H.A. Baker's Closing Testimony

[Jim Watt]

*"TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE" MINISTRIES*

*Jim & Marie Watt – Beth Chesed, **Tacoma***

*PO Box **25116 – Federal Way** **WA** **98093-2116***

*Web: www.2rbetter.org – Fax: 253.474.0189*

*Tel: 253.874.4265 – Email: jmbetter at gmail.com*

*July 3, 2007** *

* *

*"H.A. BAKER'S CLOSING TESTIMONY" --  "Under His Wings"*

*(Author of "Visions Beyond the Veil")***

* *

That we should expect to spend the rest of our days in the good home the
Lord has given us is apparent for several reasons. One reason is by being
here we can continue to follow our missionary work. I can continue to preach
in two of the main languages of the island as long as I am able to preach. I
can do personal work as long as I can work at all by using the native
language I have learned to speak. I can also hand out tracts as long as I
can walk and talk.

            Furthermore, in contrast to an old peoples' home which cannot be
truly home-like, we should be able to spend our last days in our own real
home where every item contributes to homelife. Here one Hakka helper can
take care of all household work, cooking included, at very little cost. Not
only that, but all living costs are comparatively low here. Moreover, Miaoli
being a modern city, we can buy anything we need. Then again, by continuing
here we can always be with the other Christians we have led to the Lord. Our
only son and family are also in Formosa (Taiwan). As already stated, we
consider Miaoli the most desirable city in which to live. It is clean. The
paving of all streets and alleys has just been completed. This city is well
located away from the poor climate in the north and the hotter climate in
the south.

            Moreover, the Lord has given us unusual strength to enable us to
continue right on. On account of exhaustion from heat in this low seabound
island, missionaries are expected every five years to return home for a year
or more furlough. Some missionaries are certainly seriously affected by this
tropical climate. Nevertheless, here we are in our twelfth year without
furlough. Last summer we seemed to notice the heat less than in some
previous years. We were able to carry on our work better than usual during
the summer. The Lord saw to it that we were given a good air conditioner
that appeared to be an essential help.

            The winters never get very cold, seldom go below fifty degrees.
We were led to bring a cheap coal heater that keeps us warm when needed a
short time each year, perhaps a couple of months. Josephine is in her
eighty-second year. I am in my eighty-sixth. Like Caleb, apparently I am in
as good physical, mental, and spiritual strength as when I was forty. I have
hope that the days ahead may prove to be the best days. I sense an anointing
of the Holy Spirit and a desire for conquest that sometimes makes me feel
that perhaps I am just on the verge of an advance that will enable me to
take the hill country with its fortified cities and its giants. At the same
time I feel like I am completing my last conquest that could end suddenly
any time. I am no judge of that.

            Not only do the Hakkas express surprise at the vigor I show at
my age, I myself wonder at it. Notwithstanding, I have an explanation: three
years or more ago I had a letter from one of our old friends in which she
said that when she and another friend were praying for me -- the Holy Spirit
coming upon this friend in a special anointing caused her to speak in
prophecy. Jesus speaking through her lips in this way said, "Brother Baker
has served me a whole life-time. At his age he could cease, but since he
wants to go on, I intend to give him a double portion of my Spirit." Jesus
has done just what He then promised to do. Because of that, I have unusual
strength and I have a more constant sense of the presence of Jesus. Since
this is all from Him, to Him should be all the glory. How long He wants me
to continue is His secret.

            I recently wrote a small book with more than usual anointing of
the Holy Spirit. It was almost as though some one did stand by me as I
wrote. An angel at times in China and in the homeland has sometimes been
seen standing by me as I spoke. In that case, could not an angel sometimes
stand by me as I wrote? Why not?

            Just recently when I was preaching in Hakka to my Hakka
Christians, one of our best Hakka sisters began pointing in my direction and
calling the attention of a friend to what she apparently was seeing. Then
suddenly this sister sprang to her feet, while trembling under the anointing
of the Holy Spirit, with arms and hands raised high she began praising and
thanking Jesus in the Hakka language. She saw an angel dressed in white
shining clothes standing by me. That not only encouraged my people, but it
also encouraged me with renewed hope.

