Produced by Timeless Truths Online Library, Charles Franks,
Juliet Sutherland, Joel Erickson and the DP Team
TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS OF FAITH
BY MARY COLE
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the
wiles of the devil.--_Paul_.
PREFACE
The history of the world consists mainly of the stories of the lives of
certain men and women whose deeds have been of sufficient importance to
make them worth relating. The lives of some persons have been worth
narrating because of their abounding in deeds of great merit, such as the
lives of Washington, Gladstone, Frances E. Willard, and Joan of Arc. The
lives of others have been thought worth narrating because of their great
wickedness, as the lives of Nero and Queen Mary of England.
But the church too has a history. This history differs from the history of
the world, in that it does not record merely the doings of man, but the
workings of God through man as his instruments. God is a jealous God who
manifests himself only through those who are willing to give him all the
glory. Hence not many names of the wise, powerful, talented men of the
earth have been enrolled on the history of the church, since they were not
humble enough to submit fully into God's hands. In the church truly this
scripture has been proved: "God has used the weak things of the world to
confound the mighty."
Sister Mary Cole, of whose life this book is a brief, authentic sketch, had
a natural inheritance that seemed calculated to shut her forever out of a
place in the history of the world or of the church. Born with a body that
from her earliest childhood was racked with pain, deprived by ill health of
education, she seemed naturally unfitted to fill any place in the world and
doomed to be only a burden to herself and her friends. How God took her,
healed her, and fitted her for his service, and how he used her as an
instrument for his glory, is the story of her life.
The publication of the story of her life was so remote from her thoughts
that it was only by the solicitation of some one who had been greatly
helped by her faith and experience and the workings of God through her, and
who was unwilling that her trials and triumphs should be lost as a part of
the history of the church, that she was prevailed upon to write this brief
narrative of her life and work. The story of her life would not, indeed, be
worth telling were it stripped of the manifestations of God's power. As you
read this simple story, you will see clearly that, as Sister Cole has
herself expressed so many times, what she is she is by God's grace, and
that all she has accomplished she has accomplished through God's power. If
you will take at their value the oft-repeated expressions, "God told me,"
"God spoke to me," "God made me to understand," realizing that these words
tell us something that actually happened, you will get some idea of how
marvelously God can use even the weakest members of the human race.
Aside from the interest this brief history will have for those readers who
have had the pleasure of a personal acquaintance with Sister Cole and who
have had the privilege of listening to her stirring messages delivered
under the anointing of God's Spirit, it can not fail to interest and profit
all who take pleasure in reading about the dealings of God with man.
It is the sincere wish of the author and of all those who had a hand in
preparing this work, that it will show some their greater privileges in the
kingdom of God, and that it will help some to covet the divine help,
guidance, and power that are the heritage of all God's children.
J.W.P.
CONTENTS
I. Birth and Ancestry
II. Early Afflictions
III. Incidents of Childhood
IV. Events During the War
V. Conversion and Sanctification
VI. Events of Early Christian Life
VII. My Call to the Ministry
VIII. Seven Years of Preparation
IX. Healed by Divine Power
X. Entering the Gospel Field
XI. Laboring in a New Field
XII. Out of Sectarian Confusion
XIII. The Evening Light
XIV. Various Experiences in Gospel Work
XV. Various Experiences--Continued
XVI. God's Care Over Me
XVII. My California Trip
XVIII. Visiting Relatives in the East
XIX. Mission Work in Chicago
XX. A Battle With Smallpox
XXI. Camp-Meetings in Various States
XXII. Caring for My Aged Mother
XXIII. Exhortation to Workers and Ministers
POEMS
Birthday Lines in Memory of February 5, 1822
The Refiner's Fire
Chapter I
Birth and Ancestry
Like many other people of European descent, born in this country, I can
trace my ancestry back to their emigration from Europe; but being so far
removed from European environment, my nationality can best be expressed by
the short but comprehensive term, American.
My father was born in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. He was a descendant of
the German Hessians who were brought to this country by the English to
fight against the Americans in the Revolutionary War. It is said that from
his mother's side he inherited a small portion of Turkish blood. Father's
childhood days were spent near some of the Revolutionary battle-fields,
where he played with cannon balls that had been used during that great
struggle. Perhaps his early surroundings may have developed in him the
spirit of partiotism that manifested itself later when, during the Civil
War, he stood by his country and defended the stars and stripes.
My mother was born in Ohio near the Pennsylvania border, but was reared in
Carroll County, Ohio.
Her father, whose name was Fleming, was of Scotch-Irish descent. His
ancestors came from Ireland at an early day and settled first in
Pennsylvania, and later in Ohio. When Mother's great-grandfather and his
cousin came over from Ireland and landed in New York, they heard a parrot
talking. It said, "A beggar and a clodhopper; a beggar and a clodhopper."
They had never heard of a parrot before. The great-grandfather said to his
cousin, "Pat, Pat, what kind of a world have we got into? Aven the burds of
the woods are making fun of us."
My mother's mother was of German descent, and could speak the German
language; but she died when mother was but a small child. Very soon
afterward Mother's father married an Irish lady by the name of Margret
Potter. Mother's stepmother took her drams, had dances, etc.; but Mother
was spiritually inclined. In her eighteenth year while attending a
Methodist meeting, she was convicted of her sins. She was not saved at the
meeting, but prayed through by herself to an experience. God revealed
himself to her in a marvelous way and gave her the witness that she was
born of him.
Mother's father was a Universalist until after she was grown. At that time,
although he had never professed a change of heart, he joined the Christian
church. Mother's steady Christian character was, therefore, developed
without human encouragement; she got help from no one but God. Her older
sister said to her one day, "Rebecca, our dear mother died a Universalist;
are you going to forsake her faith?" Mother answered, "If Mother did the
best she knew, that is between her and her God; it is my duty to do the
best I know." Later this sister joined the Catholic Church and finally died
in the Catholic home for widows.
I was born August 23, 1853, the seventh of a family of twelve
children--eight sons and four daughters. Two died before the last two were
born, so that there were never more than ten of us living at the same time.
The oldest child was Jeremiah. Mother said that at his birth she gave him
to the Lord, and prayed earnestly that God would make him like Jeremiah of
old. God chose him for the ministry, and he died triumphant in the faith.
He discerned the one body, the church, from the time the truth of the unity
of God's people was first preached. His body lies in the cemetery near
Hammond, Louisiana.
The second child was John. He enlisted in the army and gave his life for
his country. Out of this family of twelve children, God chose three for the
ministry: one of these has gone to his reward and the other two remain to
work for the Master.
At the time of my birth, my parents lived on a farm adjoining the town of
Decatur, in the State of Iowa. Later the town was enlarged until it
included Father's farm, which was sold for town lots. My parents remained
in Iowa until I was a year old, and then moved to Illinois, where they
remained for two years. When I was three years old, they settled in Pettis
County, Missouri, near the town of Belmont, afterwards called Windsor. It
was there that I spent my childhood and the years of my young womanhood.