The Rambling Man and the
Tornado
AS I THOUGHT ON MY WAY 59-0610
E-22 Some time ago a young colored boy rushed
into the meeting when the altar call was being made. He come from the outside.
And he come up, and he said, "I want to become a Christian tonight."
"Why, certainly, we're always glad to see that." And said, "The
reason I want to become a Christian, I've been a rambler." And said,
"I was out rambling around once, and--up in the north woods," and
said, "I got without money." And said, "I hired myself to a
lumber camp where there was an aged colored woman that done the cooking, and I
was going to assist her and--and then to wash dishes and so forth for her, to
get enough money to go on." Said, "We slept in a little back room
with a large piece of canvas to separate her part from my part." And said,
"One night with my head under the cover, I was awakened by voices that was
speaking loud by my window. And I pulled my head out from under the
cover," and he said, "I heard one man say, 'Jim, let's hurry back to
the cabin as quick as we can, because we may be swept completely into eternity
in the next few moments, for that tornado is headed right this way.'"
E-23 Said, "Then I could not but wonder
when I jumped to the window and looked and seen that long funnel shaped cloud,
and just one constant blast of thunder and lightening. And see when the
lightning, the trees rooting up, and that great long serpent tail was coming
right towards our cabin." Said, "I heard the canvas rake, and the
aged old woman said, 'Son, come over on my side; I've got a lantern lit here.'"
And said, "I went over, and she said, 'Are you a Christian?'" Said,
"I said, 'No, I'm not a Christian.'"
Said, "Did you ever pray?" Said, "No, I've
never prayed." Said, "Well, you better be praying, for these twisters
lay everything flat on the ground."
E-24 Said, "Reverend, I got down by the
side of that old woman on that little box where the lantern set. But I was too
scared to pray." He said, "I couldn't get my thinking right."
And he said, "Every time I'd start to pray, a tree would root up and slam
against the cabin; the windows would go out." He said, "I was too
scared to pray." He said, "And now, the only thing I could do was sit
and watch that calm old saint with not a bit more worry of nothing in the
world, constantly speaking to Somebody that she was acquainted with." And
I said, "Lord, I'm too scared to pray. But if--if You'll just let me live,
I will pray after this."
E-25 You see, it takes trouble sometimes to make
us realize, to turn our hopes to God, turn ourselves over to Him. I believe it was
Job who thought on his ways, and he wanted to make them sure, not only on his
ways, but his children's ways. And he come God's only way that God ever did
make for man, the burnt offering and under the blood. Many of you are sure
that... You have read the story of Job. And he said, "My children's been
out having parties. And peradventure they have sinned; I'll make an offering
for them." He wanted to be sure while he was normally and right.
E-26 You know I think if mothers and fathers
tonight in this fair land of ours, if they spent more time on their knees
praying, bringing their children to God through prayer, instead of out in these
parties drinking and running around, we'd have less juvenile delinquency.
The Rambling man and the
Tornado
ONCOMING STORM 60-0229
110 I was in a meeting not long ago. I'm
looking at a--a colored brother setting here, I suppose, him and his wife. And
I've been watching him since I been preaching, nodding his head, and
re--rejoicing in the meeting and just brought me to a--a thought.
There was a boy come into the meeting one time, and as soon
as the service was over, he--he ran to me, and he said, "Parson." He
was a southerner. And he said, "Parson, I's wants to find the Lord Jesus
tonight." I was having a healing service.
And I said, "Certainly, my brother, I am more than
happy to lead you to Him." He said, after he had gave his heart to the
Lord; he said, "I wonder... I guess you are wondering why I run up out
here like this." Said, "I heard you were in the city, and I just come
up to see what--to see you." He said, "I'll tell you my story."
He said, "I more or less been a wanderer." Said, "My old mother
was a real Christian. My sisters was Christian. I had one Christian
brother." Said, "I was the baby of the family, and a spoiled child to
begin with, 'cause they babied me, was so good to me." But said, "I
would not take heed to my mother or my godly relation. I wanted to be a wanderer.
I wanted to live a man's life." He said, "I thought that being a
Christian was more like for the women or the weak." He said, "And I
become a cook, and I was very good at my trade." And said,
"Something, another, I wanted to go to the north. And one day I staggered
in on a pulp camp, where they were cutting pulp wood. And I was broke. And I
said to the foreman, 'Could you use a cook?'" He told his recommendations,
that he had in his pocket, from different great places where he had been a
chef.
115 And he said,
"Well, we have one now." He said, "But, however, until you're
able to get around, we can give you a little bit of money on the side. We got
an elderly colored woman in there now, which is a good chef. But go in, talk
with her, maybe she could use you. And if she could, we can give you a little
spending money till you get on your feet." He said that was as good as he
wanted. And said he went in there, and he met the old woman, and said he helped
her around for two or three days.