            I recently baptized six Hakkas. Of these six that I baptized in
water three of them spoke with other tongues before leaving the water.
Another spoke with other tongues shortly after being baptized.

            Another young married woman received a good anointing of the
Holy Spirit in a recent meeting. After she had gone to bed she saw Jesus.

            Just how long I am to continue working for Hakkas I do not know.
For some time it has been especially in my mind that it is time to really
rest. Rest? It is hard for me to rest, yet I should. The Bible tells how to
take a true *rest*. It says that "There remains a Sabbath rest for the
people of God; for whoever enters God's rest also ceases from his [own]
labors." I should cease. Take a rest. Otherwise I am in great danger of
failing to enter that rest because of unbelief and disobedience.

            I hope to "rest" from my own works while I watch God work. I
want to see Him bring as many Hakkas as He expects to bring safely into the
fold. I hope to stop my constant worry about that. That is God's business. I
surely have meddled in His responsibility.

            Although I hope now to take a genuine rest and trust Jesus, it
will be right in the midst of many perplexities. I do not want to go home
until the Lord has taken charge of everything and put all in perfect order,
as is not true at the present time.

            Most likely our next move will be from this happy home on this
Miaoli hillside to a higher and better home. From among these fading flowers
we shall move to parks with fountains of living water in the midst of
fragrant flowers of many hues that never fade. Some distance outside the
city on a hillside that overlooks the whole valley and faces the scenic
mountains, I found an unusually nice burying ground. It was covered with
lawn-like grass. The graves were of a nicer order than the ordinary ones. I
found a little level spot that was just right and in the proper place for
graves, if there be preferred places. I had a little stone slab put there on
which the stone mason carved words in Chinese characters which read: "Bei
Kai Wen Dji Fen Di," "Baker Burial Ground."

            When that fortunate day comes for one of us whose earthly
remains are to be placed in that designated spot, we have an understanding
that there is to be no foreign-style funeral attended with flowers and
outward show. We want this to be no occasion for any belief that, like the
heathen at the grave, we can worship or minister to a dead person invisibly
present. We want it to be known that "absent from body" means present with
the Lord for a Christian.

            We appreciated living flowers when we were alive. We shall have
no interest in these earthly ones when we pass over into the paradise of
God, the Eden of more gorgeous flowers that shed their eternal fragrance and
bloom forevermore. And so, "don't spend your money for flowers. Just one
rose will do."

            This final resting place cost us not a cent. A far more
substantial coffin than a showy one at home can be had for a few American
dollars. A simple Hakka coffin will suit us best and harmonize with Hakka
surroundings.



*NOW I LAY ME DOWN TO SLEEP*

*            *My earliest recollection is that of kneeling by my childhood
bed just before closing my eyes in slumber for the night and saying:



*"Now I lay me down to sleep;*

*I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to keep.*

*If I should die before I wake,*

*I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to take.*

*This I ask for Jesus' sake."*



            Now after the set of life's sun as evening shadows fall around
me I lay me down for final rest and sleep. Like in early childhood again I
close my eyes and say:

