I was bitten this morning about eleven o'clock. This is eleven o'clock this afternoon. The God that could protect me this long, can protect me the rest of the way through

........ I see Brother Welch Evans and his wife setting back there, and family, from Tifton, Georgia. Every time I speak at the Tabernacle that man drives a trip of fifteen hundred miles, him and his family, every Sunday to hear the Gospel. Brother Welch, I just wished you and Sister Evans, family there, would stand up just a minute. Fifteen hundred miles… Thank you. 

 5 I remember very well first time seeing Brother Evans. Brother Mercier said, "There's a man wants to meet you in the morning." I was in Philadelphia when it taken place, and when I was getting up out of the bed I saw the man. And he's kind of a sportsman, likes to fish. And I saw him doing a violation. So the morning when I met him I told Meda about it. She said, "You wouldn't say that to that strange man." I said, "I'll find out what he is first." So then, after talking to him, seeing he was just a real fellow, I said, "Say, just recently you was on a fishing trip back, like in a bayou. You had a whole sack full of fish, and you had to hide them three times to keep away from the game warden." My. Looked at me, said, "Yes, sir. I—I…" What—what… He wondered what I was going to say. I said, "There's just one request. Will you take me fishing back there?" 

 6 His brother had been bitten by a snake back there, which is a ground rattler. I don't know whether they have them here in Louisiana or not. And he's a nasty little thing. And that boy, hospitalized (he's not a Christian, young, little younger than Brother Evans here), and he had to have a brace on his leg—walked on a hoop, months. And so, right back in the same place… You know, the Lord kinda told me to go back there. And I—I caught some of the finest bass (Oh, my.), great big fellows. And I had one great big one hooked on, was trying to get him out with a bumblebee popper, you know, and so… And he was so big, his mouth about like that, and that little bumblebee in there. He'd stand right up on his tail (you fishermen know), and he'd flip that thing out. And you just have to hold it. If you don't, you pull it out, and kinda hard. He was angry, and I throwed it back, and had him on three or four times. He'd have been a twelve, fourteen, pound fish. So Brother Evans seen me. And oh, he's just a good country boy, you know—had his trouser legs rolled up, 'cause he'd gotten wet. And so he said, "He must be old Big Jim." I said, "He sure must." So I threw out again, and I—I got one. He said, "That's him." I said, "No, now not quite him." It was a nice bass. 

 7 And we carried little pistols on our hips, because you had to fight your way through alligators and—and cottonmouths to get in there, just swamp, seventeen thousand acres in this ranch. And it's been… A dredge line went through, and that years ago. And that's where we was fishing. And so, we was had to wade through water and everything to get in there, and gators, snakes, just in wads. And so, we'd take a pole, and move around. If we seen a ground rattler, just shoot him, and then just walk on in the water (See?), keep on going, 'cause he'd be laying on top of the lily, or something, coiled ready to strike.

 8 So Brother Welch said, "I'll pick him up, your fish." And he jumped off in some little tules and pads there. And when he did, a ground rattler grabbed him, just about, oh, about a half a mile from where his brother had got bitten. Well, he jumped out of the water there with two holes in his leg—foot, just above, like that, where the snake fang had hit. And he said his bones was freezing in him. Now, if you've seen his size, he's lots bigger than I am. And I'd have to pack him about two mile on my back, get him out of there. That was too much for me. And we was setting there, him holding it, suffering. And the Lord just spoke to me, said a Scripture: "They shall tread on the heads of serpents and scorpions; nothing shall harm them." I said, "Just a minute, Brother Evans." I put my hand over on the snakebite on his foot. I said, "Heavenly Father, we are in a state of emergency. And it is written, 'If they take up serpents, or if they tread on the heads, it will not harm them.' That was for believers, and this brother is a believer. And I'm a believer. And we ask for Your mercy." He stopped kind of breathing and suffering the way he was. And I thought he's just in respects of the prayer. When I got finished, he was laughing. Said, "All the pain's gone." Just put on his shoes and went on. 

9 At eleven o'clock that night, they were out there taking pictures when we got to the place where we were staying, the motel, come back out of the ranch. His brother runs a bait shop then, just across the street. Well, they was over there taking pictures of these big strings of, of these large mouth bass. And so he said… While we were standing there the story come up about the snakebite. His brother said, "It's good to be religious, but not good to be foolish." He said—he said, "You better get to medical aid right now." See? 'cause he was on a hoop from the same kind of a bite. He said, "I was bitten this morning about eleven o'clock. This is eleven o'clock this afternoon. The God that could protect me this long, can protect me the rest of the way through." So there you are. See, He still… He still protects from snakebites.

 62-1125M - "Convinced And Then Concerned" Rev. William Marrion Branham