Signs and Wonders God Wrought in the Ministry for Forty Years/Chapter 8
CHAPTER VIII
GOD’S POWER
I Held meeting in the Baptist Church of Hoagland, which continued five days and was attended with wonderful displays of God's power. The other denominations were all prejudiced against this church, for some cause or other unknown to me, and they did not feel like working, and sat back. The Baptists were very weak and not in working order. Some of the converts from other places came, and went to work with wonderful power.
I never saw such manifestations of the power of God before or since. The house was full of the glory of God. It was like a mist. People fell down in their seats all over the house, overpowered with the glory of God. Sinners came out crying for mercy.
A Universalist, an infidel and a Catholic, each seventy years of age, were converted. Two of these came out the last night.
The altar was crowded night after night.
There were about fifty converted, and many reclaimed. The work has been going on gloriously. My prayer for the dear people of Hoagland is that they may be kept in peace and love, until God shall say come up higher, where we shall meet again.
On Friday evening I held meeting in the Lutheran Church. Several ministers were present from the different places where I had held meetings the year before. They all gave good reports of the success of the meetings I had held on their charges, and of the change in the neighborhood. We had indeed a time of rejoicing.
Fourteen ministers were present during this meeting.
In the evening the people came by hundreds. It is said that there were about two thousand on the ground; and although the lights were very poor, the best of order prevailed.
There were two or three hundred persons present who had been converted in my meetings in the past winter. It made my heart leap for joy when I saw their happy faces and heard them speak of their enjoyments in the service of the Lord. Some were aged ones who had been as brands taken from the eternal burning.
The hour for preaching had come. It was a trying moment for me. For all we had such a time of rejoicing, the devil was in the camp. As in ancient times when the sons of men came to worship, Satan came also, as he did in the Garden of Eden, only in a different form, but with the same motive and jealousy. The devil was always jealous of God and his work. In the beginning he rebelled in heaven and tried to take the throne, but God cast him out, "and he fell like lightning." Then when God made Adam and Eve in his own image, Satan came around with his flattering speeches and lying tongue, and by pretending to do a better work tried to destroy what God had done. He has been working on the same line ever since. There never was a glorious work done for God, but that the devil came around in person or in the form of a Judas and tried to overthrow it. So in this case, everything was done to confuse me in order that I would make a failure. My head was aching so that I could hardly see. I had not a moment to prepare or collect my thoughts, and I had never stood before such a multitude.
I felt that I must talk on the deepest subject in the Bible, "the Unpardonable Sin and the Office of the Holy Ghost." I cried: "Lord, help me, and glorify thyself." The words came: "And he said unto me, Son of Man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee. Be not afraid of their faces, neither their look, lest I confound you. I am with you to deliver you." Bless God, I had not spoken five minutes until I had forgotten the roaring in my head, and my enemies, who perhaps were praying for my failure.
I forgot everything but the multitude before me rushing on to Judgement, I never had more power and liberty. The subject was revealed to me as clear as day. The words came faster than I could: speak. Glory to God for his loving kindness and present. help in every time of need!
There was an aged minister present who came to me and said; surely God was speaking through the clay; he had never heard the subject made so plain in all the points; that people had received light; and that Eternity alone would tell the result of that meeting.
I held a series of meetings at Sheldon, Allen County, Indiana, in 1884, in the Methodist Episcopal Church. I found the membership very weak, a good deal of contention among them, and very few in working order. Shelden was said to be the hardest town in the State. But God can work and give victory if we only exercise present living faith, no matter how wicked and forsaken a place may be.
I went to work, trusting; in God and shouting victory. Sinners began to flock to Christ, the church came out for a better experience, and troubles were settled. Some of the brethren from other churches came in and helped with the work. Many who had been in the church for years found that they were only dry bones, and came begging for mercy. They afterwards confessed to the church that they had been in the dark, had been trusting in works without an experimental knowledge and that they were not accepted of God.
A lady who had been in the Disciples church for fifty-one years was converted at home during the meeting. As she shouted all over the house, she praised God and said that this was the kind of religion she wanted.
Mr. B., a popular and talented moral man, came out in a bright experience. The churches had been trying for years to lead him into the lifeboat. He attended the meeting. When I saw him I felt that he must be saved in that meeting. I worked in different ways, praying day and night for him, and was confident that he would soon be a child of God. One night I felt that the time had come. The house was crowded, and the aisles were full of benches. I climbed over several and made my way to him and asked him if he was not ready to come to Jesus. He began to weep and went with me to the altar. Many shouted for joy. No one could doubt his conversion, for they could see the change in his countenance.
Father S. had not been to meeting for twenty years. He was opposed to all churches, and tried to keep his wife and children from coming to the meeting. He was eighty-three years old. His wife was very anxious for his soul's salvation. She showed him my picture and tried to get his curiosity aroused. Finally he came to a day meeting. When I gave the invitation for seekers, he started for the door. I met him, and when I saw how aged and feeble he was, and thought of his lost condition, my heart was melted in pity for him. I felt that God had sent him there to be saved and that it must be now or never. I talked with him until he yielded and went to the altar. In few minutes he was brightly converted. Soon after he was immersed, and united with the Church of God. When he went forward in the ordinance of feet-washing, a little boy, who had been converted when he was, washed his feet, and then he washed the boy's feet. It was an affecting sight. Surely he came in at the, eleventh hour. He said he was just waiting for the Master to call him home. In the latter part of June he was taken sick and suffered very much. He only lingered a few days. He was patient, kind and happy, and awaiting for the Savior to call him to his Eternal Home.
Now the Bridegroom cometh nigh.
Have your lamps all trimmed and bright,
Hearts made holy in His sight.
Joyful raise your minds above,
Fixed upon the Lord of love.
Hark! the warning soundeth high,
Listen to "the midnight cry!"
(In singing, repeat last two lines.)
Glory to the coming King:
Join the songs which angels sing:
Shout aloud the Victor’s praise;
Hark! the warning soundeth high,
Listen to "the midnight cry."
(In singing, repeat last two lines.)
Sacred wounds in side and palm;
Worship Him, with holy joy,
Praise Him without sin’s alloy.
Saints that sleep, soon He will bring,
Heaven’s anthem they shall sing;
Glory to the Lord on high;
Soon we'll meet Him in the sky.
Hark! the warning soundeth high
Listen to "the midnight cry."