Once, when home for two or three days I was suffering pain in the region of
my heart. At every beat it would seem to say, "Kelly, Kelly, Kelly." (Kelly
was a place in North Dakota, about 260 miles from home. There were a few
saints in the community who might be needing help). I was very sick and I
told my wife how badly I was feeling. She said, "Perhaps the Lord wants you
to go to Kelly." The next day the pain was still bothering me, so I sat
down and wrote to O. O. Holman and said, "I am sick; if the pain in my
heart does not soon stop I will be at your station Sunday at ten o'clock."
This was in the month of August, the busy season for farmers. The pain did
not stop, so I started out. When I had gone about one hundred miles from
home the pain left me.
Having to change trains at Grand Forks and there being no train for Kelly
until the next morning, I decided to go and stay over night with Brother C.
H. Tubbs. At the parsonage I met Brother Newell, a minister, Brother Shave
and Brother Niles, deacons of the congregation there, and a sister who was
visiting.
They all exclaimed in surprise at seeing me appear at that time of the year
and wanted to know the reason for my being there. I really felt sheepish
about telling them. Kelly was only fifteen miles from Grand Forks and they
had not heard of there being any serious trouble there.
After I had told them how I happened to be going to Kelly, Brother Tubbs
turned to his wife and said, "Mary, you preach tomorrow; I want to go along
with Bro. Susag and see what is going on." His wife said, "Charles, I am
going along, too." Then to Bro. Newell he said, "You take the morning
service tomorrow," but he also declined as he, too, wanted to go with us.
And Bro. Shave made the same reply; he wanted to go to Kelly. But when Bro.
Niles was asked to preach at the morning service, he kindly consented to
take charge. In the morning I started out for Kelly with three ministers,
one deacon and one sister accompanying me.
I am generally quite talkative, but I did not do much talking those fifteen
miles, wondering what the people would think if, when getting there, we
should find nothing unusual the matter. When the train stopped at the
station I waited for all the folks to get off first. As I looked out of the
window I saw Brother Holman standing on the platform weeping, looking at
the people as they got off the train. Then I came. I went to him and asked
him why he was weeping. He said, "We have been praying the Lord to send you
to us and today I started for the station, confident that I would either
meet you in person or that I would get a letter," and taking the letter
from his pocket and holding it up, said, "and here I have both!" Then he
told me that his wife was very ill, possibly dying, and that they had been
praying the Lord to send me to them.
It was three miles out to their home in the country and Bro. Holman had
only a one-seated buggy, so the two sisters drove and we preachers walked.
The good Lord heard prayer and healed Sister Holman. Also, an old lady of
ninety years of age was baptized at this time.
* * * * *
On another occasion I was asked to come to Grand Forks to hold a revival
meeting. On my arrival there I found that the pastor was having trouble
with his eyes so that he had to stay at home in a dark room. Services
started Friday night and it seemed that the whole congregation had become
cooled off. This was made clear to me, so I preached three sermons--one on
Friday night and two on Saturday. But it looked as though the condition
grew worse instead of better as a result of my preaching.
Saturday night I had a dream. I dreamed that the Lord had sent me there to
gather the sheep back that had wandered into a man's field and were
tramping the grain down. Then I picked up one stone and threw it at them to
try to get them back. I picked up another stone, and then threw the third
one. They seemed now to be frightened worse than ever. This discouraged me
and I said to the Lord, "What shall I do?" He said, "Speak gently to them."
Then I went into the field myself and called "Sheep! Sheep!" to them, and
they began to gather together and it wasn't long before I had a nice bunch
of sheep up on the highway. I asked the Lord why it was I couldn't get them
together without my going into the field myself, for I preached His word to
them. "Yes," He said, "you preached My Word to them, but it was the way you
preached it." So Sunday I made my confession to the congregation and
weeping, asked their forgiveness, and every one was brought back to the
Lord, and a few sinners who were in the audience were also saved.
Through the week of services thirty-eight persons came from different
states and Canada for healing--and there were some very serious cases. The
night before the day we had set apart for the praying for the sick, I
prayed from eleven o'clock that night until four o'clock in the morning in
a dark room. When I got up from my knees the Lord stood before me and made
it clear to me that He was going to heal every one of those who had been
prayed for.
