The Masterpiece

Let's bow our heads now for prayer. While our heads and hearts are bowed before God, I wonder how many in here has a request that they'd like God to remember by just lifting up your hands? Now, hold your request in your heart now as we pray.

Lord Jesus, Thou the fountain, inexhaustible fountain of life, flow through us today, Lord, and cleanse us from all unbelief and all sin, that we might stand in thy presence now, knowing that there is need among us, that.... We know that we are sinners and not worthy of any blessing. But then, when we think of Him who came and took our sins, then when his blood's there, it's not us in the presence of God, it's Him—just our voice through his blood; his blood speaking. Oh, God, then cleanse our hearts from sin and unbelief.

Give to us the desires of our heart, for we truly have these desires to serve you. In these weakening conditions and afflictions and things of the world that's put upon us sometime to perfect us.... We've been told that, that He said, “Think it not strange that these trials come.” They're only working out for our good and to perfect us and bring us into that place. These great deserts of experience, where righteous men are molded into saints, we thank Thee for these experiences, Lord. We would no mean—no wise want to do anything contrary to your will; but we pray, Father, that in this we'll be brought closer to you.

And when the burdens are so heavy we can't go no farther, then we raise our hands and scream to our Father. Then hear from heaven, Lord. Heal us. Make us well for the kingdom of God's sake.

Bless thy Word this morning, Lord. Thy Word is the truth.

And we've assembled here now in the church. We pray for Brother Neville, and for Brother Capps, and Brother Collins, and all the rest of the ministers, and the trustees, deacons, and all the laity, and the strangers in our gates. May this be a day that we'll long remember because of your presence.

We're here under great expectation this morning, Lord. Just momentarily notice, called together. We feel that it's for a purpose. May your purpose be achieved, Lord. For we ask it in Jesus' name, as we submit ourselves. Amen.

It's grand to be here and to be assembled with this church full of people. I wasn't expecting to be—hardly anyone here this morning, because I didn't hardly know myself I was going to be here.

We just got in from Philadelphia. And so I come in thinking I was going to have to go to Arizona right quick for—have a funeral service for a friend of mine, Captain Jim Moseley, a very precious, godly boy I led to Christ not long ago, the three Moseley brothers. And one of them fell and was ... in the plane the other day and was killed instantly. Laid in the fire for ten hours before they got to him. So leave ... is twenty-eighty years old, his wife twenty-six, and leaves three little children—the oldest seven. Very sad. And they ... when they got him in, then they had to bury him the next day. So I just—I didn't get to go. And I just wrote out—or sent by telegram what I was going to say, or what I would've said at Brother Moseley's funeral. Some of these things we can't understand, but yet He makes everything work just right.

We're here in service of the Lord this morning, knowing that we believe God, that we believe that He'll make everything just exactly right. Regardless of what it is and how it works out, we know it's got to work for good. He promised that. It's just got to be that way. Sometimes we can't understand that, gets very complicated at times, but yet we know it is the truth, 'cause the Bible says it's the truth. And the Bible to us is God in letter form.

Now, we've got to place our faith somewhere. And if I—any of us in life tried to make a success in life and become many times a multimillionaire.... But what are we going to do with that? We got to come down at the end of the road and what good is it to us then? See? And money is a script, it's an exchange; but you can't exchange it for life. Only God has life.

So we realize that we're here in a negative form. And as long as there is a negative, there has to be a positive. There cannot be a negative without a positive, see, because it's because of the positive that makes the negative. Like you had a negative picture of some object. There has to be an object somewhere to strike ... the light strike that lens or there wouldn't be any negative. So when we see that our life here is in the negative and knowing that we're in the image of some life somewhere, then we know that there is a positive somewhere that the light has struck, and it's reflected something here on earth. And we are only that reflection. The genuine object is somewhere. If that isn't, I'm the worst deceived man in the world; I've spent my life in vain. But I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it's there! See? That's why we're here.

When I see you people come across the country on a few moments notice, and sometime presuming, then it makes me feel real little when I come into a meeting like this, to think that I know people here has traveled for hundreds of miles just to be here for a few minutes of service, just to sit here.

Some woman just made a remark, come in the other day and said, “Show me where the man has walked, and let me walk behind him upon the ground,” said, “I'll get well.” Now, the people believes you like that, and you're a representative of Christ, then what should we do? We should be very careful, because you're not only destroying yourself with wrong, you're destroying others who are following you.

So I know no denomination or other to take you to. There's only one thing I have my faith in if you believe me, follow what I tell you, because I believe the Bible, that's the Word of God. Other things fail. He is life. He is the Word.

Now, I know that you ... when I come here I keep you long. I pray to God when I felt like I wanted to come here today ... I've had so many interviews, and calls, and so forth; I had to meet some of them this morning. And I said, “Well, Brother Neville will no doubt ask me to speak.” That was Friday. And I said, “Brother Neville will probably ask me to speak. And when I do, then I pray, God ... it's so hot, been so hot. And He was good to send us a rain and break the real extreme heat and give us a good morning this morning. I pray that his goodness will shower each one of you all that you'll ever remember being here this morning. May his grace and blessings be upon you.

Last night I visited a friend that's sick, Brother Bill Dauch. I don't see him here this morning. Somehow I.... Oh, here he is. Yeah. And I was thinking: “An old man of ninety-one years old and still storming across the country, through the deserts, and over the snowy mountains, the slick roads. He don't have to do that. God has been good to him; he don't have to do that. He could sit home and have servants a-fanning him if he wanted to.” But something happened to Bill Dauch; He was born again. And when it was, something come into his heart, that all he lives for is to attend these services. And then, if I'm to be the mouthpiece of God, would I deceive a friend? I'd rather die. Then let me tell him exactly what's the Truth out of this Bible. Then that's God's Word. I'm just repeating what He said.

Now, I want to read some out of the Bible.

Before we read, I'd like to say that I believe tonight is the communion night. And you who are here locally (course the other people probably will be going back to their homes, because they have to go to work)—you who are locally here in the assembly, remember, the brethren will be giving communion tonight.

Now, I'm waiting for the final call for Africa. They won't let me in as a missionary. So the only way I can go in, down.... I'm going to Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika. And the only way I can go in ... first, the churches won't let you in, because they want me to preach something on this side and that side, down in Africa. And I won't go in like that. I wouldn't be hypocrite enough to do that. So I either tell them, “No sir, I'll just preach just what God puts on my heart and that's all.” See? And I'm sure it won't be what they're trying to get me to teach. So ... triune baptisms, and so forth like that, and fussing with them. No!

But I've been asked to a big convention by Brother Boze, He's just on the verge of coming to seeing some daylight of what we believe. And so I've asked to come in like I was going on a hunting trip. If they'll let me in, like going in hunting.... If I can get somebody to say they'd take me hunting, then when I get in there, the doctor's there at the embassy is a personal friend of mine out of Chicago—and as soon as I get in there, he'll say, “Well, here's Brother Branham over here. Let's have a meeting. So after I'm there the embassy can't turn me down. If they.... So they're trying to work it through now. So I trust that.... If it's God's will it'll work out that way, see. It's just committed to Him. If not, then I'll notify you.

I want....

If it be the will of God then, I want to speak on the Seven Trumpets. And that'll be about a eight day service. And we won't be here at the tabernacle; perhaps we'll try to get an auditorium here.

Now, I never thought of this new auditorium just being built up here. It's exactly where I saw Jesus the first time in vision out—the auditorium's built right over the same spot. I went right there the other day to look, when I looked and seen Him looking towards the east (you remember hearing me tell it), when I was out there praying for my father, a little boy, just a boy preacher. That's where I saw Him, step, looking at Him. He had his head turned sideways from me, I kept walking out, clearing my throat, in a broom sage field. And I kept watching, and He never did turn around. I called his name, Jesus, and He turned around, held his arms out. And that's all I remembered until daylight. And so I come back out of the field along towards daylight. So maybe the Lord will let me preach those Trumpets there. Wherever it is, God's will be done.

Turn in your Bibles now to Isaiah the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. Now, we trust that God will bless our feeble efforts of coming together this morning. We just come down from Philadelphia, where I was at the Full Gospel Businessmen's convention. And listening to their different testimonies and so forth up there....

Then I.... On the road down I was ... Billy Paul, and I, and Rebekah, and little Collins' girl, little Betty Collins.... And Billy is a very good sleeper, and Becky's better. And so I ... Betty and I talked. And she was sitting back with Becky in the back seat. And I seen something on the road happen. And when I did something struck me. And Betty, if she's here, she noticed I quit talking and started writing something down. That's where I got this text for this morning.

Now, let us stand to our feet if we.... Now, we stand in honor of God's Word, as I read Isaiah the 53rd chapter:

Who has believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? (Notice, it's a question to begin with.)

For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of ... dry ground: he has no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there's no beauty that we should desire him.

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrow, ... acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he hath borne our grief, and has carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we were healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and ... was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers ... dumb, so he opened not his mouth.

He was taken from prison and from judgment; and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgressions of my people he was stricken.

And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he has done no violence, neither was there deceit in his mouth.

Yet is pleased the Lord to bruise him; he ... put him to grief: when thou shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, and he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

And he shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall many righteous servants be justified ... many; for he shall bear their iniquity.

Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great, and ... shall divide the spoils with the strong; because he has poured out his soul unto death: and ... was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sins of many, and made intercessions for the transgressors.

