Paul's most able weapon when arraigned before the judges and potentates of his day was simply to recount his conversion experience. I believe each individual can recount his own experience of grace more vividly than anyone else. I have taken the following account of Clarence Walker's conversion from the September 3, 1943 edition of the A.A.B. where he recounts his own conversion experience.

     "As the years pass a man recalls more and more the events of his early life, especially the things that stand out as epoch making. I am now (In 1943) 53 years old, and somehow, I keep thinking of that day long ago, when I was converted to God. I tell it here praying that it might lead someone else to find the Lord Jesus their Saviour too.

      I was eleven years old. It took place one Sunday night in my childhood home, as I lay upon my bed. My parents and other children were asleep. I couldn't sleep so deep was the conviction of sin upon me. I rolled and tossed, but at last I found JESUS, MY SAVIOUR AND MY GOD.

      The persons and events which come to my memory as I think about my conversion are these:

      There are those who prayed for me. My father was a member the Ormsby Baptist Church, Louisville, Kentucky, and a brother T. E. Cannedy was our pastor. It was a little church just recently organized. I was made janitor of the church by my father — free gratis. The members were praying people. Among them one dear old woman — past four score and ten — who often laid her hand upon my head and said, "Clarence, I am praying for you." Her name was Mrs. Bender. Mrs. Cannedy, our Pastor's wife, took a tremedous interest in my soul and prayed unceasingly that I might find the Lord. She talked with me and in the Sunday School class taugh me the Holy Scriptures, showing me my dire need of one who could save me from my sins. Another worker was Mrs. Smith, a devout and earnest soul winner, who often spoke to me about my lost condition.

      Above all was my mother, who insisted that we never miss Sunday School, preaching or prayer meeting. I could go on naming those who prayed for me. How I thank God for them. Most of them are in heaven today.

      There are those who taught me the word of the Lord. In our home our father honored, loved, read and obeyed the Holy Scriptures to the best of his ability. In our little church, Brother Cannedy, as I see it now, was a faithful teacher of the Word. In the pulpit he did not hesitate to preach and declare unto us the gospel. In his preaching there was no compromise with sin, nor was there any letting up in the matter of wholehearted consecration to Christ. Not only did he teach me that I was lost and a condemned sinner under God's law but as surely as I died, unrepentant, and without faith in Christ, I would go into hell — and he left no doubt in my mind, that the Hell of the Bible was real and lasted forever.

      But there were others besides my parents, my Pastor and Sunday School teacher who helped me to understand the way of the Lord. One dear brother, Charlie Embry, was Superintendent of our little Sunday School. It was he who said one Sunday afternoon — for our Sunday School met in the afternoon — "Boys and girls, when you go home tonight, and have gone to your beds, before you close your eyes to sleep, talk to the Lord, tell him how sinful you are, then receive him as your Sin-Bearer and Saviour, he will save you." I was already under conviction, for I do now remember how I used to think of my awful doom. I did shudder as I thought of my sins that bore down upon me, even as a lad of eleven years of age. The word of the Lord plowed deep through my heart for many months before I understood and surrendered to the Lord Jesus. Even when I was eight and nine years old, I would think of my lost condition, and in my heart came a fear and dread of death — for I did not want to go to hell when I died.

      It was this exhortation by our Superintendent that brought me to the greatest of all experiences for time and eternity, as far as my ife is concerned. That night I did receive the Lord Jesus as I lay upon my bed. It was a very simple prayer.

      I guess that I was one of the most ignorant of God's creatures — but as I prayed, I simply asked the Lord to save me, to forgive my sins and speak peace to my soul. Over and over in my mind came an expression that Brother Cannedy used so much in his preaching — 'Christ died for your sins, simply trust Him'. Thus I prayed and trusted Him, who bore all my sins in his own bodj on the cross — the just for the unjust. Then as I trusted Him whom God first trusted, peace — 'sweet peace, the gift of God's love' came into my heart. Praise His dear namel!'

      After receiving the assurance that the Lord had forgiven him all his sins, he made a public profession of his faith at the Ormsby Baptist Church and followed the Lord in believer's baptism. Then was a zeal in his heart to know and teach the word of the Lord. He was soon made a teacher of a Sunday School class and at the age of thirteen became clerk of the church.

      At the age of fourteen he was elected to be a deacon in th church. Upon hearing that he was about to be made a deacon, Clarence blurted out in the church, "A deacon is supposed to be the husband of one wife and I don't have a wife." He was instructed by an aged preacher that this meant a deacon who is married should have only one living wife. So he was ordained.

      But God had something more for Clarence to do other than be a deacon in the church. There was a continual burden and burning desire to preach the word of God. The gospel had so transformed his life that he in turn wanted to preach to the world the redeeming grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Shortly he announce his call to the ministry and began his preparation, first by going to William Jewell College at the age of sixteen. He was licensed and ordained to preach in 1909. Mr. Baptist was ready to give a full life of service for the Master.

      At the age of seventeen he entered Georgetown Baptist College, and attended the Academy for the next four years. It was while at Georgetown that the doors of opportunity to preach began to really open up. Clarence met a young preacher named 0be Steger. He went home with Brother Steger and preached at the Old Shiloh Baptist Church.

      While in school he pastored three part-time churches, the Shiloh Baptist Church near Corinth, Kentucky, the Newby Baptist Church near Richmond, Kentucky, and the Redhouse Baptist Church. After two years he resigned the Newby Church and the Shiloh Church and accepted the part-time church at Kiddville, in Clark County.

      As a young preacher, Clarence Walker was a vigorous preacher, (as well as an enormous eater). He put his heart, soul, and entire strength into his messages. None doubted the sincerity of Clarence Walker as he called upon sinners to repent and Christians to a holy dedicated walk with the Master. It was not long until he entered into his first full time pastorate, which was the Mount Freedom Baptist Church at Wilmore, Kentucky.