THE  PASTOR
[ 1931 - 1946 ]

1931-1932

1.  Stars at Brother Branham’s birth.

HOW THE ANGEL CAME TO ME.   CHICAGO, IL   55-0117
76-2   And one day while I was a game warden, I was going up on the bus. And I got on the bus. Was always seemed to be subject to spirits. I was standing there, and this sailor was standing behind me. And I was going up to patrol, and I was going up to the Henryville Forestry, was on a bus. I kept feeling some strange something. I looked around there, and there was a--a great big heavyset woman setting there, nicely dressed. She said, "How do you do?"
Said, "How do you do."
I thought it was just a woman, you know, talking, so I just kept... She said, "I'd like to talk to you a minute."
I said, "Yes, ma'am?" And I turned around.
She said, "Did you know you were born under a sign?"
I thought, "Another one of them funny women." So I just looked on out. And so I never said a word, just kept...
She said, "Could I speak to you a minute?" And I just kept... She said, "Don't act like that."
I just kept looking forward. I thought, "That isn't gentleman-like."
She said, "I'd like to speak to you just a moment."
I just kept looking forward, and I wouldn't pay any attention to her. Directly I thought, "I believe I'll see if she says like the rest of them." I turned around; I thought, "Oh, my." That quivered me; I know; 'cause I hated to think that. Turned around.
She said, "Maybe I'd better explain myself." She said, "I'm an astrologist."
I said, "I thought you was something like that."
She said, "I'm on my way to Chicago to see my boy who's a Baptist minister."
And I said, "Yes, ma'am."
She said, "Anybody ever tell you you were born under a sign?"
I said, "No, ma'am." Now, I lied to her there (See?), and I said--just wanted to see what she was going to say. And she said... I said, "No, ma'am."
And she said, "Doesn't... Hasn't ministers ever told you?"
I said, "I don't have nothing to do with ministers."
And she said, "Uh-huh."
And I said... She--she said to me... I said, "Well..."
She said, "If I tell you just exactly when you was born, will you believe me?"
I said, "No, ma'am."
And she said, "Well, I can tell you when you were born."
I said, "I don't believe it."
And she said, "You were born on April the 6th, 1909, at five o'clock in the morning."
I said, "That's right." I said, "How do you know that?" I said, "Tell this sailor here when he was born."
Said, "I can't."
And I said, "Why? How do you know?"
77-2   Said, "Look, sir." She said, when she begin to talk about this astronomy now, and she said, "Every so many years..." Said, "You remember when the morning star come, that led the wise men to Jesus Christ?"
And I kind of stalled it, you know; I said, "Well, I don't know nothing about religion."
And she said, "Well, you've heard about the wise men coming to see Jesus."
I said, "Yes."
And she said, "Well, what was wise men?"
"Oh," I said, "it was just wise men, all I know."
She said, "Well, what is a wise man?" She said, "The same thing that I am, an astrologist, star gazer they call them." And she said, "You know, before God does anything in--in the earth, He always declares it in the heavens, and then on the earth."
And I said, "I don't know."
And she said, "Well..." She called two or three, two--three stars, like Mars, Jupiter, and Venus. It wasn't them, but she said, "They crossed their paths and come together and made..." Said, "There was three wise men that come to meet the Lord Jesus, and one was from the lineage of Ham, and one of Shem, and the other one Japheth." And said, "When they met together at Bethlehem, the three stars that they were from... Every person on earth," said, "they have something to do with the stars." Said, "Ask that sailor there when the moon goes out and the heavenly planet goes out, the tide doesn't go with it and come in."
I said, "I don't have to ask him that, I know that."
And she said, "Well, your birth has something to do with the stars up there."
And I said, "Well, that I don't know."
And she said, "Now, these three wise men came." And said, "When they three stars, when they... They come from different directions and they met at Bethlehem. And they said they found out and consulted, and one was from the lineage of Ham, Shem, and Japheth, the three sons of Noah." And she said, "Then they come and worshipped the Lord Jesus Christ." And said, "When they departed," said, "they brought gifts and put to Him."
And said, "Jesus Christ said in His ministry that when this Gospel has been preached to all the world (Ham, Shem, and Japheth's people), then He would come again." And she said, "Now, those planets, heavenly planets, as they move around..." Said, "They separated. They've never been on the earth since, known." But said, "Every so many hundred years, they cross their cycles like this."
If there happen to be an astronomer here, he might know what she was talking about; I don't. So when she was talk... Said, "They cross like that." And said, "In commemoration of the greatest gift that was ever given to mankind, when God gave His Son. When these planets cross themselves again, why," said, "He sends another gift to the earth." And said, "You were born on the crossing of that time. And I said, 'That's the reason I knew it.'"
Well, then I said, "Lady, the first place, I don't believe anything about it. I'm not religious, and I don't want to hear no more about it." Walked away. And so I cut her off pretty short. So I went on out.

2.  William Marrion Branham becomes a Christian.

THE ABSOLUTE.   JEFF. IN   62-1230M
41-5   Sure. The reason every man done in his own way, because they had no prophet for the Word of the Lord to come to. The Word and the prophets was missing in that day.
Oh, I seen this at my conversion, of the day that we lived in. I'm so glad that God got ahold of me before the church did. I'd probably been an infidel. Yes, sir. I... All this conglomeration of mess and everybody. "Well, come over and join ours. And if you don't, well, you can pick up your letter and go join the other one." Oh.
"Won't you bring your letter into our fellowship?"
I believe there's one letter; that's when Christ writes your name on the Lamb's Book of Life. That's the only one it's on.
When I seen all the denominations... Our background is Irish, which was formerly Catholic, and I seen that was corrupt and rotten. I went down to a certain denominational church here in the city; they said, "Oh, we're the way, the truth, the light; we got all of it."
I went to another one in New Albany. "Oh, my. Them guys up there don't know what they're talking about."
Catholics said, "You're all wrong."
I thought, "Oh, my."
I played with a little Lutheran boy, and I thought--a little German Lutheran; I went over and I said, "Where do you go to church at?"
"I go to that church."
I went down, and I found out they said they were the way. And I went down to Brother Dale, in Emanuel Baptist, or the First Baptist; they said, "This is the way."
And I went over to the Irish church, they said, "But this is the way."
I thought, "Oh, my. I'm so confused; I don't know what to do. But I want to get right."
I didn't know what to do, and I didn't know how to repent. I wrote a letter. I thought, "I seen Him in the woods." I wrote Him a letter; I said, "Dear Sir, I know You pass down this path here, 'cause I set here squirrel hunting. I know You come by, and I know You're here. I want You... I want to tell You something."
I thought, "Now, wait a minute. I--I never seen anybody I didn't... I want to talk to them; I--I want to speak with them. I--I want to talk to Him." I
thought, "Well now, I don't know how to do it."
And I went out in the shed and knelt down, water, wet and little old car setting there wrecked up. And I said, "I believe I seen a picture... I believe they put their hands like this," and I got down. And I said, "Now, what I'm going to say?" I said, "There's some way you have to do this, and I don't know. I know there's a way to approach everything, and I don't..."
I said... I put my hands like this. I said, "Dear Sir, I wish that You would come and speak with me just a moment. I want to tell You how bad I am." Held my hand like this. I listened. People said... God talked to me, and I knowed He did talk, 'cause I'd heard It when I was a kid, telling me not to drink and things. He didn't answer me.
I said, "Maybe I was supposed to put my hands like this." So I said, "Dear Sir, I--I don't know just exactly how to do this, but I--I trust that You'll... Will You help me?"
And each preacher telling me come join theirs, and stand up and say they took Jesus Christ, and they believe Jesus to be the Son of God. Devils believe the same thing, so I thought, "I--I got to have something better than that." So I was setting like this.
I read where Peter and John passed through the gate called Beautiful, and there was a man crippled from his mother's womb. Said, "Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have..." Don't know... I knowed I didn't have that.
So I was trying to--to find out how to do it; I didn't know how to pray. I made my hands; then I laid down like this. Of course, Satan come on the scene then, said, "You see? You waited too long. You're already twenty years old; there's no need of trying it now. You done..."
Then I got all broke up and started crying. And then, when I really got broke up, I said, "I'm going to talk. If You don't talk to me, I'm going to talk to You anyhow." So I--I said, "I'm no good; I'm ashamed of myself. Mr. God, I know You'll hear me somewhere. You'll hear me. I'm ashamed of myself; I'm ashamed that I have neglected You."
About that time I looked up, and a funny feeling swept over me. Here come a Light moving through the room and made a cross, like that; and a Voice that I never heard in my life, talked. I looked at It, just cold all over, numb; I'm scared. I couldn't move. Stood, looked at It; and It went away.
43-8   I said, "Sir, I--I don't understand Your language." I said, "If You can't talk mine, and I--and I don't understand Yours... And if You have forgive me, I know that I'm supposed to be reckoned in that cross there, somewhere that--my sins are supposed to lay in there. And if--and if You will forgive me, just come back and talk in Your own language. I'll understand by that, if You can't talk my language." I said, "You just let It come back again."
There It was again. Oh, my goodness. There I got an absolute. Amen. Yes, sir. Felt like a--a load of forty tons lifted off my shoulders. I walked
down through that boardwalk, couldn't even touch the ground.
Mother said, "Billy, you're nervous."
I said, "No, mom, I don't know what happened."
There was a railroad track back there; I run down that railroad track jumping up in the air just as hard as I could. I didn't know how to give vent to my feelings. Oh, if I'd have knowed how to shout. I was shouting, but in my own way. You see?
What was it? I had anchored my soul in a Haven of Rest. That settled it; that was my absolute. There I'd found something, not some mythical, some idea. I'd talked with the Man. I'd talked with that Man that told me never to drink, or smoke, or do anything that would defile myself with women's and so forth, that when I got older there'd be a work for me to do. I had contacted Him, not the church; I'd contacted Him--Him. Yes, sir. He was the One.

ACTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.   JEFF. IN   54-1219E
149   And my whole heart is wrapped in this Message. It's been there since the very day that God give me the baptism of the Holy Ghost, right here in Jeffersonville, Indiana, when I believed on His Son, Jesus Christ, and accepted Him out here in a little old shed as my personal Saviour. And the Lord coming down upon me that night, throwed a Light across that room, and I looked at It, so scared I couldn't even move. Knelt on an old grass sack down there on Ohio Avenue, and I seen that Light form a cross, and Something on that cross speaking at me. Since that night, my hopes has been built on nothing less than the Word of God and Jesus Christ and righteousness. That's where I believe with all my heart. Let go what come, what may; my hope still anchors right there.

I KNOW MY REDEEMER LIVETH.   JEFF. IN   58-0406S
E-46  (…)  I'm so glad for a little sacred place, a little place down yonder on Ohio Avenue in an coal shed one night where God lift up the curtain. Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecostals all flew away then, for I seen Easter. I seen Jesus as my Saviour. I saw Him as the Resurrection Life.

3.  Baptized by Doctor Davis in the fall of 1932.

LAODICEAN CHURCH AGE.   JEFF. IN   60-1211E
301   Oh, I'm glad, so thankful that about--many years ago, around twenty-eight years ago, I felt that knock on my heart. And I... He come in; I've been supping with Him and He with me ever since. And I received the Pentecostal blessing, received the Holy Ghost. Was baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, the only time I ever was baptized in my life, once. When I was just a little boy, nobody could tell me there's three Gods. No, you couldn't poke that down my... You can't give it to anybody that knows any--knows what God is. That's right.
So when I baptized... A Baptist preacher baptized me. I said, "I want to be baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ." Dr. Roy E. Davis baptized me in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ when I was just a boy. See? That's right. So I--I believed it; I've stayed with it; and I know it's the truth. It's God's eternal Word. That's right. That's right.

4.  Healed of stomach ulcers after conversion.

HEARING RECEIVING AND ACTING.   CHATAUQUA, OH   60-0607
E-46   I remember my own father put me out of the house. I had my clothes in a paper sack. He said, "You can't act like that around here."
I said, "There's a whole big world here, to act like that in," so I--I took off. Sure. I had the Holy Ghost, something burning in my heart. I had heard; I believed it; I received it. I recognized it was God's promise: "And I'll pour out My Spirit... These signs shall follow them... The promise is unto you and your children... (That was me.) Whosoever will let him come..." That was me.
I wore great big thick glasses. My head shook all the time with astigmatism. I was only just a boy like, but I believed Divine healing. Why? I heard it. I recognized it was God's promise.
I went to my own Baptist church and said to the Pastor. "Got some an anointing oil?"
He said, "What do you want with anointing oil?"
I said, "I want to be anointed."
Said, "What for?"
I said, "I'm sick."
"What's the matter with you."
I said, "I can't--my eyes is bad. I can't hardly see. Take these glasses off, and they'd have to lead me around: astigmatism.
"Oh," he said, "Billy..."
I said, "That's right. You ain't got any; I'll bring you some." And I went down and got me some oil, and prayed over it, and come up and handed it to him. He anointed me with oil like that. I said, "Hallelujah." Here I went. That was it.
Doctor said if I eat one mouthful of solid food, it would kill me. Said my stomach was nothing but one big, bloody ulcer. And I went home, and pop was sitting there. And we had some corn bread and beans and--and you know how poor people live and... And I said (we never had a blessing asked at the table), and I said, "Will you all bow your heads just a minute?" And I know dad looked at me, and mother looked at me strange. I said, "God, I don't know how to pray, but somehow another, I believe You. I believe that You healed me. I've been anointed. And I'm taking Your Word."
Now, mama set me out some barley water and prune juice. And that's all I had--been eating that, and graham crackers for about a year. And mother
said, "You're not... What's you going to eat?"
I said, "Some beans and corn bread and give me a piece of that onion."
And--why she had thought I'd lost my mind. She called up the doctor. The doctor said, "It'll kill him. Just as soon as that goes in his stomach," said, "it'll kill him. It'll--it'll give him acute indigestion; he will die."
I said, "The doctor said that, but I have heard. I believe. I have received. And I'm going to act on what I believe." Hallelujah. That's right. I heard it.
I recognized this to be the Word of God, this Bible. It come out of the Bible: "The prayer of faith shall save the sick... Ask the Father anything in My Name, I'll do it." That's what He said. I recognized it was God's Word; it was God speaking to me, so I went into action. Oh, my, what took place.

AT THY WORD LORD.   WOOD RIVER, IL   54-0221
E-37   You remember when I had that stomach trouble, regurgitation, well, Mayo Brothers told me, I had not even one earthly chance, not one chance in ten million to live. And my stomach was nothing just one raw bloody ulcer. And I went to the table and sat down; I asked the blessing... They'd been giving me barley water and prune juice, and a cracker, a graham cracker, about two of them at supper, two at breakfast, and let me have it twice a day. I just read in there what God said. So I asked the blessing; my poor old father, I remember how he looked when I asked the blessing. I guess the first time that blessing was ever returned at our table. I said, "Just a minute, pop, I want to pray." And mom started crying.
And we had some beans, and corn bread, and onions for dinner. You know what it is, it's a good rib builder. So I--I said, after she said, mother said, "I will pour your barley juice."
I said, "Give me some beans."
And she said, "Oh, honey, the doctor says, 'No.'"
I said, "But God said, 'yes.'" See?
And I, she said, "Now, honey, now it's all right. I don't mind you being religious," but said, "you can't do that." Said, "Because now look there--there--there's reasons to thing."
I said, "There's no reasoning to God's Word; just say it just the way He said it. And if I die, I'm coming to Him believing His Word." See? That's right. I said, "I'm sick and tired of this." That's right. Been suffering for two years or more like that, and couldn't hardly stand up, weighed eighty pounds. I said, "I'm tired of it; I'm going to take God at His Word."
And she said, "Well, honey I ain't going to pass it to you."
I said, "I'll reach over and get it then." So I went to dealing out the beans in there, got me a big plate full, first time I'd had any solid food, a big piece of corn bread baked in the pone. You all know where you ever done that. Break out the corner of it like that, went to eating. Mmm, my, I was raised on that. So somebody else has had it too. So then, I...?... Yes, sir.
I got a big mouthful of it and went to chewing it, you know. Tasted good, and when I swallowed it, as soon as I swallowed it, it was just like a lump of fire hitting my stomach, and here it come back up. I held my hand over my mouth. I said, "Oh, no, huh-uh, huh-uh. You're going to stay right there." I swallowed it back; it come up again. I swallowed it back; it come up again. I swallowed it back. I said, "Now, you stay there, 'cause here's another one coming." I got another one like that, got me another mouthful. I kept on just like acid boiled my, my, I never... My stomach like a coal of fire... I was chewing you know, my eye's brightened...?...
And pop said, "How you feeling?"
I said, "Wonderful." Kept on eating. Swallow it again, here it come. I'd hold my hand over. I said, "...?... Excuse me I was belching. It was...?... it was them beans coming up, so I just kept on eating like that. And when I left the table, mom went and called the doctor. And she said, "Why, he eat beans and corn bread." Said, "He's been reading the Bible." Said, "He says that God healed him."
"Why," he said, "that'll kill that boy." Said, "He will have acute indigestion and die." Said, "We'll have to pump that out of him in the next hour."
I thought, "Oh, that's what you think." So I went in the house, and I started through the house holding my stomach like this, you know?
And mama said, "You're sick as you can be."
I said, "Mother, I feel fine." I said, "Yes, just wonderful." And I went in, and when I got in the room I said,
   I can, I will, I do believe;
   I can, I will, I do believe;
   I can, I will, I do believe,
   That Jesus heals me now.
I'll take Him at His Word.
That's right. "At Thy Word, Lord. I'm believing it." I went in, I got so weak, and everything begin to swim around in front of me, I just kept walking through the floor, and saying, "I can, I will."
Mother said, "Billy, you're sick."
And I said, "No, ma'am, I'm so happy I can't hardly set still." I said, "Oh, I can, I will, I do believe." I went into my room; I said, "I'm going to read my Bible awhile." And I went in there, laid down across the bed, and oh, my, here we started. And I, "Huh--uh, no, no." I got up, went out the railroad tracks, kept walking day after... When supper time come, well, we were poor, had to have beans and corn bread again for supper. But when I set at the table, ask blessing again, pass more beans and corn bread, I give that stomach a good going over. And I... All that night, I didn't sleep ten minutes. Oh, my. I'd lay down and my heart would flutter and jump like that. I raised up and said, "I can, I will, I do believe." It started again. Next morning it was laying right there, and so I--I give them something else. And I kept on, kept on, kept on, walked down the street.
E-40   And I went back to work, and I was standing in a ditch, with my old pants like that, tamping the ditch like this. And, oh, so sick. Somebody come up and said, "Hello, Billy, how are you getting along?"
I said, "Just fine. Praise the Lord. Just feeling good." Shoveling some more, dirt, and tamp like that. Have to go down the street, and some one say, "How are you feeling, Mr. Branham?"
I'd say, "Just wonderful. The Lord healed me." Just as sick as I could be.
Somebody, "Why, you lie."
I said, "Oh, no. I was making confession of what He did. 'By His stripes, I was healed.' Hallelujah. Don't invite me to a T-bone steak, 'cause I'll take you up. All right.
And I never weighed in my life, over an hundred eighteen, or twenty pounds. And I weigh a hundred and sixty this afternoon. Praise God. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.

5.  Ordained near Christmas in 1932 by Doctor Roy Davis.

PARADOX.   TAMPA, FL   64-0418B
E-20   Remember the old Baptist preacher that ordained me. I remember my first time up to preach. I just cried and beat on the desk, and everything like that. And some of the elderly women come by and patted me on the back and said, "Oh, honey," and crying, "you're going to be a great servant to Christ."
Old Dr. Davis, setting there looking me right in the eye, I said, "How did I do, Dr. Davis?"
Said, "The worst I ever heard in my life." He upbraided me. So he was an attorney. So he--he said to me afterwards, "Come over to the study, Billy," He said, "Billy, all your emotion, and all that you went through," said, "you was just trying to act like a preacher." He said, "I--I got the same thing when I become an attorney." He said, "I... My first case was a divorce case." And said, "Really didn't have no grounds at all." But said, "I said to this poor woman... I cried, and I wrung with my eyes. And said, 'I... This poor little woman, her husband did so-and-so, and things.'" And said, "I got the same thing I give you, and I thought it'd be a good thing."
Said, "The first thing you know, the... So the other attorney struck the desk and said, 'Judge, your Honor, sir, how much more of this nonsense will your court stand?' Said, 'He hasn't said one thing to defend the person, not one part of the law. He's just crying and jumping up and down.'"
He said, "And you know what? That deflated me, and put me back where I came..." Said, "Now, Billy, you was doing all the emotions, crying and jumping up and down, but you never brought one thing of the Scripture that really gives the basic things, boy." That's right.

VISIONS OF WILLIAM BRANHAM.   JEFF. IN   60-0930
E-2   Well, I remember after I was ordained in the church, the Baptist church, by Dr. Roy Davis, here at Watts Street in Jeffersonville, where the church was at the time, I remember one outstanding vision, not over a few weeks after my--about a--I'd say a few days after my ordination. I was--saw a vision of an old man that was laying in the hospital that was mashed. He was a colored man. And he was instantly healed, insomuch that it caused a lot of confusion. And he got up out of the bed and walked away.
And two days, about two days after that, I was cutting off services, of non-paid services in New Albany, water, and gas, and--and electrical bills. And at the--I was so filled with joy. Every time I'd find an old house, I'd just go in and pray, you know, where no one lived.
And I remember telling Mr. Johnny Potts, which is living today (he's way close, I guess, to seventy or eighty years old). He was an old meter reader, and they had taken him off of meter reading then, and had placed him at the desk to take complaints and things as you entered the door and service calls. And I was telling him what the Lord had showed me. And he had been once in a while, picking up a few stray meters that the regular man didn't get.
And in this he--he was telling a man, which I'd seen in the paper, where they had a--an old wagon in those days, drove two horses, that they pick up garbage and trash in the alley. There was an old colored man by the name of Mr. Edward J. Merrill. He lived at 1020 Clark Street, in New Albany.
And he had been hit by two white people--which was a white girl and a--and a boy, riding in a car, and he'd lost control of the car, and it mashed him into the wheel of the wagon, and it just broke all the bones in his body, nearly. And they'd... Through his chest part especially, knocked his back out of place. And they had him in the hospital, very bad.
And Mr. Potts, passing through the--the hospital there, in New Albany, had told him that--about the Lord dealing with me. And he sent for me to come pray for him. And immediately I thought, "That's the man that I have seen in this vision." So I--I was a little scared to go, 'cause that was one of my first (You see?) to go like that.
So, but however, I went and got my buddy, which had just been converted, a little French boy named George DeArk. And I'd just led him to Christ. And we went up, and I said, "Now, Brother George, I--I--I want you to remember these things that happen to me, I can't understand them; but you remember this man's going to be healed. And when he's healed, there's... I can't pray for him till the two white people comes and stands on the other side of the bed, 'cause I have to do it the way it was showed to me."
And I went in to--to the hospital and asked for Mr. Merrill, and I went there, and his wife told me that he was very seriously, and he couldn't move, because that the x-rays had showed that some of these bones were laying right next to the lung. And if he moved, why, it would--might puncture his lungs and hemorrhage him to death. And he was very bad, and it was hemorrhaging a little from his throat and so forth, because he was bleeding around the mouth. And he'd been laying there about two days. And the man was at that time, about sixty-five years old, I suppose, sixty or sixty-five, elderly man. His mustache long, had turned white and his hair was gray.
And I went in and told this man, though, the vision that I'd saw from the Lord and the young people come in that had hit him. And I knelt down to pray for him, and all of a sudden this man let out a scream, saying, "I'm healed," and jumped up. And his wife trying to hold him back in bed... And one of the interns come, trying to hold him in bed. And he jumped out of the bed. Caused a lot of excitement.
E-7   And when I went to the--I said to Brother George... And then, the--one of sisters (It was a Catholic hospital.) come in, and said I'd have to get out of there, so... getting that man excited, 'cause he had a fever about a hundred and four. And the strange thing, when they put him back in be--a--the--oh--a--the priest, the place, and the--some of the doctors had put him--made him go back to bed, 'cause he was putting on his clothes. And when they took his temperature, he had no temperature. (Now there's many people living today that's seen the visions, seen it happen, or know about it.)
And I went out and stood on the steps and said to Brother George, "Now, you watch, he's going to be wearing a brown coat and a plug hat. He will walk right down these steps in a few minutes." And he actually did. He come right out and walked down.
And about a--a--a night after that, the Lord appeared to me again, one morning, just about the break of day, and showed me a woman, hideously crippled, that was going to be made well. So I said, "Well, I'll--I'll probably find out where she's at."
And so I went down and was turning off some water up on, I believe it was around, Eighth Street in New Albany, and I had... There was a double tenement, and I was afraid I'd turned off both sides. One side, the people had moved out, and the other side, the people were there. So I went over to the side that had the--the pe--that was occupied, and I knocked at the door. And there was a--a--a real poor people, and a very attractive young girl come to the door, rather poorly dressed. And she--she said, "What did you want?"
And I said, "Would you try the water to see if it's off?"
And she said, "Yes, sir." And she went. She said, "No, the water's still on."
I said, "Thank you."
And her mother, laying on bed... Her name was Mrs. Mary Derl O'Hannian. And they--she was Armenian. Her boy played full-back, I believe it was, on the New Albany base--football team. And she had--her daughter was in high school; her name was Dorothy. And she said... Dorothy said to me, "Aren't you that man of God that had that healing here in the hospital the other day? My mother wish to speak to you."
And I went in. And she told me that... She was laying crippled, and she had been crippled in the bed seventeen years, since this girl was born. And so the girl was seventeen years old. And so I told her that... She said, "Are you that man of God that healed that man?"
I said, "No, ma'am, I'm not a healer. I just--I just merely prayed for the--the sick man, and was showed by something that told me... (I didn't know what to call it, a vision, or what; I didn't know what it was yet. I was just a boy, and single, and everything, and so there was a... )
This--this lady asked me for prayer for her. And I told her, "Let me pray first, and then if the Lord showed me to come back." And then when I went out to pray, I got Brother George; and I said, "That's that woman that I--I was telling you that I'd prayed about. I know it's the same woman. Go with me."
And we went up there to--to offer prayer. And so this little seventeen year old girl... ('Course me, just a young boy.) And she had a brother about six, eight years old, something like that. And there was Christmas a tree (it was right after Christmas) standing in the house, and they got behind this Christmas tree to laugh at me. To make their mother well...
E-11   I told her that the Lord was going to heal her. And I... Brother George and I got down to pray, and when I started to pray, well, that Angel that I see, that--that you see in the picture, I seen it hanging over the bed. Well, I reached over and took a hold of her hand; and I said, "Mrs. O'Hannian..." (Now, she lives in New Albany right now, her and her husband and family.) And I said, "Mrs. O'Hannian, the Lord Jesus has sent me and told me before coming, that--to pray for you, and you was going to be made well. Rise up on your feet and be made well in the Name of Jesus."
Her legs was drawed up under her. She--with her Armenian Bible over her heart, started moving towards the side of the bed. And as she did, she... Then Satan spoke to me, said, "You let her hit that floor, she'll break her neck, off that high bed."
I was scared for a moment. And I'd always knowed that what them visions (I didn't know what it was then) had told me, was always right. So I went ahead anyhow. Let her come off the bed, and, God being my witness, as soon as she started jump from that bed, both legs come straight. Her daughter screamed, pulling her hair and running out into the street, screaming as loud as she could. Neighbors come from everywhere. And there she was, for the first time, for seventeen years, walking around in that room, praising God.
I left immediately to get away from it. Later, I got acquainted with this young girl and went with her. 'Course this don't have to be on record, but I went with the young girl.

6.  Brother Branham received the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

CRUELTY OF SIN.   JEFF. IN   53-0403
184   Oh, I know how hard it was that night when I walked in that little old colored mission out there, and all the white folks standing around there, said, "There he goes into a colored mission." It was hard. I walked up there with a whole lot of Kentucky pride in me, like that, but God said, "If you want It, walk right on in there." And I walked right in there and knelt down to an altar, and there I stayed until the Lamb... I died to old self, Bill Branham, twenty years ago. Hallelujah.
"I was crucified with Christ. Yet I live; not me, but Christ lives in me." Someday in that glorious resurrection, when He comes, my body may be resting beneath the sod out yonder. But when it does, you'll see the grass move back and I will come forth in His great glorious image, besides a many of them (hallelujah), for I know Him in the power of His resurrection.

ONLY ONE WAY PROVIDED BY GOD.   CHICAGO, IL   63-0731
51   I was converted in a converted barroom. And I feel very much at home tonight. I look back there and see that counter and so forth. It was a little, colored church where I received the baptism of the Holy Ghost, was led there by the Lord.