*"Now I lay me down to sleep.*

*I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to keep."*

*I'm weary at the end of day, *

*And so for rest to Thee I pray.*

* *

*I've passed the sunny hours of **noon***

*And sunset comes almost too soon,*

*But as its glories fill the west*

*I'm coming home to Thee to rest.*

*So "now I lay me down to sleep*

*And pray Thee, Lord, my soul to keep."*

* *

*Through stormy days I've battled on*

*And in my Lord some victories won;*

*But now I'm lonesome for my home,*

*So thus, my Lord, to Thee I come,*

*And as "I lay me down to sleep*

*I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to keep."*

* *

*I know I'll wake a better day*

*When aches and pains are done away.*

*I'm tired, Lord, and sleepy, too.*

*Refresh me and my life renew*

*As "now I lay me down to sleep*

*And pray Thee, Lord, my soul to keep."*

*And when the sunset turns to night*

*Awake me, Lord, at morning light.*

* *

*Earth's cares have come and they have gone;*

*These are behind, and now, anon,*

*I come to Thee, my Lord, for rest*

*Within the mansions of the blest.*

*Forgetting now what is behind,*

*With Thee, my Lord, I know I'll find*

*Beyond the shadows of the grave*

*The rest that long my soul did crave.*

* *

*I'm tired as I come to Thee*

*Of mortal man's inharmony;*

*So now, my Lord, I bring my cares*

*To Thee who all my trouble shares.*

* *

* *

*As "Now I lay me down to sleep*

*And pray Thee, Lord, my soul to keep"*

*I know I'll die before I wake*

*And that Thou, Lord, my soul will take,*

*"For this, I ask for Jesus' sake."*

* *

*It matters not what men may say*

*At this last hour at close of day*

*When "now I lay me down to sleep*

*And pray Thee, Lord, my soul to keep,"*

*For all my works and all I've been*

*Have counted only when "in Him."*

*What men may think that I have wrought*

*Is farthest from my present thought.*

* *

*As now I die before I wake*

*And Thou, my Lord, my soul doth take*

*To realm of never ending day*

*I hope at best to hear Thee say,*

*"You down on earth have faithful been*

*And unashamed may enter in*

*To dwell in harmonies above *

*Where Mortal is replaced with Love.*

* *

*When "now I lay me down to sleep"*

*No one for me need grieve or weep.*

*I want no costly shroud or bier,*

*But as I go to sleep to hear*

*The saints and angels from above,*

*Where all is harmony and love*

*Descend about me, help me sing,*

*"Jesus lover of my soul,*

*Thou Who saved and made me whole,*

*Let me to Thy bosom fly*

*As now I close my eyes and die."*

* *

*If friends have come to say "Good bye,"*

*Unite with angels hovering nigh*

*And sing of Christ on **Calvary***

*And of His blood that covers me,*

*While in His arms I go to sleep*

*And know that He my soul will keep.*

* *

*I thank you saints, who served with me.*

*Your face on yonder shore I'll see.*

*You angels who have safely kept*

*And hovered o'er me while I slept*

*And now have come to take me home*

*I'll bless while ages go and come,*

*While now I draw last fleeting breath*

*And gently close my eyes in death*

*May saints and angels prostrate fall*

*And crown my Savior Lord of all.*

* *

*As now "I lay me down to sleep"*

*Here is the last these lips shall speak:*

*"Rock of ages cleft for me. *

*Let me hide myself in Thee.*

*Nothing in my hands I bring;*

*Simply to Thy cross I cling."*

* *

* *

*NOTE:**  *As far as I know, "Visions Beyond the Veil" is the only one of
some 20 books by H.A. Baker still in print. You can obtain it through going
to the following Website: *http://www.IrisMin.com <http://www.irismin.com/>–
*under the book on the right on the Front Page, "The Hungry Always Get Fed,"
click on *view book store.* Then under "Visions Beyond the Veil" click on
"Add to Cart" and follow on.



I heartily recommend that you read this small but unusual account of the
Spirit Visitation in 1926 upon some 40 orphans in Kunming, Yunnan Province, SW
China. I read it in 1944, and have been influenced by it to this day.



On the front page of today's Seattle Times appeared an article on "Atheists"
in a Young People's Camp. They said – We no longer need to pray "Now I lay
me down to sleep – I pray Thee Lord my soul to keep" – because now we know –
"There is no God to hear our prayer."



And neither do they have 1000's of transformed lives for preaching Jesus and
His Redemption like H.A. Baker. Nor are they aware that God's Word says –
"The FOOL has said *in his heart* – There is no God."



But these young pagans are worse than fools – THEY have BLABBED it all over
the place!



Jim Watt











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