<TITLE>03. Par 8-10</TITLE>L-8 And so, I went, told the old deacon of the church, I said, "Go, get my hat, Uncle Jim." We didn't have a collection plate or nothing, never had one in the church. I said, "Go get my hat, I'm going to take an offering." I said, "Folks, I'm at a little hard place, I... If you've got a few cents that you'd throw into the collection plate, I--I've got an obligation of about five dollars, and I--I can't make it." I said, "If you'd help me, I'd appreciate it."
And Uncle Jim went to get my hat. There was a little old woman used to set in front of me; she had on one of those aprons that had the pocket on the inside. Did you ever see one? Sure, you southern mothers. My old grandmother used to pack a little old cane pipe in there; she'd get down and put it in her pocket like that. How many's ever seen one of those little old--I believe it was chalk, or something or other, pipe was made out of, and had the long cane, that the old grandma's used to smoke? Mine did. She wouldn't want one of the--none of the men to see her smoke, so she'd hide it in that underneath pocket, where she'd carried her tobacco. She'd hold it under there, and talk to the man like that, and that old pipe look like it'd burn her finger up. And so she would...

L-9 And this little old woman had one of those little aprons, and she reached down there, and got one of those little old pocketbooks that snaps on the top, begin to reach down there for a few nickels. Brother, I couldn't have took that. Why, that'd have haunted me all my life. "Oh," I said, "I was just teasing you; I didn't mean that."
The old fellow, standing there with the hat in his hand, he said, "What must I do, Brother Branham?"
I said, "I--I was just teasing to see what you'd do. Hang up my hat."
And there was an old man, used to ride a bicycle, from Dowagiac, Michigan, by the name of Ryan--old Brother Ryan. If I'd ask tonight, perhaps many of you knew him--good friend of mine. He rode an old bicycle down there. And I used to say it backslid, but it didn't backslide, it was wore out. And he--he left it for me, and I went up to the ten-cent store, and got two cans of paint, and painted it two different colors, and put a sign on it, "For sale for five dollars," sold the old bicycle, didn't have to take up an offering after all.
That's the closest I ever come to taking an offering in my life. So when you put in a portion of your living, by God's help and His grace, I promise you, the best of my knowledge, it'll go for the kingdom of God. Everything...

L-10 I've got three children, wife, widowed mother, mother-in-law that's a widow, great obligations, the office and so forth. I send out thousands of prayer cloths a week, around the world, and we have ten different offices, in ten foreign nations that operates through this one little place. And then, people, if they didn't send in offerings to me, out of the mail, I'm going to have to fold up, right then, that's all. 'Cause I--I just couldn't make it, because my obligation's a hundred dollars a day, and I... In the last year, I spent the last six months, constantly on the field; each campaign has put me back two or three hundred dollars behind, each time, on the campaign. So you see what I--what I mean.


<A HREF="P4">Next Page</A>