1933

1.  Visions increased after Brother Branham became Christian.

EARLY SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES.   HAMMOND, IN   52-0713A
E-17   Look. All through life those things come and went. Finally the calling of--to the ministry. Now, I want you to notice. Before I was a Christian, confessing Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour, that gift was there just the same. When I was a sinner, an alien, far from the commonwealth of God, that gift was there just the same, saw visions just the same way. God, Who is my Judge, that I stand before today, knows that's the truth. Was it I merited it? No, sir. And the Bible absolutely confirms and backs that up to be God's way of doing things: Gifts and callings are without repentance.
Then when someone told me about Jesus and His love for me, and I knew I realized then I was a sinner, an alien from God, I accepted Him as my personal Saviour. And then, God led me around to some folks that taught me in the Scriptures, and I received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Then It begin to come to me all the time.
I consulted clergymen. First when I was ordained in the Missionary Baptist church, you know what they said to me? Now he... Here I want you to get this. How many love me? Put your hands up now that you're going to believe me. I hope you all do. I'm going to tell you something here that I don't tell people publicly. But I want you to know this. They...
I talked to clergymen; I said, "Why, there's something that takes place in my life." I said, "Since I've been reading the Bible, would you think it would be something of God?" I said, "There's... I--I see visions, and--and things that they tell, and different things predicting that flood, when I stood there on the wall, since I was..."
I was a Christian then, a Baptist minister. I stood there, I said, "Why, there's going to be... I seen a vision, and there's going to be twenty-two feet of water over that street down there."
I seen some of the boys go along, say, "Billy's kind of getting a little bit off. He's getting too religious." See?
I'd tell my clergymen, my--the bishops and the pastors, so forth. They said, "Billy, be careful what you're doing. The Devil lays on that line."
I said, "Oooh, my!"

2.  Refuse to ordain a woman preacher.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.   JEFF. IN   61-0112
589-Q-131.   Is it ruling, r-u-l-i... Is it ruling that a deacon or a trustee must abide in the doctrine of their church? (Yes. That's right.) Is it lawful for them to add to or take away of the teachings because of their own personal opinion or revelation? (No, sir. No.)
A deacon or a trustee should be perfectly in harmony with the--with the doctrine of their church. They should stay perfectly with the interpretation of the Scriptures of their church, because, if they don't, they're fighting against the very thing... They're--they're hurting themselves. See? You're battling...
It's, other words, like if--if--if I say I love my family and try to feed them poison. See, same thing. See, you can't do that, you...
A--a trustee or a deacon in taking their office, or any officer of a church that represents a certain church body (See?) that represents a church...
That's the reason I walked out of the Baptist church (See?) for the very first time. I'd just been in there a little bit and they--they asked me to ordain some woman preachers. Well, I couldn't actually stay in it. I said, "I--I--I refuse to do it."
And the pastor jerked me up. "What's this? You're an elder."
I said, "Doctor Davis, in all due respects to the Baptist faith, and everything that I have been ordained to, I did not know that it was in the doctrine of the Baptist church to ordain women. That was one thing that was left out of it."
And he said, "That is the doctrine of this church."
I said, "Sir, could I be excused for tonight, or would you answer some questions for me?" See?
He said, "I'll answer your questions." Said, "It's your duty to be there."
I said, "It is, sir. That's right. I'm supposed to anticipate in anything that this church does. I'm in the line of duty, one of the local elders." And he said... I said, "Could you explain to me why that in I Corinthians 14 or 15 there, where Paul said, 'Let your women keep silent in the churches; it's not permitted them to speak.'"
590-495   And he said, "Why, certainly." He said, "If... I can answer that." He said, "You see, what it was," said, "Paul said... All--all the women was setting back in the corners, popping off like they do a lot of the other time. He said, 'Don't let them do that.' See?"
I said, "Then explain II Timothy to me, where Paul said also, the same scribe, the same apostle, said, 'I suffer not a woman to teach or to usurp any authority (See?), but to--to be in obedience. For Adam was first formed and then Eve, and Adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived... 
She's deceived. Now, I don't say she wants to do anything wrong, but she's actually deceived in it. She shouldn't be a teacher.'"
He said, "Is that your personal opinion?"
I said, "That's the Scripture's opinion to my way of seeing it. That's what the Bible said."
He said, "Young man, you could have your license taken from you for that."
I said, "I'll just save them the trouble. I'll just give it, Doctor Davis." I said, "Not to any disregard to you..." And he wouldn't do it though. He let it go, let it go by like that.
Then he told me he'd hold an open debate with me with it. 
And I said, "All right, just anytime." But he--he didn't do that.

3.  Brother Branham saw Jesus for first time.
    [Jesus looks like Hofmann’s head of Christ at thirty.]

HOW THE ANGEL CAME TO ME.   CHICAGO, IL   55-0117
60-4   My mother had already been saved and I baptized her. Then I thought, "Oh..." My dad drank so, and I thought, "If I could just get him to accept the Lord Jesus." And I went out, laid down on a little old pallet out in the front room, near the door.
And Something said to me, "Rise up." And I raised up, went walking, and went back into the field behind me, an old broom sage field.
 
SEED NOT HEIR WITH SHUCK.   JEFF. IN   65-0218
12   This ground tonight, this very spot holds a great thing for me. Since I knew that they built this school auditorium here, I have wanted to have a service in this place. I'm very grateful to the school board and to those who graciously let us have it. It was upon this spot, right about somewhere where this building stands tonight, that a great thing took place some thirty years ago, right on this same ground. It was nothing but a broomsage field at that time. And I lived in a little house just beyond here, about two hundred yards. I was very concerned in those days about the salvation of my father and mother, which both are gone on tonight. And especially in that day I was concerned about my father.
I remember, I was sleeping on the porch. It was warm, summertime. This is written I believe in the little book called, Jesus Christ, the Same Yesterday, Today, and Forever, or either it was in the little book called, "I Was Not Disobedient to the Heavenly Vision."
And laying on the porch, I suddenly was awakened, and a burden come on my heart for my father. As many of you people here of the city knew my father, I think he was a great man, though he was a sinner, and... But he had a bad habit that I tried to fight against that thing as hard as I could through the age; that's drinking. That night he was drinking. And I woke up with a great burden on my heart for him. And just with my pajamas on, slipped on my trousers, my pajama shirt left on; I wandered out through this broomsage field to just about where this stands now. And I knelt down to pray for my father.
And while I was praying and asking God to save him and not to--to let him die a sinner, that I loved him... And while I was in prayer, I raised up to look up towards the east from here, and there was a vision. And standing just above me (Many of you knows the vision.) was the Lord Jesus.
Now, I'm not allergic to illusions as I know of; but visions are real. And there stood the Lord Jesus, the first time I'd ever saw Him in a vision of that type. He was just about, oh, probably ten feet above my head, standing in mid air with one foot just making a step. He had on a white garment with fringe around the side of it. He had hair down to His shoulders, and He looked to be about--a man about what the Bible said He was, about thirty, but a small, thin built Fellow, very small. Looked like He wouldn't weigh over a hundred and thirty pounds.
And I looked, and I thought there was something that I might've--be wrong. So I--I rubbed my eyes and--and looked up again. And he was standing kinda sideways, kind of a profile of His face. And the looks of His face, which I've always seen in the visions, has been like Hofmann's head of Christ at thirty. That's the reason I have that in my house, on my literature, wherever I can put that, because that's the way it looked, more like that. Only He seemed to be small.
And I... As I was looking up at Him, I thought, "Surely I'm not looking at my Lord standing there." And I was kinda in, I'd say, in this position, and maybe right where this--under where this pulpit's at now. Somewhere, it was right in this vicinity within--with the radius of where I'm standing, the best I could measure off, within forty or fifty yards of somewhere around in this district here, this circle.
And I looked up, and He was standing there. And I bit my finger to see if I was asleep. You know how you... Just seems like it couldn't be so. And I was just young in the Lord then, about six months I'd been preaching. I bit my finger. I took a broomsage and broke it off. And many of you people who live in the country, you know what that little toothpick like is in the broomsage. I begin to chew on that. And I said, "It--it can't be. I'm a-dreaming. There's my home. There's father, mother, and the children there. And there's the old brick house pond that used to stand down here, where I used to hunt ducks just about two hundred yards beyond this. And here I am standing in the field; it's got to be so."
20   I kicked against the ground, stomped my feet a little bit, and shook my head and--and rung my hands, looked up again, looked away, looked again; and there He was standing there. And the wind started to blow, and I seen the broomsage blowing. And when it started blowing, His garments blew with it. Like the clothes hanging on a line, they begin to--to flip.
He was standing there. I looked at it. And I thought, "If I could just get a look at His face." And He was watching east, right this a-way. He was watching intensely. And I moved to step around to get a close look at His face, and I still couldn't see Him very well. He had His hands in front of Him, rather hid from where I was standing.
I moved around again, and I cleared my throat something like this; I went [Brother Branham demonstrates--Ed.] to see if I could attract His attention. But He never moved.
Then I thought, "Maybe I'll call Him." When I said, "Jesus," He turned His head; and when He looked at me, He just raised His arms out. That's all I remember for about a... Nearly daylight I was laying right out here somewhere where this place is now in the field, my pajama shirt all wet with tears where I'd been crying, and I had passed out. His face had characters that no artist could--could draw or paint. They could not do it. He looked like a Man that if you would look at Him, you'd want to cry with sympathy and respect with reverence, and yet with enough power that He would speak it would turn the world over. And the characters could never be caught by an artist.
And I never knowed to this day what that meant. But here I am tonight after thirty years, standing in an auditorium that's dedicated now to the service of Almighty God. And me just a--a lay member, really just a--a local elder in the--in the Baptist church here, of which Roy Davis was pastor at the time. And I am now standing here with the place crowded, right over the same grounds with the--to what I think, is the purchase of the Blood of Jesus Christ Himself in my hands to bring this four days' message of the Lord.
25   Just about six months after that I had my first baptism down here on the river when the Light came down right here at Spring Street.

4.  First major vision; seven events to occur before end time.
[1st  Mussolini invades Ethiopia(Oct. 3, 1935);  2nd  WW II(Sept. 1939);
3rd  ISMS;  4th Science increase and egg-shaped car;  5th Women vote JFK;
6th  Beautiful women rise up, church;  7th  USA Bombed.]

SEVENTY WEEKS OF DANIEL.   JEFF. IN   61-0806
200   Now, in 1933 when we were worshipping over here in the Masonic temple where the Church of Christ stands today, on one April morning before leaving home, I was dedicating my--a car (I got a '33 model car, and I was dedicating it to the Lord's service.), and in a vision I saw the end time. Now, notice how striking this is. Back yonder when I was just a boy, and you can imagine what a 1933 model car looked like--now, what it looked like. And I went over there to the Masonic temple where... Some of you old-timers in here remembers; it's wrote down on an old paper at home. It's already in print and went out around the world. See? That was in 1933. And I predicted that there would be some great tragedy happen to this United States before or by the year of 1977. How many remembers me saying that? Look at the hands. Sure.
Now, watch. I predicted seven things was yet in the making of the--before this great consummation or great thing would take place here in the United States--some great horrible thing. I said... Now, remember, this is before it started. I said we would go into a second world war. How many remembers hearing me say that, say "Amen." [Congregation replies, "Amen."--Ed.] All right. A second world war. I said, "The President that now is (I copied this off of the old Scripture--old thing yesterday)--that the President that we now have, which was (how many remembers whose it was?) Franklin D. Roosevelt..." I said, "The President we have in now will run even in the fourth term (He's on his first then.)--will run into the fourth term, and we will be taken to a second world war."
I said, "The dictator that's now arising in Italy (which is Mussolini), he will come into power, and he will go to Ethiopia; and Ethiopia will fall at his steps." There's people setting here now that knows that there's a group of people come and stood (when I was having my meeting in the Redman's Hall down there that night, when I had to go down there to preach that, Redman's Hall)--was going to throw me out of the hall for saying such a thing (Here... Yeah, Mrs. Wilson, I know you're... That's right.) when I said that. But did he do it? But I said, "He'll come to a shameful end," and he did. Him and the woman he run with was turned up-side-down and hung on a rope in the street with their feet up, their clothes hanging down. All right, that come to pass.
And then I said, "The women has been permitted to vote. Which is a--absolutely a disgrace upon the nation. And in voting, someday they'll elect the wrong man." And they did that in this last election. My, my.
204   Four: I said, "Science will progress in such a way..." No, here, that's third. Pardon me. Here's the next now.
The fourth, I said, "Our war will be with Germany, and they will build a great big concrete place and fortify themselves in there, and the Americans will take a horrible beating." Almighty God knows that Who I stand before now; I seen those independent Nazis kicking the Americans like that and things at that wall. And there's many boys standing here now that was at that Siegfried Line that knows what it was. And remember, that was eleven years before the Siegfried Line was built. Is God true? Does He still foretell things to happen? Watch. That's--that was the fourth.
Now, the fifth thing. "Science will progress in such a way until they will make a car that will not have to be guided by a steering wheel, and the cars will continue to be shaped like an egg until the consummation," the end time. I seen American family going down the road in a broad way, riding in a car with their backs turned towards where the wheel should be; looked like they were playing checkers or cards. And we got it. It's on television. "Popular Science"--"Mechanics," rather, all have it; we got the car. It's controlled by remote control by--by radar. They won't even have to have any steering wheel in it. Just set your dial like this--like you dial your phone--your car takes you right on to it, can't wreck nor nothing. No other cars--the magnet keeps the rest of them away from you. See? They got it. Oh, my. Think of it. Predicted thirty years before it happened.
Now, that brings us then to the election of President Kennedy, and this car coming on the--on the scene, bringing five things out of the seven that has happened exactly.
Now, I predicted and said, "I saw a great woman stand up, beautiful looking, dressed in real highly royals like purple, and I got little parenthesis down here, "She was a great ruler in the United States, perhaps the Catholic church." A woman, some woman... I don't know her to be the Catholic church. I don't know. I can't say. Only thing I seen, I seen the woman; that was all.
But this is a woman's nation. This nation is number thirteen in prophecy. She's got thirteen stripes, thirteen stars; she started thirteen colonies. Thirteen, thirteen, everything's thirteen, appears in the 13th chapter of Revelations even. She's thirteen, and she's a woman's nation.
209   The divorce courts of America produce more divorces by our women than all the rest of the nations. The morals in our country is lower, and divorces, than it is in France or Italy, where prostitution's on the streets so... But they're prostitutes; ours is married women trying to live with several men, and several married men trying to live with other women.
In the nations where they have polygamy, it's a thousand times better. And yet, polygamy's wrong; we know.
But to show how degraded we are, I got a piece up there out of the paper where it showed that when our American boys went overseas in this last war, that over, I believe, it was around seventy per cent... Well, now, wait a minute, I believe it was three out of four that went overseas was divorced by their wife before they got back. And great big headlines says, "What's Happened to the Morals of our American People?" You remember seeing it? All of you did, I guess. What's happened to the morals of our American women? Plants, working out yonder with other men... It's a woman's nation. What's she going have? A woman god--or a goddess.
Now, then after that, I turned and looked, and I saw this United States burning like a smolder; rocks had been blowed up. And it was burning like a--a heap of fire in logs or something that just set it afire; and looked as far as I could see and she'd been blown up. And then the vision left me. Five out of the three has happened--five out of the seven, rather, has happened.

CONDEMNATION BY REPRESENTATION.   JEFF. IN   60-1113
6-2   Women, given the right to vote, elected President-elect Kennedy--by the woman's vote, the wrong man, which will finally be to full control of the Catholic church in the United States; then the bomb comes that explodes her.
There's seven things predicted, and five of them has already happened. So you can judge yourself how far away we are. We're near the end. If them five things happened, these other two things are bound to happen. It's just got to happen.
I do not think that Mr. Kennedy will have much effect now, because he'll make a wonderful president in order to bring in the others to get a scene set just like they have in England, like they did Mexico, like they did everywhere else, like that. And the American people, so unstable, not spiritually; they're smart, but too smart for their own good. Intelligence swings backward sometime and backfires. So they... (I'm preaching on that this morning, in a little bit.)
So we find out we're--we're right on the verge... The reason I said this, that's the reason I pressed that the other day so hard the way I did, but it was that that did it. That's right. Women's vote that put...

THE LAODICEAN AGE.   CHURCH AGE BOOK.  CHAPTER 9.
321-2   The Laodicean Age began around the turn of the Twentieth Century, perhaps 1906. How long will it last? As a servant of God who has had multitudes of visions, of which NONE has ever failed, let me predict (I did not say prophesy, but predict) that this age will end around 1977. If you will pardon a personal note here, I base this prediction on seven major continuous visions that came to me one Sunday morning in June, 1933. The Lord Jesus spoke to me and said that the coming of the Lord was drawing nigh, but that before He came, seven major events would transpire. I wrote them all down and that morning I gave forth the revelation of the Lord. 
The first vision was that Mussolini would invade Ethiopia and that nation would "fall at his steps". That vision surely did cause some repercussions, and some were very angry when I said it and would not believe it. But it happened that way. He just walked in there with his modern arms and took over. The natives didn't have a chance. But the vision also said that Mussolini would come to a horrible end with his own people turning on him. That came to pass just exactly as it was said.
The next vision foretold that an Austrian by the name of Adolph Hitler would rise up as dictator over Germany, and that he would draw the world into war. It showed the Siegfried line and how our troops would have a terrible time to overcome it. Then it showed that Hitler would come to a mysterious end.
The third vision was in the realm of world politics for it showed me that there would be three great ISMS, Fascism, Nazism, Communism, but that the first two would be swallowed up into the third. The voice admonished, "Watch Russia, Watch Russia. Keep your eye on the King of the North."
The fourth vision showed the great advances in science that would come after the second world war. It was headed up in the vision of a plastic bubble-topped car that was running down beautiful highways under remote control so that people appeared seated in this car without a steering wheel and they were playing some sort of a game to amuse themselves.
332-1   The fifth vision had to do with the moral problem of our age, centering mostly around women. God showed me that women began to be out of their place with the granting of the vote. Then they cut off their hair, which signified that they were no longer under the authority of a man but insisted on either equal rights, or in most cases, more than equal rights. She adopted men's clothing and went into a state of undress, until the last picture I saw was a woman naked except for a little fig leaf type apron. With this vision I saw the terrible perversion and moral plight of the whole world.
Then in the sixth vision there arose up in America a most beautiful, but cruel woman. She held the people in her complete power. I believed that this was the rise of the Roman Catholic Church, though I knew it could possibly be a vision of some woman rising in great power in America due to a popular vote by women.
The last and seventh vision was wherein I heard a most terrible explosion. As I turned to look I saw nothing but debris, craters, and smoke all over the land of America.
Based on these seven visions, along with the rapid changes which have swept the world in the last fifty years, I PREDICT (I do not prophesy) that these visions will have all come to pass by 1977. And though many may feel that this is an irresponsible statement in view of the fact that Jesus said that 'no man knoweth the day nor the hour.' I still maintain this prediction after thirty years because, Jesus did NOT say no man could know the year, month or week in which His coming was to be completed. So I repeat, I sincerely believe and maintain as a private student of the Word, along with Divine inspiration that 1977 ought to terminate the world systems and usher in the millennium.
322-5   Now let me say this. Can anyone prove any of those visions wrong? Were they not all fulfilled? Yes, each one has been fulfilled, or is in the process right now. Mussolini invaded Ethiopia successfully, then fell and lost it all. Hitler started a war he could not finish and died mysteriously. Communism took over both the other two ISMS. The plastic bubble car has been built and is awaiting only a better network of roads. Women are all but naked, and are even now wearing topless bathing suits. And just the other day I saw in a magazine the very dress that I saw in my vision (if you can call it a dress). It was a plastic transparent type of cloth with three darkened spots that covered both breasts in a small area, and then there was a dark place like a small apron below. The Catholic Church is on the rise. We have had one Catholic president and will no doubt have another. What is left? Nothing except Hebrews 12:26. "Whose voice then shook the earth: but now He hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven." Once more God will shake the earth and with it shake everything loose that can be shaken. Then He will renovate it. Just last March, 1964, that Good Friday earthquake of Alaska shook the whole world though it did not unbalance it. But God was warning by a world tremor what He will soon do on a greater scale. He is going to blast and rock this sin-cursed world, my brother, my sister, and there is only one place that can stand that shock, and that is in the fold of the Lord Jesus.

GOD'S COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM.   CHARLOTTE, NC   56-0428
E-44   I didn't mean that to do any harm, women; I don't mean you Christian women. But just to see women coming into politics and everything, it's a disgrace; it's a breaking of the American morale. And remember, this is... America will... A--a woman... I--I better leave it alone. But just remember this. I predict that a woman will be president before we're annihilated. That's right. I said that in 1933 by a vision.
Sure, it's a woman's world. Where did it start from? Hollywood. All your dirty, filthy dressing and things, that's what's crept into our homes and things like that. And now comes through television, everything else. It's a disgrace. All of our revivals won't help nothing till we get back to the good old fashion foundation again. Oh, when I... Well, so much for that; the preachers will tell you about that.

5.  Ohio River baptism June 1933, Pillar of Fire commissions prophet.

WATCHMAN WHAT OF THE NIGHT.   LAKEPORT, CA   60-0722
E-42   We're living in the last days. This message that the Lord gave me on the river to send across the world, He forerun it by putting it in every newspaper on the Associated Press: "Mystic Light Appears Over Minister. Voice Speaks From the Light." And now, as across the world, sign after sign, wonder after wonder, not one time does it fail. Perfectly, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of times has it happened without one failure anywhere. The scientific world took the picture of It. What is it? It's a big Pillar of Fire. What Pillar of Fire? The One that led the children of Israel through the wilderness.

COURT TRIAL.   BIRMINGHAM, AL   64-0412
E-50  (…)  Oh, my. I remember down there when I was a little boy. You've read my life story. You know the story. I 'member on the river down there, when I was a young Baptist preacher and was baptizing, near about ten thousand people standing on the bank. And one afternoon, my first great revival, somewhere around a thousand converts, and I was baptizing them out there in the water. The seventeenth person I was leading out into the water, I heard a noise, and I looked around. It was hot. It was on June, 1933, at the foot of Spring Street, at Jeffersonville, Indiana.
I was leading them out there, and the banks all up and down were just crowded with people. I walked out with this little boy. I'd seen him at the altar. I said, "Son, have you accepted Jesus Christ to be your personal Saviour?"
He said, "I have." His name was Edward Colvin.
And I said, "Edward, do you know what I'm doing now?"
He said, "I do, Brother Branham."
I said, "I am baptizing you, showing to this audience out here that you've accepted Christ as your personal Saviour. When I baptize you in the Name of Jesus Christ, you take on His Name. You rise for a new life. And when you leave here you're to walk a new life. Do you understand that, Edward?"
He said, "I do."
I said, "Bow your head." I said, "Heavenly Father, as this young man has confessed his faith in You, and as I was commissioned just to go into all the world and preach the Gospel, baptizing them into the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, commissioning them to believe all things which You have taught, I therefore baptize thee, my beloved brother, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ."
And as I laid him into the water, I come up; I heard something going, "whoosh." I looked at the crowd, and I heard a voice saying, "Look up."
I thought, "What is that?"
Billy, here, his Mother, two or three years 'fore we was married; she was standing there. I seen her face white. She had a camera in her hand.
E-52   "Look up." I heard it the second time. I was scared. I looked around, the people standing there just looking just dumbfounded. I heard it say again, "Look up." And when I looked here come that same Pillar of Fire that led Israel through the wilderness, thousands of eyes looking at it. Come right down to over where I was standing and said, "As John the Baptist was sent forth to forerun the first coming of Christ, your Message shall cover the earth and forerun the second coming of Christ."
That went into the newspaper on the Associated Press. Dr. Lee Vayle, here this afternoon, picked it up plumb in Canada and around. "Local Baptist preacher, while baptizing, a mystic light appears over him."

HOW THE ANGEL CAME TO ME.   CHICAGO, IL   55-0117
71-1   So then, I--then I was getting too critical on speaking with tongues. You see? But one day then, how God a-vindicated that to me... I was baptizing down on the river, my first converts, at the Ohio River, and the seventeenth person I was baptizing, as I started to baptize, then I said, "Father, as I baptize him with water, You baptize him with the Holy Spirit." I started to--to put him under the water.
And just then a whirl come from the heavens above, and here come that Light, shining down. Hundreds and hundreds of people on the bank, right at two o'clock in the afternoon, in June. And It hung right over where I was at. A Voice spoke from there, and said, "As John the Baptist was sent for the forerunner of the first coming of Christ, you've got a--have a Message that will bring forth the forerunning of the second coming of Christ." And it liked to scared me to death.
And I went back, and all the people there, the--the foundry men and all them, the druggist, and all of them on the bank. I'd baptized about two or three hundred that afternoon. And when they taken me out, pulled me out of the water, the deacons and so forth went up; they asked me, said, "What did that Light mean?"
A big group of colored people from the--the Gilead Age Baptist church and the Lone Star church down there, and many of those was down there, they begin screaming when they saw that happen; people fainted.
A girl I tried to get out of a boat there, setting there with a swimming suit on, a Sunday school teacher in a church, and I said, "Won't you get out, Margie?"
She said, "Billy, I don't have to get out."
I said, "That's right, you don't have to, but I'd have enough respects for the Gospel to get out where I'm baptizing."
She said, "I don't have to."
And when that--she set there snickering and laughing at me baptizing, 'cause she didn't believe in baptizing, so then when the Angel of the Lord come down she pitched forward in the boat. Today the girl's in the insane institution. So you just can't play with God. See? Now, later on... A beautiful girl, went to drinking later on, was hit with a bottle of--of beer bottle, cut all of her face down. Oh, a horrible-looking person. And there that happened.

IS THIS THE SIGN OF THE END, SIR.   JEFF. IN   62-1230E
45-6   Those stars falling into their constellation back yonder; that Angel coming and said, "As John was sent to wind up the Old Testament and to bring forth the introduction of Christ, your message will wind up the loose ends and will introduce the Messiah just before His coming." The message of the last days, notice, the mighty Angel swore with an oath, that time would be no more. Now, I don't want to keep you too long. Just think of this a minute now.

ON THE WINGS OF A DOVE.   SHREVEPORT, LA   65-1128E
108   John looked up. Now, what is he? The prophet. And here is the Word; there comes the Word coming right straight to the prophet, right to the water. John said, "Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. There He is; that's Him." Jesus never spoke a word, walked right out into the water. And I can see there, standing in that water (Think of a drama.), two of the greatest that ever struck the earth: God the Word, and His prophet.
Notice. The Word come to the prophet in this dispensation of grace in the water. Uh-huh. I thought you'd catch it. Uh-huh. In the water, the first revelation of the Word was in the water. Now, you see where the Bride started, the Evening-light Message? In the water. The Word, true Word not mixed up with creeds, but come to the prophet in the water, by the water.

6.  Three ordinances of God; baptism, communion and feet washing.

ORDINATION.   JEFF. IN   62-1104E
E-33   I think that is one of the most beautiful verses: "I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done unto you." We should do to each other in commemoration, as it's been a practice of the church, of this group of people gathering, ever since we began. And before this Tabernacle was ever built, when we were yet in cottage prayer meetings, we practiced feet-washing.
Our sisters go to the room in the back, our brethren go to the room to the right, and we observe feet-washing. Strangers, if you're with us tonight, we're only happy to have you to fellowship in these ordinances of God.
I might explain, as I said a few moments ago, the thing that God left for us to do: water baptism (one article), communion. And you remember, that's only two. God is perfected in three. Feet-washing is the third. See?
And we remember that years later, even in the Bible... Some people try to say it's not necessary. Certainly, I don't mean to say that people's feet need washing. That isn't it. Maybe theirs did not either. But it was an act of humility. It's an--it's an act of--of doing, just as essential as water baptism, because He has said here that, "I've given you an example that you should do to each other as I have done to you."
And we find out that a widow could not be brought in among the people unless she had lodged strangers and had washed the feet of the saints, showing ourselves humble. If anything that we want to be, is humble, 'cause that's... The secret to power is through humility. And you're always happy when you come out of these things, of doing them. It's a blessed order of fellowship that we observe here at the church.

