Psalm 119 — Walter Wilson

I was preaching in the church out in western Kansas, and the front seats were empty like these are. And I asked why. And a dear old fellow got up and he said, the preacher, what we had here before, the present incumbent, used to spit on us when he preached and we had to get out of his way.

Now, I'm a dry preacher, but if any of you folks way back there want a nice seat here, the collection's already taken, so just come and enjoy this front. Won't bother me at all. Get close to the preacher.

We like it better. Now, you'll notice the Lord Jesus had to die for two different reasons. He died for our sins according to the scriptures that you get in 1 Corinthians 15. That's our conduct. But in Romans 5, he had to die for us.

That's our character. He had to die for what we are, and he had to die for what we do. Both. Now, you know, if you have anybody working for you in the home, a maid or a servant or a stenographer, a helper, you want the deeds done right, but that doesn't mean you want the person.

You see, the Lord Jesus gave himself so we could be his, not only get forgiven for what we've done, but belong to him. So he had to have both. He died for our sins, and he died for ourselves. Let's remember that because it'll make us better Christians and more intelligent Christians when we realize that he had to bring us to himself.

The sinner only wants to be forgiven for his sins as a rule, but he forgets that he has to be fixed up himself. And so Christ died for us as well as for our sins, all of which has nothing to do with my sermon.

The Bible as God’s Book of Comfort

Turn, please, to Psalm 119. Remember that the Bible is the only book written by Jews that's loved by Gentiles. It's the only book written in the Orient that's loved in the Occident. It's the only book written in the world which increased in sale as it's given away free of charge.

And it's the only book that in all my medical life I've ever had anybody ask me for in the precious word of God. As far as I know, it's the only book in all the world that sinners hate. You can take any other religious book around the saloon or any other joint like that, and they won't hate it.

But you take the Bible in there, and something happens. I've seen it over and over again. It's a wonderful book. And it's the only book I know of that brings the comfort that the broken heart needs. Turn to Psalm 119.

Public Confession of Christ

In this psalm, the psalmist makes a number of confessions. I'm glad we had one man come down at the front. I see you folks waving back seats or backsliders anyway. There are some confessions in this psalm, eight of them in fact, or seven, which the psalmist makes, and I want to notice them with you, the wonderful confessions this dear man makes.

Everybody ought to make a public confession of their relationship to the Lord Jesus. Then the preacher knows what to say at your funeral. You might have to guess at it, preach somebody into heaven that didn't go there.

And then our friends will know how to treat us if we confess Christ. They'll know whether to tell us a dirty story or not, whether to invite us to do some wicked thing or not. We owe it to our friends to make a public confession of our relationship to the Lord Jesus.

And then we owe it to the folks we do business with, because they might want us, if we're working with them, to cheat or to lie or steal. And if they know you've confessed Christ and you're His, they won't ask you to do that.

They won't expect you to do that. You see, beloved, the Lord wants us to confess Him before men. It doesn't say confess that you're a Christian. It says confess Him. So we tell what we think of Him and what He is to us and what we think of Him and how much we love Him and what He's done for us.

We confess Him before men, and then the Lord Jesus confesses us before His Father. And we ought to do it for the reasons that I've just mentioned. Now, this man does it. Look in verse 19 at his first confession.

“I Am a Stranger in the Earth”

I am a stranger. By the way, some of you didn't find it. It's page 619. I am a stranger in the earth. Isn't that a strange thing? You might as well say it's a fish, it's a stranger in the sea, or a bird, it's a stranger in the air, or a cow, it's a stranger in a pasture.

We belong to this earth. We eat the stuff that comes out of it. We wear the things that it produces. We talk its language. We sing its songs. We are of the earth, earthy, and we can't help it. And when we die, we go back to dust.

From dust thou cam'st, and dust returns. Why does this man say this? I am a stranger in the earth. Well, you see, beloved, there are, there's something happens when you get saved, and God gives us a new life and a new nature and a new relationship that makes us citizens of heaven.

And if that doesn't happen, we didn't get saved, that's all. No use fooling ourselves. If God didn't do something to us when we got saved, then nothing was done, because all our resolutions and decisions aren't worth a thing in this business.

It's what God does to us that saves us. Remember, it's what He does. He has to give us eternal life. He has to make us righteous. He has to put away the sins. He has to bring us into His family. Thirty-three things take place when you trust the Lord Jesus.

