Like him, I want to be an older man who mentors younger men with the confidence that the Lord will use them greatly in the future. Some men, as they grow older, become increasingly critical about younger believers. That’s such an unhelpful attitude. Instead, I want to teach younger men the Bible, believing they will grow and honor Jesus. And I plan on having thousands of thoughtful conversations with them.

One pastor said of William Thomas of Pyle, Wales, “He was better known as William Thomas the pray-er than as William Thomas the preacher” (all information and quotes about Thomas are from The Calvinistic Methodist Fathers of Wales, Vol. 2, Banner of Truth, 2008, 160-5). In his old age, he became deaf, but he could still pray. Though the image perhaps seems strange to us, in his later years he would “stand at the pulpit steps” and the congregation would see his lips moving and “conclude that he was praying for the preacher and for their salvation.”

William Thomas also had a heart for younger people, in particular fellow preachers of the gospel. One story illustrates this well:

“If he came across some young man with indication of ability and of God’s intention of making use of him, he would rejoice greatly. On one occasion a young man from Carmarthenshire came to Pyle to preach and had a fairly successful meeting. He was to sleep that evening at Tydraw [Thomas’ cottage]. After long conversation, they retired to their beds. After a while the young man heard a murmuring from the next room. Full of curiosity, he strained to hear and discovered that William Thomas was praying for him in the next room — pleading with God to grant him success on his journey to keep him from falling, to make him an instrument for the salvation of many.

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