7.  First time casting out Devil.

GREATEST BATTLE EVER FOUGHT.   JEFF. IN   62-0311
37-2   So I had a little girl here one time. The lady may be setting here now; her name was Nellie Sanders. One of the first times I ever seen a devil cast out. (We lived... Now, if I can just get the place in--it'd be just about three blocks up here, beyond the graveyard.) Now, I'd just become a preacher, and I was preaching right here on this corner with a tent meeting. And that little girl was one of the best dancers. She went to high school down here. And her and Lee Horn (and many of you here in town know Lee Horn down here, runs the pool room in there.)--so they, her and Lee Horn, was the best dancers there was in the country. He's Catholic himself; 'course, religion didn't mean nothing to them. So then (Nellie and them), so she was a great dancer and he was too, and they had this here dance called the "black bottom" and "jitterbugs" and all them things; and she was--them two was the best in the country.
One day she staggered in up here (one night) to the meeting. There she fell down at the altar, little Nellie; bless her heart. She just laid there at the altar; she raised up her head, and she cried and the tears run down her cheeks, she said, "Billy..." (She knew me.) She said, "I want to be saved so bad."
I said, "Nellie, you can be saved; Jesus already saved you, girl. You have to accept it now upon the basis of His Word." And she stayed there, and she cried, and she prayed, and she told God she'd never listen to the things of the world again. All at once a lovely, sweet peace come over her soul. She raised up from there shouting and praising God, glorifying God.
And about six or eight months after that, she was coming down Spring Street one night (Now just a young girl, she was just in her teen-age, about eighteen years old.), and she come to me, and she said, "Hope..." (That was my wife, the one that's gone on.) She said, "I wished I looked like Hope and Irene." She said, "You know, they never did get out in the world." Said, "The world puts a mark on you." Said, "I got a rough look." Said, "Now, I quit wearing makeup and stuff, but I look so rough. Even my cast of my face," she said, "I look rough." She said, "They look so innocent and tender." Said, "I wish I'd have never done that."
I said, "Nellie, the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin, Honey. Go on, believe it."
Wayne Bledsoe (many of you know him here, a bosom friend of mine years and years), he was a drinker, and be come up here with my brother Edward. And he got drunk down here in the street, and I picked him up, 'cause cops was going to get him. And I brought him up here; and I was a preacher and lived up here at my mama and papa's way 'fore I was married. And I took him, put him in the bed in there; I sleep--slept on the Duofold. There's a big bunch of Branhams, you know (ten of us), and so we had about four rooms, and we had to kinda double up a little. So I had an old Duofold I slept on, and I pulled it out like this and--and put Wayne to bed with me, drunk. Had to pack him in the house and lay him down. And I was laying there, I said, "Wayne, aren't you ashamed of yourself and like that?"
38-2   He, "Uh, duh, Billy, don't talk to me like that." You know? [Brother Branham imitates a drunk speaking--Ed.] I put my hand over and I said, "I'm going to pray for you, Wayne. God bless you."
And I'd been saved about, oh, I guess about, maybe a year. And so then all at once a--a cab, slammed the door outside, and somebody knocked on the door hard, "Brother Bill. Brother Bill." [Brother Branham knocks on pulpit--Ed.]
I thought, "My goodness, somebody must be dying." I jumped up to the door, grabbed my old thing there, throwed it around my pajamas like this, and covered Wayne up, and run to the door. It sounded just like a woman. I opened the door, and this young girl standing at the door, she said, "Oh, can I come in?"
I said, "Come in," and I turned the lights on and...
Now, she was just crying like that, and she said, "Oh, Bill--Billy, I'm--I'm--I'm gone, I'm gone."
I said, "What's the matter, Nellie? You got a--got a heart attack?"
She said, "No." She said, "Brother Bill, I was coming down Spring Street." She said, "Honest, Brother Bill, honest, Brother Bill, I didn't mean no harm; I didn't mean no harm."
I said, "What's the matter?" I thought, "What am I going to do with her now?" See? I didn't know what to do. I was just a young fellow, and I thought...
Said, "Oh, Brother Bill," said, "I'm just--I'm just--I'm just all to pieces."
I said, "Now, quieten down, sis. Tell me all about it."
And she said, "Well," she said, "I was coming down the street, and the Redmen's Hall..." (And they used to have Saturday night dances there.) And she said, "I had some stuff; I was going home to make me a dress." And she said, "I heard that music," and she said, "you know," said, "I stopped just a minute," and said, "It kept getting better. So I thought, 'You know, it won't hurt if I stand right here.'"
That's where she made her mistake, stopped for a moment.
She just listened, said, "Well, I'm going to think." Said, "Oh Lord, You know I love You though." said, "You know I love You, Lord, but I can sure remember the time when Lee and I used to win all the--the cups and so forth." Said, "My, I remember that old music used to attract me; it don't now." Oh, oh. Oh, oh, you think it don't; it's already got you right there. That's just as good as he wants right there. See?
How many ever knowed Nellie Sanders? Well, I guess a whole lot of you did. Yeah, sure. So they--there was a--there was said... She said, "Well, do you know what?" said, "Maybe if I walk up on the steps up there," said, "maybe I'll be able to testify to some of them." See, you're right on the devil's ground. Stay out of it. Shun the very appearance of evil.
But she walked up to the top of the steps and stood there a few minutes, and the first thing you know, she was in some boy's arms out on the floor. Then she come to herself, and she was standing there crying and going on, said, "Oh, I'm lost now for good."
39-5   I--I thought, "Well, I don't know too much about the Bible, but I believe Jesus said this: 'In My Name they shall cast out devils.'" Now... And Wayne had done sobered up a little bit and was setting there watching it. See? So I said, "Now, devil, I don't know who you are, but I'm telling you now, this is my sister, and you ain't got no business with her, holding her. She didn't mean to do that; she just stopped for a minute." (That's where she made her mistake though.) I said, "But you're going to have to come out of here. You hear me?" And so help me (God will at the judgment bar know), that screen door begin to opening and shutting by itself: pumpity, plumpity, there at the door, ka-plump, ka-plump, ka-plump. I thought... And she said, "Bill, looky there, looky there."
And I said, "Yeah. What is that?"
She said, "I don't know."
I said, "Neither do I." And the door go pumpity, pump, ti-pump, shutting like that, I thought, "What's the matter here? What's the matter?" And I looked again like that, and I said, "Leave her, Satan. In Jesus' Name come out of her." When I said that, it looked like a great big bat, about this long, rose up from behind her, with long hair hanging down out of its wings and off of its feet like that; it's going, "Whrrrrrrr," started right towards me, just as hard as it come. I said, "Oh, Lord God, the Blood of Jesus Christ protect me from that."
And Wayne jumped up in the bed, looked; and here it was like a big shadow, circled around, and went over, and went down behind the bed. Out of the bed went Wayne, in the next room as hard as he could.
So we--I got Nellie and took her home, and come back, and I couldn't... Mom went in there and shook the sheets and everything; there wasn't nothing in that bed. What was it? A devil went out of her. What happened? She stopped for a moment. That's all.

8.  Branham Tabernacle built; cornerstone laid June 1933.

TAKING SIDES WITH JESUS.   JEFF. IN   62-0601
744-8   Now, when I laid that cornerstone there that morning, I never felt that I'd ever be a pastor. It wasn't in my callings at the beginning, and my first call was to be on the field of evangelism. That's many years ago, and started off over here in a tent just across the street. And I remember when Brother Roy Davis, down there, and his church burnt down. That bunch of people was just like scattered sheep without a shepherd, had no place to go. And I... Mr. Hibstenberg was Chief of Police then, and he called me down there and he said to me, "I--We're here to help you." Said, "I'm Catholic myself," but said, "them people," said, "they don't... probably have their clothes." (It was during the time of the depression.) Said, "They go to other churches and they feel out of place, and they're good people. And I know many of them." He said, "Billy, if you want to start a church," he said, "I want you to know that we're behind you in anything we can do to help you." And I thanked him for it.
We had a tag day. First we prayed and asked the Lord, and people come to me and wanted to build a church so they could have a place to go. And we decided this place, and one night along this time (or a little further here) in a little pile of horseweeds right along in here and water in this ditch and just had been like a dump like, well, the Lord spoke to me definitely and said, "Build it right here." Not a penny of money--and among us we had about--about eighty cents or a dollar. And that's... Of course, you'd laugh at that now, but brother, that was some money then.
When some neighbor'd cook a pot of beans and get the neighbor that hadn't nothing for two or three days to come over and eat a few of them, that was hard times. Lot of the young fellows never seen that, but that was hard going. I seen the time that you could pass through this church a collection plate, two times or three, and get thirty cents out of a place packed full, and beg for it. It would... You'd probably got thirty cents and had a good offering. See? It's really rough going.
745-11   And we had nothing to build with, yet the--the desire of the people was to build a church so we could have a place to go, 'cause in them days the Message... Well, you think it's badly thought of now, you ought to have knowed it then, when there's nobody. And then--this water baptism in the Name of Jesus Christ and the blessings and things that we believe in and stand for.
So upon my heart I made a promise to God that we would stay here and build the Tabernacle. The morning we laid the cornerstone, He met me over there in a vision about 8:00 that morning, when I was setting there watching out across the sun coming up, just about this time of year. And He had told me, after He had met me down there on the river, but that... When the Angel of the Lord appeared in that Light, and I seen It in a distance, It looked like a star, and It come right down over where I was, and them notable words was spoken. And so then, I purposed then to get a place for the people to worship in.

IMPERSONATION OF CHRISTIANITY.   JEFF. IN   57-0120M
E-12   And then the vision returned to my mind the day that I laid the cornerstone. On return home, I was quoting it to my wife. How many remembers the vision of the morning of the cornerstone? It's laying right there in the cornerstone now, twenty-three years ago I think. And it was... I was just across the street here, just waking up one morning about seven o'clock in the June when the cornerstone was laid, I believe, or July.
And on the morning, looking out towards the rising of the eastern sun, I was praising the Lord because the tabernacle would then be--have its cornerstone laid. Mr. Markham and them had been here, and many of them that's digging the foundation and so forth. And I was to lay the cornerstone; we have the pictures and so forth of it. And each one was to place in this cornerstone a certain little token. And even Catholics come by and dropped their little beads and so forth, whatever they had into the cornerstone.
But that morning the Holy Spirit said to me as I was laying there I went... In them days I didn't know to call it a vision; I just said it was a trance. And I saw a vision which spoke and said that my work would be between the two facilities of the Pentecostal, the Trinity, and the Oneness, and there was an empty place on each side to be built. I did not cross them up; I just broke from each tree and planted it down. And up into the heavens went the great trees a growing quickly, and the fruits fell down; and they were delicious. I was eating them. And at the cross, just ahead of me, lay all covered with fruit. And then when I got to the place, the Holy Spirit come down to the top of the trees and said, shaking and roaring, and It said, "Do the work of an evangelist." Said, "When you come out of this, read II Timothy 4." Said, "Do the work of an evangelist; this is not your tabernacle."
And I said, "Where..." And I seen the tabernacle as it is today. I said, "Where is my tabernacle?"
And He set me down under the bright blue sky, and He said, "Do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of your ministry. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but shall heap for themselves together teachers, having itching ears and shall be turned from the truth to fables."
If that hasn't happened word by word, that is why I have tried to strictly stay with the Word. And that's my subject tonight, on the Word.

PRESENT STAGE OF MY MINISTRY.   JEFF. IN   62-0908
4   It's been about thirty-two years ago, that when the Lord Jesus, within a hundred and fifty yards of where I'm present, standing now, here in Jeffersonville at Eighth and Penn Street, the morning when I laid the cornerstone on this Tabernacle, just being then merely a swamp. And I lived just across the way to my left here. It was before I was married. I was living with my father and mother. That the Lord Jesus woke me up the morning that the cornerstone was to be laid, about, early about six o'clock. And I had been lying in bed for some time, with my heart full of joy, thinking of this great time that the Lord God was going to give me a tabernacle to preach in. I was merely a young boy then. And that day I... The girl that I was going with, which was soon to be my wife the following year was to be with us the day we was to lay the cornerstone.
And I remember that morning when I'd wakened up, and laying in the room, the upstairs right here on Seventh Street, Something said, "Rise up to your feet." And I got up. And I saw, as it was, a great place, and it was like a--a big--a place where there was a river run in--in the valley. And I got down there to the river and I understood it was a place where John the Baptist had been baptizing the people, and they had turned it into a hog lot. And I was very critical of it, just saying that this should not be done.
And while I was there, there was a--a Voice spoke to me and took me up, and I noticed the Tabernacle in just about the state it's in right now, but there were so many people till they were just packed all in the Tabernacle in this condition, about the state it's at now. And I--I was happy, standing behind the pulpit, saying, "God, how good You are to give me a Tabernacle."
And at that time, the Angel of the Lord spake to me, and said, "But this is not your Tabernacle."
And I said, "Then, Lord, where is my Tabernacle?"
And He taken me up in the Spirit again, and set me down in a grove. And way down the grove was just rows of trees setting just level, about twenty feet tall or thirty. And they looked like fruit trees, and they were in great big green buckets. And then I noticed to my right hand and to my left hand, there was a empty bucket on either side, and I said, "What about these?"
And He said, 'You're to plant in them." So I pulled a limb from the tree to my right and placed it in a bucket on the right side, and a limb from the left hand and placed it in a bucket on the left side. Quickly they growed all the way into the skies.
And He said, "Hold out your hands and gather the fruit thereof." And in one hand fell a great yellow apple, mellow and ripe. And in the other hand fell a great yellow plum, mellow and ripe. And said, "Eat the fruit thereof because it's pleasant." And I ate from one and from the other: very delicious. You know the vision, it it's wrote in one of the books, I think, "Life Story," or "Prophet Visits Africa."
12   And just then I held up my hands, and was shouting the glory of God. And all of a sudden that Pillar of Fire came down over the top of those trees, and the roar and the lightnings flashed, and the winds blew real hard, and the leaves begin to blowing from the trees. And I looked way down, it was in the shape of this Tabernacle, the way it sets now. And at the end where the pulpit would be, there were three trees, and those three trees taken shape of three crosses. And I noticed that both plums and apples were gathered in a clusters around the middle cross. And I ran real fast, screaming to the top of my voice, and fell down upon this cross, or by the cross, and threw my arms around it. And the winds begin to shake, and the--the fruit from the cross, and it fell all over me. And I was so happy, just rejoicing. And It said, "Eat the fruit thereof, because it's pleasant." And then this circling of Fire called out, said, "The harvest is ripe, and the laborers are few." And He said, "Now, when you come to yourself again, or come out of this, read II Timothy 4: II Timothy 4." And then I came to myself. And I stood there rubbing my face in my hand. And just then, in the corner of the room, sun shining high, then I must've been under the vision for some hour or more, and It said, "II Timothy 4." And I reached quickly for my Bible and read II Timothy 4. Now, I wish to read that now. And as strange as it seems, as I read this II Timothy 4, the place that I stopped, and many times that I've preached on that here in this Tabernacle, it seems strange that I'd always stop on that. Now, in II Timothy 4, the first five verses (Which, five is the number of grace.) I read this.
 I charge thee... before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long- suffering and doctrine.
 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall heap…. shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned into fables.
 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, and do the work of an evangelist, and make full proof of thy ministry.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.   JEFF. IN   64-0830E
1184-195   Wonder if Sister Wilson's still in the building? I seen her here. You know what I was doing awhile ago, Sister Wilson? I was looking at the pictures when we laid the cornerstone. I looked upon the picture and seen Hope and I before we were married. I didn't even know that... I remember seeing a picture when I come out of one of my fights, when I won a championship. Looked at my picture the other night when I was state game warden here in Indiana. And I think of the church. You know, I guess there's not but about one person setting here tonight out of that group that's left. How many's here from the time we laid the cornerstone back there at the beginning, raise your hand.
My Brother, Sister Wilson, I want you--to ask you two something. Remember how we all started? Remember the old floor when it was all full of mud? Had old windows that shook. We had eighty cents to start it on. A big pile of weeds, all this was woods like behind us here when we built it, the Tabernacle.
Look all of us that took our vows and marched around the altar. We've seen them come and go, one from the other. Have you noticed those who stayed with the Message, how they went? Now, think of the ones who got away from the Message, how they went. Think of it.
Here we are tonight, after all that group of three times what we have here now at our fullest meetings. Think of it, when school buses would be parked all right over the country here from all around everywhere, up and down through this lot. Even the overflow in tents setting out in there to take care of it, and still you couldn't even set the people nowhere, gathering together. I was just a boy preacher. See? And out of those thousands that we had, there's three of us left in here tonight.
I remember Sister Wilson there when I was called to her bedside dying with TB, hemorrhaging, till the sheets and pillow slips was laying bloody in the corner. I remember the Holy Spirit stopping the blood. A few days afterwards I baptized her in the Ohio River in icy water in the Name of Jesus Christ, and set her in the back of my open car, a little old roadster, and road her from Utica... Wasn't that right? From... [Sister Wilson speaks to Brother Branham--Ed.] Yeah. Sister Hope, my wife, Sister there, was in the front seat of a little roadster, and my mother and Sister Snelling in the back. I got their picture, Sister Snelling, mom, and all, Mrs. Weber, Mrs.--my mother-in-law, all of them standing there, and Meda, just a little bitty girl standing out there, and now, gray-headed woman. [A sister speaks to Bro. Branham--Ed.]
1186-200   I remember when they had a little tag day to get our first money. And I remember Hope standing on the corner. She was just a girl, about sixteen; she was selling like this, holding this tag out... Give them a tag... He'd put in...
A drunk come down the street; he said, "Pardon me, Miss." Said, "What are you selling?"
Said, "Nothing. So I give you this tag." Said, "It's a donation for the church. If you want to put anything in here for a donation, we're trying to get enough money to build a tabernacle for--in the city." Said, "If you want to put in anything, you can, but if...
Said, "I ain't got nothing."
Said, "Take the tag anyhow." He took and looked at it. On one side said--said--said, "Where will you spend eternity?" And on the next side had a question mark. "Where will you spend eternity? A question."
He staggered back, looked at it; he said, "Miss, you're asking a serious question."
She said, "But it must be settled." And that's right. She's gone beyond the curtain tonight. I remember the last words she said. I remember what I told her; I remember it. Yes, sir.

1934

1.  Marries Hope Brumbach on June 22, 1934.

LIFE STORY.   LOS ANGLESES, CA   59-0419A
29-3   Later on I found a girl when I was about twenty-two years old; she was a darling. She was a girl that went to church: German Lutheran. Her name was Brumbach, B-r-u-m-b-a-c-h, come from the name of Brumbaugh. And she was a nice girl. She didn't smoke, or drink, or--or she didn't dance or anything, a nice girl. I went with her for a little while, and I'd then about twenty-two. I had made enough money till I bought me an old Ford, and I... We'd go out on dates together. And so, that time, there was no Lutheran church close; they'd moved from Howard Park up there.
And so there was a minister, the one that ordained me in the Missionary Baptist church, Doctor Roy Davis. Sister Upshaw... The very one that sent Brother Upshaw over to me, or talked to him about me, Doctor Roy Davis... And so he was preaching, and had the First Baptist church, or the--the... I don't believe it was the First Baptist church, either, it was the Mission--called the Missionary Baptist church at Jeffersonville. And he was preaching at the place at that time, and we would go to church at night, so... And we'd come back. And I never did join church, but I just liked to go with her. Because the main thought was going with her. I just might as well be honest.
So then going with her, and one day I... She was out of a nice family. And I begin to think, "You know, you know, I oughtn't to take that girl's time. It isn't--it isn't right, because she's a nice girl, and I'm poor, and--and I..." My daddy had broke down in health, and I--I... There wasn't no way for me to make a living for a girl like that, who'd been used to a nice home and rugs on the floor.
I remember the first rug I ever seen, I didn't know what it was. I walked around the side. I thought it was the prettiest thing I ever seen in my life. "How would they put something like that on the floor?" It was the first rug I'd ever seen. It was one of these... I believe it's called "matting rugs." I may have that wrong. Some kind of like "wicker" or something that's laced together and laying on the floor. Pretty green and red, and big rows worked in the middle of it, you know, it was a pretty thing.
And so I remember I--I made up my mind that I either had to ask her to marry me, or I must get away and let some good man marry her, somebody that would be good to her, could make her a living and could be kind to her. I could be kind to her, but I--I--I was only making twenty cents an hour. So I couldn't make too much of a living for her. And I... With all the family we had to take care of, and dad broke down in health, and I had to take care of all them, so I was having a pretty rough time.
30-5   So I thought, "Well, the only thing for me to do is tell her that I--I--she--I--I just won't be back, because I thought too much of her to wreck her life and to let her fool along with me." And then I thought, "If somebody could get ahold of her and marry her, make a lovely home, and maybe if I couldn't have her, I could--I could know that she was happy."
And so I thought, "But I--I just--I just can't give her up." And I--I was in an awful shape. And day after day I'd think about it. So I was too bashful to ask her to marry me. Every night I'd make up my mind, "I'm going to ask her." And why, what is that, butterflies, or something you get in your... All you brethren out there probably had the same experience along that. And a real funny feeling, my face would get hot. I--I didn't know. I couldn't ask her.
So I guess you wonder how I ever got married. You know what? I wrote her a letter and asked her. And so her... Now, it wasn't "Dear Miss," it was a little more, you know, on the love side than that. It was just not a--an agreement, it was... I--I wrote it up best I could.
And I was a little afraid of her mother. Her mother was... She was kind of rough. And--but her father was a gentle old Dutchman, just a fine old fellow. He was an organizer of the brotherhood, the trainmen on the railroad, making about five hundred dollars a month in them times, and me making twenty cents an hour, to marry his daughter. Mm. I knowed that would never work. And her mother was very... Now, she's a nice lady. And she--she was kind of one of these high societies, you know, and prissy like, you know, and so she didn't have much use for me anyhow. I was just an old plain sassafras country boy, and she thought Hope ought to go with a little better class of boy, and I--I--I think she was right. And so... But I--I didn't think it then.
So I thought, "Well, now, I don't know how. I--I can't ask her daddy, and I--I'm sure not going to ask her mother. And so I got to ask her first." So I wrote me a letter. And that morning on the road to work, I dropped it in the mailbox. The mail... We was going to church Wednesday night, and that was on Monday morning. I tried all day Sunday to tell her that I wanted to get married, and I just couldn't get up enough nerve.
So then I dropped it in the mailbox. And on at work that day I happened to think, "What if her mother got ahold of that letter?" Oh, my. Then I knowed I was ruined if--if she ever got ahold of it, 'cause she didn't care too much about me. Well, I was just sweating it out.
And that Wednesday night when I come, oh, my, I thought, "How am I going to go up there? If her mother got ahold of that letter she'll really work me over, so I hope she got it." I addressed it to Hope. That was her name, Hope. And so I said, "I'll just write it out here to Hope." And so... And I thought maybe she might've not have got ahold of it.
So I knowed better than to stop outside and blow the horn for her to come out. Oh, my. And any boy that hasn't got nerve enough to walk up to the house, and knock on the door, and ask for the girl, ain't got no business being out with her anyhow. That's exactly right. That's so silly. That's cheap.
32-1   And so I stopped my old Ford, you know, and I had it all shined up. And so I went up and knocked at the door. Mercy, her mother come to the door. I couldn't hardly catch my breath; I said, "How--how--how do you do, Mrs. Brumbach?"
She said, "How do you do, William."
I thought, "Oh-oh, 'William'..."
And--and she said, "Will you step in?"
I said, "Thank you." I stepped inside the door. I said, "Is Hope just about ready?"
And just then here come Hope skipping through the house, just a girl about sixteen. And she said, "Hi, Billy."
And I said, "Hi, Hope." I said, "You about ready for church?"
She said, "Just in a minute."
I thought, "Oh, my. She never got it. She never got it. Good, good, good. Hope never got it either, so it'll be all right, 'cause she'd have named it to me." So I felt pretty fair.
And then when I got down at church, I happened to think, "What if she did get it?" See? I couldn't hear what Doctor Davis was saying. I looked over at her, and I thought, "If maybe she's just holding it back, and she's really going to tell me off when I get out of here for asking her that." And I couldn't hear what Brother Davis was saying. And--and I'd look over at her, and I thought, "My, I hate to give her up, but... And I--I... The showdown's sure to come."
So after church we started walking down the street together, going home, and--and so we walked to the old Ford. And so all along the moon is shining bright, you know, I look over and she was pretty. Boy, I'd look at her; I thought, "My, how I would like to have her, but guess I can't."
32-6   And so I walked on a little farther, you know, and I'd look up at her again. I said, "How--how you feeling tonight?"
She said, "Oh, I'm all right."
And we stopped the old Ford down, and we started to get out, you know, around the side, walk around the corner, go up to her house. And I was walking up to the door with her. I thought, "You know, she probably never got the letter, so I just might as well forget it. I'll have another week of grace anyhow." So I got to feeling pretty good.
She said, "Billy?"
I said, "Yeah."
She said, "I got your letter." Oh, my.
I said, "You did?"
She said, "Uh-huh." Well, she just kept walking on, never said another word.
I thought, "Woman, tell me something. Run me away or tell me what you think about it." And I said, "Did you--did you read it?"
She said, "Uh-huh."
My, you know how a woman can keep you in suspense. Oh, I--I didn't mean it just that way. You see? See? But, anyhow, you know, I--I thought, "Why don't you say something?" See, and I kept going on. I said, "Did you read it all?"
And she... [Blank spot--Ed.] "Uh-huh."
So we was almost to the door; I thought, "Boy, don't get me on the porch, 'cause I might not be able to outrun them, so you tell me now." And so I kept waiting.
And she said, "Billy, I would love to do that. She said, "I love you." God bless her soul now; she's in glory. She said, "I love you." Said, "I think we ought to tell our parent, the parents about it. Don't you think so?"
And I said, "Honey, listen, let's start this out with a fifty-fifty proposition." I said, "I'll tell your daddy if you'll tell your mother." Rooting the worse part off on her to begin with.
She said, "All right, if you'll tell daddy first."
I said, "All right, I'll tell him Sunday night."
33-4   And so Sunday night come, and I brought her home from church and I... She kept looking at me. And I looked, and it was nine-thirty; it was time for me to get going. So Charlie was setting at his desk typing away, and Mrs. Brumbach setting over the corner, doing some kind of a crocheting, you know, or them little hooks you put over the things, you know. I don't know what you call it. And so she was doing some of that kind of stuff. And Hope kept looking at me, and she'd frown at me, you know, motion to her daddy. And I... Oh, my. I thought, "What if he says no?" So I started out to the door; I said, "Well, I guess I'd better go."
And I walked to the door, and--and she started over to the door with me. She'd always come to the door and tell me good night. So I started to the door, and she said, "Aren't you going to tell him?"
And I said, "Huh." I said, "I'm sure trying to, but I--I--I don't know how I'm a-going to do it."
And she said, "I'll just go back and you call him out." So she walked back and left me standing there.
And I said, "Charlie."
He turned around and said, "Yeah, Bill?"
I said, "Could I talk to you just a minute?"
He said, "Sure." He turned around from his desk. Mrs. Brumbach looked at him, looked over at Hope, and looked at me.
And I said, "Would you come out on the porch?"
And he said, "Yes, I'll come out." So he walked out on the porch.
I said, "Sure is a pretty night, isn't it?"
And he said, "Yes, it is."
I said, "Sure been warm."
"Certainly has," he looked at me.
And I said, "I've been working so hard," I said, "you know, even my hands is getting calluses."
He said, "You can have her, Bill." Oh, my. "You can have her."
34-1   I thought, "Oh, that's better." I said, "You really mean it, Charlie?" He said... I said, "Charlie, look, I know that she's your daughter, and you got money."
And he reached over and got me by the hand. He said, "Bill, listen, money ain't all things that's in human life." He said...
I said, "Charlie, I--I only make twenty cents a hour, but I love her; she loves me. I promise you, Charlie, that I'll work till these--the calluses wear off of my hands to make her a living. I'll be just as true to her as I could be."
He said, "I believe that, Bill." He said, "Listen, Bill, I want to tell you." Said, "You know, happiness, don't altogether take money to be happy." Said, "Just be good to her. And I know you will."
I said, "Thank you, Charlie. I sure will do that."
Then it was her time to tell mama. I don't know how she got by, but we got married.
So when we got married, we didn't have nothing, nothing to go housekeeping. I think we had two or three dollars. So we rented a house; it cost us four dollars a month. It was a little, old two-room place. And someone give us an old folding bed. I wonder if anybody ever seen an old folding bed? And they gave us that. And I went down to Sears and Roebucks and got a little table with four chairs, and it--it wasn't painted, you know, and we got that on time. And so then I went over to Mr. Weber, a junk dealer, and bought a cooking stove. I paid seventy-five cents for it, and a dollar and something for grates to go in it. We set up housekeeping. I remember taking and painting a shamrock on the chairs, when I painted them. And, oh, we were happy though. We had one another, so that was all necessary. And God, by His mercy and His goodness, we was the happiest little couple could be on the earth. I found this; that happiness does not consist of how much of the world's goods you own, but how contented you are with the portion that's allotted to you.
34-5   And after while, God came down and blessed our little home; we had a little boy. His name was Billy Paul. He's in the service right now here. And a little later from then, about eleven months, He blessed us again with a little girl called Sharon Rose, taken from the Word of "The Rose of Sharon."
And I remember one day I had saved up my money and I was going to take a little vacation, going up to a place, to Paw Paw Lake to fish. And on my road back...
And during this time... I'm leaving out my conversion. I was converted and was ordained by Doctor Roy Davis in the Missionary Baptist church, and had become a minister and have the Tabernacle that I now preach in in Jeffersonville. And I was pastoring the little church. And I...
No money, I pastored the church seventeen years and never got one penny. I didn't believe in take... There wasn't even an offering plate in it. And what tithings I had from work, and so forth, had a little box on the back of the building, said, little sign on it, "Insomuch as you have done unto the least of these My little ones, you have did it unto Me." And then that's how the church was paid for. We had ten-years loan to pay it, and was paid off less than two years. And I never took an offering of no kind.
And then I had, oh, a few dollars I'd saved up for my vacation. She worked too at Fine's Shirt Factory. A lovely darling girl... And her grave is probably snowy today, but she's still in my heart. And I remember when she'd worked so hard to help me to have enough money to go up to this lake to fish... And when I was coming back from the lake, I begin to see, coming into Mishawaka and South Bend, Indiana, and I begin to notice cars that had signs on the back, said, "Jesus Only." And I thought, "That sounds strange, 'Jesus Only.'" And I begin noticing those signs. And it was on anywhere from bicycles, Fords, Cadillacs, and whatmore: "Jesus Only." And I followed some of them down, and they come to a great big church. And I found out they were Pentecostal.

