Behold, A Greater Than Solomon Is Here

Let us bow our heads just a moment now for prayer. If we have any requests let's raise our hands to God and quietly in our hearts say, “God, remember me.”

Our heavenly Father, we have assembled tonight again—one more day closer to that great time when You'll pull time into eternity. We've had the privilege of living today, of seeing (many of us), and hearing, and having our senses feeling the Spirit of God in our heart. We're grateful for it. Tonight, just before the meeting, hearts has been warmed and the hands has gone up. Expectation tonight is great, Father. Help us now to receive what we ask for. And I ask that You'll magnify your son, Christ, before the audience tonight. In the name of Jesus Christ I ask it. Amen. You may be seated.

You're such a nice audience, and so nice to talk to, I've been talking too long, keeping you too late. Tomorrow afternoon is our closing service. I truly believe the Holy Spirit has proved to us that He's here. Now let's push everything we can now—prayer—and be ready, whatever He has for us, that we will receive it.

Now, there's many visitors here. There's some here from other parts of the country. And now, in the morning attend Sunday school. These men here are servants of Christ. They're people who believe in this same ministry that I preach. They're ministers, fellow workers, citizens of the kingdom of God. They have churches here. They'd be glad to have you tomorrow morning to attend their churches, each one.

And you know.... I guess they've made that statement, but I always say this: “It's a sin to send your children to Sunday school.” How many knows that? It's a sin to send your children to Sunday school; you have to take them. So be sure to do that. Go with your children tomorrow to Sunday school. These men perhaps have their church organized in good situation to take care of any age, and all the young and old and what alike. You'll hear the word of the Lord.

And I pray that each one of their churches tomorrow will be so filled with the Holy Spirit till signs, wonders, miracles and things will take place in their church, and there'll be a great glory and honor given to our Lord Jesus Christ. I trust it with all my heart.

Now, quickly, to get right into the message for tonight.... And I want to be sure now, tomorrow afternoon ... I think it's two o'clock, or two thirty or something. And how many prayer cards ... do we have many prayer cards out? We got to make these.... You know, we got to pray for them. Every person gets a prayer card gets prayed for. And they'll be giving out prayer cards tomorrow afternoon about an ... oh, a while before the service starts. I'd say at least forty-five minutes, so they won't interfere with the evening or the afternoon service. So the boy will be here, and he'll have someone with him to help, and they'll be giving out the prayer cards about ... maybe a half hour anyhow, or maybe a little more, for anybody that wants a prayer card. And we'll pray for every one we can.

I been trying awfully hard, but, with my hand on the Bible tonight.... And there's people here with me who knows that these meetings up and down the coast has been test meetings. I'm leaving for the mission fields. If ever I come back again, it'll be a different kind of service from what I've held. I'll be praying for the sick alone, see. The discernment don't go with the people of America. The intellectual people, they don't see it. One of those things can happen in Africa and twenty and thirty thousand will rush to the altar at once.

But we are somewhat like.... lady was noticed in our country in a ten cent store not long ago. She was trying to show a little boy everything that ought to attract a little boy's attention. And after a while she'd pick up little bells and jingle it. And he'd just stare, just look right out. And finally the lady got so overcome she just fell across the counter.

Some of the people standing there walked up to her and wanted to know what was the matter. She was crying. She said, “It's my little boy.” She said, “Some time ago he just started sitting, staring.” And said, “Nothing that should attract a little boy of his age never attracts him anymore. He just stares in space.”

That's about the way the church has got. God has shook every spiritual gift that can be shook, that's mentioned in the Bible, before them; and they just stare. Well, I guess it's all right perhaps. I guess it's so.

Reminds me of an old poet in English, an English poet. I forget his name. He was writing.... Always he loved the sea but he'd never saw it. So one day he was going down to the sea, and he met an old sailor coming from the sea. And he said, “Where goest thou, my good man?”

He said, “I go to the sea.” Said, “I've wrote of it but I've never seen it.” Said, “I long to smell its briny waves. I'd like to see the white caps as they break, hear the sea gulls as they fly.”

And the old salt sailor, with beard on his face, pulled out his corncob pipe and spit. He said, “I was borned on it sixty years ago. I've been there ever since. I don't see nothing so thrilling about it.”

What is it? He'd saw it so much till it become common to him. That's what's the matter with us Pentecostal people. We've seen so much of the glory of God until it's become common to us. It doesn't stir us no more.

I have tried so hard. This is my closing American meeting. I was definitely ... felt to come here to this country. I took this fine bunch of men the other morning to breakfast, and never met such a fine bunch of men, any better men, in my life—real Spirit men, hearts full of love for their people. They're pastors, shepherds.

You don't know the fight that these men has fought to bring this meeting here. That's right. But they want it before their people. They're interested in their people growing in the grace of God, and they're trying to get them to know more about God. And when they hear of something of God, examine it and think it's right, they bring it before the people regardless of what the price is to pay. I got honor and respect for such men. That's right.

And we've had laying on hands in meetings. We've had that since ... years and years and years and years. John Wesley prayed for the sick. Calvin, Knox, Spurgeon, all down through, they've prayed for the sick and laid hands on the sick. In come the Pentecostal with speaking with tongues and interpretations, and so forth and on; but never have we ever seen what the Holy Spirit's doing for us right now, see.

And that's what I'm trying to get to the people: that you don't have to wait till some special gift comes through the country. Christ is ever present with his church. What if you're laying out here on the road bleeding to death in an accident? Then you say, “I have to send and get Brother Branham, Brother Roberts, or somebody come pray for me”? Christ is right there, ever present, see. That's what I'm trying to get the people to see. But after trip after trip across the nation it still remains the same.

And so far as I know, unless Almighty God reveals to me to do different, this will be my last meeting in America, in the United States, under discernment. I will always preach and pray for the sick. When I go into other countries I'll use that. Because you never know ... never will know what that does to me. It weakens me. One vision will tear me up longer than ... more than standing here for three hours preaching. And I do it ... relaxing myself to find what will take place, and it's ... it just doesn't take, that's all.

I stood in South Africa one afternoon, with between ... about ... around two hundred thousand people—a platform something similar to this built for a race track. They had to build it on the other side of the race track. Stood up there. No way of giving out prayer cards. There was just thousands times thousands. We had no one....

I had some missionaries, “Go down and get one person out of your tribes that you're preaching to. They lined up a group of people. The first come across the platform was a Mohammedan woman, red dot on her forehead, as you know—thoroughbred Mohammedan.

And I said, “What did you come to me for? You're a Mohammedan.”

She said, “I am.”

I said, “Why did you come to me, as a Christian?”

She said, “Because I think you can help me.” Spoke pretty well, English.

And I said, “Did you ever read the New Testament?”

She said, “I have.”

And I said, “Then you seen what I've just got through speaking about, that what He was, the same yesterday....”

She said, “Yes, sir.”

I said, “Then if the Holy Spirit will reveal to you, then you'll know that your Mohammedan prophet cannot do that. He's dead and buried. But Christ, the Son of God, has raised again and living forevermore.”

She said, “If He can reveal like He did in the New Testament there, as it says, I'll accept Him as my saviour.”

And when ... I said ... looked at her again, I said, “You have a cyst on the womb. Your husband's sitting right out there—is a tall thin man. But you was with a doctor a few days ago, with a black mustache, heavyset, wearing a gray suit. And he examined you by the female organ, and said on the ovary you have a cyst.”

She said, “I accept Jesus Christ as my personal saviour,” and ten thousand Mohammedans come to Christ at that moment.

Before I went over I spoke in a Kiwanis Club, and some ministers was present. And they was talking about one man there. He'd been there twenty years. And said (that precious jewel) he'd turned one Mohammedan. Then they told me that I was crazy. And what they call crazy, and what they call psychology and mental telepathy, or a evil spirit or something, turned more Mohammedans to Christ in one five-minutes time than all the intellectual tracts and everything that's been passed in a hundred and fifty years. See, there you are.

Next come on the platform was a little cross-eyed boy. While looking at him, I said, “Now I don't have any power to uncross his eyes. You know I don't. I'm just a man, just a little fellow.” And I said, “But now, as far as his life...,” looking at him.

And so then, while I was speaking, the little boy.... I said, “He come from a Christian home because in his hut, as you go in the door, there's a picture of Christ hanging on his right side of the door as you go in. His mother and father are Zulus, but he is.... They're rather thin, tall people.” And they stood up—way back, maybe a city block back—and that was right. And I said, “Now, the mother.... She showed the father as soon as the baby's eyes was opened, he was born cross-eyed.”

I looked back and the little fellow was standing there, his little belly out, no clothes at all. And there he stood there, looking like that at me. And when I looked back his eyes was straight as mine. I said, “Anyone sees his eyes is straight,” passed him on through.

