FROM THE EDITOR

To navigate this large collection you can use the Table of Contents at the beginning; or you can access the full Table of Contents at any time by choosing MENU > GO TO > TABLE OF CONTENTS on your eReader.  You can also skip chapters by swiping up or down (newer versions) or pressing the forward “>” or backward “<” key on the 4-way controller in older versions.

If you have been blessed by this volume, you may also be interested in some of our other Christian Classics Treasury collections:

CLASSIC COLLECTIONS:

- 7 Classics on REVIVAL

- 7 Classics on PRAYER

- 7 Classics on HOLINESS

- 7 Classics on EVANGELISM and SOUL-WINNING

- 7 Catholic Classics

- 5 Classics on the HOLY SPIRIT

- 5 Classics on POWER

PREACHERS AND REVIVALISTS:

- The Azusa Street Papers

- Charles Spurgeon: 40 sermons on Prayer

- Charles Spurgeon: Lectures to My Students

- The George Muller Collection

- The Revival Writings of Jonathan Edwards (7-in-1)

- The Works of Catherine Booth (7-in-1)

- The Works of Charles Finney

- The Works of D. L. Moody

- The Works of R. A. Torrey

- The Works of William Booth

- Biography of John Wesley Collection: 4-in-1

- Amy Carmichael 8-in-1

- Samuel Zwemer 7-in-1(Missions in Arabia)

Table of Contents

FROM THE EDITOR

1.  AZUSA STREET (How Pentecost Came to Los Angeles)

Dedication:

Chapter 1: Trials And Blessings, Revival Begins

Chapter 2: Pastor Smale Returns From Wales

Chapter 3: The Fire Falls At Azusa

Chapter 4: Eighth And Maple Meetings

Chapter 5: From California To Maine

Chapter 6: A Second Ministry East

Chapter 7: Visit to Hawaii - Volcano Kilauea

Chapter 8: Brother Durham in Los Angeles

Chapter 9: Sparks From the Anvil

Chapter 10: A Plea For Unity

2.  MY STORY - "THE LATTER RAIN"

Introduction

Preface

Chapter 1: My Story

Chapter 2: The Earthquake

Chapter 3: The Earthquake Tract

Chapter 4: The Last Call

Chapter 5: Letter Received from Evan Roberts

Chapter 6: Get the Flame!

Chapter 7: The Time Of Our Visitation

3.  FROM PLOW TO PULPIT (1924)

Chapter 1: Birth, Childhood, Youth

Chapter 2: Conversion, College Days, Mission Work

Chapter 3: Evangelism in Dixie Land

Chapter 4: Hope Mission, Marriage, Pastoral Work

Chapter 5: Mission Work in Colorado

Chapter 6: Mission Work in California

4.  TWO YEARS MISSION WORK IN EUROPE

Chapter 1: OFF FOR EUROPE

Chapter 2: BRITISH ISLES

Chapter 3: FRANCE, NORWAY, SWEDEN

Chapter 4: HOLLAND, GERMANY, SWEDEN, SWITZERLAND

Chapter 5: DENMARK, SWEDEN, FINLAND, RUSSIA

Chapter 6: WAR DECLARED - EARLY DAYS OF WAR

Chapter 7: HOME THROUGH THE WAR ZONE

5.  THE DEITY OF CHRIST

Foreword

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

1.  AZUSA STREET (How Pentecost Came to Los Angeles)

(How Pentecost Came to Los Angeles)

Frank Bartleman

1925

Dedication:

This little book is dedicated to the many precious souls who with the author were privileged to see and experience the early days of blessing of the “Latter Rain” outpouring at the old “power house,” Azusa Street Mission. It is written with the hope and prayer that, where lost, the vision may be renewed to those who once shared with us in the glory of this “former house” of blessing; and also that it may, through this humble little medium, be told “to the generation following.”

FRANK BARTLEMAN

Los Angeles, California

April, 1925

Chapter 1: Trials And Blessings, Revival Begins

The author of the following pages arrived in Los Angeles, Calif., with wife and two daughters, the oldest three and one-half years old, Dec. 22, 1904, after two years' mission work in the north, having crossed the continent previously, by easy stages. (See, "From Plough to Pulpit," price 50c, for previous experiences.)

After stopping one night at Peniel Mission, 227 S. Main St., we rented two unfurnished rooms, upstairs, without heat, of friends at 1055 Temple St. I had little money. I secured some furniture, and we cooked and ate under a tent in the yard. Being cold and rainy, we suffered much. Our youngest child became sick, but God spared her. The harvest was great but the laborers few in those days; there was plenty of mission work all around us, but the question was how were our needs to be supplied.

I started a street meeting, but an officer promptly stopped me. I had no permit, so went to work with the regular missions. Every night found me taking part in services, and my days were spent in personal work. We lived by faith, having no income. I had served the Lord largely on that line since my conversion in 1893, having been called to preach soon after. Wife was one with me.

Dec. 31, we had received but 50 cents since coming to Los Angeles. We were stranded. My health had been poor, from a child. I wrote in my diary at that time: "My health is quite poor, but I believe I shall live to finish my work. Few care to go into the hard places, but my work is to go where others will not go. It seems God can only get a man who has nothing but Heaven to live for to do the work for which a strong man is needed. I am glad to be used up in His service. I would rather wear out than rust out; and rather starve for God, if need be, than fatten for the devil." That was about the spirit of my consecration.