1935

1.  Mishawaka, Brother Branham met Pentecostals and heard tongues.

CORINTHIANS BOOK OF CORRECTION.   JEFF. IN   57-0414
E-15   I remember when I was first converted and I begin to see the working of the Spirit and how that some could just impersonate the real genuine Holy Spirit into such a way, that it would... Why, it was just impossible to tell which was right and wrong hardly.
And I seen a man, that I knew and I--and by discernment, I knew that man was living with another man's wife. And here he was standing there speaking with tongues, and interpreting, and everything, and giving messages, and it was... And then I got the other fellow to a place to where I could speak to him a few moments, and a real genuine Christian. And I thought, how can that Spirit, the same Spirit, where I... That's when I first seen Pentecost, and it was at Mishawaka, Indiana. And I tell you; it certainly... I thought for the first few hours I was there, I was among angels. And the next few hours I thought I was among demons, when I seen that--seen these two men, one give a message, one interpret. I'd never heard speaking in tongues and things like that before.
And I watched those spirits, how they moved; I thought, "Oh, my, Why the great millennium has begun." And then when I got a chance on the outside to talk to one of them and could tell what he was made from, there was one as evil as he could be.
And--and that night, I watched them again and I thought, "Oh, get me away from here. I can't understand how this is." And I seen those things were in the Bible. But here was one doing it that didn't have the Spirit of God, and the other one doing it that did have the Spirit of God. Then I was all confused, and I just left the whole thing go.
And years later,   (…)   .  [Thought continues in 1939.]

2.  First called to evangelistic field.

LIFE STORY.   LITTLE ROCK, AR   50-0200
E-44   And so next morning, I walked in, set down. And so after while, I looked over and another man come in and set down, a colored man sat down by me, big bunch of people setting there. So I was setting there. This... They said, "We're going to begin the services." And they was talking, making their... selling literature, and whatever they had. And he said, "There was a minister on the platform last night by the name of Branham from Jeffersonville." Said, "He was the youngest man on the platform. We want him to come up and bring the morning message."
Mercy, why, I never even seen a microphone. They had a microphone there. I thought, "What? Well, I couldn't... seersucker trousers and T-shirt." I just hunkered down real low, like this.
He announced again, said, "Anybody know where William Branham of Jeffersonville?" Said, "We want him to come up and bring the message." Fifteen hundred people nearly setting there. Not me, before that. I just set back there. No, sir. This... I was too countryfied to get up there. So I just set there real low. And so... And he announced it two or three times. Said, "Anybody on the outside, we're paging for William Branham."
I thought. Something told me, said, "That's what you prayed for last night. If you want to get acquainted with them people, get up there."
"Lord, I can't do that, seersucker trousers and T-shirt." I said, "Nuh-uh." So I was setting there.
And he... when he announced it again, this colored man looked over at me, said, "Do--do--do--do you know that man?"
Oh, my. Talk about on the spot. I said I had... I knowed I had to lie or--or--or something, or be--tell him. I said, "Look, fellow, look. Now, keep this to yourself." I said, "I'm he. See? But..."
He said, "Well, get up there, white man, get up there."
I said, "No." I said, "I got on... Look at these pants here."
He said, "Them people don't care what you got on. They want to hear you."
And I said, "Look, I can't get up there." I said, "I--I don't... You just keep still."
And he said, "If anybody knows where..."
He said, "Here he is. Here he is." Whew. Um. "Here he is."
I thought, "Oh, my." I could just feel my heart go, and my knees real weak, and my arms looked like they was going to drop off. Well, it just looked like something picked me up, and here I went walking up, just as conscious, seersucker trousers and T-shirt.
I got up there, and I said, "Folks, I don't know very much about..." Before them preachers who could really preach, oh, my. I said, "I just want to say that I--I love Jesus, and--and ah--and ah--and ah..." You know, sort of like that.
And so he said... I started to walk off, and he said, "Well, speak a little for us, Brother Branham."
E-45   I turned over. I said, "I--I--I just don't know what to say." And I happened to think of a text, "And Then He Cried," the rich man that... When he lifted up his eyes in hell. And I took that text, "And Then He Cried." And I got to speaking, and the first thing you know, Something hit me. My, I was lost out of this world for awhile. And everybody got to screaming.
I went outside when the service was over, and a great big fellow from Texas with a... with cowboy boots on, and a big cowboy hat, said, "I'm a preacher."
I thought, "Well, brother, my seersucker trousers aren't so bad after all. He had those cowboy boots and a big cowboy hat, and be a preacher?"
And he said, "I heard you say you was an evangelist. I'd like to sign you up for couple week's revival down in Texas."
I took his name. I said, "Oh, my, Lord. You just doing great things for me." I took that all down, you know.
A little bitty fellow with these little golf playing trousers on, walked up and said, "I'm from Florida. Like to have you over there for a couple of weeks."
My, I seen they was just common people after all. So first thing a--a Indian... A woman come up from the Indian reservation, wanted me to go there. Well, I had enough invitations to last me about a year. My, I jumped in that old Ford, and it half backslid, and down the road I went.
I rushed in at home, wife met me, you know. I said, "Oh, honey, I got something to tell you. I met the cream of the crop." I said, "My, people who just scream and shout and jump up-and-down. They're not ashamed of their religion." I said, "My, the best you ever seen."
She said, "Where they at?"
And I told her. I said, "Looky here. I got a whole string here." I said, "My, I can just preach and preach and preach it. And you know what, they accepted me."
Said, "Is that right?"
I said, "Look. I'm going to quit my job and start right out."
She said, "Well, we haven't got any money."
I said, "How much money we got?"
She said, "We got that twelve dollars in there, payment on the Ford."
I said, "Well, you know, the Bible said, 'Don't--don't take anything when you go.' See? Don't take any script, or if you got two coats, give one to your brother. He said, 'I--I--I will be with you.'" I said, "That's the way." He said.. I said, "Will you go with me?"
She, bless her heart. She said, "Yes, I'll stick with you."
So I--I went and told my mama. And mama said, "That's all right, honey. If you feel that."
E-47   Well, I went and had to tell her mother. And that didn't work so good. She said, "William." She said, "She's your wife. You may take her if you want to." But said, "I don't want my daughter drug out among that bunch of trash." Um. Trash?
Friends, I found out this, that what she thought was trash, is the cream of the crop. That's right. And I say that with respect.
Said, "Out like that where all that carrying and screaming and carrying on like that." Said, "Why don't you go on up there and be a pastor. And--the someday they'll build you a parsonage, and all that."
That didn't... Oh, my. So Hope begin to cry. And so I said, "Well..."
She said, "I'll go with you."
But anyhow, I didn't want... She said her... how it would hurt her, so I just let it go, went on.
Friend, the little girl that was too good to be with that trash, I buried her just a little after that. Sorrow set in right there.

LIFE STORY WILLIAM BRANHAM.   CLEVE. OH   50-0820A
E-88   She said... And I said, "Well, she's my wife and she wants you..."
She said, "Well, mama, I want..." Well, there it was.
And I said... She started... She said, "Well, if she goes, her mother will go to the grave broken hearted." And the wife started crying.
Well now, I couldn't stand that, so I told her; I said, "Well, we'll wait and go later." Now, there's where I made my mistake." Now, if I would have went on, this gift would have been in operation way before that, 'cause I'd come amongst people who recognize it. You see? But I said, "Well, we won't go."
And brother, sister, from right then my trouble started. The first thing, you know, my church begin to drop off. My brother was killed, having his neck broke in the street. He was riding in a car like this with his arm out; his neck was broke; his blood poured out on my other brother's body. And I run to meet him, but it was too far, died before I could get to him. My sister-in-law died a few days after that. My father died in my arms. Everything begin to go wrong.
Then the '37 Flood came on. You heard about it, many of you on your radios and things. The Ohio River, spread out through the country.

3.  Birth of Billy Paul on September 13, 1935.

AT THY WORD.   LOS ANGELES, CA   51-0506E
E-17  (…)  Has anybody found out where the boy is at yet? We have to kinda put a bell around him, won't we? Whew. Did someone wake him up? His face turning red now, he--he's an Irishman too, although his mother was a German.
His... He was borned on Friday the thirteenth at three o'clock in the evening. We was going to call him jinx. But I... We don't believe in that, do we, son. No, we... His mother was a German, and I was Irish, so instead, we call him Hiney Michaels. But God had us to call him Billy Paul from his father and the great Saint Paul the Apostle.
And I'm happy tonight that I believe that with all my heart now, that God is going to send my boy into the ministry, into the fields to win souls for Him. I just brought him from the regular high school and putting him now in a college, a Christian college.
First, before this in this, he was converted recently, came in. I'm... He's wanting to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. And I want him to get that. That seals him away in the Kingdom of God then. "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby you're sealed until the day of your redemption."
And in the last days, there's going to be two classes of people: them that has the seal, and the others will have the mark of the beast. That's right. So the Seal of the God is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 4:30. Is that right? The Seal of God...

1936

1.  Birth of Sharon Rose on October 27, 1936
2.  Father Charles Branham dies November 30, 1936.

LIFE STORY.   HAMMOND, IN.   52-0720A
E-16   A lot of times they're right, when you think they're wrong. Always, "Honor thy father and mother, which may lengthen the days upon the earth, the Lord thy God giveth thee." That's the first commandment with promise. Be kind to your mother and dad.
I remember my daddy died. He was just beginning to gray a little bit at the temples. When he laid there in the casket, and I picked up his head, which had died right on my arms... And I picked up his head and his locks of hair fall down, I thought, "Oh, dad." I looked at his hand. He had had his finger cut off there in the shredder one day. I thought of all the heartaches that I'd caused him. It wasn't "the old man," that was my daddy. I don't care who else, what they thought about him; he was still my dad. And I loved him. And I love him today. I had the privilege of leading him to Christ.

1937

1.  Ohio flood in 1937; wife Hope and baby Sharon Rose died in July.

LIFE STORY WILLIAM BRANHAM.   CLEVELAND, OH   50-0820A
E-88  (…)  Then the '37 Flood came on. You heard about it, many of you on your radios and things. The Ohio River, spread out through the country.
My wife taken pneumonia. Little old Dr. Adair, I shall never forget him. He come. We're buddies. We'd fish together, and hunt together, and everything: one of the best doctors, medical doctors there is in the country. And he... We went to school together. He come up there and looked at her, said, "Billy," said, "that girl's got pneumonia." I'd just taken him his Christmas present. He--he never...
God had give us a little girl between that time, little Sharon Rose. I couldn't call her Rose of Sharon, but I could call her Sharon Rose. And I called her Sharon Rose. And God gave her to us and she was a sweet little lump, and we just loved her so much. And she'd just got to a place to where, the mother would set her in her little, the "four corners," you know, out in the yard, and I'd come up, and I'd blow the horn on the car like that. She'd recognize and lift her little arms and go, "Goo, goo, goo, goo." My, how I loved that little lump of human flesh. I'd hold her in my bosom and kiss her and love her. My little boy...
I just love little children, and God had give to me. And I'd put them both on my back and piggyback and ride around, you know, just as happy as we could be, nothing...?... the order but just... She had just the two children in a little over three years. And then...
But she taken pneumonia when she went to get the children a Christmas present. And the doctor said she'll have to lay right here, Billy, 'cause she's--probably will die if--if she ever moves. But her mother come up and said she was going to move her down to her house. And Dr. Adair said, "She'll have to get another doctor, 'cause I wouldn't do it, Billy," wouldn't permit it.
So they--she went and dismissed him and got another doctor and taken her down there. And the flood broke through, and then all of us was put on the rescue to--to work with the flood. We rushed her out to the government hospital where they temporary placed the hospital. The dikes was breaking through; the city was washing away.
E-91   I'll never forget those nights. I remember they called me. Both babies was sick with pneumonia, and she was laying sick with pneumonia, out in the hospital there with a fever a hundred and five and both babies sick.
And I come up... I come up and had my car, and I had a boat and I was raised on the river and said... I operated a boat pretty well. And everybody was just pulling people out of the flood, and people drowning and everything. I got my boat... I was working on a wall and some of them come, said, "Oh, the--get down here, preacher, right quick and get your boat in down here." The dike broke, you know, over on Chestnut Street, and the houses are washed away, and there's a mother on top of the house out there with a bunch of little children, about eleven o'clock at night.
I rushed down there real quick and throwed my boat in the water, started it up. And I had to buck those waves as high as this tent, almost, up in there where this a dashing against the side of those buildings like that. And I heard the mother screaming. I looked over there, and she was standing on the top porch, out over her house, and the--the waves just shaking that house like that with four or five little children standing around her. I said, "See where the street lights hadn't went out yet, down through there." And I went up through the alley like this with the boat and it just washing things from under it. Went down through that way. Finally caught to post and throwed the rope around and run in, the mother fainted. And I picked her up and pulled all the children, packed them, put them in the boat and got back.
Just as I got to the bank I heard her say, "Oh, my baby, my baby..." I thought she'd left a little baby in there. "Where's my baby?" though she was talking about a little--a little about three year old child she had there.
And I said, "Oh, my, a little baby laying in that house..." And I went back again, and I knowed the poor little thing, how I love children. And the waves were horrible then. I just got to the house, and throwed the rope around again, and went in, looked out all around, and I couldn't find no baby, and just then I heard the house give away. And just as it give away I run real quick to the porch and grabbed the--the rope at the column, went down and pulled the slip knot out of it, and then the current caught me and out to the river I went, like that.
E-94   And I got out there and I couldn't get my outboard started on, like that, the string just froze. Sleeting and snowing, and I was trying to get it started. It wouldn't start. And the current caught me, and there the falls just below me. And I knowed what was going. And there, setting in that boat, out there, rocking back and forth, and the waves twisting like this, me pulling on that string, and it wouldn't start. And I'd pull again, it wouldn't start. I thought, "Oh, my, a half a mile farther, and down through that chute I'll go and they'll never find a piece of me, when I go down through there." I thought, "Oh, God, the wages..." The way of a transgressor's hard, friends. Don't you never get that, but what it is. And I thought, "Oh, God..." I begin to remember it. I remember Him then, that He called me to go and I didn't go and I refused to go. During that time though, we'd went ahead and received the Holy Spirit, both of us.
And I was pulling the string; it wouldn't start. I got down, I thought, "There's little Billy Paul. I'll never see him again. There's little Sharon Rose. I'll never see her again. There's wife laying there in the hospital, right at the point of death. I'll never see them when they break the news to her that I'm gone and find my truck setting there, and then was. Some of them might've seen the house move away. What will happen?" I said, "God, have mercy upon me. Please, dear God, I don't want to die. I'm sorry that I did what I did." I said, "Help me to start..." I pulled the chain and away it started. Cut through and come way down by Howard's Park and come back. Went and got my car real quick, left my boat tied up, top of the tree where I could get back to it. And I come up and got my car real quick. And some of them said, "Why, they tell them the depot. washed away awhile ago where the wife was.
E-96   And I run up through there real quick, and I met a major there. And I--I stopped and I said, "Major Wheatley..." I knew him. I said, "Is it true, that...?"
Said, "Yes, the water broke through." said, "All that hospital bunch was taken out though." Said, "I think that all of them got on a car, a train, and they've gone to Charlestown, Indiana, and you can find them up there."
I jumped in my car. I remember the last time I seen my little associate pastor. He grabbed me by the hand; he said, "Brother Branham, if I never see you again, I'll see you in the morning." And that's the last salutation one another as we saluted one another. He died during the time of the flood. And all... Oh, he never died; he went home to be with Jesus during the time of the flood: a little boy, filled with the Holy Ghost, a little Frenchman, DeArk was his name.
And away we went. I--I went out there to try to--to get across and when I got my boat down there and got up there, the Lancassange Creek up there was backed through for about eight miles of water through there, twisting. There wasn't a river where it cut around. And some of them said, "Well, last train that crossed, went on a trestle. The trestle washed away and everyone of them was drowned right by the...?..."
Oh, my, I said, "Can it be? It can't be," and I tried again; I tried to pierce it. And I couldn't try in the night. The waters taken me back. Come to find myself cut off from everybody, setting out in the room, up on a hill. And there, for about five or six days I had plenty of time to think all over my wrong, when God called me to go and I didn't go. And setting there thinking, "My baby and wife has drowned. My mother, where was she at. I didn't know where she was at. I didn't know where no one was at.
And finally when the rivers dropped enough that I could get a boat across, I rushed across. And I said, "Maybe they went to Charlestown..." They told me the--the boat got through--I mean, the train got through. And I went to a great big place at Charlestown where they was keeping all the refugees. And I went in there; they knowed nothing about nobody named Branham in there. And I walked out under a tree and that old Colonel Hay, a very good friend of mine, he said, "Billy," he said, "that train went through here. I don't think it even stopped, was ran on through the dispatcher's office."
He went down there and said, "Yes," said, "the engineer of the train will be in just in a few moments that drove that train through." Said, "It was a cattle car." Her father was a brotherhood organizer on the Pennsylvania, drives the south route through now. And there it was going out on a cattle car. And the sleet and rain upon them. I knowed they couldn't live like that, and I had... [Blank spot--Ed.]
E-99   Two sick children... And so how could I get to Columbus, I was cut off. And there, walking down the street, crying, wringing my hands, don't know what would take place, I... Someone run up to me, said, "Billy, you're looking for Hope, aren't you?"
And I said, "Yes." That was my wife's name. They used to call her Hope, me Faith, and little baby, little Billy Charity.
So they said, "You looking for her?" And I said... Said, "My girlfriend is at Columbus, Indiana, and your wife is laying by her side dying with...?... tuberculosis."
I said, "No, it can't be."
Said, "Yes, she is."
I said, "Can you get me there?"
Said, "Yes, if you can walk a ways."
I said, "I can walk anywhere."
We got up and got in the car, and I went to Columbus. I went up there and I thought, "Where's she at?" I run into that... They had her in--in a Baptist church, down on the basketball court, gymnasium. And I started down through there, hollering... There's cots everywhere, and people was stretched all like this, and every sickness and everything. I started screaming top of my voice, "Hope, oh, Hope, where are you, honey? Where are you?" I loved her. I love her yet. She's in her grave out there, but God knows that she was a good God saved woman.
And I looked and I was crying, screaming, "Oh, where are you, Hope?" I looked over there, and I seen an old poor, bony hand go up in the air. It was her. I'll never forget how I felt. My heart begin to drop. And I run over to her, and fell down, and grabbed her hand. She did weigh about a hundred and thirty pounds; she probably weighed sixty or seventy then.
I was crying. I said, "Where Billy? Where's Sharon?" She said, "They're in a home somewhere." Said, "I'm going..." I had...?... Bill."
And I said, "No, honey, you look all right. You're going to be right." I said, "Oh, God, have mercy. Please, dear Jesus," I said, "will You have mercy. Let my wife get well."
And I was praying; somebody was patting my on the back. It was the doctor, said, "You Reverend Branham?" And I said... Said, "Come aside a minute."
I went over; I said, "Yes, doctor?"
Said, "Isn't Sam Adair your doctor at home?"
And I said, "Yes, sir."
He said, "Well, I'm going to tell you," said, "you better get ready for this." Said, "Your wife is going to die," said, "she's got TB."
And I said, "That's galloping consumption."
And said, "She won't last for just a little while."
I said, "Doctor, no, she can't go." I said, "You looked at my babies?"
Said, "Yes, they both been sick, but they're getting better."
And I said, "Oh, look, I'm going to take her home."
And he said, "You can't do that." Said, "You just stay right here." Well, after finally, when I did get her down home, she just kept getting worse, worse, and worse all the time.
Dr. Adair came back to give her pneumothorax treatments. They done everything that could be done. She kept getting worse. I'd pray, and cry, and beg with all my heart. Looked like it was just black before me as it could be.
Finally, they taken her out to the hospital. They sent and got doc--a doctor from Louisville. He come over and looked at her, and he said, "No." Dr. Dillar from the TB sanatorium, and he said, "There's nothing could be done for her, reverend," said, "she's going to die; that's all." Said, "Just might as well make ready for her to die," said, "because it's done in both lungs and has just got such a hold of her till there's no hopes of saving her."
What was I going to do? Oh, my. All the time I could hear that ringing in my ears, "I called you and give you the opportunity. You wouldn't go," like that. You reap what you sow, every time.
And I remember, I went ahead trying to work, trying to get things so we could eat, and I could pay my bills. And I was working one day. Getting worse all the time, she was. And I heard it come in, said for me to report at once at the hospital for my wife was dying.
And I never will forget; I took off my hat, took off my coat, laid it down. I said, "O God, have mercy on me, and let me speak to her again before she goes." I turned the car, and I was just close to Henryville, Indiana, or at Underwood, I mean. And down the road I came, rushed to the hospital, jumped out of the car, and run up the steps real quick, going into the hospital. And after I went in, I seen little Doctor Adair coming down the hall with his head down. He looked at me like that. Tears broke through, and He turned his face and started running and motioning to me. And I went up to him; I put my arm around him; I said, "Doc, look Sam, come here. What's wrong."
And he said, "I believe she's gone, Bill."
I said, "Surely not." I said, "Go with me, doc."
He said, "Billy, how could I go in there?" Said, "The girl cooked me a many a dinner. She was like my sister." Said, "How could I go in to do it?" Said, "I don't want to see her no more." He said, "You stay out here."
And I said, "I'm going to see her."
Said, "Don't go in there, Bill."
Well, I said, "Yeah, I'm going...?..."
He said, "Here." Called one of the nurses, "You go with him." She had a little red medicine or something or other. The little thing said, "Take this."
I said, "I don't need that."
E-104   I walked in. I said, "I want to go alone." I pulled the door behind me. I looked over there. She had real dark eyes and black hair: German girl. She was all doubled up like this. I looked down upon her, and just as still. I put my hand on her forehead. It was real sticky, didn't look like she had any life. I put my hand over on her head, and I said, "O God, please." I said, "That's my baby's mother. Let me tell her good-bye. Will You do it, Lord? Let me tell her good-bye. I don't want her to go without telling her good-bye. Will You help me, dear God, if there's forgiveness in Your great heart. Will You just let me say good-bye to her?"
Her head moved. I looked down. If I live a hundred years, I'll never forget those big, dark eyes looked at me. She couldn't talk. She motioned her finger. And I--I got down. She said, "Why did you call me?"
I said, "Why, honey, you're not going."
She said, "Yes, I am." She said, "I don't mind it, Bill, I hate to leave the babies." She said, "But I know..."
Well, then I said, "Honey, you--you're not going. No, you'll get all right; you're going to be all right."
She said, "Now, Bill..."
Just then the nurse broke in. She said, "Reverend Branham, you come on out."
She said, "Come here," to the nurse. And she said out, "Evelyn," she knew her, a schoolmate. Said, "If you ever get married, I hope you have a husband like mine now."
And I said, "Oh, honey, don't say that."
She said, "I...?..." Evelyn started crying, went back out. She didn't know what to say; she...?... She said, "I'm going," and she said, "It's glorious to go." She said, "I was on my road, and I had someone by each arm, looked like white angels, and they were taking me down through a white path to my home." Said, "I could hear you calling way back up the road." Oh, oh. Said, "Honey, you're just as peaceful," said, "great palm trees, and birds like the dawn of a morning, and...?... tropics."
You know what I think? I think she was just on that breach between the natural and the supernatural. She said, "I been taking a walk." Said, "Promise me one thing, that you'll always preach this glorious Gospel of the Holy Spirit," she said, "for it sure pays when you're going, Bill." She said, "I guess you know why I'm going, don't you, honey?"
And I said, "Don't say it."
She said, "No, not your fault; it was mine."
I said, "Yes, honey, if I wouldn't have listened to your mother, would've listened to God instead of some woman, I'd been better off, wouldn't I?"
She said, "That's right, honey, but it'll come out all right for you."
I said, "Hope, don't leave me.?
And she said, "I have to go, honey." Said, "I hate to leave you and the babies." She said, "Promise me something, will you?" Said, "I got some things to tell you."
And I said, "All right."
E-107   Said, "I have to tell you quickly, 'cause I'm going back; they're waiting on me." She said, "Don't think I'm beside myself; I'm not." She said, "You remember that time you was in Louisville and you wanted to buy that little old twenty-two rifle, and you didn't even have enough money to make a down payment?"
I said, "Yeah."
She said, "I always wanted to get you that rifle." She said, "I've been saving the nickels to try to get enough money to make that down payment for it: three dollars." And she said, "After I'm gone, when you go home, look up on the top of the old folding bed, under that newspaper. And promise me you'll get the rifle. You want it so bad."
You'll never know how I felt when I went back home and found about two dollars and seventy-five or eighty cents laying there in nickels where she'd saved it, allowancing herself, do without stockings, mainly, to put it up there. That's a real wife.
"Now," she said, "another thing I want to tell you." She said, "You remember that time that you bought me them stockings, I sent you down to get stockings?"
And I said, "Yes."
She said, "Them was the wrong stockings."
How it was, we were going to Fort Wayne. I was going to preach that night up there. And I was going up to Fort Wayne, and she sent me down to get some stockings. There's two different kinds. One's called chiff--chiffon? That's them. What's the other one? Ray--rayon? Rayon and chiffon. And she told me; she said, "Go get me a pair..." Is the rayon the best? All right. She said, "They cost sixty-nine cents." She said, "Go get me a pair of rayon stockings while I'm--while I'm getting ready."
And I went down to get it. And I was going down the street. I never did buy any clothes for women, didn't know any clothes. I was going down... She said, "Chiffon."
"Chiffon, chiffon, chiffon, chiffon, chiffon..."
Somebody said, "Hello, Brother Branham."
I said, "Hello... Chiffon, chiffon, chiffon, chiffon, chiffon, chiffon, chiffon..."
Go on down, say, "How you getting along, Billy?"
I said, "Fine... Chiffon, chiffon, chiffon, chiffon..."
And I passed around corner, and a fisherman friend of mine met me at the corner. He said, "Oh, Billy, Perch out on the piers are biting."
I said, "Sure enough. Crawfish is what they're hitting?" I said, "Well, I got to go to Fort Wayne." I said, "I'll meet you Monday," we're talking like that. Then when he left, I forgot what it was.
E-109   Well, she sent me to Penny's to get it. So I used to go with a little girl by name of Thelma Ford, and she was working at Newberry's and I know that the--that they set them stockings in there, so I went in and thought I'd ask her. Well, I didn't want to show my ignorance to the people. And I went over there, and I said... She said, "Hello, Billy."
And I said, "Hi, Thelma."
Said, "What do you want?"
I said, "A pair of socks for Hope."
Said, "A pair of what?"
And I said, "Socks."
Said, "Hope don't wear socks."
And I said, "Yes, ma'am. She wants socks, and she wants that full style, that thing in the back, you know, and ever what it is, you know." I said...
She said, "She wants stockings."
I said, "Well, ever what you want to call them..." Then I thought I'd already showed how dumb I was, and I didn't want to get into it worse.
She said, "What kind does she want?"
I said, "What kind you got?"
And she says... What's that pronounced? As rayon? Chiffon? Is that the kind? Well, she starts and said, "Well, we've got some rayon." Well, I never heard...
I said, "That's what she wants." See? Sound like chiffon me, chiffon, rayon. See? And I said, "That's what she wants."
And she said, "She don't want rayon."
I said, "That's what she wants." And so she went and got them. It was only about twenty something cents.
Why, I said, "Give me two pair of them."
She said, "Are you sure of that?"
Said, I said, "That's what she wants."
So I took them up there. You know how you went--brothers like to show off to your women, you know. And I said, "Oh..." I said, "I'm Abraham's son, little Yiddish." I said, "You know how to shop." She said, "Did you get me chiffon stockings?"
And I thought, "Yes." That was what the good kind was. And I said, "Yes, ma'am. That's what I got." And she was lady enough not to tell me about it. And when she got to Fort Wayne, I thought it was strange, she had to have another pair of socks.
E-111   But what it was, she told me, said, "Honey, I didn't want to tell you." She was too much a lady then. Said, "I had to give them to your mother. It was for an older person." Said, "I'm sorry I kept it back from you, but I just couldn't tell you."
I said, "Bless your heart, sweetheart."
"There's one more thing I want you to promise me: you won't live single."
I said, "Oh, Hope, I can't promise that."
She said, "Don't live single, and have my children pulled about from post to post." She said, "I--I'm--I'm going, Bill." She said, "Will you promise me?"
I said, "Honey, I can't promise that."
Said, "Promise me, won't you?" the poor old feeble hands reaching up to me. Said, "Get a good girl that's got the Holy Spirit. She'll take care of the children." She said, "Bill, I'll meet you there."
I said, "All right, honey." I said, "Are you really going?"
She said, "Yes, I'm going."
I said, "Sweetheart, someday, so help me God..." I said, "I'll take you out here to Walnut Ridge and I'll bury you, and I leave a place there for myself and the kiddies."
She said, "Do one thing. Promise me too, that you'll never let loose, but you'll preach this Gospel that you heard up there at Mishawaka."
I said, "I promise."
She said, "It's glorious to die by, Bill." And said, "I hate to leave you and the babies, but it's so good to go back."
And I said, "Honey, on that day the sun will be as black as sackcloth, bloody. The skies will be waving and gray too." I said, "If I'm alive, I'll be on the battlefield, but if I'm not, I'll be sleeping by your side. And if you go before I do, if I'm alive, and you go before I do, when you see the city coming lowering down from God out of heaven," I said, "go over to the east side of the gate; stand there under the big pillar. When you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and them coming by," I said, "scream my name as loud as you can: Bill, Bill." I said, "I'll gather the children together, and I'll meet you there at the gate."
She said, "I'll meet you, honey." And I kissed her. That was my last date with my wife." And brother, sister, if sometimes I get weary and tired, but I'm going to keep that appointment. One day I'm going to meet her.
E-112   I walked out of the building, went home, oh, my, my heart breaking. I couldn't stand it. Mother told me, "Come to her house." I couldn't do it. I went over that night. I was going around the house. I went in the room, laid down. I shut the door. When I set the... I was laying on the cot and I shoved my foot, shoved it together; and when I did, there was her coat hanging on the back of the door. I--I... It was all over again.
Just then, somebody knocked on the door, said, "Billy?"
And I said, "Yes."
Said, "I got some bad news to tell you."
I said, "Well, I was right there when she died."
"That's not all of it. Your baby's dying too."
I said, "No."
"Yes." Said, "Dr. Adair just left and said not let you come to the hospital; it's dying now with tubercular meningitis."
I couldn't stand it no longer. Then got--I got up. Two men setting in an old truck, we went out there to the hospital, and I went in. Doc said, "You can't go in there."
I said, "Yes, I can."
"No, you can't," said, "Billy, you got to think about Billy Paul." Said, "See, she's got meningitis. She's contracted that from her mother," And said, "if you go in there, you might take it to your boy."
I said, "Doc, I must go."
He said, "You can't." So he set me down in a room. As soon as he got away, I slipped in anyhow.
And I went down there. It was a little old hospital, and there, when I walked into the room... I'll never forget it, there laid my little eight month old darling, little Sherry, laying there. And she was suffering so hard, her little legs was moving up and down like that, fast. It looked like her little hands was waving at me: good-bye. I looked at her and she was suffering so hard, I said, "Sherry, do you know your daddy, honey?" I shooed the flies out of her eyes. And when she looked at me... She was suffering so hard till one those little baby blue eyes had crossed.
I never could stand it to see a cross-eyed child from then. I've never seen one pass the platform but what was healed. Never...?... Is that right? I seen four hundred and something cross-eyed children healed in six months. Oh, when I see a cross eyed child I think of my little Sherry laying there. She was suffering so hard until that that--her little eyes crossed and her little hand tried to wave at me.
And I said, "Know, daddy, honey?" and her little lips trying to speak to me like this, "goo" to me, and they were quivering; she's a dying. I put my hand over on her; I said, "O God, please God, don't take her. You took my wife; You took my daddy, and You've took... O God, isn't there forgiveness in Your great heart?" I said, "Please, dear God, please spare my baby." I thought, "Whatever I've...?..." I said, "Won't You do it, Lord? Looked just looked like a black sheet begin to unfold, coming down. Oh, I knowed she was gone.
I looked at her; I thought, "Oh, my, if I had it to live over again, they would never be trash. I don't care who would...?..." I thought, "Oh, if I could just go back, I'd never listen to another thing anybody told me; I would listen to God and Him alone. I'd listen to Him."
I looked down at her and I knowed she was going. I said...?... sweetheart, daddy's going to...?... you. You won't be so...?... just wave at me. I just done been...?... took up home. I said, "You're worried about...?... whether...?... street. I placed my hand over on her little head; I said, "Lord, You gave her and You taken her away. Though You slay me, yet I'll trust You. You're still more my Saviour. I love You." I'm not a baby. But when I think about it, tears me to pieces.
I thought, "Oh, God, how You'll just take that precious thing from my heart?" Then...?... yonder I said, "Not my will though, let thine be done. God, if You slay me, I'm just going to trust You."  I said, "God bless you, honey. Good-bye, Sherry. You're... I'll put you in mother's arms in a few hours up there in a casket where she's laying now. And one day daddy'll see you again." I stepped back and every bone in me seemed like, went to pieces. I just...?..." The Angels of God come down and packed her little soul to be with her mother. She went to meet mother, tucked her helpless body in the arms of her dear mother...?... out there to the graves and buried them. Reverend Smith from the Methodist church, walked up there and got the handful of dirt, said, "Ashes to ashes and dust to dust and earth to earth." Said, "Them old clods begin to...?... atop that casket as it went down in the grave." I raised up, I couldn't stand it.
E-116   Way back up on the side of the hill was some big cedar trees. I heard the wind whistling through there. It seemed like the song said,
   There's a land beyond the river,
   That they call the sweet forever.
   And we only reach that shore by faith's degree.
   One by one they gain the portals,
   There to dwell with the immortals,
   Someday they'll ring those golden bells for you and me.
Last Easter a year ago, her little son there, Billy and I, we'd go to the grave early of a morning, had a little bundle of flowers under his arms, I said, "Let's go visit mama's grave."
We were going along there with the flowers, coming day. I took off my hat, and the little old fellow took off his hat. I heard chuffles. I said, "Don't cry, sonny." I put my arm around him. We set it down by the side of the grave. I read it: "Right there lays Hope Amelia Branham and darling daughter, Sharon Rose." I said, "Sweetheart, the reason we're here--here Billy, in Jerusalem there's an empty grave this morning. That's right. And your mother died in Him Who rose again." I said, "Someday, we'll see mama and sissy again in a better land."
After my wife, they'd buried her, I went home. I tried to go to work. I had thousands of dollars in debt, and frankly on that till just recently got out of it.