Thirty-three things. Not just one. Thirty-three. I haven't time to give them to you, but you can look them up. And there are wonderful things that transform. Do you remember in the second chapter of, no, in the twelfth chapter of Romans, verse two, be not conformed to this world.

It's in the passive voice. It's something God does to us. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And that word transformed is metamorphosis. A metamorphosis is what takes place when a caterpillar turns into a butterfly, or a bug down in the green scum pond turns into a dragonfly, or a bunch of sand turns into an opal, or a bunch of black carbon turns into a diamond, or a bunch of black, of yellow clay turns into a sapphire.

That's a metamorphosis. And the Lord says, I'll do that to you. And if it didn't happen, we didn't get converted, that's all. We just fooled ourselves, and we're a nice, lovely sinner trying to be like a Christian.

And that's the reason there's so much disappointment. I am a stranger in the earth. God did something to him that made him a different man. We don't know who wrote this. I think Ezra wrote it, really.

That's my own personal opinion. It's a Wilson opinion. It takes a lot to work. But he said, I am a stranger in the earth. Now, when I was in Norway, I was a stranger there. I couldn't understand a word of it.

I don't know how anybody else could either. That's an awful difficult religion. But wife and I went to the restaurant with a waitress and pointed to what we wanted. Because we couldn't say a word of it, and we didn't look for the price of real estate or anything else.

We were strangers there and loved it. We'd like to go back to it. It was delightful, and the people were so kind and friendly. But we were strangers there. And we went to Switzerland, beautiful, beautiful country.

And we were strangers there. In fact, everywhere we've been abroad, we were strangers there. We wanted to get back to Kansas City, where we had good old Republicans. I am a stranger in the earth. Do you feel that way, beloved?

We sing, Oh, to be over yonder. And then when we get sick, we send for the chiropractor and the doctor and the dentist and the druggist and the prayer meeting and keep out of heaven. Now, I started for heaven last October, but things ganged up on me and wouldn't let me go.

But as I was lying there with that terrible, terrible pain, I thought how wonderful it would be out of faith and to sight and out of the shadows into the light of His presence. I thought of it. And yet I kind of thought, well, I haven't been to Winona Lake for a year.

I'd better live long enough to get back there once. Let's remember, when the Lord does something to you, and you ought to test yourself, every one of us ought to test ourselves, because in my experience in practicing medicine, I have found many a case in the death chamber where they found out they weren't saved at all, going out into the dark.

They had a religion, but didn't have a savior. Let's examine ourselves and see, did God do something to me when I professed to be saved that made me a stranger in the earth? Now, that's a test. Look at the next one, in the 63rd verse.

Fellowship with Those Who Fear God

In verse 63, I am a companion of all them that fear thee and of them that keep thy precepts. I am a companion. Do you remember in John, we know we've passed from death unto life because we love the brethren?

Now, that's a wonderful truth there. You know, if I had a strange animal here, and had a bill like a pelican, and had feet like a chicken, and had wings like an ostrich, and had a tail like a turkey, and I don't know what the thing is, I could easily find out.

I'd take it out and set it down in the barnyard. Whatever animal it goes with, that's what it is. That's what he's talking about here. God saves us and gives us a nature that loves other Christians, loves to be with them.

We don't just visit with them, we are companions with them because we have the same life that they have, the same nature that they have, and we're in the same family, in the same father. We've been born again like the others, and there's a union of hearts there.

There's something that knits our hearts and souls together that makes us love each other and want to be with each other. I am a companion of all of them, not just the Methodists, the Baptists, the Praetorians, the Episcopalopians.

I am a companion of all of them that fear thee. You know, the love of God unites our hearts, doesn't it? I was coming home one time when I was a paper boy, and every Sunday morning I used to wrap some tracts up in the newspaper so they'd have something to read besides bringing up proverbs.

And one night, one morning about six o 'clock I was coming back home, and there was a Kurd man, a very elderly man, white curls on his head. He was the caretaker of a rich family where I had thrown a paper.

And he was standing out by the gate when I came back reading the paper. And he said, Hey, paper boy, is the boy what threw the Bible up on the post this morning? I said, Yes, sir. And as quick as lightning he threw his arms around me and said, I's your brother.

