<TITLE>23. Par -</TITLE>L-37-3 One day she staggered in up here (one night) to the meeting. There she fell down at the altar, little Nellie; bless her heart. She just laid there at the altar; she raised up her head, and she cried and the tears run down her cheeks, she said, "Billy..." (She knew me.) She said, "I want to be saved so bad."
I said, "Nellie, you can be saved; Jesus already saved you, girl. You have to accept it now upon the basis of His Word." And she stayed there, and she cried, and she prayed, and she told God she'd never listen to the things of the world again. All at once a lovely, sweet peace come over her soul. She raised up from there shouting and praising God, glorifying God.

L-37-5 And about six or eight months after that, she was coming down Spring Street one night (Now just a young girl, she was just in her teen-age, about eighteen years old.), and she come to me, and she said, "Hope..." (That was my wife, the one that's gone on.) She said, "I wished I looked like Hope and Irene." She said, "You know, they never did get out in the world." Said, "The world puts a mark on you." Said, "I got a rough look." Said, "Now, I quit wearing makeup and stuff, but I look so rough. Even my cast of my face," she said, "I look rough." She said, "They look so innocent and tender." Said, "I wish I'd have never done that."
I said, "Nellie, the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin, Honey. Go on, believe it."

L-38-1 Wayne Bledsoe (many of you know him here, a bosom friend of mine years and years), he was a drinker, and be come up here with my brother Edward. And he got drunk down here in the street, and I picked him up, 'cause cops was going to get him. And I brought him up here; and I was a preacher and lived up here at my mama and papa's way 'fore I was married. And I took him, put him in the bed in there; I sleep--slept on the Duofold. There's a big bunch of Branhams, you know (ten of us), and so we had about four rooms, and we had to kinda double up a little. So I had an old Duofold I slept on, and I pulled it out like this and--and put Wayne to bed with me, drunk. Had to pack him in the house and lay him down. And I was laying there, I said, "Wayne, aren't you ashamed of yourself and like that?"

L-38-2 He, "Uh, duh, Billy, don't talk to me like that." You know? [Brother Branham imitates a drunk speaking--Ed.] I put my hand over and I said, "I'm going to pray for you, Wayne. God bless you."
And I'd been saved about, oh, I guess about, maybe a year. And so then all at once a--a cab, slammed the door outside, and somebody knocked on the door hard, "Brother Bill. Brother Bill." [Brother Branham knocks on pulpit--Ed.]
I thought, "My goodness, somebody must be dying." I jumped up to the door, grabbed my old thing there, throwed it around my pajamas like this, and covered Wayne up, and run to the door. It sounded just like a woman. I opened the door, and this young girl standing at the door, she said, "Oh, can I come in?"
I said, "Come in," and I turned the lights on and...
Now, she was just crying like that, and she said, "Oh, Bill--Billy, I'm--I'm--I'm gone, I'm gone."


<A HREF="P24">Next Page</A>