Mission Work in Chicago
On arriving in Chicago, we found Brother T----, who had charge of the work
in the city, at 1612 Prairie Ave. For nearly a year my brother and I
assisted him in the work, and then, as he insisted that we become
responsible for the work in a general way, we took charge.
When we first went to Chicago, we were not just sure what God wanted us to
do. The first winter I helped hold meetings for homeless men in the slum
district. As a class, these people were so deep in sin that it was hard to
reach them. A few, however, did get a real experience of salvation; but it
was difficult for them to keep saved, and when they would give up, they
would not stop until they had gone into the grossest kind of sin. Some of
them would get converted again and again, only to be overcome by the
tempter. Their characters had been so weakened by indulging in sin and
giving way to their appetites that it seemed hard for them to become
established. It took a great deal of patience and labor to get any of them
established. The religious career of many of them was very brief, but
others struggled on for a long time. No doubt some became thoroughly
established and remained true to the Lord.
This work was not very satisfactory to us. True, the souls of these people
are as precious in the sight of God as the souls of any other people, but
we soon saw that the energy expended upon these people of the slums would,
if directed toward people in the great middle walks of life, accomplish far
more in the salvation of souls. Gospel workers, if the Lord leads you to
take up slum-work, be sure to obey the Lord, but be equally sure that you
don't attempt slum-work unless God is leading you.
As the work was not satisfactory to us, my brother rented a house for five
years as a missionary home. The monthly rent was $25, and it was wonderful
how God answered prayer and brought the means to pay the rent. Many times
our support would come from a distance. For two or three years before we
came to the city, Brother T--- had held meetings every Sunday afternoon in
the Masonic Temple. The rent for the room in which we held services in the
temple for two and one-half hours each week, was for a time $15 a month,
and later $16. Besides the meeting in the Temple, we had cottage-meetings
in different parts of the city.
Besides renting the home in which most of the workers lived, my brother
rented for a year a house to serve as a home for workers in the slum
district, paying a monthly rental of $60. As my brother was ignorant of
what he was getting into, the Lord seemed to humor him for two or three
months by providing the money for the rent of this building. Then my
brother got into trouble. He prayed earnestly for money to pay the rent on
this building, but his prayers would not go through. Heaven seemed closed
against him. After making several efforts in this way, for a while without
avail, my brother said that if he could not get his prayers through for
money to pay the rent, he would pray that God would make the landlord
willing to give up the lease. His prayers were heard, the landlord
surrendered the lease, and George got out of his difficulty. Subsequent
events showed that the Lord was willing to provide money for us in
abundance as long as we acted in accordance with his divine plan for us.
In consideration of the facts that we paid our $40 a month for rent on our
home and meeting-place, and that we enjoyed but limited privileges in
holding meetings, my brother felt impressed before the five years were out
that the Lord wanted us to build a home which should be permanent and which
should be the property of the church. The work was begun in March, 1903,
and by the blessing of God and the cooperation of the church in general,
the home and chapel were both finished by Christmas. The greater part of
the work was donated, one experienced carpenter giving over $600 worth of
labor.
Our work in the city was a school of trust. We trusted the Lord for food,
for raiment, for rent, and for everything else that we needed. Sometimes
when I would have a little money laid by, an opportunity would come to use
it, and I would think,
"I don't want to give this up, for I may need it later." Then the voice of
the Spirit would say to me, "If you don't keep your purse open and use the
means you have, God will not supply you." I obeyed God, and he never
allowed me to be confounded. Many times when we did not have sufficient
food for the whole day, we would get down and ask God to send either money
or food. It was marvelous how our prayers were answered, and that from
sources from which we should have least expected help. The Lord wonderfully
encouraged our hearts in this way.
When we were building the home and chapel, a number of the workers felt led
to purpose a certain sum to be paid in a year's time. The first year my
purpose was $100, to be paid before December 31. I got just enough to
finish paying it December 30. The workers were all encouraged in like
manner. The next year some of them suggested that, as God had helped them
through so marvelously the first year, we should purpose twice as much. I
received sufficient money to pay the $200 by Thanksgiving, a month sooner
than I had paid the $100 the year before.
We often had to trust the Lord for car-fare, and many times it came to us
in remarkable ways. One day one of the sisters started out to make a call
in the city with only enough money to pay her fare one way. While she was
sitting in the car, she looked down into her lap and there lay a quarter.
How it got there was a mystery. Sometimes even strangers passing us on the
street would feel impressed to hand us enough money to pay our fares.
Again, some of the workers while trusting the Lord would find just the
amount needed.