LIFE STORY.   LOS ANGELES, CA   59-0419A
48-1   I took the little baby, when it died, and put it on the arms of the mother, and we taken it out to the cemetery. And I stood there to hear Brother Smith, the Methodist preacher that preached the funeral, "Ashes to ashes and dust to dust." (And I thought, "Heart to heart.") There she went.
Not long after that, I took little Billy there one morning. He was just a little bitty fellow. He was...
That's the reason he sticks with me and I stick with him; I had to be both papa and mama (both) to him. I'd take his little bottle. We couldn't afford to have a fire at night to keep his milk warm, and I'd lay it under my back like this and keep it warm by the heat of my body.
We've stuck together like buddies, and one of these days when I go off the field I want to hand him the Word, and say, "Go on, Billy. You stay with It." Some people wonders why I got him with me all the time. I can't give him up. He's even married, but I still remember she told me, "Stay with him." And we've stuck together like buddies.
I remember walking around town, the bottle under my arm; he'd get to crying. One night he was--was walking out in the back yard where just... (When she was fixing to have him, she was smothering, and I... Just a girl, you know.) And I'd walk back and forth from the old oak tree in the back of the yard. And he was crying for his mama, and I didn't have any mama to take him to. And I'd pack him; I'd say, "Oh, honey." I said...
He said, "Daddy, where's my mama? Did you put her into that ground?"
I said, "No, honey. She's all right; she's up in heaven."
And he said something there, liked to have killed me one afternoon. He was crying, was along late in the evening, and I was packing him on my back like that, packing him on my shoulder and patting him like this. And he said, "Daddy, please go get mama and bring her here."
And I said, "Honey, I can't get mama. Jesus..."
Said, "Well, tell Jesus to send me my mama. I want her."
I said, "Well, honey, I... Me and you going to go see her sometime."
And he stopped, said, "Daddy!"
And I said, "Yes?"
Said, "I seen mama up there on that cloud."
My, liked to have killed me, I thought, "My, 'I seen mama up there on that cloud.'" I just almost fainted. I hugged the little fellow up to my bosom like that, and just held my head down, went on in.
Days passed. I couldn't forget it. I tried to work. Couldn't go back home, it wasn't home no more. And I wanted to stay. We didn't have nothing but just that old tore up furniture, but it was something that she and I had enjoyed together. It was home.
And I remember one day I was trying to work in the public service. I'd went up to fix a... An old secondary was hanging down; it was real early of a morning. And I climbed up this cross. (And I couldn't give that baby up. I could see my wife going, but that baby going, just a little bitty thing...) And I was on there, and I was singing, "On the hill far away, stood an old rugged Cross." And the primaries run down to the transformer and went out into (you know) secondary. And I was hanging up there on it. And I happened to look, and the sun coming up behind me. And there my hands stretched out and the sign of that Cross on the--on the hillside. I thought, "Yes, it was my sins that put Him there."
49-4   I said, "Sharon, honey, daddy wants to see you so bad, honey. How I'd like to hold you in my arms again, you darling little thing." I got beside myself. It'd been weeks. I pulled off my rubber glove. There's twenty-three hundred volts running right by the side of me. I pulled off my rubber glove. I said, "God, I hate to do this. I'm a coward. But, Sherry, daddy's going to see you and mommy just in a few minutes." Started pulling off my glove to put my hand on that twenty-three hundred. It'd break... Why, you wouldn't even have no blood left in you. And so I--I--I started pulling that glove off, and something happened. When I come to, I was setting on the ground with my hands up like this, to my face, crying. It was God's grace, or I wouldn't been having a healing service here; I'm sure of that. It was Him protecting His gift, not me.
I started home. I quit, put my tools away, and went back; I said, "I'm going home."
I started around the house, and I picked up the mail in the house: kind of cold, and I went in. We had one little room; I was sleeping on a little cot there, and the frost coming up, and that old stove. I took the mail and I looked in the mail, and the first thing on there was her little Christmas saving: eighty cents, "Miss Sharon Rose Branham." There it was, all over again.
I had been game warden. I reached in there and got my gun, pistol, out from the holster. I said, "Lord, I--I can't go this anymore; I--I'm dying. I'm--I'm so tormented." I pulled the hammer back on the gun, put it up to my head, kneeling there on that cot in that dark room. I said, "Our Father Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thine will be done," and as I tried, I squeezed that trigger as hard as I could; I said, "on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread." And it wouldn't go off.
And I thought, "O God, are You just tearing me to pieces? What have I done? You won't even let me die." And I throwed the gun down, and it went off and shot through the room. And I said, "God, why can't I die and get out of it? I just can't go no farther. You've got to do something to me." And I fell over and started crying on my little, old dirty bunk there.
I must've went to sleep. I don't know whether I was asleep or what happened. I've always longed to be out west. I've always wanted one of them hats. My father broke horses in his young days, and I always wanted one of them hats. And Brother Demos Shakarian bought me one yesterday, first one I've had (ever had) like that, one of them kind of western hats.
And I thought I was going down along through the prairie a-singing that song, "There's a wheel on the wagon is broken, sign on the ranch, 'For Sale.'" And as I went along, I noticed an old covered wagon, like an old prairie schooner, and the wheel was broke. 'Course that represented my broken family. And as I got close, I looked, and there stood a--a real pretty, young girl, about twenty years old, white flowing hair and blue eyes, dressed in white. I looked over at her; I said, "How do you do?" Went on.
She said, "Hello, dad."
And I turned back; I said, "Dad? Why," I said, "how, Miss, can you--can I be your daddy when you're as old as I am?"
She said, "Daddy, you just don't know where you're at."
And I said, "What do you mean?"
She said, "This is heaven." Said, "On earth I was your little Sharon."
"Why," I said, "honey, you was just a little baby."
Said, "Daddy, little babies are not little babies here; they're immortal. They never get old or never grow."
And I said, "Well, Sharon, honey, you--you're a pretty, young woman."
She said, "Mama's waiting for you."
And I said, "Where?"
She said, "Up at your new home."
And I said, "New home?" Branhams are vagabonds; they don't have homes; they just... And I said, "Well, I never had a home, honey."
She said, "But you got one up here, daddy." I don't mean to be a baby, but it's just so real to me. [Brother Branham weeps--Ed.] As I start to thinking of it, it all comes back again. Said, "You got one here, daddy." I know I got one over there, someday I'll go to it. She said, "Where's Billy Paul, my brother?"
And I said, "Well, I left him at Mrs. Broy's, just a few minutes ago."
Said, "Mother wants to see you."
51-1   And I turned and looked, and there was great big palaces, and the glory of God coming up around them. And I heard a Angelic choir singing, "My Home, Sweet Home." I started up a long steps, running just as hard as I could. And when I got to the door, there she stood, a white garment on, that black hair, long, holding down her back. She raised out her arms, as she always did when I come home tired from work or something. I caught her by the hands, and I said, "Honey, I seen Sharon down there." I said, "She made a pretty girl, didn't she?"
She said, "Yes, Bill." She said, "Bill." Put her arms around me, and she said--just around my shoulders, she started patting me; she said, "Stop worrying about me and Sharon."
I said, "Honey, I can't help it."
She said, "Now, Sharon and I are better off than you are." And said, "Don't worry about us no more. Will you promise me?"
And I said, "Hope," I said, "I've been so lonesome for you and for Sharon, and Billy cries all the time for you." I said, "I don't know what to do with him."
And she said, "It'll be all right, Bill." She said, "Just promise me you won't worry no more." And she said, "Won't you set down?" And I looked around and there was a great big chair.
And I remember I tried to buy a chair. Now, in closing. I tried to buy a chair one time. We just had them old--old common wooden-bottom chairs for that breakfast set. We had to use them, the only chairs we had. And we could buy one of these chairs that you let back in the back, like a... I forget what kind of an easy-rest chair. And it cost seventeen dollars, and you could pay three dollars down and a dollar a week. And we got one. And oh, when I'd come in... I'd work all day and preach till midnight around the streets and wherever I could preach.
And--and I one day I got behind on my payments. We couldn't make it, and it got day after day, and finally one day they come and got my chair and took it. That night I never will forget; she had me a cherry pie baked. Poor little old thing, she--she--she knowed I was going to be disappointed. And after supper I said, "What's you so good about tonight, honey?"
And she said, "Say, I had the boys over in the neighborhood to dig you some fishing worms. Don't you think we ought to go down to the river and fish a little while?"
And I said, "Yes, but..."
And she started crying. I knowed there was something wrong. I had an idea, 'cause they'd already sent me a notice they was coming to get it. And we couldn't make that dollar payment a week. We couldn't, just couldn't afford it. She put her arms around me, and I went to the door and my chair was gone.
She told me up there; she said, "You remember that chair, Bill?"
And I said, "Yes, honey, I remember."
Said, "That's what you was thinking about, wasn't it?"
"Yeah."
Said, "Well, they won't take this one; this one's paid for." She said, "Set down just a minute; I want to talk to you."
And I said, "Honey, I don't understand this."
And she said, "Promise me, Billy, promise me that you won't worry anymore. You're going back now." And said, "Promise me you won't worry."
And I said, "I can't do that, Hope."
52-3   And just then I come to; it was dark in the room. I looked around, and I felt her arm around me. I said, "Hope, are you here in the room?"
She started patting me. She said, "You going to make me that promise, Bill? Promise me you won't marry--worry no more."
I said, "I promise you."
And when then she patted me two or three times, and she was gone. I jumped up and turned on the light, looked everywhere; she was gone. But she just gone out of the room. She isn't gone; she's still living. She was a Christian.

1938--1939

1.  Brother Branham performs weddings for two different couples.

CHOOSING OF A BRIDE.   LOS ANGELES, CA   65-0429E
14-4   I've married many couples, but I--always reminds me of Christ and His Bride. One of the weddings that I performed here some time ago, it--it was quite an outstanding thing in my life. It's been several years ago when I was just a young minister.
My brother was working on the--the P. W. A. I don't know where anybody ever remembers that yet or not, anybody as old as me. And that was a project that the government had, and my brother worked up about thirty miles. They were digging out some lakes, a project for the conservation.
And there was a boy that worked up there with him from Indianapolis, about, oh, about a hundred miles above Jeffersonville where I--I live, or lived. And there was a... He said to my brother one day; he said, "Doc," he said, "I--I want--I'm going to get married if I can just have enough money to pay the preacher." He said, "I--I got enough money to get my licenses," but said, "I haven't got enough money to pay the preacher."
Doc said, "Well, my brother's a preacher, and--and he--he may marry you." He said, "He never charges people for things like that."
He said, "Will you ask him if he'll marry me?"
Well, that night my brother asked me. And I said, "If he's never been married before, either one of them, and they're--everything's all right."
He said... Well, he will ask him.
And I said, "If it is, tell him to come on down."
So when Saturday come along and the boy came down... It's been a great thing for me to always look back upon this. I'd... Rainy afternoon, and an old Chevrolet car with the headlights wired on with baling wire, that drove up out front. It was just awhile after I'd lost my wife, and I was batching, two little rooms. And--and Doc was up there with me waiting for them. And--and the boy got out of the car, and he certainly didn't look like a groom to me or would to anybody, I guess. Yet I could barely--buy a pretty good pair of shoes for a dollar and a half, and he had on a pair was run over, and his trousers was real baggy. And he'd on one of these old moleskin jackets. I don't guess some of you older people would remember. It looked like it'd been run through a washing machine without being rinsed, and it was streaked, and tied up like this, and the corner up.
And a little lady got out on the side with a little, oh, some of them little checked looking dress... I don't know. I made a mistake on calling that kind of goods one time. Gingham, I believed it's called. And so it was a... I said it wrong again. I--I always do that. And I said... She got out of the car, and they come up the steps, and--and when they walked in, the poor little thing, she... I guess she just, about all she had on was a skirt. And she didn't have no shoes hardly on. She'd hitch-hiked from Indianapolis down, had a little hair hanging down back in long kind of plaits down her back, looked very young.
And I said to her, "Are you old enough to get married?"
She said, "Yes, sir." And she said, "I have my written permission from my father and mother." She said, "I had to show it to--to the court here to get my license."
I said, "All right." I said, "I'd like to talk to you a little bit before we perform this wedding." They set down. The boy kept looking around the room. He needed a haircut real bad. And he kept looking around the room. He wasn't listening to me. I said, "Son, I want you to listen to what I'm saying."
Said, "Yes, sir."
And I said, "You love this girl?"
And he said, "Yes, sir, I do."
I said, "You love him?"
"Yes, sir, I do."
I said, "Now, have you got a place to take her after you're married?"
Said, "Yes, sir."
I said, "All right. Now," I said, "I want to ask you something. I understand that you are working up here on this PWA."
And he said, "Yes, sir." (That's about twelve dollars a week.)
And I said, "You think that you can make a living for her?"
He said, "I'll do all I can do."
And I said, "Well, that's all right." And I said, "Now, what if he gets out of... What if he loses his job, sister? What are you going to do, going to run back up home to mama and papa?"
She said, "No, sir, I'm going to stay with him."
And I said, "What, sir, if you have three or four children and nothing to feed them, and you haven't got any work, what are you going to do? Send her away?"
He said, "No, sir, I'll struggle right on. We'll make it some way."
I felt little, and I seen that he really loved her, and they loved one another. I married them.
17-2   And then I wondered where he taken her. A few days I asked my brother Doc, "Where it is?"
Said, "Go down to New Albany (a little city below us)." And down on the river where I had some tin laying up, where I went everyday when I was--I was a lineman, so when the rest of the fellows, they all set around and told jokes and things, I'd get in the truck and run down on the river and pray during that...?... or read my Bible under a big piece of tin where an old ironworks used to be. There's a bunch of old boxcars setting down there. And this fellow had went down there and got one of them boxcars and sawed him a door in it, and had taken newspaper and tacky buttons... How many knows what a tacky button is? Then there is no Kentuckians then. You take a piece of cardboard, put a thumbtack in it, a little sprig, and then push it in the... That's a tacky button.
So they had put it all over. And he'd went up there to the ironworks, and got him some stuff, and made a step. They come up, then got some old boxes and had him a table. And I thought one day, "I'll go down and see how they're getting along."
About six months before that, I'd married E. V. Knight's daughter to E. T. Slider's son. E. V. Knight is one of the richest men there is on the Ohio River. And he runs a great factories through there making these prefab houses and so forth. And--and Slider, Mr. E. T. Slider is a sand and gravel company, millionaires' children. And I had married them.
And I went back in a place, practiced it for about two weeks, and going back in a booth and kneeling on a pillow, and all the pomp and everything I ever went through nearly, had to go through to marry that couple. And when they come out, why, they was... This other little couple just stood there in a little old room where we had a little couch and a folding bed, but they both was married by the same ceremony.
17-6   And then one day, I thought I'd go down and visit this rich couple. They didn't have to work; their fathers were millionaires. They'd built them a nice home. Frankly, this E. V. Knight up here on the hill, his doorknobs are fourteen carat on his big palace, so now, you can imagine what kind of home they lived in. They didn't have to work. They'd had a nice Cadillac give to them every year, and just only children. And they had just everything they wanted.
I walked up one day... Now, how I got acquainted with them, one of their friends was a good friend of mine; we all kind of chummed together. That's how I got acquainted when they wanted me to marry them. So I went up to visit them. And I got outside, my old Ford outside, walked up the steps. And--and I got up a little bit too close, and I heard them.
And they were really fussing. They were jealous of one another. They'd been to a dance. She was a very pretty girl, and she was kind of one of these beauty queens. She took many prizes around there, and won some cars and things for being beauty queen. And I looked at them, and one was setting in one corner and one the other, fussing about some boy that she'd danced with or some girl or something.
When I come up, they jumped up real quick and grabbed one another across the floor, their--their hands across the floor, come walking over towards the door. Said, "Why, hello there, Brother Branham. How are you getting along?"
I said, "All right. How are you all getting along?"
And "Oh," he said, "I--I... We're very happy, aren't we, honey?"
And she said, "Yes, dear." See?
Now, see, you're putting on something that isn't real. Now, you can't get warm by a painted fire. Like some of these churches try to paint Pentecost of something that happened a thousand years ago or two thousand years ago. You can't get warmed by a painted fire. Pentecost is just as real today as it was then. See? It is. The fire's still falling. It ain't a painted fire; it's a real fire.
So they--there they was. See? I--I wouldn't want to live like that.
18-5   "Well," I thought, "You know just down over the cliff there and over on the river, there's where this other couple wound up." I thought one Saturday afternoon I'd slip down there and see how they was getting along. So I, dirty on the face and dirty overalls on, and my tools on. I thought I'd slip up on them. And I slipped on like I was watching for insulators being cracked by the lightening or something and--as I walked along by the side of the telephone wire--the electric cable along the river. And the old Chevrolet was setting out front; was about a year later after I'd married them, and there was a... The door was open, and I could hear them talking. So this sounds--sounds like a hypocrite, but I walked up close enough that I could listen, see what they was saying, stood there; and I just wanted to know for myself.
I like to find out and be sure I know what I'm talking about. That's the way I do about God's Word. Is it the Truth, or is it the Truth? Will He keep His Word, or doesn't He keep His Word? If He doesn't keep His Word, then He's not God. See? If He does keep His Word, He's God. See?
And so, I wanted to see how they was getting along, and I slipped along the side real easy. I heard him say, "Well, honey, I wanted to get that for you so bad."
She said, "Now, look, sweetheart," she said, "this dress is all right." She said, "Why, this is just fine." Said, "I appreciate that, but you see..."
I slipped around so I could look in through the crack where the door had been shoved open there in the boxcar. And there he was setting in there, and her on his lap, and his arm around her, and her arm around him. And he had one of these old slouch hats and had put a little hole, and mashed it down in the top, and poured out his paycheck in that. He--he was laying it out on the table. He said, "So much for groceries, and so much for insurance, and so much on the car," and they couldn't make their ends meet. Come to find out, he'd seen a little dress up there in a window; he'd been looking at it for a couple of weeks, that cost a dollar and something. He wanted to get it. He said, "Why, honey, you'd look so pretty in it."
And he said... She said, "But, honey, I--I got a dress. I--I don't really need it." 
19-5   See? And that little queen... And I backed off and looked up. I could see the--the steeple on the top of the other house, and I stood there and looked a few minutes. I thought, "Who is the rich man?" I thought, "If... Bill Branham, if you want to take which place, where would you go?" For me, I'd take, not the--that pretty thing up on top of the hill, but I's take this character down here that is a real homemaker, somebody that loved me and stayed with me, somebody that tried to make a home without bleeding you for everything for fineries, and somebody that was with you--part of you.
20-1    That's always stuck with me of how that was. One chose a beautiful girl; the other one chose character. Now, that's the only way you can choose. First look for character, and then if you love her, fine.

2.  Vision of rain falling on both the wheat and tares.
[Thought continues from 1935.]  [Hebrews 6:4-8,  Matthew 13:24-30.]

Q. & A. ON HOLY GHOST.  JEFF.  IN   59-1219
455-187   I went to meeting that night, and that Spirit would fall; and brother, you could feel it. And It was the Holy Spirit. Yes, sir. If It wasn't, It bore record with my spirit that It was the Holy Spirit. And I was just a young preacher, and didn't know how--much about a discernment of spirit. But I was setting there. And I know the very God that saved me, that was the same feeling... Felt like I was going through the roof, it was such a wonderful feeling in that building. And I thought...
About fifteen hundred of them there, and I thought, "My, oh my." Two or three bunches of them had met together. And I thought, "Say, my. How can it be? Now, that great Spirit in this building falling like that; and here, look at this going on up there: them guys speaking in tongues, interpreting, giving message perfectly, and one of them a hypocrite and the other one a real man of God." And I thought, "Now, I'm all confused. I don't know what to do."
Well, immediately after it, a good friend of mine, Brother Davis (you know), started saying I was a puppet. That's a girl's toy, you know. And so... I was single. And so I... He started carrying on with me, and then going on, kinda joshing with me.
And we was having a little... And your mother and all of us was having meetings around different places. The Tabernacle wasn't--wasn't going at that time, and we were having little meetings different places. And finally one day, after the Tabernacle had been built, many years later, I went up to Green's Mill to my cave to pray, because Brother Davis had said some horrible things about me in the meet--in--in his paper. I loved him. I didn't want nothing to happen, and I--I went up there to pray for him. And I went up there, and I got in the cave. And I stayed in there about two days. And I said, "Lord, forgive him. He--he don't mean--mean that." And I thought, "You know..." I just happened to think of a Scripture.
And I went out. And there was a log (That log's still laying there, was on it here not long ago.) down off the mountain and lays across a little path that comes around from the creek. And I just straddled the log, looked across the mountains way back, back there, and laid my Bible out like that. I thought, "You know..." I was thinking of a Scripture: "The coppersmith, he has done me much harm, and said things." You know... I thought, "I believe I'll just read that." I opened up the Bible, and I said, "Well  ." Wiped my face off, and the wind blowed, and it turned it over to Hebrews 6. "Well," I said, "that's not where it's at." And I laid It back like this. And the wind blowed again and turned It back again. And I said, "Now, that's strange, the wind blowing it back like that." So I thought, "Well, I believe I'll read it." And said:
 For it is impossible for those which were once enlightened,... made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and tasted the... Word of God, and the thing of the world to come.
I thought, "Well, I don't see nothing with that." Read it on down, the rest the chapter. Nothing in it. I said, "Well, that's--that settles that for that." And I--I saw it like this, and back it went again. And I picked It up, and I thought, "Well, what is that?" I kept reading it, and reading it, and reading it, I said, "Well, I can't understand." Then I kept... And I read on down:
... is impossible for those which are once enlightened,... It come on down here to a place here where it said:
 And the earth... drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, to bring forth herbs meats to  them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessings from God:
 But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and... nigh unto cursing;  whose judgment is to be burned.
I said, "Wonder what that means?"
457-192   I'd just... Now, I wasn't thinking about nothing up there. Just think then... And just then as I was setting there, I thought the Lord would give me a vision about Brother Davis and them down there. And I was setting there; I looked, and I seen something turning out across the hollow in front of me. And it was a world turning. And I seen it was all broke up, just looked like it was all plowed over. And a Man went forth with a--a--a great big thing in front of Him full of seed, and He was casting the seed all the way across the earth as He went. And He went around the curvature of the earth, and He went out of my sight. And as soon as He went out of my sight, here come a man real sneaky-looking, dressed in black garments, going around like this, going [Brother Branham makes sounds to illustrate--Ed.] throwing bad seeds [Brother Branham repeats the sounds--Ed.]. And I watched it, and as the earth kept turning around...
After while wheat come up. And when the wheat come up, out of there come briers, and thistles, and thorns, and stink weed, and everything growing up, milk weeds, and everything growing up in the wheat. And they was all growing together. And there come a real bad drought, and the little wheat had its head over like that, and the little briar, and thistle, thorns, they had their head over. Each weed just [Brother Branham makes a panting sound--Ed.] breathing like that. You could just hear them. And they were calling for rain, rain.
And after while, along come a great big cloud, and the water just gushed down. And when it fell upon there, that wheat jumped up and begin to holler, "Glory. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord." Up jumped the little stink weed and hollered, "Glory. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah." The thorns and all of them, dancing all around over the field hollered, "Glory. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord."
Well, I said, "I can't get that."
457-195   The vision left me; then I fell back on that again: "The briers which is nigh unto rejection..." Then I got it. The... Jesus said, "The rain falls on the just and the unjust." A man can set in the meeting, can speak with tongues, can shout and act just like the rest of them with the genuine Holy Ghost and still not be in the Kingdom of God. That's exactly right. Didn't Jesus say, "Many will stand in that day and say, 'Lord, have not I cast out devils in Your Name; have not I prophesied (preached) in Your Name; have not I done many mighty works in Your Name?'"
Jesus said, "Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity; I never even knew you." How about that?

