The Miracle Woman

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[Music:
]

[BELLS CHIMING]

[CHOIR SINGING HYMN]

[INAUDIBLE DIALOGUE]

I wonder what's keeping him.

You wouldn't be in a hurry either

if you'd been fired, would you?

The Reverend Fallon

was not fired.

Look, here comes

his daughter.

This morning my father was to have

delivered his farewell sermon to you,

but he has been ill,

as you all know,

and today he cannot be with you.

But he dictated his sermon to me,

as he has done for so many years.

I have it here,

and I'm going to read it to you.

"Friends, I leave you today after

a score of years in this church

as a servant of the Lord,

to whom I pray

that he may let

words of my mouth

and troubled meditations of my

heart be acceptable in his sight.

I have baptized many of you

in the Lord's grace,

a few of you I have joined

together in marriage,

and over the bodies

of some of your loved ones,

I have spoken the beautiful,

triumphant victory

that comes

with the Lord's salvation.

I would dearly love to stay as your

pastor for the rest of my years,

for I had hoped to live

and die at this pulpit.

But you have seen fit

to call another,

a younger man to guide

and serve you.

And though I leave you,

I do not leave the Lord.

Surely goodness and mercy shall

follow me all the days of my life.

And I will dwell in the house

of the Lord forever.

When the heart is thirsty,

there is drink in the Testaments:

The Lord is my shepherd,

I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down

in green pastures.

He leadeth me beside

the still waters.

He restoreth..."

That's as far as he got.

This is his farewell message to you.

You see that he stopped

in the middle of a sentence.

My father is dead.

He died in my arms

five minutes ago,

before he could

finish his message to you,

but I'm gonna finish it for him.

Miss Fallon,

the news you bring is painful,

but I hardly think it proper...

You're the head deacon of

this church, Mr. Simpson,

and I want you to listen

to what I have to say,

because it's your clique

that started all this trouble.

Leave if you like.

My father preached to empty hearts.

I don't mind talking to empty pews.

My father is dead,

and you killed him!

You crucified him just as

surely as he was crucified.

He died of disappointment,

of heartbreak, of ingratitude.

He gave his life to serve you

and when he was old and worn

you threw him out.

You all came to this church in

automobiles. He always had to walk.

He didn't even leave enough money,

after 20 years of service to you,

to buy a burial in a decent cemetery.

There, there.

This is not the time nor place

to speak of such things,

and I must ask you to remember

you are in the house of God...

What God? Whose God? Yours?

This isn't the house of God,

this is a meeting place for hypocrites.

You're out of your head, and I,

for one, will not listen to such...

Well, go on, get out!

You've been running this church,

but I'm gonna run it for the next hour.

I'm gonna preach the sermon

my father should have preached.

[INDISTINCT CHATTERING]

The Bible says the labourer

is worthy of his hire.

But you wouldn't pay your pastor

what you pay your chauffeurs.

I've worked for you too,

without pay.

I've served you by helping him,

and you've got to listen to me.

I don't have to make

any notes either.

I was brought up on the Bible,

and I know it by heart.

I'm gonna take my text this morning

from chapter 23

of the Gospel of Matthew.

And I say unto you as Christ

said to the scribes and Pharisees,

"Woe unto you hypocrites,

for you devour widows' homes,

and for a pretence

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