Signs and Wonders God Wrought in the Ministry for Forty Years/Chapter 14
CHAPTER XIV
THE HARVEST IS GREAT
After being at Troutman, Penn., and Harmony, Penn., we started for Lawrence, Kansas.
The Lord wonderfully blessed my labor there. The fire of the Lord began to break out in all directions, and it was hard to resist the earnest pleadings of brethren and sisters, to remain and reap the harvest ready to be gathered. The calls kept coming from Indiana, "Come back, your work is not done." The Lord seemed to be calling me day and night to go back.
We went. My first meeting was at Kokomo, Indiana, the seat of war. We pitched our tents and sounded the battle cry, calling for soldiers. They began to come in from the East and West, North and South. We had a grand reunion; several hundred converts of the meeting of one year before were there; also many others, with their bright testimonies that. God had kept them through all the persecutions ; many had been healed of all manner of diseases. Many of them had gone into the field as evangelists, and many as ministers. On one day there were present twenty young ministers, who had been licensed by the different churches; all converts of my first meeting at Kokomo. I could now see why the Lord had brought me back; to encourage and establish these dear workers. Hundreds of souls have: been brought to Christ through their meetings.
A preacher came to this meeting, who was dying with consumption, and was healed in the presence of thousands, while we were praying for him. He went out to preach the gospel.
They have built a fine church edifice at Kokomo, and have the most powerful church in the city; also the largest congregations.
Over all opposition, and the roaring of the devil and his children, the Lord led us on to glorious victory.
Ministers came from other places, and the young soldiers rallied to the front. The first night, while I was leading in prayer, the power swept over the multitude in waves.
Brother D., sixty years old, who had been lame for twelve years, had to walk with a cane or crutch. He could not remain in one place but a short time. Several of us kneeled and prayed with him, laying our hands on him. The Holy Ghost fell on him, and the pain left him, the swelling went down, and the callous parts disappeared ; he leaped to his feet, shouting, “Glory to God, I am healed.” “The lame man shall leap as an hart.” He threw his crutch away. It is now about nine years since he was healed; he has testified before thousands; many have visited him, others have written him. He is well now, “These signs shall follow them that believe.”
Dr. Daggett was the first we ever laid on hands for healing.
In our meeting last August, 1915, in Topeka, Kansas, I was led of the Spirit to tell of this first healing. After I was through a man came forward, and said he was Dr. Daggett’s son, and that thirty years ago he was converted, by reading one of my books, a few months before his father was so wonderfully healed, but had never seen me until the meeting in which his father was healed, after suffering from lameness, for many years. His father had a new lease of life and lived many years after.
Surely “God moves in mysterious ways His wonders to perform.”
And He is always ready to smile on our work in Jesus’ Name and to confirm His word.
On Sabbath morning we commenced praise service at nine o'clock, with a large crowd which continued to increase until the grove was a moving mass of living souls. The songs of praise, shouts of joy, and the ringing testimonies, came from the old and young, from the white-haired fathers and mothers down to the little boys. When I asked for all those who had been blessed and knew they were saved, to raise their hands, not less than five hundred hands were raised, and all shouted, “Praise the Lord.” The power came like a cyclone. The multitude was swayed to and fro. Sinners were converted on their feet. God’s servants were so filled with the glory of God, they could not administer, as the priests of old. Some of their faces shone like Stephen’s when he was brought before false witnesses.
I Must Omit the Perkinsville Meeting
My next meeting, after leaving Perkinsville, was at Summitville, Indiana. We pitched our tents, and commenced battle. The enemy thought he had this place, and indeed it had that appearance; but the soldiers of the Lord came in companies from all points. Many ministers, and converts by the score, who had been converted at my meetings two years previous, came.