Tuesday, July 15, 2014

There waits for me a glad tomorrow, Where gates of pearl swing open wide, And when I cross this vale of sorrow, I will camp upon the other side.



As I was telling you; don't know whether I told you or not... Here a few days ago, 'fore I went overseas, I was standing, and, Gene, I was almost doing like you said. I was trying to comb, what, a hair that I had left. The wife looked at me. She said, "Honey. Hm." She said, "You better wear one of them hair pieces they give you out there in California."
I said, "Honey, I like them real well, but I'm just ashamed to."
She said, "My, Bill, you sure taking your... Your hair's really gone, hasn't it?"
I said, "Yeah, that's right." But I said, "Oh, hallelujah."
She said, "What's you saying 'hallelujah' for?"
I said, "I never lost a one of them."
She said, "You never lost a one?"
I said, "No." I said, "See, honey, I'm getting old." I said, "I'm on forty-five years old." I said, "I'm an old man." Said, "I ain't... My," I said, "I'm getting old. I... Don't make any difference to me whether I'm bald-headed or what. Doesn't matter to me, as long as I don't go take--take bad colds so easy, and..."
And she said, "Well..." I said... But she said, "Well, where you..." Said, "But you said your hairs wasn't gone."
I said, "They're not." Why, I said, "Jesus said, 'There won't be one hair of your head perish."' See, see?
She said, "Do you mean...? Well..."
I said, "Honey, in the resurrection, when I come forth, to a young man like I was when we got married, straight shoulder, not a wrinkle, black wavy hair," I said, "that's the way I'll look again." Yes, sir. I said, "I'll never loose one of them then."
She said, "Well, well, where they at?"
I said, "I'll ask you something, and then, if you answer me, I'll answer you."
She said, "What?"
I say, "Where was they before I got them?"
She said, "Well, I guess God had..."
I said, "That's where He's got them too." I said, "They're still there. Every vitamin that was in them, every cell of life that was in them, every atom that was in them, every bit of petroleum that was in them, every bit of light it took to make them, God had it in His hands. And not one of them's perished. They're every one somewhere in the hands of God."
149 I look, my eyes are drooping down, baggy underneath, big wrinkles in my forehead. And sometimes I have to almost squint to look at my Bible. And the doctor told me I had perfect sight, twenty-twenty, but said, "After you get pass forty years old, your eyeballs get flat, and you can't read too close to you."
I said, "Yes, sir, I know that."
He said, "You keep pushing your Bible out, and Bible out." Said, "After while you have it way out here?"
I said, "I'll just get bigger letters, or something like that."
He said, "Well, it's just a nature."
"I look off out there, and I can see a hair laying on the end of the plate."
He said, "Well, you're forty years old, sir." He said, "Your--your eyeballs just actually... Just like your hair gets gray, and so forth," said, "you just have to have it."
Said, "Uh-huh."
154 I looked at all this. And I notice my shoulder, and stand stoop-shouldered. I used to be kind of young athletical. I'm getting fat now. I got forty pounds extra weight. And I had flat feet to begin with, and now it's hard to walk around. Aches and pains coming, well, I'm getting old, that's all.
I don't need all this here glamor that I used to have, but I haven't lost any of it. Every meter that was in them skin that made me young, God's still got them. That's right.
And this old hull just pulling along, that's all. After while, it'll get old and wrinkled up, and perhaps like the rest of the Harvey's do, on my mother's side... Which, they said I look like a Harvey. All of them get the palsy. You all remember grandpa, the one that built the church here, you know. He's always shaking, going like that (See?), and got the palsy.
I noticed poor old mom the other day. Hope she ain't here, but... Oh, I don't know whether... Well anyhow, she started to take up a cup of coffee, and poor old thing just like that, and her old hands like that. And I looked at the wrinkles hanging out. I thought, "Oh, mercy." I might as well say it. She's setting there. See? So I am not... She can take it. But... And look... My heart just almost jumped up in my mouth. I turned my head. I thought, "God, how many times that stroked tears out of my eyes, and now she's got the palsy, shaking." I thought, "Yeah, I'll come too someday like that, if I live."
158 But, brother, one of these days, I'll just... The old wheels of mortal life will all stand still. When it does, I'm going over on Zion's hill to live awhile over There. Yes, sir. All these old mortal things. Oh, remember, he said:
There waits for me a glad tomorrow,
Where gates of pearl swing open wide,
And when I cross this vale of sorrow,
I will camp upon the other side.
Some day beyond the reach of mortal kin,
Some day, God only knows just where and when,
The wheels of mortal life will all stand still
Then I shall go to dwell on Zion's hill.
Swing low, sweet chariot,
Coming for to carry me Home;
Swing low, sweet chariot,
Coming for to carry me Home.
159 That's right. The mists will begin to flow before my face; perhaps the doctor run in and say, "Well, Billy, she's all over." Oh, my. I know that old black chamber's setting yonder, and a heart beating going right into it. I don't want to go like a coward. I want to wrap myself in the robes of His righteousness, knowing this, that I know Him in the power of His resurrection. And someday when He calls, I'll come out from among the dead and live again forever.
To know Christ is to know Life. That's right. And I don't care, I might not know my abc's, but I want to know Christ. That's right. I might not know all the theology, but I want to know Christ. I might not know about the President, and whether he's a good man or a bad, but I want to know Christ. That's right. To know Christ is Life. That's right. To know the President and to know this other is prestige, and knowing celebrity and stuff. But I don't care about that. I want to know Christ in the power of His resurrection, knowing that we have, this night, a High Priest setting at the right hand of God in His majesty there, making intercessions. Then I want to hold fast that profession.


WMB - Law Or Grace (54-1006)

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