January 2, I testified and helped in an all-day meeting at Boyle Heights M.E. Church, walking there, not having car-fare. Being very tired I asked the Lord for my car-fare home, and found a nickel on the side-walk. I rode home.

I preached at Fifth Street Mission, where the "Burning Bush" had gotten control. God preciously anointed me as I exhorted to a middle-ground between formalism and fanaticism. They were going wild. Jesus was crucified "between two thieves." The devil splits a work in the middle, runs away with the heart, leaving the shell, thus driving the saints to both extremes, and destroys the whole. We are creatures of extremes.

Little Esther, our oldest child, was seized with convulsions, and passed away to be with Jesus January 7, at 4 A.M. She had been a great sufferer all her life, being very frail from birth. This time it seemed God's will to take her. I was constrained to pray that she might be spared from so much suffering. I felt I was holding her by my prayers and prolonging her suffering. God wanted her but would not tear her from me. He made me willing to give her up, and then he took her. She soon passed into the glory world without further struggle. I had kissed her that morning for the last time in consciousness, little realizing it would be the last. Our little ones slip away from us so easily. Let us make the most of them while we have them with us. Deal gently with the children. Life is hard enough for them at best, and we may regret their loss when too late. This is a tremendous universe for the child spirit, and filled with terribly evil forces. We must protect and help them all we can. Wife plead with the unsaved woman in the house to get right with God as little Esther's spirit was departing, so great was the grace given her. We had fondly hoped our little family might never be broken into by death. But He knew best.

I copy the following from my diary, written at this time: "Little Esther slipped away from us early this morning, to be with Jesus. The angels called her, and she went to meet them. They carried her off and left us lonely hearted. Oh, what a void her absence leaves with us! But we sorrow not as those who have no hope. She is safe forevermore. Saved from an unfriendly world and a life of suffering. She was too frail for the long journey of life in this world, and so He spared her. She was as innocent of evil as any one could be. The great ordeal of life is past for her. She has gone on before, ahead of us, saved from the sorrow of parting. She has escaped safely, while we must struggle on. Her work is finished in the cool of the early morning of life, and she has gone home, spared the heat of the journey. The angels will care for her far better than we could, and she will be inconceivably happier. For her own sake I would not recall her if I could. So we lay her body away in the full assurance of a glorious resurrection. Some day her glorified spirit, all radiant and rapturous with the blissful joy of Heaven, will meet us at the 'beautiful gate.' We trust it will not be long."

Little Esther was a veritable "morning glory." It was the flower she loved. I placed one tenderly on her bosom, as she lay in the coffin, ready for burial. But she had gone "where God and the angels are," never to grow "world-weary." We were glad she ever came to us, though she stayed but a little while, and broke our hearts at parting. There is one more soul in Heaven. Should we be called also, before Jesus comes, we will sorrow only for those we must leave behind. We will joy for all those gone before. We only miss our loved ones here. Could we but catch one strain of Heaven's pure melody it would spoil us for earthly sounds forever. Could we but catch one glimpse of departed loved ones, through the "gates ajar," earth could no longer hold us here. We must see things from the Heaven side. Earth's sounds and spirits are so crude and cruel. Heaven is all love, and joy, and peace, and rest. Thank God! Sorrow and parting, there, will never more be known. No more empty chairs, nor graves nor coffins, there.

Sister Frambes, M.E. pastor's wife at Lamanda Park, California, gave me the following true story at this time. The incident occurred over half a century ago in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio. Old Auntie Mellinger, a wonderful saint, and eye witness, related it many times to Sister Frambes. A poor and obscure family had a little daughter ten years of age. The child had always been precocious in the things of God, and now lay at the point of death. Auntie Mellinger, with others, had gathered to watch her pass away. Soon the child spoke in rapt attention: "Listen! Listen!" They could as yet hear nothing. The child's ears had already been quickened beyond earthly hearing. Soon, however, they also began to hear the most entrancing strains of music, manifestly not of this world, coming from the distance. It rapidly approached, becoming more audible, until it finally ceased for a time just over the house where they were gathered. The child's face lit up with a very halo of glory, and as the presence of God filled the room they realized that a band of heavenly beings encompassed them, and as they seemed almost to hear the rustle of angels' wings, the spirit of the little one passed out of its temple of clay, in a rapture of transcending joy. The heavenly music was again resumed, and soon died away in the distance. The angel band had gone back to the Celestial City, and the spirit of the little one had departed with them. "Come, angel band, come and around me stand! Oh, bear me away on your snowy wings, to my immortal home."

From John Wesley's diary we gather the following, under date of March 29, 1782: "Being Good Friday, I came to Mansfield to assist in the services of the day. While we were administering the sacrament to about thirteen hundred people I heard a low, soft, solemn sound, just like that of an Aeolian harp. It continued five or six minutes, and so affected many that they could not refrain from tears. It then gradually died away." Evidently the angel choir, joining in the services.

Sister Ferguson came from Peniel Mission to comfort us, the next day after Esther's death, but was forced to exclaim as she entered the room, "Why the Comforter is here!" We had no money for the funeral, but Brother Geo. Studd secured a cheap lot from the City for us, in Evergreen Cemetery, among the children's plots. She lies buried among the foreign children. And so she is a little missionary still, as she was in life.

