The Word Became Flesh (India Trip Report)

1 Good morning, friend. It's certainly a privilege to be here in the Tabernacle again, this morning. Course, as we journey along through different parts of the world, and so forth, sometimes you wonder if you're ever going to be back again, but to--and to see the perils and dangers and things that lies ahead. But as Brother Neville has just said, "The Lord will take care of us." That's, we learn to trust Him for... [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.] And this morning, it's a...

I believe that I have a deeper love for the Lord Jesus than I've ever had in all my life. Just after seeing the different religions of the world, and their operation, and what they believe, and their theology and so forth, and then to come to realize that we, as Christians, have the true and living God... All other religions just seem to fade away into nothing, when--when Christianity is brought to the--the place.

Now, I'm not too loud to talk. If anybody wants to come just a little closer, why, you're--you're more than welcome to come forward while we're waiting.

4 I'll... just want to give the report of the meeting overseas, just briefly, and so that you'll have a--a conception of what the Lord did do overseas. For we are... You are part of the group that sent me, and you prayed for me while I was over there, so you have a right to know what the Lord did. It was a--a great and marvelous meetings we had. They...

In Portuguese--Lisbon, Portuguese, we had one of the best meetings that I had in a long time, just to drop in like we did. It's strictly, one hundred percent Catholic country, Portuguese is, which come from Spain. And the Spanish were Catholic, and moved in. And all--all Portuguese is Catholic. But right in the midst of all of it, the Lord poured His Spirit out upon the congregations, and we had such meetings and miracles.

And many, many thousands... Now, if there's Catholic people here, I'm not trying to say that people were converted to Christianity out of Catholicism; because it's a representative of Christianity. But they, people who usually just go to--to Catholic church, and not real devout Christians... We have it in Protestants, too. They just say, "Well, I'm a Catholic because my grandmother was a Catholic." And that's it; they don't--don't consider it. But these people, like that, were led to the Lord Jesus Christ by the thousands in the meeting in Portuguese.

7 Then we went from there to Rome. And right... Well, I visit the great catacombs where the Christians worshipped in the beginning, the early ages. And there we had such a marvelous experience to go down, especially in the Saint Angelo Catacomb. And of course, our guides strictly were Catholic. But they tried to say they were Catholic, but all the inscriptions and everything showed that it was different; it wasn't. You see?

And then from there we went to the Vatican City. And in the Vatican City, I had a marvelous time, and had a healing service, right in the shadows of Saint Peter's Cathedral there; a great meeting. And literally just all they could get around, where we had to do it secretly, and just let the people know where were at. And thousands come out and accepted the Lord Jesus Christ, and He worked miracles and signs and wonders among the people in the--at the Vatican City. Could you imagine that?

9 And I could... that met many of the great celebrity of the country on this time, because Baron Von Blomberg was with us; he was the manager of the meeting, and well-known by all the monarchs, and potentates, and so forth, of the world. In Lisbon, why, we met the governor of the parliament, had dinner with them. And in Rome, all the dignitaries there...

And this King Faruk, Faruk, ever what his name was, out of Egypt, that just married the young lady, you know, we understood, then they was divorced again. And he has a right to have four wives, so he--he only has about one or two now. But he married this young girl, school girl, and you heard the publicity in the paper and so forth. Nice man to talk to. Big fellow, great... I mean, big fellow. He was big. So he--he was a nice man.

Then we met a couple of the queens of down in the Orients and so forth. And then they were there at Rome, and knowing that we were there, come to meet us.

12 And had an audience with the pope, and could have went up and talked to him. But when I found out you had to kiss his ring and his toe, I said, "No, no. Huh-uh! No." See? I will give any man his due regards, as reverend, doctor, whatever he is, to give him honor, and take off my hat to him as a gentleman, or so forth. But when it comes to worship, there's only One, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And I would not do that.

So he said... He had asked, asked the baron, and so forth, if he could have me over there on a Tuesday afternoon or something like that. He said, "Now, when you go in," said, "the first thing you do, you bow down before him. Then he holds out his ring, and you kiss his ring. Then he sticks his foot out, with a toe on that."

I said, "No, no, no. No, sir. Just forget that. We won't do that."

15 So then went on to Cairo, Egypt, and Athens, Greece, on down into--to different parts of the country, and then wound up in Bombay. And I--I tell you: I don't believe that I could come out of what I seen in Bombay in ten years, of what it was. I... It's the most pathetic sights that I ever seen in my life, from around the world.

This is practically all but the extreme East. I practically visited all the countries of Europe and Asia, and--and through that part of the country, even to the borderlines of Russia, but never been in Japan yet. And that's supposed to be next on the program, this, Australia and New Zealand and Japan. My next stop, from where I was at, was Hong Kong, China. We was just around on the other side, way closer to come to the United States, coming this a way. We just had to stop at Hong Kong, Tokyo, Formosa, and Guam, Wake, Philippines, then here. Instead of that, we go plumb back around this other way, to come--come in again. But in there...

17 There is no poor people in America. I don't care where he is, and how hard he has to live, there's ne--not one poor person in America. If you find him in an alley, eating out of a garbage can, his clothes all off of him, and everything else, he's a millionaire. Don't never think he's poor, 'cause he's not; after you once visit India, you see the poor people there. Why, I tell you, a hard...

I'm hard-hearted. I've seen so much and had to go through so much. Many of you might not understand how it, effect it has on a human being, when you see so many things, and you have to ride over the top of it all the time, like that, make yourself feel different. After while, you get into that kind of an atmosphere, until you look at things and just don't notice it, 'cause you you've--you've got yourself to that place.

19 Like a doctor, have to cut a man open, reach in and take his appendix out. First time he did it, perhaps he fainted or something. But after while, he gets to a place, he knows it's got to be done, so he just goes and does it. And if the patient lives or dies, why, he just, he's done the best he can.

And a minister gets in the same way, when you're... especially an apostle. Or--or, what... Well, an apostle is a missionary. The word mission-- "apostle" means "one sent." And why the missionary wants to be called a missionary, instead of an apostle, I don't know. The Bible order of it is, is apostle. And so then he's sent out. He's not exactly has to be a minister. He... Apostle don't have to be a minister; he just has to be one that's sent. God sent him to do certain things.

21 And then in there, I tell you, when we went into India, and to see those poor people laying on the streets, and starving to death, and little mothers with their babies, and begging for something, and them dying themself, from starvation, but don't let their baby die... And for just little, quarter, pennies, or anything, if they can get that much food every three days, they can make it. They don't have no home to go to. Just when they get sleepy, they lay on the street. And they... old razorback hog, maybe don't get over about that big, and his sides pulled together from starvation, walking around over the people. And old goat, and him about to reel to pieces, too, walking over the people. And they stink. And, oh, you never seen such a conglomeration as India is in. Course, it's practically always been that way. It's nothing new.

They just got their independence about six years ago on bankruptcy from England, as you know. And they're--they're a very odd people.

23 I never seen a man in all India, with the millions that I got to see, that had limbs, up above anywhere in their thigh, up here, that big around: all real skinny, bony people. And at my window, it would break the heart of a man, as my son sitting back there, listening. And he sit at the window and watched as people sitting on the streets. When they found out where I was at, and lepers with no hands on, things like little stubs raising up in the air, begging for something to eat, or anything; and no feet, and white over with leprosy. And, oh, it's, one couldn't help the other one, hardly. And, oh, it's the most pitiful sight you ever seen.

And I said to the missionaries, I said, "I just can't stand it." I give every penny I had away, and everything, on the streets. And I--I--I thought, "They got just as much right to eat as my Sarah and Rebekah has."

25 And--and--and you just don't realize how blessed you are, people. Now, that's right; you don't realize it. You know, you ought to look up and see where it comes from. My, it come... And American people is like a hog under an apple tree. You know, he... all day long the apples will hit him on the head, and he will eat them, and never look up to see where they're coming from. And that's the way we are. We never give it the thought. I mean, in whole; I ain't meaning you people here. You're Christians. But I--I mean the people in whole, how they just... They don't--they don't realize how blessed and how well off they are.

26 The garbage of Jeffersonville would feed, today, would feed a quarter part of India. That's right. That's right, and they'd be happy to get it, anything. They...

You see the man in the garbage can; say, "Well, Brother Branham, what about that fellow? There is no clothes, hardly, and ragged." But look, only thing he has to do is ask charity, and they'd help him. That fellow ain't got no charity over there. He, especially, is living in a shack somewhere, where, if it rains, he can get in a box car.

He ain't got nothing to go to. Where he falls, he just lays there. And they pick them up when they die, and cremate them, throw them in a big pit, or somewhere like that, and put them away off the streets, or whatevermore, lepers, and so forth: no one wants them, no place to go, nothing. They're hungry. They're human beings just the same as we are.

29 And I tell you, brother, I--I couldn't stand it. I almost had a nervous breakdown. And I've been home now all these days, since last Sunday. And I couldn't get out of the room. My wife there knows the truth, for about five days. It liked to killed me. Even when our doctor taken my blood pressure, he said, "Man, you better get some rest." Said, "Your nerves are so low till your blood pressure has went way down, and won't even put, pick your blood up, like that, to bring it up again." I... It just nearly broke me in two to see such things.

And that, and some of the missionaries said, "Brother Branham, if this hurts you, don't you never go to the interior, 'cause it's many, many times worse than this." Bombay is their biggest city, and nicest city they got, and you ought to see it.

31 And now, to the religions to that side, I never seen such, so many superstitions: people, total blind from looking at the sun, worshipping the sun; just go blind, looking at the sun.