How many ever heard of Dr. F. F. Bosworth, old Brother Bosworth? One of the godliest old men I ever met in my life. There he was, standing on the platform. I heard him trying.... How many ever knowed Ern Baxter? A real theologian, a brother in Christ ... was standing there along.

And a British doctor was disputing.... Come up there and said, “What'd you do to that baby? Did you hypnotize him?”

And I said, “And then the British government give you license to practice medicine, and know no more about hypnotism than that? If hypnotism will straighten a baby's eyes that's crossed, you doctors better practice hypnotism.”

Said, “Well, Mr. Branham, I put the baby on the platform down there, and the baby's eyes were crossed. And here he's standing here,” under his hand. Says, “His eyes are straight. Something happened between there and here.”

And I said, “Yes, he met Christ.”

Now he said.... A great big lily.... Some of you ladies like lilies. Some of them lilies there are eighteen inches across and there ... the big bouquets of them across the platform. He said, “I know God's in that flower. I'm taught to believe that. It's life. We can't produce it, that's true.” But said, “Is He tangible enough to make that boy's eyes come uncrossed?”

Mr. Bosworth put his hands on him, said, “Sir, you're going to cause a riot. Look out in there now.” Said, “You're taking up too much time while Brother's under anointing. We'll have to ask you to leave.”

And he said, “Just a minute. Mr. Branham, what happened to that boy? Is Jesus Christ tangible enough to uncross them eyes?”

I said, “You'll have to take my word. He was standing right there. I haven't even touched him. The faith of that father and mother out there, and this child.... His eyes are straight.”

He pushed everybody back and walked up to the platform, held up his hands and said, “Then I accept Christ as my personal saviour.”

And when I was leaving—about twenty-five or thirty thousand out at the airplane waving good-bye—this little fellow jumped over their lines that was there and run out there, hugged me around the neck, and begin to speak in tongues. And he said, “I've left. Now I'm going to be a medical missionary to the natives back in there under the Pentecostal set-up.” Oh, my!

That afternoon, when standing there (just one more case—I won't have time to tell it), but when that happened, I said, “How many of you want to receive Christ as personal saviour? I want you to raise your hand.” Thirty thousand stood—thirty thousand blanket natives ... didn't know which was right and left hand, women standing there with no clothes on, just a clout four inches wide, beads.

And someone said, “I believe they meant physical healing.”

I said, “I did not mean physical healing. Are you convinced that the Bible that I've just told you what He was, is the God that's doing this?” Every one of them raised their hands up. I said, “If you're sincere, break your idol on the ground.” It was like a dust storm, like that. And thirty thousand blanket natives received Christ as their saviour at one time.

And the next morning Miss ... Sydney Smith, the mayor of Durban, South Africa, called me up and said, “Go to your window which faces the seashore right quick. You'll see something you've never seen.” And there come seventeen truck loads, big vans ... and they're as long as from here to where it says “exit” over there—just full. I made one prayer, congregational prayer, for that thousands times thousands, just oceans of people. You seen the picture of it, and then [that's transposition in this there].... And when you look there....

And I looked out there, and they was laying out there and I just stood and raised my hand, and made one little prayer of about five minutes, over every one of them and said, “If you believe that that Spirit that knows the secrets of the heart is the God of the Bible, then accept your healing.” And the next day I looked out the window, and seventeen of those big van loads coming down. And those natives that was laying in those things that they were packing them in, and clubs, and wheelchairs, and stretchers and everything else, was walking behind this, singing, “All things are possible, only believe.”

Dr. F F. Bosworth's one of the most honest men I ever seen. He would never.... He'd underestimate instead of overestimate. He said, “Brother Branham, when I seen that massive thing take place,” said, “I could say with my hand on the Bible that I underestimate twenty-five thousand outstanding miracles took place at one time.”

And we turn our heads, and walk away, and say, “Well, guess it was all right.” They'll raise and condemn us. That's right. That's right. You're my people. I'm Anglo-Saxon. You're my people. You're the one that I.... You're like me, you're a white man. And I'm here to tell you.... But your education has ruined you. That's exactly right. It's got you away from God. It always does. Education's the greatest enemy the gospel ever had. I say that with all my heart. It's the greatest enemy that the gospel ever had. It's a lot harder to deal with a educated heathen than one that's uneducated.

Let me tell you something. Right in that same place, I asked these people, I said, “Don't wait now until you go learn languages. Go tell everybody in your tribe.” I've got newspaper clippings where ... I forget how many loads of firearms and things that they had stole, just in the Songhai tribe, brought them back. The mayor ... the paper of Durban packed it, that they were through with sin.

And notice. Let me say something just ... not to be sacrilegious, but to be brotherly, and godly, and warningly to you. Them women standing there stark naked, with nothing but a clout on; and as quick as they received Christ as their saviour they walked away from there with their arms folded. Answer my question, somebody. If just receiving Christ will cause a woman that doesn't know right and left hand to realize she's naked, how can we call ourselves Christians, and constantly stripping the clothes off all the time? There's something wrong somewhere.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, I've tried hard. I've done all I know. The rest is to You, Father. I just.... I pray You help us now as we read your Word, as we speak. Whatever You've called, You surely ... it will come. I commit it all to You, with myself, these few words that's laying here before me. I pray that You'll sanctify it to honor You.

I'm sorry I'm holding your people too late. And I pray, Father, knowing that the revival's over, and people weary easy, I'm sorry if I have done anything wrong. And I pray that You'll help me tonight and let us see thy Word once more in its light. Then heal the sick and save the lost. We commit it to You in Jesus' name. Amen. St.

Matthew 12, begin with the ... at the 38th verse.

You're so nice I just hate to have to squeeze myself, see. And we're used to revival time, when we preach all night, pray all night, night after night, see—all the time going constantly. When a revival breaks it's just day and night, day and night. I don't mind you missing a day's work. That's all right. But I don't want you to miss Sunday school in the morning. Don't miss Sunday school. If you have to miss a day's work, I won't feel too bad about that, 'cause all them things are perishable anyhow. But don't miss Sunday school. I'll let you out early so you can go to Sunday school. 38th verse of Matthew 12.

And there were certain of the scribes ... of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.

But he answered and said unto them, An evil and an adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there shall be no sign given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:

For as Jonas was three days, and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

And the men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.

The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.

I want to take a little text from there, “Behold, Greater Than Solomon Is Here.”

Jesus had been (I'm setting my watch to alarm, so I know I won't be overtime tonight.) ... Jesus had been rebuking the cities that He'd come out of, and had done his works and signs. He had been rebuking them because they had not believed Him. If you'll read the previous chapter, the 11th chapter, and read the 12th chapter you'll see in there where those people that ought to have known the day that they were living, they did not know it. They failed to recognize it.

And instead of knowing just exactly the day and the sign that would be in his day.... He even rebuked them, said, “You can discern the face of the skies, but the sign of the time you cannot discern. If you would have known me, you would have known my day.”

Now let's just try to drink every whit of this in tonight. And I know it's different. These texts has formed different than what maybe you've been listening to, but I want you to try to listen close tonight. See, they were trying to have their own idea, and not Scripturally listening to Him; for He had said to them, “Why don't you search the Scriptures? for they are they which testify of me. In them you think you have eternal life and they testify of me. And if I do not the works of my Father then don't believe me.”

They couldn't believe Him being God and yet being a man. He said, “If you can't believe me as a man, believe the works. Let the works testify, if you can't believe me. If they say I'm born illegitimate birth, and I have no education, I never appeared in any of your schools, and so forth; and you can't believe me because I never come up under your doctrine, or so forth, why, believe the works that I do. They testify of me.” What a rebuke to a people!

Now, notice all the cities He had been to, and He had been rebuking. “Capernaum, thou art exalted into heaven but shall be brought down to hell. If the mighty works had been done in you ... that was done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have been standing yet today.” And He begin to talk one to the other, of how that....

(Somebody's sick there. If some of the brethren will take her out, and take ... pray for her. Just hold your hands on her, brethren. Let me pray for her right here. Our heavenly Father, I pray for this sister. Let the power of almighty God be upon her and deliver her, Lord. I ask this in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. Now what it is, she's got real sick because the ... condense around there, with the crowd sitting around her. There's some man sitting here, right here, looking right at me, suffering the same thing. So just ... if you want to take her and walk her around, or take her out, and let her get a little air and things, then bring her back, it'll be all right. Now while they're doing that, you listen to what we are trying to say here. Now notice. You may have to pack her 'cause she's fainted, see.)

Now notice, Jesus said that He was rebuking those people because that they had done turned Him down in the things that He was doing, and they couldn't understand it. And He was telling them about it. Now God was getting back at them because of their unbelief.

