I tell you one thing, you get the Holy Spirit, and then you can go ahead and smoke after you get the Holy Spirit. Someone said to me the other day, “Did you ever baptize anybody that smoked?” I said, “Look here, brother, I have a yardstick at my church. (See?) I teach the people what’s the truth, and then when they receive Christ, Christ takes care of the rest of it.” Here’s there’s an old oak tree out here. It holds its leaves all the year through, all the winter. Springtime come, there’s them old dead leaves hanging on it. You don’t have to go pick the leaves off to make new ones come on. Just let the new life come up, the old leaf goes off. That’s right. Let the Holy Spirit come into a person’s heart, they clean up and fix up and a few things right. That’s right. Just get them to Christ; that’s all. Then it’s God’s business from then on.

My Life Story, 1950-08-20, Cleveland, OH, §58