And he was. I loved it. You can sit down beside anybody on the bus or anywhere. If he knows the Savior and you know the Savior, you're right together just like that. You know your past from death unto life because you love the other folks that are like that.

What a sweet fellowship that is. I found it everywhere I've gone, in the airplane, on the train, in foreign countries, all over this country. I've seen that very thing. I don't ask what you belong to.

I find out who you belong to. And if you belong to our Lord Jesus, oh boy, you can put your arms around that if you dare and say, Thank God for you. Let's remember that God does something to us when we get saved.

You don't just say, Well, I came to Jesus or I took Jesus or something like that. That's nice. That's all right. But we want to know, Did he do something? I wish you'd turn just for a moment over to Malachi.

That's the last book in the Old Testament. I want you to notice something there in Malachi chapter 3 and verse 16. I expect many of you to quote it. Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another.

Now, they that feared the Lord, that's character. Spake often one to another, that's conduct. And the Lord heard it. A book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, that's character.

And as thought upon his name, that's conduct. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts. That is, the mine of ownership and the mine of workmanship. This Bible is mined by ownership, but not by workmanship.

And this suit is mined by ownership, but not by workmanship. But we are his both ways. He bought us with his precious blood, if you're saved by grace, and made you his, you're his by ownership. And then you remember in Ephesians 2, we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.

So we're his both ways. And we ought to be wanting him to work on us. We ought to. Every day making us more and more like the Savior. Like Robert Murray McShane said, a lovely word, he said, Lord, make me as near like Christ Jesus as is possible for a redeemed sinner to be.

That ought to be the cry of our hearts. Workmanship. We are his, they shall be mine, saith the Lord. That's the mine of ownership and the mine of workmanship. In that day when I make up my jewels. Not when he makes his jewels.

We are made down here. But he makes his up. See, I have a business here. I don't know what it is. But one of my children gave it to me. And she had it made up for a stick pin for me. And some of you have seen that lovely stick pin I have that has eight diamonds around it.

And an opal in the middle. You see, when I was 70, my children came home, each one brought a diamond. Eight of them. I have eight children, so does my wife. And we put these eight, we took it to a jeweler, and he made it up.

He put the opal in the middle, eight diamonds around it, so I'd have family on my neck all the time, you see. Very lovely. Now, the Lord makes up his jewels. Down here there are many groups, you know, that love to work together and serve together.

And over there he gives us the joy of being together. I think that's what it means. The sinners, the same way, in the 13th of Matthew, bind them in bundles to burn them. He makes those that live in sin together suffer in hell together.

But I'm getting off the subject here. Now look at verse 13 again, 17. I will spare them as a man spares his own son, that character, that serveth him, that conduct. Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, that character, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not, that conduct.

Now, the deceiver has to die for both, both our character and our conduct. And what a blessed thing that he did it and makes us his own. Now come back to Psalm 119. By the way, there are 22 sections in this psalm, and there are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet.

And each of these sections is for one of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. That's the reason there are 22 sections. You notice it's Aleph, Beth, Gimel, Daleth, Hei, Vaugh, Shayan, Heth, Teth, Yub. And each one of those Hebrew letters is a number.

It starts with number 1 and runs up to Yod, that's number 10. And then it begins with Mechon Koph, which is 20. Then Lamed is 30, Mem is 40, Nun is 50, Shayan, Samach is 60, and Ayin is 70, and Peh is 80, and Sadi is 90, and Hoph is 100.

Then Reis is 200, and Shean is 300. That's the way the Hebrew numbers run. And the last one is Tal, which is 400. And by the way, look in your Bible at verse 161, where you'll find the letter Shean. You notice that letter?

Look at it. It's three points sticking up and joined together at the bottom. And for centuries the Jews used that letter to tell of God. When one writes the word God, they use that letter, three in one.

For the real Unitarian Jews until about 200 years after Christ, all the Old Testament Jews were Trinitarians. They believed God had a son. Kiss the son, lest he be angry with thee. Now perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little.

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. What is his son's name? His name and his son's name. You'll find many references. They all believed in the Trinity way back before Christ. But coming back to this subject, I'm getting off it.

You see, my tree has a lot of branches on it. I am a companion of all them that fear the end of them that keep thy precepts. Do you love to be with God's people? And when you choose to go on a fishing trip or a hunting trip or a picnic, do you pick out God's dear people?