32 I was entertained there by, well, the celebrity, that's true, from Mr. Nehru, and the president, and the parliament and all of them. I got their tickets and things, right here in my pocket, their little cards, and so forth. They were nice. Couldn't be any nicer. Treat you nice.

But I went to the mayor of Bombay, to his office. Your chicken house looks a lot better (See?), from the best that they had. And so there's nothing to eat. And on the streets, it's the most pathetic sight that you ever seen. When you send your "care" packages, send them to India. Yes, sir.

34 Now, I am not here as a critic. I told my wife, coming down, "If anything, I want to get away from," and ask this church to pray for me, "is quite criticizing." I'm critical in my heart, and I--I don't mean to be that way.

Just as soon as I reached the American soil, 'fore I got over here, I seen the American people and started criticizing right then, when I looked and seen a little old mother in the back of a plane. We were coming second class, the way, really, preachers should travel. And back in a plane, a little mother back there with some little children, and here was the fellow sitting there fussing at those children because they... we'd been... I'd been in the air fifty-eight hours. But they was--and they'd been in about--about thirty-five hours; the poor little fellows was restless, and them carrying on.

36 And then see the American women raised up, dressed like so immoral... Even to their immoral being, their--their starvation, them women can come here and teach these American women how to live decent. That's right. You never... On the street, I don't care if it's your wife, you can't stand within six inches of her. They'll take you in. See? That's right. There's no smooching up and loving, and things, on the streets there. And their women never look at a man in his face; when they're talking to him, they keep their head down like this and walk away. And they--and they don't let them on the street like that and so forth. And it's--it's the morals. And to come to find a people in starvation, and heathens, as it was, as that was, and to see the low, degraded part of our nation here, it makes me critical.

37 And I--I stood in the hotel, at the Taj, Taj Mahal. I guess Billy... How do you pronounce that, Billy? How'd you... Billy Paul, how do you pronounce that, Taj Mahal Hotel? [Brother Billy Paul says, "Taj Mahal."--Ed.] Taj Mahal, yeah, anyhow, and at--at the hotel there. And Billy is a witness.

Two Americans come in. And when they went to the street... We watched them as they walked out, and walked out amongst those poor people out there. And a little old boy run up to them. There's some kind of disease they get. He was about eight years old. His toe was about that big around, two of them; they stuck up about that high, and he had to pull his little feet like that. Walked up and asked for a penny, you know, or something like that, to get him something to eat. And those Americans said... [Brother Branham gestures and imitates their response--Ed.] Turned around like that, and walked away.

Said, "God, be merciful."

39 High-headed... And Nehru and them was talking to us, said, "We would like to have your all's way of how... and your democracy, and so forth like that, but we don't want your spirit." That's right. "We don't want the heady, high feeling that you all have in America. We don't want it." See? They didn't pull no bones about telling us either. Said, "We don't want that."

And I said, "That's not true representation of Christianity." I said, "That's a form of hypocrisy." Absolutely. I said, "Christians don't act like that. No, sir." I said, "All in America don't act like that." I said, "We have just as humble and sweet a people as they do anywhere in the world. But we have some..." I said, "To--to my sorrow, to say it," I said, "the most of the them, and the majority, are that high, heady, high-minded type, like that."

41 And to come here, it makes me critical (You see?), and I don't want to be that way. And I found out after so much, seeing so much, and everything like that, till, brother and sister. My old friends here from the Tabernacle, bless your hearts; you don't realize what I've went through in my days of trying to...?... you and everything, and trying to do the best that I can to answer before God someday. But I have... Now, if you see me doing wrong, don't condemn me, just feel sorry for me, and try to correct me (You see?), 'cause I--I don't mean to be that way.

But you just have to go through so much, you don't realize, and you have to ride over so much. I could tell you things this morning, which would not be lawful for me to tell you this morning, you'd realize why I was up there five days at home and couldn't move around. That's right. You don't realize it.

How, what's happened since a little old innocent preacher standing here in the pulpit, what has crossed over that heart, and cut through, and beat through, and pulled through. God only knows. I don't even tell it to the people, not even to my own wife; I just keep it between God and I, and move on the best I can. But you realize that, a human being, his mind can only stand so much, and then he goes out. You see? And what's held me, I don't know; it's just been God alone that's done it.

44 Now, there's all kinds of religions in India. Everything's got a religion. Everything's got its own way. I was entertained for the historical... Never before, that the religions of India ever got together to entertain a Christian. But two weeks ago, last Thursday, I was entertained by the religions of India.

And many of them worship flies. And they worship cattle. And they worship, uh, oh, everything. And they were there, the Jains, when we was sitting together in their temple, where their priests... That religion formed before Christianity was ever born, three or four thousand years ago.

They have a monastery; they have monks, very type of Catholicism. They pull their beards out with their hands, and their hairs off their head like that, with their hands, then start coming back. You can't cut it.

47 And they're are so every way, till they--they take a--a broom or a little mop. They sit there; the monks make these little mops. And they go before, like that, to be sure that you don't step on an ant or something, kill it. If it would, it would be a mortal sin, and you wouldn't be forgiven. They carry a white thing over their mouth, and around their ears, where, if they'd breathe, they'd happen to breathe a little gnat in, they'd never be forgiven for it. You see, it--it killed something. And, oh, my.

How could they ever accept the Blood sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ? They've heard of Him, but they don't believe it. They know about Jesus. The missionaries take it. He said, "Oh yes, but you people are all mixed up." Said, "You--you--you think of that Man Jesus... If He was a holy Man, let cruel men crucify Him, nonsense?" Said, "He got on a horse and rode up to heaven. That's where he went."

49 And--and the Sikhs, they wear a turban; in here they have a knife. And every time they get a Christian with his back turned, they kill him (See?), because when he gets to Heaven... The Christian's going to heaven too. But when he gets to heaven he's going to be the Christian; he's going to be the servant to the Jain. You see? So he'd have a lot of servants if he can get rid of a lot of them down here on earth. You see? And so if he kills you, you're just killed; that's all. And back in their turban, you can tell, they got a little comb sticking here, and a knife sticking around the side there. And they just only want you with your back turned, that's all they want to do. And then, just everything, the religions of the world...

50 And addressing that night, the first night of the meeting, when there was no way at all to estimate the people that was there. There was no place you could put them. In the monsoon, which was the rains, was on; and the people laying out there, and just helpless. And, oh, such pathetic cases. And it happened to be that the first one that come up, with anything that they could get up, was a little boy, which was a... I believe he was a Hindu. Wasn't he, Paul? And he couldn't... the little deaf and dumb child, and was born deaf and dumb.

And I said, "Now, here is the first case, a little lad here." I said, "Now, each one of you, one, the Jains, will try to get them to be Mohammedans; and the other ones, they try to get you different things, and your Ayya'licks."

52 And they all read their Bibles they have, not this Bible, and they have the Koran Bible, you know that. So they have... That's through the Mohammedans. And they--they have different founders.

Now, there's some of them there that believes that a man is god himself, that every man is a god. And the better you are, the better god you are. And, oh, it's--it's a horrible to see how they do.

54 And over there, I said, "Now look, gentlemen," I couldn't call them brethren. I just addressed them as gentlemen of the religions of the world. See? And I said, "Now, I want to ask you something. There... We're all here today, or tonight, rather. And all these different things; and you worship cattle; you worship everything." And I said, "It's all, if you'll excuse me, superstition." All of them could understand English; they couldn't talk it back. But England has controlled them so long.

I said, "Your are--you're here, and we're... Each one, you're representing different religions." I said, "And you go and proselyte. You take a--a--a Sikh, to make him a Jain; and you take a Mohammedan, to make him a--a Buddha, and so forth like that." I said, "It's only change of thought. That's all."

I said, "We have something similar in America. We're not immune from these things," I said, "but we all believe in one God." I said, "Then, we have Methodists, and Baptists, and Presbyterian, and they proselyte one among one another to get into organizations.

"But you all proselyte from one god to another. You see?" But I said, "Now, which is it? It's every one's superstitions."

58 I said, "The very creature, the fly that you worship, the cow that you worship, the horse, or whatever it may be, God Almighty created that being. See?" And I said, "You're worshipping the creation instead of the Creator (See?) to me," I said, "In all of it... Now, if there's none of them..." And some of them with idols and so forth. I said, "There's none of them that can help you. There's none of them that can speak back. They're all dumb, and none of them speak back. None of them can come in action."

"But there's only one true and living God, and Jesus Christ is His Son." And I said, "Now, that's Who I'm here to represent."

60 I said, "Now, as the Elijah the prophet brought all the prophets of Baal, and so forth, to Mount Carmel, to prove and say who is God," I said, "now there's only one thing to do. And, then, if your gods are right, then let me leave mine and serve yours.

"Now, here stands a deaf and dumb boy. Which one of your gods can make him whole, give him--give him his--his hearing and speech? That's what I want to know. See? Which one can restore speech to this boy?" And everybody was silent.

I said, "Now, Christianity has been represented to you in the form of doctrine, and in pamphlets, and in Bible." Which, I am for it, one hundred percent. God help those missionaries that go there to live there. Yes, sir." But I said, "It's not fully been represented to you." You see? I said, "It's been represented to you in Word only. But the God that wrote that Word, that you've already got placed in your heart, has now come to a place till He's going to make the Word live (See?), make Himself in the Word."

63 Now, I said, "Here stands the lad. He's deaf and dumb. He can't speak or hear, nor nothing. He's been born that way." And the Holy Spirit there and reveal the sins and the things, the people. And they'd just almost faint when they'd see that, you know.

And all of them make so much noise, you couldn't understand, 'cause they just had militia to watch them, you know. And they was just up-and-down. Oh, my. They said people from all over India was there. So you--you couldn't tell what was there (You see?), how many or nothing; you couldn't understand it. So then-- then this little boy, when I brought him up there...