Father God, thy Word is a lamp, the light that lights the path of every believer into the presence of God, as it carries us like a lantern in our hand. You've not provided enough that we should see the end from the beginning, and ... but I walk with faith. But as a man would travel through a dark forest at night (and that's where we are), the light that he holds only provides step by step. But the path, though leading upward, just walk with the light. And may the light shine today upon the Word to lead us one step farther to the kingdom of God. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Be seated.

The subject that I feel to speak to the congregation today is “The Masterpiece.” It may seem rather strange to take a Scripture reading like this of a ... of one of the most bruised and murderous pictures of the Bible, that when the Bible says that this perfect servant that was afflicted, and bruised, and torn, and yet take a text from that as Masterpiece. Very strange.

But I ... my mind is thinking this morning as we journey back I do for a few years. I was invited up to Forest Lawn in California above Los Angeles. My first purpose for going up there was to visit the grave of Aimee Semple McPherson, the founder of the Foursquare movement. And I went to her tomb. And although I differ with the woman as a minister, but yet in my heart I give admiration and a respect for what she stood for in the hour and the persecution and things she had to go through with in time of her being here on the earth. And then, for her beloved son, which is a bosom friend of mine, Rolf McPherson.

And a group of ministers, we went up there. And they—we didn't have time to go into the place where they have the cremation and put the bodies in a little box on the side of the wall.

And in there they had some outstanding things such as the Last Supper. And it's lighted by the actual light of the sun. And they have a shutter that it gives them.... When they go in, it's light; and then as they begin to speak it darkens up. And after awhile it all becomes dark. And then the people go out.

And they have all the Supper....

And the woman that held the secret of how to beat this glass into this place, why, make these pictures, why, it come through a family from many years back. And the art was just given to the children, and the last one was a woman. And they was fixing this picture. And when they went to mold and burn the glass, bake it, of Judas Iscariot, it busted. So then, they tried it again. And it busted again. And she said, “Maybe our Lord doesn't want his enemy picture by his side.” And said, “If it bursts again, we'll not complete the picture.” But it held that time. Then.... Of course that was a striking thing, and how that such things would happen.

But then, one of the main things that interests me in Forest Lawn was Michelangelo's, the great sculpture, the monument of Moses. It's a reproduction there, or course. It isn't the original. But it was such a great masterpiece. And as I stood and looked at it, I liked that, something that looks like it's ... represents, got something to it.

I like art real well. I believe God is in art. I believe God is in music. I believe God is in nature. God's everywhere. And anything that's contrary to the original is a perversion. God is in dancing, not the kind of dancing you do here, but when the sons and daughters of God are in the Spirit of God, see, that's dancing. But like I had to contend with till two o'clock this morning up there in the lane, that's the perversion of it.

But this masterpiece that Michelangelo had made, it cost him something to do that. That ... he was a great man. And it cost a big part of his life, because he was many, many years in carving out ... just take a rock of marble and keep carving it. And to see ... only the man, the sculptor himself, has in his mind what he's trying to do; he's the one. You might walk up and say to him, “What are you pecking on that rock for?” To the outsider who doesn't know what's in his heart, it's nonsense. But to the man, the sculptor himself, he's got a vision in his mind, what's he's trying to make, and he's trying to reproduce what he has on his mind in the form of a monument. And that's the reason he's digging it out of the rocks.

And this to do, you have to start off right at the beginning, and you have to follow the pattern. See? You can't get a little piece to start off: “We'll make it this way. No, I believe....” No, he's got to have a exact pattern. And in his mind he's got that pattern. And he cannot vary from that pattern. Now, in order to do this he had to draw in his mind, because we have no real pictures of Moses—but he had to get a mental picture in his mind of exactly what Moses was.

Now, a genuine sculptor is inspired, like a genuine poet or any genuine singer, musician, whatever it might be. All real has to come by inspiration. Michelangelo must have had the inspiration of what Moses really looked like, and he caught it in his mind what Moses must have been. So he set forth on this great piece of marble to cutting to the pattern, and bringing down, and honing down, until he got to the real picture of what it must have been in his mind.

And then when he got it all so perfect, every corner off, and every place rubbed, and the eyes just right, and every hair and beard, all just the way it was, he stood off and looked at it. I think of many, many hard years of labor, and how he had to hold that same vision all the time in his mind of what he was going to do. And just think, that vision on his mind for so many years, to make it look just exactly to what it was—he caught the vision first—and how he had to work to that vision, cutting off and making down.... And when he got it to where he perfected it, till it really got perfect, he stood and looked at it when he finished up that morning, with a hammer in his hand. And he was so inspired when he looked at it, because the vision of his mind was standing before him in reality. What he had seen and his conception of what Moses was, there it was figured before him, what he'd had in his heart all these years. And toils, and hours of sorrow, and distress, and critics, and everything else, but yet he stayed right with the vision until it was completed.

And then when it was completed, he stood back with the hammer, sculptor's hammer, in his hand, and he looked at that monument. And the inspiration of the vision, that he'd seen of how to do it, inspired him so much till he—the inspiration struck him till he got beside himself and struck it across the knee and said, “Speak!”

And now there's a flaw on that great image, on the knee, on the right knee. Just above the knee about six inches is the place. I put my hand on it, about that deep.

After he had spent all that time, for years and years to make this, then under the influence of seeing fulfilled what he had seen in his heart and in his vision, and desired to see, it was completed. And when it was completed, he was so inspired by it till he thought his own masterpiece should speak back to him. And he struck it across the leg and hollered, “Speak!” And it made a flaw on it. It put a flaw on the image.

To me, the flaw was what made it the masterpiece. Now, maybe to the mind that might think different, you think that spoiled it. No, to me it made it what it was. It ... because after so many years of careful work, and toils, and inspiration, and so forth of making it, his toil had proved not in vain—it was perfect, and that's why he cried out, “Speak!” Because he'd seen before him that he was ... had been able to achieve, to bring to pass the vision that was in his mind; and therefore, under inspiration he done something out of reason, out of the ordinary; he struck it and hollered, “Speak!” See, he wouldn't have done that if he'd have thought. But he didn't think. It was inspiration of seeing what he had in his mind setting there perfectly before him.

His toils, and wearies, and long nights, and housed away from the world for days. And maybe eat a sandwich, and rub on it, and get back and, “Oh, that's just not the way it was. Now, it's got to come down to this,” and rubbing it. Then when he saw it just perfect, then he saw in reality. The negative of what was in his mind had become real; it become positive; therefore, it sprung into him. And it was so real that he must cry out, “Speak!”

To me it was a reflection, it was a compliment to his work, that his own work so inspired him that he would become beside himself to smite it and say, “Speak!”

I stood there and looked at the monument. I thought of the hours that the man must have put in making that. They said how many years it was. But it was a reflection to him, because it was a contribution to his great art, his great work of what he was doing. And when he finally was able to achieve it, it was so great.

Now, let us turn the page of Michelangelo and close the book. And let's open another Book and read of the great sculptor, the Almighty, who before there was a world and before the foundations was laid, He had in his mind what He wanted. And He wanted to make man in his own image. He wanted to make something in reality of what was a vision to Him, what was in his thinking.

Now, to Michelangelo that was an attribute of his thought. And God wanted to make a man after his image—the great sculptor—and He went to work on him. And we notice as he brought up from the materials, the first perhaps was fishes, and then the birds, and then the creeping things upon the earth, and the many things that He brought. But finally as he brood, being creator, He had.... He wasn't like a man now, a sculptor that has to take something that's been created to hew an image. He was the sculptor of eternal things. He was a sculptor that could create and bring into existence that which He has in his mind to do; or otherwise, He can make material what his attributes desired.

And as he begin to work upon creeping things, like upon the little animals upon the earth. And then He began to bring it from that into something else higher. Then finally He brought it into the larger animals such as the lion, tiger, bear. Then He brought it into the life of maybe of monkeys, and apes, and so forth. Now, not an evolution, as we think that one came from a.... That was a complete creation, God working in a pattern.

But finally there came forth upon the earth a perfection, and that was a man. And then He could see in that man, that it looked like Him. So now, when He looked upon him, he was a reflection of what his Creator was. God had now been able to achieve the thing that He wanted, a man in his own image.

And then I might say to this: that when He made this man there was something about him yet that didn't look just right, because that he was by himself. And that's how God had been—by Himself. He was the eternal. And the man now in the image of God also existed on the earth by himself. So He must have struck a little blow over on his left side, and from there He took the piece that struck off of it and made him a helpmate, a wife. Then he wasn't by himself; he was.... He had somebody with him. And that's his great work.

And He, as any great sculptor would take his masterpiece.... Now first, He had a masterpiece of Himself. But now, He seen that the masterpiece was lonesome like He was, so He divided the masterpiece by striking it in the side and brought forth a helpmate.

And now, to make the two one, he put them, like any great sculptor, in a place that's beautiful. A sculptor wouldn't make a great masterpiece and then take it and set it in a alley somewhere or hide it behind buildings. As our Lord told us, “A man doesn't light a candle and put it under a bushel.” When we become God's masterpieces, we're not hid in a alley somewhere; we must give light.

So we see that He ... after He made this masterpiece. He placed it up here on the earth and put it in the most beautiful place there was, in the garden of Eden. He placed his masterpiece, the two being one, in the garden of Eden. How it must have pleased Him, that He saw this masterpiece was well. He.... After that we find out that He rested; He was so well pleased with his work.

Now remember, that my opinion the masterpiece is the stroke that marred San Angelo's Moses masterpiece in the monument. And it was a stroke that cut the side of his masterpiece that brought out the bride. And now, we see them as a masterpiece family in the garden of Eden. How beautiful it was. And it so pleased Him, till He took rest then; He said, “I'll rest.”