Are you just as happy with the ungodly as you are with Christians? If so, you're not saved at all, because light loves light. Now, you notice this summer in the pastor, two horses. And one's tails, they're opposites, you know.

And one's tail's keeping the flies off this one's neck, and this one's tail's keeping the flies off this one's neck. That's fellowship. But you don't find a cow and a horse doing that. You don't find pig and sheep doing that.

Horses like horses, because they have the same nature. And if you belong to the Lord Jesus and he has given you eternal life, we belong to a royal nation, a priesthood, a holy nation. We are a different people.

We're separated from the world. We have to make our living there, and we have to mingle with them. But when it comes to fellowship and the loving to be with those that you love, you want those that know the Savior.

So I am a companion of all them that fear thee. That's verse 63. Now look at verse 83. Oh, this is a sad one, verse 83. I am become like a bottle in the smoke. My, what a mess. That's the third confession.

“Like a Bottle in the Smoke”: Spiritual Distress

I am become like a bottle in the smoke. Now, they didn't have glass bottles. They had skin bottles. Do you remember when you were a boy or a girl and went out in the snow and got your feet all wet? Mother said, don't set your shoes by the stove.

Remember that? To dry out. Don't set them on the radiator because they get hard, brash, brittle. You know, you're hard to get them on. That's what this fellow said. Isn't that strange that he would be a stranger in the earth and a companion of God's people and yet have that kind of a mess in his life?

I am become like a bottle in the smoke, dried up, shrilled up, shrunken up, and brash, and not soft and pliable anymore. You know, things do happen in your life that harden you. It's strange that if you lay clay out in the sun, it gets hard, and you put wax out in the sun, it gets soft.

You put eggs in hot water, and they get hard, and you put potatoes in hot water, and they get soft. You put a man in hot water, and he gets hard. I am become like a bottle in the smoke. Did you ever get that way?

And you get up in the morning, beans again, burnt toast. Can't you wash it, take care of it? And I ordered soft-boiled eggs, and he gave me hard-boiled. Where's my collar button? You get down and look under the bureau, that's where it is.

It rolls back, you know, when you drop anything. And we're as miserable and mean as we can be. Well, there's something gone wrong. That's what he said. I am become like a bottle in the smoke, and we're not tender-hearted anymore.

We're miserable. Something's gone wrong, and nothing's right. Did you ever get that way? That's what he said. So you know what he did? He jumped in the river. Now, what he did was to go and get some carbolic acid and drink that, and then jump headfirst in the river with his pockets full of stones.

That's what he did when he got like this. Read it. Read it for yourself. Verse 83. I was in John Zoller's home one Sunday at lunch, and the telephone rang, and John, just as we sat down, John went to the telephone, and he was gone so long that we hadn't finished eating before he got back.

When he came back, he said, There's a man on the phone who wants to speak to you. Come in here, girls. Come right in here. Don't be bashful. The collection's already been taken. The man wants to talk to you on the phone.

He says you're going to commit suicide. So I went to the phone. Are you Dr. Wilson? Are you preaching down at the tabernacle? I said, Yes, sir. Well, he said, I'm going to commit suicide, so I want to tell you goodbye.

I said, God bless you. I'm glad you are. And I heard a kind of funny noise at the other end. I said, How are you going to do it? With a shotgun or a carbolic acid or what? No, he said, I'm going to jump off into a lake.

I said, Say, bud, Pier Number 54 has the deepest water. The water's very deep up at Pier 54. Now let me suggest that you wait until midnight before you go. Fill your pockets with stones, and on the way this evening, you stop somewhere and get some carbolic acid.

And then you go up at 2 o 'clock in the morning, out to the end of there where the water's very deep, and you swallow the carbolic acid and then jump off headfirst, and you'll do a good job. Whatever's worth doing at all is worth doing well.

Well, why do you tell me that for? Well, I said, because, I'll tell you. God has given the Lord Jesus, His own Son, to save you. He's given you a Bible and kept it through the centuries. From the carelessness of its friends and the hatred of its enemies, He's given you friends and flowers and every lovely thing.

God can't do any more for you. You might as well jump off. Bang! He hung up the receiver. But that night he came to serve in John's little legend of Christ. What does it say? I'm like a bottle in smoke.

