SPIRITUAL
ADOPTION 56-0923 E-55 Yonder in Switzerland not long ago, as I
close on this remark... Many of you children in school, I suppose you still
have it, of an old story that should never die, although it's fading today in
our country; but never will it fade in Switzerland where it happened. You
remember your school in your reader of Arnold Von Winkelried, the great hero of
Switzerland? You can mention his name today up in the Swiss Alps, and their
faces will color up, and the tears will run down their cheeks. Many years
ago... The Swiss are a peace loving people. They're Germans who way back in the
early centuries went down into the mountains where there's no ore or nothing.
But they bought... They had the intelligence of the Germans.
E-56
The Germans thinks he is a master race, is true. But he's trying to
invent a gun, or a bomb, that will conquer the whole world with his
intelligence. But the Swiss is a peace loving man. He goes down and makes him
a, gets him some material and makes his neighbor a watch and lives peacefully.
Then up in the high Swiss mountains many years ago when they set up
their--their kingdom, or, I would say their government... They was not a
military nation; they were a peace loving nation. And one day when the invaders
had come to their land, and was stomping out everything that they had...
Nothing--nothing, no matter what they built, they rolled stones down the
mountains, and it never bothered them. And they had the Swiss army backed up
into a field at the bottom of the mountain.
E-57 And it's so beautiful in Switzerland, how
I've watched them, how they farm and on the lowlands, and the next is the
cattle, and then farther up the mountain is the sheep, and all the way at the
top is where they raise their goats. And how they have the yodel that these
American Hollywood so-called yodelers make a mock out of. Never compares with
it. How they blow their horn when trouble's...?... and every neighbor run
together to help when there was some need. Now we use it as a jazz band,
rock-and-roll. Oh, it's such a... how the pollution... Listen, friends, I'll
make the remark of my manager. If God doesn't soon send judgment to this
adulterous generation of people, He will have to raise up Sodom and Gomorrah
and apologize for burning them up. That's right, certainly. He's just and there
can be nothing else done, but God has to do it. And while mercy holds its arms
open, flee to it. And there...
E-58
Up in the mountain where this little army was armed with such as they
could find, of shields, and sticks, and saw blades, and whatmore they had, and
pitchforks, backed up. The great alien army come with just like a solid brick
wall. They were every man trained, and great spears, and they marched on,
close, backing this little Swiss army against the mountain. They were hopeless,
everything that they had tried was all black and dark, and nothing could save
them. After while from the midst of them came a scream of one Arnold Von
Winkelried. And he stepped out, and he said, "Brethren, today I die for
Switzerland and for its freedom." He said, "We love our homeland and
what our fathers has fought for, and what our fathers intended for us to have.
And today our great economy is at stake. And today I freely give my life for
Switzerland."
E-59 He said, "Yonder behind the mountain
is my lovely home, and my sweet, loving wife and my little children, expecting
me to return." But said, "I'll never see them again on this
earth." He said, "Today I'll die for Switzerland." He... They
said, "What will you do, Arnold von Winkelried?" He said,
"Follow me. I'll break the ranks of the army. I'll break their garrison.
And then you take whatever you've got and fight as you best you can. As men of
war, fight with what you have the best you can." And he threw up his arms,
and he looked around to where the very heaviest of the spears was a coming as
he inched up. And he threw up his arms and screamed, "Make way for liberty."
And he ran towards those approaching brick wall. "Make way for
liberty," he screamed. And he run to the very thickest of the spears, and
threw his arms around the spears, and gathered them into his breast and died.
E-60
And the Swiss men, as they followed him with what they had, it throwed
such an excitement till it broke their ranks, every man was out of place; he
didn't know what to do. And the Swiss run in and won a victory. And
Switzerland's never had a war since. It'll long be remembered in Switzerland.
As long as there's a Switzerland, Arnold von Winkelried will be remembered. But
that's a wonderful heroic. Never has it been compared. But it's a minor thing,
just a minor thing, till one day when the sons of Adam, when the law had
failed, and when the justice of the prophets had failed, when the world was
weak and could not save through the sacrifice of the lamb. The animal blood and
the animal spirit could not return, it failed... Satan knowed better than that.
E-61 And where the justice of God, yet calling
down the fire, and burning the fifties, and the judgment the prophets give to
the earth, man constantly went on to perdition. Every hope was gone. God had
sent the law; God had sent the prophets; and they had all failed. All hopes was
gone for mankind. One day in the midst of the realms of glory, the Son of God
stepped out and said, "This day will I go and to liberate the sons of
Adam." And while He stood yonder, when all hopes... The Devil would place
sickness upon us; he'd put sin upon us. And we had to take it. Justice of the
law demanded it. And if we failed to receive the law, which we were all
condemned by the law, only justice could be exercised. There was no way out,
nothing we could do.