The Lord showed us here in the city as he did while we were in California,
that he wanted us not only to appreciate and enjoy the blessings sent us,
but also to pass some of our blessings to those who were needy, and that in
so doing we should be blessed as well as those who gave to us. Brethren,
God's plan is an unselfish one. If we expect to grow in grace and to
develop in trust and in other of his precious graces, we must unselfishly
impart what God gives to us. "Freely ye have received, freely give." "He
that watereth shall be watered again." "The willing and the obedient shall
eat the good of the land." If we withhold blessings from others, whether it
be means or any other help that we can afford them, we ourselves shall be
losers, and they will be deprived of their rights.
Some little time after we located in the city we had our mother come to
live with us. She had been a widow for some years. I counted it a happy
privilege that I should be allowed to care for her in her old days. I had
long desired to care for her and took advantage of the first opportunity of
having her come to us. I had also desired that in her old days she should
not lose her mind as some old people do, and that she should enjoy a good
long [Illustration: MARY COLE Five years after her healing]
[Illustration: MOTHER REBECCA COLE In her 92d year. From a photograph taken
fourteen months before her death] life. My prayers have been answered and
my hopes realized.[Footnote: Nearly a year after the above account was
written, on October 22, 1914, Mother died at the age of ninety-two years.
She had the right use of her mind until the last. After she had lost the
power to see and hear distinctly, she would recognize me by a sign to which
we had agreed and would call my name, and even after speech had failed, she
still attempted to say, "Mary."] We had been in Chicago only about a year
when news came from Hammond, Louisiana, that my oldest brother, Jeremiah,
had died at that place, October 13, 1899. While we were in California,
Jeremiah came to that State and held meetings, although he was with us only
a short time. For some years before his death his health had not been very
good, and in the fall of 1899 he went to the South for the third time to
winter. While he was holding meetings nor far from Hammond, Louisiana,
October 1, he became suddenly sick while preaching and had to leave the
pulpit in the middle of his discourse.
Bro. F. M. Williamson, at whose home he was staying, begged to be allowed
to write or telegraph to his folks, but Jeremiah said, "No, my illness will
last but a few days, and it is no use to worry my folks." He lingered until
October 13, when he died. Brother Williamson, who was with him until the
end, said that my brother had the confidence of everybody in that part of
the country and that he died a triumphant death. Shortly before my
brother's death a letter was sent us saying that he was very sick, but it
did not reach us until several days after his burial.
Before going to Chicago, we had worked almost altogether in small towns and
in the country. Of course, the work in such a large city as Chicago was
quite different. Nevertheless, we were glad for the experience we had had
and of the chance we now had for putting it in practise and of making
improvement. We learned, however, that the souls of men are much the same,
whether they live in a city or in the country, and that God gives his
ministers authority over evil spirits wherever they may be found.
When we took the Chicago work in charge, there was in the congregation a
certain man who had gotten under a wrong spirit and had led others away
with him, thus causing trouble and dissension. The false spirit seemed to
be strongly entrenched and very hard to get rid of. This man of whom we
have spoken, and whom, for want of a better name, we shall designate as
Brother B--, sent word to quite a large number of the saints in the city to
be present at the meeting-place on a certain Sunday evening, as he would
occupy the pulpit from five until six after the regular meeting closed.
Some of our company were out of the city during that week, and on Saturday
night a fearful snow-storm came, continuing on into Sunday.
I wished very much that those workers who were out of the city should
return for the Sunday evening service, as I saw that we were going to have
to meet the enemy in a very bold way. When I awoke Sunday morning, however,
the Lord made me know that I must be willing to face the enemy with him
alone, and this song rang in my heart:
"I'll go where You want me to go, dear Lord;
I'll say what You want me to say."
God was my perfect sufficiency. Some of the members of the congregation who
might be included under the Scriptural term "lambs" stood by me like
warriors. Two of them sat in the pulpit with me, one on each side to hold
my hands, as it were. God had warned me in a dream of the enemy's attack
and had shown me some things that were very helpful in that very hour. In
my dream I had seen the enemy in the form of a ferocious animal approaching
to destroy God's children. We were in a large pavilion which was entered by
a large open door. In my dream I thought that God told me to go and shut
that door. I started to obey, and when I got near it, the animal was about
to enter, but God made me to know that he would help me through and enable
me to get the door shut. As I shut the large door, the Lord showed me
another little door, saying, "Go and shut that too."