Now we know this, that in every generation that's been on the earth God has always showed his gifts and signs and wonders of confirmation of his Word. Always. And people are.... Even in the Old Testament, in the days that Jesus was referring to here, really, honestly, they depended more on the sign than they did on the theology; because if the theology—no matter how great it seemed to be, and how right it seemed to be—if the Urim-Thummim didn't speak that it was right, it was wrong, see. They depended on the supernatural sign; but the supernatural sign just couldn't come on anything. It had to come according to the Word.

Now that's the way we have to watch today. We have all kinds of signs, but it's got to be signs from the Word's promise—the promise of the Word to do this. And we know that in this day we can look for things that's not right. Sure we can, because Satan's throwing his whole army out there to do everything he can do to stop it. But he'll never do it. The Word of God will prevail. It'll go right on. So he'll never stop it. That's one thing sure.

Now God always sent them signs, and told them to believe their prophets, and so forth, in the Bible. Then Jesus here, while He was standing there after He had done so many things, then here comes these Pharisees up and said, “Master, we would seek a sign from you,” when they had seen Him do exactly what the Bible said He would do. And yet they come back again, say, “We would seek a sign from thee.”

And He looked at them, I imagine kind of discouraged, and said, “A weak and an adulterous generation seek after a sign; and they shall receive no sign but the sign of Jonas [meaning Jonah, the prophet]. As he was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so must the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Now I want you ... now watch what kind of a generation would seek for this sign: a weak, wicked, unbelieving, adulterous generation.

How many knows (and theologians and Scripture readers that knows) that always the Bible has a compound answer? It always answers, and answers again. It repeats itself. It can never die. It's the eternal Word of God. And here in Matthew, the 3rd chapter, He said here, He said, “Out of Egypt ... it might be fulfilled which was spoke of the prophet, 'Out of Egypt I call my son.' ” Run your marginal reading and find out what that was. It was Jacob, his son; but it also referred to Christ, his Son. It always has a compound answer.

And now Jesus, 'course, was referring to that generation—but any wicked and unbelieving adulterous generation. And if this wouldn't meet its qualification, this generation that we're living in today worldwide, I don't know what did. We're living in the time of one of the most unbelieving, adulterous generations that there ... ever known.

I picked up a paper as I flew over Hollywood here not long ago, or Los Angeles, and was reading where that seventy-four major crimes was committed every night—major crimes—in one city, Los Angeles. I was reading in a Chicago paper not long ago where three ... twenty-five thousand abortion cases was recognized in the city of Chicago per month. Think of it! And where homosexual on this West Coast had increased thirty percent since last year. Think of it! A adulterous generation.

Oh, if we just had till about two o'clock in the morning to dig into that! Wickedness, adulterous generation. That would be the kind, and they would get it. What was it? The sign of the resurrection. Now where're we at?

“As Jonah was in the belly of the whale, the Son of man will be in the heart of the earth.” Many people today think He's still there; but He's not dead. He's risen from the dead and is here with us now, appearing among us, proving Himself—up and down the coast, around the world everywhere, that He lives. And the wicked and an adulterous generation sees a sign that Jesus Christ is alive and not dead. A wicked and an adulterous generation will seek after a sign, and they'll get it—the sign of the resurrection. Let it soak real deep now. Study hard.

While you're letting that soak I want to ask something about Jonah. Jonah was a prophet. Many people condemn Jonah, and say, “Well, he was a old backslider.” He wasn't backslid. A man of God.... The steps ... the footsteps of the righteous is ordered of the Lord. Do you believe that? And I don't care what the man of God does, if he's ordained of God.... He might do things that he thinks is crazy to himself, but if you only watch, it works right out exactly right, if he just goes the way he's led.

Now God told Jonah to go down to Nineveh, a city about the size of St. Louis. Wicked? Oh, my! And perverted, perverse everything was wrong with them. He said, “Go down there and cry out against them.” And he went down to the ship and bought himself a fare. Instead of going to Nineveh.... Perhaps was not any ships going that way, so he just goes over to Tarshish. I do not believe that it was foolish, after I got the real revelation of it, and see what happened and read the books on it. And I see where he was right.

And on the road out into the sea he got in trouble. And the storms come up, and they thought the ship was going to sink, and Jonah told them it was his fault ... tie his hands and feet and throw him overboard. And God had prepared a whale to swallow him.

Now some years ago—about twenty-five years ago—they brought the frame of a whale to Louisville, Kentucky. That's just across the river from where I live. And they had how big its mouth was, and some little professor standing there, that had more education than he had gumption to control. So he was telling all about this whale.

And he said, “Now you've heard the old legend about the whale swallowing Jonah.” He said, “If you'll notice, you couldn't put a baseball in his throat.” Said, “It isn't no such a thing.”

Ahh, I was just too Irish to stand for that. So I said, “I'd just like to say something to you, fellow. There's one thing you missed. That whale might not be able to do it; but if you notice, God prepared this one. This was a special kind. You could have throwed the whole boat down his throat maybe,” see. God prepared a fish for Jonah, see. He was a special built—built to order to swallow the prophet, and he.... And it wasn't no such a thing. People....

A little.... This is no place to joke, but I was.... A little girl had got saved, and she was going up the street hollering, “Praise the Lord,” and singing, her little old hair pulled back, and her face shining like a peeled onion. She was having a glorious time.

An infidel was standing on the corner. Said, “What's the matter?”

Said, “I got saved down there a while ago. Praise the Lord!”

Said, “What you got over your heart?”

Said, “A Bible.”

Said, “I guess you believe it.”

Said, “Sure I believe it.”

Said, “You believe that story in there about Jonah?”

Said, “Sure I believe that story about Jonah.”

He said, “You believe that Jonah was swallowed by a whale?”

She said, “Oh, yes. If the Bible said....” Said, “If Jonah swallowed the whale, I'd believe it.” And said....

“Oh,” he said, “how you going to prove it any other way but by faith?”

“Why, ”she said, “when I get to heaven I'm just going to walk up and talk to Jonah about it.”

Said, “Then what if Jonah isn't there?”

Said, “Then you'll have to ask him.” Guess that was enough. Yes. So, a little child, but yet God is able.

So Jonah was throwed out of the ship, and the whale, prowling through the waters to find his food, he swallowed Jonah. And anyone knows.... Like feeding your goldfish, when the little fish feeds and gets his little belly full, he goes right down to the bottom of the pitcher, where you got him in, the little vase.

And he rests his little swimmers on the bottom. He's eat, he's resting. And this fish, when he swallowed this preacher, he went down to the bottom of the sea to rest. I don't know how many fathoms deep it was, but he was laying down there.

And I'd like to speak about this now. You know you find so many people that rely upon symptoms. “Well, I was prayed for. I got a crippled hand. I was prayed for, but.... I really believe God, but my hand's no better.” It'll never be no better as long as you look at that hand. See, you're looking at the wrong thing. You must look at his promise.

Some time ago a aged old couple come and wanted me to come pray for their boy, was dying with black diphtheria. I didn't ... couldn't go. And kept waiting, and a couple days later the old fellow said, “My boy's dying now.” And finally, after service, I went.

Doctor wouldn't let me go in. And he said, “No, you have children, and I can't let you go in 'cause that diphtheria's contagious.” And said, “You couldn't do him no good.”

And I, talking to the man, found out that he was Catholic. And I said, “If the priest was here.... If that boy was Catholic, and this father had come and got me, and I was a priest...?”

He said, That's different.“ He said, ”You see, a priest is not married.“

I said, “You'd let him go and take ... give him the last rites, wouldn't you?”

He said, “Yes, but the priest is not a married man. You've got children.”

I said, “If I take the responsibility on myself? I'll sign a paper. I'll take the responsibility.” Finally I talked him out of it, and he dressed me up like a Ku Klux Klan with all kind of stuff on me, and sent me in there where this boy was.

Now it got in the heart, something wrong with his heart. The cardiogram showed that it was way down. It was just beating so many times per minute. And the old mother and father stood there by the side of the boy. I got on one side of the bed and them on the other. And a little nurse stood there watching us—fine looking little lady of about, oh, I guess, twenty-five years old. And so I put my hands upon the boy and prayed, and just asked a common prayer.

And when I said “Amen,” the old father grabbed the mother and begin to hug her, and him ... hug each other. Then said, “Oh, Mother, isn't it wonderful? Isn't it wonderful? Thank you, Lord Jesus, for healing our boy.”

The boy was just as bad as he ever was, and they just wiped the tears from each others' eyes and just praised God. And that little nurse, standing there, she couldn't understand that. And she said. “Sir, it's all right, I guess.” Said, “I don't belong to your religion, your kind of religion.” She said, “But I want to ask you something. How can you act like that—you, and the mother of this child act like that—and that boy laying there dying.

He said, “Madam, the boy's not dying.”

“Why,” she said, “he's been in a coma for three days.”

