<TITLE>15. Par 55-58</TITLE>L-55 Said, "You want a smoke?"
And I said, "No, ma'am; thank you."
She said, "Would you have a drink?"
And I said, "No, ma'am; thank you." I said, "I am a minister of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ." And I said, "I was standing there and condemning you, and asking God why He didn't take your life." And I told her what had just happened, right there.
She said, "Oh, I know who you are." Said, "You're that preacher down there."
I said, "That's right." And I said, "What's behind your life?" And that poor old thing begin to tell me of how she'd been mistreated or run out like that, how she'd belonged to a church one time, and had went astray. I said, "Have you got children?"
Said, "I got two daughters, married. Both of them are Christians."
And I said, "And you setting out here, aren't you kinda ashamed of yourself?"
She said, "I am, sir."
And I said, "Don't you want to accept Christ?"

L-56 I begin to talk to her, and took her by her poor old feeble hands, and the tears running down... She throwed that cigarette on the floor, and knelt down there, and humbly come to the Lord Jesus Christ. What a difference when you look at yourself one time. Who are we? Where'd we come from? There she got up wiping the tears from her eyes. She said, "I'm ashamed of myself, sir."
I said, "Now, mother, go put on your clothes; go to church. Get some good church, and--and affiliate--get yourself affiliated with it, and be a loyal member of Christ's Body." I said, "For this day there's hundreds setting yonder wanted to come into a prayer line or so forth, and here the Holy Spirit deals with me, to you, and me standing here criticizing you. And God, as me, as a minister let me know, that where am I?" Who'd I... Who am I? Where'd I come from? What about me? I may not have done that; I may not have done them kind of immoral things, but I'm still a sinner in the sight of God, and the Blood of Jesus Christ had to protect me. And I accepted it, and she accepted it.

L-57 My brother, one of the horriblest pictures I can paint in my mind is the garden of Eden, when God made His beautiful couple there, and put them in the garden. Little Eve, when God woke Adam up that morning and he looked...
I was standing in Greece here not long ago, and seen where some Greek artist painted a picture of Eve, and Adam is the most horrible, oh, the horriblest thing I ever seen. What a discredit to the Bible or to even civilization, that such a thing could become famous as a painting like that: Adam with one shoulder up and the other one down, the hairs hanging out of his nose like that, and Eve the most horrible looking brute you ever seen...?... Eve... Oh, common sense would say that was wrong.

L-58 Look at the strain. Look at man today when he sins. Instead of coming out before God and saying, "Father, I've done wrong; here I am." Look at the strain in the garden of Eden. When Adam done wrong, and instead of him running up-and-down the garden saying, "Father, Father, where are You." It was Adam hiding behind the bushes and God crying, "Adam, Adam, where art thou?" That strain still stays in man. Instead of coming out and confessing his sins, and saying he's wrong, he will try everything in the world. He will join this church because it don't teach very strict. He will go over, and if it's a little too strict for him, he will fall out with this church and go for the other one, trying to make himself a religion like Adam did. It's in him; that's his strain.


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