It "Yap" means to talk or to gab and that is what you will read here.

I was in a revival with a preacher friend, south and east of Abilene, Texas. We were eating the evening meal on Sunday evening. It was almost dark but not enough to light the lamps. It was the time just before screened doors and windows. The flies were real bad. The pastor and I were seated on one end of the table and the man who was leading the singing for the revival on the far end. It was dark enough that he could see a raisin pie, so he thought, on our end of the table. He called the pastor by name, asking him to pass the raisin pie. He continued to tell how he just loved that kind of pie and that his mother was the best raisin pie baker in the whole country. The pastor picked up the pie, which was an egg custard pie, and all the raisins flew away.

While I was pastor at Sundown, Texas, my family and I were having dinner with the Peck family. Several other people were there for dinner also. While eating and talking and having a big time, I suppose I was telling some tall tale, when my son, William Preston Brian, Jr., looked up at me and said, "Daddy, are you preaching or telling the truth?" It took a lot of living for me to live this down. Even now, when I see one of the Peck family they will ask me, "Brother Brian, are you preaching or telling the truth?

One of the deacons in the First Baptist Church, Plains, Texas, was talking to my oldest son and made this comment. "Preston, your daddy has been pastor here for nearly four years and I have never heard him preach the same sermon the second time. Where does he get so many sermons?" Preston replied, "That's what you think, he preaches the same sermons over and over, but he just hollers in a different place."

I was helping Curtis Jackson in a revival out southwest of Brownfield, Texas, in a rural church, now disbanded, and we were visiting in the sand-hills. We came to a lone house in the deep sand and went up to the door and the lady of the house asked us in, Brother Jackson talked to her, asking her about her church affiliation and talking to her about the Lord. He found out she wasn't a Christian and he read her the plan of salvation from God's word, Then he asked her about having prayer. She wanted to have prayer and he called on me to lead the prayer. I had just started to pray when she interrupted me by saying, "Wait a minute, please." She went to the door and began to call her some seven or eight children in a very shrill voice, "Hey, kids, come on in here and see this preacher pray." The kids came, but about all the praying had been knocked out of me. Whenever Brother Jackson sees me, he always reminds me of this by saying, "Hey, kids, come on in here and watch this preacher pray."

I was performing my first marriage ceremony, the first Sunday as pastor of Dos Palos, and like all other pastors, I wanted to make a good impression on the people of the church who were present for the wedding. About the middle of the ceremony I heard a cat mewing at the top of his voice. Someone had left the back door to the church open and he had found his way in. He was a big black tomcat. He had his tail sticking straight up and walking stiff legged and every two or three steps he was letting out his loud love call. He walked between me and the couple getting married. I tried my best to go on with the ceremony without a bother. To my left in the church auditorium sat a bunch of young women, some eight or ten, with my own daughter, Beth Brian Roby. They all got to laughing and almost broke up the service. After the service the young man and woman who were married asked me the old question, "Brother Brian, will that black cat bring us bad luck?" They were very serious about this. I assured them that it should be good luck for them, because when they got into a fuss to always remember the incident about the black cat. I saw them some time after the wedding, as they had moved to Oregon, and they laughed and said, "Brother Brian, it works. When one of us gets mad or something and begins to spout off, one or the other of us calls to mind the black cat incident and would you believe it, it always works."

My brother, Dalton Delmont Brian, was pastor of a church west of Plainview, Texas. I would call the name of the church, but I had better not, and you will know why after you read this. Well, the church liked the Stamps and Baxter songs and wanted to use them in the church service. Dock thought them all right in their place but not good for the worship service. One of the members bought several of the books named and they would use them every service. Dock wondered what to do and how to stop this. As all the men in the community were too lazy to build the fire, mind you, it was made with coal, Dock had to do it. He needed some paper to catch the kindling on fire. It ended up with him taking a song book or two to start the fire. In a few weeks the people began to complain about their songbooks disappearing. Needless to say, within a few weeks, the old songs of Zion were being sung again. The church and everyone very happy and the Lord blessed them with a great ingathering of souls.