CORINTHIANS BOOK OF CORRECTION.   JEFF. IN   57-0414
E-16   And years later after the flood was over,   (…)   .
Setting on a log up there, I was praying about something else, and my Bible come open, and I was reading in--over in the Book of Hebrews the 6th chapter. And I was reading there how that,
. "it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and made partakers of the Holy Spirit, seeing that they fall away, to renew themselves again unto repentance.
 For the rain cometh oft upon the earth to water it, to dress it for which it's prepared. 
 But that which is nigh unto rejection, thorns and thistles, which is nigh unto rejection is to be burned."
And the Holy Spirit kept speaking to me about that. "What is that?" I'd read it over again and then a vision come. And I saw the world standing before me, turning; it was all disced up, and like plowed, and ready for to plant. And there went a man by in white, sowing seed. And after he went around the curvature of the earth, another man come in black, sowing seeds behind him. And when the seeds that the good man sowed come up was wheat. And the bad, the black man sowed the seeds come up and dressed in black, it come up and it was weed. And oh, one was contrary to the other.
And a great drought come in the vision. And the little wheat bowed its head; it was just so thirsty for a drink. And the--the weed bowed its head; it was thirsty for a drink. Then a great cloud come over, and the rains come down and the little wheat raised up and begin to scream, "Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord." It was so happy to get that water. And the little weed raised up and begin to holler, "Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord," for the same water.
Then I understood. See? There it is. The Holy Spirit will fall, but "By their fruits they are known," said the Lord Jesus. See, see? Not by the reaction of the Spirit, whether they healed the sick, or whether they speak in tongues, or whether they sang in the Spirit, or whether they rejoice this a way or that, they can do all that and still be lost. It's your life within you, a borned again experience.

ANGEL AND THREE PULLS.   PHOENIX, AZ   51-0414
E-6   Someone asked me not long ago, said, "Brother Branham, if that Holy Spirit is so great," said, "I've seen people who's stood in the meeting, and--and shouted, and praised God, their tears running down their cheeks; and they would come out and do things that--like sinners, and go to sinful places, and live in sin." Said, "Was that the Holy Spirit making those people shout?"
I said, "Yes."
Said, "Oh, do you mean the Holy Spirit would fall on a person like that?"
I said, "Yes."
Jesus said, "A sower went forth and sowed some seeds. And a--a enemy came behind him and sowed some tares. And the husbandman said, 'Shall I go pull up the tares?'" Said, "If you do, you'll pull up the wheat. Let them both grow together. And at that day, I'll send the Angels, and they'll gather all the tares and burn them, and--and the wheat will be taken to the garner."
Hebrews 6 says that it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, made partakers of the heavenly gift (partakers of the Holy Spirit in heavenly calling), tasted the good Word of God and world--power of the world to come; if they shall fall away, to renew themselves again to repentance; seeing that they crucify themselves afresh the Son of God, and count the Blood wherewith they was sanctified an unholy thing. For... (Listen closely now.)... For the rain cometh oft upon the earth to dress it, prepare it. But the thistles and thorns are to be burned.
Notice. In this same wheat field that was sowed, in there is briars, creepers, stink weed, everything, all growing together with the wheat. And when the drought is on, the creeper is just as thirsty for water as the wheat is. The water is sent for the wheat. But the creeper's just as glad to get the water as the wheat. And by their fruit you shall know them.
In the meeting the Holy Ghost falls over the building. But those who live godly in Christ Jesus are the people that'll be taken into the garner. And the tares--not for us to judge--but will be burned at the end. You see what I mean?
Then don't judge a person because they--they shout, or 'cause they could praise the Lord. Judge them by the life they live. And if they're not living the right kind of life, don't turn them down; pray for them. That's the way to do it. And convert them from a nettle weed to a stalk of wheat. Amen.

3.  Teaching on tongues.  [See 1953  #6.]

SEAL OF GOD.   JEFF. IN   54-0514
154   I'm not Pentecost. I've never belonged to a Pentecostal organization, never. I've stood in the breach. I am not Pentecost, Methodist, Baptist. I'm just a Bible Christian. That's all. I believe what the Word says. And I cannot deny the gift of speaking in tongues; if I do, I'll deny teaching and every other inspired gift. That's right. I have never agreed with the Pentecostal brethren on "the only evidence," of speaking in tongues. I don't do that. Now, that's all right, if they believe it that way. That's their business (See?), but that's perfectly all right. I... Paul said, "I would that you all speak with tongues." I'd like to see everyone be that close to God.
They've got a lot of makeup, a lot of phony belief. They've got out there, a lot of times, and acted like they had the Holy Ghost, and said something that wasn't speaking in tongues. Their life proved what it was. But there's been a real genuine article going on just the same, all the time.
Well, why wouldn't the devil throw out crony, crow bait? Sure, he would, to try to hinder. He throwed out the same thing in holiness. He throwed out the same thing in Methodist. He throw out the same thing in Luther's day. And he's throwing out the same thing today. And under the power of gifts of Divine healing and discernments, he's throwing the same things out.
But what does a scarecrow mean to you, if you could talk bird talk? Birds say, "When I see a scarecrow, that's a meal ticket. The best apples there is, is right around where all the clubs are laying and the scarecrows are hanging up. That's right.

4.  World War II started on September 1, 1939.

1940

1.  Vision of John Emmel’s afflicted, twisted daughter healed.

APPROACH TO GOD.   CHICAGO, IL   55-0123A
E-71   Way sometime ago, thinking of the breasted One, the El Shaddai, just before closing. Oh, years before the Angel of the Lord ever appeared to me. I was sitting in my room, praying one night, or my mothers house, rather. My mother is just an old fashion country woman. She had washed her clothes, and put a big basket over in the corner, a chair it was, and throwed the clothes on a chair. And I was--I was... Right after I had lost my wife, about three or four years afterwards, and I was batching, trying to, and I'd come in. And I said, "Mother, I--I--I want a talk with you awhile."
She said, "Set down, Billy." And I set down, and we got to talking about the Lord. And--and so I went on in the other room, and I said, "I just feel like I want to pray awhile, mom."
And she said, "Well, help yourself." And I went into the room knelt down there and begin to pray. And I prayed till about one o'clock. And I raised up and I thought, "Well, I believe I'll wonder on up home." And then, I looked in the corner, and I thought I seen mothers chair of clothes, something white, but instead of it being there, it was that Light, moving, coming towards me.

VISIONS OF WILLIAM BRANHAM.   JEFF. IN   60-0930
E-13   And it come over to where I was and I--and I was standing in a room, a little what we call a shotgun house: little straight house, two rooms in it. And it had red wainscoting up here for the side. You see? There was little iron poster bed to my right side. There was a black headed woman standing against the--the one room--went out into the kitchen--she was standing against that kitchen door, a weeping. There was a father standing to me that had brought me a baby that something had been laying on it's little chest. And one, its left leg was wound around, till it was laying up against it's little body, and the right leg wind vi--vice versa. Both arms wound up, too, against its body, and its little body was twisted and wound up, till it--right here at his neck. And I wondered, what does this mean.
And I looked, setting down to my left, and there set an old woman, taking her glasses off and wiping them from tears or something on her glasses. To my right, on a red duofold, which was a match to the chair, set a young, blond-headed boy with curly hair, looking out the window. And I looked, standing way over to my right, and there stood in--that Angel of the Lord. And He said to me, "Can this baby live?"
And I said, "Sir, I don't know."
He said, "Lay your hands across it. It shall live." And I--I did. And the baby had jumped down off the--out of the arms of the father, and the little right leg untwisted, and the right side untwisted, right arm untwisted. It made another step and the other side untwisted. Made another step, and the other side untwist--the body, middle part, untwisted, and he put his little hands in mine and said, "Brother Branham, I'm perfectly whole." The little baby was wearing blue corduroy coveralls or overalls, little bibbed overalls, and he had brown hair and a little bitty tiny mouth.
And then, the Angel of the Lord told me, He was taking me somewhere else, and I was carried way away. And He set me down by the side of an old graveyard and showed me the numbers on a tombstone near a church. And He said, "This will be your directing place." He carried me into another place, and there was a--looked like it had been a little town with about two stores in it, and one had a yellow front, yellow bordering on the walls. And I walked up there, or stood there, and there was an old man coming out with a blue corduroy jacket on, or blue jean jacket, and blue overalls with a cord--a yellow corduroy cap, and he had a big white mustache. He said, "He will show you the way."
And the next time I come to, I saw, I was walking into a room following a rather heavy-set young woman. And as I entered the door, the figures in the paper on the wall, were red. Up over the door had a sign, "God bless our home." There was a big old brass poster bed laying to my right side and a chunk stove setting at the left. And over in the corner laid a girl of about fifteen years old, and she'd had polio or something, that had drawed her right leg up, and her foot turned sideways, and was drawed under her. And she--and she looked like a boy, only she had hair like a girl, and she had a--a heart shaped lips like a girl. And he said to me, "Can that girl walk?"
And I said, "Sir, I do not know."
He said, "Go, put your hands across her stomach." Then I thought it was a boy, sure enough, because Him having me put my hands across her stomach. I did as He told me, and I heard somebody say, "Praise the Lord." And I looked up, and when I did, this girl was raising up. And when she raised up, the pajamas she had on, her pajama leg come up, and it showed a round knee like a girl's knee and not knotty, you know, like the boy's knee. And I knew it was a girl, and she had on her pajamas, and she come walking to me, combing her hair. She's blond, combing her hair.
The girl lives in Salem today, married and got three or four children. And her mother and father still there also.
E-15   And so a... I--I--I come to. And I could hear somebody saying, "Brother Branham," or "Brother Bill, oh, Brother Bill..." And my mother was calling me. And I thought, "I here one, one way a..." coming out of that vision you know, kindly droggy, and I said, "What do you want, Mom?" And in the next room where she was sleeping, and she said, "There's somebody knocking at your door." And I heard it, "Brother Bill..."
And I opened the door. It was a man stepped in. His name was John Emmel. He lives in Miami, Florida, now. And he said, "Brother Bill, you don't remember me."
I said, "No, I don't believe I do."
Said, "You baptized me and my family," but said, "I took a road that's wrong." He said, "I killed a man, here some time ago, hit him with my fist and broke his neck in a fight." Said, "I've lost one of my little boys, the oldest one." And said, "The youngest one is laying home, dying now." And said, "The doctor of the city here, had just left and said, 'The child has double pneumonia' and it just barely can get its breath." And said, "I--I--I--I just... You come on my heart, and wonder if you'd come and have prayer with it." And said, "Now, as you know, I'm a cousin to Graham Snelling." (Which, Graham Snelling, the Reverend Graham Snelling now, had not become a minister at that time--a nice Christian boy.) He said, "He's my cousin. I'm going down to get him (which lived about a half a mile from me, down in the city). And said, "I'm going down to get him. And will you go up?"
I said, "Yes, Mr. Emmel, soon as I put my clothes on."
And so he said, "I'll take my car and take you up."
And I said, "All right."
Said, "Soon as I get Graham. And I want you all to pray for the baby."
And I said, "All right."
So then I went to getting ready and mother said, "What was the matter?"
I said, "There's a little baby to be healed."
And so she said, "Healed?"
And I said, "Yes, mother." And so I said, "I'll tell more about it when I come back,"
So in a few moments he knocked at the door, and Brother Graham was with him. We was going up here to what we know as the boat-yard now, which was the old Howard Shipyard, at the time.
I said, "Mr. Emmel, do you--where do you live at now?"
He said, "In above Utica."
I said, "You live in a little a--what we call shotgun house, little two room."
"Yes, sir."
"Sets on a hill."
"Yes, sir," he said.
And I said, "Your--your baseboard here, is made out of tongue and groove and it's painted red."
He said, "That's right."
E-17   I said, "The little baby is laying in a iron poster bed, and he does have in the house, at least, a pair of blue corduroy overalls."
Says, "He has them on."
And I said, "And the baby is teeny fellow, about three years old, and he's also got a little teeny mouth, little bitty thin lips, and he's got light brown hair."
He said, "That's the truth."
I said, "Mrs. Emmel is a black-headed woman. And in this room you have a red duofold and a red chair."
He said, "Was you ever there, Brother Branham?"
And I said, "Just awhile ago."
"Awhile ago?" he said.
I said, "Yes."
"Why," he said, "I never seen you!"
I said, "No, it was spiritually." I said, "Mr. Emmel, you've heard me tell, if I baptized you, of things that happens to me. I see things before it happens."
He said, "Yeah. Did something like that happen to you, Brother Branham?"
I said, "Yes, and Mr. Emmel, ever what It was that told me, has never told me a lie. Your baby's going to be healed when I get there."
And he stopped the car, fell over the wheel, said, "God, be merciful to me. Take me back, Oh, Lord. (See?) And I promise You to live for You the rest of my days, if You're going to spare my baby's life." And there he gave his heart to Christ.
We moved into the house, all excited about him, a soul being brought back to Christ. When we--when we went into the house, there laid everything, just exactly the way it was, only the old woman wasn't there. Excitable... So excited I said, "Bring me the baby." And the baby just barely living. See, that winding up was the life gone out of the baby. It was just wound to hear it's little throat. And I said, "Bring me the baby," not waiting for the vision to fulfill.
E-19   Brother Vayle, if this pad was supposed to be laying here, I can't say a word till that pad's laid there. See? It has to be just the way it's showed me.
So, I said, "Bring me the baby." And the daddy brought the baby to me, and I prayed for it, and it got worse. So I thought, "Now, something..." It--it really lost its breath, and they had to fight and shake and everything to get breath in it. And I thought, "Kinda something wrong." And I happened to think, "Where's the old woman?" That wasn't there yet.
So they take the baby, laid it down. They was putting stuff under it's nose and everything and crying--the mother screaming hysterically and everything, but the baby was just--just barely breathing. And I thought, "Well, through my--my stupidity I have misused the vision of God," 'cause I never waited on it, being so overexcited.
By this, you can see, Brother Vayle, why I wait. I don't care who tells me. I love you as my brother. Brother, don't never try to tell me something to do, when I--when I feel that I--I've got the will of the Lord. See, no matter how well it looks the other way, I'll wait for Him. See?
And--and so I--I learned a lesson right here, many, many, many years ago. And to do exactly what He says, and don't do it till He says it's ready to be done.
The baby was fighting for breath. Now, I couldn't tell them what I'd done, but I just had to wait. I thought, "Maybe grace will override it and forgive me." Well, I went, set down.
They'd fought for life for the baby till daylight. When day begin breaking, they thought the baby'd just go at any minute. Well, I set there, and they kept asking me, "Brother Branham, what must we do?" or "Brother Bill" they called me. "What must I do?"
I said, "I don't know?" See? And I set there with my head down saying, "Lord, please forgive me."
Well... And then it come daylight. Brother Graham Snelling had to go to work. So Mr. Emmel had to take him, and I knowed I had to leave the house, and yet Brother Graham was supposed to be setting there, 'cause he's got blond curly hair, as you know. He was supposed to be setting on this duofold. So I was setting there where Brother Graham was supposed to be setting, but the old woman wasn't there and there's no old woman at the place. So I set there. And so Mr. Emmel got his coat on. Then I knowed if Brother Graham left, hard telling when he'd ever be back. See? And then I knowed if... even if the woman come, then Brother Graham wouldn't be there. So you see what kind of a condition I was in.
And so, Mr. Emmel said, "Brother Branham do you want to go?" or "Brother Bill, you want to go home? You want me to take you down home?
I said, "No, sir. I'll just wait, if you don't mind." I hated to stay there in the house, just the baby, and the mother, myself, 'cause they were young people. They--he was about twenty-five years old, I suppose. And I was about the same age. And I said, "No. I'll just--I'll just wait, if you don't mind."
He said, "It's all right, Brother--Brother Bill."
And so a... The mother walking the floor, hysterically, and trying to--crying and everything, you know. And the baby's just worse. See? Just looked like any minute it's... just trying to catch its breath going, "enh... enh" [Brother Branham makes a sound--Ed.] That's all of it's breath was in it. And nothing...
E-22   They didn't have penicillin and things them days (You see?), so they just, they just put plasters on them and things like that. But the little baby had had it for several days, and it was gone, see, or going.
And then I--I set down there and I thought, "My, if Graham goes..." Graham got his coat on, and he started to go out the door. And he said to his wife, he said, "Now, we'll be back just in minute."
And I thought, "Oh God... Then I'd have to stay here all day and maybe all night again (You see?) waiting for that vision. What can I do?"
And I looked out the window, and coming around the house, come the baby's grandmother in there. (I did learn later it was the grandmother.) And she had on glasses. I thought, "This is it, Lord, if-if Graham just don't go out the door." So she always come to the front door, but somehow--they don't even know till yet--but she went to the back door, come in the kitchen. And she walked in the kitchen--little old house--and she got to the door, her daughter run over there and kissed her, 'cause it was the daughter's mother, you know, and kissed her. And Brother Graham... And then she said, "Is the baby better?"
She said, "Mother, it's dying," and she started screaming like that and her mother crying...
Then I thought, "If this will just work... Now if Graham don't go out... And I raised up, and I couldn't say nothing (You see?), just wait. And Brother Graham walked around. I got up so he could set down. And he--and that was some of his relation (You see?), so he just started crying too, and set down on the duofold where he was supposed to be setting. I thought, "Now, if that old lady will just come around and set down in this red chair..." And I got back to the door where Mr. Emmel was standing with his overcoat on and ready to go out (real cold weather, blizzardy cold.). And I thought... And the old lady set down in this chair, and Graham set down and ducked his head down, and the mother of the baby put her hand up on the door and begin weeping, just exactly the vision. And the old lady set down and instead of it being tears, altogether on her glasses, coming from the cold, it fogged them. And she had reached in her little briefcase and got a little handkerchief out (or little satchel), and started wiping these glasses. Brother, that was it! I said to Mr. Emmel, I said, "Mr. Emmel, you still have confidence in me as a servant of Christ?"
He said, "I sure do, Brother Branham."
I said, "I can tell you now. I spoke ahead of the vision awhile ago. That's why it didn't happen. If you still got confidence in me, go bring me your baby." Oh, my. I seen it was right then. You see? "Go bring me your baby."
He said, "I'll do anything you tell me to do, Brother Bill. I wouldn't be afraid to pick it up..." 'Cause in pick it up, it just went... The breath altogether left it.
Brought the little baby up to me. Reached and got it in his arm, brought it up to me, and stood there. I put my hand on it and said, "Lord, forgive the stupidity of Your servant (See?); I spoke ahead of Your vision. But now let it be known that You're God of heavens and earth."
No more than said that, the little baby throwed both arms around its daddy, and begin screaming and crying, said, "Daddy, I feel all right now." See?
I said, "Mr. Emmel, let the little baby alone. It'll be three days before it leaves it, 'cause it made three steps unwinding."
E-24   I went home. I told it in my church. And I said, "I'm going back." That was on Monday. I said, "Wednesday night, before church, I'm going up there." They was poor people, and we made them up a basket of groceries to take to them. So I said, "I want you all to go. And when I go there and you get around the house, and when I come to that place to where that house is, you watch and see if that little baby don't come across the floor with a little mustache made here, where he's been drinking chocolate milk or something (See?), and put his hands in mine, and say these words, 'Brother Bill, I'm perfectly whole.' This little three year old baby... Watch and see if it don't happen."
My wife, now, Meda--way before we were married, so--she was in the bunch. And a truck load went and placed themselves around the house (See?) to see me when I drove up in the old Public Service Company truck that I had home that night (I didn't have any car of my own), full of tar in the back and things, you know, where I'd been hauling it that day and fixing things. Drove up in front, stopped, went up on the porch, knocked on the door, and (they didn't have no rugs on the little old floor), and the mother come across the porch, said, "Why, it's Brother Bill." like that, and the people, looking in the windows at the time to see what would happen. And in the corner, playing, was this little boy (the third day). I stopped, never said a word, and he come strolling across the floor, put his little hands up in mine with the lit... Been drinking chocolate milk (his little mustache-like across there from the chocolate milk) put his hands up in mine. Said, "Brother Bill, I'm perfectly whole."

2.  Vision of Mrs. Nail’s daughter healed.  [Quote continues.]

E-26   And that night at the church I told it. I said, "There's a crippled girl, somewhere that's needy." I said, "Church, I don't know what these things mean. I can't tell you."
And--and so I was working at the Public Service, and I remember, one day, about a week after that, I started to leave the building, going out. And Mr. Herb Scott lives here in the city, right now, he was my boss. And he said... I started down and he said, "Billy,"
And I said, "Yes."
Said, "'Fore you leave, I've got a letter here for you."
I said, "Okay Herbie, I'll pick it up in a minute."
And a... And so I went over to get the--my other work. I was checking up. So I went over to get my other work done, and when I--I did, I remembered that letter, and I went and got it, and opened it up, and said, "Dear Mr. Branham (see?) " said, "My name is Nail. I'm Mrs. Harold Nail. We live at a place called South Boston." And said, "We're Methodist, by faith. And I happened to read a little book that you wrote, called "Jesus Christ, the Same Yesterday, Today, and Forever," a little pamphlet. And we were having prayer meeting in our house the other night, and we have heard of you having success praying for the sick." And said, "I have a afflicted daughter, fifteen years old," said, "that's laying on the bed of affliction. And somehow, I just can't get it off my mind, that I should have you to come pray for this girl. Would you please do it? Yours truly, Mrs. Harold Nail. South Boston, Indiana."
I said, "You know, that's the girl, that's her." I went home told my mother, told them about it. I said, "That's--that's the girl."
E-27   And then that night, at church, I said to the church; I said, "Here's that--that--that place." I said, "Anybody know where South Boston is?"
And Brother George Wright (You all are acquainted with him.), he said, "Brother Branham, it's--I think it's down in the south." So the next day, I--two friends of mine, and the--my wife (which now is,), and a man and his wife from Texas (Their name was Brace, Ad Brace. He lives down here now, in below Milltown, farmer. He was a rancher out in the West, and he'd moved here to be close to the church. And I'd prayed for his wife and she'd been healed of a tubercular condition.), and so he wanted to see this happen. I said, "You go with me and see if it don't happen just this a way." So the lady had never seen a vision (Mrs.--Mrs. Brace.)
So my wife went with me, and Brother Jim Wisehart, the old elder, you remember the church there, the old deacon. He wanted to see it. And I just had a little old roadster then, and I piled them all in there, and we went down below New Albany, and I found this sign. And I come to find out, it wasn't South Boston, it was New Boston. So then I didn't know where to go. So I come back up to Jeffersonville, and asked somebody, and somebody went to the post office, and they said, "South Boston is up above Henryville." So I--I went up to Henryville, and I asked there, and they said turn off on this road. It's about fifteen miles, back over these knobs, here. "You find a little place you'll... Be careful, you'll miss it," said, "because it's just one little store, and the store has got the post office and everything else in it: South Boston," over in these knobs. There's seventeen thousand acres of them knobs in there (You see?), and this is over behind it in the hills there.
So, we went on, riding along, and all at once I felt real strange, after been driving five or six miles. And I felt real strange. And I said, "I don't know..."
They said, "What the mat...?"
I said, "I believe that--that One that talks to me wants to talk to me, so I'm going to have to leave the car." So I got out of the car. And the women setting on women's laps, you know, and everything, that little old roadster... And I got out of the car and went around behind the car. And I bowed my head down, and put my foot up on the bumper in the back of the car. And I said, "Heavenly Father, what would You have Your servant know?" And I prayed, nothing happened. And I waited a few minutes, and I thought, "Well, He..." Usually, where there's a crowd like that I have to get to myself. And so I waited a few minutes.
And I happened to be attracted to look over there. And I happened to think, "Well, looky here. Here's that old church setting down here." And if you're ever at it, it's the Bunker Hill Church. And I looked over on the side of Bunker Hill Christian Church, and there was a tombstone of the graveyard, right in front of the church. And I went over there. I said, "Now, you all got them letters. I never been that country before in my life. Never was in above there, anywhere, in my life." And I said, "You get them names and numbers and come over here and see if they ain't the same one this tombstone." And there it was, just exactly. I said, "That's it. We're on the right road now." That was as the Angel of the Lord... See, I'd have passed right on by it and not know it. So it... Oh, He's perfect.
And so we rode on and on. Directly, I met a man, and I said, "Could you tell me where South Boston is, sir?"
He said, "You jog to the right and the left, and you know, so forth like that..."
E-30   And we just kept on going. So after while, we'd come into... I noticed, I come into a little place and it had a... kind of a little village-like, and I--I looked and I said, "That's it. That's it, right there." I said, "There is the... There--there's that yellow storefront." And I said, "Now, you watch, a man is going to come out of there with a blue overalls on, a white corduroy--a yellow corduroy cap, with a white mustache, and tell me where to go. If it ain't, I'm a big story teller."
And so, they was all waiting. And a--and I drove up in front of the place, and just as I drove in front, out come the man with the blue overall suit on, and the yellow corduroy cap, and the white mustache. And Mrs. Brace fainted in the car, it... Seeing it's come to pass like that.
And I said, "Sir, you're to tell me where Harold Nail is."
He said, "Yes, sir." Said, "Did you come from the south?"
I said, "Yes, sir."
He said, "You passed it, about half-mile down the road, you turn the first road to the left. You go up, and you find a big red barn and you turn in there at that red barn." Said, "It's the second house on your right as you turn up that little lane like road."
I said, "Yes, sir."
He said, "Why?"
I said, "He has an afflicted daughter, doesn't he?"
He said, "Yes, sir, he does."
I said, "The Lord is going to heal her."
And the old man started crying. See? Never knowed... And so he was included in the vision; he didn't know what was going on. I turned around. We got Miss. Nail kindly revived again. And went up there, walked up into the yard, got out of the car, started in, started up the place to the--you know--to the place where it was at. And a--a heavy set young woman come to the door. I said, "There she is." See?
And so she said, "How do you do."
And I said, "How do you do." I said, "I'm---I'm Brother Bill."
"Oh," she said, "I--I--I thought you were." She said, "You have got my letter?"
I said, "Yes, ma'am, I did."
She said, "I'm Mrs. Harold Nail."
I said, "Well, I'm glad to know you, Mrs. Nail. And this is just a little party come with me to pray for your girl."
Said, "Yes."
I said, "She's fixing to be healed."
She said, "What?" And her lips started quivering; she started crying.
I said, "Yes, ma'am." And I--I don't know; I never stopped for the woman. I walked right on down the hall, and my party followed me. When I opened the door to the right of the hall (big old country home), opened the door, there was the yellow news--the yellow papers on the wall, red figures, the sign, "God bless our home" ; the old brass poster bed; chunk stove, setting to my left; and there was a little bitty cot setting there where this boyish looking girl's laying in it.
Now, something happened. I was up in the corner of the room, watching my body go to that bed. And I laid my hands right across her stomach, exactly the way the Lord said. And when I did that, when Miss. Nail walked in the room and seen that, down she went in the floor again, fainted. She's kind of a weakly person. And she fainted in the floor again. And Brother Nail was trying to work with her. And old Brother Jim standing there saying, "Bless the Lord," holding his hands together (if you all knew how he acted.). And so then I looked at that, and I seen that, and I laid my hands upon her, or across her stomach like this. And I said, "Lord, I do this at the command of what I think is God telling me to do it."
E-32   And about that time she started crying. And she jumped up and they'd just got Mrs. Nail to her feet (she'd woke up from her fainting spell). And when the girl jumped from the bed, there come her pajama leg up on the right leg, just exactly the way that it showed in the vision, and there was that round knee of a girl instead of a boy. And down went Miss. Nail again. See? She fainted. That's the three times she'd fainted.
And that girl walked out of there in that room and went into her dressing room, weeping, and put on her kimono, come walking back, combing her hair with her--with that cri... And one hand was paralyzed too, on the right side, combing her hair with that crippled hand. She's married, got a bunch of children. Her name... I don't know what her name is now, but Nails... anybody could tell you Harold Nail...

