The evening when I said, "Sister G, you are possessed with devils," I
looked back in the audience and saw a sister with her mouth open and
looking at me with surprise and apparent criticism, as if to say, "What do
you mean by saying such things to Sister G?" Just then I saw many serpents
crawling in her lap and up her breast and in to her mouth. After the
service this woman's sister came to me and said, "Do you know that my
sister, Mary, is possessed with devils?" I said, "Yes," and she asked how I
knew, saying, "She told me she had just gotten possessed." I said, "I saw
them entering."
We took her to a private home and she was delivered by the power of God.
* * * * *
There is always a cause when God does not answer prayer, either in
individuals or congregations. I have been speaking of individual cases in
this book, where prayer was not answered. Now I will speak of
congregational hindrances that I know of personally.
There is never an effect without a cause that produces the effect. In a
certain congregation where I held several successful revivals for several
pastors, there came a time when the work did not prosper as it had in
previous years. By chance after twenty years absence, I stopped in there
one prayer meeting night, having business in the town that day. They
entreated me to come back and speak for them on a certain Sunday, which I
did. The Lord gave us two precious services. They took up their regular
Sunday evening offering. After that, they announced that they would take up
an offering especially for Brother Susag, which they did, and set the
basket in a position where I noticed the contents, which was in the
neighborhood of fifteen dollars or a little more. Next morning when I was
ready to take the train, I was handed four dollars with the remark, "This
is our custom." No wonder the congregation did not prosper, and still these
dear people had done their duty, but were unaware of what the hindrance
was.
I know of other cases of that same kind, both with other ministers and
myself. Once in a camp meeting a young minister was the evangelist, whom
the Lord used mightily. One evening they were going to take up the love
offering for the evangelist. A nice offering came in, not any too large,
and they gave the evangelist seventy percent.
* * * * *
Once at the Grand Forks, North Dakota Camp Meeting, Brother P. Pederson of
Hoboken, New Jersey was to preach. He read his text and related some of his
experiences and the Holy Ghost began to bring the people to the altar. He
then closed his Bible and said, "A greater preacher than I is now
speaking."
* * * * *
During the depression it looked as though we were going to lose the state
camp grounds at Grand Forks. At the camp meeting the Board said there is no
other way than to let it go. I said, "No." "Well," they said, "Then you
will have to raise the money because we cannot." I said, "If you will give
me a free hand, to go at it when the Lord says to, I will." They said O. K.
One evening the Lord said, "Now is the time," so I said to Brother Monk,
"Let me have a few minutes?" Within a few minutes we had the amount to the
cent. Brother Monk said, "This time the devil was licked and the depression
also." It pays to pray.
* * * * *
The first Camp Meeting I attended at Grand Forks, I generally got up at 3
or 4 a.m. and went to the woods to pray. At that time you could hardly find
a place to pray.
There were two or three members praying behind every tree before I got
there.
The first Camp Meeting I attended in Anderson, I went out early in the
cemetery and here they were praying every where.
The pioneer ministers knew how to pray, because they had no sermon outline
book to take it from. Their converts knew how, too, for they were taught by
the Holy Ghost.
* * * * *
Once Brother Renbeck and I were holding a meeting in Erskine, Minn. It was
42 degrees below zero every day, and we had to stand the bread by the
heating stove and a number of times it froze so hard on the table, before
we got through with our meal, that we could not eat it. When we went to
bed, we could see the stars twinkling through the cracks of the roof. We
took off our shoes and coats and lay down on the bed, and pulled our fur
caps down over our ears and put our fur coats over us. Often through the
night we would have to turn over because the side that was down got cold.
This may seem ridiculous to some, but God knows it is true.
* * * * *
In 1911 Brother Morris Johnson and I held a meeting on the west coast of
Denmark. At the place where we stayed and slept, we had to climb up a
ladder through a hole into the room to sleep. The bed was too short for
Bro. Johnson and too narrow for two, and the bed clothes accordingly.
We could not sleep much after breakfast. We took our traveling blankets and
walked out side the town where there were some old grave hills that had
been opened to get out the wealth that was buried. It left a deep hollow
place in the ground. There was ice in the bottom. We wrapped our blankets
around us and lay down so the wind could not blow on us and slept some.
That was pioneering in Denmark. In this little town it was really the first
great battle for the truth won in Denmark.
Many have said that much of the pioneer work was lost and did not pay. It
is true, some was lost, but what would we have had today without it? I pray
God to rekindle the pioneer spirit and passion for souls and trust in the
Lord. The opportunities are still here. If I were a young man I would say
with the prophet, “Here am I, send me.”