After all were healed and it was time for the services to close, a little
nine year old girl came and sat on the altar bench. I went to her and said,
"What do you want, Sophie?" In reply she said that she had seen how the
Lord had healed the eyes of Sister Hobert and that now she wanted the Lord
to heal her and set her eyes straight. (Her eyes were badly crossed).
On returning to the city some eight months later, I was invited to take
supper with Brother and Sister Amondson, Sophie's parents. They had a
number of children who came around me, and I wanted to know where the
little girl was whose eyes were crossed and for whom I prayed several
months before. A little girl spoke up and said, "Don't you know me? I am
Sophie." I then asked her to tell me about her healing.
She told me that she was prayed for on that Friday night, and the following
Monday she was starting out to school without her glasses and her mother,
who was not saved, seeing her without her glasses, said, "Sophie, don't
forget to wear your glasses!" Sophie answered, "Mother, I was prayed for at
the revival meeting Friday night and I do not need my glasses." Her mother
said, "Nonsense, come and get your glasses." But Sophie ran away to school!
That forenoon the teacher asked Sophie to read, and when she got up she
said, "Sophie, haven't you your glasses with you?" (She knew Sophie had not
been able to read without her glasses.) Sophie answered, lifting her hand,
"Teacher, I was prayed for at the revival meeting Friday night and I do not
need my glasses!" and her eyes were straight!
A number of years later I met Sophie with her little girl. She was a lovely
looking woman and was happily married.
* * * * *
I was baptizing a number of people in the North Sea, outside of Lokken,
Denmark, among whom was Sister Swenborg, from Tiste, whose eyes were so
crossed that she could not help herself at all without wearing her glasses.
A big crowd was there, mocking and throwing sand at the saints. I had just
baptized Sister Swenborg, and as she was coming out of the sea I heard a
shout going up from the saints. They told me that as the sister was coming
out of the water with lifted hands and looking up to heaven praising God, a
halo of glory was shining around her head--and her eyes were straightened
and she was a changed woman from that time. The mob stopped their mocking
on seeing this demonstration.
After the service the next Sunday at Tiste, Sister Swenborg made the
request that everybody meet her the next Tuesday afternoon at two-thirty
o'clock at the boat landing as she had something of interest to tell them.
A big crowd gathered on Tuesday afternoon, and the sister climbed up on a
large box holding her glasses in her hand and said to the people, "You all
know me and my parents who live about six miles east of town. Before I was
big enough to wear glasses it was necessary either for me to have someone
lead me or to pull me in a little wagon or sleigh. I was saved recently in
a meeting held by Bro. Morris C. Johnson and last week I went to Lokken and
was baptized, and as I came out of the water my eyes were straightened.
Here are my glasses," she said, holding them up and telling what they had
cost, "Here they go! I don't need them anymore!" and into the sea they
went. Then, opening her hand bag she took out a needle and said, "This is
the finest needle on the market," and took thread and threaded it before
the eyes of the astonished crowd.
* * * * *
For a number of years I had suffered with appendicitis and during a meeting
I was holding in company with Bro. Carl Arbeiter at Plum Coolie, Canada, I
had a severe attack which lasted two days and two nights. The third night I
was so tired and worn out that I went to sleep in spite of the pain. I woke
up hearing myself say, "Don't stick that knife into me." The appendix was
swollen to about the size of a small hen's egg, and I felt it was going to
burst. There was no time to get anyone to come and pray so I laid my own
hands on my body and said, "Lord God Almighty, if you do not help me now I
am gone." It burst, making a noise like the shot from a small shotgun. I
then turned over to my other side and went to sleep at once and have never
experienced any bad effects nor had any attacks since. In relating this
experience to three doctors later, two of them laughed and made fun of me,
but the third one said, "Hold on, hold on; this man has never lied to me
yet." He said it could have burst into the intestines, the poison passing
out the natural way. And if not, the Lord God could take care of him!
* * * * *
Once I had a stroke. Half the left side of my body down to my knees was
affected. I could not sit up, neither could I lie down. I stood on my knees
beside the sofa for two weeks. I was prayed for several times but was not
healed. And I was to start a revival meeting at Hereford, Minn. the
Thursday of the second week that I was sick.
