167 Here sometime ago, a minister friend… I just heard this told; I believe it. One hot afternoon down in Georgia, he was visiting with this—a druggist. The old druggist was a fine old Christian brother, full of the Spirit of God. And he said, "Come in and set down, and let's have a—a Coke." They was setting there drinking their Coke. He said, "I want to say something to you, and you perhaps will not believe this."
"Well, let's hear it first," said the minister.
He said, "I have always tried to do my best for God." He was a deacon in a church. He said, "I've always tried to live to my calling and do that which was right." He said, "I've never cheated anybody. I've always testified for my Lord everywhere I could." And said, "I've… To… My drugs here," said, "I've tried to carry the very highest class that could be boughten. I've never overcharged anybody. I've tried to do everything was right, that I knowed how to do to serve the Lord." He said, "I'm going to tell you what happened."
169 Said, "My son, who's studying to be a druggist too, to follow me, he was in the front of the building there one day." And said, "It was during the time of the depression." Said, "A little lady walked into the—the door." And said, "You could see what her trouble was. And she was to be a mother. And her husband, and both of them, poorly dressed," said, "they give the prescription over to my son," and said, "to have it filled, for the woman was in need of this certain thing that the doctor had prescribed for her. And said, he said, 'This will be so much, such-and-such,' when the to-be father asked 'How much will it be?' 'So-and-so.' He said, 'Sir, I will not be able to get the prescription fulfilled, or filled,' he said, 'because that I haven't any money.'"
170 Well, he said, "My son said, 'Go right down the street there, just a half a block, or a block, and turn left, and you'll see where the—the place is where they have charity. And you go there to the county, and they will perhaps give you the money to have an order, that they'll pay for this prescription, because it's got… The lady has to have the—the—the medicine right away.'" And said, "He went out of the place, started…"
And said he listened to his son. "And Something said, 'Oh, no, don't do that.' Said, 'That woman needs that.'" Said, he happened to think, "'That long line of people down there, it's hard for a well man to stand in the line, let alone a mother in that condition.'"
Said, "I said to my son, 'Go, call them; tell them to come back.'" He said, "And I rushed to the door, and said, 'Come back. Come back.' They come back. And I said to my son, 'Fill that. There's no charge.'"
173 And said, "My son give me the prescription, and I went over and had it filled, and filled it up the best that I could, and brought it out to give to the lady, and tell her that. There would be no charges on this. That was all right, 'cause she was in need of it real bad, and—and I'd get by without it, so, the money for it."
So said, "I just started to lay the medicine in her hand. And when I did, I looked at the hand; it was scarred." Said, "I looked up, and I was putting it in Jesus' hand." Said, "I learned then that the Scriptures, what it meant, 'Insomuch as you've done unto the least of these, My little ones.'"
Said, "'Do you believe that?' this fellow said to me. "Why, sure, I believe that." It was a paradox, incredible, but it's true.
176 How about the great Saint Martin of Tours, France, when he, being a soldier, was one night coming down a cold, dark street, and there was a… In this cold dark street laid an old bum, laying on the street, freezing. His blood was freezing in his veins. And Martin, yet not a Christian… And anyone who's read Bible history, knows of Saint Martin. The historian the other day that was trying to get his card, that's the one I picked for the—for the third church age, Saint Martin, because he had signs following. And Saint Martin looked down before… He was a soldier, and there laid this old man, laying in the street, freezing. And he looked, and he had one coat; without the coat, he'd freeze. He took his knife and cut the coat in half, and wrapped the bum up in it, put the other half around himself, and went walking on.
177 That night, when he got into his room, and had set down, he heard Someone come into the room. He looked; here come Jesus, wrapped in that piece of coat. That was his call to the ministry.
He become a saint. He spoke in tongues. His school was trained. He trained his people right with the Word of God. He didn't care about what the first Church of Rome or any of them said. He stayed right with the Word of God. He taught them; speaking in tongues, and laying hands on the sick. They raised the dead. They cast out devils. One man, his friend, had been killed, and he went and laid his body over him (asked if he could see him a few minutes); he and his buddy come walking out together. Why? It was a paradox. Sure, God did it.
179 I believe in paradoxes. Yes, sir. I believe. I believe in them with all my heart.
It was a paradox when all the smart men there was in the world, and God put the key to the Kingdom in the hands of the one that was considered the ignorant and unlearned. That's right. One of the smartest men in the world in that day was Caiaphas, the high priest; another was the emperors and the kings, and the great men of the earth, like presidents and so forth, all these great men.
And what's the most important thing in the world? Is God's Church. God made the earth; He made it for a purpose: to take a Church out of it, a Bride. And that's the most important job in the world.