65 And I said, "Now, heavenly Father, You know that I'm just like these other men here. I'd be in their shape, and worse, if it wasn't for Your grace. See? You saved me. And I--I... This is all ordained of You, not for myself. And now, You know that I never say that I can do one thing. It's You, Lord. But right here, while the religions and superstitions of this world... As it was in the days of Elijah the prophet, as it was in the days of Jesus Your Son, so is it now again."

I said, "That it might be known, Lord God, once more, that You're the only true and Living God, and the One Who made the mankind, and can make the dumb to speak, or the deaf to hear." I said, "I ask You, in the Name of Your Son, according to His Word; said, 'ask You anything,' as a Christian believer, 'ask anything in His Name, to the Father, it would be given.'" I said, "Now I believe His Word, and I ask for the dumb and deaf spirit to leave the child," like that.

67 And I clapped my hands like that. [Brother Branham clapped his hands together one time--Ed.] He turned and looked around. He was holding his ears up like that. And there he was, could speak or hear as good as anybody in the audience, like that.

Well, that started it. The next, then you couldn't... They had to take you out. There's no way. And they just... They pulled my shoes off nearly, my clothes off. The armies couldn't hold them back. The militia, the guards, couldn't hold them back. They'd run, right, break that line of guards, like that. They'd worship you (You see?), if they--if they could. They don't understand. It don't matter how much you try to get to them, they don't.

69 The next was a man, on the next evening, was a man had been blind, oh, about twenty or thirty years, a sun-worshipper, watching the sun until his eyes had gone out, and like that, looking right in the sun, till he was totally blind. Hadn't seen for twenty or thirty years. He happened to be the next, wind his way through, to get up there, on the next night.

I said, "Now, which one is last night?" After I got through, you couldn't hardly hear. You see? They was just everywhere, every religion and thing. I said, "How many of you now want to accept the Lord Jesus Christ?" You see? And everything that could be seen, accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Saviour, everywhere. And--and, of course, you couldn't... Where I could see, as I couldn't see very much.

We couldn't have an open-air, the rains a pouring, and things like that. And just people there and you couldn't get to them. And, oh, it was the most pathetic sight you ever seen. And--and them still coming over the roads and things, pulling an old goat along, you know, or something another like that, trying to get to the meetings.

72 And then the night when the blind man, I said, "Now, which one of your gods can give him his sight?" I said, "Here's one of your own worshippers, though superstition, has put his eyes out, looking at the sun." I said, "He worships the sun, because he know it's some created being that's created, been created, some creature that's been created, something."

But I said, "The very Creator that created the sun, created the eyes in this man (See?), the same One." And I said, "Now, if He will, God will give him his sight... Before I ask you any more, how many of you will accept the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the crucified?"

74 They couldn't understand how that that holy Man could ever, being what we say, the Christian saith, would die. I said, "The reason He had to die was to take away our sins." I said, "He wasn't no third Person, or second Person; He was the same Person, made flesh in order to take away our sins." I said, "He--He had to come and make..."

And I give them the little story I preached on here, the night before I left, of the bee, you know, how it stings, then leaves its stinger, you know, and it can't sting no more. And it had to be human flesh, for the--for the bee of death to sting, because death is not in the soul. Death is in the spir... in the flesh. So it had... God had to become flesh, in order to take away the sting of death. And so then when... They got to see that, you know, 'cause there's a lot of insects in India, and they were--they were...

76 Uh, I said, "Now, look. God can, the very Creator... This man, in his superstition, looking at the sun, trying to find mercy for his soul, for he knows that he's got to go somewhere when he dies, from here..." I said, "Though there, his eyes has went out; and through ignorance he did this. But the very Creator Who made the sun that he looked at, can make sight back into his eyes."

I said, "Will you be willing, sir, to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, and will forsake all idols and everything else, and will serve Him as long as you live? If you will, raise your hands." And the poor old fellow raised up his trembling hand. Everything there just merely wears a piece of loin cloth around them, you know. And he raised his hands, that he would.

78 And they never set when there's church. Never... They never have no seats or nothing. They just lay down, or set down, or fall down, or pile on one another, anything they can. You can imagine what it would be like. Just as far as you can see, you know, the people's like that.

79 And so I prayed to the good Lord to give him his sight. And there, by God's grace, that total blind man, the tears begin to run down his old wrinkled face and beard, you know, whited beard, running down like that. And he begin to yell something in his own language. And everybody begin screaming. And here he went walking out through there, patting everybody like that. He could see, a man that had been blind.

80 Now, Brother Cox and them, I think, he's sitting in the back. He can show you letters of vindication of these things that's come in from India, and it would just take long, long, long.

But in the way that we had it, I--I couldn't stay. It's... I don't see how I ever got five nights in. If it hadn't been for my boy back there, Billy Paul, and the help of God, I don't know how I'd have ever made it. Billy stuck by me. And he--he taken me through, tried to get me through. And them people, you know, that's... They're just... They're very timid. They don't want to hurt nothing, or nothing. And you just have to go over (See?), 'cause you'd get mashed down under the crowd, and we--we wouldn't know, you know. It'd just tramp you to death. You see, just have to get through it.

So, well, I'm back home again, by God's grace. I could tell more, but it's Sunday school time. I don't want to take up the preaching of the Word in a missionary talk.

83 Any "care" package you have, and you want to take advice, send it to India. I'm not nothing against Germany; they're fine people, against these other people. But, brother, sister, we only send them stuff over to build them up, and then have another war with them. See? That's right. Let's send it somewhere where it really needs to be. See? If you got anything to send, send it to India. They're the ones in need. And poor, illiterate, they have natural resource, but haven't got the intelligence to know how to develop it. The only thing they know is beg; and that's what they do.

84 And they were going to take me on a... You know how well I like hunting. They were going to take me on a big Bengal tiger hunt up there at their expense. I said, "Do me a favor. Take the same money you'd spend on that, and feed them poor people out there. I will go home without it. You see? That's right, 'cause I--I can have hunting somewhere else." You see?

If you ever got any old clothes, anything you want to send over, send it to India. See? I've almost traveled the world now, and I--I know what I'm speaking of. And as a Christian brother, India is in need.

86 Now, I come home; I fulfilled everything that the Lord has told me to do, as far as I know of, to the best of my knowledge. This next week... I'm going to tell you a little something that happened.

I was having dinner with the governor. They was to give me some old rice there, with sheep feet cooked in it, and seasoned with olive oil. You can imagine, just flat as it could be. I... made me so sick I couldn't hardly stand it. I just almost ready to vomit. The governor looked over and said, "Sir, I believe you're ill."

And I said, "Oh," I said, "I think the food's a little different."

89 When we got to the hotel, here was the governor's private doctor there waiting for me. Said, "I want to examine you." Said, "I'm the governor's private doctor.

I said, "Oh, I'm all right."

And so he begin, 'course, as a gentleman, like, he went looking all over me. And he said, "I think you're all right." Went everything fine till he took my blood pressure. He looked back at me, said, "Aren't you awfully tired?"

I said, "Yes, sir." I begin to tell him the effects the meetings had, those visions, you know, breaking into them.

Said, "I don't see how you're living." Said, "I don't want to alarm you," but said, "your blood pressure's about as low as it can get." He said, "Your nerves are so weak, till it won't pump your blood up." See? Said, "Your blood pressure's dangerously low." Said, "How long you going to be here?"

I said, "Oh, got two more meetings."

He said, "Well, I advise you to return to America as soon as possible, and get some real good doctor to look at you" he said, "because I'll advise you to have no meetings for a while." See? I told him how that was. Of course, he called it "dimensions," you know, breaking from one to the other one.

I said, "Well, sir, when I go home," I said, "I have promised the American people that, I had given them meetings, from now on it wouldn't be that." I said, "They... I would just pray for the people." See?

95 And 'cause, I see it--it doesn't take effect as it should. I look at my brother, Oral Roberts, and some of those fellows there, who has meetings, and even get more people saved, here in America, than I do. It's just something that I believe that I have misused a great Divine gift, of a prophetic gift, and used it in a way of Divine healing. And I do not think that it's encouraged God, or caused God to think so much of me, in doing so, 'cause it wouldn't have such an effect.

He never told me about that people, you know. He said that was once done. He represented even Moses in the same way. Moses went down to Egypt and performed his miracles one time. That settled it. He took his hand, and healed with leprosy; and turned a stick into a snake, and back to a stick, and that settled it forever.

And I think, after ten years of crossing America, back and forth, and combing through every city, the people understand that it's the Truth now. See? This time, it's to pray for the people, and that's what I intend to do.

98 I have been very--been very nice. You know I love you people. And I love you with undying love, and God knows that. I've had to be in isolation. There's people, across this--this America, that I'd love to shake hands with, and have longed to do it in the meetings. I couldn't. See? You don't know what effect that vision has to you. Just as soon as you stand before the person, there it is. You see? And I just wouldn't say it to the people sometimes, but there it is before the person. I found out things with people, I wish I didn't know. People that's to be my friends, and yet, you'd know that it was wrong. God would come down now and permit me, I could tell you things that would be surprising to you.

And there I have asked the Holy Spirit, if He will, which He's told me... I've asked Him if He'd just let me first get myself settled back to a place to where I was when I left the Tabernacle, just back to there, and let me get quietened down, that when I stand before the people, it won't be vision. It'll be... I can talk to the brother and not see his condition. Just then just offer prayer for him (See?), and be like... I've asked God to do that.