But while He was resting and trusting to his masterpiece, his enemy come in and found this great masterpiece; and he ... by deceit he crawls under the garden walls, and then he marred this beautiful masterpiece. He marred it so that it fell.

Now, I'm trying to watch that clock. And I asked Mike, my nephew, to ring that bell in thirty minutes, but he's not doing it, and I've already been thirty minutes, but it's.... We'll continue on a little bit, see. Now, I don't want to break these rules; I made these rules, see. And here's breaking your own rule.

Now notice. Then this masterpiece, when Satan got a hold of (the deceiver)—broke through the walls, and he marred this masterpiece. Because that the way He did it. How did he do it? I'll go more in detail of it, how he done it, was this masterpiece was walled by the Word, God's Word. And the masterpiece, itself, of the family, was fortified by this Word; but the broken part that was broke off of the original went out beyond that wall and give Satan a chance to mar it. And now, as you know what I believe on those things, so I won't have to say that. But the masterpiece was broke.

But the great sculptor, when He seen the fall of his family, the masterpiece, He wasn't willing just to leave it lay there face down and ruin; He went to work immediately to build it up again. He wasn't willing that it should perish, lay there like that all the time, because He's God and He will not be defeated. So He went to work immediately and begin to build again unto his own image a man.

Now, we find that the antediluvian world come along and destroyed the whole thing, because the covenants that was made, was made conditionally: “If you will not do this or if you will do that....” God, the great sculptor, seen that man could not keep a covenant. He just can't do it. There's just no way at all.

On the interview a few moments ago I was speaking to a person in the room that's present now. Said, “But Brother Branham, I have so many things that I know that's wrong.” And a godly little woman.

I said, “But look, Sister, you don't look at yourself, it's just what your desire is and what you try to do. And if you really love the Lord, you try to serve Him with all your heart. And then all your mistakes is hid in the blood of the Lord Jesus, see. See, He made a way.”

So He begin now, taking man from his covenants of saying that, “If you will, I will.” And He begin with a man called Abraham and give to Abraham a covenant, unconditionally. Every time He'd start a masterpiece, Satan would get it, because the Word. But when He started with Abraham, He said, “I have already done it.” Now, this is unconditionally, not, what ... that, “If you will, I will,” but, “I've already done it.” Now He, the sculptor, is determined to have this masterpiece.

Then from Abraham come the patriarchs. And the patriarchs really.... Now, what's God doing? He's rebuilding this masterpiece that had fallen. So in the patriarchs, the first we find was Abraham.

Now watch. Every masterpiece is put on a foundation of sculpture. 'Angelo's monument of Moses is on three or four foot piece of marble. It's got a foundation. So God in preparing this masterpiece, He put it on a foundation of the patriarchs. And the patriarch foundation, first was Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob, then Joseph—the four corners.

And now, Abraham was the foundation of faith. Let's say it had four foundations. The foundation of faith was Abraham. The foundation of love was Isaac. The foundation of grace was Jacob God's grace to Jacob. Anyone knows that. But in Joseph was perfection. There's where He could set the monument, upon, not the first foundation, the second foundation, the third foundation, but on the fourth foundation.

Abraham portrayed Christ, of course, so did Isaac in love. Abraham did in faith. Isaac did in love. Jacob did by his grace, because Jacob means deceiver; and that's what he was. but God's grace was with him. But when it come to Joseph, there's nothing against him, just one little scratch, for the foundation must also be a masterpiece. When he told his father, the prophet, “Say to Pharaoh that your people are cattle raisers, they're not shepherds, because a shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptian.”

But when the old prophet got before Pharaoh, he said, “Your servants are herdsmen.” So it scratched it, see. That's why it still makes it the masterpiece.

Now, the foundations was laid through faith, love, grace, and to perfection through the patriarchs.

Now, the body work that come on to this great masterpiece was the prophets, which was the Word. I hope you can read it. See, the prophets, not the laws, the prophets. For the prophets was the vindicated Word which makes the body, not the patriarchs, the prophets. They were the Word.

Finally, as He started way back in the days of Moses and come down through the prophets, to each one, it finally—building up the body, coming closer all the time. And the greatest of all of them was John. The Bible said so. Jesus said it: “There's not a man ever born of a woman as great as John the Baptist,” for he was the one that could introduce the Word.

And then come finally the great head, the head of all of it. The rest of the body just spoke of it.

The foundation was laid by the patriarch, but the body was built by the Word, which was the prophets. And here comes the head of all of it; Jesus came on the scene. There when this headpiece was put upon it, we find in Him the entire handiwork of God. We find in Him the perfect reflection of the Word, for He was the Word, the fullness of the Word. Now again God has the perfect masterpiece again, as Isaiah said, “Behold my servant, my masterpiece that I have portrayed through all the ages of this perfect one coming. And here He stands right before me, a perfect....” There in his own image reflecting God, for He said in St. John 14, “When you see me, you see the Father.”

And then, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God; and the Word was hewed out and reflected what the Word was at the beginning, Him, the Word, reflected in the masterpiece in his own likeness, God back again in his own likeness, the Word form being reflected in the image of a man—the masterpiece.

All the prophets had flaws. All the ones was a portion. But here at last coming up through that finally comes the masterpiece, the perfect one, no fault in Him at all, so perfect, reflected of the builder Himself. His own image was reflected in his work. God and Christ were one, insomuch until He put his own Spirit into Him; and then even the image and the builder became one. God and his sculpture work, his masterpiece, where Moses.... Moses was in the work of San Angelo was a ... or Michelangelo, rather, was a sculpture work that was dead, because it'd been made out of stone. But here the master builder, when He got his handiwork perfected, He stepped into it.

So perfected a redeemer of men, so perfect, so godly yet there was no beauty we should desire Him, when this virgin-born Son of the living God become so perfect, and humble, and in the image of God, until the great master who had brought his life up through the prophets and He was the fulfilling of all the prophets. He was so perfect, until God seeing this, He smote Him and cried out, “Speak!” as Michelangelo did, “Speak!”

You say, “Is that so?” St. Mark 9:7, we find upon the Mount Transfiguration, when there stood Moses, the law, there stood Elijah, the prophets. All the way back from the patriarchs, the fathers, the law, the prophets, and all of them standing there, we hear a voice coming down from the cloud and said, “This is my beloved Son, hear ye Him!” And if they're going to hear, He's got to speak. It was just a few days before He was smitten. “This is my Son, who I'm pleased to dwell in. I have molded Him. I've been four thousand years bringing Him to this. And now He is so perfect I've got to smite Him so He can speak. Hear ye Him. He's the perfected one. He is the masterpiece.”

Remember, He was portrayed all times back through the Old Testament. We find Him being the rock in the wilderness, that was smitten rock in the wilderness: “I am that rock that was in the wilderness.” But that was a stone; it had not come to it's perfection yet. But in type form it followed the church to draw from it that that he could draw, and give life to those who He could give life to. But He was that rock in the wilderness. He had not been made man yet. He was only in type.

Moses saw Him standing on this rock. He saw Him pass by, and he said, “It's a back part of a man.” You see, the Sculptor was presenting to Moses which was a potential image of Christ, what the great masterpiece would look like when it was perfected. He passed his.... He injected, or projected to Moses the vision of what the masterpiece was going to look like. It was the back part of a man when it passed by in the wilderness.

Remember, 'Angelo could only cry out and smite the image and say, “Speak!” But how different it was to God, the great sculptor. When He made a man in his own image, so perfect that it reflected Him. God spoke through the image of man, showing what He would do. He spoke through the prophets as they were in their potential image, as He was bringing up to the Head. But when He come in the Head, He was all the image of God. He was portraying Himself. Then smitten for us.... Now He is the masterpiece to us, the gift of God, Jesus Christ, eternal Life. I hope we never forget that.

As we see the days darkening, as we see the shadows falling.... When I predict it's just a few more turns of the sun this nation's gone. Do you know, yesterday, fourth of July, where Thomas Jefferson had signed the Declaration of Independence, him and the other board that was with him, and the Liberty Bell rang, and we was declared an independence as a nation. According to history there has never been a democracy at any time last over two hundred years. And that was 1776, July the fourth. And we're just eleven years left. Will it make it? No! Can't! Eleven years, and if it does it'll break all history.

And we see the condition of time. We see the condition of the people. We see the condition of politics. We see the condition of the world. It can't stand! It's got to sink like the Titanic. It must go down! For there's.... Give room—one nation gives room to another as it falls. And this kingdom must fall and every other kingdom to give room to that kingdom that's coming which cannot fall. For we receive a kingdom that cannot be moved through this perfect image of God, the masterpiece.

God, when He looked upon Him, He was so inspired, He was so.... To see Him the way He looked and to see the form of Him. He was so inspired that it would be the perfect masterpiece of a redeemer—Jesus the Redeemer. So God, in order to be smitten Himself, because to pay his own penalty, God and Christ became one, so God could be smote in the image, He could be scarred. And that's why Isaiah said, “We did esteem Him smitten and afflicted of God. Yet He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with his stripes we were healed.”