And some kind of a machine there showed that ... this hand ever dropped that far, never in medical history did it ever come back again. The old father (I'll never forget it) wiped his eyes and walked over, and put his hands on that young woman's shoulder.

He said, “Child,” he said, “you're taught to look at that machine. And that's all you know about, is watch that machine.” Said, “That's ... all that machine knows is tell what's going on here. That's true.” Said, “You're looking at that machine. But I'm looking at a promise that God made.” Depends on what you're looking at. That boy's married, and got two children.

See, it just goes to show, see. He laid like that another two or three days, but he come right out and got well. See, it just goes to show what you're looking at. You've got to see what you're looking at. Don't look at your symptoms.

If anybody had symptoms, Jonah had it. Now remember, he was in the belly of the whale. Let's say he was twenty fathoms deep out there in the ocean, his hands tied behind him, his feet tied, and in the belly of the whale—laying in the vomit of the whale in its belly, seaweeds all around his neck. Now, that's really some symptoms! He would look this a-way, it was whale's belly; that way was whale's belly; everywhere he looked was whale's belly. Now, that's really symptoms. There isn't any of you that bad off tonight, I'm sure (that's right), not that bad off. Everywhere he looked, it was a whale's belly.

But you know what he said? “They are lying vanities. I won't believe them.” What did he say? “Once more will I look to your holy temple.” Turned over on his back, and faced, the best he could, towards the temple.

Why? When Solomon dedicated that temple, he prayed that day. When the pillar of fire come in and went down behind the holiest of holies, Solomon prayed, and said, “Lord, if your people be in trouble anywhere, and look towards this holy place, then hear from heaven.” And he believed it.

And God did something. I don't know what He done. He might have put a oxygen tank in that whale's belly. I don't know what He done. He kept him alive for three days and nights, and delivered him at his course, where he was supposed to go.

And if Jonah, under those circumstances, could believe in a prayer that was made by a man that later backslid because of women ... as Solomon; and believed on a temple that was built with the hands of men, how much more ought we tonight look to Christ, who's sitting at the right hand of God, with his own blood making intercession upon our confession? How we ought to believe it. Nothing, no symptoms, standing in the way.

“I'm looking towards God's promise that He said He would do it.” That's the only thing. Look at that. There he was.

I read a story on it one time. All the people of Nineveh was heathens. Heathens usually worship animals, and life. Way down there in South America, I noticed them doing a kangaroo dance. They had a dance, some kind of a party, and they all danced just like the kangaroo, 'cause that's.... Everything they'd ever seen is the kangaroo. So, they was going to eat the kangaroo directly, and they throwed him on the fire and singed him a little. Oh, how they done it, I don't know. I wasn't hungry. So then, anyhow, the way they was dancing is like the kangaroo dance. That's the way they.... And you see them come through Africa. They got all kinds of little funny-looking things of animals sprinkled with blood. Well, that's what they believe to be God.

And now we find out that these people down there in Nineveh also worshipped idols, and their sea god was a whale. So all the men, the occupation being by the sea, they were fishermen—the main occupation. And it was a great export there of fish to the world at that time.

So then, all the fishermen was out there about noontime one day, fishing, pulling in their nets. And all at once the god come up out of the sea, the whale-god. It run up to the shore, and licked out his tongue, and the prophet come walking right out the tongue of the whale, right out on to the ground. No wonder they repented! Amen!

God knows how to do things. Yet, in its simplicity God knows how to do it, see. Jonah wasn't backslid. He was just following the leading of the Spirit. That's how to make the people repent. He said ... he went right down through the city, said, “If you don't repent, in forty days this place will sink.” That's all. See, how could they do anything but repent? because their very god spit the prophet out. And they knowed he had a message. That was their god, so they.... Just spit it right out.

Our God is Christ! Amen! And He sent down the Holy Ghost. Why can't we believe it? Well, now I wonder. Here He was manifested in flesh. There He stood, and He said, “And the people of Nineveh will rise in the last day with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And a greater than Jonah is here.” Then ask Him for a sign!

Then He goes on to say, about then, that God through all generations spoke. Whenever God sends a gift to the earth, and the people receive it, that's a golden age for that generation. But when they reject it, it's chaos for that generation.

Now, what if tonight...? If American people who claim to be a Christian nation, what if all we who claim to be Christians would accept God's gift that He sent to us—the Holy Ghost? What do we want? Why, we could quit making missiles. Why, there wouldn't be nothing in the world ever hurt us. They couldn't. We have protection. The Holy Ghost is upon us. Certainly. We wouldn't need nothing else but the Holy Ghost, if the people would just accept the gift that God sent them—and that's the Holy Spirit.

But one church will differ from the other, and this one say, “Oh, there's no such thing as the Holy Ghost. That was for the disciples.” And it's a gift right now. It's for the church, and now's the last days.

Why, you don't have to talk about bomb shelters. People are digging under the ground like moles, trying to get away from the atomic bomb. How are you going to do it? Why, they'll blow a hole in the ground about a mile deep, and for 150 miles square. Well, if you was fifty miles below the earth, plumb below the lava, the shock of it would break every bone in your body. There's no way at all of escape.

Only one way. But we've got a bomb shelter. It's not made out of steel; but it's made out of feathers. Under his wings we rest. Amen. And it's not down here; it's up there. You get above it, when you sail into the ... soar into his bosom. Sure. That's the escape.

Let me drop this in. (I hope my watch don't alarm too quick. But look, listen.) The people today are scared to death of communism. Shame on you. Well, what are you scared of communism? I want any theologian, any Bible scholar, to show me where communism will rule the world. I tell you, Romanism's going to rule the world, according to the Bible. You watch about that.

Don't watch iron curtains and bamboo curtains; but watch the purple curtain. That's the one that's going to get you. Don't you never worry about that. You just mark that down, and say, “Brother Branham said it,” and put it in your Bible, and see if it's right.

Communism is nothing but a tool in God's hand, playing right up. Well, it won't amount to nothing. That's exactly right. Don't fear about that. That's something to throw you off of the track of looking. But Bible readers, and men who love God, stay with what the Bible said. Certainly. Just watch that.

Now, we won't receive God's gift in this nation, this generation. They've turned it down. The people who believe in it is called fanatics, cranks, holy rollers, and everything else. They're despised and rejected—just what the Scripture said they would do. “Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, despisers of those that are good ... having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” It's exactly what the Holy Spirit said would happen in the last days. And we're here, friends. We're here, exactly. Many of the scriptures we could tie in with it.

Let's go on to another thing, what Jesus said here. And as in the days of.... In the days of Solomon, God sent a gift among his people. And there was one time they accepted it. They accepted Solomon, the gift of discernment. And when the discernment was upon Solomon, everybody was one heart, and one accord. Every ... why, every nation feared. They didn't have no war. They didn't have any wars because they was afraid of Israel—not so much the nation as it was the God they were serving. They were with one heart, and one accord. And they all rallied around that gift. Oh, how they all liked it, and everybody talking good.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if every Christian tonight in America would all go to talking about the Holy Ghost, and how wonderful it is? And, why, I tell you, it would be.... Why, it would make newspapers everywhere. And lines would burn up just from sending the news. Oh, how wonderful it would be! But they won't do it, see. But, oh, if we could just rally around the gifts of God, the Holy Spirit.

Now we find out that everybody in that day rallied around. And God made this man that had this gift upon him, the king. Why, you know news scattered everywhere. The people brought in herds of sheep. They brought in cattle and gold, and everything, and helped them. They was trying to find peace with them, is what they were trying to do, because they knowed that a living God was with a living people. And they knew that.

Now notice what taken place. News scattered them days by.... Thank God, they didn't have television; but they had lip-to-ear. And the caravans would come through and go somewhere, and they'd talk about it. And after awhile the news come way down into Sheba. Mark on your map how far that is from Jerusalem down to Sheba.

They had a queen down there, a little pagan heathen queen. And people come by, and would give testimony of what was going on up in Palestine. And “faith cometh by hearing the word of God.”

Oh, this little lady was ordained to eternal life. And as soon as she heard this, something caught fire in her little pagan heart. She began to wonder about that. Next caravan come through, she couldn't hardly wait. She'd have her eunuchs to go out, and get them and bring them in.

“Which way did you come?”

“We come from the north.”

“Did you pass through Palestine?”

“Yes. Oh I know what you're going to ask me—about their God.”

“Yes, that's right. Did you see it?”

“I saw it. It's the truth. Why, they love that man so well, they made him the king, and their God.... They got a supernatural God that's displaying Himself right through that man.”

Now anyone knows.... [I'm going to turn this off in just a minute. It's really time. Is it all right just a minute?] Anyone knows that heathen worship is.... The heathen brings out the idol. A priest brings him wine. He eats to this idol. Then he gets out in the temple, prostrates himself before this idol, keeps working himself up like that, until actually he believes that he can hear that idol speaking to him. Now that's absolutely heathen worship. You brethren know that by taking history.

