<TITLE>03. Par 21-28</TITLE>L-21 We used to sing a song here; I haven't heard it sang in a long time. Now, I can't sing and there's... I don't think there's any strangers with us. So I... That's the reason I try these little songs, you know, 'cause I just love it. And Gene, if you let this go through that tape out in the public... Used to sing a little song here...
Time is filled with swift translations.
Naught on earth amoved--unmoved can stand.
Build your hopes on things eternal,
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
How many ever heard the song? Oh, I love it, don't you? Let's try a verse of it.
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
Build your hopes on things eternal,
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
Let's try a verse.
When our journey is completed,
And to God we have been true,
Fair and bright your home in glory,
Your enraptured soul shall view!
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
Build your hopes on things eternal,
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
Let's stand now just a minute for prayer, if you will, while we raise one of our hands to God and sing that again.
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
Build your hopes on things eternal,
Hold to God's unchanging hand!
[Brother Branham hums--Ed.]
... vet not this world's vain riches,
That so rapidly decay,
Build your hopes on things eternal,
They will never pass away!

L-25 Heavenly Father, as we stand, Lord, oh, I just love to sing those old songs; they go way down deep into the inner parts of our heart and bring out the expression of our love to Thee, the living God. And as we raised our hands, Lord, this morning, it was a little memorial that "Hold our hands, Lord." I was telling about Billy Paul, how that he gripped onto my hand; he would've fell if it hadn't been I was holding him. And, O God, how many times would've we have fallen if You hadn't have held our hand. Thinking how that he, with no mother, as a little baby... And how that--how down through life, that the roads that he had taken, would've been killed long ago, but there was a great hand that could reach out where mine couldn't reach and take ahold. Now, we're so grateful for that.
So glad to know, Lord, that when we feel our soul separating from this body, that there's still a hand that we can reach out and take ahold of, will guide us over the river. We thank Thee for these things, this assurance, this blessful assurance that we have, a Anchor of the soul, that keeps us steady while we're walking over this journey or sailing life's solemn main.
And we pray, Father, that as the poet said, "The forlorn, and a shipwrecked brother, seeing our steadiness (on keel), seeing it, shall take heart again, or take courage again and try again," know that the all-sufficient God, if we stumble or fall, His great hand is there to help us; His grace is sufficient.

L-28 Now, we pray, God, that we will this morning start the new year off in hymns, and singing, and rejoicing, and knowing that God will guide us down through life's journey and over the river of death into that promised land. Our eyes look beyond Jordan's swelling streams this morning to where the fields of--of clover and the fields of evergreen is growing. And we pray, God, that our souls will catch that vision and never let it loose. Someday when we have to come down to that stream where she crosses, that, like Elijah of old, the robe of God will smite death's streams and we'll walk over without a fear. Grant it, Lord.
Help us as we approach Thy Word. O Lord, I pray that Your Holy Spirit will anoint these words. We are certainly insufficient to teach them, not being a teacher. We know that the only way that we'll be able to know it is for that great Master Teacher to come and take His--His place of abode in our hearts, and--and overpower our minds in such a way, and our thoughts, till we'll--He'll interpret the holy Scriptures to us. We're solemnly depending on that. Think of it, God.


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