MY FAVORITE STORIES

By Jock Dionne

Ag" not guarrnteed---Some I have told Jor

The Divers \(/ere The \(/orst

A white minister in a rural country district had an old colored man working at chores around his yard who was, himself a preacher to the colored race.

It was customary for the old colored preacher to drop around on Saturday night and ask the white preacher for the text he was going to preach on the next day, and then deliver a sermon on the same subject himself, always without preparation of any sort.

One Saturday night he came in and the white minister gave him the text: "And He healed them of divers diseases." This made a particular impression on the dusky preacher's mind, and he preached from it most eloquently the next day.

"Bredern an' Sistern," he said: "Dis Man of Galilee proved to all de folks dat he was ackshally de Son of Gawd on dishere occasion, becuz I{e was de onlies' one whut evah healed dese divers diseases. You kin git de smallpox, and de doctuh might git you well; an' you kin git de Yallah Fevah, an' de doctuh might git you well; an' you mout even git de Black Death, an' de doctuh might git you well. But folks, if evah you gits dese divers diseases you is G-O-N-E."