Sister Hedricks came over often and prayed for me. When on the second
Friday she came and I was no better, she asked me whether I had sent to
Anderson and to the Scandinavian Publishing Company at St. Paul Park to
have them pray for me. On telling her I had not done so and explaining to
her that I had no faith for my own healing, I said, "I could pray for your
healing if you were sick, but I have no faith for myself, and I have always
preached that when folks were saved they should have faith to pray for
their own healing, so I do not want to bother the folks to pray for me."
"Well," she said, "aren't you humble enough to tell them that you have no
faith for yourself?" I answered, "All right, you pray for me and I will
think it over." The next day I asked wife to write to these two places, and
when she had written and sealed the two letters I was instantly healed!
Wife sent the letters.
After getting healed I decided to go to the revival meeting at Hereford,
but there was no train going there until Monday and it was in the month of
November and very cold. And it was at the time when the automobile first
came into use. One family in the congregation at Hereford had a Ford
furnished with a top and side curtains, another family had a Buick (called
a gentleman's car), and it had no top nor even a windshield on it.
I found out later that the owning of these cars had caused some little
friction in the congregation. In fact, some had said that nobody could have
one of those machines and still be a Christian. But they had decided to
leave the matter until the time Brother Susag should come and he would help
them out.
When we were leaving my home to drive to town to take the train for there,
it was really cold. I said to my wife, "Let's go back in the house and ask
the Lord to send a man to meet me at Elbow Lake, with a car having a top on
it and side curtains"--for I was still very weak. On arriving at Elbow Lake
I went to the post office and wrote a card home--I would have had to change
trains there if no one had come to meet me--and as I came out of the post
office I saw a man across the street--walking in the direction I was going.
He looked at me and I looked at him, wondering, then he came running across
the street and exclaimed, "Now I know why I came to town today! I am here
to drive you to the meeting. I had left my car in town to have a little
work done on it, not intending to use it until after the meeting."
Then he went on to say, "We live six miles from town, and this morning as I
was working around the barn the Lord said to me, 'You go to town and get
your car.' My wife said, 'John, leave that car alone; don't go to town.'
But I told her that the Lord said, 'You go and get the car.' And I came as
fast as I could get here."
He took me to the service. Bro. E. G. Masters was preaching, and when he
had finished speaking he asked me to come to the pulpit and tell how the
Lord had healed me and how it was that I managed to get to the service. I
related the whole story, telling how I had prayed for someone to meet me
who had a. car having a top to it and side curtains to keep out the cold. I
then added that I was so glad the Lord had lots of cars; that as for me, I
never expected to have a car of my own for I did not think that I would
ever be able to afford anything like that. That settled the car difficulty
in the congregation--and I was entirely ignorant of the fact of there
having been any trouble! Today I am using my ninth car.
That meeting was a real success. Brother Masters, for a number of evenings,
had offered a brand new eighteen dollar Bible to any preacher, professor,
presiding elder or bishop that could come into the pulpit and prove that we
were not preaching the Bible. He gave them five minutes to come to the
front. One family belonging to a certain denomination sent for their bishop
and he came. After the service was over and the family had taken the bishop
to their home, they asked him why he did not get up and prove that we were
not preaching the truth so as to get the Bible. The good man answered,
"After those two men were finished speaking there was nothing to say. They
preached the Bible." Brother Masters spoke on the "White Horse of Calvary"
and used the blackboard to illustrate his meaning.
* * * * *
Brother Peter Peterson of Hoboken, New Jersey and I held some meetings
together up in a newly settled district of northern Minnesota. Our offering
for two weeks services was one round fifty-cent piece.
While there we had a call to go to the insane asylum, at Fergus Falls,
Minnesota to pray for a Brother Weegan who had lost his mind. After
entering the institution we were locked in the cell with him and on bended
knees with our hands uplifted toward heaven, we began to pray and all of a
sudden he was restored to his right mind. We knocked on the door to have
the attendant came and let us out. As we were going out of the door Brother
Weegan pushed his head between us and the attendant and said to the man,
"You might just as well let me out, too, for I am as rational as these two
preachers now, and I will not hurt you any more."