The perfect image of the God-man, God en morphe had changed from supernatural to the vision. And the vision was projected into the image. And the image was smitten so that the supernatural could taste the feeling of death, God's perfect masterpiece. He could not do it in Moses. He could not do it in the prophets. Isaiah who was sawed with saws till he was sawed to pieces.... He could not do it in the prophets that were stoned. He could not do it, because He couldn't feel it. There was just a portion of Him. But in this perfect masterpiece He was the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He could not only project Moses, He could project his entire being into this person and taste death for the whole human race. God's perfect masterpiece, God, so inspired by seeing it, He become the redeemer of all ages to speak for those in the backgrounds who had been before and now.

All promises was met in Him. He was the Perfection of the perfection. All types was fulfilled in Him: our kinsman redeemer in Ruth and Boaz; our law-giver from Mount Sinai; our prophet from the wilderness, as He come from the mountain, as He come from the wilderness—as He come from eternity and become man, the perfect image.

God, down through the age, hewing away by the patriarchs, and made his platform, and brought them up from the different things that He'd lay this foundation upon. Upon this He begin to build his Word the prophets, and then finally come out to the perfect prophet, the perfect foundation, the perfect vision God had.

And now, in order for this to speak He is the Word—and for the Word to speak He must come into the image. And then for the image to speak, it's got to be smitten. He comes into the image. And then in order to speak, the perfect redeemer—all the types of the Old Testament was met in Him.

As I said the other day, Jehovah of the Old Testament is Jesus of the New. Yes!

Like many of you men, women my age, we used to have around the country a lot of Chinese laundries. When the Chinese first started in, they come from the West Coast moving eastward, coming over from the Eastern country, moving this way. And as they did, they were people who were not acquainted with our language and our ways, but they were fine laundrymen. And they couldn't write the ticket so you could get your right laundry back. But the Chinaman, he got himself a bunch of little cards with nothing on it at all. So when you come for your laundry, he would take this card and tear it in a certain way and hand you one piece, and he kept the other piece. And now, it's a little better than what we have now, because when you come back to claim what was your own, those two pieces must dovetail. You couldn't impersonate it if you had to. There's no way of doing it. You could make copies of letters, but you can't impersonate that tear. It's got to fit exactly with the other piece. Therefore, your dirty clothes that you brought in, you could redeem them by this ticket, because it matched the ticket that was turned in.

And when God, by the prophets and under the law, condemned us to sin.... And the law has no grace; it only tells you you are a sinner. But when Jesus came on the scene, He was the fulfillment. He was the fulfillment of everything God had promised. He was the perfect, identical image of the promise. Therefore, all promises of the Old Testament was met in Jesus Christ. It couldn't be met in Moses. It couldn't be met in any of the prophets, but it was met in the masterpiece, it matched all that it said was going to be. So will the church have to be a match to everything God has promised. It must be that piece that's smitten off of it. So if the original is the Word, so will the subjects that's been taken from it be the Word, to match it's side.

Therefore, the Chinaman.... You could claim where the law condemns you and said you were dirty, and you were guilty, and could put you in the prison; but when He came, He was the match-piece for it that could take you out, and bring you back too, to be the complete ticket—the redemption that God had promised back in the garden of Eden: “Thy seed shall bruise the serpent's head, but his heel shall bruise it's head.”

Now, we find this perfect masterpiece that God had completed. Now, we notice that He was all that it was promised to be. He's all the promises, all of the prophecies, everything that God had made a promise of: “Thy seed shall bruise the serpent's head.” Now, He could not bruise it with the law. He could not bruise it with the prophets. But He did do it when the woman's seed became the masterpiece, Christ. He was the stone that Daniel saw hewed out of the mountain. He was the one who could smite. He's the one that could bruise, bruise the serpent's head.

His life matched exactly the life of Moses. His life matched David. Let's see if it was, if He's the matching-piece.

Notice David, a rejected king over his own people. He was.... One day while he was ... his own son rose up in mutiny against him. And he separated and divided the armies of Israel. And he was ... David was drove—or driven by his own people from his throne. And on his road out, there was a man who hated him; and he's walking along there, spitting on David. The guard pulled his sword, said, “I'll let that dog's head stay on him, spit on my king!”

David said, “Let him alone, God told him to do it.” Don't you see? A man of sorrow, acquainted with grief, He stands like a sheep before his shearers, dumb, see. He said that. Perhaps David didn't know what he was saying. But about five, six hundred years afterwards or a little more, the Son of David was going through them same streets, and He was spit upon. But notice what happened when David ... out of his.... When he became a fugitive, and out of his exile, when he came back, that man begged for peace and mercy. Even those who smote Him will see Him one day when He returns.

And we find out then in Joseph, that Joseph was a peculiar-born boy, the last, the top part of the foundation, where the masterpiece was to be built upon. It come from faith, and to love, and to grace; it come to perfection. And so did it from the feet of the beginning, come forth unto perfection in Christ.

Notice, how that he was portrayed in Joseph, the top of the foundation, the most perfect of all of them. We find that Joseph was born to his family; and he was by the legal woman actually, which was Jacob's wife. And notice also, that when he was born, his father loved him; and his brothers hated him without a cause. Why did they hate him? Because he was the Word. See the very foundation? See how the head of the foundation come. Now look at the head of the body comes. Now, watch the head of the bride come. He was the Word. And they hated him because he was a seer. He foresaw things, and told them. They happened; no matter how long it lingered, it happened just the same. And by being spiritual he was excommunicated from his brethren. They ought to have loved him. But they hated him, because he was a prophet and he was spiritual. And they hated him.

Notice, he was sold for almost thirty pieces of silver, throwed into a ditch, and supposedly be dead, but was took up from the ditch. And in his time of temptation in the prison, the butler and the baker.... We know that the butler was saved and the baker was lost. And in Christ's prison house on the cross, one was saved and the other one was lost—two thieves, two wrongdoers.

And we notice he was taken from his prison to the right hand of Pharaoh, that no man could speak to Pharaoh, only through Joseph. And when Joseph left that throne of Pharaoh, the trumpet sounded throughout Egypt, the blast went forth and said, “Bow the knee, everybody, Joseph is coming forth!”

So will it be with Jesus. How He was loved of the Father and hated of them denominational brethren without a cause. He was sold for thirty pieces of silver, as it was, and put into the ditch supposingly to be dead. On the cross, one lost and the other one saved. And was lifted up from the cross, and sets at the right hand of God in the majesty, the great Spirit, which had been reflected in Him. And no man can speak to God, only through Jesus Christ. Think of it! And when He leaves that throne, starts forth, the trumpet will sound and every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess.

Remember, he was the son of prosperity. Everything that he did prospered, whether it was prison or wherever it was, it come out right. And hasn't He promised for his children that He'd make everything work together for the good, whether it was sickness, prison house, death, sorrows, whatever it was, that it would work for the good to them that loved Him. He promised it, and it must be so. It's got to be there. It's figurative spoke to us in Him. He was that perfect image of God.

Now, we see here also that when He comes again....

Remember, Joseph by revelation saved the world by his great prophecy. The world would've died if it hadn't have been for Joseph. And the world would've been dead if it hadn't have been for Jesus: “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish.” God is reserving life.

On and on we could go. Because He was simply the match of David. He was a match of Moses. He was the match of Elijah. He was the match of Joseph. Everything is a portrayer, foretold by in the Old Testament, matched right into that. What is it? Showing a perfect redeemer that we could put our old, dirty clothes into the laundry and go claim it again. It's been washed in the blood of the lamb. We can claim what's our own. And everything that He died for, we can claim it. So He was the perfect Word portrayed.

It pleased God, the great sculptor, to smite Him, and to do it this way. We see Him in Isaiah here as we read: “We all did esteem Him. We turned our face from Him. There's no beauty that we should desire Him. Everybody talking about Him, make fun of Him. I'm talking about Him now in this day, everybody making fun of Him, see. We did esteem Him. We saw Him. Esteem means: to look at. We did esteem Him smitten and afflicted of God.” Yet what did He do this for? “He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquity.”

Now, we could go on and on with that, but I believe you have the picture of what I mean now—God building back his masterpiece.

But let us not forget that in the beginning when He smote the side of Adam, He took something from his side. Now, the smiting of Christ was for a cause, that He might take from Him, one to be his family, the bride, He might take Him a bride. So when his masterpiece was perfected, then He had to smite it to take from Him, not another piece, not another creation, but of the same creation.

My brother, don't think bad at this, but think a minute. If He took from Him, the original creation, to make the bride for Him.... He's never made another creation; He took a part of the original creation. Then if He was the Word, what must the bride be? It's got to be the original Word, living God in the Word.

Kimberley, South Africa, once I was looking at diamonds, how they was brought up out of the ground. And I seen them laying there as.... Well, the superintendent of the plant or the mine was one of my ushers in the prayer line. And I noticed the diamonds valued at tens of thousands of dollars piled together; but they didn't sparkle even under the light. And I said to the superintendent of the mines, I said, “Why don't they sparkle?”

He said, “Sir, they haven't been cut yet. They must be cut. Then when they are cut, then they reflect the light.” There you are.

The masterpiece must be cut. And notice, cut for what? Is the piece cut off? No, no! The piece that's cut off is made a Victrola needle. And the Victrola needle is put upon a record that's unseen music to the world; but the needle is what brings it out, brings out the true interpretation of the Word.

His life matched all the peoples'. It pleased God to smite Him. And now, why did He smite Him? For the same cause He had to smite Adam.

Now, we see Him stricken smitten of God and afflicted, the perfect lamb for sinners slain, a perfect masterpiece.