E-62 But He stepped forth. The Angel said,
"What will you do?" He went to the earth, and He said, "Now,
you, everyone of you sons of Adam; you take what I give you to fight with, and
fight as you can, the best you can." And He never found a weak spot
through theology, or neither building of seminaries, or the erecting of
churches. But He went where the spears was the heaviest, down through the
valley of the shadow of death. And He gathered death and sickness with His arms
into His own bosom, and sent back the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost to
place in our hands of requiring of each son of Adam to fight as we can. Though
you'll be made fun of, though you'll be persecuted, though you'll be called
holy- roller, everything else, fight as the best you can, for the victory is
sure, and thanks be to God the enemy's routed. It's garrisons are broke. And
the great Captain of our salvation is leading on today by the baptism of the
Holy Spirit.
E-63
Oh, sons and daughters of Adam, why set ye here until you die? Let us
rise and do something. Let us take what we have. If it's no more than a mortal
lip that can still move, let's give praise to God. Let's thank Him for
salvation. If you are a sinner, you can never call yourself out of the quarry
of this earth that God has blasted you out by the Gospel. But stand still and
let God saw you to--to place you into the building. If you're sick, remember
Jesus conquered both death, hell, sickness, grave, and all when He died for you
at Calvary. Let us take what we have this morning and fight to the best of our
knowledge. While we bow our heads in a word of prayer... And if I ask the
sister to come and play on the piano some good hymn, while we all sensible,
sane people...
E-64 Do you appreciate this morning the death
of our Lord Jesus? Your churches will not work, though as good as they may be.
Your schools will miserably fail, though good as they may be. Your doctor will
miserably fail, good as he may be. But this morning let's turn our looks; let's
turn our eyes from the laws of the churches, and the denominations, and the
doctor's office, and, as good as they all are, and let's hear that voice coming
from the shadow that overshadows us this morning. "This is My beloved Son.
Hear ye Him." Dear heavenly Father, as humbly as Christians can approach,
we come in behalf of the lost and needy. Take these words today, and, O Holy
Spirit that's leading the Church, tutor Your children to God today. Many might
have fell by the wayside and know not the way of God no more. They've been
darkened and blackened. Their hopes has failed, but may they view again Calvary
where You caught the fiery darts of the enemy of death, the enemy of sickness,
the enemy of sorrow, the enemy of all mankind. And there You placed it in Your
bosom and broke the way.
E-65 And down through that dark shadow this
morning we see our home in glory. As von Winkelried said, "Behind the
mountain is a home. They wait for me to come, but they won't see me no
more." But Jesus, You never said, "They won't see Me anymore."
You said, "In My Father's house is many mansions. I'll go and get one
ready and come and get you and receive you unto Myself." How we respect
the gallant death of Winkelried, but he was a mortal. He could only die and
leave behind. But Thou come to die and redeem, and bring us, not from our loved
ones, but to our loved ones, not from our homes, but to our homes, and cut a
line through the darkness of death that we could see beyond the veil where lays
the blessings of God. And now, today, dear Father, if there be any of Your
children that You have blasted with the Gospel from the quarry of life, and
desire to so make them, and been cutting on them this morning, and hewing them,
sawing off their habits, and their evil thinking, and their backbitings, and
backslidings, and now You want to place them again and fit them into the
building, will You speak to their hearts just now?
E-66 And while we have our heads bowed would
there be some child here today who has strayed from the way, or maybe never
come to the way, but you feel today that you would like to be included, you'd
like to be a stone fitted in the building of God, would you raise your hand to
Christ, say, "Christ, cut off my worldliness."? God bless you back
there, young fellow. God bless you, lady. God bless you, sir. God bless you, my
sister. God bless you. Someone else? Now, with your heads bowed as we're
waiting on the Holy Spirit. And you know whether you failed God or not. Did you
fail to go when your great Conqueror said, "Come, follow Me. Take up your
cross, deny yourself. Come after Me, I'll break the ranks of the enemy. I'll
break the ranks of sin. I'll break the ranks of sickness. And you follow Me,
and fight as the best you can, for I'll make a hole through it, and our homes
will be preserved unto Eternal Life."
E-67 Are you an alien away from God? Just raise your hands when... God bless you, little fellow. Someone else who's never raised their hands would want to bring up their hand, say, "Remember me, Brother Branham. Today I want to now come to Christ. I..." God bless you, sister. "I want to now come to Christ to be cut by His machine. Something this morning has touched my heart. I've been shook down on the inside of me. I've been all placed back here with worldly habits. The dirt and muck of the earth has uncovered, has covered me up, but the Gospel today has uncovered me. And I stand as guilty before God, and I know it. And I want God to take me as a stone today, and cut me out, and give me a confession of the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and place me into His Kingdom. I want to be uncovered today. As I am uncovered I want to be sawed and put into His Kingdom."