Then I asked the attendant whether there was a man in the place by the name
of John Lukesen of Irving, Minnesota, and he told me there was such a man
there. I told him we had ten minutes to spare and asked him whether we
could go in and see him without first having to go to the superintendent's
office for permission. The man lifted his hands and said, "You can see
anyone in this institution since this one man has received help from you."
He then proceeded to give us information about the one we wanted to see. He
said, "When Mr. Lukesen first came here we had to have him in a padded cell
and he got so bad that we had to tie him to his cot and now he is like a
wild cat and nothing but skin and bones; he won't be long for this world."
When he opened the door to the cell, there I saw my neighbor lying on his
cot and he surely did look like a wild cat, as the man had said! The
compassion of the Lord Jesus came upon me and I lifted my hands toward
heaven and called aloud to him, "John Lukesen, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom
I serve, makes you well!" And he was well! Shortly after this, he was sent
home.
We planned to go from there to Hereford, Minnesota. At Evansville where we
had to change trains, we inquired of the station agent when the train for
Hereford would be leaving. We were informed that there would be no train
leaving for that place before Thursday at three o'clock. We were told that
only two trains a week went from there to Hereford and this was Tuesday--a
long time to wait!
Brother Peterson said, "Let us go out and pray." After we had prayed we
returned to the depot and asked the agent when the train for Hereford would
be leaving. He answered gruffly, "I told you Thursday afternoon at three
o'clock." "All right," said Brother Peterson, "Let us go out and pray."
After praying we went back the second time and asked the agent the same
question; and this time he was really gruff. And he surely informed us that
there would be no train leaving before Thursday afternoon at three o'clock.
Again, Brother Peterson said, "All right, let us go out and pray."
We went out once more into the grove to pray and Brother Peterson did the
praying: "Lord, the President can get a special pullman train any time he
wants it and he is only the president of the United States; and here are
we, Brother Susag and I, Thy ambassadors. We are not asking Thee for a
pullman car--we will be satisfied with an old caboose--the distance is only
30 miles; so Lord, won't you please talk to the agent?" We both said AMEN.
On returning to the agent for the third time, Brother Peterson said to him,
"When will that train be ready for Hereford?" In a very mild tone he
replied, "I have been thinking about it and I will shove a few box cars and
a caboose together and send you fellows out." And we both said, "Thank you,
sir." And so the Lord answered prayer and sent us home on a special train!
When wife and I got saved, my brothers and families and wives quit writing
to us, and in four years we seldom heard from them. One evening a letter
came from my sister-in-law telling us that my brother had lost his reason
and had been sent to the insane asylum at St. Peter, Minnesota, and asking
me to come at once. Not having any money on hand to go with, I went to a
near neighbor and showed him the letter and asked him if he would loan me
fifteen dollars so that I could go to Minneapolis and also to St. Peter. He
told me that he would do that even if I were not able to pay him back. The
next day I went to Minneapolis to my sister-in-law and her five children.
Jerome, the oldest boy, seven years of age, said, "Uncle, are you going to
bring Daddy home?" I said, "Son, I cannot bring your Daddy home, but Jesus
Christ whom I serve will bring him home."
My sister-in-law related how it all happened. She went for her pastor and
my brother-in-law, a professor in the Lutheran college. When they came
Jerome said to them, "Won't you pray like Uncle Swen does?" They had
evidently talked about our praying even though they did not write to us.
After they had gone his wife had to let my brother out-doors and he ran
four blocks without a thread of clothing on--until a policeman captured
him.
I went to St. Peter, and Dr. Tumbleson, the president of the institution,
refused to let me see my brother. I told him that I must see him; that as a
minister of the gospel I had a right to go where a doctor could go. But he
still refused and called in two other doctors who said to me, "Your brother
is not only insane but is seriously ill and we do not expect him to leave
this institution alive." To which I replied, "Then so much the more do I
have to see him; and if you continue to refuse to let me see him you will
have two Susags in this institution, for I will stay until you grant me the
right to see my brother." Finally relenting, they sent for a man to take me
to see my poor brother.