100 I come home. And I know, this week, that no one has been around the house. It's a good thing. I've been about five days up there; I couldn't even move. I--I have been to a place I'd raise up, look like my bones was aching and everything. 'Course, that change around, exactly eleven hours and a half difference, between Bombay and here. Right now it's just about time I'd oh, I--I'd done been sleeping an hour or two ago (See?), so it's nighttime, and just changed around. And then that weak blood pressure had went way down like that, and I just couldn't hardly get up and down. That's all. I brought it on myself, trying to overdo myself. So now, I've come back home, by God's grace.

And now, this next week I'm going away, just to stay awhile, two or three weeks out to myself: to stay alone, to pray, first. I'm going to go hunting, if the Lord willing. But before I do that, it's going to be... I'm going a few days before the seasons and so forth. I'm going up into Colorado. I want to stay at least two or three weeks or maybe more, just to be alone by my real lonesome self, and say, "God, here I am."

102 I may come down and ask Mr. Mishler for a job again, Mr. Mishler, back to the Public Service Company.

I've--I've fulfilled what He told me to do. And I stand at the Tabernacle, this morning, just the way I left ten years ago. I have no manager. My manager resigned when the heat was on. I don't have any manager.

My boy is leaving. And my boy, setting back there, is going to the Army. He's had been my buddy. He stuck by me.

Some of them always fussed at me, "Why you got Billy with you?"

If you'd only knowed how I packed that boy on my arm when he was a suckling baby, without a mother... I kept his bottle under my head at night, with no fire in the house to keep his bottle warm, and fed him. He's been my pal all the way along. We're going to die that way, if God willing.

Probably go to the Army right away; he got his papers yesterday to make his decision, whether he wants to volunteer or--or be drafted. Well, I won't have him.

108 And then, I--I'm by myself, but not by myself. See? There's One Who brought me from my mother, Who's fed me, Who's taken me through these deep trials. His grace has brought me safe thus far. I'm trusting that to take me on through. And I have come to a place to where I have...

I want to ask the church one more thing before we get some place to study in the Scriptures: that is, that you'll pray for me. I've developed a critical spirit, and it haunts at me. I told my wife yesterday, the first time. Something happened now, that I was sitting in the yard, and I told her. She had reminded me, and I told her about it. I said, "Honey, I've got to a place till I'm become critical of people." I don't want to be... Who--whose job is it? It's not mine. And God's the One to criticize, not me.

110 There's a woman, went over there, Mrs. Dowd. I don't know whether you ever heard of her or not. Oh, such a disgrace that was in India. That's the reason we couldn't even have our meetings in the open air. She got over there and tried to take offerings from them people. And--and--and because they wouldn't give their little rupee's...

A poor little woman that's got a job, packing mortar on top of her head, up steps and things like that, from five o'clock to ten o'clock, gets a rupee a day, at twenty-one cents. See? She has to work hard to keep that job. A woman wading in mud to their knees, and so forth, poor little old things, take care of her little babies and so forth: a rupee, twenty-one cents.

And there fussing at them people, and taking those rupee's and turning them back into American money... And they said, "You come to take what we got, not to help us." See, "You people..."

113 They didn't have to give me a penny, to go over or come back, pay my expenses, pay all auditorium rents, all the hotel bills, everything. And then everything I had left, I took it on the street, not to give it to some society. I took it out and give it to the poor little people that's starving to death. That's where your money went. That's where your money went. That's exactly, the best of my knowledge, that I could do it myself. I only wished I'd had more to do it with.

114 Now but, now, my brother, sister, this woman started taking up offerings and fussing at them. They said, "You come to take what we got, not to help us. I thought you come to help us." She was supposed to be a Divine healer.

She was angry with me, when I was over on the West Coast. "Howard," she said, "I want to see your daddy." She had married some man from down there in Egypt or something. Said, "I'm going to India, too."

Said, "Well, madam, when that Anointing is on him, we--the people just don't come around."

Said, she said, "You tell him that I'm Mrs. Dowd." And said, "When I'm going to India before him, I will have the situation under control time he gets there." Said, "My meetings is greater than he ever had anyhow." Well, that's true, might been. See? I don't know.

118 But to think, she had it under control to a place till you couldn't even have a meeting in the open air. That's what it was. And they--they started a riot, and she stood there and said, "You black devils, you." Said on like that. And they tried to get her to get out, and she wouldn't do it. And somebody hit her on the head with a brick, and they packed her out. So they, then they rushed her out of the country. And she went down into another country there, and Baron Von Blomberg had to go down and see the king, and things, to get her out of there, keep from a massacre. So then, so they... There it was, and I look at that and I criticize that.

119 I come back, and the first thing was placed in my hands was a "Voice Of Healing," and I seen this A. A. Allen's meeting and seen how unscriptural that is. Then I criticize it. You see? "Oh, my," I think. But look at the poor people, lovely people, is out there following that (See?), going with him, and honest-hearted people.

I look around and see these other things that goes on and in that I--I start criticizing in my heart. See? And I don't want to get that way. If I do that, I will lose favor with God. See? And the only thing...

And I look at the Americans and see the way, look at women, how they dress; and look at men, how they act; and how they drink, and cuss, and smoke, and chew, and claim to be Christians, till it just nauseates me. When I see what the other side is, and see this, then look between, think, "O God." But hear this, whose battle is it? God said, "Let the weeds and the wheat grow together. The angels would come and separate them at the end of time." It's not me.

122 So you help me, as I stand here with my hand up at the pulpit, help me to criticize nobody. And help me that God will give me a spirit in my heart, that instead of criticizing it, I will love them anyhow, and go on.

It's just been a constant grind, and a grind, and a grind. Till I'm just human. My mental powers are breaking like that. You see? And I've got to get away for some rest.

And that's what I'm going away for I to stay by myself to pray that God will take that critical feeling away from me, and mellow me down, till... I could go and act like it, but that wouldn't come from my heart. And I'd be a hypocrite then, sure enough. See? I want it to come from my heart, that I really have love for those who are not lovely. That Jesus did. When I was critical, when I needed to be criticized, and still, He still loves me anyhow. So that's the way I want to be. You pray for me.

Hope to see you again, long about November, maybe come back and hold a revival here at the tabernacle before we...

126 So, now, here's one thing I've done, asked this, one more thing. I have--don't want to have ministering to the sick, no more than just by handkerchiefs or so forth. I'm trying to get away from that vision. You see? And especially as weak as I am now, and go to stand before people, well, then you start that--that vision comes back. I want to get away and get myself quietened down to where I can come forth and have a different meeting. You'll pray for me, won't you? And now, and I'm--I'm praying, in--in the mail, and sending handkerchiefs and things to the sick and afflicted--afflicted.

But when people call me for prayer, I'm referring them to Brother Neville, or some of the rest of them, to go pray. 'Cause, when I stand before the person, that shakes me right back to it again. You see? And I want to get away from it, so I can lay down, say, "Now, Lord, just at Your will. Whenever You want me know anything, You let me know. And I will keep it a secret to myself, 'less You tell me to tell it." See what I mean? And then go out there and pray for the sick, and change my ministry altogether. I can have longer meetings, better meetings, and everything else than I--than I could before.

The Lord bless you now, while we bow our head.

129 Heavenly Father, we thank Thee this morning for the time of talking of missions, and how that You have blessed us and helped us. And how many times have I thought, when the waves was rolling high, and the great trials was on, would I ever be back home again. But here, here I am again. Lord, You always bring me back. I thank You for this church, for its pastor, for its peoples. Bless us.

And now, Father, this morning, I... My heart looks across there to India, and thinking, laying out there on that street, this morning, all down along by the side of that shore, down in those little old haunts, down there, those poor, hungry, starving, uneducated people, not knowing the Lord Jesus, worshipping some kind of a superstition or an idol. Then, Father, how thankful I am to know that You've let me know You: to know is Life.

131 Now, I pray that You'll help me. Take the critical spirit from Thy servant, Lord. God, I don't want to... If the men are wrong, You be the Judge, Lord. Let me just love anyhow, will You, Father? If the women misdress, and misuse themselves, and become prostitutes, and our nation sinks, how can I change history when You've spoke it, Lord? But I pray that You'll just help me, and let me be loving and kind, that I can be Your servant and do Your will. These things I ask, Father, for Your glory.

Now bless us. And as I've been asked to teach the Word, a little. Father, just give us a little short message now, that the Word may go forth, that it'll be a great day for us. We ask it in Jesus' Name. Amen.

133 All right. Now, I got a quarter to eleven. Is that right? Well, can we have about thirty-five minutes? Will that be all right, and then get out about eleven-thirty? Now, where we going?

I was setting here thinking about teaching out of the Old Testament. But, you, usually I just... You get in the Old Testament all the time. So somebody said, "Brother Branham, don't you know nothing but the Old Testament?" Well, it's good. When I learn that, then I will learn the New one. But when you learn one, you learn them both. See, they're both together.

But let's turn over in the New Testament somewhere. I don't know where you all been studying or nothing. Let's... I tell you, let's get Saint John. Let's go back to the 1st of Saint John, and begin to read Saint John. Now, that's just... I'm just turning over to it. I don't know. So we'll just start to study in Saint John. Is that all right with everybody? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] It is? All right, Saint John, the 1st chapter.

136 And now, maybe, this coming Wednesday night, I heard... I want to be with you tonight. I want to come down and--and be with you tonight, and then Wednesday night also. I think that we won't leave before Wednesday, so I will be here Wednesday night. I'm pretty sure it'll be next Thursday or Friday, one, before we get away. So then I will be here Wednesday night, if the Lord willing, for service. And now we want to--to teach some, maybe, Wednesday night, the Lord's willing.

Say, Brother Fleeman, that's just a good idea, just take off your coat now and feel at home.