Now look how God does. He turns right back around, and don't.... See, they think that the life, the spirit, that ought to be ... that really belongs in that idol, comes in that idol and speaks back to them. Why, it was said that pagans in the old days could prostrate themselves in such a way, they claim they could hear the gods talk out of them idols.

But see how much different Christianity is? How mockery that is to it? God don't take an idol; He takes the man. And the man'll prostrate himself in the presence of God, God puts Himself in the man, and the man becomes the living creature that God's living in. It's not a dead idol, but a man.

God never used idols. He always used men. God don't use machinery, mechanical devices. He uses men, individuals. Excuse me. I didn't mean to holler that loud. Notice. I'm not excited, though. I know right where I am. That's right. I just feel good.

Notice. Then this God had come down, great Jehovah, and was manifesting Himself through a man, that they knowed it was more than man. There was something about him that was different. And the people all worshipped God, and believed God, and they built the temple. They done great things in that day.

Notice. This little queen began to hear of it. Faith cometh by hearing. Her little heart began to beat fast. She must go up and see it. So, after awhile so many come through testifying, everybody telling how them people were one heart and one accord. There was no differences in them. Wasn't one walking around, say, “Ah, he don't belong to mine. He's a Pharisee. I don't think ... I'm a Sadducee.” Nothing of that. They was one heart and one accord. That's the way you have to be.

Oh, if our churches could only get that way, brethren. If our churches, our differences, could just be.... All right, it's all right as long as you believe, and have God, and have your churches, and things. But, oh, let's be one accord, one man, one “onward Christian soldiers”—just one unit of God marching on to victory, receiving everything that comes in the name of the Lord that is ... the Lord's Word promised to send us. Believe it, act upon it. Now.

First thing you know, her little heart got to beating so that she just couldn't stay ... she couldn't sleep at night. She just had to go see it.

There's something or other about when you ever hear about God. Man knows that he come from out of the dark curtain, somewhere beyond here. They know that when he dies he goes back through that curtain. Where did he come from? and where did he go? Man has always longed to see what was behind that curtain. Exactly. So when he sees something rise from behind that curtain, and illustrate something that's been promised them over there, it ought to thrill his heart.

Notice. So this little woman, she was ... her heart began to beat to go. Now, she had some things to do before she went. Now, the first thing she had to do was to go get permission from her church to leave to go up there. Now, that was a hard thing, to go to a pagan priest. I can see him, when she walked up, and she bowed to him, and called him the (whatever she did), the holy father, or whatever it was ... walked up to him, and bowed, and he bowed. And she was the queen of the land.

She said, “I understand, through the caravans and so forth—and some of them has brought me scrolls down from up in Palestine—that they're having a great meeting up there. And there's a man up there that's been anointed by their God, and that God is acting his own life through that man. Sir, holy one, I would like to go see.”

Could you imagine him giving her permission? “We're not cooperating with that meeting up there. [Oh, sure. All kinds of words could've come.] Now, if there's anything would went on, it would have went on right here in your own church. And after all, that's just a bunch of nothing. We heard of them crossing seas, and everything like that. But it's a bunch of holy rollers [or excuse me, fanatics], or something, you know, up there. There's nothing to it. Don't you believe it, nothing to it. If there's anything going to go on, it'll go on right here amongst your own church. Right here it would be. If there's anything God would do, our god would do it.”

I could see that little queen rare herself back. She'd say, “Sir, but I want to go. I want to be convinced. [I like that kind of a courage.] I want to be convinced. I've got their scrolls here. I want to go to see if that Spirit that's in that man is just exactly what these scrolls say that that God is. So then, if it is, it's that God speaking through the man.”

“Now looky here. Here's great god Dagon, here's great god so-and-so, Jupiter, the sun god, and all these others we have around here.”

She'd say, “Yes, my great-great-grandmother served them, my grandmother served them, and all ... my mother served them. And what have they done? They're dumb idols. I've never heard them speak a word, or do a thing.”

It's about like some of these dumb creeds that we're serving today, and so forth, and things that's got no more life to it.... You talk about a God—a God that was—and send a boy to school, and teach him to be a minister, and tell him about a historical God. What good's a historical God of yesterday if He isn't the same God today? If a God full of mercy could meet the people's needs yesterday, if He ain't the same God today He's a poor God. He had respect of person.

What good does it do to feed your canary bird all kinds of good vitamins to make good strong wings, and big heavy bones; and put him in a cage, so he can't fly? Same thing as send a man away, and take all kind of schooling, and everything, and learn what one God was, and what all He did, and what all He did there; but then turn around and tell him the days of miracles is past, no such a-thing. That's not even intelligent to me.

So, that little queen might've said, “I've heard about all them gods. I've heard about all them things. But I've never seen a move of life out of them. I've never seen one thing done to act like a god, or nothing else.”

“Well, let me tell you something, my daughter. If you go up there.... You're our queen. You can't go amongst a bunch of people like that. Silly.”

I might as well say it. It's burning me up anyhow. My daughter-in-law and wife was downtown this morning, and they were buying some stuff in a store. And a lady said, “There's a lady across the street here from me, her husband has a business over here. She was up to that meeting over there the other night. And she had some kind of a something on her leg, and it was a.... That man in the pulpit was telling that woman about that. And you know it left? and it thrilled her to death.”

My daughter-in-law said, “That's my father-in-law.” Said, “That's my father-in-law.” Said, “Have you been up?”

Said, “Oh, no. I couldn't go up.”

Said, “Well, why can't you go up?”

She said, “My husband is a deacon in one of the big churches here in the city. I couldn't go around a bunch of people like that.”

My daughter-in-law said, “But you're welcome to come anyhow.”

Then, you talk about clans! Why, you holler about the Catholic. Why, you're the same thing, see. Just exactly the same. Pot can't call kettle black. You know that's right. Why, it's the same thing, exactly; because isn't one God the Father of us all?

Why would our denominations separate us? Why would some minister, with some degree of college, would try to a keep a woman—that really needs healing in her body—that come from a place to get healed by a God that he claims he knows? That's what I wonder.

That little queen looked around at that, and said, “But I've been hearing about all this; but I've never seen nothing yet.”

“Well, if you go, we're going to excommunicate you.”

“Well, you just might as well give me my papers now, because I'm going.” See, when Christ begins to move in the heart, gone. That's all. So remember.

She had a lot to confront her. She had a lot. Now, she lost her membership. And another thing ... she said (I thought it was very good), she said, “If that thing is the truth, it's worth supporting.” So she gathered up a lot of money, frankincense, gold, silver, and myrrh, and put it on the camels.

But here was her thought, I believe. “If it's the truth, I'll support it. If it isn't, I can bring my treasures right back.” She could teach Pentecostal people something: supporting radio ministries out here that would make fun, and laugh, at the very religion that you are representing (that's right); and your own church suffering for the tithe that you ought to be giving them (yes, sir), just because they got some kind of a big name, or something like that.

Haven't you never learned spiritual things yet? We should. That's right. We should learn to discern the spirit to see where it comes from. Now, that's not skim milk, now, if you can dissolve it.

Notice. Now this little woman, she said, “I'll support it if it's right. If it it's right, it's worth everything. If it isn't right, it's no good at all.” So she could bring her gifts back.

Now remember. She had a long ways to go, and she couldn't travel.... She had to cross the Sahara Desert, not in a air-conditioned Cadillac, but on the back of a camel. You know how long it takes that caravan to come from where she was to Palestine? It taken three months, ninety days, on the back of a camel. No wonder Jesus said, “She'll rise in the judgment day, and condemn this generation.” Some people won't walk across the street to see the same thing. Right.

And another thing, remember, the sons of Ishmael was robbers in the desert. And she just had a little band of soldiers, eunuchs. How easy they could have fell in on her, and killed them little eunuchs, and taken her treasures, and gone on.

But you know, if you're determined to seek God, God'll make a way for you, and there's no fear at all about nothing. You just have one achievement, one thought, one motive, one objective and that's get to God. And if God spoke to you, you'll go. I don't care what takes place. God will make a way for you to do it, if you're really anchored and know what you're speaking of.

And she did.

She got her maids together, and her eunuchs, and all got on the camels. And she traveled, maybe, by night. It was so hot through the desert. I can imagine in the daytime, sitting up under the shade somewhere, in some little oasis under some trees, taking those scrolls and reading them to see.... She wanted to know when she got there if it was scriptural.

And when she come, she didn't come like a lot of us do here. We'll go to the meeting once. The neighbors.... “I got a good neighbor lives down here. They invited us, and so we'll go over. I'll sit five minutes, and if he says one thing that's contrary to what I believe, I'll get right up and walk out.” That shows ignorance. That don't even show good sense. Anybody that's raised good wouldn't do a thing like that.

