THE LORD'S MOUTHPIECEPORTRAIT OF A PREACHER AS A YOUNG AND VERY MUSICAL MAN

People began to slip away as the service wound down, and to gather in small groups outside the church door. Darkness had fallen, and a block away, at the corner of 13th Avenue and Pima Street, where the drug dealers had been standing earlier, the red and white lights of two police cars were flashing.

Proofer: indent in PQ per editor.

"You can call me in the midnight hour!"
("Yeah!")

Eddie asked the man, "Why do you disrespect yourself by doing that?" and suggested he turn his life over to Jesus.

The sounds of gospel music were in his ears before he could walk.

"I just hear it in my head and sing it forth."

Eddie James was not knocked down, but he was called nonetheless.

"There's a built-in psychotherapy in our culture. You let the unconscious self take over, and it's so fulfilling."

"`It is well.' Hey, you could live on that."

Sometimes his religion appears to be a fragile package of hope he is carrying through unsafe streets.

"Their testimony brought the house down, and mine was so boring.