3.  Vision of Milltown and Sister Georgie Carter’s miracle.

DARKEST HOUR JESUS COMES.   SAN FERNANDO, CA   55-1114
E-47   And I went in and begin to pray. I'd been praying about two hours. And when I did, mama was one of those old fashion women that'd wash and take her clothes and lay it on a chair. I don't whether you ever do it or not, stand the next day barefooted, ironing them you know.
And so she had her clothes laying in the bedroom there. And so I was praying, and I opened up my eyes, and I thought that was a--a chair of clothes setting there. But It was something white. And It was coming towards me. And I found out It was that Light. And when It come to me, I... enclosed around, I was going down through a wilderness pulling sticks out of the way and brush.
And I could hear... I was after a little lamb that was a bleating, going, "Baa, baa." And I was trying, I said, "Poor little fellow." And I was pulling real hard. It was a vision (See?), trying to get to the little lamb. And I kept pulling, pulling. And I listened again, and I'd hear bleating, and oh, I was so tired and I--I'd pull again. I said, "Poor little fellow, I'll get to him after while."
And as I got closer, it become a human voice. And instead of going, "Baa." It was saying, "Milltown, Milltown, Milltown." And just then I said, "Milltown? Where's that?" And I come to, and I was standing right on the edge of the bed with my hands up, screaming, "Where is Milltown?"
And when the vision left me, I thought, "What's this mean?" I announced that there'd been two other visions of a little boy at Utica, that was dying. The doctor give him up. And he was healed. A Methodist girl... That's was fif... oh, twenty years ago, nearly, fifteen to eighteen years ago, anyhow. And a crippled girl, Methodist, arms and legs drawed up, she just unfolded like that. And a Methodist revival swept the country through there when this girl did...
I didn't even know what it was. And preachers was telling me, "That's the devil. Don't you fool with it." And I partly believed it. And so I didn't know, because it wasn't... he said it... "Why, that--that don't happen; that's of the devil." I didn't know what to do until the Lord made it known to me.
And then I asked in my church; I told them the vision. I said, (I didn't know what it was) I said, "One of them something or other I seen, and something was hollering, 'Milltown.'"
Well, there's an old fellow comes to my church there, drives about thirty-five miles every time we'd have church. He come up there. He, and his wife and children had been for long time. He said... His name is George Wright, he lives at De Pauw Indiana. And he said, "Well, Brother Billy," he said, "Milltown's right down about thirty-five miles down the Southern." Just a little bit below where Brother Arganbright here, lives. He knows the place and all about it.
E-51   So I said, "The Lord wants me to go to Milltown." 'Course I was working. I worked all the time. I never taken offerings in my church. So I just worked for a living. So I... Saturday, I went down to see Brother Wright, and he took me over to Milltown. It's a little bitty place, about eight hundred or a thousand people, setting right on Blue River.
So I went down there. And he said, "What you going to do?"
I said, "I don't know. He just said come down to Milltown, I guess. I just heard that little lamb calling Milltown."
And he said, "Well, I'm going to do a little shopping."
And I said, "All right." And I went in and give a guy a dime for a little old box there. And I thought, "When all the country folks drives their wagons around, I'll stand on this little box and preach to them. Maybe the Lord's got a lamb hooked up down here somewhere that He wants to get out of the tangle."
So I got my box and went out there and set down on the box. And Brother Wright come back down from another people he was visiting. He said, "Say, I got to do a little shopping up on the hill here."
I said, "Well, while we're waiting for the crowd, I'll just leave my box up here, and I'll run up on the hill with you." Well, we went up, and as we passed by, we passed by a great big old beautiful church setting there. I said...
Something just told me, "Stop at that church."
I thought, "Well, all right." I said, "Brother George, you coming back this a way?"
Said, "Yes."
I said, "Well, I'll just wait here for you."
And he said, "All right."
I said, "What is this church?"
E-53   Said, "It's a Baptist church." And said, "But the pastor got in some trouble here long ago and started a big shooting scrape. And they've been gone for... Baptist people just closed up and most of them go over at the Methodist church, or down here at the Nazarenes, or so forth."
I said, "Uh-huh." I said, "Well," I went over and I took hold of the door knob, and it was closed, locked. Now, everybody was... Nobody around. I knelt down, and I said, "Heavenly Father, do You want me in this church to hold a meeting here? If it is, unlock this door for me."
I set down there. And I hadn't been setting there no more than about five minutes, until I heard somebody walking around the building. Come round, said, "Oh, hello."
I said, "How do you do, sir?"
He said, "You want in the church?"
I said, "Why?"
He said, "I have the key."
And I said, "Thank you." He opened the door. I said, "Thank you, sir." And he said... I looked around.
He said, "It's a Ba... It belongs to the Baptist people. It did." But said, "They just went away" and said, "it's went back now to the city."
I said, "Uh-huh. Well, do have any services here?"
Said, "No. Just funeral services, County funerals and things."
I said, "Uh-huh." I said, "Thank you." I said, "Who's got the say so over it?"
Said, "The quarry over there."
I said, "Thank you."
E-55   Brother George come down. I said, "Would you run me over at the quarry?"
He said, "Yes." And I went over there.
And the fellow said, "Why, sure, if you're a Baptist preacher, go on up there." Said, "Put you in a meter." Well, I was working for the utilities, so that was easy. So I put me in a meter. Started out... Announced in the papers down there, I was going to have a service.
And so then, I went around and I asked somebody, when I got in that afternoon, there was nobody there. And so, I got up there, and climbed up, and somebody must've wanted to lead a cow home or something, took the bell part out. So I got me a cord and fixed it up and begin to ring the old bell like that. And nobody there yet but me.
And so, I seen a fellow going along side of the hill, so I went over there. I said, "Say, brother, I'm starting a revival down here." I said, "I'm a Baptist minister; I'd--I'd like for you to come down."
He said, "Listen fellow. Get next to yourself." He said, "We don't have time for religion around here. We raise chickens."
I said, "All right. It's okay."
But you know what? About five days from then, you know, they had to take time out to bury the man. He died. And about five days from that time. And so you must have time for Jesus. You must remember that. Regardless of how busy you are, what kind of life that you're living, you better take time for Christ.
And then we started the meeting, and I remember that night, oh, I had a sermon in my heart just a burning. You know how it is, brother, when you got one you think, "Oh, my. Everybody's going to get saved."
And so I got up there, and you know what my congregation was? Mr. Wright, Mrs. Wright and their daughter. "Well," I said, "that's good enough." So I passed each one of them a song book and we got to singing, "Down At The Cross, where Jesus died." And I heard something going [Brother Branham knocks on pulpit-Ed.]. I looked outside the door, and one of the horriblest looking fellows walked up there; He had a big old corn cob pipe in his hand, beating it out on the side of the house, one tooth out in front, and the gray hair hanging down in his face, looked in the door and said, "Where is that little Billy Sunday?" Begin to look around like that.
And so, Brother Wright went back, told him to come in. And he walked up, said, "That's the roughest guy in the country." Mmmm, my! It's Will Hall. He's the pastor of the Baptist church there now. He got saved that night.
So I thought, "Well, Lord, that's it." Well, the next night, there wasn't nobody there but Bill Hall, Mr. Wright, and his--his family. So well, it went on for about five nights. But the end of the week, God healed a woman, a little girl over there, that had TB. That started in the city. "That's... I thought, "Well, that's all of it."
So Mr. Hall come to me and he said, "Now," he said, "Brother Billy, there's a little girl lives over the hill here, named Georgie Carter. She's laid there nine years and eight months." (I want you to get her address and write to her, each one of you, personally, a letter. Let her write to you.)
Said, "She's laid there nine years and eight months." Said, "She approximately weighs thirty-five pounds of human bones." And said, "She's about five-foot tall. She's about twenty-two or twenty-six years old, something on that order." Said, "She's been laying there now for nine years and eight months 'caused by a foul thing that was done for her."
But said, "Her people belongs to this church down here. There's a certain church (I won't call the denomination), but they don't believe that--that Jesus heals, and they don't even believe in the Spirit nor nothing else. But they--they said, to their members, 'If any person goes to hear that idiotic Baptist preacher praying for sick people, you'll get your members here--your letter, from the church when you come back.'"
So her daddy was a deacon in the church. So he couldn't come. So he asked me, Brother Hall did, if I'd go over there. I said, "Sure." And her mother and father said, "If that... To satisfy her, all right. But I wouldn't even stay in the house where that hypocrite was."
So I went down there, and I looked in the house. If you're ever passing through, look at the bed. Her little bed there, little iron bed, and the paint's all wore off (She kept--keeps it there.), where through years of holding with her hands and crying.
Now, she... Her little arm... her legs up here, were approximately about that big around. And her arms, she couldn't raise the sputamin cup when she was coughing. She'd go, [Brother Branham makes a noise to imitate the sound of coughing--Ed.] And they'd raise up the sputamin cup, and she'd go, [Brother Branham makes a noise to imitate again--Ed.] And you could, have to get down real close to hear a little pink sunken lips, eyes way back. She couldn't raise her hands up no more...
E-61   And I noticed my little book laying on the bed: "Jesus Christ The Same Yesterday, Today and Forever." I said, "Little sister," I said, "I wished I could help you in some way, but are you a Christian?"
She said, "I--I am." And then I... Her mother wasn't there. And they couldn't even... They couldn't even put a bedpan under her. They had to put a draw sheet. She couldn't even raise her up like that. She was just--just laying there, just bones.
She hadn't even seen the outdoors for years and years. And so, a nice family of people. And her mother, young woman practically yet, was gray-headed and shaking with palsy from setting day and night with that child, setting there until she died.
And they give her up years and years. She had TB to come into the female organs and it went all through her body. She was just in a horrible shape. So I--I said, "I will pray for you." So I knelt down and prayed, got up. And she wanted to know if something... Why didn't something happen?
And she had read in the paper about the Nail girl that had been crippled. The papers packed it all over the country. And I said, "Well now, look sister, dear, that was a vision. See?" I said, "I--I can only do that. I can--I can pray for you, but that was a vision and I didn't even know the girl." And the tears... Where she got enough moisture to get tears, I don't know. But tears come running down her side of... Her face looks just like a... You know how all the meat's gone off the face, just a jaw sunk in. And poor little fellow...
And I said, "I will continue to pray for you, 'cause I know your father and mother don't want me to be here." [Blank spot--Ed.]
But she started crying and whisper. She said, "But I do." And I went on up. And then at the end of the week, I had a big baptizing over there when the... And... At a place called Totton's Ford, if any of you's ever around there.
And Brother Arganbright, I know he's enjoying this because he knows every stitch of the land.
So then when I was... As I went over to baptize, there'd been a certain minister over there that told his congregation that--that baptism by immersing was so ignorant that only people who didn't have education would immerse. So it happened to be when I was baptizing that afternoon, he had a great big tent there. And he had a... oh, thirty or forty converts that week.
And when I come down... 'Course, they all walked out, it was late in the afternoon, about four o'clock. They was... Evening service was over--the afternoon, rather. They all walked out and standing around the banks of the creek, several hundred people. I walked out there and begin to render Christian baptism.
And I said, "You know something," I said, "it just seems like the whole heavens is standing around here, Angel on every limb in these trees." And his whole entire congregation with clothes, beautiful dresses, and everything walked out in that muddy water and was baptized that afternoon, every one of them. The man, it got him so bad, he even backslid and went out of the ministry.

IS ANYTHING TOO HARD FOR THE LORD.   TULSA, OK   60-0328
E-12   And so that afternoon we'd baptized the Nail girl that had been crippled with--with a stoke for, oh, a long time, or arthritis, it was. It crippled her and pulled her leg in. And she was just as normal as any other girl. And she wanted to be baptized with the Nail girl.
And her mother had got so discouraged till she went off in the kitchen--to hear her own daughter cry and laying there dying. And she raised up her hands and she said, "O Lord Jesus, that impostor has come through this land and got my child so all wearied and shook up." And said, "There the poor little thing, laying in there dying, and then him coming around and saying something like that and got her crying and--and everything..." 

DARKEST HOUR JESUS COMES.   SAN FERNANDO, CA   55-1114
E-65   And so, I went up with Brother George Wright to eat supper. And he said, now, he kind of talks country, he said, "Now, Brother Bill," he said, "when mammy rings the bell, you come on." And I said, "All right." And I got over in the woods, and I started to kneel down and the green-briars was sticking me.
You know when a blessing is right ahead of you, how the devil tempts you. And I tried to kneel this way, and the briars would stick me. And I got up and went over here, sun was shining on me. And I'd go different places. Directly, I just got so wore out, I just fell down and started screaming out to the Lord with all my voice and praying.
Well, seem like in the distance, I could hear that bell, but I was just... You know, was you ever carried away in prayer like that? And I just didn't pay any attention to it. And after while, I kind of got to myself, and it was getting dusky, and the sun setting over the hill, getting down into the valley. Where I was out on the side of the hill, this a way...
And I was under some dogwood bushes. And I looked up. I thought a strange feeling was there. And looked up, and that Light that you see in the picture, was shining right down through like that, and that Light circling in the top of that dogwood bush. And He said, "Go by the way of Carter's." That's the girl's name, Georgie Carter.
Well, I got up and started and then hunt and search parties trying to find me. And down the hill I went running real fast and jumped right in the arms of Brother Wright. He said, "Mammy's had them biscuits ready for two hours, Brother Billy."
I said, "But, Brother George, something's going to happen." I said, "You know that Light that appeared down there where I was baptizing?"
Said, "Yeah."
I said, "It was over there in the woods and told me to go by the way of Carter's. I believe that little girl's going to get well."
And so there was some people there from Texas, and they wanted to see it happen. And down we went. And while... You know, God works on both ends of the line. And that woman, she went in to pray, and her little girl got to crying because she wanted... She had wanted... She seen the baptismal service advertised in the paper, or announced. And she wanted to go to it. 'Course she couldn't move, hadn't moved for nine years and eight months.
So she--she was laying there crying. And oh, it got her mother so bad. Now, here's her mother's story. You ask and see if her mother tells it the same way.
E-69   So she went into the room (They lived in a lovely big home, and her married daughter lived close to them.), and she knelt down and she said, "Dear heavenly Father, we have served You in Your church for years. And there my poor little dying daughter, laying in there. And that--and that impostor William Branham has come through here and got the people all stirred up. And the poor little thing laying in there." Said, "God reward that hypocrite of his iniquity," and just going on praying like that. And she raised up, and she seen a--a shadow on the wall. And she thought it was her daughter coming.
Now, here's her story. I can only quote her. See? She said it was--it was a shadow of the Lord Jesus. She seen His beard. He said, "Why are you weeping? Who's that coming?" And she looked over, and she seen me with this Bible over my heart a coming in with two men following me.
And she said, "Oh, I... How... I--I been asleep." She'd never seen a vision before. So she said, "I--I--I been asleep. Oh, something's wrong." She said. "What happened? Have I--have I lost my mind?" And she went into the room. She said, "Georgie, you know I..." And just then she heard a door slam. And here I was, come a walking in, me and two men, just like she'd seen. She said, "Oh..." And she fainted.
When I got to the door, I don't know what--what--who opened the door, but I got in. And it seemed to me like... I know this sounds juvenile, but it seemed like I was standing up in the corner of the room, like that. And I was watching myself go over to that girl. And there she was laying there, her little pale looking face.
And I said, "Sister Georgie, Jesus Christ Who you love and has trusted, has met me over yonder under a dogwood bush." Oh, I can still think of it and something happens. I said, "He met me. And He sent me that you might be healed. So in the Name of Jesus Christ rise up from the bed." How's she going to do it? She hasn't moved for eight--or for nine years and eight months. Her legs wasn't much bigger than a broomstick. Where's she going to even get strength to raise sputamin box, how's she going to stand?
How? I don't know. But God Who created the heavens and the earth, and this is His Word, and me, His minister standing here, the girl sprang to the floor under the power of the Holy Ghost, with her hands up in the air.
The two men was with me seen that skeleton standing there. Her legs up here where her little short gown was on like that, her little legs about that big around, her little arms like that and them up in the air. It scared them, they started screaming.
Her mother raised up and just getting out of her fainting spell and fainted again. And they... She let out a great big scream. And I turned around, and then her--her daughter come running over. People all over Milltown come running.
And her father thought Georgie had died. So sh--he was crossing the bridge with a little bucket of milk in his hand, coming from his barn, way across. And he was also superintendent of the big quarry there. And he come running up the road, thought his daughter had died.
E-73   And she went out in the yard, set down on the grass and blessed the grass and blessed the leaves on the tree. And when her father got there, the house packed full of people... About twenty minutes later, she was setting at an old fashion country organ playing "Jesus Keep Me Near The Cross," there's the precious fount, free for all a healing stream, that flows from Calvary's mountain.
She's been the pianist at the Milltown Baptist church from that day--night till this night now, and has never went to bed with anything less then we go to bed and go to sleep, since. Miss Georgie Carter, Milltown, Indiana.

ONLY ONE TRUE LIVING CHURCH.   ERIE, PA   51-0727
E-35   And, oh, brother, sister, you reading that little book of mine, seeing there about little Georgie Carter, she only weighed thirty-something pounds. Nine years and a half, she'd never moved. I thought that was the poorest person I ever seen, when she'd never raised off of her back, for nine years and eight months. She's my piano player at the Milltown Baptist Church tonight where I'm pastor. But... And the people in the neighborhood, said, "Let her get healed, and we'll all believe." But it never made one believer. So they thought she was bewitched or hypnotized. That's been years ago, and she's still bewitched then, and hypnotized. She's gained some nearly a hundred pounds since then.

1941

1.  Fellowship.

WHAT VISIONS ARE.   SPINDALE, NC   56-0421
E-6   When I was pastor at the Baptist Tabernacle at Jeffersonville, well, and the Milltown Baptist Church and other places, I remember, I had my Tabernacle, which still stands at Jeffersonville... And now to show you, we got a Methodist preacher in there now, a preaching, taking my place.
But when I was pastoring up there, and I had a good friend that was born down the same part of Kentucky where I were born, and he had the Main Street Methodist Church in New Albany, just about five miles below us, which is a very lively little church. Why, we had the very best of fellowship. When he was having revival I closed up my church and went down there. He'd do the same thing for me.
Now, we kid one another a little bit, that's just in preachers, you know. Of course now, you laity don't know this. You see? But we'd kid one another. For instance he'd say to me sometimes--I'd come up, someone would come in, get saved, and I'd say, "Well, brother, what church did you ever belong to?"
"Well, my people were Methodist, Brother Branham, and I want you to sprinkle me (See?); I believe in sprinkling."
"Well," I said, "tell you brother, you know, you'd never make a good member here, though you're a brother; but I've got a good friend down in New Albany by the name of Johnson; and he's a Methodist and he sprinkles. So I tell you what: Let me take you down there and talk over with it with Brother Johnson, because he's a fine man. He's every whit of a Christian, a fine lively church, just Holy Spirit filled, and real good people." I'd say, "I'll take you down there and talk to him. Now, it's pretty dry; there's not much water down there, but he will treat you right."
Well, he get a member that would said, "Now, Brother Johnson, I--I believe in being baptized by immersing. I--I'd like to be baptized."
He'd say, "Well, I tell you: I--I don't baptize, but Billy, up there Jeffersonville, at the Tabernacle, he's a Baptist, and I--I... He's a fine fellow; you'll make him a good member. But I tell you: He's a Baptist; he will hold you under till every bubble quits coming up."
And so, he will... Now, we'd go on to each other like that. But we were--had fellowship one with another. Not one flaw with Brother Johnson, wonderful man, although we might disagree in theology and speaking, but we--on the same principle we believe the Lord Jesus Christ died to save sinners. That's it. And I believe all of us believe that. And our other little petty things, we should forget them and just go right on serving the Lord. And if I couldn't agree with anyone, that don't mean he still isn't my brother. And--and that's just fine, I want the other man to think the same about me, because it...
E-9   There was nine of us boys. And I--my brother next to me, a great big six footer, weighs about a hundred and ninety pounds, blond headed, flat nose, square chin. Why, he don't look like me; there's no resemblance at all in us. And there... Why, he likes--he likes to play golf, and--and I--I think that's silly. And I like to hunt, and he thinks that's silly. So me, I like cherry pie and he likes apple pie. We both have our differences; we don't look alike; our nature's not alike; but his father is my father.
If the Branham family could receive him on his peculiarities, and receive me in my peculiarities, then we're brothers. And if God can receive you on your peculiar doctrine, and me on my peculiar doctrine, and give us both the Holy Spirit, we're brothers. That's right, regardless of whatever, we're brothers. And that's the way we have fellowship one with another while the Blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all unrighteousness; all sin is taken away.

2.  Prophet marries Meda Broy October 23, 1941.

LOOK AWAY TO JESUS.   JEFF. IN   63-1229E
17-1   God was the one who told me to marry her, at the same time (her not knowing) I was trying not to marry her. Not because I didn't love her, but because I didn't think I was able to make a living for her, and she was a fine woman; I just didn't deserve that. And she went out to pray and opened up the Bible, and He just... She said, "Lord, I've never done this before, but give me a Scripture that'll help me. If I've got to forget him, I've got to forget it." Opened the Bible... And she went out in a little shed and prayed, and when she opened the Bible up: Malachi 4, "Behold I send unto you Elijah the prophet, before the..." But that was--that was twenty something years ago, knowing nothing about the ministry of this day.
And I was...Couldn't... I was lying down on the river there, and He woke--woke me up one night; I heard Him standing there by the door. He said, "Go get her, and your wedding shall be this coming October the twenty-third," and that's just exactly what I did. And we've lived happy; by the grace of God we've never had one word. She's been a sweetheart.

1942--1943--1944

1.  Not Disobedient to the Heavenly Vision
FOREWORD
All scripture is given by inspiration; therefore 1st Corinthians 12:27 to 31 is inspired of God and it is my honest belief that God is setting His Church in order for the last days and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit have been given to the Gentiles to call out a people for His name. I wrote a small book entitled, "Jesus Christ, The Same Yesterday, Today and Forever." In that book I explained how our Lord Jesus called me when I was a child and told me I was to work for Him when I grew up. He gave me the Gift of Healing to help call His people to Him. If you can't find that book write me. For over three years He performed mighty miracles. Then one day He called me to take the Gift and to evangelize for Him. Many of my dear friends begged me not to leave them and I stayed. Because of this, the Gift was taken from me for more than five years. Though I cried and prayed earnestly for the people, it just did not seem to work.
Then one year ago, while I was standing in my yard the Spirit came to me again; I was told that God had forgiven me and that a double portion of the Power to heal would be given me. In this book are some of the things He did on my first trip for Him. Do you see, dear ones, if healing would have been of myself people would have been healed during the five years when the Gift was gone. I suffered for many other things during that five years, so my beloved friends, please pray for me while I "earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints."--Jude 3.
I am sincerely yours in Christ's service.
Rev. William Branham.

2.  Mr. Andrews the infidel neighbor.

CURTAIN OF TIME.   PHOENIX, AZ   55-0302
E-35   Here long ago, a little woman that was... I remember she went to live down below my church; she does now, in Jeffersonville. She was in a sanitarium at Waverly Hills, and they brought her down, and they said, "The doctor said she had to die right away." They was going to give her, I believe ten days, two weeks to live, a Tubercular case. And I went down there to see her.
They called me down about--been about eight years ago or ten, just before I come to Phoenix the first time. And I went down there and was praying for the woman. She had about five little children. And I was praying with her that night, and while I prayed and got up, I seen her even with tinted gray hair. And she was--hair was dark brown. And I seen her with tinted gray hair. Her children walking in, shaking hands with her, years later. And I said, "Sister, THUS SAITH THE LORD; you're going to live."
She started weeping. She said, "Reverend Branham, something's happened in my heart." She said, "I--I--I just feel that I'm going to live. Something just satisfied me I'm going to get well."
I said, "You are, for it's THUS SAITH THE LORD."
I went back up, told them at the church. There was a man lived next door to me, very fine friend, and he had a hobby of making leather things. By the way, he made me this pocketbook, that I've had--carried that for ten years. He made it out of a deer skin that I got myself: Got the picture of my tabernacle on it; and the inside, got a fish here and a deer head here. So he made me that old pocketbook, and I've carried it in memorial of that, for so long.
A perfect, total infidel, a scientist. Worked at the government depot. He didn't believe there was such a thing as God. Said, "Anybody that believed such is crazy." He said, "They're..."
I--I can understand easily, how people can get that in their mind. This morning, standing at a business man's office, here in this city, with some ministers, how they talked about how Mohammedanism in Africa, is sweeping. Look, twenty-five Mohammedans to one Christian, that's the pressure, why? Mohammedanism is hooked together, one unity. They believe that the Koran is inspired.
We Christians, the first thing, we're separated between Catholic and Protestant. The Catholic says, "The Bible's inspired, but the Catholic church is over the Bible."
The Protestant said, "Well, it's inspired as much as I believe. The rest of it's not inspired."
Fussing, fighting, arguing, separating, oh, it's a pitiful thing. I'm sure glad God got a hold of me before the church did (That's right. Yes, sir.), that God taught me first, 'cause I'd have probably been an unbeliever. When I see what people call themselves Christians and--and church and so forth, and each one wanting to pull little gnats and everything from one to the other, and separating, unseemingly, not having the faith. Sure.
E-38   Now, this man was a perfect infidel. And somebody got the news out the next day that I said that about the woman. I hadn't went out having services yet. I was patrolling out on a high-lines and my clothes ragged. I got on my old bicycle and went over to get some groceries down at the store and had to turn the corner where that woman lived, just two blocks below where I was. And here come the infidel walking down the street. And He spoke to me.
I said, "Good morning, sir."
And he said, "Hello, preacher." Said, "Just a minute, I want to talk to you." He said, "Aren't you ashamed of yourself?"
And I said, "What?"
He said, "Telling that poor little dying mother in there, that she was going to live, building that people up under a false hope like that."
I said, "Well, I never built them up under no false hope."
He said, "Well, she's dying." Said, "Her husband works with me out there at the government." And said, "He told me that you'd come over there last night, and, or night before last it was then, and prayed for her. And she--you told her that she was going to be well and live to be an old woman."
I said, "That's right. I never did that; God did that."
He says, "Nonsense," he said, "shame on you. You ought to be gentleman enough not to build people up under such things, false as that."
I said, "That's not false."
He said, "Away with such." Turned around and walked on.
And I thought, "Well, okay." And I went on and got my groceries, I come back. About two or three days after that... He had a lovely little wife was a believer, and so I--my wife knew her real well, said she was a lovely lady. And she belonged to the Christian church. So my wife told me when I come in, said, "Well that Mrs. Andrews is very ill, Billy." Said, "You ought to go over and see her."
I said, "All right." I said, "Her husband's that infidel," I said, "I--I have to walk easy." So I said, "I'll go over and ask him if I can get him some kindling and coal for him, and maybe he will ask--maybe she'll ask me if I want me to pray for her."
And so I went over, and I said, "Howdy do, Mr. Andrews."
He said, "Hello, preacher."
And I said, "I hear you got a sick wife."
Said, "Yes, I have, but I've got a good doctor with her."
I said, "Yes, sir. I just wanted to ask you Mr. Andrews, being that we're neighbors here so close, if I could help you get in some coal or run a errand to the grocery, anything, I--I'd do it for you."
Said, "Oh, well, thank you very much." But said, "We got a good doctor with her; everything will be all right." And he told me who the doctor was in the city.
And I said, "He is a fine man." I said, "I like him very much."
"Yeah, we got the situation," said, "She's got appendicitis." And said, "It'll be all right," said, "He's freezing it out; it'll be okay."
And I said, "Thank you, Mr. Andrews, I certainly hope so. If I can be of any help to you; I live next door; just call me." Shut the door, went on back, kinda unconcerned. Well, the next day the doctor come up, said, "We'll have to take her to the hospital; she's swelling awful bad." Said, "We'll have to take her to the hospital and operate."
So they took her out to the hospital, and when they took the blood test from her, found out she didn't have appendicitis. So they sent to Louisville for specialist. And they got the specialist over there, and the specialist examined her, and when he did he said, "She's got between four and six hours to live. There's a blood clot right near the heart; that's what's swelling." Said, "She's gone; that's all."
So my wife told me the next morning said, "Mrs. Andrews is going to die, Billy." Said, "I just heard that she's got a blood clot." The nurse, one of the nurse friends called up and said, "She's fixing to die." Said, "She's already unconscious."
I said, "Too bad, Meda, I hate to hear that. Poor thing," I said, "We'll just pray for her." So we prayed, and I went on and started off to work.
And it was kinda drizzling rain, and I was going out through the fields. Something kept saying, "Turn and go back. Turn and go back."
So I thought, "Well, I'd turn and go back." So I went back, called up and turned in... It was inclement weather, so I couldn't work, just for that, 'cause I knew the Lord wanted something. And so, first thing you know, I was setting there, and taking my old gun apart, and was cleaning it out. And the first thing you know, coming around the house, come Mr. Andrews, walking along, cap pulled down over his ears, knocked on the door, and he said, "Mrs. Branham," said, "is preacher Branham here?"
Said, "Yes, Mr. Andrews, won't you come in?" So he come in.
I said, "Hello, Mr. Andrews; get you a chair." I just kept working on my gun, you know.
And he said, "Preacher."
I said, "Yes, sir."
He said, "My--my wife's pretty sick. You heard about it?"
I said, "Yes, I heard she was going to die, Mr. Andrews." I said, "It's too bad." I said, "'Course you got a real good doctor out there." And I said, "I--I just hope she gets along all right."
He kept... He said, "Well," said, "we got a specialist; you understood that?"
I said, "Yes, I understood you did, Mr. Andrews. Heard it was a blood clot near the heart."
Said, "Yes," said, "that's right." Said, "My," said, "she's in awful shape."
I said, "Yes, sir, that sure is too bad."
E-42   I thought, "You sweat it out. You made me sweat it, so now you sweat awhile." So I just kept cleaning on my gun, let him do some sweating. So I just kept cleaning on my gun and looking through it like that. It was clean, but I just wanted him to take a little while. But I kept looking through it like that.
And he said, "Preacher," he said, "you know what?"
I said, "What, Mr. Andrews?"
He said, "I wonder if you could help her a little bit."
And I said, "What do you mean?"
He said, "You know."
I said, "You mean, pray for her?"
He said, "Yes."
I said, "I thought you didn't believe in such." I said, "I thought you told me less than a week ago, down there at the corner, you didn't even believe there was a God."
He said, "Well," he said, "you know..."
I thought, "Yeah, when the time comes you'll believe. That's right, just let it get close enough to your own door one time, you'll believe it." And I said, "Well, all right, Mr. Andrews."
What he... He said, "Wou--would you go out and pray for her?"
I said, "I want to ask you something, Mr. Andrews." I said, "How about you kneeling here with me, and let's pray for her right here."
And he said, "Well," he said, "I--I--I don't hardly know what to do."
I said, "You just kneel here; I'll instruct you."
And so he got down there. I said, "Now, raise up your hands, and say..." I said, "The first thing: from the bottom of your heart say, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner.'" So I got him to praying, and he got to crying. But oh, my, we had a...
He said--got up and wiped his eyes; he said, "Well, preacher, you--you--you think now she's going to be helped?" I said... He said, "Would you go out?"
And I said, "Yes, I'll go out and see her." So I said to Meda, "Get your coat on." We went out there, and when she did, she didn't know us: Looked swollen way up her eyes and her lips turned out. So, the little nurse when they come in, she said, "Come on, Brother Branham." Taken me up there. And I knelt down and prayed for her, put my hand over on her, stood there a little while. And my wife stood there, and she said, "See anything?"
I said, "No honey, I don't."
We walked out, down around where the babies was and looked in the maternity ward there, you know, where the babies is all laying. She was talking about them. I went back to Mrs. Andrews again; just as I went in the door, I seen it. Oh, my, I said, "Honey, it's going to be over. Don't worry; God has heard."
And I went home. Mr. Andrews come over, and he said, "What do you think about it, preacher?"
I said, "She's going to live."
He started a crying, my. And he--I said, "She's going to live." I said, "Don't worry; God's done said by the same vision told that woman down there she was going to live, and now she's up, down there the woman." I said, "Now," Mrs. Reece now... And I said, "Now, she's going to live too."
And he said, "Oh, I'm so glad, preacher."
In a few moments the phone rang, and he went over. Said, "Come to your wife at once; she's dying."
So he come told me, and I said, "Do you believe what I told you?"
He said, "Oh, preacher, I want to," said, "but they tell me she's dying."
I said, "That don't make a bit of difference what they say." I said, "When God speaks anything, it's got to be just that way."
So he said... So the first thing you know, he said, "Oh, I can't go see it."
I said, "See what?" I said, "You still think she's going to die, don't you?"
He said, "I'm just all nervous."
I thought, "That's good for you right now (You see?), to sweat it out good."
So just let it go; and the first thing you know, another phone call come; they called him across the street. Here he went over, and he come back. And then he said, "I got to go to the hospital right at once." So out to the hospital he went.
And I--Meda said, "What do you think about it?"
And I said, "Why, don't worry about it. God's done said so; that settles it." I said, "If that woman don't bake me an apple pie in three days from now, and I'll be setting on that porch and a eating it, then I'm a false prophet." That's right. She could really bake a good one too. So I--I knew it; so I told her--told them right there at the hospital, told the nurse that. I said, "She bakes me a pie in three days from now. If that isn't so, then I'll--I'll walk out of the ministry." That's right. I said, "Because it absolutely is the truth."
E-46   And you know, he come back across the field in a few moments, and the mucus running out of his nose, and he was a leaping and a jumping like that. And he said, "Preacher, preacher, guess what happened." Said, "I went there to see her, and time I got there," said, "the--something had broke loose, and all the water had run out of her, and she was setting up in a bed, said she was hungry. And I called the nurse." And said, "They brought her up some bouillon, and she said, 'Take that stuff out; I want some wieners and sauerkraut.'" Said, "Just as normal and well..." She lives today. And God of heaven Who looked down...
And about a week afterward he made me that pocketbook that I've carried ever since in my pocket, around the world. That's right; that is the truth; God in heaven knows it. She lives tonight, why? 'Cause Jesus lives, she lives also. God bless...?... See? That's right.

