Branham Stories
The Flaw Made It A Masterpiece – Physical Version -Part One
The subject that I feel to speak to the congregation today is: The Masterpiece.
It may seem rather strange to take a--a Scripture reading like this, of--of one of the most bruised and murderous pictures of the Bible, that when the Bible says, that, "This perfect Servant that was afflicted, and bruised, and torn," and yet take a text from that, as, Masterpiece. Very strange. But I'm...
My mind is thinking, this morning, as we journey back, I do, for a few years. I was invited up to Forest Lawn, in--in California, up above Los Angeles. My first purpose for going up there was to visit the--the grave of--of Aimee Semple McPherson, the founder of the Foursquare movement. And I went to her--her tomb. And although I--I different with the woman, as a minister, but, yet, in my heart, I give admiration and a respect for--for what she stood for, in the--the hour, and the persecution and things she had to go through with, and in time of her being here on the earth. And then for her--her beloved son, which is a bosom friend of mine, Rolf McPherson.
And a group of ministers, we went up there. And they... we didn't have time to go into the--the... into the--the place where they have the cremation, and put the--the bodies in a--a little box on the side of the wall.
And in there they have some outstanding things, such as the Last Supper. And it's lighted by the actual light of the sun. And they--they have a shutter that it gives them... When they go in, it's light; and then as--as they begin to speak, it darkens up. And after a while it all becomes dark, and then the people go out. And they have all the Supper.
And the woman that held the secret of how to beat this glass into this place, why, make these pictures, why, it--it come through a family, for many years back. And the art was just given to the children, and the last one was a woman. And they was fixing this picture. And when they went to mold and burn the--the glass, bake it, of Judas Iscariot, it busted. So then they tried it again, and it busted again. And she said, "Maybe our Lord doesn't want His enemy picture by His side." And said, "If it bursts again, we'll not complete the picture." But it held that time. Then, course, that was a striking thing, and how that such things would happen.
But, then, one of the main things that interest me in Forest Lawn, was Michelangelo's, the great sculpture, the--the monument of Moses. It's a--a reproduction there, of course. It isn't the original, but it was such a--a great masterpiece. And as I stood and looked at it, I--I liked that, something that looks like it's (represents) got something to it.
I like art, real well. I believe God is in art. I believe God is in music. I believe God is in nature. God is everywhere. And anything that's contrary to the original is a perversion. God is in dancing; not the kind of dancing you do here. But when the sons and daughters of God are in the Spirit of God, see, that's dancing. But like we had to contend with till two o'clock this morning, up there in the lane, that's the perversion of it.
But, this, and the masterpiece that Michelangelo had--had made, it--it cost him something to do that--that. He was a great man, and it cost a big part of his life, because he was many, many years in carving out. Just take a rock and of--of marble, and keep carving it. And, see, only the man, the sculptor himself, has in his mind what he's trying to do. He, he is the one. You might walk up and say to him, "What are you pecking on that rock for?" To the outsider, who doesn't know what's in his heart, it's nonsense. But to the man, the sculptor himself, he--he's got a--a vision in his mind, what he's trying to make, and he's trying to reproduce what he has on his mind in the form of a--of a monument. That's the reason he's digging it out of the rocks.
And this, to do, you have to start off right, at the beginning, and you have to follow the pattern. See? You can't get a little piece, to start off, "We'll make it this way; no, I believe..." No, he's got to have a exact pattern. And in his mind he's got that pattern. And he cannot vary from that pattern. Now, in order to do this, he had to draw in his mind, because we have no real pictures of Moses, but he had to get a mental picture in his mind, of exactly what Moses was.
Now, a genuine sculptor is inspired, like a genuine poet, or any genuine singer, musician, whatever it might be. All real has to come by inspiration. Michelangelo must have had the inspiration of what Moses really looked like. And he caught it in his mind, what Moses must have been. So he set forth on this great piece of marble, the cutting to the pattern, and bringing down, and honing down, until he got to the real picture of what it must have been in his mind.
And then when he got it all so perfect, every corner off, and every place rubbed, and the eyes just right, every hair, and beard, all just the way it was, he stood off and looked at it. I--I think of--of many, many hard years of labor, and how he had to hold that same vision all the time, in his mind, of what he was going to do. And just think, that vision on his mind for so many years, to make it look just exactly to what it was! He caught the vision first, and how he had to work to that vision, cutting off and making down! And when he got it to where he perfected it, till it really got perfect; he stood and looked at it when he finished up that morning, with a hammer in his hand.
And he was so inspired when he looked at it, because the vision of his mind was standing before him, in reality. What he had seen, and the... his conception of what Moses was, there it was figured before him, what he had had in his heart all these years. And toils, and hours of sorrow and distress, and critics, and everything else, but yet he stayed right with the vision until it was completed.
And then when it was completed, he stood back with the hammer, or sculptor's hammer, in his hand, and he looked at that monument. And the inspiration of the vision that he had seen, of how to do it, inspired him so much till he... The inspiration struck him till he got beside hisself, and struck it across the knee, and said, "Speak!"
Now there's a flaw on that great image, on the knee, on the right knee. Just above the knee, about six inches, is a place (I've put my hand on it) about that deep.
After he had spent all that time, for years and years, to make this; then under the--the influence of seeing fulfilled what he had seen in his heart and in his vision, and desired to see, it was completed. And when it was completed, he was so inspired by it till he thought his own masterpiece should speak back to him. And he struck it across the leg, and holler, "Speak!" And it made a flaw on it. It put a flaw on the image.
To me, the flaw was what made it the masterpiece. Now, maybe to the--the mind that might think different, you think that spoiled it. No, to me, it--it made it what it was. It--it... Because of after so many years of careful work and toils, and inspiration, and so forth, of making it, his toil had proved not in vain. It was perfect, and that's why he cried out, "Speak!" Because, he had seen before him that he (was) had been able to achieve, to bring to pass the vision that was in his mind. And therefore, under inspiration, he done something out of the reason, out of the ordinary. He struck it, and hollered, "Speak!" See, he wouldn't have done that if he had thought. But he didn't think. It was inspiration of seeing what he had in his mind setting there perfectly before him.
His toils, and wearies, and long nights, and housed away from the world for days, and maybe eat a sandwich. And--and rub on it, and get back, and, "No, that's just not the way it was. Now it's got to come down to this," and rubbing it. Then when he saw it, just perfect, then he saw in reality. The negative of the what was in his mind had become real, it become positive, therefore it sprung into him. And it was so real that he must cry out, "Speak!"
To me, it was a reflection. It was--it was a compliment to his work, that his own work so inspired him, that he would become beside himself to smite it and to say, "Speak!"
I stood there and looked at the monument. I thought of the hours that the man must have put, in making that. They said how many years it was. But it--it was a reflection to him, because it was a contribution to his--to his great art, his great work of what he was doing. And when he finally was able to achieve it, it was so great"