138 Has anybody got anything against anybody? If you have, raise up your hand and go to them. Now, let's just make this one great big old love feast this morning. What do you say? Everybody, and whatever you have, if the person is not here, let's say, "Lord Jesus..." Let's put it under the Blood right now, and, "From this day henceforth, I will think of it no more." Let's just go, and let everything begin anew now.

Oh, if you only knew how--how happy you ought to be. In all the religions of the world, to see them, every one, just as bottomless as they could be. And only one is real; that's the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Regardless, if it comes from Methodist church, Baptist church, Presbyterian church, the Lord Jesus Christ is right. Amen. See, no matter where it comes from, Christianity outshines. It's the only thing that's got a foundation to it, at all. Other things... The Blood sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ is the only hope of the world.

Now, I've seen their religions. I've seen their idols. I've seen their superstitions. I've seen their gods and all, and every... Studied them, and studied the--the Koran, by everything I know to study. And how that every religion becomes superstitions. And it just makes you appreciate, so real, oh, that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the only hope of the world. He's the only One that ever raised from the dead. And we can prove that He raised from the dead, and He lives today. Amen. Oh, my, Brother Neville. You don't know how happy I am to be a Christian. Oh, you should be so happy.

141 Now, this great Gospel of Saint John here, according to the Saint John. John was the beloved. We believe this Saint John was the--the beloved one who leaned on Jesus' bosom, that--and so forth. He lived to be the oldest of the apostles, or lived longer than any of the rest of them. And he--he...

Peter was crucified with his head turned down, his feet up. Andrew was crucified with his hands sideways like this, and nailed. I seen down there where they beheaded Saint Paul, there at Rome.

143 Say, I've got some, oh, I--I will try to bring that the next time I come, the pictures of all that martyrdom and everything, and the feeding to the lions, and so forth. I got all in a big folder. I will bring it down, and put one on one pole, and one on the other one, so forth, so you can see them and look them over, all in English.

144 Notice, oh, what a heartbreaking sight, where they cut Paul's head off there, and dumped him out in the sewer like... I thought, oh, my, the axe never no more than touched his head till he was in glory. Amen. No wonder, he stood there in that cell, when he wrote, "O death, where is your string? Grave, where is your victory? But thanks be to God, Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." He wrote, said, "I have fought a good fight. I've finished the course; I've kept the faith. Henceforth there is a crown of righteousness laid up for me; that the Lord, the righteous Judge will give me at that day." Oh. Why, it makes you think:

Lives of great men all remind us,

And we can make our lives sublime,

But partings leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time.

145 Now, John, the beloved, the revelator... And, John, there's several John's here in the Bible. But the John, Saint John, the one we're speaking of this morning, an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, a missionary sent out by God...

A "missionary" is a "one that is sent." I've often wondered how that people today say, "Oh, there's only twelve apostles (See?), only twelve." You've heard that. Well, the very word itself means, "one that is sent."

Paul was not an apostle according to the twelve. But did you ever notice, they chose Matthias, I believe it was, or Matthias, to take Judas' place. And that's what man done. He... Never hear no more of him. But God chose Paul to take his place. You see? And look what Paul did. See, it shows the difference between the choosing of man and the choosing of God. And that makes--gives me a lot of grace in my heart towards things and errors, and so forth.

148 Just listened, a few moments ago, on the radio, this great famous Dr. De Haan, marvelous teacher, my, a lovely brother, love him with all my heart; God knows that. Just to see how great men can make errors. I thought, just as soon, brother, as I seen the error he was making, I thought, "God, I will make the same things, perhaps, so You look over mine."

Dr. De Haan said, "Baptism was only one time in the Bible." Just listened as I come to church here this morning. Said, "The Holy Ghost baptism baptized every one of the apostles, immersed them in the room. And we're baptized by water to represent that. And that was the only time that they were ever baptized with the Holy Ghost: One time only in the Bible."

I thought, "Oh, Dr. De Haan!"

150 Why, about ten days later, Philip went down and preached to the Samaritans. He baptized them in the Name of the Lord Jesus, only the Holy Ghost hadn't come on them yet. Peter went down and laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.

About two months or three months after that, Peter was on a housetop, and had a vision, went up into--up to Cornelius' house. And they were all standing there, and they were one accord, and praying. "And while Peter spake these Words, the Holy Ghost fell upon them, like He did at the beginning." And they hadn't been baptized with water yet, even. He said, "Can a man forbid water, seeing that these hasn't been baptized; has received the Holy Ghost like we did at the beginning?" So how did that one little body there represent... Oh, no, no.

152 About several years later, some twenty years later, Paul had to pass through the upper coasts of Ephesus, he find certain disciples. He said unto them, "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?"

They said, "We know not whether there be any Holy Ghost."

He said, "Have you been baptized? How was you baptized?"

Said, "Unto John's."

Said, "John baptized unto repentance, saying that you'd believe on Him to come, on the Lord Jesus."

When they heard this, they were baptized over, with water, in the Name of the Lord Jesus. And in the... He laid hands on them, and the Holy Ghost came upon them there (you see?), same way as It did at the beginning. Oh, yes. Holy Ghost baptism, water baptism, exists right on, and it will be till Jesus comes again.

157 But what an error (See?), what an error for a great, smart scholar like that. It goes to show, no matter how smart you are, how much you know, you're a human and you're going to error just as sure as the world. "The battle belongs to the Lord." That's right.

158 I see things, even in visions and things the Lord has showed me, and turned right back around and do vice versa. You imagine? And God showing me... I had it in Lisbon. I said, "Lord, just take Your hand off of me; I'm not even worthy to be Your servant." To see something He told me, and I had forgot all about it, and went right up. It happened. I thought, "Oh, my. There, why didn't I remember that." See? Here I had it wrote down in my pocket here on a piece of paper, and walked right in and done something vice versa. See? There it shows how much of a... how much, how good I am (You see?), not... Oh, the worst of all of them, would be me. For after God telling you to do something, and you turn right around and do something vice versa, that's terrible. See?

So, you see?, no matter who the man is, he's nothing but a human being to me. He's going to make mistakes. So let's just suffer with one another, and do the best we can. That's the only thing we can. All right.

160 John, now, 1st verse. Everybody got your Bibles open?

In the beginning...

Oh, say, this is good, isn't it, to start with?

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (Listen.)

The same was in the beginning with God.

161 Say, let's take on down here, the 14th verse. I've taught on this so many times, and thought of it. Look.

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelled among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory... of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (Look!)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelled among us,...

162 "In the beginning..." Now let's get some real... Here, I see something. And the Holy Spirit must have ordained this to be so. See? I see a great thing here. "In the beginning was the Word."

Now, you can't go any farther back, mentally speaking, than in the beginning. "In the beginning," before there was a world, before there was a star, 'fore there was a sun, moon, anything else, 'fore there was any creation, that's, "In the beginning." Is that right? Now, as far as we can go, is back to the beginning.

And "In the beginning, God was... In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelled among us." Then, the Word was Jesus Christ. Is that right? Oh, my. Then Who was... "In the beginning was Jesus Christ."

165 Then in our Catholic thoughts of the Eternal sonship, there could not be. For if He was the Son of God, He had to have a beginning of time. He had to be borned off of to be a Son (is that right?), if He was the Son of God.

166 Oh, we'll wind ourself out here in the good old Scripture. How I just love It. Just... You feel at home when you get into It, you know. Don't you love It?

167 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The Word Itself was God. "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; and we beheld Him in the glory of the Father." You see? We beheld the Word that was in the beginning, become flesh here on earth. Now, what a marvelous thing: to think that God, made flesh, to take away sin.

168 Now, if we could get the superstitions of the world, how they worship and want to become good... Now, certain of their denominations there, or their--the sects, they think, "If a man becomes real good, he becomes a god. And, he, he is a god then." And they worship him as God.

And then another reason they worship it... It can't hardly be taught in a--in a mixed audience like this. Because, the germ of life comes out of the male (you see?), and they think that "life lays in it, and Eternal Life, perpetual life, coming through the male, from one to another. We've always been here. We've always been." Same spirit, moving over and over, in people. You see? And therefore, they worship the man because out of him comes the germ of life.

170 Now, but, here it tells us, that before there was a man. Before. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God. And the Word made flesh..." Now, just about as far as the human mind can go, that's as far as we can go back now to "the beginning." Is that right? "In the beginning was the Word." But now, that's as far as we can go by theology. That's as far as we can go by our mind. But revelation carries us beyond that. Is that right?

Now, if you're teaching something on theology, you think, "'In the beginning was the Word,' that was God. 'And the Word was God,' that's right. 'And this same Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.' (See?) 'And then, God was made flesh. That's without controversy,' that's true. 'God was made flesh.' We believe that." But now, before This was Word...

What is a word? A word is the manifestation of a thought, is expression of a thought. Is that right? Before you say anything, subconsciously you think it before you speak it. Is that right?

173 So, "In the beginning was the Word," that's as far as we can go back by This, by theology. But before the Word was, It was a thought, and a thought was made manifest. You see what I mean?

Now, that's how that He said. First, He thought, and He spoke the Word, and the Word was made manifest. Oh, how infallible God is. Notice. Every thought when it's spoken...

175 When, Jesus, no wonder, when He come off of the hill that night, and looked around that tree, for food, there was no--there was no food on the tree. And He said, "No man eateth from thee." And He went on away. And the next day, coming back, the tree had withered. God's mind; the mind, that in the beginning, that was a thought before it was a Word, that expressed Jesus Christ, the same One was expressing that Word back again. See?

And every Word in the Bible is God's thoughts laid in seed form, that if received into the human being, and spoke by the same thought that materialized the Bible, brings the thing to pass. See what I mean? How powerful could the Church be? The Bible said, "Let this mind that was in Christ be in you. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." Now, your thoughts, if they become expression...