If I went in a Buddha temple ... if I went in the temple I'd be gentleman enough to sit there till at least that meeting was over. That's right.

You talk about some of the ignorance of Kentucky—talk about that state that I come from—the ignorance of those people down there. I don't know. Sometimes I wonder.

Let one of their daughters come in of a morning with her hair all twisted up, and manicure over her face—all night long with some little Ricky with a flat top haircut. I'll tell you, she'll know the next time she goes out.

... get a barrel slat, or a limb off of a hickory there, and he'd skin her down. And I tell you, you all talking about juvenile delinquents—there's so many papers talking about it. I think it's parent delinquency [unclear words] hanging on it. Take a young'un out there, and shuck him down a little bit, you wouldn't have so much saying, “Poor little Ricky. You're nice. You didn't mean to do bad, Martha.” She needs a good beating, is what she needs.

The Bible said, “Spare the rod, you spoil your child,” and that's exactly right. You'll never find nothing any better.

On my home they had the Ten Commandments hanging up over the door on a hickory stick about that long. And, brother, I had all ten of them across my back, and up and down my legs, pretty near every day. It done me good, though.

I tell you, Pop took me out behind the house, and I danced a little jig. But I knowed not to do it the next time, when he got through with me.

There'd be a whole lot better life, if we had some more daddies to do that today. He never struck me one lick but what I honor him tonight for it. When I looked in the casket, and seen his gray hair on the side of his head, I stood there and tears dropped upon his face. I said, “Daddy, I helped put them there. God help me.” That's right. I respected my daddy. He was a daddy that would make me do right. Yes, sir. We need more like that today.

Now, she come up. She stopped in front of the palace. She unloaded her camels, and put her maids down there, and put up her tents. And she come to stay till she was convinced. Oh, brother, no wonder she'll condemn this generation. She come to stay till she was convinced. And she waited.

Now, the first morning, I can hear the trumpets sounding, the bells ringing, and the little queen dressed herself. Went in, and maybe she had to take a seat way back in the back. And everything went along fine—all the singing, all the choir sang.

Then Pastor Solomon walked out into the pulpit. And she noticed, how marvelous! Her little heart begin to burn. Well, that day, maybe at the book stand, she must have bought some books on it. She went back out that night, and she read, and she read. The next day, day after day.

Finally her prayer card was called. She didn't blow up about it. She waited for her turn. And when it come to a place to when she stood before Solomon, the Bible said that there was nothing hid from Solomon but what he made known to her. Amen. Solomon, a spirit of discernment, told her the secrets of her heart. Jesus said that that queen will rise in the judgment and condemn that generation, 'cause a greater than Solomon was there.

Look what she said. (We're closing.) Look what she said. She said, “All that I heard was right, and more than I heard.” See, the miracle had been performed on her then. See, she was from plumb down in Sheba, and he was a Jew up here. And so, he knowed nothing about her. But when she stood in his presence, he revealed all the secrets of her heart—told her the things that she wanted to know. Everything was in her heart, God made Solomon know about it.

Don't you see? That same God.... How could you call it telepathy? How could you call it a devil (oh!), when you don't realize that I stand here, and know what you're thinking about out there? How can you doubt? How.... What is the matter with my people? Can't you see that same God is the same nature, all the way down through the Bible everywhere?

And she turned around, and she said, “Blessed is the men that's with you, that stands here and can see that great gift of God working every day. How blessed are these eyes that sits and sees it.”

Jesus said, “She'll raise up in the judgment, and condemn this generation. For she came from the utmost parts of the world to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and a greater than Solomon is here.”

And Christian friends, look, a greater than Solomon is here. The Holy Spirit, Himself, is here: Christ in the form of the Holy Ghost is here with us, proving that the same—even what Solomon had—only many times greater is here today, with twenty-five hundred years of history of the same Spirit working in the church. A greater than Solomon is here.

Her heart was touched. She hadn't seen nothing before. It wasn't common to her. She knew it was right.

Let me say something here, just a moment. When people, real genuine people, can see something real, it changes their opinion. That's right. And really, a lot of the world today is hungering to see what we're turning down. That's right. They want to see something real.

This little story.... It might come in just handy right now. I want to say it. You ... all of you know that I hunt. I love to hunt. My mother, that just passed away recently, she was almost a half Indian. And I've hunted all my life. First thing I ever bought.... I dropped sweet potato plants all day, and got a quarter. Bought me a steel trap, and caught a rabbit, sold the rabbit for fifteen cents. Bought me two more steel traps. Started right off in the business. I was only about six years old. I've been hunting, trapping, ever since. And I go up into the North Woods to hunt—used to—up there, and way up.

And I had a good hunting partner up there. He was a dandy hunter, real good shot; and a man that you didn't have to worry about getting him lost in the woods. He knowed how to get out of there. And I used to love to hunt with him. But he was so cruel-hearted.

He had eyes like a lizard. You know how ... them funny looking eyes, like women try to paint theirs today? You know, lizard-eyed like. And so he was a very fine man but he was cruel. He used to kill fawns just to make me feel bad. He just ... he knowed I....

Now, it's all right to kill a fawn, that's all right. If the law lets you kill a fawn, my hunter brothers, that's all right. Abraham killed a calf, and fed it to God, and God eat it. That's right. So the sex, or the size, has nothing to do with it. But just to kill just for the fun of killing, that's a murder. I don't believe in destroying things. I was seven years a game warden myself, as you know. So now, remember, always be honest and right with those things. And here was a....

He'd shoot these little fawns, and maybe not even pick them up, just to make me feel bad. Just cruel-hearted. And I tried to talk to him about God. And I'd mention God, he'd just stand there, and laugh with his head back. So ... but way down in him I thought there was something might be good in a man. You don't ... never turn a man down altogether. Just try your best, keep on. Let God do the turning down.

So I ... one day I went up there and it was late in the season. And them white-tailed deer, up there, my! You talk about Houdini being an escape artist, he was a amateur a-side of them. And anyhow, when they been shot at, they were just ... vanished. In moonlight night ... they'd feed at nighttime, and crawl under brush in the day, get back in the thicket. You'd never find them.

And there come a nice little snow that night, about six or eight inches, good tracking weather. And we were ... took off for hunting. And we'd always carry a thermos bottle full of hot chocolate, where, if we got turned around somewhere in the woods, or killed a deer, and had to walk back, or got in a snowstorm, that chocolate helped keep you alive. It's better than coffee, or anything, because it's got a fuel to it, and a nourishment, the chocolate. So, I had a ... we each one had a quart in our shirt, and a sandwich.

And we'd walked all morning, hadn't even seen one track, and we were.... Long about eleven-thirty or twelve o'clock, we come to a little opening about the size of this building here. And he was ahead of me, walking, and we usually go way up into the.... above the timber lines, then we'd ... he'd split. And we'd go one way, and another, and walk down through. And if we got a deer, we'd hang it up. And we'd know when we come back to the base camp.... We'd be back there that night, or if we wasn't, we didn't worry about one another. We'd know how to take care in the woods, and we'd be back the next day.

So then, I thought he was fixing to leave, 'cause we were getting pretty high up. And the deer usually run up the mountain when they were scared. And so then he stopped at this little place, and sat down. And I thought he was reaching back in his shirt to get a hold of this thermos bottle, to eat our lunch; and then we'd separate and go back. So instead of that, he brought out this little old whistle.

He had made a little whistle that sounded just like a little baby deer crying for its mammy. You know how a fawn goes—that little funny noise. Well, he'd fixed him a whistle sounded just exactly like that. And I said to him, before we left that morning, I said, “Burt, you wouldn't use that?”

He said, “Aw, you're like all the rest of the preachers. You'd never make a hunter. You're too chicken-hearted.” Said, “You preachers are too chicken-hearted to be hunters.” And usually I had to get his game, anyhow.

But however, he was going to shoot this little deer. So he reached down in his shirt, and he pulled out this whistle. I said, “You wouldn't do that.”

He said, “Oh, get next to yourself, Billy. Get next to yourself.” There was a snowdrift there, and he blowed this little whistle.

And I thought, well, we hadn't seen a track, wouldn't hurt nothing. But to my surprise, about as far as across this building, a great big, beautiful, whitetail doe stood up. Now, that's the mother deer, doe. Her big ears standing out, like that, her big beautiful eyes looking. What was the matter? No matter how good she was hid, a baby, her baby, cried. It was in distress. She jumped up. She begin looking around. Now, we wasn't standing over thirty yards from her.

He looked up to me with them lizard eyes, and I thought, “Oh, my!” And he blowed it again. And that deer walked right out into that opening. Now anyone that hunts deer knows that's absolutely unusual. They won't do that, especially when they've been shot at, and that time of day too—about eleven o'clock, twelve. She walked right out in the opening.

