I tried listening, but I didn't get
a thing. I found out, though, that at the night services, when
Brother Milligan finally got through preaching and stepped down
in front of the pulpit and said, "The doors of this church are
now open," it didn't mean we could all walk out the door and go
home! It meant the time had come for the bad sinners to go to the
mourners' bench with their heads hanging down. Everybody else
would stand up and sing the song about "Poor sinner, harden not
your heart ... and close thine eyes against the Light." We'd sing
it over and over for them-four or five times.
Some nights half a dozen would go up the aisle and shake the
preacher's hand. He'd ask them if they believed in Jesus and
wanted to be baptized and join the church, and each one would nod
his head. They would then sit down on the bench, and everybody
except me would be glad and happy.
While we sang another song, the grownups who already belonged
to the church would line up and shake hands with the sinners.
That, the preacher said, was "giving the right hand of Christian
fellowship.
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