<TITLE>17. Par 163-172</TITLE>L-163   He said, "Oh," and he blowed like that. And, to my surprise, about fifty yards from me, just across, a great big doe stood up. Now, the doe is the mother deer. And there she was, her big brown eyes, and them ears peaked up. See, she heard. Now, she was a mother, see, and her baby was crying. And so no matter whether the rest of them come out or not, there was something in her. She was a mother.

L-164 So Bert looked like that, and he blowed it again real low. And that deer walked right out into the opening. Now that's unusual, very unusual, walk out like that. And she was looking around, with big head up, and her eyes looking around.

L-165   After a while, when the hunter reached up and got the gun, she seen the hunter. Usually they'll just flash, and gone, you know how it is, quickly. But, you know, she never moved. She just stood and looked at him, broadside, had turned her head and looked. My! I thought, "Bert, you can't do that."

L-166 See, she wasn't putting on something. She wasn't hypocritically. She wasn't acting. She, was born in her, she was a mother. And that baby, I don't care if it cost her life, it was in trouble, she was trying to find that baby. It was in trouble. She was, the instinct in her, she was mother. And she saw the hunter. But her mind wasn't about the hunter, it was about that baby in trouble, that little fawn.

L-167   And so he pulled the safety down on this thirty-o-six. Oh, he was a dead shot. He leveled that rifle down. I--I just had to turn my head. I couldn't keep from it. I--I couldn't look at him. Thought, "Just a couple more minutes, and he will blow her loyal heart out; trying to find her baby, it's in trouble, knowing that hunter laying right there in the bush." And he would blow that loyal heart plumb through, with that hundred-and-eighty-grain bullet in there. And I--I... He was such a dead shot. He leveled. I thought, "I just can't stand to look at it." I turned my back.
And--and I--I said, "Lord, help him, that he won't do that."

L-168 I--I felt so sorry. That poor mother standing there, hunting for her baby, and I knowed she wasn't putting that on. She was a mother. She would have run, any other time. She wouldn't have got up, and us going by. But there was something in her.

L-169   And I waited, and I waited, and the gun never went off. Well, I wondered, "What's the matter?" And I waited, then I turned around real slow. And I seen the deer standing out there, still was looking at him. And I looked at the gun barrel, it was going like this. He just... he was trying to hold aim, and he couldn't do it.

L-170 He throwed the gun down on the ground, and looked around at me, and them big eyes had changed. The tears was running down his cheeks. He grabbed me by the trouser leg, he said, "Billy, lead me to that Jesus you're talking about."

L-171   What was--what was it? He saw something real. See? That little mother deer had to display a loyalty, a real loyalty that made that cruel hunter there... that had the wickedest heart I ever seen. It wasn't a sermon I preached. It was what he seen, something that was real. It wasn't put on. It wasn't a sham. That was a genuine mother seeking for her baby, and that led him to Christ. He is a deacon in the church there now, a wonderful Christian, because he saw something that wasn't put on. It wasn't a make-belief. It was real.

L-172   Oh, brother, sister, if this church, if this people, tonight, if you and I! There is something real, not a put on. You might see some putting it on, but there is a genuine thing. There is something in a man that makes him live for God. There is a genuine Holy Spirit tonight, brother, that's not a put on. There, it's a genuine thing.


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