Serpent Taken Up

In Sylva, N. C. (pop.: 1.340) Albert Teester, 39-year-old preacher of a "Holiness" sect, had said: "I'll handle a serpent if they want me to." Into his church two Sundays ago they brought a rattlesnake. While his congregation fidgeted, Albert Teester held the reptile aloft, shouting: "It won't hurt me!" The snake's head flashed twice; twice its fangs pricked his arm. Flinging the creature from him, Albert Teester screamed, ran into the churchyard, writhed and groveled on the ground. As they carried him away on a pallet, someone cried: "Arise and walk!" Preacher Teester arose, walked a few yards, stumbled.

Taken to his cabin miles back in the mountains, Albert Teester declined medical aid just as he had declined it for his wife last year before she died in childbirth. "I am a disciple of God," he moaned. "He will take care of me!" While his flock prayed night & day, Albert Teester's arm swelled to twice its size. His tongue puffed up so that he could barely whisper. Death seemed about to take him. On the fifth night, however, he sat up to declare: "I had faith in the Lord. ... In Mark 16 it says: They shall take up serpents and because God said this, that's why I took up the rattlesnake. I did it for the glory of God. ... I take God for my healer."

Last Sunday Albert Teester, his arm still swollen and his eyes burning with zeal, arose and trudged six miles to a cabin where his followers awaited him. Said he : "I have one of the best physicians in the world. I'll tell you who he is. He is Jesus Christ. Hallelujah! . . . God told me to do it, and that's why I did it. God, I want you to have every bit of glory out of this here right arm of mine." Then Albert Teester held a healing service in which 20 of his "saints" knelt and prayed, swayed, sang, danced and jabbered, rub bing his arm as if to extract its holy virtue. Afterward Albert Teester hiked the six miles back home.

In Manhattan. Ophiologist Raymond Lee Ditmars observed: "About 15% of the persons bitten by rattlesnakes die. A strong man has a good chance to recover, even without treatment. . . . This man's religion has buoyed him up mentally. It's a big help."

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