" I recall not long ago, I was preaching at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Martin Luther King's, Sr. and Jr.'s church. Joe Roberts, the pastor, had invited me. I was there to preach, and the service had moved to the point when I was to stand and speak. I'd moved to the pulpit, and I had my New Testament. They had asked me to read my own text, and I had turned to Mark 8 and was about ready to read, when Joe Roberts, who was seated up here along with several other persons, began to sing. Just as I was going to say my first word, he started singing, "I feel much better now that I've laid my burden down," and then he sang some more. Then the associates started singing, and the musicians went to their instruments. The piano and the organ and the drums and the electric guitar, and the people started singing.

"I'm standing there with Mark 8, waiting. Well I suddenly realized, I'm the one up front, I'm the leader of this, so I started clapping my hands and singing. Then everybody stood up and started clapping their hands and swinging and singing, and it was just marvelous. Then at a certain point the pastor, Joe Roberts, put his hand out, it got quite, they sat down, and I started preaching. I could've preached all day. Afterward I said to Joe, 'Well, that kind of shocked me a little bit. You didn't tell me you were going to do that.'

                He said, 'Well, I didn't plan to.'

                'Then why did you do it?'

                And he said, 'Well, when you stood up there, one of the associates leaned over to me and said, 'That boy's going to need help.'"