1945

1.  Killer bull stopped by Divine Love.

DO YOU NOW BELIEVE.   MACON, GA   55-0610
E-39   I could stand here for hours giving testimonies like that, and how that love will work, how that love will move.
Look, one day, I remember, I was on patrol. And I was going out... Now, you may laugh at this, but that'll be between you and God. And there'd had been a big old male cow down there and killed a colored man, and they had--they had sold him up to another farm.
Well, I had to turn some fish loose that afternoon in the conservation, some minnows in the creek, so then... And I had a sick call over across the way, and I thought I will just walk over there and--and make this sick call, and pray for this sick person, then go back to my truck. And I got out of that truck, and walked across the field, and I was going out there in some little old shrubs. I never thought about that old fellow being in there. He'd killed a colored man: very mean. And so, I got out there in the middle of the field, about three hundred yards from the fence, just some little old scrub trees around, about four or five feet high. And when I got out there, all of a sudden, up jumped that big fellow, and I recognized that was the field that he was in.
Now, he raised up there, and let out a big bellow like that and threw his head down. Now, this may seem strange. I'm not telling it for a joke. It's the truth. There wasn't a tree to go to. I knowed he could beat me to the fence. There was nothing to do, but die right there in the field. My gun was in the car. And there I was standing in the field.
But then, if what happened then would only happen now, and stay that way... But somehow or another, instead of hating that bull, I loved him. Now, that seems strange, but I did. I loved him. I thought, "Poor fellow, I disturbed him." And he looked at me like that, and I wasn't a more afraid that bull was going to hurt me than I am this preacher setting here. See? There was no fear at all. I loved him. I thought, "Well, I--I harmed him."
E-41   And he started coming towards me with his head down, like that, and just throwing the dirt over his back. And I just stood there, just as calm as I am right now. And he run right up, and I thought, "Well, that poor fellow. I know I would hate to be wo--woke up like that." And here he come with his head down, and when he got to me I said, "Now--now look, I am sorry that I disturbed you." I said, "I didn't mean to do that." And I said, "You are God's animal, and I am God's servant. And God is sending me over here, pray for a sick woman. I'm on God's mission. Now, I'm God's servant. You don't want to hurt me. Now, in the Name of Jesus Christ, you go back and lay down." And when that bull, running right towards me just as hard as he could, he got within about five feet, he just threw out his feet and stopped. And he looked at me, like that, and he looked sideways, just so depleted, and turned right back around, and went over and laid down under that tree. That's right, a killer.

2.  Vision of Miss Methodist.

WHY.   PHOENIX, AZ   60-0309
E-6   How many ever read my little book called, "Jesus Christ, The Same Yesterday, Today, And Forever"? Some of the old timers. I wrote it myself. It's a mess, but you just get it together, and the Lord can reveal it to you. Did you notice in there, that I seen a woman coming with a real, had been a white garment? And it was all spotted all over, and across her brow was wrote, "Miss Wesleyan Methodist". And I said, "What's the matter with that beautiful garment, all spotted up?" As a vision.
She said, "Well, I've..."
I said, "You Methodist oughtn't to have that like that."
And said, "Well, I've been so busy."
I said, "Yes, and so many societies, you've left off all the old prayer meetings, and Divine healing, the power of God that belonged in the Methodist Church."
She said, "You talk like that, I'll go wake my husband." And she went and got a spade, and begin to dig up by a grave, called, "John Wesley." And the vision left me.

Dear Reader:
This book of testimonies is for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is for that purpose only that I write it.
It was in the month of March 1945, one morning about 3:00 A.M. that our Lord Jesus Christ gave me a vision. This He has done many times and I most humbly praise Him for it.
At the beginning of this vision, seemingly, I was walking northeast on a road when the Spirit turned me and pointed me toward the west. I was facing a great mountain. It seemed to be the mountain of the Lord! It had a towering, high church steeple on the top of it. I was then asked to go west toward the mountain.
I entered the mountain through a door and on the inside I was met by a woman who had on a garment that might have been snow white at one time. Now the garment was very soiled. She asked me if I was Bro. Billy Branham and I replied, "I am." She then introduced herself as Mrs. Methodist.
I asked her why the spots on that lovely white garment. She replied, "I have been so busy." I then said to her, "That's right; you Methodists have so many organizations and societies in your church, you haven't had much time for the Lord." Then she said, "I was told that you were being sent to me. Maybe I should awaken my husband!" Then she disappeared.
Looking to my left, I saw a small heap of smooth-baked bread. There were white fowls standing near it, but they would not eat much of it. Then the Lord said to me, "Do you know them?" I No."
Then He said, "That is your Tabernacle and they won't eat the bread of life anymore. I am sending you this way." Then I journeyed on westward.
Not Disobedient to the Heavenly Vision - Page 2
I was then brought to a plain where a platform was erected. Seemingly, it was under a large tent or auditorium. There were curtains drawn in back of the platform. The Lord then told me to pull back the curtains and when I did I saw a great mountain of the bread of life. He then said, "Feed these," and turning around I saw white-robed people coming from everywhere, making up a large audience.

3.  Mother's dream about high heels.   [Isaiah 3]
ISAIAH 3:16
    Moreover the LORD saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet:

RISING OF THE SUN.   JEFF. IN   65-0418M
33-3   I was talking on that the other day. My old mother, she's gone on now, and she was a very odd woman. And she was, you know, about a half Indian, and she was odd. But in there she was a person didn't dream. But I only think she only had four or five dreams all of her life, but every time she dreamed a dream, it was true. She had a dream, it was true.
I remember one time when I first started preaching, many years ago. We was living right up here on the road, right just above here. And I was preaching right here at this church. And she dreamed a dream that I was standing here by the side of a three steps. And I was standing preaching to everybody that they must walk up these three steps before they hit the highway. And on the highway's a little pearly-liked white line run right into the--the--the doors of heaven, to the pearly gates, and that pearl had been stretched out to the top of these steps. If that ain't my Message exactly today: justification, sanctification, and baptism of the Holy Ghost.
Now, I was saying that a person has to come by these three steps to be able to walk that highway. And said that there was a lady came by. (Now, you know what kind of shoes people wore thirty-five years ago.) Well, there was a lady come by, had on a great big pair like they wear today, spike-heeled shoes. And she come by and I said, "Wait a minute, sister. You can't walk that highway with that." And I said, "You--you--you can't do that."
And she said, "Aw." She said, looked around at the rest of the women and said, "Don't believe him; he's a madman. (See?) Don't believe him. I'll show you I can be justified, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost and still walk that." And she... I just let her go, couldn't do no more about it, couldn't stop her. And she jumped up on the highway, she looked back at the sisters and said, "See, I told you." She started to run up, and she... You know what the Bible said in Isaiah, 5th chapter, said they'd have outstretched necks (they have to; they're pitched over. See?), mincing as (have to, have to twist)--mincing as they go, making a tinkling with their heels (See?), the daughters of Zion in the last days.
34-2   And she started up that highway just as hard as she could run, and after while the road got narrower and narrower. She started reeling, mincing like that, and off she went. And mother said, "The horriblest screams that I ever heard in my life was that woman falling into those flames and smoke, going down, down like that." Said I turned around and said, "See?"
She just obeyed everything but one Word (See?), everything but one Word. Sure, Pentecostal women can be saved, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost and then fail. Absolutely. 
I was talking on that the other day. My old mother, she's gone on now, and she was a very odd woman. And she was, you know, about a half Indian, and she was odd. But in there she was a person didn't dream. But I only think she only had four or five dreams all of her life, but every time she dreamed a dream, it was true. She had a dream, it was true.
I remember one time when I first started preaching, many years ago. We was living right up here on the road, right just above here. And I was preaching right here at this church. And she dreamed a dream that I was standing here by the side of a three steps. And I was standing preaching to everybody that they must walk up these three steps before they hit the highway. And on the highway's a little pearly-liked white line run right into the--the--the doors of heaven, to the pearly gates, and that pearl had been stretched out to the top of these steps. If that ain't my Message exactly today: justification, sanctification, and baptism of the Holy Ghost.
Now, I was saying that a person has to come by these three steps to be able to walk that highway. And said that there was a lady came by. (Now, you know what kind of shoes people wore thirty-five years ago.) Well, there was a lady come by, had on a great big pair like they wear today, spike-heeled shoes. And she come by and I said, "Wait a minute, sister. You can't walk that highway with that." And I said, "You--you--you can't do that."
And she said, "Aw." She said, looked around at the rest of the women and said, "Don't believe him; he's a madman. (See?) Don't believe him. I'll show you I can be justified, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost and still walk that." And she... I just let her go, couldn't do no more about it, couldn't stop her. And she jumped up on the highway, she looked back at the sisters and said, "See, I told you." She started to run up, and she... You know what the Bible said in Isaiah, 5th chapter, said they'd have outstretched necks (they have to; they're pitched over. See?), mincing as (have to, have to twist)--mincing as they go, making a tinkling with their heels (See?), the daughters of Zion in the last days.
34-2   And she started up that highway just as hard as she could run, and after while the road got narrower and narrower. She started reeling, mincing like that, and off she went. And mother said, "The horriblest screams that I ever heard in my life was that woman falling into those flames and smoke, going down, down like that." Said I turned around and said, "See?"
She just obeyed everything but one Word (See?), everything but one Word. Sure, Pentecostal women can be saved, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost and then fail. Absolutely.

1946

1.  Daughter Rebecca is born March 21, 1946

BE NOT AFRAID.   KLAMATH FALLS, OR   60-0717
E-38  (…)  My little girl, Rebekah there, I tell a little story on her and Sarah one time. Their--their both daddy's little girls, you know. And so, I'd be out late, you know, and I--I love my children. And I wouldn't come in till maybe weeks. And I remember Rebekah when I... Her birth was the marking of my ministry. I asked the Lord if He'd let me stay home until the baby was born. And when I--she was born, and I went up on a trip, and come back, and she begin to know me. After about six months old or something, I made St. Louis and a few of the Arkansas meetings, went on down in the south. And when I left then, I never come back for nearly a year. When I come in one cold day, and we had two little rooms we were living in, and had quilt stuck in the door and pushed in. It was around zero weather.
And to keep the baby from--for forgetting me, mother had my picture setting there, and she'd say to Rebekah, and she'd say, "Daddy, daddy."
But when I come back, I'd lost about twenty-five pounds, and nearly all my hair was gone. I said, "Hi, sweetheart." She was scared; she cried. She was afraid of me. My own child afraid of me.
And mother tried to say, "Daddy," and she'd point to the picture. That was daddy, not this. That liked to kill me.

2.  Angel of Lord commissions Brother Branham.
 [Israel a nation May 6: the Angel of the Lord appeared on May 7, 1946.]

EXPECTATIONS.   NEW YORK, NY   50-0405
E-57   Every one be real reverent. And now, there might be some strangers that has not heard as yet the operation of the Spirit of God that was delivered this ministry to me. It was given by an Angel when I was borned. It manifested Itself three years ago. It always followed me, made me know that It was near. Then It came to me, It was a man. He's been seen in the meetings many times. Big, large man, weigh about two hundred pounds, has dark hair to His shoulder. Testifying when He come, He said, "I'm sent from the Presence of God to tell you your peculiar birth and life is to indicate that you're take a gift of healing to the peoples of the world." And begin to tell me different things would happen.
I told Him that I was uneducated and wasn't able to go. He told me I'd be given two signs.
I said, "The people will not believe me, because I'm not educated sufficient to speak to people."
He said, "You'll be given two signs, as was the prophet Moses." He said, "One sign will be that you're to--you'll detect diseases through your hand. When the people contact you, well you'll be able to tell them what diseases they have through a supernatural discernment." And then said, "If you'll be sincere, then it will come to pass that you'll tell the people the secrets of their hearts, and the things that they've done in life that might've hindered their healing, and so forth."

AS I WAS WITH MOSES.   JEFF. IN   60-0911M
141   Now, when God gave me my commission... I've based all this back for this one purpose. "Gifts and callings are without repentance." No man can make himself anything. God makes you what you are by His grace. We have no way of making ourself. Jesus said, "Who taking thought can add one cubit to his statue?" Who can make hisself bigger or littler by taking thought? You can't do it.
When God gave the commission, I questioned it. I said, "I'm unsufficient--or insufficient. I have no education. I cannot do these things."
Many of you people here this morning are still living here today, when He appeared down here on the river in that form of a Pillar of Fire, and stood there, and spoke back, and said, "As John the Baptist was sent forth for a forerunner of the first coming of Christ, so will your message be the forerunning of the second coming."
Look what it's done. That Light hanging over there, it entered the paper; it went all the way across the United States and into other nations. Doctor Lee Vayle there, was in Canada at the time. He remembers when it appeared in the Canadian paper; I believe it was, wasn't it, Lee? In the Canadian paper, "Mystic Light appears over local minister's head while baptizing."
Many people said, "It's psychology."
But one day God decided to stop the mouth of the unbelievers, 'cause it stayed with the Word. That same Pillar of Fire that led the children of Israel is just the same today, leading church spiritual just the same as it led it natural. He appeared again, and they took the pictures before the critics and before the examiners. Here It hangs now infallibly the truth, doing the same works, leading the people spiritually, as It led them naturally back there, staying with the Word. Now, He said what was the commission. Now, remember, God will never depart from His commission. If...
I'd like to draw it for you, or in a way. We'll take it like this here. Here's a little sign; that is the commission; now here's a little cross in one corner and a Bible in the other corner, but the writing is in between here. That's the commission.
I charge you before God, and the elect Angels, and Jesus Christ; the commission was, "Pray for the sick." The question was insufficient to do it.
"For this cause you were born; this is the means of your peculiar birth and life, that you are to pray for the sick. If you'll get them to believe you, and be sincere when you pray, nothing shall stand before your prayer, not even to cancer." How many has read that through the years? It's all over the world.
150   Now, now I said, "I cannot do it, because I am insufficient to do it. They won't believe me; I'm poor. I have no education." That was me questioning.
He said, "As Moses was given two signs to a-vindicate his commission, so are (not you will), you are given two signs. One of them will be by your hand. The other one will be you'll know the very secret of their heart, the thoughts of their mind. And by this they'll believe, by these two signs." Now, remember the... Listen, don't you fail to get this. The sign is not the commission. The sign only points to the commission.
 
TEN VIRGINS.   JEFF. IN   ROJC   60-1211M
99   Now, to see whether this message that we got is connected with it or not. The very hour that Israel was signed in to be a nation; it was the very same hour, very same day, very same month, everything else: I was at Green's Mill, Indiana, when that Angel there appeared to me and sent me out on the field with this; after He had met me down on the river and told me what would take place, then commissioned me eleven years later at the same hour that Israel was signed in as a nation. It's all connected together.
See, the Angel of the Lord is on earth now (See?); He's moving around fixing everything for the coming of the Lord. And it's the same Angels that's heard the sin when they went down to Sodom and they found--said, "We have come down to see if these things are so, what We've heard."
You remember that? And one Angel went down in... One stayed with Abraham, the elect. Sodom was down here, and Lot was in Sodom, and two Angels went down there and preached to them and brought that little, bitty group out, sleeping virgin. See? All right. But the one Angel stayed with Abraham. This Angels preached down here, a modern Billy Graham and them, pulled them out.

3.  The Angel and the sign in the hand.

GOD IN HIS PEOPLE.   LITTLE ROCK, AR   50-0227
E-29   Many of them even stagger, faint. I seen them become so unconscious that they'd have to rub their face, like that and start crying. Practically every case, real strange feeling... How many knows that's the truth, in the other meetings?
Now, they realize there's a Presence of an Angel of God there. Then when I try to tell it to them, you see the picture of It here, that was taken, scientific proven that it's right. Now, when they're standing there, they know they're in the Presence of a supernatural Being. No, it's not me. I'm just a no more than the least of any of you, but it's just a channel who He--that It's working through. Somebody has to declare it. And He just... It just happened to be that it was... He called me from my birth. I don't believe gifts are just handed out to you.

BE NOT AFRAID IT IS I.   LAKEPORT, CA   60-0720
E-64   Now, many here... How many in the prayer line that I don't know nothing about you, raise up your hands? You people that know that I don't know you, raise up your hand. All, everyone. All right. And out there that I don't know you...
Now, I've got some friends here. I see Brother and Sister Palmer setting here from Georgia. And then, back in there somewhere is Brother Fred Sothmann and Brother Norman and--from Arizona. I know they're here. And they're here somewhere in the meeting. I don't see them, but they're in there.
And now, all these are... And this woman, we're strangers to one another, are we, lady? We are strangers to one another? We are. Oh, you was here in the meeting when I was here before. But for me to know you, I wouldn't know you. All right.
How many here never did see when I put my hand on the people and see the reaction on the hand? Let's see your hand. All right. We'll just take a couple like that.
Okay, Come here a minute. Now, I do not know you. I've never seen you in my life. As far as I know, I... Probably since I was here I've seen a million people since then. But now, if... I want you--take your hand out. Now, if it's anything like an affliction, like some blood chemical disease, or a crippled, or arthritis, or something, that is not a germ. See? It'll take a germ, some other life.
How many knows that we come from a germ, one single cell? Certainly. We come from our fathers. The hemoglobin is from the male sex. The female is the egg. But that little germ... And your life... Your body's made up of germs, but it came originally from one germ from your father. Is that right? A different type of germ then makes around that. That's the way Christ was God. When God brought Hisself in a cell in the womb of Mary, and was borned out, to save us from sin, through that Blood cell being broke saves the world, there.
Now, if it's just an affliction that'll have to be seen some other way. But let's see if it's a germ disease. If it will... See? There'd be a germ of death on her to kill her. And it would vibrate if I have the anointing of the Holy Spirit here with me.
Yes, sir, it's positive. You got stomach trouble. That's right, isn't it? Raise your hand if that's right. Here it is. She got an ulcered stomach. You see well?
I want to show you something. I want you to look at my hand here. See how that hand looks swollen, them little white things bouncing on it there, running over it. See? Now, take your other hand over here, so that you'll see; turn this hand over. Now, it isn't there, just normal, white, not swollen, just an ordinary man's hand, isn't it? All right, now put your other hand right over on it. Now, look at it. See the difference in it how it swells, see them little white things running over it? That's how I knew you. It's a vibration... [Brother Branham illustrates.--Ed.] a germ. See?

4.  Angel of Lord leads the prophet.

MOSES COMMISSION.   HOUSTON, TX   50-0110
E-19   Now, look. The peculiar part of the sending of Moses is what I want to get to you.
Moses was herding his father-in-law's sheep, Jethro, on the backside of the desert. And one day a--an Angel appeared to him in a burning bush. Now, an Angel came down to bring the Message to Moses--and otherwise was to be his guide.
Men are... They can't... You can't guide yourself. There's two ways: that's your way and God's way. And when you're in your way, you're out of God's way. And you have to forget your own way to find God's way. And man cannot lead himself.
He was called a sheep. We're likened to sheep. If there's anybody around here knows anything about raising sheep, when a sheep gets lost, it's perfectly helpless. It'll just stand and bleat till it dies. That's all. It's helpless.
And we, without a leader, are helpless. And Christ is our leader. And God was Moses' leader, though He sent a--an Angel to lead him. "I send My Angel before thee to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee to the place which I have promised." The Angel was to be his leader.
The Angel performed the miracles. Moses never performed any miracle. The Angel of God in Moses performed the miracles. You see what I mean? The Angel of the Lord was with him. The Angel led them, performed the miracles.
Now, God has always, by all men, through the Scriptures, through all ages, has ordained that Angels should guide the people. There was Moses; there was Daniel, and oh, how many more could we say, all the way down.
Someone was speaking to me here not long ago. Said, "But Brother Branham..." [Brother Branham clears his throat.--Ed.] Pardon me. Said, "Not after the Holy Ghost is come, no Angels guides the church, or guides individuals. No, sir." Said, "It's the Holy Ghost that guides us."
That's misunderstanding between Angel and the Holy Ghost. That is error. The Angel's led the Church right on, and still leading the Church. Correctly.
How many would say that Philip had the Holy Ghost? Let's see your hands over the building. How many thinks Philip had the Holy Ghost? Philip, the apostle Philip? Surely, see. All right, he did, didn't he. Who was it spoke to him down there at--at Samaria and told him to go to the desert Gaza? An Angel. Did he have the Holy Ghost? Sure he did.
How many says that Peter the apostle had the Holy Ghost, that preached the--the inauguration sermon for the Church, the Day of Pentecost? Well, when he was laying in prison up there, and Who was it come in to the... and touched him and brought him outside? The Angel. Is that right?
How many says Saint Paul, the apostle had the Holy Ghost? Let's see your hands. When the ship was tossed about for fourteen days, and there's no hopes at all, and he come out there and shook his hands and hollering, and I guess, "Glory to God, be of a good cheer. The Angel of the Lord, Whose servant I am, stood by me last night." Is that right?
How many believes John the Revelator had the Holy Ghost? The whole Book of Revelations was showed to him by an Angel. Is that right?
E-23   And they had the Holy Ghost, friends. The Angel...?... not a worship of Angels. It's God sending His ministering Spirit in the Church to minister to the people. There's no flesh can glory before God. If anybody could've gloried, it would've been Jesus. But He said, "It's not Me that doeth the works; it's My Father that dwelleth in Me; He doeth the works." Is that right?
They said, "We believe God."
He said, "If you believe God, believe also in Me."
Now, when the Angel came to your servant here, He said, "If you'll get the people to believe you." Now, there's the hard thing. "If you'll get the people to believe you..." How many believes God? All of you, don't you. You believe Christ, you believe the Holy Ghost.

5.  First moving of the Lord after Angel’s commission.

HOW THE ANGEL CAME TO ME.   CHICAGO, IL   55-0117
80-1   And the Angel stepped into the Light again that begin to come around and around, and around and around, and around His feet like that, went up into the Light and went out of the building. I went home a new person. Walked over to the church and told the people about it, the--on Sunday night.
And on Wednesday night they brought a woman there, one of Mayo's nurses dying with cancer, nothing but a shadow. When I walked down to take ahold of her, there come a vision before her, showed her back nursing again. And she's on the list in Louisville, "been dead for years." There she is at Jeffersonville now, nursing, been nursing for years. For I looked up there, and I seen that vision. I turned around, hardly knowing what I was doing, standing there; I quivered when they first brought that case and laid it down there. And the nurses and things standing around her, and her laying there, and her face all sunk in and her eyes way back.
Margie Morgan. If you want to write to her, that's 411 Knobloch Avenue, Jeffersonville, Indiana. Or write to Clark County Hospital, Jeffersonville, Indiana. Let her give you the--the testimony.
And I looked down there. And that first case there, to see here come out, there come a vision. I seen that woman nursing again, walking around, good and strong and healthy. I said, "THUS SAITH THE LORD, You'll live and not die."
Her husband, a very high man in this world's things, looked at me like that. I said, "Sir, don't you fear. Your wife will live."
He called me outside, said, called two or three doctors, said, "You know them?"
I said, "Yes."
"Why," said, "I've played golf with him. He said, 'The cancer had wrapped around her intestines; you can't even wash her out with an enema.'"
I said, "I don't care what she's got. Something down in here; I seen a vision. And that Man that told me, said, whatever I seen, to say it and it would be so. And He's told me and I believe it."
Praise God! A few days from then she was doing her washing, going around. She weighs about a hundred and sixty-five pounds now, in perfect health.

EXPECTATIONS.   NEW YORK, NY   50-0405
E-43    And I went down, my little girl was just born. I went down to get her some of them bottle caps for her catnip tea, or whatever it was. And I had my twenty-eight dollar check I was going to cash. And I went into... And the bus stopped on Spring Street there, at the little city I lived. I noticed the strange acting man got off, and he looked at me. I went into the drug store and cashed my check, and--and got the bottle caps, and come back. And as I started out the street, someone laid their hands on me. And I turned around. He said, "Sir, you an officer I see?"
And I said, "Yes sir. I work for the Indiana Conservation."
He said, "Seeing that you was an officer, I wanted to ask you a question."
I said, "Yes sir."
And he said, "I'd better tell you first." He said, "I--I been failing in health for about two years."
And the Angel had just appeared to me about four or five days before that and told me about this. And he said... or about the gift. And he said, "I was... I live at Paducah, Kentucky." He said, "Last night, I had a strange dream." He said, "I seen a Angel coming down out of heaven. And he came down and told me to come to this city of Jeffersonville, and to inquire for somebody by the name of Branham to pray for me." Said, "Would you know where there was any such person here, anybody by the name of Branham?"
Oh, my, my heart just felt like it was that big. And I said, "My mother runs a boarding house right around the corner."
He said, "You're..."
I said, "My mother."
He said, "Is your name Branham?"
I had to give him my arms. I... "Brother, come here to the corner." And I begin to tell him what happened. And he started weeping. And we knelt there on the street, right there on the street, and I prayed for him. And when I got up, the people holding their children back and taking off their hats in respect there on the street. And God moved down from the heavens and healed him there.

6.  Brother Branham’s booklet; “Jesus Christ Same Yesterday, Today, Forever”.
 [Testimonies of healings after his conversion in 1930 until 1946.]

[Continues in Book 2; “THE HEALER”.]