The Bible says a friend is born for adversity. I'm here this afternoon because I can say very sincerely that I was Willie Mullins' friend and he was my friend. Perhaps at times His friendship to me was a grave embarrassment, but he never denied it. He always said, I am Ian Paisley's friend. And when you battle with the enemies of the gospel, and you raise a standard for truth and righteousness in an evil day, you come to appreciate your true and loyal friends. It could very well have been the case that if our beloved brother had passed over the river in a different manner, there would have been many other people wanting to associate themselves in memorial services to him. But on the platform today, you have men who were Willie's friends. And I'm sure that today, those are the men that our brother would want to pay their tribute and say what must be said. I was reminding Jimmy Irwin of the first campaign that we had with our beloved Willie and the Old Ravenhill Church. The first Monday night of that campaign, our brother Pastor Irvine was in the right-hand gallery. I remember calling him to open that campaign in prayer. And what a time we had when the windows of heaven were opened, and bounteous showers of rich blessing fell, and many were deceived of the Lord. Our brother had a second campaign with us when we were preaching here in this Ulster Hall during the building of the Martyrs Memorial Church. I saw this hall equally as packed on the Lord's Day evenings as He ministered. And I remember the final meeting when I don't know how many souls, scores of them, knelt in this very hall. We had the holy water that night, not the stuff the Pope makes, the tears of repentance as sinners sought and found the Lord. Naturally, today, there is no one so sad at heart as I am. I want you to pray that the Lord will help me. And I trust that what we say shall not in any way be an elevation of Willie Mullen. but shall be an elevation of Willie Mullen's Saviour and a grace of God that made him and moulded him and blessed him for what he was for God and truth and righteousness. When Michael rang our church office and relayed to me the tragic news of our beloved Willie's passing, One passage of scripture came very vividly before me. I want to read it this evening to you, and a clause or phrase out of it I want to take for my text today. You will find it in 2 Samuel chapter 1. 2 Samuel chapter 1 and verse 17. And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son. Also he bade them Teach the children of Judah the use of the bow. Behold, it is written in the book of Jasher. The beauty of Israel is slain upon high places. How are the mighty fallen? Tell it not in gasp Publish it not in the streets of Ascalon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph. Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no Jew, neither Let there be rain upon you, nor fields of offerings. For there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil. From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bull of Jonathan turned not back. And the sword of Saul returned not empty. Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their deaths they were not divided. They were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions. Ye daughters of Israel, Weave over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet with other delights, who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel? How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle? O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thy high places. I am distressed for thee. Brother Jonathan, very pleasant hast thou been unto me. Thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished? And God shall stamp with His own divine seal of approval, this reading from the infallible book. Amen. Let's stand to our feet for a wee word of prayer before the preaching. O God, our Father, we thank Thee for a real sense of Thy heavenly and holy presence, with us in this hall today. We thank Thee for the messages that have been spoken and the messages that have been brought in song. We thank Thee for the abiding presence of our blessed Lord, our Savior, and our Friend. O God, as we turn now for some closing moments to consider the Word of God. May it be a solace to our hearts. May it be a healing balm to our souls. May it be something that shall meet the deepest need of our inner man, so that as we leave this great hall today, we'll bless God that we met with the man of Calvary, that his nail-pierced hand touched the giving wound, and suddenly and gloriously we were made whole. We pray for sinners. Let them be convicted and saved by the free grace of God. We pray for backsliders, let them repent and return to their first love. We pray for thy people, may we never be the same again, but may we this day give ourselves wholly to thee, so that whatever remains of our lives may be on the altar for God, and the answering baptism of fire upon our service and our offering. To this end, I take the promised Holy Ghost, the blessed power of Pentecost, to fill me to the uttermost. I take, thank God He undertakes for me and the people of God sent. Amen. Great grief is never great a-togging. Its eloquence is one of silence, and its best and highest flight of oratory is one of speechlessness. It expresses itself not in sentences, but in size. Its greatest tribute, which far exceeds even celestial language, is the teardrop, the lump in the throat, the tender pressure of the hand or the strong and loving embrace. Today it is my task, however, to lay the last official wreath of tribute on the casket of our beloved Willie. I trust you will be praying for me as I go about this sorrowful duty, a duty we all wish would not have been necessary so soon and suddenly and tragically in his life. When I heard of my friend's passing, the first part of verse 26 of this first chapter of 2 Samuel instantly came to mind and came to my lips. And as I stood in our church office, I said, from the depths of my soul in brokenness, I am distressed for thee, brother Willie. I am distressed