<TITLE>05. Par 17-19</TITLE>L-17 Notice. Then I seen that woman--that girl smoking a cigarette. That got me. And to beat it all, she said, "Have a smoke, Billy."
I said, "No, ma'am. I don't smoke."
She said, "Now, you said you didn't go to dances, and you didn't... Now, you don't smoke." Said, "You didn't drink. What do you do?"
I said, "I like to go fishing, hunting." 'Course, that didn't interest her. She said--she said, "Why you big sissy."
Oh, my. The woman called me a sissy. I--I said, "Hand me that cigarette."
And she gave me one. She said, "That's like a man."
I wanted to be a man, so I took a cigarette and struck the match like that, and I started up to my mouth. Heard something go, whew [Brother Branham illustrates--Ed.] And I seen... I was determined. I believe if I had got that cigarette in my mouth, I'd have fainted. [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]
Out of the car. And they turned the lights on me. And I went up the road and they... crying. And them behind me, teasing me... And I went up in the field and laid down there in a bunch of hay, and set there and cried and cried, and asked to die and everything else. I didn't want to be a big sissy. But It was God protecting His gift. See? That's right.
Then on down through life, the things, friend, would take hours to go into it. I'll try to get to it next Sunday, the Lord willing.

L-18 But It appeared down there on the Ohio River before nearly ten thousand people while I was baptizing in August. I was baptizing some fi--five hundred, I guess, that afternoon. Hundreds of them was standing, and the choir singing, On Jordan's Stormy Banks I Stand. Was about two o'clock. We hadn't had rain for about two weeks.
I had my seventeenth candidate I was taking out in the water. And I raised up, and I asked him if he believed. He had. He would been repented at the meeting? Yes. I raised up my hand, I said, "Father, as I baptize this boy with water, may You baptize him with the Holy Spirit."
And as I started, Something went, whew [Brother Branham illustrates--Ed.] I looked up. I heard a Voice. Said, "Look up." Thousands standing all over the bank on the Ohio River facing Louisville. Paper carried a big article of it.

L-19 And I looked, coming right down out of the heavens, out of a place about as big as this platform, where the blue skies churning like waters... Coming right down out of there came a big thing, like a star, whirling around, going, whew [Brother Branham illustrates--Ed.], coming right down visibly before the eyes. Moved right down, looked like a star at a distance. When it got close, It looked like a milling fire of Light, moving right down and stood over where I was. Then went right back up into the heavens again. The waters let up.
I've often wondered if that wasn't the Angel that was on the waters (See?)...?... Bethesda, you know. Went away...
And papers carried a big article, "Mysterious Star Appears Over Minister While Baptizing." And on down, It kept coming.


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