As I entered the cell in which he was confined my brother did not know me.
He was walking around the room more like an animal than like a man. I knelt
down in the middle of the floor and prayed. After a while he came and put
his hand on my shoulder and said, "Swen, how does it come that you are
here?" I said, "I have come to help you, Mike." "Thank you, I am glad you
have come; something got into my head and I lost my mind. How is my
family?" I told him they were all well and had sent their greetings to him.
Then the man who had brought me in took hold of me and ordered me out.
But I was satisfied. This was the 22nd of March and I fasted from one meal
every day for seventeen days and some days I would touch neither water nor
food telling the Lord I had promised Mike's wife and his children that I
was going to bring the husband and daddy home; and, "Jesus, I will give you
no rest until you do so."
On the eighth of April during morning worship the Spirit of the Lord
revealed to me that the Lord had heard our prayer and that my brother was
perfectly well! I jumped up from my knees and ran around the house shouting
the glory of God. Wife thought, "Here is another crazy Susag," but Brother
Enos Key, of Red Key, Indiana (who had come to hold a meeting) was with us
and he said, "Praise God, Brother Susag has the victory!" And three days
later I received a letter from Doctor Tumbleson giving us the good news
that on the eighth day of April the nurse went to take food to my brother
and found him perfectly well in mind and body. And that he was doing
bookkeeping for the institution and could come home any time only for the
customary red tape it would take a few days before he could come. In a
short time he was home and well.
* * * * *
On one occasion when I was holding a meeting at the fishing town of
Sookden, Denmark, a great storm arose. As is the custom in fishing towns,
boats put out to sea at high tide for better fishing conditions; forty-two
had gone from here about two o'clock in the night. Toward morning the storm
broke and on into the forenoon it became very fierce. Some of the older
people were telling of a similar storm they remembered of some forty years
before when thirty-eight boats went out and such a storm blew up. If I
remember correctly, not one boat returned.
In those days there were no motor boats. They were all sailboats, generally
three men to a boat. This time, however, they had gasoline motors on the
boats and from twelve o'clock until three o'clock one boat after the other
returned, some of them full of water, barely getting to shore. Forturnately
the wind was blowing toward the shore or they might not have made a safe
landing.
I was staying at the home of Brother Morton Petersen. He and his crew had
not returned as yet. It seemed that most of the population of the town was
standing on the hills looking for his return. I heard someone say to his
wife, "Marie, do you expect Morton to return?" She answered, "He has been
out so many times and has come back, and I expect him back this time." He
generally went farther out than any of the fishermen because the farther
out the fish were supposed to be larger and better.
We stood out there for two hours or more. About five o'clock someone said,
"I see a dark spot out there." A little later someone else shouted, "I see
a spot, too!" And then we began to see the spot more and more often, and at
last they came safely to land--and not a bucket of water in the boat.
On our way home I asked Brother Petersen how he had gotten along. He said,
"When we realized the storm was on hand we packed up our fishing lines and
I ordered my partner to take care of the motor and I myself took charge of
the rudder. My partner was a saved man but we had a boy who was not saved.
I ordered him to be ready to dip out the water if any got in the boat."
I asked him whether they did much talking during that terrible storm and he
said, "No, I was praying all the time that we might reach land safely,
because the young man with us was not saved and he was the sole support of
his widowed mother, his father and one or two brothers having gone down
somewhere in the North Sea not so long ago. We were getting along very
well--for the Lord helped me steer the boat right--but the worst that we
had to meet was just before we landed--there were three sandbars we had to
cross. If the waves struck us just right we would get over, but if not, we
would get stuck in the sandbars, and there would be no help for us. When we
came to the first one a big wave carried us safely over the sandbar. I said
'Thank God, we are over the first one;' and so it was with the other two;
and each time I said, 'Thank God for taking us over, and too, for not
letting the water get into our boat.'"