I carried the coffin that contained all that remained on earth of our little darling, on my knees in the carriage. It was raining too hard for wife to go to the cemetery. And so we laid her away on a dark and stormy day, to await the resurrection morn, where there will be no clouds nor sorrow. How pure that morning air will be! And how glorious our loved ones then! And how all creation will sing, as the Sun of Righteousness appears, with healing in His wings! We had no hearse or regular funeral. But God provided, even as He had in life.

Our little "Queen Esther" seemed to have been born "for such a time as this." - (Esther 4:14.) Beside that little coffin, with heart bleeding, I pledged my life anew for God's service. In the presence of death how real eternal issues become. I promised the rest of my life should be spent wholly for Him. He made a fresh covenant with me. I then begged Him to open a door of service quickly, that I might not find time for sorrow.

Just one week after little Esther's departure I began preaching twice a day at the little Peniel Mission in Pasadena. The devil fought hard. He must have sensed what was coming. At times while preaching a hot blast from the "pit" seemed to strike me. More than once I almost fainted, and had to rally my strength before I could proceed. I preached noon and night for almost a month here. One night we had a season of great quietness at the altar for almost an hour. The Lord drew very near. We were stilled before Him. It is good to get quiet. We talk too much. He speaks in the "still, small voice," when we are quiet. Our spirits are too restless. We cannot hear Him. He does not shout and enter into turmoil.

We soon had a breaking up time at the mission. Souls began to weep their way to Calvary. One day while on the way to Pasadena the devil tried to electrocute the motorman. The trolley also jumped the wire a dozen times, and it seemed we would never get there. I had a message burning in my soul, and prayed hard. We finally arrived, just in time for me to deliver the message in the meeting. We had a great victory. But the devil had done all he could to hinder.

We had powerful meetings, with wonderful altar services. The Spirit wrought mightily. February 6, I brought wife and little Ruth to Pasadena, to the mission home. The fight was on. An enemy tried to persuade the Fergusons in Los Angeles to stop the meetings. But God put him to bed with the grippe. I determined not to eat or sleep again until victory came, so I fasted and prayed all one day. That night the Lord broke forth in power. He could not afford to have me die on His hands. I could not preach for the presence of God. The glory played on my face like a hot sun bath. God spoke that night. The altar was full until after midnight with earnest seekers.

My work here seemed finished for the time, so I rented two unfurnished rooms at 213 Grove Street, Pasadena for five dollars per month, and moved my family there, bringing our furniture from Los Angeles. I was very tired and worn in body. My nerves had been worn threadbare from years of previous pioneer mission work in various parts of the country. We had always worked on faith lines, having taken for our motto Isa. 33:16— "Bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure." We had no money and so it seemed necessary for me to find employment for a season. At that time I had not yet turned my back fully on secular employment, as He led me so clearly to do later, although I had already been preaching for more than ten years.

While souls had been saved during the month's meetings in Peniel Mission, yet the greatest victory gained was the digging out of a company of young men attending there. A number were called out by the Lord for future service. Principal among these were Edward Boehmer, Amil Alien and Orville Tingle. Two of these at least have become very active in the Pentecostal work of today. Sister Mamie Craybill took an active part also in these meetings, especially in the ministry of intercession. She was a very choice vessel of the Lord, later becoming active in the Pentecostal work also.

In much weakness of body I secured work gardening. This provided us with food. I preached frequently on the streets, andhelped in the mission. My next job was picking oranges, from a ladder, but I had to quit at noon the first day. The weight of the fruit and the twisting on the ladder nearly broke my back. That was my weak spot. I got more gardening, and fence building. This was not so hard. Almost every night found me in some meeting, preaching or testifying. It was my life. My first call was to preach.

We suffered much from the cold and rain as we had only a little gas burner in the house, both for heating and cooking. Little Ruth was taken sick with fever, and we were about out of food. Work was scarce. I preached at Peniel Mission, without mentioning our need, but declared my faith in God to stand by the man who would stand by Him. They prayed for Ruth's healing and the Lord touched her at home while we prayed. A brother handed me five dollars after the service. Thus God had stood by me.

I distributed many tracts in Los Angeles, among the harlots and the saloons. My spare time was all spent in tract and personal work, or preaching on the street and in the missions. I only rested when I slept, and then I was often praying. I was greatly burdened for souls. "There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold of Thee." (Isa. 64:7.)

Brother Alien, one of the mission boys, gave me work painting. He was a contractor. I worked for some time at this. One day the devil tried to kill me. I was painting the gable end of a barn, from a ladder, which stood on a slanting shed roof. Suddenly, without warning, the ladder slipped and fell. But I landed squarely on my feet on the roof, well balanced. It was done too quickly to realize it. My paint spilled all over the roof. Ps. 91:11, 12, immediately came to me. The angels of the Lord had "borne me up." I could have rolled off the roof and broken my neck.

April 8, I heard F.B. Myer, from London, preach. He described the great revival then going on in Wales, which he had just visited. He had met Evan Roberts. My soul was stirred to its depths, having read of this revival shortly before. I then and there promised God He should have full right of way with me, if He could use me.