And I looked at her, and I began to think. “That mother, he's deceiving her. He's blowing that whistle like a little baby crying, her baby. And she's not a hypocrite. She's not just acting, she's not putting on something. But she's borned a mother. It's instinct in her. She's a mother, and that's a baby crying. She was a genuine borned mother. It was in her.”

She stepped out there again. He looked at me again like that. I nodded my head like that. I reached down. I heard that shell go up in that 30.06, big hundred and eighty grain mushroom bullet, level down at that telescope. I knew in a few moments when he touched that trigger (he was a dead shot), I knowed he'd blow her loyal heart plumb through her.

And, “How could he do that?” I thought. A cruel-hearted a man as that would take that mother there, trying to find her baby, out there looking for her baby. And would blow her loyal heart right out of her.“ I thought, ”What a cruel fellow that must be. Surely he won't do it.“

And when the bolt went down on the model .70, went down like that, the deer heard it, and she turned. And she saw the hunter. But did she move? No, sir. Why? She was a mother. Death or no death, her baby was in trouble. She was trying to find that baby. She was looking everywhere. The baby was calling. She couldn't help that. She was a mother.

I was almost crying. I just turned my head. I thought, “God, I can't see that. How can he do that, blow the heart of that poor old mother out there, and her standing looking for her baby?—a genuine display of loyalty. And how can he do it?” He leveled down like that, that steady nerve. I turned my back. And I said, “Heavenly Father,” down in my heart, “don't let him do it. Don't let him do it. How can he do it? How can he shoot the heart of that mother out like that? and her trying to find her baby like that.”

And I waited, and the gun never fired. I waited a little longer. The gun never fired, and I turned around to look. And here's the way the gun barrel was going, just shaking. And he looked up, and the tears running down his cheeks, his lips a-quivering. He took the gun and throwed it down on the snowbank, and grabbed me around the trouser legs, and said, “Billy, I've had enough. Lead me to that Jesus you're talking about.”

He's a deacon in a Baptist church now. Right there on that snowdrift, I led him to Christ. Why? He saw something real. He saw something that wasn't put on. He saw there was something genuine. He knowed there was something behind it. She was a mother. She was a borned mother.

God, make me a Christian like that. Make me to be a Christian, so that I can be so real that people who are looking for something real can see something real, and know that Christ is real. Let us bow our heads.

How many in here...? Be honest. Just a minute, will you? Be honest. How many of you would like to be the kind of ... as much a Christian, as that deer was a mother? Raise up your hand, say, “It's me, Brother Branham. I want to be that kind of Christian.” God bless you.

Heavenly Father, how little did I know, standing there in that snow that day, my feet wet, that man holding me around the legs a-snubbing and crying...? Well, I guess the deer's still there with her baby. I hope so. Little did she know what she was doing.

But God is able of these stones to speak out. That cruel-hearted man saw something real. He'd seen so much make-belief, and put on. To being a hunter himself, God had to deal with him in that way, to see that there was something that was real. And if he's living yet today, he's a lovely Christian, borned again. How we thank you for that, Father.

I seen some three or four or five hundred hands, maybe close to ... maybe more than that, go up a few moments ago, that they wanted to be a real Christian, Lord. I've had to scold this week, God; cry over it, wondering just what my brethren are thinking, wondering what You're thinking. I tried to be honest, Lord. The people sat and wondered. May it all be over now, Lord. May it just all be broke up, and settled. May we come to the God that we know that's real. We each one can have that experience, of being a real born Christian, just as much as that deer was a mother. Grant it, Lord. Hear us, I pray.

Each one with your head bowed, your eyes closed, I want you to just say in your heart, just pray a little prayer, “God, be merciful to me.” That's right. Just have faith. Don't doubt.

O God. Each one of you that feels that Christ is near you, just raise up your hand, say, “I just believe He's real near me tonight. I just feel his presence.” God bless you. Just keep praying. That's right. “God, I long to see You.” Just have faith. Believe. “Make me a Christian, Lord, just like ... just as much Christian as that deer was a mother.”

How many's never been in the meeting before? Raise up your hand, never been in the meeting. God bless you, many. Raise your heads just a minute, if you're finished praying. I want you to look this way.

I talked this week of a Jesus that's a-living. I ain't told you from a creed; I've told you by a Bible, by his Word. I give you his promise, that He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. You believe that? Now, if He.... If you could see something real, you'd want it, wouldn't you? Don't ... you don't want nothing bogus; you want something real.

May God show you tonight, right here, that I've told you the truth. He's Messiah, living. Don't doubt now. You believe. Look this way, and say in your heart to Christ, “You're that high priest. I believe it. Remember. Let me plainly make it I'm not the high priest. I'm just your brother. He's the high priest. My touch will mean nothing; his touch will do it. Your touch is what He's waiting on—your touch, your faith touch. And if He did that in his day, He'll do it again today. Don't you believe it?

That man sitting there with high blood pressure, hand up to his jaw, you believe that God would grant your healing of that high blood pressure, sir? You believe it? Raise up your hand, say, “I'll accept it.” I don't know the man. But that's true.

The lady sitting next to you there, has a female disorder, also. If she'll believe with all her heart.... You believe it, sister? Raise up your hand. Is that something real? That's Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

That woman that could touch, back there, by the feeling of her infirmities, that woman touched, too. Just don't doubt. Have faith.

Lady sitting right down here, she has cancer. She's praying for her cancer. Also, she's got a grandchild she's praying for. The grandchild is retarded. You believe that God'll heal? I'm a stranger to you. If that's right, wave your hand like this.

Now why didn't you have that kind of faith last night, you all? Just believe. Don't doubt. Put your hand on that lady right next to you. Will you do me a favor? She suffers with a throat trouble. Just have faith.

See how easy it is if you just believe it? Don't doubt. Just believe with all your heart. Isn't He good and wonderful? Isn't that real?

Man sitting right over here, he's suffering with complications. Got stomach trouble, liver trouble. (God, don't let him miss it.) Mr. Brimes, believe. You got it. It's too sweet now. Don't do nothing to interrupt it. Let it be going. I don't know the man; I've never seen him. God in heaven knows that, and here's my Bible over my heart. He could strike me dead this minute.

What'd he touch? Who did he touch? Ever who that was over there, if we don't know one another and we're strangers, raise up your hand. Ever who the person was, any of the people's been called, if we're strangers to one another, raise up your hand. We don't know one another. Raise up your hands, ever who was them people has been—that was just called just now. Sure, see.

What about somebody in this way? Lady sitting there, looking right at me, she's scared to death of that cancer. She's wondering.... You're wondering if it's you. “Is it me?” That's one you're talking to. I'll tell you who it is. Your name is Mrs. Brown. Now, you know who I'm talking to now. You believe that God's healed you? If you do, raise up your hand, say, “I accept it.” God bless you.

That alcoholic that you're praying for, you believe. You tried with all your heart, but it didn't work so good. But don't you worry. He knows about it. Now, if that's true, wave your hand like this. Nobody knows that but you, and God, and me. How did I know what you was praying about? You must believe. You must have faith. Don't doubt.

That colored lady sitting there by you, from Portland. Yes. You believe with all your heart? Mrs. Beckett, you can go home, and be well, too. Jesus Christ heals you. Amen.

You believe there's something real here tonight? Who is it? Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Don't you believe that? Now if you want to be a real Christian, you believe me. How could I stand here? How could the Holy Spirit work like this in here through a hypocrite? You think God would honor a hypocrite? No, sir.

I surely got some conception of Him at twenty ... thirty-one years of service, around the world seven times. Surely there's all kinds of.... God wouldn't permit that. I'm telling you the truth. This is truth. And it's honestly....

Now. I know right now I'm way past. I was going to.... I told you to call them prayer cards. But it's almost ten o'clock. I don't know where the time goes. I'm sorry I've kept you like this. I'm trying to get this ... way from you just for a minute.

So help me, God of heaven knows it's the truth. That angel of God that you see on that picture is right now right here at the platform. That's thus saith the Lord. See something real. Believe it. If I have to stand here tomorrow afternoon until the sun goes down, till ten o'clock tomorrow night, I'll pray for every person that wants to be prayed for that has them cards, if you just don't let me keep you too long tonight.

I wonder something. I was going to ask you a question. Each one of you that knows that you're not as much Christian as that mother was ... as that deer was a mother, while you see something right in your face here....

I seen something happen right there again, that woman sitting right there. Here's the man with that prostate trouble, getting up at night. God bless you, brother, it's over. Now it's just whirling everywhere, just going everywhere. When that unbeliever saw something real, he was ready to repent right there.

