<TITLE>12. Par 42-45</TITLE>L-42 I started again, I couldn't do it. So I turned and went walking this way. Something said, "Just keep walking." On I went, walking on down. First thing you know, I come over into the side of the river part there. I found myself down in a little colored district, bunch of little shanties. Oh, the sun was high. I looked at my watch. Why, it was already seven-thirty, and I was then good two miles from the hotel. But Something just kept saying, "Walk."
And I started singing that little song that you Pentecostal people sing,
People almost everywhere whose hearts are all aflame,
With the power that fell on Pentecost
That cleansed and made them clean.
Oh, it's burning now within my heart.
Oh, glory to His Name.
I'm so glad that I can say I'm one of them.
You know that song. And I just heard them singing it, and I was humming it.
And I looked at a little old shack there, and a leaning across the gate was a very typical old Aunt Jemima. She had a man's shirt tied around her head, great big fat cheeks. I was about forty yards from her. I was humming that song, and I just quit humming it, passed on by, not knowing... Oh, it was a beautiful morning. After the storm, the roses, and the honeysuckles, the fragrance was just--just bursting into the air. And I was singing in the Spirit as I moved along.

L-43 And this old colored woman, when I passed by, she said, "Good mornin,' Parson." Now, a minister in the south is a parson.
I turned and looked at her; I said, "Good morning, Auntie." And the tears was a running down them big, black, fat cheeks, and she was kindly smiling. I said, "How did you know I was a parson?"
She said, "I knowed you was coming."
And I said, "How did you know it, Auntie?"
And she said, "Did you ever read in the Bible about the Shunammite woman?"
I said, "Yes, ma'am, I have."
She said, "I's was that kind of woman. I had no children." Said, "I's a wash woman." And she said, "I promised de Lawd if He would give me a child, I would raise it for His glory." And she said, "I's been a Christian since I was a little baby girl."
She looked to be in her late fifties or sixty. And she said, "The Lord give me a fine boy." She said, "And, parson, he got out in wrong company, and he took a bad disease (syphilis), and his blood was four-plus, the doctor man said. And there was nothing could be done for him."

L-44 And said, "He's in the room, dying." Said, "The doctor man left day before yesterday. He was unconscious, said he would never gain conscious again." She said, "Parson, I--I just couldn't stand to see my baby die in that condition."
Said, "I prayed to the Lord all night before last, all last night, and along about two o'clock this morning," said, "I fell asleep. And I dreamed that I was talking to the Lord. She said, 'Lord, You gave me the baby like You did the Shunammite woman, but where is that Elisha?'"

L-45 And said, "I... The Lord told me 'Look,' and I seen a man coming, wearing a tan suit and a little tan hat." And said, "It was you, parson. And I's been standing here at this gate before daylight waiting for you to come." God works on both ends of the line.
I said, "Auntie, my name is Branham. Did you ever hear of me?"
She said, "No, sir, Parson Branham, I never did hear you."
I said, "I pray for the sick."
"No, sir. I never did hear from you."
And she wasn't interested about praying for the sick. She didn't want her boy to die in that shape. So I went in, with an old chain hanging on the gate with a plow point for a weight to pull the gate back, little old whitewash cabin, clapboard shingles, splits on the side... Doubt whether anybody here knows what that is or not.


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