Branham Stories
The Unthoughtful Father
An unthoughtful father, two years ago, in Colorado, oh, he was going up into the mountains, he had a little boy about six, seven years old. He was going to take him on his first deer hunt. So they went high up on the mountain, and the little boy said to his daddy, "I'm getting tired."
"Get on my back. We're not high enough up yet, the deers are high." On and on and on went the man till he got... He didn't know, he was a city man. He didn't know nothing about how to hunt or where to go. Any man that knows anything about wilderness knows that deer don't stay up high. They don't go up there. Goats stay up there, not deer. They're down where they can feed, they got to get where there's something to eat. And, so, but this man thought, "If I get way up in the rocks somewhere up there, I'll find a big buck." He had seen a picture of some standing upon--standing upon a rock, and he thought that's where he'd find him. Don't pay no attention to what them magazines read, my, oh, my, you'll have a nightmare! That, there's only thing to do, is take a guide where you know where you're at.
And that father, it come up a rain all at once up there, one of them quick rains that comes. And the man hunted too late, till it got dark and he couldn't find his way back. And the... then the winds come across the top of the mountains, and he himself moving fast, and that's...
You have to know how to survive, if you're caught out. There's another thing, know how to survive! I've climbed up trees and slid down them, and climbed up trees and slide down, up and down like that, to keep alive. I've took snow when it would be four foot on each side, bust a stump and lay it down. And so hungry that I couldn't hardly stand it! And bust up these old stumps, and light them and let it get hot and melt the snow down. And then about one o'clock in the morning, two o'clock, pull the stumps back, and lay down on that warm ground, to keep alive. And you have to know how to do these things.
And this man didn't know what he was doing, he had nobody with him to direct him. And he held his own little son against his bosom until he felt him cool off and die. Unthoughtful! If he had just took a guide with him, he could have brought him right back down the mountain regardless of what time it was, see. But he waited till it gets dark, then he couldn't see his way around.
That's the trouble with Christians today. They wait till the darkness settles over, then you find out that you've left without the Guide. The Guide!"