On the Sunday of which I am speaking, when I really had to face the enemy,
God gave me as a subject for my sermon various instances in the history of
the church where the enemy had attacked God's children and work and where
God himself had defended them and defeated the enemy. I spoke of how
Joseph's brethren plotted to take his life and finally sold him into Egypt
as a slave; of how God made him a prince and a ruler over his brethren and
finally their savior and benefactor. I spoke of Jesus--how the Jews killed
him, put his body into a sepulcher, closed it with a great stone, sealed it
with the king's seal; how the Lord defeated their purpose, arose from the
dead, and ascended to the right hand of God. Right in the middle of the
sermon God showed me what he meant by shutting the big door and made me to
know that I must expose and renounce the one under the spirit of the devil
who was trying to undermine the work. He showed me, furthermore, that
another man who was helping him was the little door and that he wanted me
to denounce him also.
As I began denouncing the spirit of error that had crept into the
congregation, the poor deluded ones clamored for a chance to defend
themselves, but God showed me that I should give no place to the devil. I
advised all the true children of the Lord to leave the meeting-place at the
proper time, and not to listen to the enemy's pouring out against God's
work and cause. Most of the people took my advice and left at the proper
time. Just a few backsliders and chronic grumblers remained to hear Brother
B--'s message. I can not tell you how God used this victory to encourage
and strengthen my soul. He seemed to humor and pet me all the next day and
to bring it to me again and again that he was pleased with me. I seemed to
hear him say again and again, "I am well pleased with you."
One of the company who had been with us for some time, did not seem to be
making the development as a worker that we had expected him to make. He
came so far short of our anticipation that we were tempted at times to
conclude that we were mistaken in encouraging him to remain in the work
with us. The enemy, of course, worked hard to discourage him and we were
beginning to think that perhaps it would be well to discourage his
remaining longer with us. When I prayed earnestly over the matter, however,
the Lord made me understand that this was a worthy child of his and that in
his soul there was a trueness and faithfulness not to be found in every
worker. The Lord showed me that if we would exercise patience with him,
development would come in good time. The outcome has been all that could be
desired. For a number of years this brother's name has been familiar
throughout the church, and he is still holding some of the most responsible
places.
At another time this same brother was going through a fiery trial. God no
doubt was permitting the trial to broaden him and to develop him for future
usefulness. What he was enduring, however, became a severe trial to me.
Finally it seemed as though I had endured about all that I could, so I said
to him one day, "Either you or I will have to leave. I can't stand this any
more." He did not answer me, but went away by himself and asked God to give
me more compassion.
Dear brothers and sisters in the ministry, right here I would sound a note
of warning. Let us be careful when a young worker comes among us. Even if
he does not seem promising at first, let us have patience with him and give
him a chance; let him prove himself. Let us give him all the encouragement
we can and do what we can to help develop him. Perhaps you can help such a
one by telling him some of God's dealings with you and how he helped you
out of difficulty, how he tided you over and lifted you above
discouragements, how he brushed away the dark clouds. Do not be too quick
to conclude, "Well, I don't believe God had his hand upon that person,
after all," for we might find ourselves working against God instead of
being coworkers with him.
We had not been in the city a great while until we had more calls than we
could fill. People wrote asking us to call on their friends to see if we
could not get the truth to them. We were called to visit places that were
by no means inviting. We also had calls from suburban towns and other
near-by places, and at times we were led to hold meetings for a week or two
in places outside the city. Surely we fulfilled the scripture, "Sow beside
all waters." We soon learned from experience that not all who came to the
home telling pitiful stories of need were deserving of help. Sometimes
after giving provisions and even money, we learned that our charity had
been misapplied. We soon learned that it was wise to find out whether we
were helping the worthy poor or impostors.
After the chapel was built, opportunities for reaching souls greatly
increased. We now had meetings whenever we chose, especially on Sunday
evenings, Thursday afternoon and evening, with good attendance of saints
and truth-seekers. Our expenses, too, were greatly lessened in this way,
especially at the time of the yearly assemblies. One year the rental of the
building in which the assembly was held, was, I think, $300 for ten days.
Before a certain assembly the saints had contributed freely to provide
money for the coming assembly. Shortly before the meeting began the
treasury was robbed of over $200.
During the ten years I spent in the Chicago work, I witnessed many
wonderful deliverances from sin, from disease, and from evil spirits. The
account of these experiences would of itself make a large volume; I can
mention only a few here. Sister Pearl Horman, who came to the home, was
taken very sick with fever. Her case was very serious, the fever being very
high. The Lord rebuked the fever and in a short time she was well. Sister
Myra Barrett came to a meeting we were having in the chapel one night, and
remained all night in the home. Before morning she had an attack of
erysipelas in the face, accompanied by a high fever. The Lord put his
rebuke on the disease and not many days later she was able to resume her
duties in an office in the city.