Mother Wheaton, the prison evangelist, came to Pasadena and preached in Peniel. She was on fire for God. I longed to be wholly engaged in the work of the Lord once more but knew not how my family should be supported. The obstacles seemed very great, and my strength small. But the call of God was upon me. My family belonged to Him. If He called me I dared not fail.

I distributed tracts in the post office, banks, and public buildings in Los Angeles, and also visited many saloons with tracts. Later I visited about thirty saloons in Los Angeles again. The houses of prostitution were wide open at that time and I gave out many tracts there.

Little Esther's death had broken my heart and I felt I could only live while in God's service. I longed to know Him in a more real way and to see the work of God go forth in power. A great burden and cry came in my heart for a mighty revival. He was preparing me for a fresh service for Him. This could only be brought about by the realization of a deeper need in my own heart for God and a real soul travail for the work of God. This He gave me. Many were being similarly prepared at this time in different parts of the world. The Lord was preparing to visit and deliver His people once more. Intercessors were the need. "He wondered that there was no intercessor." - Isa. 59:16 "I sought for a man to stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none."—Ezek. 22:30.

About the first of May a powerful revival broke out in the Lake Avenue M.E. Church in Pasadena. The young men who had been dug out in the meetings in Peniel Mission most of them attended this church. They had gotten under the burden for a revival there. In fact we had been praying for a sweeping revival for Pasadena. God was answering our prayers. I found a wonderful work of the Spirit going on at Lake Avenue. The altar was full of seeking souls. There was no big preacher there. One night nearly every unsaved soul in the house got saved. It was a clean sweep for God. Conviction was mightily upon the people. In two weeks' time two hundred souls knelt at the altar, seeking the Lord. The Peniel boys were underneath, and wonderfully used of God. We then began to pray for an outpouring of the Spirit for Los Angeles and the whole of Southern California.

I find the following observations in my diary, written at that time: "Some Holiness churches (foremost at that time) are going to be surprised to find God passing them by. He will work in channels where they will yield to him. They must humble themselves for Him to come. We are crying, 'Pasadena for God!' The people are too well satisfied with their own goodness. They have little faith or interest for the salvation of others. God will humble them by passing them by. The Spirit is breathing prayer through us for a mighty, general outpouring. Great things are coming. We are asking largely, that our joy may be full. God is moving. We are praying for the churches and their pastors. The Lord will visit those willing to yield to Him."

And the same is true today of the Pentecostal people. Their ultimate failure or success for God will be realized just at this point. We must keep humble and little in our own eyes. Let us get built up by a sense of our own importance and we are gone. History repeats itself in this connection. God has always sought a humble people. He can use no other. Martin Luther, the great reformer, wrote: "When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ says repent, he means that the whole life of believers on earth should be a constant and perpetual repentance. Repentance and sorrow—i.e. true repentance—endure as long as a man is displeased with himself—that is, until he passes from this life into eternity. The desire of self-justification is the cause of all the distresses of the heart." There is much need always of heart preparation, in humility and separation, before God can consistently come. The depth of any revival will be determined exactly by the spirit of repentance that obtains. In fact this is the key to every true revival born of God.

May 12, God dealt with me about giving all my time to Him, turning my back finally and for all time on secular employment. He wanted me now to trust Him fully for myself and family. I had just received a little book, "The Great Revival in Wales," written by S.B. Shaw. Taking a little walk before breakfast I was reading this. The Lord had been trying for years to bring me to this decision for His service. We entered into a new contract between us. He was to have the rest of my life fully. And I have never dared to break this contract. I love work, and have been terribly tempted at times, through seeming need. I have always worked harder than my natural strength reasonably allowed.

Wife kept my breakfast for me. But I did not return until noon. I had lost my appetite for food. The Spirit, through the little book, set me on fire. I visited and prayed with three preachers and a number of workers before I returned home, at noon. I had received a new commission and anointing. My burden was for a revival. A brother gave me the money for a new pair of shoes I needed. Thus already the Lord was providing. The devil was tempting me about my contract. I had had no work for three weeks. God had closed the door to work against me.

I visited and prayed with people all day long for some time now, distributing G. Campbell Morgan's pamphlet on the "Revival in Wales." It moved the people strongly. The spirit of prayer was increasing upon me and I determined to be "obedient to the heavenly vision." The "bread question" had faced me down for many years. I prayed the Lord for faith to trust Him fully. "Man shall not live by bread alone."—Matt. 4:4.

The Lord blessed me with a further spirit of exhortation to revival among the churches, giving me articles to write for the Holiness press along the same line also. I began to write particularly for the "Way of Faith" and "God's Revivalist." One night I awoke from my sleep shouting the praises of God. He was getting hold of me more and more. I was now going day and night, exhorting to faith in God for mighty things. The spirit of revival consumed me. The spirit of prophecy came upon me strongly, also. I seemed to receive a definite "gift of faith" for revival. We were evidently in the beginning of wonderful days to come, and I prophesied continually of a mighty outpouring.

I had a real ministry to the religious press, and began to attend prayer meetings at the various churches, to exhort them. We were up against it for money, and the devil tempted me to go back to work. Our rent was due, and I had only 50 cents. But the Lord heard prayer. I was about to sell our stove. We had to have a roof over our heads. Just the exact amount we needed came in, without solicitation. God was faithful.

