<TITLE>09. Par 73-82</TITLE>L-73 So this little girl, she had all the rough work to do. So when, all at once, the boy... One night when supper was over, and they'd had dances, and each one of these girls had prettied all up, you know. And this poor little girl had to have a little, old ragged dress on. And one night she was setting in the mess hall after supper was over, and she'd washed the dishes, and she run out through the back yard to throw the dishwater out. She--when she turned around the corral fence, there he stood, leaning at the corral fence; he said, "Hello."
She was so ashamed, because that was the superintendent's boy, the son of the owner of the ranch. She held the dish down--pan down, so he wouldn't notice she was so ragged, started backing off with her bare feet, looking back, like this.
And he walked up to her, said, "Don't be afraid of me." Said, "I want to tell you something." He said, "I come out here for one purpose; I come out to find a wife." And said, "I've been looking everywhere." Said, "I didn't want to marry any of the girls back there in the city; I want to get what I thought was a real wife." And said, "Of all that I've seen, I've been noticing you around here. And I found out through some of the hands that you're a cousin."
Said, "That's right, sir."
Said, "I want to ask you something. Will you marry me?" Why, she didn't know what to do. She was so beset; she didn't--she didn't know how to answer the man.

L-77 Oh, I just about imagine how she felt, don't you? When me, a sinner once, no good for nothing, drunkard's child, Jesus Christ said, "I want you for Mine." How could He ever come to somebody like me? How could He ever say, "I'll give you a home in heaven"? How could He ever say, "I'll save you"? Such a wretch as me, how could it ever be? But He did it.

L-78 She said, "Sir, I--I'm not... I--I'm not worthy. I couldn't make a wife to a man like you," said, "because you are used to great things. And I know nothing about them; I'm poor."
He said, "But you are my choice."
And wasn't it nice when Jesus told you that... You knowed you wasn't worthy to be a Christian. You... There wasn't nothing you could ever do, but He... It's nothing... He--He just chose you. See, He... It's His goodness, His mercy that He chose you. You didn't choose Him, you know; He chose you. That's right.
She said, "I--I don't..." She said...
"Don't look at your clothes. I don't look at your clothes; I look at what you are." He said, "Will you marry me?" And finally the agreement was made. He said, "One year from this day, I will return. You be ready. Have the wedding garment on, for I will return and marry you right here on these grounds. And I'll take you to Chicago to Outer Drive, there where you'll have a castle to live in. All this dishwashing will be over, and things, then."

L-82 When the sisters, or the cousins, heard about that, they said, "You poor, little, ignorant fool, why, you know that man didn't mean that."
And isn't that just exactly what they say today? "How could a bunch of holy-rollers, a bunch of people that hardly can write their own name, how would they ever be the church? How would a group like that ever be?" But that's just all right, when we got engaged and felt that betrothal kiss of Jesus Christ on our hearts to take away our sins, Something tells us that He's coming back again just as...?... Someday He'll come back.


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