Like, God said, "Let there be a world." Before it could be a word, it had to be a thought. So God in the creation, created the world by His thought first, then exp--spoke it, and the thought, expressed became material. See what I mean?

178 Now, if that same Spirit that said, "Let there be Light," and there was Light, that said, "Let there be trees," and there was trees; and if that same mind that was in Christ be in you, how much could it say, "Let there be no cancer," and it would be gone; "Let the blind eyes be opened," and it would be so. See? It--it's your thought. Jesus said, "Verily..."

You said, "That was Jesus."

But wait a minute. He said, "Have faith in God. For verily, verily, I say unto you, if you shall say to this mountain, Be moved, plucked up and cast into the sea, and don't doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, you'll have whatever things thou sayest." Is that right? "You shall have it, not me, you shall have it." What power has been given to the Church, that...

180 Now, you can express it by mental conception, but if it becomes a real revelation of God, that you see it before it happened, and express it in word form, that word takes a hold and becomes material: a thought expressed. Oh, my, how God could... See? If your heart and your mind is so, and infilled with God's Spirit, until your thoughts become His thoughts... Amen. There you are. When your mind, and your leading, and your guiding, becomes a direct place, or a direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit that's moving your mortal being... Oh, my.

What kind of people should we be? If the very Holy Spirit has you so embodied or empowered, that you don't use your own thoughts, you don't use your own mind, you don't use your own opinion; but the Holy Spirit has you so built, until your thoughts and your being is God's Spirit expressing Itself through you, what kind of a church would we be?

What kind of a people would it be, this morning, if this Branham Tabernacle, this morning, was so filled with the Presence of God, why, when you didn't even use your own mind, didn't even use your own thoughts, didn't even have no alternative of your own, but just to be led by the Spirit...?

183 "And they that are sons of God are led by the Spirit of God." Then when the human element goes out, and the Spirit of God fills that vacancy, where you empty yourself (amen), then will be when the Church in Its power of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, will walk in His steps, in His Power, in His thoughts, in His Being, in His moving... You see what I mean? Then your thoughts will become words, and words will become material. That's when the Church in its power...

I believe it's on its road, that when the Church will be so wrapped in Christ, the Holy Spirit, mankind so away from theirselves, that they don't see themselves, they don't have no... [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]... thoughts but to serve God. And their thoughts move on. They refuse the things of the world. They just move in the Spirit, live in the Spirit, move in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, so fulfill the law of Christ. Then the love of Christ in the human heart, moving in the Holy Ghost, that great wonderful Church will go forth with power and Deity; because Deity will be revealed in human beings by the Holy Spirit bringing to pass the thought of their mind.

185 Our thoughts run different. A lot of times we walk up, say "How do you do, brother?" And you don't mean it in your heart. A lot of times we say, "I am this and that. I will do that." You don't mean it in your heart. See? I don't mean it in my heart.

But when you can become so dead to the things of the world, that Christ is first, Christ is all, then your entire makeup is of the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, He has full control. That's when your thoughts will be clean. Your thoughts will be pure. Your heart--your heart...

Many people say, "Well, religion comes from your heart." There's no mental faculties in that little being called "heart." You can't think with your heart. The Bible said, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." You can't think with your heart. You can't, 'cause there's nothing mentally in there to think with. Jesus wasn't speaking of the physical being; He was speaking of the supernatural being.

188 We are a threefold being: soul, body, spirit. We know that what this flesh is; we realize that; it's here. We know what the spirit is; it controls the flesh. But what is the soul? The soul is the nature of the spirit.

When a man is converted, it doesn't mean that... Here is a good, deep teaching. I hope you get it. Sometime ago... I was just telling some boys the other day.

190 A man sat on my porch, and he said, "Brother Branham, I was once a businessman. And I've spent years trying to get saved." And telling me all of his troubles. Said his wife went down and got the Spirit. And she couldn't... He couldn't get the Spirit.

I said, "What do you mean, brother?" And he told me where he was from, and expressed himself. He said... I said, "You're trying to get saved?"

He said, "Yes. I'm trying to get saved."

And I said, "The Lord wants..."

Said, "I believe I've crossed the line, Brother Branham, where you can't get saved."

I said, "Oh, I don't know."

193 He said, "Look, I went to Billy Graham's meetings, a great, famous preacher." And he is a wonderful man of God, doing a great work for God. And he said, "I went to his meetings, and he told, 'All that wants to be saved, raise up your hands.'" And said, "I raised my hand up, and went into an inquiry room." Said, "Then they told me, back there, I had to accept Jesus."

And said, "I got down and prayed. And he told me, 'Now, do you believe in Jesus Christ?' I said, 'Yes,' said, 'I accept Him as personal Saviour.' Said, he said, 'Now, you're saved.'" Said, "Nothing happened to me."

Said, "I went then for a couple of years, and I found the Free Methodist people, who said I had to get happy enough to shout." And he said, "They prayed over me, and everything, till I got happy enough to shout." Said, "They said, 'Now you got It. You got sanctification.'" Said, "I went out." And said, "I was searching for all I could." Said, "I still didn't have It."

195 Said, "I went to Brother Roberts' meetings, Oral Roberts." He said, "They went into the room and told me I had to receive the Holy Ghost, and I had to speak with tongues or I didn't have It." Said, "I went back in there, and they got... prayed over me, and--and told me to talk to the Lord." And--and said, "I--I spoke with tongues."

He said, "Brother Branham, I still ain't got It." He said, "I don't know what to do."

I said, "Now, my brother..."

He said, "I've been down to Shreveport, "The Voice Of Healing," and they told me that you was a prophet, to come up here and you'd be able to reveal to me, when the Spirit come on you, what was my trouble."

I said, "Brother, you don't have to be a prophet to do that. The Word of God settles that." I said, "It don't need prophecy."

199 I said, "My brother, the only thing, you're just confused." I said, "I want to ask you something. Did you always love the Lord Jesus?"

He said, "Well, I--I belonged to the Presbyterian church," but said, "I just went there."

I said, "Well, I want to ask you. What happened, what taken place, that you changed your mind all at once?"

He said, "Well, my wife, she went down to the Pentecostals," and said, "she got the Spirit." And said, "Then she come back up, and," said, "she was happy." And said...

I said, "What did you think about that? Did you criticize It?"

He said, "No." He said, "I just thought, 'Well, I will see how it lasts.'" And said, "It went on." Said, "She seemed to have It."

204 And he said, "One day, I was coming in from making a sale out in the yard, and I happened to reach in my pocket, and somebody had give me a little old tract." And said, "I sit down in the office and begin to read this tract." And said, "The awfullest feeling come over me, that I ought to get right with God." He said, "I've been searching ever since."

I said, "I want to ask you something? When this feeling come over you, you've never been able to get out of it?"

He said, "No, sir, I haven't."

I said, "Well, that's when you received Christ." I said, "It doesn't mean raising up your hands. That's all right. Speaking in tongues, that's all right." And I said, "Shouting, that's all right. But that's the attributes of Christ after He come in." I said, "To receive Christ is to receive the Person, Christ Jesus, to receive Him is Life." I said, "Shouting, speaking in tongues, and all demonstrations," I said, "that is attributes that follows This. But first, is to receive Christ."

207 He said, "Then, Brother Branham, I've been saved all the time?"

I said, "Sure. Look," I said, "Do you love Him?"

He said, "With all my heart."

I said, "One time you didn't love Him."

He said, "That's right."

"And now you love Him?"

He said, "Well, that's the truth."

"Well, you had Him all the time."

And he jumped off the porch, and begin crying, and holding me in his arms, and said, "O God, I've been a Christian all these years."

You see, the thing of it was, he wasn't straightened out in the beginning. Hallelujah.

210 What? You couldn't make a lamb out of a pig, if you had to. He's a pig to begin with; he tends to his own business, and tell the lamb to take care of his own business. The only way that you could make that pig believe that it's wrong to be in the pig pen, would put a lamb spirit in him. If he ever gets a lamb's soul in him... Or, a lamb ain't got no soul. But if he ever gets a lamb's spirit in him, the very nature of the thing... That's the reason you can't make, convert a pig; you can't convert a lamb, because he ain't got no soul. What he is in his spirit, he's got that same nature forever. See?

But a human being can be changed from a pig to a lamb, because he's got a soul made in the image of God. Amen.

212 Well, his thoughts changed. Something does it for him. Hallelujah. "As a man thinketh in his heart." See? Christ the Creator come to him in a still form, and created. His Own Spirit took the man's nature away, to love dancing, and the world, and carrying on, and from that time he just laid it aside and was hungering after God. And God was in him all the time. It was God in the beginning. See? There you are. Amen.

"As a man thinketh..." It has to become a thought before it can become a word. And a word expressed, materializes. I believe in my heart that I am a Christian, because I have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ; if I don't cry, if I don't move, if I don't do a thing. In my heart first, I believe that Christ died for me in my stead. Amen. I accept it as a Christian; I believe it as a Christian; then it's in my heart. Then I express it in a word, "I am a Christian." Hallelujah. Then I start walking as a Christian, talking as a Christian, living as a Christian, being as a Christian. And by my fruits I'm recognized by the world as a Christian. Hallelujah.

214 Say, I didn't aim to get that loud. But I... But there It is, God's Word. Jesus said... Here it is. Oh, just tell me when I'm long enough. But well, Jesus said this. Look, "In the beginning..." Notice. See, "A man, as he thinketh in his heart." Now, listen what Jesus said. We won't get...

