When I was a freshman in college--I attended Wheaton College in Illinois--one day it was announced that Dr. V. Raymond Edman would preach. It was a great occasion when he preached. He was a legend in Wheaton, a past president of that college. Many of you know of him, a great Christian leader. He was getting up in years, quite infirm, so it was quite an occasion when he spoke in chapel. He came to the pulpit and began to preach.

He wanted us to be excited about coming into the presence of God. He wanted us to prepare for our encounter with God through worship. He wanted us to be reverent when we came into the presence of God. He told of a time when he was invited to have an audience with Haile Selassie, then emperor of Ethiopia. He used this as an illustration. He told about how he prepared himself, knowing that he would have an audience with the king, and what an exciting moment it was for him when he walked into the palace, and the reverence he felt as he bowed before the king.

And at that point in his sermon, he paused, and he collapsed--dead.

He was talking about entering into the presence of the king, and he was doing it! And we were witnesses. For him the veil was pulled back. The King was present there in that chapel.