jesus. Repent. Let God change you wholly.

Call unto Me, I will show you things which you know not", says God. God will energize you.

Inexhaustible riches and resources will be yours. Claim God's promises. You will receive the divine nature. When you belong to God, the whole world will be drawn to you. God has a great plan for you. Do not become proud of anything. The Lord is doing this work.