Jess Smith

I thank God for the old-time religion that takes sin out and sweeps it away. That is the kind of God we serve—a God who takes sin out and gives a man victory over the old life of sin and shame that he used to live.

I roamed up and down this Pacific Coast from one saloon to another, drinking booze and smoking cigarettes. That is all I knew. I didn’t have half sense half of the time. I landed up in Montana stealing cattle and sheep off the range. Then I got a stint behind the cold, gray walls. That was just what I needed.

I ran away from the prison and was gone twelve days. I wound up in the mountains where some government men shot me down with a 30-30 mushroom bullet. There I lay, eighty miles from the nearest railroad. I begged them to not to leave me, so they made a stretcher and carried me out on an old logging road. I didn’t know whether I was going to live or die, and they didn’t know either. It looked like all hope was gone—half o my blood had ran out of my body.

I lay in the hospital from April 13 to August 6, but God let me live. Then He brought me to this Gospel and saved my soul. Today I have the Gospel in my soul. This is one ex-convict that has victory over that old life of sin. I’ve got the old-time religion. Glory to God!