<TITLE>18. Par 157-164</TITLE>L-157   And, that day, they'd had fine, young preachers out there, and they had preached powerfully. And then they said, "The one's going to bring the message tonight is..." I believe they called him, "Elder." And their ministers, instead of "Reverend," it was "Elder." And they brought an old colored man out there, and he had one of these old-fashioned preacher's coats. I don't guess you ever seen one. Long pigeon-tail in the back, you know, with a velvet collar, and he had just a little white rim of hair around his head. Poor old fellow, he come out like this, you know. And he stood there and he turned around. And where all the preachers had been preaching about Jesus and the great... how great He was, and so forth, that old man took his text from over in Job. "Where was you when I laid the foundation of the world, or when the morning stars sang together and the Sons of God shouted for joy?"

L-158 And the poor old fellow, I thought, "Why didn't they put some of them young fellows up there to preach?" Great... the place was packed and jammed. And I thought, "Why didn't they do that?"

L-159   So then this old fellow, instead of preaching what was going on down here on earth, he begin to preach what was going on in Heaven all the time. Well, he took Him up at the beginning at the beginning of time, and brought Him back in the Second Coming down the horizontal rainbow. Why, I never heard such preaching in my life! About that time the Spirit hit him, he jumped about that high and clicked his heels together, throwed his shoulders back and went tipping off that platform, said, "You haven't got room enough up here for me to preach." And he had more room than I got here.

L-160 I thought, "If That'll make an old man act like that, what would It do if It got on me?" I--I thought, "Maybe I need some of That." Why, he come out here, I felt so sorry for the old fellow. But, when he left, I was feeling sorry for myself. And I looked at him go off there.

L-161   I went out that night, and I thought, "Now, the next morning I'm not going to let nobody know where, who I am." So I went, and that night I pressed my trousers. I took the... went out in the corn field to sleep, and I went down and bought me some stale rolls. You... I bought a whole bunch of them for a nickel. There was a hydrant down there, I got some water. So I knowed that would last me a little while, so I got me some water and drank it, and went and eat my rolls. And come back and got another drink of water. Went out in the corn field, took the two seats and laid my little seersucker trousers in there, pressed them on the seat.

L-162 And, that night, I prayed pretty near all night. I said, "Lord, what is this I got into? I never seen such religious people in my life." And I said, "Help me to know what this is all about."

L-163   And the next morning I got down there. Invited us for breakfast. Course, I wouldn't come eat with them, because I had nothing to put in the offering. And I just went back. And the next morning when I went in, why (I eat some of my rolls), and set down. And they was got on a microphone. And I had never seen a microphone before, and I was scared of that thing. So they... And it had a little string hanging up here, and it hanging down. One of them drop mikes, like. And he said, "Last night, on the platform, there was a young preacher here, a Baptist."
I thought, "Uh-oh, I'm good for a working-over now."

L-164 And he said, "He was the youngest preacher on the platform. His name was Branham. Does anybody know any whereabouts of him? Tell him to come on, we want him to bring the morning message."


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