<TITLE>24. Par 164-170</TITLE>L-164   I'm getting old. I know that. Each day I get a new ache and pain. Every one of us do. You might as well tell the truth. I thought, "God, don't let me..."
One of the most miserable things, is to see a man or woman who has never accepted Christ, and just lived an old mossback church member, meaner than Satan himself, and see him out there, with crabbed old something, "Well, I tell you, I don't believe in the..." God never... That's a--that's a... That's the horriblest crown that Satan can crown a life with. A grouchy old woman, about sixty or seventy years old, with fat hanging down under her arms, and the wrinkles all over her face, and her hair bobbed up, in four or five different colors, and strutting herself down in a pair of little shorts; if that ain't the crowning of Satan, I never seen it, or some old crabbed man.

L-165   O God, I know I... Give me grace to never complain. And I want my life, Lord, I want my people's life... God, grant that our life could be crowned, no matter if we suffer, whatever takes place, how many turns against me.
I know this one thing in my life, as I get older, my friends, the stream behind me, will soon be running out, narrower and narrower, as I go down the road. And I know one thing, it'll come to pass after a while that there'll be nobody come to me and say... ask me advice. The ones who know me in my younger days will be gone on, if I shall live. My friends will get fewer and fewer, as I get older now.

L-166 And I know that someday I've got to die. I hope that God never lets Satan crown me as an old crabbed, indifferent man, and my wife an old nagging woman, or your wife, or you that way. I pray, brother, that our lives will be crowned with the fruits of the Spirit; love, joy, long-suffering, gentleness, patience, Truth, faith, in the Holy Spirit.

L-167   My life thins out. About thirty-five years ago I stood in the pulpit here, as a little boy. Tonight I'm an old, gray in hair, and bald-headed, stooping shoulder; I'm broke down. My life is running out, and the threads are getting brittle that I'm walking on. As I move on down the stream, my friends get fewer. And after a while it'll come to a place, maybe, that I--I won't enjoy the songs like I used to; and maybe my grandchildren, the children will have to say, "Don't make grandpa nervous." It may come to that if I live.

L-168 Then I'll come on down till I can't get up out of my chair. Then one morning the fog will come into the room, I'll motion across the border, to death, to come get me. He can only take me by the hand and lead me across to my Master. He is not my slave-driver. I am not his slave. He is my slave. Christ conquered death for me. And only one thing he can do, is pull me in the Presence of my Maker, "When this earthly tabernacle be dissolved."

L-169   The moment when a mother is fixing to have a baby, you notice, I don't care how cruel she's been, and how mean. You know, a while before that baby is born, the mother gets gentle. Why is it? When them little muscles in that womb is twitching and jumping like that, there is a heavenly body waiting for it. And when it comes from the mother, the doctor or the midwife, whoever it is has to pick it up and shock it, spank it, shake it, or something, and then it catches the breath of life. And the little angelic spirit comes into it, the breath of life, and it becomes a living soul. And when we have Christ in our heart, and Christ becomes real in our heart, it's a little baby. "If this earthly tabernacle be dissolved..."

L-170 Jesus said, in John 14. In closing, I'll say this. He said, "Don't let your hearts be troubled; if you've believed in God, believe in Me. For, in My Father's Kingdom is many tabernacle. I'll go and prepare a place for you." When this earthly tabernacle be dissolved, we have one. "I'll go and prepare a place for you, that where I am, there may ye be also." Wants to be with Him.


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