But what's the rest of the verse? Yet do I not forget thy taxes. He went right to his Bible, right to the Word of God, when he felt like a bottle in smoke. Now, that's a remedy. That's a remedy. Go right to your Bible.

And if you don't find it in the first place that you read, look for the second place. And if you don't find it there, look for the third place. I remember one day when I was way down in the dumps, and I did this, I went to my Bible, and I had turned five places before I found the message that soothed my own heart.

How many of you raised on a farm? Let's see. Anybody here live on a farm? Oh, a lot of you. You ever notice a calf nursing? And she's sucking away and sucking away and pushing. You see a butt in the old lady.

You know what's the matter? The milk isn't coming down. And she isn't going to be satisfied. And if one tip don't bring it, she brings five more other tips. There are four of them. And you have to do that, beloved.

If you don't find the thing that mends your heart in the first chapter you read, turn to another place, and another place, until God in his loving kindness and grace gives you the thing you need for the kind of a heart you have that day, or that feeling that you have that day.

I am become like a bottle in the smoke, yet do I not forget thy statue. You find in the word of God everything that your heart needs. Everything. That's the reason I mentioned you 33 things take place when you trust the Savior.

The Many Titles of Jesus

But you know, the Lord Jesus has 226 titles that I know of. I have a list of that many on my desk. And each title tells something he wants to do for you and me. Each title tells of his ability and willingness to do a certain thing for you and me.

I have a few titles. Some people come to me as a doctor. Some people come to me as a preacher. And for years, the tent and awning men all over the United States came to me to build tents for them. Because I used to build Charlie Ringling's tent, and Buffalo Bill's tent, and Pawnee Bill, and Hayden Beck Wallace, and John Robinson, and L .G. Barnes, and Yankel Robinson, and Zell Soto.

I knew all those fellows and made their tents for them. And they came to me for that. But when my children got in college, they came to me as their banker. See, I have lots of titles. Now, if I move to Winona, and I put out a sign, Walter L. Wilson, M .D., medical doctor.

Then a few days later, I put out one dentist. Then a few days later, I put out one plumber. And then a little while later, I put out another one, barber. And I keep on putting signs out in front of my office until I have 226 signs there.

You wouldn't need anybody else. That's the reason the Lord Jesus said in verse 27, Matthew 11, 27, All things are delivered to me of my Father. Therefore, you come unto me, and I'll give you rest. He has it.

You don't need to look all over the country. Christ is one stop station for the Christian. One stop station. Everything your heart needs, He has it for you. Now, let's look at the next one. And it's verse 94.

Belonging to Christ and Being Saved from Sin

Oh, this is a lovely one. I am thine, save me. This is the fourth confession he makes. I am thine, save me. Now, beloved, does a saved person need to be saved? When you belong to him, aren't you already saved?

Well, I was at Sea Cliff, Long Island one time, and the tabernacle was up over a hill. You couldn't see it from the little station. The station was just a little shed to keep people out of the rain. And we had, every day, we had a receptionist down there.

So when people got off the train, they could tell where to go for you. You couldn't see anything from there. And so one day we had a receptionist down there, and Archie Payne came. Some of you may have remembered him.

He's a great evangelist from England. And he got off of his Bible under his arm, and the receptionist said, Were you looking for the Bible conference? Yes, sir. Well, you just follow this path up over the meadow, and just over the brow of the hill you'll find the tabernacle.

Are you a saved man? Yes, sir. Have you been saved a long time? Well, he said, The last time I was saved was about 20 minutes ago. I always said, You're not going to feel at home here, because we believe when you're once saved, you're always saved.

Well, he said, I'm sorry. I used to believe that, too, but I don't anymore. Well, she said, You're going to be miserable around here, I tell you. You won't enjoy being here. Well, he said, I'll tell you, lady.

You see, when the conductor called out Seacliff, I rose to get off the train, and so did that heavyset lady over there. And when she got up, she stepped on my sore foot, and the Lord saved me from saying what I wanted to say.

I'm blind. Save me. Boy, the things we need to be saved from. Isn't that right? Saying things we shouldn't say, doing things we shouldn't do. Oh, how our hearts. If you're honest, you'll tell the Lord a good many times every day, God save me.

We need to be saved from stinginess. I came down to church one morning, and a man met me in the lobby. He said, Can you change a dime? We had three meetings. He was going to put a penny in one, two pennies in the next, three pennies in the next, or something like that.

