Signs and Wonders God Wrought in the Ministry for Forty Years/Chapter 18
CHAPTER XVIII
AT SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS
After aber other missions, we went to Springfield, Illinois, pitched our tents in Oak Ridge Park and commenced a union meeting to build up the Temple of our God. We made the call for all ministers and Christian workers to come up to the help of the Lord. Not one of the city preachers responded to the call except the Lutherans, several of whom came to the front. We were not acquainted with one person in the city. The voice of God said: "Go, and I will be with you." We lived in our tents, hired a cook, paid all expenses, trusting God to provide all needful help. The first few days the weather was very wet and everything was against us. Although there were but eighteen persons present the first night, we shouted victory and told them that God was going to shake the city. The interest increased until there were thousands present. The altar was crowded day and night. They came from different States and all parts of the country to be healed of all manner of diseases. They were brought on beds, on the cars, in chairs, on crutches and in cabs, hundreds being healed and converted. There were three that, we know of who were brightly converted and died before the meeting closed—a young lady and an old man nearly eighty years of age; another, an old man, saved at his home on his death-bed. Others were converted at their homes, and some in the woods. A little girl was carried into the meetings in her mother’s arms. She was as helpless as a babe two days old. She had spinal meningitis, was paralyzed all over, her brain was impaired, her ‘ head dropped on her breast and she had no use of her back and limbs. She had been sick for six months. For four months she had eaten nothing but a little milk. I laid hands on her and commanded the unclean spirits to come out of her. In five minutes she could sit up straight and raise her arms above her head. In five minutes more she could talk and rose upon her feet, stepped up on the high altar and walked with her mother to the street cars; went home and could eat anything she wanted. The next morning she was the first one up, running from house to house telling what God had done for her. It shook the whole neighborhood. This child could not exercise faith and did not seem to know what we were doing. Several children were wonderfully healed and also several infants. One little boy was healed of dropsy, stomach and bowel trouble. His clothes could not be buttoned because he was so badly swollen. The swelling went down at once; his mother fastened every button on his vest and clothes and stood him on the platform where every one could see what God had done. The little fellow said in a clear, ringing voice that God had made him well.
I must say here, wherever we go God raises up many men and women who make no profession of religion to stand by us. They say if the Bible is true, we are God’s children, and they will stand by us for the good we are doing the people in this life as well as the world to come. Praise God; many of these noble men and women are converted in our meetings. They are made to see that God is living and his word is true. They yield to him and receive the gift of God—eternal life.
In every meeting God is raising up and sending out many workers with different gifts.
The last two or three days of the meeting there were twenty or more ministers present from other places. They all came to the front and took part in the battle. Brother S., a Methodist minister, while working at the altar fell in a trance. He lay several hours and was carried away as dead. The night we closed he told his wonderful vision in a clear, ringing voice that could be heard by the multitude. He described the wonderful City of Gold, with its glorious inhabitants. He saw many that he had known on earth; he described the awful gulf of hell; the condition of those who are there; saw the million going there. No one who heard him talk could doubt that he had seen all that he had told them. Many were struck down in different parts of the congregation and at their homes.
AN AGED INFIDEL SAVED
Brother W., an infidel, eighty-two years old, was converted and healed of rheumatism. He had been crippled for fifteen years. He arose from his knees, shook hands with those around him, and praised God for saving him at the eleventh hour. He stepped upon the altar and told the people that he had been an infidel nearly all his life. He said that he was one of Robert Ingersoll’s first teachers in infidelity; that they had studied and taught infidelity for twenty years. They had made God out a liar; Jesus an imposter; the Holy Ghost a myth; the Bible a fable. He tried to believe man died like the ox and had no soul. He said that he lay in a trance three different times—struck down by the power of God. He did not know then what it was and would not be convinced, but now he knew it was the power of God. He met Ingersoll in 1850. In 1857, he had the first trance. He lay fourteen hours and it seemed to him that he had died and was buried. He knew when his spirit had left the body for the grave. He saw his friends weeping over the grave, heard them preach his funeral, saw them place the coffin in the grave, fill up the grave, and return to their homes. God did this to show him that he had a spirit that would never die or lose its identity, but he would not believe. Years after he fell in another trance that lasted twenty-two hours. His spirit left the body, was carried away to heaven, and he saw millions and millions of human beings, all clothed in pure white. He heard the sweetest music, saw most beautiful flowers, and the city with its beauty and grandeur. He could not describe it all. This time he had his identity. His spirit had perfect freedom and liberty: Still he drove off conviction and continued to contend with the Almighty. God came to him again in a vision, showed him the condition of the saints of God in eternity, after this world and everything in it has passed away. He saw the new earth—everything was new and beautiful—adapted to the use and enjoyment of the ransomed army of the Lord.
The first heaven, the real city of God that he hath prepared for his redeemed children will come down and be set in the new earth—something like Washington City is to the United States. God’s children will not be confined to the Beautiful City. The whole new earth will be our inheritance. Our bodies will be light, our capacities so great that there will be no limit to our knowledge. We will be continually exploring new beauties and treasures in the wonderful works of our Father.
And you who call yourselves unbelievers or infidels, trying to make yourselves believe a lie, God have mercy on your souls and help you to see your danger before he permits you to believe a lie, and be forever damned.
At the close of the last meeting, it was requested that we stand on the altar and give the congregation a chance to shake hands and bid us good-bye. It was very affecting, nearly every one, Christians and sinners, came and took us by the hand and said, “God bless you.” Many strong men who were sinners broke down weeping and said for us to pray for them.
One old man who had scoffed in the meetings came to the tent and confessed, weeping, saying that he believed it was the work of God.
Another man stood there weeping and said he had stayed away from work to be saved that morning. I believe that he, with others, would have been saved there if I had had time to pray with them. They, with many others, said that they would not stop until they knew that they were saved.
An infidel doctor called that morning. He brought my book and picture and said that he was convinced of the wonderful work and would write to me when he was saved.
A Catholic lady gave me a beautiful basket filled with lovely flowers, nicely arranged, she said as a token of her love for me and respect of the noble work that we had done in the city. I cannot tell how I appreciated the token of love. She was a lovely looking lady, and as I kissed her my heart was strangely drawn to her. I felt that I would meet her in heaven where the flowers bloom forever.
My co-workers sang “God be with you till we meet again,” and they all joined in the singing. All who were standing about the station took off their hats. The singers broke down crying, one after another, until nearly every one in the station was weeping. Strong men wept aloud and the power came upon us. I came near being over-powered.
The number of conversions were in the thousands and we formed a union band of the converts and Christian workers. They met several times a week for the salvation of sinners. The first night they met there were six in trances and several converted. God was with them in wonderful power. God keep them as shining light is my prayer.