<TITLE>05. Par 40-54</TITLE>L-40 And there, standing not over ten feet from me, stood a Man; white garment on, a little Fellow; had His arms folded like this; a beard, kind of short; hair down to His shoulders; and He was looking sideways from me, like that; peaceful-looking figure. But I couldn't understand it, how His feet, one just behind the other. And the wind blowing, His robe moving, sage blowing.

L-41 I thought, "Now, wait a minute." I bit myself. I said, "Now, I'm not asleep." And I pulled down, pulled a little piece of that sage off, you know, got it like a toothpick in it. I put it in my mouth. I looked back towards the house. I said, "No, I was in there praying for dad, and Something said come out here, and here stands this Man."

L-42   I thought, "That looks like the Lord Jesus." I thought, "I wonder if it is?" He was looking just exactly, directly towards where our house sets now. So I moved around this way to see if I could see Him. And I could see the side of His face like that. But He... I had to turn way around this way to see Him. And I said, "Uhm!" Never moved Him. And I thought, "I believe I'll call Him." And I said, "Jesus." And when He did, He looked around like that. That was all I remember, He just reached out His arms.

L-43 There's not an artist in the world could paint His picture, the characters of His face. The best I've ever seen is that Hofmann's Head of Christ at Thirty-Three, I've got it on all literature and everything I use. That's because that looks just like it, and so then... or pretty near, as close as it could be.

L-44 He looked like (a Man) if He'd speak the world would come to an end, and yet with so much love and kindness till you--you... I just pitched over. And at daylight, I found myself just in the break of day, pajama shirt soaking wet with tears, when I come to myself, walking, back through the broom sage field, home.

L-45   I told it to a minister friend of mine. He said, "Billy, That'll run you crazy." He said, "That's the Devil." And said, "Don't you fool with nothing like that." I was a Baptist minister at the time.

L-46 Well, I went over to another old friend of mine. I set down and told him about It. I said, "Brother, what do you think about That?"

L-47 He said, "Well, Billy, I'll tell you." He said, "I believe if you'd try to keep your life, just preach what's in the Bible here, the grace of God and so forth, I wouldn't go off after some fantastic thing, something like that."

L-48 I said, "Sir, I don't mean to go off after some fantastic thing." I said, "Only thing I'm trying to find out is what this is."

L-49 He said, "Billy, years ago they used to have those things in the churches. But," said, "when the apostles ceased, those things ceased with it." And said, "Now the only thing that we have that... any kind of seeing those things," said, "it's spiritualists, demons."
I said, "O Brother McKinney, you mean that?"
He said, "Yes, sir."
I said, "O God, have mercy on me!"

L-50 I said, "I--I... Oh, Brother McKinney, will you--will you join with me in prayer that God will never let it happen to me? You know I love Him and I don't want to be wrong in these things." I said, "You pray with me."

L-51 He said, "I will, Brother Billy." And so we had prayer right there in the--in the parsonage.

L-52 I asked several ministers. The same thing would come. Then I got scared to ask them, 'cause they'd be thinking I was a devil. So I--I didn't want to be like that. I knowed in my heart something happened. Now, that's all, there--there was something in my heart that happened. And I didn't want to be like that, never.

L-53   So later on in years, I heard one day down at the First Baptist church where I was a member at the time, I heard someone say, "Say, you ought to have went over and heard them holy-rollers last night."

L-54 And I thought, "Holy rollers?" And a friend of mine, Walt Johnson, bass singer, and I said, "What was that, Brother Walt?"
He said, "A bunch of these Pentecostals."
I said, "What?"


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