For thee, my brother Jonathan, was what King David said. I would have you to know, however, that I have received great blessing to my soul as I have studied this historic lament. This is not the lamentation of a man who has lost faith, of a man who has lost hope, or of a man who has lost courage. Rather, this lamentation throbs with hope, it throbs with faith, and it throbs with courage. And if you study the Scripture you will find that symbolically David was on resurrection ground because the news of the death of Jonathan came to him on the third day. And the third day in scripture is the day of resurrection. I'm glad today that as believer We can stand on resurrection ground, and we can view this matter from the ground of resurrection. And that's the way we have got to view it. Some would view it through the eyes of man. Some would view it through the eyes of natural reasoning. Some would view it influenced by all the pernicious influence of rumor. But I'm glad I can take my stand today, and I can view this on the third day on the ground of resurrection. In the recently published biography of our beloved brother, There is a reference made to the David and Jonathan friendship that was between himself and me. And as I thought about what he said, the kindness and the love and the generosity of those remarks, I pondered the verse that sprung to mind when I heard about his passing. King David, he says of Jonathan, I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan. Why was David distressed? First of all, he could say, I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan. because your princely life of usefulness is now no longer with us. Jonathan, that life that meant so much to me, that princely life, that honorable life, that useful life, It's now finished. And there was a void in the heart of King David. The void that was brought about through a lost companionship. The void that was brought about through a lost friendship. The void that was brought about through a lost fellowship. and the void that was brought about through a lost partnership. I turned back in the history of Jonathan, and I noticed five things concerning Jonathan. The first of them is in the first reference to Jonathan in the Word of God. How is Jonathan introduced in the Bible? The law of the first mention is an important law in biblical interpretation. Where does he first appear in the scriptures? He first appears as the negotiator of the sharp rock and as the expert handler of the sword. He brought to Israel in a day when all Israel trembled, a great and a glorious deliverance. When with his armor-bearer he drew his sword, he negotiated the passage alone He took on the hordes of the Philistines, and they fell before Him. And the dark day became a day of light, and the sorrowful day became a day of joy, and the day of defeat became a day of great and grand and glorious deliverance. The negotiator of the sharp rocks, the maker of the way, the handler of the sword. Anyone who knew our beloved brother knew his expertise in the handling of God's Word. It was never my privilege to meet anyone who could handle the Word of God with such skill. And I have among my friends in the fundamentalist world some of the best known and some of the most honored of preachers, both in this country and in the United States of America. But I can say honestly to you today, here was a man who was an expert handler of the sword. It was a privilege and a pleasure and always a blessing to see him open the book. And so often he had that characteristic. He used to turn it over. And then he got the job of really preaching You know what Ulster needs? Ulster needs to delirious of such preachers. Away with the assy readers from our pulpits. Send us men who have not only mastered the book, but the book has mastered them. And then we'll see revival. Then we'll see something of the mighty power of the Lord of Hosts. a handler of the sword. I am distressed for thee, my brother Willie. He'll not be handling the sword any longer. Will not have the privilege of listening to you as you take the book and draw from it the rich provision and that wonderful finest of the wheat, which was a great word that our brother used to use, the finest of the wheat. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan. Then Jonathan appears as a lover of God's anointed. One day A young David appeared on the scene, fresh from the battle, fresh from the conflict, fresh from the tussle with Goliath of Gath and his final downfall. And when Jonathan was introduced to David, his soul, we read, was nipped in love with the Lord's anointed. We also read that the origination of that love was not in Jonathan's heart, but it was stirred up in Jonathan's heart as he looked upon the shepherd lad. And we read on another occasion that the grief of David exceeded the grief of Jonathan, because Jonathan's love was sparked off by the love of David. Could I say to you today, that one day, down and out, a wino, a trump, a reject, The Lord Jesus, King David's greater son, appeared beside our brother in that field in Jutland. Something happened that day. Something happened! And from that day, our brother could say, I love him because he first loved me. Where Did Jesus Christ come from when he met Willie Mellon? Where does he come from when he meets poor lost sinners? Who is this that cometh from Basra with died garments from Eden? Jesus comes from Calvary! from the slaughter of the great Goliath, from the trampling down of the forces of sin and Satan and evil. He comes with kneel-pierced hand. He travels in the greatness of a strength, I that speak in righteousness, mighty to see him. And that day, Willie Mullen fell in love with Jesus. And everybody knew that our brother never put anything before the Lord. Yeah. That's why he offended people. He was never a party man. Everybody knew that. He used to say when he was preaching, it wasn't the president of the Baptist Union that died for me. It wasn't the moderator of the Presbyterian Church that died for me. It was the Prince of Glory died for me. And friend, that was the very heart of his message, for that's the very heart of the gospel. You can have your church. And you can have your baptism, and you can have everything and have it as orthodox as you like. But let me tell you, if you haven't got Jesus Christ, you're a lost soul. There's no hope for you. Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Tell me, friend, are you saved today? There are people who would say of this meeting, they have come to worship Willie Mullen. It's a lie! We have come to worship Willie Mullen, Savior! We have come to honor the grace of God that lifted that tramp, transformed him, gave him the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and gave him an eloquence and a talent and an ability to make him a pulpit master, a flaming evangelist, a soul winner, unparalleled for a long time in the history of our land. That's what we have come to do today. You know how it started? It started because the Lord loved him. The Prince of Glory died for him. The third thing I discovered about Jonathan was he was a pleader for his friend. He knew what it was to enter seat. Some of you knew Brother Willie as a preacher, an evangelist, and what a preacher he was, and what an evangelist he was. Some of you knew him in his Bible class. As he got out the Word, and took a book, and examined its ramifications, and parsed its language, and exclaimed its truths. But not many of you had the privilege of knowing him as a painter. I have that great privilege. For many years, every week, our brother and myself knelt down together and we prayed. We shared our longings, our aspirations. We shared those problems of the ministry that nobody knows but the preacher himself. because the preacher walks an isolated path, a lonely path, a path where his congregation never can go with him, where he has to go it alone. And I have wonderful memories of days when our tears mingled together and we pleaded for this little province, that God, in His great mercy, would stay the hand of the aggressor and in some way give us a great deliverance. And thank God, God answers prayer and God has answered those cries. I am distressed for thee, my brother Willie. I'll not be able to kneel with you again. We'll not be pleading together for this little corner of Ireland that we love. with all our heart and souls and mind. Then Jonathan was seen as a watchman for his companion. The story of the shooting of the arrows, providing David with the necessary intelligence of what Saul had in mind for him. And let me say to you today, This province is poor because a watchman has been removed from the watchtower. For there was one thing about Willie Mullen, he was fearless. He feared neither the fierce of man, woman, or devil. But with great strength of purpose, he was prepared to lift up his voice to cry aloud and to spare naught. He was a watchman upon the tower, providing intelligence for his companions and warding off the onslaughts of the devil's wolves among the choiceless sheep of God's flock. Another thing about Jonathan you will find He was the encourager of the exiled. He went to David when David was exiled, rejected, hunted, and we read he strengthened him in the Lord. He brought that sweet, blessed, healing, comforting word. Just the word that was needed at the right time in the right place. And we all know how our brother could comfort the saints of God. He used to say to me, I'm looking for a wee word of comfort for the saints on the Lord's day morning. He and the wee woman that's trying to make ends meet, and she's fighting a hard battle to raise her family, keep them respectable, and keep them in the straight and narrow. He said that wee woman would need a comforting word. I'm looking for it. And the man out in the street the breadwinner of the home, fighting life's battle with all the temptations of this evil age. And the young people, Ian, you have temptations that you and me know nothing about, for they're of a different generation. They're growing up in a different environment. I need a word of comfort. I want their comfort. I want to mend the saints and not to rend them." And many a time we listened to our brother and we knew the balm of Gilead. We knew the touch of the kneel-pierced hand standing somewhere in the shadows. of us preaching, we found the man of Calvary and we got the solace and the healing that we need. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan, because your princely and honored useful life is gone. I am distressed for thee, my brother Willie, Because your honored, useful life is no longer with us. Secondly, could I remind you that David is saying something more here. He's saying, I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan, because of the untimeliness of your death. Jonathan, there never was a time when we more needed you in the affairs of Israel. Study the book and you'll find that Israel needed the stabilizing influence of Jonathan in this hour of crisis. The Lord had appointed David. David was God's choice. Jonathan knew it. He abdicated his position. He said, David, I'll join you to make you the ruler of the whole land. We know what happened after Jonathan's death. We know how his son was taken and wrongfully crowned. And we know as a result there was bloodshed, and anarchy, and rebellion, and the kingdom passed down into the darkness. And David knew it. He knew if Jonathan had lived, there would have been peace. He knew if Jonathan had lived, there would have been blessing. He knew if Jonathan had lived, There wouldn't have been all the bitterness and all the hardship and all the turmoil of the coming months and years. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan. Your death is an untimely one. How much we could still have done. with the voice of our brother in our people. How much we could still have done with the voice of our brother on our conference platform. How much we could still have done with our brother's great evangelistic gifts in summonsing man and woman to repentance and throwing out the gospel net that it might be filled with fishes, great and small. And we must say, and I must say today, I am distressed for thee, my brother Willie, because of the untimeliness of your death. But there was something else. David was distressed for brother Solomon, for brother Jonathan, because of the circumstances of his death the circumstances of his death now we don't believe in running away from these circumstances we believe as believers with God's word in our hand we've got to face them you see David got the picture Jonathan in the battle The archers are against him. Their barbed darts have torn Jonathan's flesh. And there he is, fallen in the high places of Gilboa. The weapons of war have perished from his hands. The uncircumcised are approaching to finish him off. And according to the Scriptures, he was the first of the royal line of Saul that fell that day in that tremendous struggle. And David pictured it, the agony of a strand, the dark circumstances that surrounded his death, the pain of the arrows, the cruel cutting of the sword. And he said in his anguish, I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan. Our dear brother, during the past weeks have been passing through a period of deep physical sickness. and the most intense of mental strain. Physically, he had had a stroke and other alarming complications which signaled the imminent breakup of his physical frame. Running parallel with that physical condition, there was the severest mental strain resulting from an accumulation of circumstances directly flowing from his responsibilities and work and zealous service for the Lord. Many of us are apt to forget the dark sewing in his body of earlier years. the toll that must have been taken on our brother's physical freedom in those very formative years when the body was really being formed into its constitution. And he never, never spared himself. He came many a time from a sickbed to the pulpit. Many a time against the orders of his medical advisors, he came to plead for souls. I remember one time he preached in the prison, and his doctor said, you mustn't go. And he said, but doctor, it's an opportunity that will never return. And perhaps among those men up on the Crumlin Road, I can sow a seed. that will be for their salvation. I must go and do my task." And he did it, as we know, unflinchingly and consistently. But these combined strains caused his mind to reel. And indeed, to some close friends, he confided in tears that no one really knew how sick he really was. He had a conversation with T.B.F. Thompson, Mr. T.B.F. Thompson of Garba, about hospitalization. But with this strain, our brother had a dread, a dread of bodily attack. Hence he kept a loaded shotgun beside his bed, and evidently on the occasion of his death, he had it in his study. I was greatly struck by the parallel between the death of our brother and the death of one of the great eminent saints of Scotland in the last century. Hugh Miller was one of the founding fathers of the Free Church of Scotland, the friend of the great Thomas Chalmers, the close associate of Robert Murray McShane, of Thomas Guthrie, and of the Bonner brothers. And that dear man, like our dear brother Willie, came under the pressures that went for his mind, that broke up his constitution, and died in the same way as our brother died. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan. Perhaps we'll only know something of what our brother passed through when we're reminded of that psalm that he was constantly reading in the last days of life on earth. It's the Psalm 69. What a psalm it is. Save me, O God, for the waters are coming unto my soul. I sink in Deepmire where there is no standing." Out in the little study, our brother came to a place where there was no standing. And let me say today, let no man here dare to lift a voice of criticism. You never were there! Pray God you never will be. Ask God to save you from such a total breakdown, mentally and physically, as our brother had. But he was standing in those deep waters. The floods overflowed me. I am weary of my crying. My throat is dried, my eyes feel, while I wait for my God. They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head." And you know, my friend, that hatred didn't die when our brother died. The chairman of this meeting actually received a written threat. because he was going to take part in this meeting today. I want to tell you our brother's testimony, Willie Mullen's testimony against all the powers of darkness was a tremendous testimony. You've only to read or listen to a tape on the Scarlet Woman of Revelation 17 and you would know the type of ministry he exercised. And no wonder the powers of darkness hated this man and will continue to hate him. And let me say today as his friend, for a friend is born for adversity, let me say today I deplore those that profess the name of Christ who would repeat any unfounded accusation against the man whom they never dared to feast in time. And now when no man can speak, when he cannot speak for himself, they would mention it. But I will speak up for my friend today, and thank God many more will speak up for him today. He was down in those deep waters, the mire. There's a verse there, deliver me out of the mire and let me not sink. Let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters. Let not the water flood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonor. Mine adversaries are all before me. Reproach hath broken my heart, I am full of heaviness, and I look for some to take pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none." The darkness. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan, said David, because of the circumstances of his death. But he was distressed because of the use made of his death in the ranks of the Philistines and amongst the thousands of Israel. David knew that the enemies of God would rejoice. Therefore David said, have you noted his words? He said, tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Ascula, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph. I know, brother Jonathan, that the enemies of God will take your death, and they will turn it into a place of triumph and exult in your fall. Rejoice in your slaying. Rejoice in your exit from the world. And those of us who move around our province, we have heard the daughters of the Philistines rejoicing. We have heard it in the streets of Ascalon. We have heard it told in depth. Is this your God? Is this your gospel? Is this the salvation that you preach? Let me say, yes, sir, it is. Let me say today, we have no apology to make for our Savior. for the Bible, for the truth of the gospel. And all I can say is this to the man of the world. There will be a day when truth shall be fully known. A day when in the last greatest size of God We'll understand the inexplicable, and we'll get the explanations for those things that baffle us now. What I do, ye know not now, but ye shall know hereafter. And I can't understand it, nor am I attempting to understand it, for that is not my job. But this I do say from the depths of my inward soul today, that it's part of the all things, and I tell you that they work together for good. And if but one soul arrested by the Holy Ghost is brought to Christ through our brother's tragic passing, that my friend will be more than enough, more than enough to understand that all things work together for good. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan, not only because of what the devil's crowd will do with it, but what God's people will do with it. And could I say now, very strongly and very dogmatically that a man is completely innocent until there is proof of his guilt. No charges have been made, no evidence has been brought, and yet today there are Christians who have brought in a verdict And I say to their own master, they'll stand or fall, but I will not be a party to any such thing. And when a voice is needed to be raised in this hour, please God, I and my brethren will unitedly raise our voice. And we shall say, The judge of all the earth always does what's right. And we know there's an explanation. And we know that that explanation will be to the honor of the glory of God. Remember, the best man at his best is only a man, not the best. Many people attended our brother's services, enjoyed his ministry, rejoiced in his prosperity, but our many of God's people hung on to the horns of the altar for him as he was passing through these trials. Have we not all learned a lesson? That God's men are fallible. That God's men are imperfect. That God's men are like Elias. They're subject to like passions as we are. That God's men need God's help and they need the prayers of God's people. And Libby, if you go home, dear, and you pray more for the preacher than you ever prayed, and more for your minister than you ever prayed, then our brother's passing will not be in vain. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan, because of the use made of your death in the ranks of the Philistines and among the thousands of Israel. But I want to say something as I close. He wasn't at all distressed for Brother Jonathan's eternity. There wasn't a word of distress about that. And I'm not distressed today about where my brother is. His body is in the shroud. It's in the casket. It's laid in his hometown of Newton Arms. We'll always remember Boxing Day, 1980, when we stood there and God gave us presents, and God gave His help in a time of need. But Willie Mullen's not there. As he said, he would be living more than ever he lived before. And I want to say today, Our brother is before the throne. Don't you think, friend, don't you dare to think, don't you even consider the utter folly that some people would suggest to us in these circumstances, that a few pellets from a shotgun could extinguish eternal life in a man's soul. The day that Willie Mullen was saved in the field in Utnarge, he became a member of Christ! Who shall separate us from the love of God? Nothing! Nothing! Nothing! And the circumstances in that little study in the hill couldn't separate our brother from the love of Christ which was in him, imparted by the Holy Ghost. And thank God the work with his goodness began, the arm of his strength healed complete, his promises yea and amen, and never was forfeited yet. That's our hope today. We're not magnifying our brother, but we're magnifying the grace of God in him that made them. Yes, he had the glory in an earthen vessel that the excellency of the power might be of God and not of us. And many of us have been learning that lesson, that the excellency of the power is only in a real earthen vessel. Dear Willie, beloved brother, able expositor of the Word, dynamic preacher of the glorious gospel of free and sovereign grace, faithful pastor of the Lord's flock, we bid thee not goodbye. We are just saying good night. In fact, to speak the truth, it is you that is saying good night to us. For it is we that are in the darkness, and you are in the brightness of the Father's eyes. No longer will we walk beside you in the gospel furrow. No longer shall your hands grip the handles of that plough. That grip has been loosed forever. No longer will we join you in pulpit or conference platform to hear from your lips wonderful things from the wonderful book about our wonderful Lord. No longer will we companion with you along the pilgrim walk, and share in fellowship our common burdens, our common trials, our common perplexities, our common problems. You are gone from us, but your blessed Savior, your wonderful Lord, Your closest friend, He abides with us all. Best of all, He is Immanuel, God with us. We magnify not Thee, but the grace of God that was in me. Well-earned rest is now yours. the pass completed, the battles are over, the fight's fought. We are confident that in eternity our present perplexities over your passing will all be fully and wonderfully explained to us. Dear Willie, good night until The day breaks and the shadows all flee away. We praise God for you. Thank God someday we'll praise God with you in that land. the despairer than death. May God bless His Word for Jesus' sake. Amen and Amen.