I wonder tonight if we couldn't have a good consecration service right now. Let me pray first for you, where you're sitting. Let me pray over these handkerchiefs. Let's bow our heads.

Heavenly Father, I lay my hands upon these handkerchiefs. Bless them in the name of Jesus Christ, your Son. God, watch over these. And heavenly Father, there's many sick out in the audience. There's many praying for their loved ones. They can feel it, see it. They see there's something going on, Lord. I'm getting weak, weaker all the time.

I pray, God, help me. Now help me to pray a prayer of faith for them, God. They sat here, and suffered it out through heat, many of them come through difficult. Don't let them miss it tonight, God. You're here to do it. Let them see it real.

Father God, one day there was a little boy herding his father's sheep. We know him as David. He was interested in his father's sheep. He'd given a charge over them sheep, and he must watch them. None of them must be lost. And a lion come in, and got one.

Little David didn't have a magnum rifle. He only had a slingshot, but he trusted in You. He went forward. He got that little sheep that that lion took. He slew the lion, and brought the sheep back to shady green pastures, laid him down by the still waters, because it was his father's sheep.

Dear heavenly Father, tonight diseases like heart trouble, cancer, tuberculosis, cripples, them devils of lions is come in and got some of your sheep, is dragging them out. They've drug through every doctor's office and clinic. He's dragging them out. I'm going after them tonight, Lord.

I ain't got nothing but this little slingshot of prayer. But You promised, “The prayer of faith will save the sick.” They're your sheep, and I'm coming after them. Satan you're going to have to turn them loose. I'm bringing them back tonight, through a prayer of faith. Turn them loose, and let them alone. I claim them for the Lord God. In the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, may your grip of unbelief break across this building, and every one of them be healed. Grant it, Father, in Jesus' precious name.

Don't doubt it; believe it. Do you believe it? Raise up your hand, say, “I believe it, Brother Branham. I believe it.” If God can stand here, and use for this.... Didn't He also say, “The prayer of faith shall save the sick.”? You use it in all ways.

Now, how many in here that don't know God, and wants to become a Christian, raise up your hand. Just say, “I want to raise my hand, Brother Branham. I want to become a Christian.” How many church members here, that really knows that you're not living the way you ought to live; there's things that you just can't understand; you're all mixed up, you don't know what to do, and you would really like to be a real Christian? Raise your hands, say, “Pray for me, Brother Branham.” God bless you.

I wonder, while we sing a song, if our organist will give us a chord, “I love Him, I love Him, because He first loved me....”

I wonder, just as many that believes that God would hear my prayer, and you have a need of God for such, won't you come and say, “I'm surrendering my life's soul. But I see something real, something that's out of the Bible, real. And I'm coming up tonight and standing around the altar. I'm coming to make my stand right now. And from this day henceforth, so help me, God, I'll dedicate my life to Him. I'll be a better member in my church. I'll be a more consecrated Christian. From this hour on I sell out to everything of the world. I'm going to be a real Christian from this hour on, by the grace of God. I'm coming up, Brother Branham, to stand here. I want you to pray for me.”

Will you come while we sing? Come. Just rise right up, and come. God bless you, that ... whoever you are, come right on now. That's it. Consecration. That's what we want.

I love Him [Do you really love Him?

Is your soul anything to you now?]

...... I love Him,

Because [I want to try to shake hands

with you.]...................

Won't you come down and consecrate your life? If you are a Christian, and not living just in victory like you should, you know if Jesus'd come tonight you wouldn't be ready to go. You'd be scared. There'd be something wrong. If you'd go home, started down the road, and you feel your heart failing.... The doctor had to look at your pulse, say, “Oh, oh, can't help it. They're gone.”

What if a wreck...? And the blood starts running out, you feel your heart moving. You're under a car—pinned down. Oh, you wish you would've come. It's too late then. Come now. Don't you take a chance at no time, friends. Come.

Now let me tell you, you'll never see nothing any more real from God until you see Jesus face to face, 'cause that's exactly what He did when He was here. And He would do it again, if He was standing here while this day is going on. Won't you come?

I love Him [Everybody sing. Let's

raise our hands.], I love Him,

Because He first loved me;

And purchased my salvation

On Calvary's tree.

Some day you want Him to say, “It's well done, my good and faithful servant. He that will confess his sin....”

“But if I regard iniquity in my heart, that ... God will not hear my prayer.” What is iniquity? Iniquity is something that you know that you're doing that you ought not to do, and still won't repent of it. If I regard iniquity in my heart knowing that I should do it, and don't do it, then God promised.... The Bible promises that God will not hear your prayer, if you know you should do it and won't do it. That right, brethren? That right, brother ministers? It's true, if you regard iniquity.

Now if you belong to these churches, you say, “Well, there stands my pastor. He believes me to be a Christian.” Right. Come consecrate yourself over. Your pastor'll be happy for it. Certainly he will. He'll be happy to know. He knows a real sincerity. And the desire of your heart is to do that what's right. I have ... if it was my church, I sure would. And you are my church. The whole world's my parish. So you are my church, and I'd be happy. Consecrate your life while we sing one more time. Then we're going to pray. Come.

I love Him, I love Him,

Because He first loved me;

And purchased my salvation

On Calvary's tree.

Let's bow our heads now, humming. Get among the people down here. Now, everybody praying. Now you come here. Now the only thing that you can do is confess from your heart, confess your wrong, and believe.

Now God sees you walking up here, repentant. He knows all about it, and He seen you walk up here. He was the one who spoke to you. He knowed your heart. He spoke, and you come forward. He sees you right now. You confess your wrong, say, “God, I'm sorry I did it. Help me tonight, Lord, I want to be with You. By your grace I'll stand true to You to the end of the world. I'll be your servant.” Now let everybody in the audience bow and pray.

Oh, God, our Father, we are approaching thy throne of grace. Standing around this altar tonight stands some ... large group of people. Many of them are members of churches. Some of them maybe have never made a confession yet. Some of them has made it, and failed. But, God, I know You have confidence in a man that while he's trying he fails, and then enough soldier to rise up on his feet, and try again.

God, I pray that You'll answer every one of their requests. They're standing here now, their heads bowed, their hearts bowed. They're believing You. You're their God. They're confessing their wrong, and they're wanting to be right, Lord.

They want all unbelief to be taken away from them. Let the little besetting sin that does so easy upset them, let it be taken from them tonight, never to return again.

I plead for each of them. You watched them when they raised from their seat, come down from the balcony, come down out of the aisles. You say, “Well that ... I could've stood back there, and done just as well.” God, the altar call was to come up here, and that showed that they wasn't ashamed to admit their wrong. And they come, confessing before God and the holy angels, confessing before their fellowman, that they've been wrong, and they want to be right. When they walked up here, their own walking up here made their confession.

Now, You promised that they'd be forgiven, and I know they are, Lord. And I turn them to You now, as your servant, in a word of prayer believing, feeling in my heart the great Holy Spirit is well pleased with what they've done.

And I pray, God, that they'll live a victorious life all the rest of their days; the rest of their days may be full of victory. May Satan, may sickness, leave them. May there not be a thing bother them. And may they serve You all the days of their life. And some day, if You tarry, and they go down to the hour of death and the old chilly winds begin to break across the bedside, or the cold vapors of the Jordan catching across their face, we know that the old ship of Zion will blow her whistle and she'll come by and pick up that pilgrim to take it across the river. Grant it, Lord. Land them in the land of promise safely.

Give them eternal life, Lord, and raise them up at the last days. Grant it, Lord. May tomorrow each of these church members go to their church with a shining face, and a testimony to the glory of God, that they've found a new anchor tonight and they are now dedicated Christians to your service. In Jesus' name I commit them to You with my prayer. And O Lord, if I've found grace in your sight, take each one of them. I give them to You with all my heart, in Jesus' name.

Now the ones that's around the altar here, that's come up to make your confession that you have been wrong, and you believe that God forgives you, I want you to raise up your hands. Raise up your hand, say, “I feel in my heart that God has forgive me. And from this night on I pledge that I will serve God better the rest of my days.”

Now, I want you to turn right around to the audience. Just turn right around, all you at the altar. Turn right around to the audience, right around this way. Now, raise up your hands again towards the audience, and say to this ... “Pray for me.” Say it with me, “Pray for me.” All that.... The people standing here, repeat after me, “Pray for me, that I'll always be true to God. I know, brother and sister, that I'll serve God, and I desire your prayers.”

Now, all of you out there that will do that, raise your hand out to them, and say, “My brother and sister, I pledge my prayer, and honor this word to you; my love and my loyalty, as my brother and sister. God, help me to do so.” Amen.

Now all of us with our hands up to God,

I love Him, I love Him....

All right, pastor. For tomorrow's service (sorry to be late), you tell them that I'll get every one of them, if I have to stay till midnight tomorrow night.