215 Oh, if you'd only travel around and see the religions; and one has to do this, and one has to do that, and one has to do that. But, brethren, let's let this old tabernacle, one time, let's get straightened out forever.

We are Christians by the faith. Through grace of God, we are Christians. See? God in His infinite mercy, called us to be reconciled to Him through His Son, Christ Jesus. Settles it. Not what we done, what He did; He changed my soul from the things of the world unto the things of God, from horse races, and gambling, and adultery, and lying, and stealing. He changed my soul, changed my thoughts; and then my thoughts become so real till they become words in my lips; and they materialize, and now I am a Christian. It made me a different person. That's what made you. See?

217 Now, if you got a dull mind, and you don't believe It, "Yeah," you say, "well, I just wonder." You better watch out!

You say, "Well, brother, I--I had a good time." I don't care how much good time you had. Say, "Well, I have shouted." That's good, but that still don't mean it. Say, "I've spoke with tongues." That's good, but that--that still don't mean it. You say, "I've healed the sick." That still don't mean it.

Jesus said, "Many will come to me in that day, and say, Haven't I cast out devils in Your Name, done might things? He will say, Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity. I don't even know you." Yes, sir.

Paul said, "Though I speak with tongue, and men and angels, though I have faith to move mountains, though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and have not charity, I am nothing."

221 It's got to be a change (Here it is.), a change of the heart, not of this physical thing, but the heart of your soul. In something anchors, till your thoughts that way is dull; you don't see that no more. You just see the Lord Jesus. You see righteousness, and holiness, and purity, and love, and grace. That's when you've been changed. What is a convert? "Convert" means "to change something over." And your thoughts, your habits, your being, has been changed from a sinner to a Christian. First thing, you know it in your heart; then you express it with your lips; and then it materializes, and that's what you are.

Now, if you think that you think it (what a word!), but you imagine you think it, and you express it, and it doesn't materialize, then you're on the wrong road. You get it? Maybe I better let--talk a little slower. Look, if you imagine you're a Christian, and you speak it out with your lips, but you find out that you're not, you better get your thoughts changed, get your heart changed (See?), because it doesn't bear the record, it doesn't bear fruit of it. "But the fruit of the Spirit is gentleness, peace, long-suffering, goodness, mercy, faith." If every little thing comes along, and you fly up at it, better be careful. There's something hasn't happened. You're expressing something here, that's not here.

223 Jesus said to the Pharisees, "You hypocrites. How can you say good things?" That's what made them a hypocrite; they thought one thing in their heart, and expressed their lips with something else. A hypocrite is that. That's what makes a hypocrite. Said, "How can you, being hypocrites. For out of the abundance of the heart speaketh the mouth. You don't speak what you really think." And see what I mean? You must say what you think. If you don't think it, don't say it. See? Speak your words; let them be come from the bottom of your heart.

Like Jesus said of that tree, "No man eateth from thee." Why, there wasn't a--wasn't a shadow of doubt in His whole heart, what that tree would wither away. Why? His heart was coming from pure, from... It was the Spirit of God in Him, that was making Him that way, teaching those disciples a lesson. See what I mean? All right.

225 Then let that be pure. Let your thoughts run pure, and your expressions pure. Live pure and be pure. Now, out of your heart proceedeth evil thinking, adultery, and all these different things; if that comes out of your heart, that's what's in your heart. But if out of your heart comes righteous, peace, love, joy, oh, my, then it's coming from a resource here that's made up of that. See what I mean? It's made up of the Spirit of God here that's expressed Itself through the words, and what you say then will come to pass.

226 I will give you a little insight of something, how infallible God's Word is. Watch what you're saying. When God speaks anything, it has to be; I don't care how much different it looks. I've seen things, like in this very itinerary just now. I seen God do something, friends, that I thought was impossible for it to ever happen, but it happened. After I done seen the mistake of something that I made, was a mistake; was supposed to have done something. God told me go do it; got it wrote here in my pocket. And instead of doing that, I forgot about it, and turned around and done something else. And the grace of God whirled it right back and took it through, anyhow. Amen. It's got to happen.

227 Well, I believe, here in Saint John, I was just reading the other day, somewhere here, the same thing. About, let's see, that's the 12th. Yeah, here it is. Look, Saint John 12, and the 37th verse. Listen, 36, we begin.

While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of the light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and--and did hide himself from them.

Now, listen. Here it is. Now, watch this, real close. I got it marked here. I was reading it in... over in Bombay.

But though he--he had done so many miracles before them, (see?) yet they believed not on him:

229 No matter what had done, He performed miracles. Look at this nation; look at this people; look what signs and wonders has happened right here in this tabernacle. Look what things has been said, and what's been proved to be of God. Look. See? Proved of God, and, yet, the people in the city will laugh at It, make fun of It, say it's mental telepathy or something another. They don't understand. Listen here.

.. though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him:

That the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which... spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

Therefore they could not believe, because... Isaiah said this,

230 When God speaks anything, it's got to happen; for it's His thought first, then His Word is expressed. Then it's nothing... No matter what comes or goes, it's got to happen. Oh, can you see the infallibility of the Word? Oh, my.

He hath blinded their eyes, he has hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted and I should heal them.

Look. God, through His prophet, Isaiah, a man who had his ups-and-downs like we do, had his mistakes like we do, but God got that man so yielded, by being a prophet, that his words... God's thoughts (Hallelujah!), God's thoughts expressed through those mortal lips of Isaiah; a man with sin and things I have, with his ups-and-downs like I have, and like you have; but a yielded vessel to God, expressed the thought, God's thought through word. And no matter what they done, Isaiah's words had to be fulfilled, for it was God's thought expressed through Isaiah.

232 There you are. Hallelujah. O God. "Upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against It." Oh, my. When the world is no more, "Heavens and earth will pass away, but My Word shall never pass away." Why? He was expressing, in Word the thought of Almighty God. And when we by faith can accept that Word, it's got to become material. Oh, how it thrills my heart to think, "Thy Word, forever, in heaven, Lord, is confirmed." What God's thoughts is, He expresses them in Words, and here is the living Word of God.

Jesus said, "He that heareth My Words, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath Everlasting Life, and shall not come into condemnation; but has passed from death unto Life." Hallelujah!

234 Not "he that goes to church." Not "he that puts his name on the book." Not "he that professes." Not "he that shouts." Not "he that heals the sick." Not "he that opens the blinded eyes." Not "he that speaketh with tongues." Not "he that prophesies." "But he that heareth My Words, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath Everlasting Life, and shall never come into condemnation, but has already passed from death unto Life." Oh, brother, let that faith anchor one time in that heart, till them Words will be true before God. Then heavens and earth will shake and go away, but that eternal Word, that thought within your heart, that's expressed by God, can no more fail than Isaiah's words could fail.

There has been thousands looking at them miracles was done, and yet could not believe, because Isaiah had expressed it and said, "They will not believe It."

237 God's Word is eternal. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." God, in the beginning back there when He seen the world, He seen you and I here this morning. He seen my baby sitting back yonder. He seen every hungry person in India. He seen every preacher in the pulpit. He seen every hypocrite walking. He seen the whole thing. The infinite mind of God foresaw it.

And He said, "Now, to redeem that fallen race, I will send forth My Son, Christ Jesus." There was the Word. In the beginning, before it was a Word, it was a thought. Before, it was a thought; it was expressed in a word; and the Word become material and dwelt among us. Hallelujah. Ten million years, maybe, before the world was ever formed, God's thought seen His body tabernacled in flesh to take the sting out of death. Whew!

239 How eternal is the Word of God. Oh, times will change; years will come and go; aeons of time will pass away; but God's Word will remain forever. There it is.

"O Lord, let me hide Your Word in my heart, that I sin not against You. Let me meditate it day and night. Let me write Your commandments upon my bedpost. And let them always be--be before me. And, Lord, that I sin not in my heart against You. But let me walk in there." "There is therefore now no condemnation," Romans 8:1. Hallelujah. "There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, that walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Amen.

241 God's expressed thoughts into the human heart, moves right on, as the immortal God leads His subjects from place to place. And the Bible said, "The footsteps of the righteous man is ordered of the Lord." Oh, my. How new is the world? How long is Eternity? When we think of the Word of God expressed through the lips of a mortal being, yet so submissive to the Word of God...

He said, "Isaiah spoke of it. And they could not do it, because Isaiah had said it under inspiration."

243 That Jesus Christ, the Emmanuel here on earth, with all the Scriptures from everywhere... As He walked on the earth, He knew that He was going to raise up the third day. Why? Because David, under inspiration, said, "I will not leave His soul in hell; neither will I suffer my holy One to see corruption." He said, "Therefore my heart rejoiced and my flesh was made... hath made glad." When Jesus, under one word, unction, speak--spoke by God through a man that had his ups-and-downs, David. David said, "I will not leave His soul in hell; neither will I suffer My holy One to see corruption."

Jesus said, "Tear down this temple, and I will raise it up in three days." Hallelujah! He believed the immortal Word of God. Yes, sir. No matter...

"He didn't, He didn't say that," you say, "Well, you know, He died on Friday, and He raised up. What about 'three' days?"

Jesus knew in seventy-two hours comes mortal--comes corruption to the body. He knew, sometime between those three days, sometime in there, God was going to raise it up. Because David, under inspiration, said that He would raise it up. Hallelujah! One Scripture wrote on the Bible, He walked forward as a hero to death, knowing that God would keep His Word: what God thought, first, and then expressed. Hallelujah!

247 So today, I believe that that Lord Jesus that ascended up yonder on high is coming again in like manner, as you seen Him go. And He's coming for the redeemed that's born again, Blood-washed. "As He went away, so shall He come." It's expressed in the Bible. Kings may rise; difference may come, the thunder may stop the earth, famine, atomic bombs, and whatever it is. But, "Jesus the Son of God will come again in like manner as you seen Him go," for it's God's inspired Word that said so.