A week later I embarked on the steamer Olaf Barger, sailing from
Fredriksen, Denmark, to Sweden. As I was going on board the boat the
Captain came to me and asked whether I could spare him a few minutes before
we landed in Sweden, as he wished to have a talk with me. When we got so
far that we could begin to see the rocky coast of Sweden he came to me and
began his narrative. He said, pointing ahead, "You see that three-mast
schooner standing upon that rock?" I said, "Yes, I see it." "You remember
the awful storm we had a week ago today. We were just coming out from
Gottenburg to return to Denmark--an hour's sailing--and the schooner called
for help but we were unable to even help ourselves so that we could not
possibly help them. They were blown upon the rocks, but the people were
saved." Then he pointed to the left to two big rocks, and continued, "And
right there was a small steamer in trouble. They, too, called for help but
we could not give it and they went down.
"We now saw that it would be impossible for us to reach Denmark and were
fortunate in managing to turn the ship's course back toward Gottenburg. I
tied myself to the bridge with an inch rope. Down into the waves we went
and I said to myself, 'We have seen the sun for the last time.' But we came
up and went down again many, many times. Then I did something I had never
in all my life done before--I am sixty-five years old--I prayed the Lord to
save my ship and all that were sailing with me. Along in the afternoon I
found myself calling on God for salvation of my soul, and the Lord did save
me and finally brought my ship, and those sailing with me, safely into the
harbor at nine o'clock that evening, it having taken us nine hours to do
one hour's sailing.
"Knowing that you were a minister of the gospel I wanted to tell you the
story that you might perhaps tell it to others."
How longsuffering and merciful is the Son of God toward the children of men
that when they repent and turn to Him, HE FORGIVES THEM.
* * * * *
One time when I arrived home from one of my evangelistic tours I found that
my two young sons who were twins, eleven years of age, had been cutting
hay. It was all raked and rowed up ready for hauling, and they were
rejoicing that I had come as they were counting on me to help them haul and
stack the hay. They said, "Dad, tomorrow you will have to help us." I said,
"All right, we will have to get up early to get it done as I am leaving the
following day to start another meeting."
The next morning we started out. We had to drive eighty rods south on the
road, then we turned another eighty rods east to the hay meadow. Just as I
began to pitch the hay up in the rack the boys exclaimed, "Dad, it's
raining." "Yes," I said, and stuck my pitchfork in the ground, threw my hat
beside it and said, "Let's pray." I said to the Lord, "This hay is yours;
this farm is yours and I am your servant. This hay must be hauled today as
I leave tomorrow to minister unto the people, so please, at least keep the
rain off the hay meadow and off the road where we have to drive. Amen."
I went to pitching hay again; it was just pouring down all around us as far
as we could see across the fence and west of the road. The only spots where
it did not rain was where we were working and on the road we were driving.
It rained all day, and it did not just rain--it poured! We hauled hay all
day, until a little after six o'clock I slid off the stack in the yard and
then the rain just poured down. I said to the boys, "The Lord surely heard
prayer." They said, "Yes, He did," and we thanked the Lord.
After I had left the next day, our neighbor came over and seeing the stack
asked the boys when they stacked that hay. They told him, "Yesterday, Daddy
was home." (There was a distance of about twenty rods between his house and
ours). He said, "That is impossible. I took a rest all day for the rain
just poured down and I could not do anything." He thought it must have been
the day before that we hauled and stacked the hay. But the boys told him
that "Daddy prayed and it did not rain on our hay meadow, nor on the road
where we were driving." This man was greatly astonished at hearing this.
* * * * *
One afternoon, about three o'clock, the renters on our place came running
in great excitement into wife's room and said, "Mrs. Susag, a cyclone is
coming." She went out with them and it was dark. There was a wood pile
about three or four rods south of our houses and parts of our neighbors
buildings south of us were blowing through our pasture and wood from the
wood pile began to go up in the air. Wife lifted her hands toward heaven
facing the storm and cried, "Lord God, don't let that storm strike our
dwelling." The cyclone turned right square to the east several rods and
then turned square again to the north-east of the buildings. When it got
beyond our buildings it turned west and when it got just in line with the
direction from which it came, it turned north again, rooting up big trees
and damaging the neighbor's buildings; but not a thing on our premises was
disturbed.
The spout of the cyclone dug a ditch several feet deep in some places. Once
more God's Word was verified: "Call and I will answer."
* * * * *