<TITLE>12. Par 35-37</TITLE>L-35 Here sometime ago I was called to a bed side. It was about ten years ago... to a... Well, it's been about twelve years ago now, to a dying boy, dying with black diphtheria. And the doctor wouldn't let me go in. He said, "I can't let you go in. You're a married man."
And the doctor was Catholic himself. And I said, "Now, if the priest came and this boy was dying in here and you knew and said he was going to die tonight, and you--would you let that priest go in?"
Said, "Certainly."
"Give him the last rites?"
"Yes, sir."
And I--I knew he would. My background is Catholic too. So I said... I--I--I knew he would do that. And I said, "Well, now if..."
He said, "Yes, but he's--he's not a married man. You got children. You'd pack this to children. You got two little children."
I said, "Yes, sir; that's true." But I said, "my faith in God..."
He said, "Get out." See?
And I said, "Well, now, look. That... I--I'm just as much to that boy in there, according to this father and mother standing here, as the priest would be to you if you were dying." See? I said, "Just as much. Our faith looks to God just the same way."

L-36 Finally, he dressed me up like a Ku Klux, and let me go in. So I--I went in to pray for the boy, and the boy was there, and a little nurse went over with us. And the old father and mother knelt across the other side of the bed. They had him, pulling this... like a... the air back and forth in him, and artificial respiration. And they said... they... I knelt down and prayed just a common little prayer, laid hands on the boy and said, "Lord, You promised that You would do this. This father and mother believes this. So I'm laying my hands upon the boy. And You said these signs shall follow them that believe: if they lay their hands on the sick they shall recover. Therefore, Lord, in my heart I believe that You keep Your Word, and so does this father and mother. It is finished, Father. Thank you."
Raised up. And the old dad grabbed the mother, and the mother grabbed the dad and begin to hug one another, and just cried, "Isn't it wonderful, honey? Isn't it wonderful?"
And the boy never made a move. He'd been unconscious two or three days. And said, "Oh, isn't it wonderful?"
And I said, "The Lord bless you all" and started to walk out. And the little... And I went on out. And they un... taking that all off me out there so I could go on.

L-37 So then, the little nurse come up; she said, "Mister." She said, "I just can't understand." She was just a girl. Said, "I can't understand." You see... Some kind of cardiogram something, that... Said, "If that ever drops down at a certain place," said, "all the history, it's never been known to ever rise again." And said, "The only thing's keeping that boy here... he's weakening all the time." Said, "He's just dying--just dying right now." And said, "When he... that man made that prayer for that baby... or that boy," said, (he's about twelve years old, fourteen) said, "You..." Said, "It didn't change him a bit." Said, "He's not changed one bit." And said, "That needle's still hanging right down here," and said, "he's just like he was." And said, "It never can come up no more, because it's down, and that's all."
And the old gentleman, you know, fatherly like, put his arms around the little nurse and he said, "Oh, my precious child." He said, "The Lord bless you, honey." He said, "I don't want to make fun of you, because... And I wouldn't disagree with what you're saying." He said, "But you see," said, "don't... you've been trained to believe that when that needle or hand or ever-what it is goes down there, that it can never come back again."


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