Bible Bill from Waterville

The first time I saw Bible Bill, back in 1978, he was walking alongside the Trans-Canadian Highway, about an hour north of Fredericton, New Brunswick, with his thumb in the air. My friend pulled his car over onto the shoulder of the road, and Bill hopped in. Bill only traveled with us a short way, but in that time we learned a lot about him. He was an itinerant Pentecostal preacher who lived on the fringes of society and was supported by donations from his friends. Without a car, he hitchhiked all over New Brunswick, preaching and passing out pamphlets with questions on the covers like "WHERE WILL YOU SPEND ETERNITY?" and "DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOU ARE GOING WHEN YOU DIE?"

The second and last time I saw Bible Bill was in a little country church. Another friend and I had stopped out of curiosity. Inside the church it was hot and packed. Mothers were standing in the back, nursing their babies. With an open Bible in one hand, Bill was preaching. He did not stand behind a podium but ranged up and down the aisles, speaking with emotion and that eloquence that so many unlettered, country preachers seem to be born with. The crowd was mostly standing. Many were responding to Bill's emotion with their own. Occasionally, he would stop, touch someone on the forehead and say, almost command, "Receive the Holy Ghost." The person so touched would fall back, someone would catch him and lay him gently on the floor, where he would appear to be in a trance.

Bible Bill must be dead by now. His bony fingers were pointing to the grave when I met him. He told us in the car the first time we met him that a ballad had been written about him and had been sung on the radio. It was called "Bible Bill From Waterville." The title did not quite reflect his life because Bill was not concerned about the town he had come from.

He centered his life around where he was going-the next town to pass out his pamphlets, the next country church where he would preach. But above all, it was what came after the grave that he was concerned about most--a destination to which his thumb could not take him.