I had a lesson written out prior to this one. It was to be on reliability. Ironically, I could not rely on myself to finish it with the proper learning benefit I was hoping for. You know, a man or woman comes to church, has evidence by means of legal pads or books implying a good amount of thought went into preparing for this next half hour or whatever segment of time given. Well, this man or woman stands right here at this podium and speaks to you. Not in a traditional Sunday School kind of way where we all are seated in close proximity and everyone has ample opportunity to ask for clarity or challenge a claim. Not in this room and I say this not to put down traditional classes going on through out this church as I speak, but instead to bring to mind that uniqueness of the Wesleymen of Epworth. Many, many years before I ever even pretended to speak behind this lectern as a child, men of great notoriety and reliability as well as wisdom stood here and told the filled seats what they needed to hear. They did it well. They did it so well in fact, that the church, the conference, the city, and even a local pioneering AM radio station saw fit to allow the words of the teacher to be broadcast as far as the signal would carry. In my opinion, that represents reliability. I say this because not only is the teachers lesson seen as valid and worthy of the audiences time but the teacher himself (or herself) is looked to for his dependable nature. His reliable work ethic. His ability to be counted on. I would think the reputation of this room would be very much a molecule of the body it has demonstrated if the teacher, the man the class looked forward to and I do mean forward in more ways than one, could not be depended upon to do his duties and perform them in such a manner that qualifies him for the post. This is not a priveledge to be trifled with because there are men of much higher stature than myself who have stood here and in all seriousness spoke the word of God and then explained it in such a way that not only this class but the whole town if it so choose could learn from it correctly. They left the lesson with the benefit of the Holy Spirit functioning in their life. Not the words and opinions of some layman. Albert Roper himself stood here and at no point in my life do I even dream of having a legacy of his type. What I am saying is all of these men before me had one thing in common before any other attribute was measured. They were reliable, dependable, and interested in learning the correct message to give as much as you were in receiving it.