He wanted a dime change so he could have something to put in each offering. A lot of people put in nickels. You know, the Bible says God hates the deeds of the Nicolaitans. It says so. I am thine. Save me.

Oh, beloved. When my boy went away to college, University of Illinois, he went away to study office work. I forget what it's called now. Business administration. And when he left, and he's my oldest boy, Walter Jr., I said, Walter, I hope you'll remember when you get over to Champaign, Illinois, that you belong to Jesus Christ.

You're in God's family. You're one of God's children. He said, Dad, I'll never forget that. And I'll also remember that I'm the son of Dr. Walter L. Wilson. Boy, then I kissed him and gave him ten dollars.

We want to remember that we belong to a wonderful family. Have you noticed in the book of Ephesians, in the first chapter, we are members of his body. In the second chapter, we're members of his temple, living stones in the temple.

In the third chapter, we're members of his family. In the fourth chapter, we're members of his school, students in his school. In the fifth chapter, we're members of his bride. In the last chapter, we're members of his army.

And in each of those cases, he expects us to live life. And show it. And act like that. Like he wants us to act. What does it say? I am thine, save me. And we ought to want to be saved from everything beloved.

We ought to want that. Because if you were a doctor, as I am, and have seen what I've seen, and heard what I've heard in the sick room, it would give you a double desire to be as near like the Lord Jesus as is possible to be.

Because the devil isn't going to let you die in peace if he can help it. He'll bring up to your mind things you forgot years ago. Sins and evils of calmation, you see, there are five kinds of sins. He'll bring them all back to you.

And I have seen it. I've seen people, lovely Christians, and the devil brought back terrible things. I saw that with a man that used to be on this platform. Paul and I went to see him. He was dying. And that man was in terrible distress of soul.

All the things passed in his life had been washed away years ago. Remember, beloved, the Lord doesn't want you to bring up things he's buried. Now remember that. I think I told some of you about my black cat that died.

A dear little thing that died sideways. And every funeral I'd been to, the head was up, you know, looking up, the face up. I tried to get this face up, but it wouldn't come because it died sideways. And so I got a shoebox and I made a coffin because, see, my father was a Methodist preacher.

He was a state evangelist for Ohio and Indiana for the Methodists. And I thought maybe the way to begin to be a preacher is to preach a funeral. And so I got a shoebox and made a coffin out of it and put my cat in there.

And I called the children together around the neighborhood and I was going to preach this funeral sermon. And I couldn't get that head up. And so I cut a hole in the other end of the box and I had a tail stick out.

I thought it didn't make any difference which end you see as long as you see the cat. And then we formed a procession and went way back in the backyard. We dug a grave under a peach tree and we let the corpse tenderly down the cords.

And then we caught hands around saying, God be with you to meet again. And then the boys pulled their stuff in, you know, the dirt and covered it and we went away. But I made them leave the tail out. And every two or three days I went around and pulled the thing up by the tail to see how it was getting on.

And I did that until the tail pulled off and then I couldn't do it anymore. But that's the way some of you dear folks do. You confess your sins to the Lord and you keep dragging them up and making them smell all over again.

And he says, your sins and your iniquities will I remember. Aren't you glad there isn't a period there? What's the rest of it? No more. No more. I'm thine, save me. Save me from thinking you keep remembering my sins all the time.

When he blots them out, leave them to stay blotted out. Don't drag them up anymore for him. Well, now let's look at the next one. And let's see where is the next one. At verse 107. Oh, this is a wonderful thing.

Affliction as God’s Testing and Refining Work

I am afflicted very much. I am afflicted very much. You wouldn't think a man like this would be afflicted. A man who's a stranger in the earth, who keeps company with God's dear people, and goes through that experience like a bottle in smoke, and becomes so devoted to him he doesn't want to grieve him, you wouldn't think this would happen, would you?

I am afflicted very much. But you know, beloved, that's true of everything. Now, this glass I have used to be up here by Lake Michigan, I think, in a sand pile. But somebody got it, took it out and melted it and put it through a lot of trouble and drowned it.

And now I can see a little bit through this. Of course, this is a hypocrite in this eye. That's a plastic eye. I don't know what it's made of. I don't care. But there's one thing sure. The Lord has given somebody wisdom to mistreat that sand so as to make an eye for me.