Now, for nearly two thousand years God has been again making Him a masterpiece, because He struck at Him to get a piece off of Him, part of Him, a rib to make a wife for Him. And now, that perfect masterpiece that He struck at Calvary, He got a piece off of Him. It's just the New Testament, that's all. He fulfilled the Old Testament. Now, it's the New Testament, another piece to be fulfilled. See, the New and Old is husband and wife, see, and it taken the New to ... Old to foreshow the New. Christ come, the masterpiece, to fulfill that. Now his bride will fulfill everything that's in the New Testament. Another masterpiece is in making.

As it taken Him four thousand years to make this masterpiece, now He's been for nearly two thousand years making another masterpiece, a bride for Christ, another masterpiece. In so doing it, He does it by his never-changing method, the same way He made the masterpiece, his Word. That's the way He makes his masterpieces. Because it can only be a perfect masterpiece when it's the perfect Word. Any dirt, trash, injections, it'll break; but the heavens and earth will pass away, but that Word will never break. You remember, cutting a diamond, you have to have a perfect tool to do it with, not just any piece will do it. I've seen tons of them big grinders crash right through it and move them big tons over, pass that diamond right on through. No, it don't break the diamond. It has to be cut.

Now, He's doing the same thing in his never-changing method. We find out in Malachi 3, He said, “I'm God, and I change not.” He cannot change his method.

Now, as He started in Abraham.... After the fall of the first masterpiece, He started in Abraham, on a foundation, to build another masterpiece. He started on the day of Pentecost to build another masterpiece—the original seed Word. Started in the first church. What was it? The seed Word, the Word manifested, the promise that had been given. Joel said, “It shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I'll pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams; your young men shall see visions.” What He would do in the last days ... two ... last two thousand years.

Notice. And it started out as the original. As Jesus said, “The Word of God is a seed that a sower sowed. And He was the sower. The seed was the Word. And notice, any seed that abides alone never does nothing. It's got to fall into the ground to bring forth it's production again. And this seed, that perfect church, fell to the ground at Nicea, Rome, when she become a denomination.

Now, historians, remember, and you who's going to hear this tape, check it up and find out if that's not right. The church died at Nicea, Rome, when she took dogmas and creeds in the stead of the original Word. What was it? God had showed by that first church that He was God. He had a church perfected; but the church, like all other seeds, must fall into the ground and die. Now, it fell into the ground, and died, and wasted away.

You know, I read a book here not long ago. Someone wrote a book that said: The Silent God. You might have read it. I forget, I think Brumbach.... No, I don't ... I'm not sure who it was wrote it. But, I can't remember. I got it in my study: The Silent God. Said, “God, through thousand years of Dark Ages set still, and never moved a hand, and watched faithful martyrs go to the lion's pit and be burnt by the Romans; assassination of all kinds; women stripped of their clothes, set fire to their long hair with tar and burn them.” Remember, short hair first begin in Rome. And the women of Christians had long hair. So they dipped it in tar, and set them afire, and burned them, and ... them naked, fed them to the lions. And this writer goes to say, “Where is that God?” Oh, the blindness of man sometimes! Do you not know that that seed had to die! He never tried to deliver them. They went down in victory! They went down bleeding and dying, giving their lives. Why? It was a Seed, it had to fall into the ground, as I John 12 tells us: The corn of wheat has got to fall into the ground and there die, and not only die, but rot. But little did that denomination know that that life was still in there.

Though the church in itself

at that Nicea Council of fifteen days of bloody politician debate, when them aristocrats come in and wanted to inject these big dignitaries into the church. And prophets come out of that wilderness there, eating herbs and wrapped in animal skins, genuine prophets, and they throwed them out. Why? The seed has got to fall into the ground. It's got to die.

It died in the Dark Ages down beneath the dark dirt. They thought it was gone. You know, St. John 12:24, Jesus said, “Except a corn of wheat falls into the ground, it abides alone.” And the first church was that reproduction, that bride, that seed, that Word made manifest that fell into the ground at Nicea, Rome.

Listen, church throughout the nations that'll hear this, there is your dirt; it's them denominations! There's where the Word was crucified, and they accepted dogma. And for hundreds and hundreds of years of Dark Ages the power and manifestation of the Word was hid from the world. Only Catholicism ruled. We all know that, I was reading history. Only Catholicism ruled.

But you can't hide a germitized seed. It's got to come forth. Because why? The great sculptor is on the job. He's going to build again. So He.... The seed went down, the Word.

When we see St. Paul, Peter, James, John, all those who wrote the Word, and the Word they wrote become alive and lived. And it lived. And when we find after it begin to get ripe, John begin to write in epistles. He was throwed on the Isle of Patmos after being burnt in oil for twenty-four hours. But the Word must come forth. It's got to be wrote. They couldn't boil the Holy Ghost out of him with oil, so he come forth. His work wasn't finished. He died a natural death.

Polycarp, which was a disciple of John, carried the Word on. And from Polycarp came Irenaeus. And Irenaeus, the great man of God who believed the very same Gospel that we believe, “The Word is ripe!” The church, trying to squeeze it out.

Finally it come to Nicea, Rome, and there she fell into the ground after St. Martin, and was murdered. St. Martin believed the same thing we believe. He stood the same thing: the baptism of the Holy Ghost, the baptism in water in Jesus' name. He stood in the very same thing that we do, and he was a prophet, and believed the full Word of God. And finally they were crucified, and mashed into the ground, and laid there for hundreds of years until it rotted. That outside seed, the old bodies just rotted away. I've been in San Angelo in the catacombs and see where they died and their broken bones and everything. They finally rotted till their bones were gone, but the life was still there.

The corn of wheat that fell into the ground on the ... at the Nicea Council begin to sprout again in Martin Luther like any corn coming up or wheat. After the seeds rot, the life springs forth. And it begin to bring forth in Martin Luther. What did he do the first thing? Reject the denomination of Catholicism, protested that it was wrong; for he said, “The just shall live by faith.” What was it? A little weak life that put up a couple little shoots. That was the Lutherans. It sure don't look like the grain that went in the ground, but the Life is coming out now.

Then it went on to a stalk. Then what happened? In the days of John Wesley, what did he do when he brought out sanctification? He stayed with the Word, and what did it do? The Lutherans had organized and made an organization; so it was time for something to happen. The masterpiece is being built now. What did he do? What did he do? He protested that Anglican church and came out in the reformation as a tassel. What is it? The seed's coming to Life, growing now.

Now, the stalk doesn't look like the seed, neither does the tassel.

Now, Pentecostal brethren throughout the nations, I want you to listen, my brother, if this is the last message I'll ever preach. This is my masterpiece. Do you notice when the wheat, the corn of wheat that falls into the ground, when it begins to form back to its grain again?

Watch nature. Nature exactly is God, God working in nature is all it can. But from the Pentecostal revival, as they think, was the seed. It wasn't. Now watch! But something come forth just like the seed. Now, watch what Jesus said in St. Matthew 24:24, that the two spirits at the last days would be so close together it would deceive the elected if possible.

Now, that stalk don't look nothing like a seed; neither does the tassel look like a seed. But notice now, not in Luther's day, but in the last day.

The first thing (there's wheat farmers sitting here)—the first thing that comes forth on a wheat seed, you'd almost think it was a seed, but what is it? It's the husk. It forms a little outside thing, like, to hold the seed. It forms a husk. But the husk is not the seed no more than the tassel or the stalk was; it's only a carrier of the life, the corn of wheat then of St. John 12, you see, Jesus speaking.

The wheat, after the tassel, after Wesley, puts forth the husk, which is the foremost like the grain of anything else. The husk is more like the grain. It's coming more like the grain all the time—the one that went in the ground. And when it comes forth the stalk, it's got life in it, but it sure isn't the grain. Comes forth the tassel, the pollen, it still isn't the grain. And then it comes forth the husk. And it's just in the shape of the wheat, just exactly like the grain of wheat; but yet it isn't the wheat. Just exactly the same shape, perfectly.

The Pentecostals come out just like the wheat would. Each one comes out from the other, coming out from the other; but they're only a carrier. They go to denomination. And that's what Pentecost did, went to denomination. And what did Pentecostal do when it come out just like the grain? It went right back, like in Revelation 17, to one of the sister denominations. That's exactly what.... That's what Jesus said.

Now watch. The Gospel's going to come out through Luther, through Wesley into Pentecost, and at the last days it'll deceive the very elected if it's possible—the elected! Oh, Pentecostal brethren, can't you see?

The wheat in its first beginning is just like the seed when it begins to form like the seed; but it's the husk. It denominated, exactly done the same thing they did down here in Luther. In Revelation 17 it proves the same thing of the churches.

Now, the grain seed in the original fell at Nicea, for it was the first denomination.

Notice! Here the life that was in the stalk, tassel, all now ends up in the seed. The life that come out of the original seed, come up through different processes, three different processes, and then turns back till it's original condition. Hallelujah! Oh, my! I'm the happiest person in the world that God would let me see this!

Watch how perfect the Word and these ... nature works together.

Just like we prove the resurrection: Rise; the sun setting and the sun rising again; the leaf going out of the tree down in ... the sap into the root, and comes back up and the leaf comes back up with it again and falls on the ground. The life of the tree sucks it right back, the calcium and potash, and brings it right up to another leaf again, see. All nature, everything works right with the Word of God. And here it is exactly perfectly in these church ages. That's the reason the Holy Ghost came down and drawed those things and made them out for us the way He has. That's exactly.

Notice here. The life that was in the husk, in the stalk, and in the tassel, in the husk, all gathers in the seed. And the life that was in the stalk, went ... one went to make the other. Justification made a way for sanctification. Sanctification made a way for the baptism of the Holy Ghost. The baptism of the Holy Ghost made a way for the Holy Ghost itself to come right down in perfection, back to the Word again to manifest itself.

