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<img src="http://jb-ms.com/images/Pics2/tabernacle.jpg" height= 163 width=133 align="left" vspace="5"hspace="7"/>If any of you ever went to an old timey "Holy Rollie" church service you know how active it can get. The revivals at the Tabernacle took it to the extreme. Each revival service lasted for hours, at least it seemed that way at my age, and there was a lot of shouting, singing, dancing and after the first few minutes always at least a few who got the "ghost" and began to speak in tongues.
There was one family, the Grady Nicholson family, that lived only a few hundred yards from the Tabernacle and never missed a service. Grady was my fathers age, that would have been around 40 at the time. His mother-in-law lived right beside him, always came to the revival with them and she and Grady's wife would get the ghost and speak in tongue at every service. They wanted Grady to experience it, and according to my father he really tried but to no avail. He just couldn't get it. His wife and mother-in-law came up with a plan. They would have the preacher lay hands on Grady during a service. Laying on hands, plus the whole church praying for him while it was happening, was sure to make Grady get the ghost, or so they thought. They talked to the preacher, he agreed and arranged for some of the others to also lay their hands on Grady while he prayed for him to get the ghost.
The next revival night the preacher started out as usual, but after about 10 minutes of warming up he asked Grady to come up on the stage. I mentioned the owner had left the stage and pulpit for the auctioneers to use when he tried to make a livestock auction there and the preacher and some of his people had put some benches on the stage for what he called his choir. Since there were no benches to sit on everyone had to stand during the services, that made it hard for small fellow like me to see what was happening but I could hear it well enough and daddy always filled us in later on what we couldn't see. They layed Grady down on one of the benches, his wife got him by one arm, his mother-in-law by the other and about 20 more folks grabbed ahold of him.
The preacher got at his head and put both his hands on Grady's forehead, then cut loose to preaching. He started out low and got louder and louder, people were yelling out amens and jumping around something fierce. Now this was in early August, and it was really hot, and pretty soon the preacher was wringing wet with sweat but he just got faster and louder the longer he went. After what seemd like a good 15-20 minutes the whole place was in an uproar, but through the noise we could hear Grady yelling. At first everyone thought he had got the ghost and was speaking in tonges but after a few minutes we could tell he was yelling, "Let me up!" over and over. The preacher and those holding Grady down paid no attention, if anything the doubled their efforts.
This goes on for a few more minutes, Grady yelling for them to let him up and those holding him down shouting, as were most of the others there. Then from somewhere he summoned up a burst of energy, or maybe them that was holding him down got tired, for he slung off about 5 or 6 and yelled, "I ain't got it dammit, let me up! Let up dammit, I ain't got it!" loud enough to drown out the whole bunch. It was like muting the volume on a TV, it got very quiet and those holding him down turned loose and backed off. Grady got up, soaking wet with sweat, and slowly walked out the door. His wife and mother-in-law followed him out and it looked like both were crying.
My father said Grady told him what his wife and her mother had planned, and that he agreed to go along with it but afterwards he never mentioned anything about it again, ever, and he and his family were at the next service like nothing had happened. At my age I didn't understand any of it, but it was exciting and I hoped they'd do it again sometime.
I have some misgivings about posting religious stories as I'm concerned they might be taken the wrong way and one of you might be offended. I know that most of you are very religious and my concern is that I may appear to be making fun of those I write about. I'm not, and would never do so. The names and people are real, as is what I've written, but if any one of you feel the religious oriented stories are inappropriate I'll stop writing them.
JB
There was one family, the Grady Nicholson family, that lived only a few hundred yards from the Tabernacle and never missed a service. Grady was my fathers age, that would have been around 40 at the time. His mother-in-law lived right beside him, always came to the revival with them and she and Grady's wife would get the ghost and speak in tongue at every service. They wanted Grady to experience it, and according to my father he really tried but to no avail. He just couldn't get it. His wife and mother-in-law came up with a plan. They would have the preacher lay hands on Grady during a service. Laying on hands, plus the whole church praying for him while it was happening, was sure to make Grady get the ghost, or so they thought. They talked to the preacher, he agreed and arranged for some of the others to also lay their hands on Grady while he prayed for him to get the ghost.
The next revival night the preacher started out as usual, but after about 10 minutes of warming up he asked Grady to come up on the stage. I mentioned the owner had left the stage and pulpit for the auctioneers to use when he tried to make a livestock auction there and the preacher and some of his people had put some benches on the stage for what he called his choir. Since there were no benches to sit on everyone had to stand during the services, that made it hard for small fellow like me to see what was happening but I could hear it well enough and daddy always filled us in later on what we couldn't see. They layed Grady down on one of the benches, his wife got him by one arm, his mother-in-law by the other and about 20 more folks grabbed ahold of him.
The preacher got at his head and put both his hands on Grady's forehead, then cut loose to preaching. He started out low and got louder and louder, people were yelling out amens and jumping around something fierce. Now this was in early August, and it was really hot, and pretty soon the preacher was wringing wet with sweat but he just got faster and louder the longer he went. After what seemd like a good 15-20 minutes the whole place was in an uproar, but through the noise we could hear Grady yelling. At first everyone thought he had got the ghost and was speaking in tonges but after a few minutes we could tell he was yelling, "Let me up!" over and over. The preacher and those holding Grady down paid no attention, if anything the doubled their efforts.
This goes on for a few more minutes, Grady yelling for them to let him up and those holding him down shouting, as were most of the others there. Then from somewhere he summoned up a burst of energy, or maybe them that was holding him down got tired, for he slung off about 5 or 6 and yelled, "I ain't got it dammit, let me up! Let up dammit, I ain't got it!" loud enough to drown out the whole bunch. It was like muting the volume on a TV, it got very quiet and those holding him down turned loose and backed off. Grady got up, soaking wet with sweat, and slowly walked out the door. His wife and mother-in-law followed him out and it looked like both were crying.
My father said Grady told him what his wife and her mother had planned, and that he agreed to go along with it but afterwards he never mentioned anything about it again, ever, and he and his family were at the next service like nothing had happened. At my age I didn't understand any of it, but it was exciting and I hoped they'd do it again sometime.
I have some misgivings about posting religious stories as I'm concerned they might be taken the wrong way and one of you might be offended. I know that most of you are very religious and my concern is that I may appear to be making fun of those I write about. I'm not, and would never do so. The names and people are real, as is what I've written, but if any one of you feel the religious oriented stories are inappropriate I'll stop writing them.
JB
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