G. Campbell Morgan's little tract on the "Revival in Wales" spread the fire in the churches wonderfully. I did a great deal of visiting among the saints also, and began to sell S.B. Shaw's little book, "The Great Revival in Wales," among the churches. God wonderfully used it to promote faith for a revival spirit. My tract work was continued among the saloons and business houses.

My clothing by this time was getting quite shabby. In answer to prayer the Lord gave me, through Brother Marsh, a Methodist brother in Pasadena, two secondhand suits of clothes, one light and one heavy, for summer and winter. Both were better than the one I was wearing. So I got a double blessing, twice what I had asked for.

I preached in the M.E. Church at Lamanda Park. Four souls were saved, and others under conviction. One ran out of the meeting to keep from yielding to God. I began to visit more churches, and write more messages for the religious press. The Lord frequently allowed us to be strongly tested financially, but never to make our wants known to the people. We had only a handful of beans in the house on one occasion. But He provided before they were fully consumed. A brother brought us a sack of potatoes as the result of a testimony I gave in the First M.E. Church. It pays to obey God. I preached at Lamanda Park M.E. Church again and the meeting lasted until after midnight. The fire fell. We repaired to the parsonage and were in prayer until near morning.

I owed the landlady for one week's rent. The devil got in her and she ordered me to pay at once, or get out. But God sent the rent. At Lamanda Park I preached a number of times again. The fire fell in a wonderful way. A number of souls were saved. Brother and Sister Frambes, the pastors, were precious children of God. God also began to work at Brother Manley's tent meeting in Pasadena. The burden of prayer was heavy on me for the work in those days. I had little rest day or night, in services and prayer. They were initial days. The fight was on. Both God and the devil were on the move.

May, 1905, I wrote in an article: "My soul is on fire as I read of the glorious work of grace in Wales. The 'seven thousand' in the land, who have kept company with the 'spared ones' (Ezek. 9), and who have been 'crying and sighing' because of the abomination and desolation in the land, the decay of vital piety in the body of Christ, may well be excused for rejoicing at such a time and prospect as this, when God is once more moving in the earth. But where are the men who will 'stir themselves up to take hold on God?' Let our watchword at this time be 'California for Christ.' God is looking for workers, channels, worms of the dust. Remember, He must have worms. Jesus' life was pressed out in prayer at every pore. This kind comes too high for most people. But may not this be our Lord's 'last call'?"

Chapter 2: Pastor Smale Returns From Wales

June 17, I went to Los Angeles to attend a meeting at the First Baptist Church. They were waiting on God for an outpouring of the Spirit there. Their pastor, Joseph Smale, had just returned from Wales. He had been in touch with the revival and Evan Roberts, and was on fire to have the same visitation and blessing come to his own church in Los Angeles. I found this meeting of an exact piece with my own vision, burden, and desire, and spent two hours in the church in prayer, before the evening service. Meetings were being held every day and night there and God was present.

One afternoon I started the meeting in Los Angeles while they were waiting for Smale to appear. I exhorted them not to wait for man, but to expect from God. They were depending on some great one, the same spirit of idolatry that has cursed the church and hindered God in all ages. Like the children of Israel the people must have "some other god before Him." In State Church circles in Europe the pastor is often known as "the little God." I started the service in the evening on the church steps, outside, while we were waiting for the janitor to arrive with the key. We had a season of prayer for the surrounding community. The evening meeting was a steady sweep of victory.

When God's church becomes what it should be, in love and unity, the doors will never be closed or locked. Like the temple of old it will be always open. (We saw this later, at Azusa Mission.) God has not got 666 churches, all of different names. There is no division in a true "Pentecost," neither in true worship. "God is spirit; and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."—John 4:24. "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body; and were all made to drink of one Spirit."—1 Cor. 12:13.

Ancient Israel, when right with God, were one. How much more should the Church be? We have priests enough to serve continually. And plenty of seeking, needy people to fill the church at all times. How far have we fallen from the early pattern, and even from the type of the church, Israel? We are so short we scarcely recognize the real thing. Even the Roman Church, though formal, is ahead of us in this. The difficulty and shame is that we are hopelessly divided.

I went to Lamanda Park again, and after preaching, spent the night at the parsonage, praying and sleeping alternately. I wanted a fuller revelation of Jesus to my own soul. Like the full moon that draws clearer and nearer to our vision as we continue to steadfastly gaze at it, so Jesus appears more real to our souls as we continue to contemplate Him. We need a closer, personal, vital relationship, acquaintance, and communion with God. Only the man who lives in fellowship with divine reality can be used to call the people to God.

I went to Smale's church again, and again found them listlessly waiting for the preacher to appear. Many did not seem to have any definite idea what they had come to meeting for. I began to pray aloud and the meeting started off with power. It was in full blast when Brother Smale arrived. God wanted the people to look to Him, and not to man. Those not having the glory of God first in view would naturally resent this. But it is God's plan.

We now moved into a little cottage at 175 ½ N. Vernon Avenue, Pasadena, paying three dollars per month rent, for one room and a small kitchen, unfurnished, without gas or water. I found most Christians did not want to take on a burden of prayer. It was too hard on the flesh. I was carrying this burden now in ever increasing volume, night and day. The ministry was intense. It was "the fellowship of His sufferings," of "travail" of soul, with "groanings that could not be uttered."—Rom. 8:26, 27. Most believers find it easier to criticize than to pray.