But what denominated, dies. Like life in Luther went to make Wesley. And from Wesley it went to Pentecost. And from Pentecost to make the original seed. On to.... Pentecost comes out of the Wesley until that time. The reason that Pentecost come out of Wesley, because it was no denomination—Pentecost was. Then Pentecost went to denominate. And what did it do? It turned to the husk. It looked like the real thing.

And anybody....

How many ever seen a seed of wheat start to grow? What's the first little thing? It's just exactly like the seed, but it's the husk. See the three stages? Stalk, tassel or the pollen, then the husk. And then, out of the husk comes the original seed. Not a seed, it was the Life of the seed growing through this to come to the seed. Amen, amen! Do you see it? What is it? A resurrection. Coming back to a masterpiece again, like the one that went in.

Pentecost came out of the Wesley, because Wesley was an organization. Pentecost came out as no organization and then turned to one. It had to to make the husk. The true Word of life on it was on it's way then to the original grain through these stages: through the stalk, then into the pollen; from the pollen into the husk; and from the husk it made seed.

No ... stalk, tassel, husk!

Living, they produced in their early revival a holder of a certain portion of the seed life; but when they organized, the life moved out of it. That's proved by all history. Never an organization ever done a thing after it organized. It was dead. That's right.

Watch, the life's traveling on now. It's moving on.

Notice. What they have done, all these have done, is prove by history just exactly the way the church has come, never to be useful to Him again. Organization is laid on the shelf. There never has been in all the history of church after it organized, but what it died. And the organization died and never did raise again. Can't you see it? Men who are blind, open your eyes! Nature and the Word coordinating together and proving it right here that this is the truth, that it is the truth: That life leaves the stalk to make the tassel; from the tassel it makes the husk; and from the husk it goes into the original again.

Notice, never again to be useful to Him.

How noticeable this life is in it's travel in the corn of wheat than it is in the tree. God called his people like a tree, see. The life goes down in a tree and comes back up again, goes down and comes back up, see. It goes down and comes back up. But in the corn of wheat it goes up from the original stalk through the stalk, tassel, and husk; and the thing that it passed through dies so it can't get back through it again. What is it? It's no use any more. It goes on to its perfection. Amen! Don't you see why He never used an organization? He can't get back in it again. It's dead! But the life passes on from one to the other, see. They put creeds and inject.... “Whosoever shall add one word or take one word out....” See? He's blocked off from it. It must be the life seed traveling on.

I'm using this in a parable now of the bride, the masterpiece that's coming forth. As the masterpiece fell, there's a masterpiece rising. The masterpiece fell at Nicea, Rome. After Nicea, Rome, she's come through a process; but she's coming right back again to that masterpiece, perfected, because she's a part of that Word that was spoken by Him. He'll have a church without spot or wrinkle. It'll not be connected any way with any kind of an organization or a denomination (the cursed thing). It's passed through those things, but it will never be there.

Notice. The seed is coming up. That life is coming up, not going back. There'll be no more resurrection after this. The life is coming up to go to it's perfection, a resurrection.

Notice, the husk put forth the.... Notice, the husk puts the original seed out of itself. In Revelations the 3rd chapter we find this.

Now remember, no other church was He put out of in the Bible, of the seven church ages. How many remembers it? He passed through the church age to go on to make something else. But this is it. There's nothing else, but the sculptor has got back to perfection again, the Word, see. It don't go back. How different it is. Yes!

Oh,

and notice. Then, the husk when it comes forth looks just like the grain. But when the grain life begins to leave the husk to go in to make the grain the bride, the husk opens up and excommunicates the grain. Is that right in nature? That's exactly what she did.

In Revelation 3 we find out the Laodicean church age put Him out. Now see, it didn't back in the other ages, because there was something else yet to be made. It just passed through and went on to another. I've told you all along, there's no more denominations coming. We're at the end. And they put Him out, because why? He's the Word again. He's like the one that fell down there. He's the same doctrine that come forth from the beginning.

And when the seed Word begins to grow forth, the husk puts it from itself. The life leaves all the others to follow it; that's the true believers, they follow the life, wherever the life goes.

Like in Israel, a perfect type. If we had time.... I just got a few minutes left. But in the perfect type in the beginning, everywhere that pillar of fire went was life; God was that light. And I don't care if it was midnight or whether they was in a good selected place, when that pillar of fire moved, the trumpet sounded and Israel moved with it. Hallelujah! When the trumpet sounded, Martin Luther moved out with it. And he organized ... killed. Not he himself, the men after him. And then God took the life out of that, brought it on, laid it down in the grave.

Then out come Wesley. He saw that big organization so he sounded a trumpet of sanctification, more of the Word. See? And when he did, out they moved, right out of Luther right into Methodist.

And when Pentecost saw it, they sounded a trumpet. It's time for the return of the gifts. See what they did? They sounded a trumpet, and out they come; then they organized. But remember. After the husk, that's three stages we know of, there's nothing else left but the grain. Oh, God! And then the grain is put out all of it. Amen and amen! Seed, Word's begins to form itself, and life is brought forth out of....

Now notice. If the bridegroom, the beginning, the first bridegroom.... This is the bride coming forth.

Remember, the church begin at Pentecost, and it fell at Nicea. It sprouted, not like the real grain, no; it was some of the life in there, but it sprouted in order to make an organization. And it pulled through that organization. And then what did it do? Then it went from that organization it went into another organization, went into another stage of the Word: Justification, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Ghost, see. And as it went through this stalk and process, it kept coming on more.

Remember, the little pollen is more—the tassel is more like the seed than the stalk is. And the husk is more like the seed than the tassel was. But the seed itself is beyond that, see. It just used that for transportation to take itself through.

Notice. The bride.... If the bride in the beginning was the Word—or the bridegroom; and then, if the bride is taken from the bridegroom, it must be the Word also.

Notice. The bride must be.... Why? Why must the bridegroom be the Word manifested, made plain? Is because the bride and the bridegroom are one; she's just a smitten piece off of Him. There's the masterpiece. It was smitten.

Michelangelo could not reproduce that again; he could not put it back. But God's going to do it. He's going to bring this little bride that's smitten right back to the side of the original Word. And there He is; there's the masterpiece, the family back again in garden of Eden.

How is this bride going to do this? How is this wheat going to do this? Malachi 4 said in the last days it would be restored back. What? Restored back like the beginning, take it back. “I will restore, saith the Lord, all the years the palmerworm, and cankerworm, and all these other things has eaten. I will restore again.” Malachi 4 said He will restore the hearts of the people, and the faith of the people back to the original fathers again. We see this right before us, church. Where are we at?

Now, closing in a few minutes. I want you to notice real close of something that just happened.

Malachi 4 is to bring back, back to the original. She is smitten from the church—from the church body, smitten with her master for the same purpose she's the Word, the same as Joseph was smitten from his brethren, because he was the Word. And Jesus was smitten from his brethren, because He was the word. The church is smitten—the bride is smitten from the church, because she is the Word. There's your stages again: one, two, three. See? Just exactly.

The Word, living and in action, the Bible bride, not some man-made bride, the Bible bride smitten and afflicted of God. No beauty we should desire her, but yet we did esteem her, smitten and afflicted of God. That's right. She stands alone. She's smitten from all the denominations according to Revelations 3. She's smitten out of the Laodicean church age that she was raised up in, see.

This church was raised up in the Laodicea church age. That's the husk. But if them others went.... Can't you Pentecostal men see that? If that other was husk and died, if that other stalk had to die, if the tassel had to die, so must the husk die. The three stages of organization.

And you remember ... you said, “Well now, there's a lot of tassels hanging on; there's a lot of this.” Yeah! There's been Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Church of Christ, all these other little things that fell onto it, leaves and everything else that hung onto it; but the original was the reformations. Now, see?

Stands alone, like the bridegroom rejected of men, despised and rejected of the churches. The bride stands that way. What is it? It's his masterpiece, see. It's the Word that He can work through make manifest—rejected.

So the stalk, the tassel, and husk never become seed, no, but are all the time becoming more like the seed. Now, at the harvest time the seed is back to it's original life, back to the Bible. Malachi 4 said it would be brought that way. Oh, oh, my!

Must have all.... To be this way it must have all of the Word. Is that right?

Now, what did He say in Revelation 10, that would take place? Why was the trip to Tucson? To open to the church ... in the days of the messenger of the seventh angel (the seventh angel message) the whole Word of God would be made manifest. The seal that what all the stalk has left off, and why, and all about it, would be made manifest in this time. Is that what the Word said? Then we see it. Then where are we at? See? Where are we at? There's only one thing, the harvest is here. She's dead ripe. She's ready now for the coming.

Notice.

No, it'll never be it. At the harvest time the seed is back to it's original condition, and must have all of the Word in order to be the seed. Now you can't have a half a seed; it won't grow. It's got to the whole seed. It's got to not manifest, say, “I believe in the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Hallelujah! I believe in speaking in tongues.” That's just part of the seed. But now, there's added to that. Hallelujah! See, the life, not the gifts, the life of the gifts, see. See what I mean? We're at the end-time, brethren.

Stalk, tassel, husk is dead and dried now. There's only one thing that has to happen to that, it's to be gathered in the World Council of Churches for it's burning.

The Word has become flesh, exactly like He promised in Luke 17, Malachi 4, and all, see. That's right. Revelations....

