<TITLE>05. Par 14-16</TITLE>L-14 And it was the next morning as she was going along for the water, and she could hear the hammer across the way, where the saw... where Joseph was building on their house. And as she got up and had her breakfast, and stuck the little pitcher under her arm, and started down to the city public well... (Now, if we had time I'd like to dwell on that well for a while, but we don't have the time. ) So as she was going along with her head down, thinking, she couldn't get it off her mind... And she said, "That remark that Joseph made to me when I stopped him on that Scripture of Isaiah 9:6, and how that... He, he said to me, 'Dear, you know, I think you... always thought you was the most beautiful woman I ever seen, but somehow in the last few minutes you've been more beautiful than ever. Your big brown eyes sparkle, and just when we mentioned this Scripture. Did it thrill you? Or what taken place?'"
Well, she wondered, "What was that when he said, a child is born, a Son is given. '? Wonder what made me feel the way I did?" And just then, as the little maiden was walking, she noticed something flicker. And she looked around, and... "It must have been the sun," she said, "that shined against a rock up on the desert hill there somewhere." And as she went on about her way, thinking about what was taking place, and what they had been talking about, she turned a corner that goes up to the city well, where the ladies meet out there early of a morning and let their buckets down, or their crocks--more like a crock or a jug. They got a long neck, two handles. They had a hook they hooked under it, and a windle. They let the jug down. It being made out of clay, why, it sank. They'd windle the water back up, then set it up on top their heads, and walk right on back home; and maybe holding five or six gallons of water, enough for the day--unless they were washing, and then usually they went to the places to wash.

L-15 Now, as she turned the corner she seen that Light flicker again. And as she looked, when she had to pass through a little narrow place, where just one person could pass, there stood Gabriel, the Archangel. It wasn't the sun, the s-u-n, she seen reflecting. He was following her, and He met her, to where He got her in a place where she'd have to look to Him. And she looked, and He was all of a glow of light around Him. Frightened the little virgin, and no doubt she grabbed her water pot, and those big eyes stared out and looked at the Archangel.
He said, "Hail, Mary (or stop), you're highly favored before God." Oh, I like that. That little woman in the meanest city there was in the world at that time, known the meanest city, anyhow, in Palestine... And in there she had lived such a life until God chose her for a certain work that He was going to do. There she looked into His face, and it startled her.

L-16 You know, it's usually as we are thinking on those things... The Bible said, "If there be any praise, if there be any virtue, think on these things." I think the reason we don't see no more of it than we do, we got our minds an too many other things. I think the Angels would still appear to us if we only kept our minds upon them: but we're thinking about something else, that's where we're going, a certain program we've got to look at, or certain shopping we got to do. But our Scriptures tells us, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things will be added unto you."
And there then when we see that, that He said, "Thou are highly favored before God."


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