One day I was much burdened in prayer. I went to Brother Manley's tent and fell at the altar, there unburdening my soul. A worker ran in from a side tent and begged me to pray for him. I attended another meeting that night and there found a young brother, Edward Boehmer, who had been dug out in the Peniel meetings in the spring, with the same burden of prayer on him. We were wonderfully united in the Spirit from that time on. He was destined to become my prayer helper in the future. We prayed together at the little Peniel Mission until 2 A.M. God wonderfully met and assured us as we wrestled with Him for the outpouring of His Spirit upon the people. My life was by this time literally swallowed up in prayer. I was praying day and night.

I wrote more articles for the religious press, exhorting the saints to prayer, and went to Smale's again in Los Angeles. Here I found the people waiting for the preacher again. I was greatly burdened for the situation and tried to show them they must expect from God. Some resented this, being bound by age old custom, but others responded to it. They were praying for a revival like they had in Wales. This was one of the outstanding features there. In Wales they expected from God. The meetings went on whether the preacher was present or absent. They came to meet God. He met them.

I had written a letter to Evan Roberts in Wales, asking them to pray for us in California. I now received a reply that they were doing so, which linked us up with the revival there. The letter read as follows: "My dear brother in the faith: Many thanks for your kind letter. I am impressed of your sincerity and honesty of purpose. Congregate the people together who are willing to make a total surrender. Pray and wait. Believe God's promises. Hold daily meetings. May God bless you, is my earnest prayer. Yours in Christ, Evan Roberts." We were much encouraged to know that they were praying for us in Wales.

I preached at Lamanda Park again, and one night got so blessed while preaching about Elijah's sacrifice that I leaped for joy. I was informed after the service that some of the people were very much shocked at my undignified action, and that they did not want me any more. And they were Methodists at that. God had blessed my ministry much in that place. The devil did not want me to preach any more there. Church fairs and suppers were all right, and in fact all the rage with them at this time. That was "dignified." But I was encouraged when I remembered the fact that neither Wesley nor Fletcher were often allowed to speak the second time in the churches of their day. Many looked upon Fletcher as a monster, when in fact he was one of the most saintly men of his time. Few people really know God in any time.

I went frequently to Brother Smale's church in Los Angeles, taking part in the meetings with much blessing. The Peniel boys went with me and helped to fan the flame. We were much tested at home along financial lines. Money was very tight. But God did not allow us to really suffer. I wrote some articles for the "Way of Faith," the "Christian Harvester," and for "God's Revivalist" at this time. The following are extracts: "A wonderful work of the Spirit has broken out here in Los Angeles, California, preceded by a deep preparatory work of prayer and expectation. Conviction is rapidly spreading among the people, and they are rallying from all over the city to the meetings at Pastor Smale's church. Already these meetings are beginning to 'run themselves.' Souls are being saved all over the house, while the meeting sweeps on unguided by human hands. The tide is rising rapidly, and we are anticipating wonderful things. Soul travail is becoming an important feature of the work, and we are being swept away beyond sectarian barriers. The fear of God is coming upon the people, a very spirit of burning. Sunday night the meeting ran on until the small hours of the next morning. Pastor Smale is prophesying of wonderful things to come. He prophesies the speedy return of the apostolic 'gifts' to the church. Los Angeles is a veritable Jerusalem. Just the place for a mighty work of God to begin. I have been expecting just such a display of divine power for some time. Have felt it might break out any hour. Also that it was liable to come where least expected, that God might get the glory. Pray for a 'Pentecost.'"—F. Bartleman, June, 1905.

One evening, July 3, I felt strongly impressed to go to the little Peniel Hall in Pasadena to pray. There I found Brother Boehmer ahead of me. He had also been led of God to the hall. We prayed for a spirit of revival for Pasadena until the burden became well nigh unbearable. I cried out like a woman in birth-pangs. The Spirit was interceding through us. Finally the burden left us. After a little time of quiet waiting a great calm settled down upon us. Then suddenly, without premonition, the Lord Jesus himself revealed himself to us. He seemed to stand directly between us, so close we could have reached out our hand and touched Him. But we did not dare to move. I could not even look. In fact I seemed all spirit. His presence seemed more real, if possible, than if I could have seen and touched Him naturally. I forgot I had eyes or ears. My spirit recognized Him. A heaven of divine love filled and thrilled my soul. Burning fire went through me. In fact my whole being seemed to flow down before Him, like wax before the fire. I lost all consciousness of time or space, being conscious only of His wonderful presence. I worshipped at His feet. It seemed a veritable "mount of transfiguration." I was lost in the pure Spirit.

For some time He remained with us. Then slowly He withdrew His presence. We would have been there yet had He not withdrawn. I could not doubt His reality after that experience. Brother Boehmer experienced largely the same thing. We had lost all consciousness of each other's presence while He remained with us. We were almost afraid to speak or breathe when we came back to our surroundings. The Lord had said nothing to us, but only ravished our spirits by His presence. He had come to strengthen and assure us for His service. We knew now we were workers with Him, fellowshippers of his sufferings, in the ministry of "soul travail." Real soul travail is just as definite in the spirit, as natural human birth-pangs. The simile is almost perfect in its sameness. No soul is ever born without this. All true revivals of salvation come this way.