All true life that was in the stalk, tassel, and husk is now gathering in the seed, ready for the resurrection, ready for the harvest. The Alpha has become Omega. The first become the last; and the last is the first. The seed that went in has come through a process and become the seed again. The seed that fell in the garden of Eden and died there, come back (from that imperfect seed that died there)—come back to the perfect seed—the second Adam.

The first Eve that fell, and was used in the second reformation—second coming, as bringing forth a child, now has become true bride again, the seed, right back with the original Word again. The Alpha and Omega is the same. He said, “I am Alpha and Omega.” He never said anything in between. “I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.” Yes, sir!

The first ministry and the last ministry is the same. The first message and the second—last message is the same thing. “I was in Alpha; I'm in Omega.” “There'll be a day that won't be called day nor night, but in the evening time it shall be light,” see. Alpha and Omega; it's become the first and the last. Oh, my, brethren, we could stay hours on that.

The great masterpiece of a family, the second Adam and the second Eve now ready for the garden, the millennium Amen! back on the earth. Hallelujah! The great sculptor didn't leave them lay there. He took time as He did through the millions of years molding the first perfect couple. And they fell. Now it's been through thousands of years; He's molded again; and now, here they are ready.

The masterpiece was come and struck down—from his side come forth the helpmate. And she's brought up in the same process. Now, here she is back again with all nature, the Bible, and everything else, showing here we are.

Nation's are breaking; Israel's awakening,

The signs that the Bible foretold;

Gentile's days numbered,

(Look at this bunch of trash we got!)

With horrors encumbered,

Return, O dispersed, to your own.

That's right. You better get in there quick if you're going. (I'm fixing to close just in about five minutes, ten.)

Notice, the great masterpiece of the family. The husband and wife cannot be truly a family unless they are one. They have to be. If they're not, they're not a good family—wife pulling one way and the husband another. That would make an awful family. But in agreement, with love one to the other, that's a family. And now, that was God's masterpiece; and all the true family here portrays that see. And now the masterpiece family has come again—Christ and his bride, ready to come. The second Adam, second Eve, ready now to return back to their home. And the whole picture has been redemption, from where it was, bringing it back. See? Just exactly. Bringing it back again.

After....

The other day standing up here at the Christian Businessmen, many of you, I guess, was there. When I heard that Lutheran priest (or preacher, was supposed to be) stand up there and say that ridiculous thing, and make fun of what we believe in.... And them Full Gospel Businessmen having that man there. And saying that ... he wore his collar turned around. Lot's of them do now. He said, “Now, people ask me why I turn my collar around.” Said, “How can they tell you from a Catholic priest.” He said, “There is no difference, and there shouldn't be.” He said, “We're all God's children,” He said, “I know a Catholic priest that's omnipresent, see, that could be present everywhere.”

Now, you cannot be omnipresent without being omniscient. God's not even omnipresent; God's omniscient. Omniscient which makes Him omnipresent (He knows all things). But in order to be a being He has to be in one thing. But being omniscient He can be omnipresent, because He knows all things. He knowed it before the.... He knowed before the world begin how many fleas, lice, how many bugs, and how many times they'd bat their eyes, and everything about it (see?), because He's omnipresent. And you can't be omniscient—omniscient without being infinite. There's only one thing infinite. God. Amen!

And then we....

What is it? It's the devil, taking them right straight to that slaughter, every one of them going in, exactly what the Bible said. And here it is. See, come right in amongst the Pentecostals and just pulled them right straight, just as.... What a time!

Oh, after that testimony, someone said to me, I ... it's a good thing I didn't say very much, because they'd probably have me in jail up there; I just thought, “There it is.” The people who's taught, knows. “The wise shall know their God in that day,” it said in Daniel. Yes, sir! See? The wise will know their God; they're watching for these things.

But when I seen that happen, and them Pentecostals stand there with him. Even Oral Roberts looked at me like that. I said, “Oh, my!” Umh!

But standing up there with a education, polished, you know, and so forth. That's not the way God polishes his. He don't polish his with education; He polishes in humility and in power of his manifested Word, showing the shape of the grain that it went from.

Now, someone said to me, said “Brother Branham,” said, “there's one thing I can't understand about you.”

I said, “What's that?”

Standing out there in a hall ... I guess Sister Dauch and them, after I shook hands with Bill, and standing there and all, and went around the corner with a whole bunch of people, a minister pressed his way in, collar turned around, he said, “Why is it that you're always bawling the people out?” He said, “Them people believe you to be a servant of God, to be gentle and sweet to them and everything.” Said, “Every time I hear you get up, you're bawling women out about having short hair, and about wearing shorts, and wearing makeup, and all this other stuff, and bawling the people out and telling them how cold, and formal, and indifferent they are.” Said, “Why do you do that?” Said, “Them people love you. How can you be a loving son of God and do a thing like that?”

I thought, “Lord, let me answer this smart man. (See.) You just let me answer him somewhere that'll hang him on his own rope. I said, ”Well....“ I said, ”Sir, did you ever read of the great producer of music called—the great composer called Beethoven.“

He said, “Oh, sure, I read of Beethoven.”

I said, “He probably tore up wastebasketfuls of scrap paper, but he give the world masterpieces.” He never opened his mouth and said another word. I said, “When he was sitting in his study under the inspiration, he'd write something down. He'd go into his study and play. It wasn't right, he'd scrap it up and throw it in the wastebasket. But when He got through in all inspiration, the world had a masterpiece.” Oh, how the Word cuts, but it produces masterpieces, takes all the husk and stalk away, it brings forth masterpiece.

I got seven minutes to tell you something that happened day before yesterday, to get out on time. July the third, I was over here sitting in this center over here, shopping center, right out from us here. I been in Pig Alley in Rome ... in France, and I've been in New York City, Los Angeles; but the filthiest bunch of women I ever seen in my life is Jeffersonville, Indiana. I never seen so much gaum and filth in my life as I see amongst them people. I set there till my heart ached, and the Lord had gave me a vision. Now, I'm going to tell the vision. I don't know that I can interpret it, but I'm going to tell the vision for my first time.

I fell into a trance. And when I did, there was somebody with me. I didn't see the person. It was just a voice. And I looked. And as I looked this way, he said, “The bride will come in view for preview.” And I looked coming to me, and I seen the most prettiest bunch of clean-dressed women I ever seen in my life. But each one of them, looked like, was dressed different. They all had long hair, and they were ... longer sleeves and skirts and so forth, young women. They looked kind of, I'd say about, maybe, twenty.

Now, I have the Bible open here before me. I can only say what I seen. If you say, “What are you looking at?” I'm looking at a clock. “What are you looking for?” I'm looking for people ... looking at people. “What are you looking at?” I'm looking at the Bible. That's what.... I'm telling the truth; that's what I see. And I can only say what I seen. I don't know what it ... all about it, I just have to tell you.

But when this bride ... she was looking right at (The one was talking to me, and I ... standing together.) Her eyes.... She was the cleanest, sweetest looking people I ever seen in my life. Looked like it could've been a dozen or more, just ... I don't know how many was abreast, but there was just a group of them. And she passed by, sweetly with a air, and her eyes up, watching as she passed by. Oh, she was beautiful! I looked at her. And as she passed by, he said, “Now, we shall review....” Said, “That's the bride. Now, we will review the churches.” And they come. I noticed them coming up. And when they come up, each one, looked like, got worse. I never seen such a filthy bunch in my life. And when he said, “Next....” I heard a noise. And it said, “Next,” said, “here comes the American group.”

Now, I am an American, but this just made me sick. I am not eloquent enough to, in a mixed audience, to say what was taking place; and you'll have to read between the lines. But when the women were coming, the leader of them was a witch. She had a great long nose and a great big mouth. And all of them was dressed with some kind of lower clothes down here, but the top just had a strap that just ... a little, about a half inch strap that moved up and went around them like this. And each woman had something on the order. Many of you, years ago used to.... Remember, when we used to cut that paper, you know, newspaper, to make an old fly-bush?

How many remembers it? You know. Why, I think they use it in carnivals, you know. Hanging down like that, fringed paper, lace paper. They had something holding below them, like this, holding below them. All of this part was exposed. And each one had hair cut up real short, and frizzy-looking things all over it like that, real short cut hair, and full of makeup. Absolutely nothing but looked like street prostitutes. And they were walking with this paper. And the vulgarity! Now, the paper was what was hold in front of them; but when they passed the review stand, in the back of them.... And to see the way they were going on in their foremost and their back part, and how they were acting, I said, “Is that the church?

And there she went. And they were singing this here twist-and-roll songs, you know, or ever what you call, going down ... singing, going.... I said, “Is that the church?” And I was standing there. In my heart I was crying. And this witch, to my notion it's nothing else in the world, but she's that World Council of Churches leading them right straight down the road where she was going. They went off to the left and disappeared in chaos, still beating this music and making real funny sounds, and shaking their bodies one side and then the other side, and then like that, carrying on like that, walking.

And I just started to bow my head, and he said, “Wait, the bride must come again.” And I looked, and here they come again. And they passed by, sweet-looking little ladies. They was all looking right at me as they passed by. I noticed each one was dressed different. And one in the back had kind of long hair hanging down and had it rolled around like this, might have been German or something like that.... And I watched them. And then, as they started leaving, two or three of them in the back started to get out of step. And I was going to holler at them, and they was trying to get back in step again. And I seen them just ... the vision just fade out and change from me.

