<TITLE>06. Par 45-51</TITLE>L-45   But one of the most outstanding things that I saw there, was as you enter the door, I believe it would be on the east side. There was a--a statue of Moses setting there, that was the life's cap work of Michelangelo, I believe it was, the sculptor. That, I may be wrong in the man. I believe that's right. Michelangelo, that--that... the great sculptor that molded out this, or an image of Moses. And as he was explaining it, the--the guide that was taking us through, he said that that was one of the greatest masterpieces that Michelangelo ever formed. And said it took much of his life, hard work.

L-46   Then I noticed, I believe it was, on the right knee. The statue looked perfect, smooth, and Moses with the table of the laws in his hand, and his long beard. And it was, course, the mental conception of Michelangelo, what Moses should look like. Perhaps had never seen a picture, but, in his own mind, he drawed out what he thought that Moses should look like.

L-47 And the story goes, as soon as he got the--the statue finished, and all rubbed and perfectly, he stood back to view his work. And when he got so inspired, till it looked so much... What he had in his mind, he had made with his hand. It looked so much like it, and all the years he'd been waiting on it, till he was so carried away by inspiration, he smote it upon the knee and cried out, "Speak!" And there is a broken place on the--the--the leg, knee of Moses, where Michelangelo struck with his hammer, for he was so inspired.

L-48   See, there was something inside of him, at the beginning, that he drew a mental picture of what he thought Moses ought to look like. And when he seen that reflected before him, the very thing that he had on his mind, what he thought Moses should look like; and carried that vision with him all them years and years, as he took the great piece of granite, and chip a piece here and a piece there, and mark it down, 'cause it had to come perfectly. And when it was perfected before him, he--he seen the reflection of what was in his mind. That's what inspired him so, to strike the image, and cry out, "Speak!" All his years of toil had paid off. His great handiwork had been finished.

L-49   Now we see that, and I--I got inspired by it, 'cause I thought that, really, the mark on the leg, what made it, to me, the masterpiece. Because, just, if it just been another portrait, or something of Moses, some kind of a figure that some man had had a conception. But, the man that was doing the work, it so satisfied him until he struck it. And the mark on it made it the masterpiece to me, because it perfectly reflected what was in his mind that Moses should look like.

L-50 Oh, I stood there. I had to walk away for a few minutes, to think of--of what that must have meant to him, and--and what it meant to me at that time. Then it come to my mind, of this that I want to speak to you about.

L-51   Let us turn now our thoughts from Michelangelo, to the great Sculptor, God Almighty, Who, in the beginning, before there was a day or dawn of day, 'fore there's an atom or a molecule. God, in His mind, had man, what a man should look like, what he should be, and what he should act like. And He wanted that man to be part of Him, "So He made man in His own image, and in the likeness of God created He man," oh, when God, in the beginning, made this masterpiece, something that reflected His thoughts.


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