In answer to a call from Joliet, Illinois, we went to that place and
anointed a brother who was very sick with the quinsy. In answer to the
prayer of faith, God wonderfully healed him. One winter night a call came
from the suburbs of the city for some one to come and anoint a child
suffering from a violent attack of pneumonia. The snow lay deep on the
ground and the weather was very cold. My brother and I answered the call.
As the night was far spent, the street-cars were no longer running in the
direction we had to go, and so we had to walk over a mile facing the wintry
storm. God answered prayer in behalf of the child. It was better before we
left next morning and was soon entirely well.
At another time we were called upon to pray for a boy who had appendicitis.
The doctors who examined him said that without an operation he could not
possibly live, but his father, being a saint, desired prayer. Brother
Reardon and I anointed the boy, prayed the prayer of faith, and the boy was
healed. God got the glory that time instead of the doctor, not to speak of
the saving of a great deal of suffering and a heavy doctor-bill.
My mother was in the home at the time Sister Barrett was healed of
erysipelas. About ten years before this time Mother had the same
affliction, and it came near taking her life. As a result, she had an
especial dread of this disease. Before coming to the home, Mother had not
been able to wholly trust the Lord for healing, but when she came to live
with us, she decided to trust the Lord. But when she saw Sister Barrett
having such a severe attack of erysipelas, she became a little alarmed and
used something as a preventive, not realizing that it would hinder her
faith. In nine days she had a severe attack of erysipelas. For a number of
days she had quite a fight of faith, and we sent telegrams to The Trumpet
Office twice. God in his mercy rebuked the disease, and she recovered
rapidly for one of her age. Although she was past eighty-one, her recovery
was much more rapid than it had been ten years before, when she had trusted
the doctor.
Sometime after mother was entirely well, we found the little preventive she
had in her pocket and asked her about it. She confessed with tears that she
had been using the preventive. We encouraged her to trust God fully for
protection as well as for everything else. From that time forward she has
been able to put her trust wholly in God. Some say that people get too old
to trust the Lord, but in her case the older she gets, the more childlike
becomes her trust in God.
A brother Jones, now of West Virginia, came to the home from a place where
there was an epidemic of smallpox. He was just beginning to take the
disease; in fact, a pimple or two had already appeared. He would take
spells of being deathly sick, a common occurrence before breaking out with
smallpox. The brother was innocent in coming to the home in that condition,
thinking that he had been exposed to the chicken-pox and that he was just
coming down with a bad case of that disease. He trusted the Lord wholly for
healing, and we all united our faith with his against the disease.
The Monday following his arrival he, in company with my brother and others
of the saints, went to the camp-meeting at Moundsville, W. Va. That same
evening God made us who were left at the home to understand very definitely
that the brother had the smallpox and that we should pray very earnestly
that God would keep him from breaking out until the nature of the disease
could be discovered and the brother be put under quarantine to protect the
camp-meeting. Our greatest fears were that the whole camp would be
quarantined. The Lord encouraged our hearts to continue in prayer that he
would overrule the whole matter. In a few days they found out that Brother
Jones was taking the smallpox, and they put him under quarantine. Very soon
afterward he broke out. God had answered our prayers to keep him from
breaking out, and he also protected us at the home and those at the
camp-meeting. Our God is able to protect in every time of need.
Two or three days later a boy came from the same smallpox-infected
district. By this time physicians in Michigan City had found out that the
disease they had there was smallpox, and were going to put the house where
he had been staying under quarantine. The brother who had just come thought
he had sufficient faith to protect himself and others from the disease; but
we who were older in the work and understood the ways of the Lord better,
advised him to return, lest if he should have the smallpox in the city,
they would put him in the pest-house, where he would not have the same
chance to trust the Lord that he would if at home. So he returned to his
home and had the disease there. Again God marvelously protected us.
A young sister came to the home for help in both soul and body. After
earnest prayer in her behalf, we found that she was in no condition to get
help to her soul until her body became stronger. She had greatly overworked
and her mind was about to give way. It was a month before we were able to
talk to her at all about her soul. Her nerves were in such a condition that
when she heard a prayer, a song, or a scripture, she could scarcely keep
from screaming. As soon as she was able, we did all the Lord showed us to
do for her soul. We found that all that God had laid to her charge was
overworking and neglecting her spiritual life. Soon everything was made
right with her soul, but it took months for her nerves and brain to get
back to their normal condition.
We learned a good lesson from this incident. If we neglect our spiritual
lives, we shall be losers every time. The Lord is a jealous God, and if he
can't be first, he won't be second. If we want him to work in and through
us, we must give him a chance to keep our souls replenished and ready for
work. At different times while in city-work I have myself allowed temporal
things to get too much on my mind, thus causing me to neglect my devotions.