The sun was up next morning before we left the hall. But the night had seemed but half an hour. The presence of God eliminates all sense of time. With Him all is eternity. It is "eternal life." God knows no time. This element is lost in Heaven. This is the secret of time appearing to pass so swiftly in all nights of real prayer. Time is superseded. The element of eternity is there. For days that marvelous presence seemed to walk by my side. The Lord Jesus was so real. I could scarcely take up with human conversation again. It seemed so crude and empty. Human spirits seemed so harsh, earthly fellowship a torment. How far we are naturally from the gentle spirit of Christ!

I spent the following day in prayer, going to Smale's church in the evening, where I had a ministry in intercession. Heavenly peace and joy filled my soul. Jesus was so real. Doubts and fears cannot abide in His presence.

Some one left a load of wood at our door one day, in our absence. We never knew who brought it. We had been praying for wood. I attended Brother Smale's meeting in Los Angeles often and had a blessed ministry in intercession there. God wonderfully poured out his Spirit. Our rent was due again. But a brother wrote out a check for the amount, all unsolicited. We had been praying for it.

I wrote a number of articles to several Holiness papers, describing God's operations among us, and exhorting the saints everywhere to faith and prayer for a revival. The Lord used these articles greatly to bring faith and conviction in many places. I was soon receiving quite a large correspondence, from many places. My concern was chiefly for the Holiness people, that they might not be passed by, and lose the blessing. I wrote in my diary at this time the following observations (a warning to the Pentecostal people): "The Holiness people are loaded down to the water's edge with a spirit of prejudice and pharisaism. But dare we cut ourselves off so easily from other members of the ‘body’? We may cut ourselves off from God by our spiritual pride, while He may cause the weakest to repent, and go through to victory. (Referring to the work in the First Baptist Church, at Brother Smale's.) The work in our own hearts must go deeper than we have ever experienced, deep enough to destroy sectarian prejudice, party spirit, etc., on all sides. The work of revival seems to have started outside of the Holiness churches proper. God can perfect those whom He chooses. The Holiness people are too proud of their standing. (Too confident of their position, and condition also.) He may need to pass them by. They must also repent. God may humble them by working in other places."

And history repeats itself. Let the Pentecostal people beware! The present world-wide revival was rocked in the cradle of little Wales. It was 'brought up' in India, following; becoming full grown in Los Angeles later. I received from God early in 1905 the following keynote to revival: "The depth of revival will be determined exactly by the depth of the spirit of repentance." And this will obtain for all people, at all times.

The revival spirit at Brother Smale's rapidly spread its interest over the whole city, among the spiritual people. Workers were coming in from all parts, from various affiliations, uniting their prayers with us for a general outpouring. The circle of interest widened rapidly. We were now praying for California, for the Nation, and also for a world-wide revival. The spirit of prophecy began to work among us for mighty things, on a large scale. Some one sent me 5000 pamphlets on "The Revival in Wales." These I distributed among the churches. They had a wonderful quickening influence.

I visited Smale's church again, and started the meeting. He had not yet arrived. The meetings were getting wonderful by this time for their spontaneity. Our little Gideon's band was marching on to certain victory, led by the Captain of their salvation, Jesus. I was led to pray at this early date especially for faith, discernment of spirits, healing, prophecy. I felt I needed more wisdom and love also. I seemed to receive a real "gift of faith" for the revival at this time, with a spirit of prophecy to the same end, and began to prophesy of mighty things to come.

When we began to pray in the spring of 1905, no one seemed to have much faith for anything out of the ordinary. Pessimism in regard to the then present conditions seemed to obtain generally among the saints. But this condition had changed. God himself had given us faith for better things. There had been nothing in sight to stimulate to this. It came from nothing. And cannot He do the same today?

I wrote an article at this time for the "Daily News" of Pasadena, describing what I saw in Brother Smale's church. It was published and the manager himself came to see soon after. He was greatly convicted, came to the altar, and sought God earnestly. The article was copied in a number of Holiness papers throughout the country. It was entitled, "What I Saw in a Los Angeles Church." The following are some extracts: "For some weeks special services have been held in the First Baptist Church, Los Angeles. Pastor Smale has returned from Wales, where he was in touch with Evan Roberts, and the revival. He registers his conviction that Los Angeles will soon be shaken by the mighty power of God.

"The service of which I am writing began impromptu and spontaneous, some time before the pastor arrived. A handful of people had gathered early, which seemed to be sufficient for the Spirit's operation. The meeting started. Their expectation was from God. God was there, the people were there, and by the time the pastor arrived the meeting was in full swing. Pastor Smale dropped into his place, but no one seemed to pay any especial attention to him. Their minds were on God. No one seemed to get in another's way, although the congregation represented many religious bodies. All seemed perfect harmony. The Spirit was leading.

"The pastor arose, read a portion of the Scripture, made a few well chosen remarks full of hope and inspiration for the occasion, and the meeting passed again from his hands. The people took it up and went on as before. Testimony, prayer and praise were intermingled throughout the service. The meeting seemed to run itself as far as human guidance was concerned. The pastor was one of them. If one is at all impressionable religiously they must feel in such an atmosphere that something wonderful and imminent is about to take place. Some mysterious, mighty upheaval in the spiritual world is evidently at our doors. The meeting gives one a feeling of 'heaven on earth,' with an assurance that the supernatural exists, and that in a very real sense."—F. Bartleman, in "Daily News," Pasadena.

