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Smith, Jewell Ellen, 1915-1998

"Great Jehoshaphat and Gully Dirt"

I just seemed like a jaded
horse.
I thought surely, though, I'd soon get my second wind. So I
went on about my pastoring. Each Saturday and Sunday, and often
on Mondays, I rode miles in my two-horse buggy as I went to
preach at my four churches over the county. This taxed my
strength, so much so that I was always tired. And during these
months it seemed I was called on to hold twice as many burials
and weddings as common.
Then one Sunday in early February, as I was conducting an
evening service at Shiloh, a strange and beautiful thing
occurred. It was about three o'clock.
I turned the pages of the pulpit Bible to the thirty-ninth
chapter of the Book of Psalms. I was planning to take my text
from the sixth verse, which says, "Surely every man walketh in a
vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up
riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them."
It was my intent to preach on the theme that one is foolish
to lay up worldly goods. I decided, though, to read the entire
Psalm to the congregation before I started my discourse.


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