AS I THOUGHT ON MY
WAY 59-0610
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Some time ago a young colored boy rushed into the meeting when the
altar call was being made. He come from the outside. And he come up, and he
said, "I want to become a Christian tonight." "Why, certainly,
we're always glad to see that." And said, "The reason I want to
become a Christian, I've been a rambler." And said, "I was out
rambling around once, and--up in the north woods," and said, "I got
without money." And said, "I hired myself to a lumber camp where
there was an aged colored woman that done the cooking, and I was going to
assist her and--and then to wash dishes and so forth for her, to get enough
money to go on." Said, "We slept in a little back room with a large
piece of canvas to separate her part from my part." And said, "One
night with my head under the cover, I was awakened by voices that was speaking
loud by my window. And I pulled my head out from under the cover," and he
said, "I heard one man say, 'Jim, let's hurry back to the cabin as quick
as we can, because we may be swept completely into eternity in the next few
moments, for that tornado is headed right this way.'"
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Said, "Then I could not but wonder when I jumped to the window and
looked and seen that long funnel shaped cloud, and just one constant blast of
thunder and lightening. And see when the lightning, the trees rooting up, and
that great long serpent tail was coming right towards our cabin." Said,
"I heard the canvas rake, and the aged old woman said, 'Son, come over on
my side; I've got a lantern lit here.'" And said, "I went over, and
she said, 'Are you a Christian?'" Said, "I said, 'No, I'm not a
Christian.'"
Said, "Did
you ever pray?" Said, "No, I've never prayed." Said, "Well,
you better be praying, for these twisters lay everything flat on the
ground."
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Said, "Reverend, I got down by the side of that old woman on that
little box where the lantern set. But I was too scared to pray." He said,
"I couldn't get my thinking right." And he said, "Every time I'd
start to pray, a tree would root up and slam against the cabin; the windows
would go out." He said, "I was too scared to pray." He said,
"And now, the only thing I could do was sit and watch that calm old saint
with not a bit more worry of nothing in the world, constantly speaking to
Somebody that she was acquainted with." And I said, "Lord, I'm too
scared to pray. But if--if You'll just let me live, I will pray after
this."
E-25
You see, it takes trouble sometimes to make us realize, to turn our
hopes to God, turn ourselves over to Him. I believe it was Job who thought on
his ways, and he wanted to make them sure, not only on his ways, but his
children's ways. And he come God's only way that God ever did make for man, the
burnt offering and under the blood. Many of you are sure that... You have read
the story of Job. And he said, "My children's been out having parties. And
peradventure they have sinned; I'll make an offering for them." He wanted
to be sure while he was normally and right.
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You know I think if mothers and fathers tonight in this fair land of ours,
if they spent more time on their knees praying, bringing their children to God
through prayer, instead of out in these parties drinking and running around,
we'd have less juvenile delinquency.
