<TITLE>19. Par 165-179</TITLE>L-165   Oh, my! I had a little T-shirt on, and seersucker trousers, you know. And we Baptists believe you had to have a suit on, to get in the pulpit, you know. So... And I--I just set real still. And during the time... They had it up in the North then 'cause (their international convention) the colored people couldn't come to it if was in the South. They had the colored there, and I was a Southerner, had starch in my collar yet, you see, thought I was a little better than somebody else. And it happened to be that morning, set right down by me was a--a colored man. So I set and looked up at him. I thought, "Well, he's a brother."

L-166 And he said, "Anybody know the whereabouts of William Branham?" I scoots down in the seat like this. So he said, announced it the second time, said, "Anybody on the outside" (he pulled this little mike in) "know the whereabouts of William Branham? Tell him we want him on the platform for the morning message. He's a Baptist preacher from southern Indiana."

L-167   I just set real still and ducked down, you know. Nobody knowed me, anyhow. That colored boy looked over at me, said, "Do you know where he is?"

L-168 I thought. I--I either had to lie or do something. So I said, "Hold down here."
He said, "Yes, sir?"
I said, "I want to tell you something." I said, "I--I'm him."
He said, "Well, go on up there."

L-169 And I said, "No, I can't. See," I said, "I got on these little old seersucker trousers and this little T-shirt." I said, "I couldn't go up there."

L-170 He said, "Them people don't care how you dress. Go on up there."
I said, "No, no." I said, "Keep still, don't say nothing now."

L-171 And they come back to the phone a minute, said, "Anybody know the whereabouts of William Branham?"

L-172 He said, "Here he is! Here he is! Here he is!" Oh, my! There I got up with that little T-shirt on, you know. And here I...

L-173   He said, "Come on up, Mr. Branham, we want you to bring the message." Oh, my, before all them preachers, uhm, all them people! And I went slipping up, you know. My face red, and my ears burning. And I slipped up, seersucker trousers and T-shirt, preacher, Baptist preacher going up to the microphone, never seen one before, you see.

L-174 And I stood up there, I said, "Well, I--I--I don't know about this." I was fumbling, real nervous, you know. And--and I got over here around Luke 16, and I thought, "Well, now..." And I--I got on the subject, "And he lifted up his eyes in hell, and cried." And I got... So I--I begin to preach, you know, and I got to preaching and felt a little better. And I said, "The rich man was in hell, and he cried." That little three words, like I have a lot of sermons like that, "Believest Thou This," and "Speak To The Rock," you've heard me preach them. And I had, "And then he cried." And I said, "There's no children there, certainly not in hell. Then he cried." I said, "There's no flowers there. Then he cried. There's no God there. Then he cried. There's no Christ there. Then he cried." Then I cried. Something got a hold of me. My! Oh, my! After, I don't know what happened. When I kind of got to myself, I was standing on the outside. Them people got screaming and shouting and crying, and I, we had an awful time.

L-175   When I come outside there was a fellow walked up to me with a great big Texas hat on, big boots, walked up, said, "I'm Elder So-and-so." Preacher, cowboy boots, cowboy clothes on.
I thought, "Well, my seersucker trousers ain't so bad then."

L-176 Said, "I want you to come down to Texas and hold me a revival."

L-177 "Uh-huh, let me put that down, mister." And I put it down like that.

L-178 Here come a fellow up with one of these little, kind of a golf trousers on, where they used to play golf, you know, had them little blouse pants. He said, "I'm Elder So-and-so from Miami. I like to..."

L-179 "My, maybe dressing isn't so much of it." I looked at it, and I thought, "All right."


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