Now, here is the interpretation thereof: The reason ... now remember. I had just got through writing—I hadn't finished, I hadn't wrote these notes yet. But in preaching this morning, I caught what it was right in my sermon. Did you notice, the church only came in view.... Now, that's the truth, friends. The heavenly Father, who writes the Word, knows that I tell the truth. See? I know—I just say the truth. And not knowing it till just a few minutes ago, looked like or just recently.... See? Did you notice the bride come in view twice? The first seed and the second seed, both of them exactly the same one. And the reason they were dressed in different parts, she'll come from all nations, it'll make up the bride. Each one had long hair and no makeup, and real pretty girls. And they were watching me. That represented the bride coming out of all nations. See? Each one represented a nation, as they marched perfectly in line with the Word, see.

And then, I have to watch her. She'll get out of step with that Word if I don't watch, when she's passing by, if she gets by. Maybe it'll be my time when I'm over, see, when I'm finished, or whatever it is.

Watch! They was getting back, trying their best. They was getting back; they was getting in line, because they was looking out somewhere else, watching about that church that just went out into chaos. But two.... The front ones never. The back ones—just two or three of them, was kind of stepped out a little bit to the right-hand side, and looked like was trying to get back in line as they went by. They was just passing me, oh, far as the wall, passing me. And I was standing there. And then I just seen them all just move out and leave.

But you notice, the church only came into view once, each nation, the church. But the bride come in twice, see. See what it was? Now, not knowing it, but look at it with my message this morning. Not knowing that, see.

The seed fell in the ground at Nicea. That was the original seed. And she's come through the process of these denominations which only comes in existence once. But the bride returns back again in the last days: “I will restore,” see. The masterpiece is brought up. That's the reason she was in view ... reviewed the second time. She was reviewed the first time, then she was reviewed the second time. And she's perfectly the second time like she was the first time. Oh, God, have mercy! Hurry, hurry, hurry! Life, get in the grain right quick!

All others never appeared no more. They went out never to come back again. But the bride came back, because she is Alpha and Omega. God, the great sculptor, has made Him a masterpiece, for it is a piece of his first masterpiece. Like He made in the garden of Eden and took a piece from and made another piece, and that was marred and fell; now He's been all this time building it up again. And He brought forth this masterpiece, and was smitten in order—that part that was smitten was in order to bring back again that masterpiece again.

So the masterpiece and the Son of God—the masterpiece and the bride.... And it's a piece of Him, which must be the fulfilling of the Word. The Word has been fulfilled, and we're ready for the coming of the Lord.

Oh, church of the living God, bow your hearts and yourselves before God! These things are true. I know that it sounds like that as such a great a thing as that would be, would be so spread out over the nation; it never was. He doesn't change his way.

Just be thankful, church, be thankful that you are where you are today if you're in Christ. Because you see, now ... and when that.... Remember, all that life will be gathered right into the grain for the resurrection, but the stalk must be burned, the rest of it. The husk and all must be destroyed, and it will be. Don't trust in them denominations. You stay in the Word, the life, God and his masterpiece.

Then, what is in the millennium? Christ and his bride, back in the garden of the millennium. Amen!

I love Him, I love Him,

Because He first loved me,

And purchased my salvation

On Calvary's tree.

There's where He was smitten. We esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquity.

Is there any here this morning who isn't in that grain this morning? And as the life is now pulling it's last piece from the husk, for the husk is drying.... How many knows that Pentecostal church is drying? What is it? Life is leaving it. Frankly, it's left. And if that bride is already in preview, I wonder if the bride isn't already made up then.

I love Him, I love Him,

Because He first loved me,

And purchased my salvation

On Calvary's tree.

With our heads bowed now. Is there some here that would like to be remembered? If you feel that you're not.... Friends, it's too plain. I've never had a vision in my life, unless something happened, followed. I tell the truth. All these other times if I've told the truth, God has proved it, then I tell the truth this time.

I don't know what day we're living in, but I know there's nothing left. There couldn't be a politician rise that could straighten this thing out. Politics, the nation's gone. Oh, God! Can you get down deep enough to feel that. The nation's gone—not nation, but nations. This is the best of the bunch, and it's gone. Then if the nations are gone, the world's gone. And the churches? To my opinion, Pentecost was the best they've had; but it's gone. Oh God, be merciful to us!

If you don't know Him, please hurry, hurry! If you feel life, get out of the—get out of your sin, get out of the thing that you're in, get to the grain right quick. You'll die in the stalk or in the husk. Pray, while we sing now.

I love Him,..............

It's up to you now. We have no denomination, no nothing; we only have Christ. You're welcome to worship with Him—with us till He comes. We can't put your name on book; we have no books. We want your name in the book of life. You can only do that through birth. Won't you do it right now? Ask Christ for a new life, bring you in, put your name on his book if it's not. Then you can fellowship with us. We'd love to have you.

I love Him,.............

Dear God, help each person now to take inventory, see if we're in Him. You loved us. You were smitten for us. And we did esteem You smitten and afflicted of God. I pray, God, that You'll call each one. Lord, speak to my children, my loved ones, and my friends. Grant it, Lord, just now, through Jesus Christ's name.

Don't let anybody wait too long, Lord. Looks awful close. The harvest is truly ripe. The great combine of God will sweep through the land one of these days; straws will fly every way; but the wheat shall be gathered to the garner, taken up, for in it is life. Grant, Lord, each request to be answered, each prayer to be made manifest before You.

I pray for them, Lord. I pray that You won't let any that's here be lost, Lord. They sit under difficult.... They drive for hundreds of miles. And whatever that we have need of, give it to us, Lord, whatever's good for us, Lord. Not what's good in our sight, but what's good in your sight. We want to stand as a chaste virgin that's been chastened, rebuked of God, that we might be purged from our sins.

And I offer my prayer for them, Lord.

I don't know how to pray. We're talking to the mighty God, and what human being is there, what mortal could make the right type of prayer before the living God? But, Lord, my mispronounced words and my nouns and pronouns in the wrong place, if You could pick out the ABC's for a little boy one day and make a sentence, You can omit my nouns and pronouns and just look to what I believe, Lord. I believe You. I believe this Word. And I'm believing for each one here. And I'm bringing them to that altar, Lord, by faith, where between us and great Jehovah is the blood of his Son, Jesus. And the blood shall speak for us. When you smote Him on Calvary, You said, “Speak! Hear Him!” And the blood, the Bible said, speaks greater things than the blood of the lamb in the Old Testament; for the blood of Christ speaks greater than the blood of Abel, greater things. And speak, Lord, redemption for us, as we call through the blood.

Great Father of life, include us, Lord. If we've sinned, take it away from us. We don't want to be that way, Lord. It's not our intention. And we realize we're living in such a horrible dark way. As we said at the beginning, we're walking up a mountain, through rugged places; dim is the trail; but we're packing the light. May we see it step by step as we go now, until we meet, like Pilgrim's Progress, till we finally catch the top of the hill. Guide us, O shepherd. Great Jehovah, lead us by thy Spirit.

And we know that we're far from a masterpiece, but we're looking where we were hewed from, the real masterpiece, and in Him we trust. Just take us to Him, Lord. Grant it, Lord.

Heal all the sick people here, Lord. We did esteem Him, smitten and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions. God's masterpiece was smitten. And He was wounded for our transgressions; with his stripes we were healed. Heal the sick, Lord, in your divine presence now, while we know that You're here.

Cleanse our souls, our hearts from all evil, all bad thoughts, all evil communications, all things that's wrong. Cleanse us. And we pray, Father, that You'll heal our sickness, and let us leave here feeling that we are your sanctified children. And with the blood over us, we speak through the blood, the Word. Grant it, Lord. We ask in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.

Father God, upon these handkerchiefs, anoint them with thy presence, Lord. May thy presence be with them wherever they go. Whatever they're laid upon, on any sick body, may they be healed. And whatever, if there's a broken home somewhere, mend it, Lord, the great sculptor. Grant it, Lord.

Mold us and make us sons and daughters of God. We believe the bride is getting it's last polishing down. It'll be smitten from the complete organization altogether, and then the great harvest will be here. Until then, Lord, make them healthy and happy to serve you. In Jesus' name. Amen.

I love Him, I ... (Do you

really love Him?)

Because He first loved me,

And purchased my salvation

On Calvary's tree.

Now do you understand why I scold you? It ain't because I love you—or because I don't love you; I do love you. I want a masterpiece for the master. I might have to tear a few our and like this, but I'll have a masterpiece some of these days if I keep it right on this Word. That's right.

Now, Jesus said, “This will all men know that you're my disciples, when you have love one for the other.” We should be so in love with one another....

Blest be the tie that binds

Our hearts in Christian love;

The fellowship of kindred mind

Is like to that above.

Let's take one another's hands.

When we asunder part,

It gives us inward pain;

But we shall still be joined in heart,

And hope to meet again.

Take the name of Jesus with you,

Child of sorrow and of woe;

It will joy and comfort give you,

Take it everywhere you go.

Precious name, O how sweet!

Hope of earth and joy of heaven;

Precious name, O how sweet!

Hope of earth and joy of heaven.

Now remember in your journey:

Take the name of Jesus with you,

As a shield from every care;

When temptations 'round you

(What do you do then?) gather,

Just breathe that holy name in prayer.

O Precious name, O how sweet!

Hope of earth and joy of heaven;

Precious name, O how sweet!

Hope of earth and joy of heaven.

Till we meet, (Let's bow our heads.)

till we meet,

(Oh, I love to sing!)

Till we meet at Jesus' feet;

Till we meet, till we meet,

God be with you till we meet again.