64. Take your stand. Yes, sir. Show some scars. You ain't had no testimony yet; you haven't done nothing. Might as well get out and do something for God. Do something.
Here some time ago, I was reading of Jack Coy, an Indian guide out there in the West. And he was lost one day. And he couldn't find his way in. And he'd been lost, and his horse was about dead. And he was--she was--she was breathing heavy. All the water was gone. He was in the desert. And he was leading her, staggering. A Christian man, he knew it wouldn't be long until death would finally take them.
He was going along and after while, they hit a buffalo trail, where animals had been running. And so, he tried to--to get on the horse. Then he thought maybe they'd go to water, so he jumped on the horse, and he started going down. The horse couldn't hardly walk, and he couldn't either. So, he got down.
65. And after while, the trail separated. And one went this way and one went that way. Well, the one went this way just had a few tracks. But the one that went that way was well blazed. And so, Jack pulled his horse around to start that way, and the old horse wouldn't go that way. He wanted to go back this a way. So, Jack tried to spur his horse on. She wouldn't go. She kept nickering, trying to go back this a way.
And he got real angry, and he threw his spurs into her. And he cut her till the blood was running out of her, like that. And she started quivering. She was going to fall. He got off of her, and he think, "She packed me through this desert. She's been good to me and how she... Now, she believes the water is that way. There's not very much of a trail going that way."
And that's the way it is tonight, friends. There is not very much of a trail leads this a way. But it's a way to Life.
66. The well--way is posted down there, just belong to anything you want to and go on, just as long as you put your name on the church book. But being--receiving the Holy Ghost since you believed is not so very well posted tonight. Listen, and I think that...
Jack reached over, he said and put the--his head... Patted her and said, "Bess, I'm sorry that I did that." He said, "You have been faithful to carry me this far, and I'm willing to risk my life. I've heard that horses have instincts that they know where waters is. Animals..." Said, "If you've carried me this far... I'd have died long time ago if it hadn't been for you. But it--I'm going to take your route. I'm about to hold on to you. I'm going to take your route. If we die, we both die together."
I think that... (not comparing my Lord with a--a horse) But He's packed me this far; this good old Holy Ghost religion has brought me safely this far. At the hour of my death, I'll take a hold of Calvary (Hallelujah!), say, "You carried me through every sick spell, and through the blackness and darkness of life, and through the bitter parts of hell. I'll trust You in my dying hour." Yes, sir. Not on some theology, but on the Holy Spirit in God's Word. On Christ the solid Rock.
67. He hadn't gone but a little piece that way, the horse starting trying to trot. She was so poor and bleeding on the side. He didn't get but a little piece farther down the road until they plunged right into a great big gusher of water there.
He said he jumped into the water, him and the horse both. And they drank, and he washed her nostrils out. And he patted her and they screamed. And he thanked God, and he raised his hands and cried and shouted, and everything like that. Said he was just having a wonderful time.
Directly, he heard somebody laughing. And standing over on the other side was a bunch of drunken prospectors, he come across and they said, "Who are you?"
He said, "I'm Jack Coy, of the Indian reservation."
Said, "Well, come on over, Jack." Said, "We got something to eat. We got some venison here."
68. So he started over there and he seen they were drinking, so he eat the venison with them. And after while, they said, "All right, Jack, you're..." They was all... Said, "What day is it?" Said, "We're celebrating the fourth of July."
He said, "Well, this is October." They was all drunk and been out there so long, they didn't... But they'd found gold. And they were on their road back. And they didn't care. They was just having a big time. And they thought they'd have some fun out of him.
So, they said... Now, one of them staggered up to him, a little old disfigured looking fellow. He said, "All right, Coy," said, "how about having a drink of our good liquor?"
He said, "No thanks, boys, I don't drink."
He said, "Ah, come on now." You know how a drunk is. Said, "Yes, you drink. You'll have one drink."
Said, "No, boys. Thank you." Said, "I don't drink."
Said, "Now, wait. If our venison is good enough to eat, then our whiskey is good enough to drink." Said, "Now, you're going to drink--take a drink."
And the other guy said, "That's right. Tell him about it. We'll back you up."
He said, "You're going to drink it or you're going to die."
69. So he picked up his thirty-thirty and threw a shell up. If anybody knows what that means out in the desert. When they throw that thirty-thirty Winchester up, that means something is going to happen.
So, he pulled up the thirty-thirty like that, and he said, "Now look, Jack." Said, "Now, you--if you... If our venison is good enough for you toeat, then our whiskey is good enough for you to drink with us. If you're so goody-goody and don't want to drink our whiskey, well then," said, "you can pay. Let your bones bleach on this desert."
He said, "Wait just a minute, boys, before you do it." Said, "I appreciate your venison. I'll pay you."
"We don't want you to pay. We want you to have a drink and be sociable." You know how drunks are like that.
He said, "Boys, just a minute." Said, "I ain't going to drink, but before you pull that gun up" (when he was leveling it up) said, "I want to ask you something."
He said, "Here, you take this jug, and you take this drink, or I'll pull the trigger on this rifle."
He said, "Just a minute, before you pull the trigger, let me give you my testimony." He said, "I hailed from the old bluegrass country of Kentucky." He said, "Years ago," he said, "I stood in the corner one morning of a little old trundle bed. My daddy was gone. My mother was laying there and," said, "the morning light was stealing across the little old bare floor.
70. Same kind of place I was raised in myself. No--no boards on the floor, just the dirt. Our--our kitchen table was a stump with legs in it. And so then... Sawed off a block of wood and just stick up like that. That's what it--was our kitchen table. Some of us eat setting on the bed. The others eat setting in an old chair, built out of a board off the barn. And then there's...
He said, "There was a light stole across there." Said, "God was taking home the sweetest person in the world, my mother." And said, "Me a little bare-footed boy, running along there not knowing where I'd go." Said, "I started out the door, and she said, 'Jack, honey? Come here.'"
And said, "I run to see what she wanted." Said, "She put her arms around me." Said, "Her gray hair was streaking down her face." Said, "'Jack, you know your father died over here in a barroom with his boots on. He was--died a drunkard. And Jack, mother's a going.'"
And said, "'Here is the Bible laying here,'" said, "'promise me, Jack, that you'll never take a drink.'"
And said, "I kissed my dying mother on the brow." And said, "Her arms gripped me, and she held me until the breath left her body, when I had to pull my hands away from her side to walk back and fold them across her breast like this, as a dying mother."
71. Said, "And there, I have never drank my first drink from that time to this. Now, if you want to shoot, shoot." And said about that time a--a gun fired, and the jug bursted in the man's hand. And stepped out of the canyon, was a little bitty cowboy, tears rolling down his cheeks, his two big guns in his hands, said, "Hold still. Just a minute." Said, "You won't do any shooting?" Said, "No, sir."
He said, "I too, Jack, hailed from the old country over yonder, back there in the beautiful bluegrass country." Said, "My mother was a Christian woman with that old time religion." And said, "I promised her on her death bed that I wouldn't drink. But" said, "I'm sorry that I've broke that many times. But" said, "the big canyons of heaven heard my gun when it fired awhile ago. I sealed a pledge with God, I'll never drink another drop from this time to that. That reminds me of the old time religion that my mother had." Said, "I'll never drink it."
And there them men together converted that whole bunch of drunks to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Palmerworm Locus Cankerworm Caterpillar - 53-0612 - William Branham
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