<TITLE>27. Par 129-136</TITLE>L-129   I said, "You mean I was afraid of this? Why, this..."
There's no word to speak it, friends. "It's perfect," wouldn't--wouldn't touch it, "sublime." There's no English vocabulary that I know, no word at all, that could ever express what it is. It's beyond anything that I know. There he was. There was no sickness, no sorrow. You couldn't die. You couldn't sin. It was just perfect, just perfect. Friends, you mustn't, you mustn't miss it. Remember.

L-130 And when I was a little boy, I saw a vision of hell, as a little boy. And you know how the ladies, today, or the women (lady wouldn't do a thing like that), paint their eyes like a wolf, or something like that, that blue stuff under their eye. I seen that. I was sinking. As a little boy, I had been shot, and I was laying, dying in a hospital. And I had always knowed there was God.
I remember the first prayer I ever tried to pray. The only thing I could say... I--I've never told this before. I just feel I'll tell it right now. I was shot, laying there, dying in a field. And the only plea that I could have to God, I said, "You know, Lord, I never did commit adultery." See? As a little, young boy about fifteen years old, I tried to live right. And I said, "I've lived clean." And that's all I could say. That's all the merit that I could offer Him.

L-131   And then laying there, then, when the doctor done walked away from me, and I felt myself sinking into a dark Eternity, and looked like. I holler for papa, "Oh, papa, help me." There was no papa there. "Mama, help me." There was no mama there. "God, help me." There was no God there. It was just the endless, horrible, oh, nightmare. Burning, blazing hell would be a pleasure, being up aside of that. And falling through there, I thought, "Oh, my!" Over and over, like this. I got into a place, smoke, and dark, and sick. And, oh, such a feeling! It was death on me.
I could see those women coming up to me, with them kind of painted eyes like that. Now remember, that's been forty-five years ago, about forty years ago, anyhow. Going, they was going, "Oooh! Oooh! Oooh!"
I said, "Am I to be there forever?"
"Forever."

L-132 I said, "O God, if You'll let me out of here, I--I--I'll never be ashamed of You again. I'll never be ashamed. God, please give me a chance."
The first thing you know, I felt myself coming back up. And the doctor was alarmed, 'cause my heart was only beating seventeen times to the minute. I done bled all my blood out and everything, was laying in my own blood. And I've wondered, some day that would happen?

L-133   About two years ago, when I moved to Tucson, I was with my wife down at J. C. Penney's. I was setting there like that, and with my head down, waiting. Cause, you know how, ladies, they shop a long time. And I was--I was setting there, my head down like this. And an escalator was coming up. And here come some of them women up, with them waterhead haircuts, you know, like they do, like that. Coming up with them painted-looking eyes like that. And they were speaking Spanish. And that's that. It all (the vision) reoccurred again. There it was, "Oooh! Oooh!"

L-134 Brother, sister, let me tell you something. It may seem funny now, but you once get there. It's a serious thing. Don't you never go that way.

L-135   Me, as an old man, a minister, I preached around the world, got millions of friends, but I know I've got to stand with you yonder. Get away from the things of the world. And if there is something in you, that you still want to act the way you act, if you do have the things of the world in you, remember, you're none of God's. You're just a church member, until that call; that deep, calling to the Deep. See?

L-136 Like, before there was a fin on a fish's back, there had to be a water for him to swim in, first, or he'd never had a fin.
Before there was a--a tree to grow in the earth, there had to be an earth, or there would have been no tree to grow in it. There'd be no reason for the tree, and to make it coexist.


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