tted sin. Sin was
finished and I was cut off from God. Spiritual death took place in my
heart. No longer could I come to God and have communion with Him. Sin
had separated me from God. So as the Scripture says, "when it [sin] is
finished, it bringeth forth death."

I brought the doll home with me, but oh, I didn't feel good in my heart!
I knew I had sinned and I wished I had not taken the doll, but I had it
and was on my way home. I came into the house and my watchful mother saw
it. She asked, "Where did you get that doll?"

"Old Tennessee gave it to me," I quickly said, which was a lie. Another
sin was added to my first sin. The devil not only gets a person to sin
but he gets them to commit other sins to cover up the first sin. Thus,
he leads people on and on, and deeper into sin they fall. (Old Tennessee
was an elderly black man who drove a horse and wagon by our home, filled
with junk that he had collected. Sometimes, when he would stop and talk
to us children, he would give us some of his junk which we would value.)

I took the doll upstairs to my room and put it in my dresser drawer. I
didn't want to play with it. It didn't look so pretty anymore. My heart
was heavy. I didn't rest very well that night as I dreaded going back to
school. I just knew the teacher would guess that I had taken the doll.
To my surprise, nothing was said the next day about the doll. I avoided
the girl and hurried home after school. But yet the fact of stealing
that doll weighed heavily on my heart. A few days later I took the doll
out in the alley and took a brick and smashed it all to pieces and
buried it, but that didn't take away the sin or the guilt. I had sinned
against God and was still a liar and a thief. Oh, how bad I felt! I had
been taught to pray from a little child, and had always prayed, but
every time I would try to pray that sin would come up before me, so
finally I quit praying.

School was soon out and a few weeks passed by. Bro. John Wilson came to
our house from Missouri and held a few nights' meeting at the chapel.
One night he preached on hell fire. Oh, I could almost feel the fire of
hell around me! I trembled, but hurried out as soon as meeting was over
and the invitation had closed. I went home and to bed as soon as
possible, but not to sleep. I rolled and tumbled on my bed. The weight
of sin was so heavy on my heart that it seemed the mattress was on top
of me instead of me on the mattress. I knew I was on the r