117 And one night, said he was laying there,
and he said he kept noticing the flashes across the side of the wall. And after
while he wondered, "Is that... Is somebody outside?" And said, after
while he heard a--a deep roar, and it was a thunder. And said, outside he heard
some voices talking, and they said, "You know, we better get back to the
horses, and take care of them, because we may not be here very long." Said
he took the cover off his head, and listened up to the wall. And the lightning
flashed, and he saw his boss and the teamster. And he understood by their talk,
that there was coming a storm across the mountains, which we call up in the
north lands "a northerner," comes quickly, without warning. You don't
have time to do nothing. The mountains are so high; they just break right over
at once.
119 And that flashing had been lightning. And
he said, "You know, we may not be here after while." Said, "That
sounds like a terrible twister coming." And then he said, "I begin to
think, 'Well, I hope it doesn't strike here,' said, 'because I know I'm not
ready to go.'" And sometimes you wait too long, you know. So then he said,
"Just in a few moments, the wind begin to blow, and the trees begin to
rock." And said he listened. The canvas was between he and where the--the
old lady slept, and said, "She was beating on that canvas. She said, 'Son?
Oh, son?'" He said, "Yes?" She said, "Would you come over
to my side? I have a lantern lit." And said, "I went over to her,
because I was scared to death." And said, "She had a lantern setting
on an old soap box. And she said, 'I'd like to ask you something.'" Said,
"Yes, ma'am." Said, "Is you ready to meet the Lord?" He
said, "Then I really got scared." Said, "No, ma'am, I'm
not." "Why," she said, "honey, I want you to tell me
something. You'd better make ready now, 'cause you may have to meet Him,
unprepared in the next few minutes." Said, she said, "Will you kneel
with me here?"
124 Said, "We
knelt down by the side of that old soap box." He said, "Parson, I'm
going to tell you the truth; I was too scared to pray." He said, "The
trees was slamming against that building, and the lightning a-flashing, the
thunders a-shaking. I was too scared to pray." Said, "I started to
say, 'Lord, be merciful,' and bang would go the lightning. I'd said, 'Where was
I at? Lord, be merciful,' bang would go the lightning." He said, "But
I learned a lesson." He said, "That old sainted woman set just as
cool and happy as she could be." Said, "She talked to Him like she'd
knowed Him since she was a baby, like He was her father or her mother."
Said, "She was no more disturbed than nothing." Said, "I was
scared to death." Said, "Finally I got these words out, and I said,
'Lord, if You'd just let me live, and I'll find a place where it's more
quieter, I'll come to You." He got another chance, but you might not. When
the judgments of God begin to pour out, there's no more chance. You've got your
chance now. This is your chance.
128 The storm was
on him. He said, "Parson, is it possible for a man like me to be tucked away
in that safety, that when death begins to come upon me, that I can enter up to
talk to Him like that old saint did?" I said, "Son, the Blood of
Jesus Christ that made her that way can make you that way right now." I
was standing by my automobile. He was a well-dressed boy, cultured, educated.
He fell on his knees in the muddy yard and there he found that hiding Place,
that Refuge in a time of storm, that Rock in a weary land. You don't have to be
weary as long as you're in the Rock. The Rock is one place that's not weary.
The Rock is a satisfying place. You can just set back and look out, just as
safe as you can be.
132 There is a hour coming, and now is (and the
sealing is about over), that where every man and woman on the face of the earth
is going to be in that place of Refuge, like it was in the days of Noah, or on
the outside of It. You have to make your decision. That safety is Jesus Christ.
That... He is the only Place, the only One Who has Eternal Life. No man can
come to the Father, but by Him. He is the Ark of our safety. The Holy Spirit
bears record with us now, that we've passed from death unto Life. And when we
look at the grave, and know that each one of us is going there...
134 We see the newspapers and the oncoming
storm. When you go home tonight, do me one favor, don't go to bed till you read
Revelations the 8th chapter. You see the oncoming plagues and storms, that
shall hit the earth, and thunders and lightnings are going to shake the
heavens. Woes are going to pass over the nation. Men will rot in their flesh.
Diseases will strike them the doctors knows nothing about. But remember, before
that took place there was a sealing went forth. And the death angels and the
plagues was commissioned by God, "Don't come near any of those who has the
Seal in their forehead." And the Seal of God is the baptism of the Holy
Spirit; Ephesians 4:30 says, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby
you are sealed until the day of your redemption." No matter how hard the
ark rocked, no matter how many times the lightning struck close to it,
"Ten thousand shall fall on your right, and thousands to your left, and it
shall come not nigh thee." The Holy Spirit...