<TITLE>19. Par 74-77</TITLE>L-74 It reminds me of an old English story. Said one time there was a man who had read about the sea, how beautiful it was, how magnificent the great, salty, briny waves would leap, and the--the gulls would fly over. And what a wonderful thing; he had never saw the sea. And so he... One day he--he got enough money till he was going to the sea. He come down through the interior, till he got to the--close to the seashore. And he met an old salt (and that's a sailor) coming from the sea.
And he said, "Where goest thou, my good man?"
He said, "Oh, I have read of the sea. I'm going to the sea. I'm going to look at it with my own eyes, upon it's beautiful, magnificent waves as they break and the big, salty, white brine. I'm going to smell the salt air and fill my lungs full, then hear the scream of the sea gulls and so forth." Oh, how he was so elated to know that he was going to get to see the great body of water.
So, the old salt looked at him and said, "Well, I was borned on it fifty years ago. I don't see nothing that's so alarming about it." See? He had saw it so much, until it become so common to him, it wasn't pretty any more. It wasn't nothing to it. He just stood there, and rocked over the waves, and paid no attention to it.

L-75 Now, that's the way the church has got about God. We see the Spirit of God in a revival fall, and shake people, and get up out of wheelchairs. And--and the lame walk, and the blind see, and the Spirit of God fall into the meeting, discern the very thoughts in their hearts. And great prophetic things will go forth, that's perfect every time, just exactly. And the church say, "Well, that's all right." Big wad of chewing gum, setting there, you know, "Yes, that's all right. But we're going to see Lucy tomorrow night, and we just ain't going to... (See?) The pastor wants to condemn us. Let him condemn us. We'll go over to this other denomination, if he wants to condemn us. We'll go over and join the... If they run us out of the Church of God, we'll go with the Assemblies. They run us out of the Assemblies, we'll go at the Oneness. Run us out of the Oneness, we'll go at the Twoness. And we... Run us out of the Twoness, we'll go at the Threeness. And we got plenty of room. See?"

L-76 Yes, you got room. But, brother, there's just room for Christ in you if you want to come to Him. Oh, God have mercy on the church of this day. I'll stop after tonight, 'cause I don't want to make you angry. But I just--I just had to use these nights to drill this into you, to let you know that the church is in a terrible condition. It certainly is. Our zeal, we're just slothful, you know, just sloppy like. God don't want us to be like that. He want us...
I think of this:
 Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
 Life is just an empty dream!
 The soul is dead that slumbers,
 And things are not what they seem.
 Life is real! And life is earnest!
 And the grave is not its goal;
 For dust thou art, to dust returnest,
 Was not spoken of the soul.
 I like this certain verse of that Psalm of Life:
 Lives of great men all remind us (Paul, Peter, James, John)
 Lives of great men all remind us
 We can make our lives sublime,
 With partings leave behind us
 Footprints on the sands of time.
 Footprints that perhaps another,
 While sailing over life's solemn main,
 For a forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
 In seeing your footprints shall take heart again.

L-77 How many drunkards would see the footprints of a drunkard that was converted and living saintly and godly? How many women would take hold when they seen a royal woman stand up, dressed like a lady, and act like a lady, and going to church, and her whole heart give to God? That's when you're sealed. That's when you're marked. Everybody knows you.
You're the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its savour. It's henceforth good for nothing, be cast out under--trod under foot of man.


<A HREF="P20">Next Page</A>