I truly believe that the God would heal the body of the sick, because he said, "He was wounded for my transgressions, bruised for our iniquity, the chastisement of our peace upon Him, and with His stripes we were healed." Let teachers, theology, whatever there might be raise up, seminaries rise and fall, but God's Word will move just the same. Yes, sir. God said so. And before God could say it, it had to be a thought. And God thought the whole thing through, and expressed it in His Words, and it had to materialize.

249 Not long ago, I was reading, or seen a place, where a girl was putting these dials on a watch, dipping it in the radium. And she happened to lick this, the brush to her tongue. It killed her. Years and years later, they dug up her skull; and they put their scopes in their ears, and things, and stuck it down in the skull. And you could hear that radium, "rutt-rutt-rutt." It has no end. It just keeps moving on and on and on and on. There is no end to radium. It keeps moving on. After years and years and years, and the skull was nothing but a white bone, the radium was still moving through there, because she dipped it into her mouth, a portion of it like that, and radium moves on.

How much more then will the eternal God, through His Godhead Being, and the spoken powers of His Word, when He speaks His Word. Times will change; people will change; nations will change; worlds will change; but that Word moves on and on forever and ever, 'cause it's God's thought before it was expressed. Hallelujah.

251 I love Him with all my heart. And after seeing the hundreds of religions of this world, I say, this morning, "On Christ the solid Rock, I will stand; all other grounds is sinking sand, All other grounds is sinking sand."

Shall we pray. Heavenly Father, oh, how happy I am this morning to know that Thy redeeming grace, Thy Son, has redeemed us from a life of sin. Oh, when I see my own body withering away, getting old, and turning gray and wrinkling up, yet I know that beyond this shadow here, yonder lays the body not made with hands. Yonder lays the immortal one, waiting; and that, someday, when the life is pulled from this body, it'll awake anew in His Presence yonder, to be with Him through the ages of time.

God, let every man and woman, this morning, that has this hope in them, purify themself from the things of the world. And these little old petty things that would drag them down, and keep them miserable, let them be happy Christians serving Thee. Grant these things, Father, through Jesus' Name, Thy Son. Amen.

254 I think I went just a little bit overtime for you, but my heart got carried away on His Word, on His Being. I come unprepared, not knowing I was going to speak; just happened to say these words. And I didn't get but one verse out of the Scripture, but maybe in a few Sundays we'll pick it up from there and go on, what the Word was.

255 Do you love Him? [The congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] Listen, my Christian friend. If there is an ought in your heart against anyone, go to them now and be reconciled. Forget all the past. And if you've been having an up-and-down life, remember, something has come into that heart, something has moved into those thoughts. No matter who your enemy is, love him. Love him. No matter what's happened, let it go. After all, you're in a field with weeds; we realize that; but we must both grow together. We've got to come up together.

For a good well cannot pour forth evil waters, neither can an evil well pour forth good waters. A tree cannot bring forth corrupt fruit and good fruit at the same time. So let's either make the whole well clean, or make the whole well dirty: one or the other. See? For it is dirty to begin with, so let's clean out the wells this morning, and say, "Lord, pour in Your Spirit, and lead me, O God, lead me."

257 For seeing how we... Going down into a--a Catholic church over there, down there in Rome, and they wanted to take me to what they call the Bone church. And their monks, for hundreds of years, they taken and put them in the ground, down in the church, and bury them. Every church is a graveyard nearly. And they get those fellows in there. And after they're in there so long, they go dig them up. After the flesh is rotted away into the dust, they dig them up.

And they've made a room, many, many times bigger than this, just out of human bones, how they made them and stacked them together. And on the corners, where you walk down like this, the skulls and everything. The light fixtures are made out of little pieces of the fingers and bones. The lights are made out of bones and everything. Nothing but just... And there's the graves of others rotting away. A sign thing and very striking, said, "One time we were as you, and sometime you'll be as we." That's right.

And only those who love God will ever have immortal Life. And that's true.

260 And I noticed there, were people coming through. Catholic religion is a whole lot on superstitions and things. Them skulls on monks there, had rubbed till they were white, some of them corroded over that deep. But the people were rubbing them, trying to get blessings and things like that, off the skulls of these monks. It only goes to show, it's a human being. It's a heart in there hungering for something.

Brother, the religion of Jesus Christ doesn't consist of rubbing dead men's bones. It believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, and accepting immortal Life. Oh, my.

262 But to think that it's true, one time those men were as we are here this morning. They had their opportunity, and we've got ours. What are you going to do with it?

Oh, make every ounce of it count for the Lord Jesus. Have no time for things of the world. "Lay aside every weight does easily beset you. Let's run this race with patience, that's set before us." Let's love the Lord Jesus.

Be kind to one another. Be kind to your enemies. Love everybody. No matter what they done, love them, anyhow. And if you can't do that, brother, sister, if there ever was a time then you need a...?... at the altar, it's then. When you can come back, create...

265 And I recognized the other day, a selfish spirit coming up in me of saying, "This man's wrong. I ought to tell him about it." That's wrong. God's the One to tell him about it. That's not... It's none of my business. But my business is preach the Gospel and love everybody, and move on and love my enemies, as Jesus Christ loved me when I was His enemy. That's right. When I was unlovely, He--He loved me to His bosom. And anybody that's unlovely, let me love them the same. Let the Spirit that was in Christ, be in us. Amen. I love Him. I love Him. Oh, my.

Covet not this world's vain riches,

That so rapidly decay,

Seek to gain those heavenly treasures,

They will never pass away!

Hold to God's unchanging hand!

Hold to God's unchanging hand!

Build your hopes on things eternal,

Hold to God's unchanging hand!

When my journey is completed,

If to God I have been true,

Fair and bright my home in glory,

My enraptured soul shall view!

So let's hold to God's unchanging hand!

Hold to God's unchanging hand!

Build your hopes on things eternal,

Hold to God's unchanging hand!

266 Is that the prayer of every man and woman, boy or girl in here today? God bless you, and may He keep you that way: humble in your spirit, soft in your soul, forgiving others, as Christ, for God's sake, forgive you. Be kind, generous, welcome.

267 Is there more activity, anything in the church, Brother Neville?

268 Listen, my dear Christian friend, as you journey from here, this morning. We haven't got much here to offer you in the way of materials, you strangers in our gates. We got a little, old tabernacle. We're a poor people, just as poor as we can be. We are--we are sorry that we can't have something a little better to here represent a--a welcome to the people. But, my brother, sister, on the inside this little walls here, that the structure is not so very much to look at, but you'll find a welcome for the Lord Jesus Christ. Come, worship with us, if you haven't a place to go. We got a lovely pastor here, some fine men here on the deacon boards, and so forth, some fine Christians. Come, find you a seat, and you'll always be welcome here at the Branham Tabernacle.

269 We only have one thing we can do: we love the Lord Jesus with all of our heart. We believe the Word to be the--this Bible to be the Word of God. We don't have any textbooks, just this Bible. We don't have no law here of this, that, of... Well, our law is love. Our creed is Christ. And we just love you with all of our hearts. Come back and be with us if you wish to. And we hope someday to see you in a better land, where we'll...

But on this time, let's go marching to Zion, if you will, while you stand to your feet. Teddy, would you come up here just a minute, son, right quick. We're...

Communion service tonight. Oh, I'm glad to be here for that. Listen, Jesus said, "He that eats My flesh and drinks My Blood has Everlasting Life, and I will raise him up at the last days." That Word's immortal. Is that right? All right.

272 All together now, let us sing "Marching To Zion." All right.

Come, we that love the Lord,

And let our joys be known,

Join in a song of sweet accord,

Join in a song of sweet accord,

And thus surround the throne,

And thus surround the throne. (Now, turn around and shake hands.)

We're marching to Zion,

A beautiful, beautiful Zion;

We're marching upward to Zion,

The beautiful city of God.

Oh, we're marching to Zion,

Beautiful, beautiful Zion;

We're marching upward to Zion,

That beautiful city of God.

273 Now, while we sing that chorus one more time, then our dismissing song. We're going to sing "Marching To Zion," one more time. Introduce yourself to the stranger. Tell him you're happy he's here. 'Cause church is hot, and we won't tarry long in the church going. Service is over now. We're just going to dismiss in a few minutes. Now, let's turn around and say, "I am Mr. Jones, and I'm glad to meet you. Come back in the tabernacle." Be friendly, smile, everybody. All right, now.

We're marching to... (Introduce yourself to the stranger, tell him to come back.)

... beautiful Zion;

We're marching upward to Zion,

That beautiful city of God.

274 Now, for the immortal song of the Branham Tabernacle, dismissing. How many remembers the old-time dismissing song?

Take the Name of Jesus with you,

Child of sorrow and of woe;

It will joy and comfort give you,

Take it, everywhere you go. (Oh, my! Everybody, together.)

Take the Name of Jesus with you,

Child of sorrow and of woe;

It will joy and comfort give you,

Take it everywhere you go.

O precious Name, O how sweet!

Hope of earth and joy of Heaven;

Precious Name, O how sweet!

Hope of earth and joy of Heaven.

Take the Name of Jesus with you,

As a shield from every snare;

When temptations 'round you gather,

Oh, breathe that holy Name in prayer.

O precious Name, O how sweet!

Hope of earth and joy of Heaven;

Precious Name (O precious Name), O how sweet!

Hope of earth and joy of Heaven.

Shall we bow our heads now in prayer. Pastor, come dismiss us, will you, my brother?