My spirituality would begin to weaken, and I would become less capable of
being a blessing to souls. Had I been more diligent at certain times in
secret prayer and searching the Scriptures, I should have been spared some
sad experiences and heartaches.
One day the sister who was doing the cooking, made up a large batch of
light bread, containing, I think, fifteen or twenty pounds of flour. The
sister waited the proper length of time for the bread to rise, but it
showed no signs at all of rising. Some of us talked the matter over and
concluded that we could not afford to throw the flour away and that we had
better ask God to make the bread rise. We did so, but the bread remained as
lifeless as before. Finally a number of us gathered in the kitchen, knelt
down on the floor, and asked God to make the bread rise. It was not long
until our prayers were answered. That batch of dough made as good bread as
I have ever eaten. God wonderfully stirred up the thanksgiving in our souls
for this answer to prayer.
One of the company in the home had been exposed to the measles, and they
were beginning to break out on his body. The Lord brought to his mind that
he did not need to have the measles and that if he would put up a fight of
faith against them, the Lord would heal him. He was anointed and prayed
for, and God did put his rebuke on the affliction. The following day he
exercised himself too much and had to have prayer again. That was on
Saturday evening. Monday morning he was sufficiently well to start on a
trip to Ohio to see his people. The possibilities of faith can not be
comprehended by the finite mind of man. Well did the apostle say, "Faith is
the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
Among many precious ones associated with us in the work in Chicago was
Sister Clara Tuttle, now gone to her reward. She was a great help to my
brother and me, and a blessing to the work in general. Shortly after she
became acquainted with the truth, she asked the Lord what was her place in
the body, and he told her it was to be a good mother. She filled her place
well. This dear sister was not only a good mother to her own children, but
to others, especially to the young workers who had no mother or whose
mothers were unsaved. She not only gave good counsel to the young workers,
but prayed with them in times of perplexity. Would to God there were more
mothers in Israel like her! "Her children will rise up and call her
blessed." I still remember the counsel she gave a brother who, was coming
to the Missionary Home to stay for a time. "Now, brother, you have been
acquainted with Brother Cole and his sister as gospel workers and have
loved them dearly; but you have seen, them only in the pulpit and public
meeting, where you have had but little opportunity to come in contact with
their human weaknesses. When you go into the home to live with them, you
will find that they are but human and make some mistakes. Be careful now
that you do not judge them. Be careful that you don't allow these human
weaknesses to hide the fact that they are ministers anointed by God to
carry the gospel message to a lost world. Remember that God does not judge
them from a human standpoint. If he judged any of us in that way, we should
all be found wanting."
BIRTHDAY LINES
In Memory of February 5, 1822
Time moves on, and on, and onward, Piling up its teeming years; Each
unfolds its store of blessings, Each one brings its joys and tears. Ninety
years have thus been numbered Since one cold and wintry morn, On the fifth
of February, When "our Mother Cole" was born.
While her little life was tender, Only in its babyhood, God removed her
loving mother To a world more pure and good. Left now the little helpless
baby Without mother's love or care, Many shadows o'er it hovered, Many
sorrows it must share.
But her father kind and faithful Bro't much sunshine in her life; Tenderly
he loved and blest her Until she became a wife. As a mother she was noble,
Bore her lot with fortitude, Worried not o'er "sad tomorrows," But looked
forward to the good.
When Life's cares and trials oppressed her, She had One in whom to trust;
Lovingly He bore her sorrows, And in Him her soul was blest.
She had always words of kindness For the sad and those alone; And she
often bore their sorrows As if they had been her own.
Old age does not foil the beauty Of her sweet unselfish ways; She still
clings to Christ her Savior, On her lips are words of praise. Tho' upon
her bed she lingers, There's no sorrow in her room, For her cheery words
of comfort Dispel darkness and the gloom.
Like a sunbeam softly falling As if on an errand of love, Cheering up
some lonely hour, Pointing to a world above; Or, the lily rich with
fragrance, Shedding forth its sweet perfume, So the life of our dear
mother Cheers and brightens up her room.
When her pilgrimage is ended, And her days are numbered here, She will
only bloom the sweeter In that paradise o'er there. Soon the angels will
be coming, Bear her to that land of rest, Where she'll ever be with
Jesus, To rejoice among the blest.
[Illustration: FAITH MISIONARY HOME 300 W. 74th St., Chicago, Illinois]
[Illustration: ANDERSON OLD PEOPLE'S HOME Anderson Indiana]