I wrote another article, for the "Wesleyan Methodist," at the same time, of which the following are extracts: "Mercy rejected means judgment, and on a corresponding scale. In all the history of God's world there has always been first the offer of divine mercy, then judgment following. First comes Christ on the white horse of mercy. Then follows the red, black and pale horses, of war, famine, and death. The prophets ceased not day and night to faithfully warn Israel, but their tears and entreaties for the most part proved in vain. The awful destruction of Jerusalem, A.D. 70, which resulted in the extermination of a million Jews, and the captivity of multitudes more, was preceded by the offer of divine mercy at the hands of the Son of God himself.

"In 1859, a great revival wave visited our country, sweeping a half million souls into the fountain of salvation. Immediately the terrible carnage of 1861-1865, followed. And so as we anticipate the coming revival, which is already assuming rapidly world-wide proportions, we wonder will not judgment follow mercy, as at other times. And judgment in proportion to the mercy extended. The present warlike attitude and distress of the nations makes us wonder if the judgment to follow may not even plunge us into the 'tribulation,' the Great one."—F. Bartleman, July, 1905.

For "God's Revivalist" I wrote: "Unbelief of every form has come in upon us like a flood. But lo, our God comes also! A standard is being raised against the enemy. The Lord is choosing out His workers. This is a time to realize the vision for service. 'The Lord hath spoken and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence. Gather my saints together unto me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.'—Ps. 50." I used often to declare during 1905, that I would rather live six months at that time than fifty years of ordinary time. It was a day of the beginning of great things. For the grain of corn that was willing to "fall into the ground and die," there was promise of abundant harvest. But for spiritual "flappers," the whole matter was naturally foolishness.

I wrote another letter to Evan Roberts, asking for continued prayer for California. Thus we were kept linked up in prayer with Wales for the revival. In those days real prayer was little understood. It was hard to find a quiet place where one would not be disturbed. Gethsemane experiences with Jesus were rare among the saints in those days. And it is fast getting to be the same condition among our Pentecostal missions. In the Azusa Mission days the first thought for a suitable mission was the prayer room. Now it seems too often to be the last consideration.

At Smale's church one day I was groaning in prayer at the altar. The spirit of intercession was upon me. A brother rebuked me severely. He did not understand it. The flesh naturally shrinks from such ordeals. The "groans" are no more popular in most churches than is a woman in birth-pangs in the home. Soul-travail does not make pleasant company for selfish worldlings. But we cannot have souls born without it. Child bearing is anything but a popular exercise these days. And so with a real revival of new born souls in the churches. Modern society has little place for a child-bearing mother. They prefer society "flappers." And so with the churches regarding soul-travail. There is little burden for souls. Men run from the groans of a woman in travail of birth. And so the church desires no "groans" today. She is too busy enjoying herself.

We were much pressed financially again, but the Lord delivered. We never made our wants known to any one but God, and never begged or borrowed, no matter how pressing the need might seem to be. We believed if the saints were living close enough to God He would speak to them. We trusted Him fully, and went without if He did not send help. I wrote my first tract at this time. It was entitled, "Love Never Faileth." This was the beginning of a large faith tract ministry. I had to trust the Lord for the means. But He never failed me.

I was preaching at various meetings during those days, and had a message on me one day for Brother Manley's meeting. I wanted a quotation of two lines from a volume of Clarke's Commentaries. There were four volumes. Each contained 1000 pages. I only had a few minutes to find it. Prayerfully I chose one of the volumes, closed my eyes and let the book drop open of itself. It was not marked or pressed at that particular page, but wonderful to relate, the book opened exactly at the right place and my eyes fell directly on the quotation that I wanted. This would have been impossible in the natural. I had not at all known where in the book to find it. I only remembered having read it. This strengthened my faith greatly for the message. But I certainly would not, of course, advise this as a practice.

At Brother Smale's church one evening the meeting ran away in the "flesh." He called the people to prayer and the crowd thinned down to one-fourth. Then God came in power. There was too much "religion" there. I ordered a tract printed, "Come Angel Band," and asked the Lord to give me 1000 for a certain price. The printer charged me exactly that amount, knowing nothing of course of my prayer. A sister handed me five dollars. She said the Lord had been talking to her for some time about giving me this. It was the exact amount I had been praying for. I prayed for another five dollars I needed, and a brother soon handed me the exact amount also, without a hint from me on the subject. I trembled to think how wonderfully the Lord was caring for us. My life was wholly at His service. But I dared not be presumptuous.

One evening I went to Brother Manley's tent meeting, without a thought of taking part in the service. I sat in the rear. Soon the Spirit came mightily upon me. I rose and spoke and the power of God fell upon the congregation. The whole company fell on their faces. For three hours the whole tent was an altar service and prayer continued. A number were saved and everybody seemed to get help from God. It was a wonderful visitation of the Spirit. The people were not as rebellious in those days as they are now. They were more willing to have the program broken into, and there were not so many fanatical spirits to hinder. There was a real hunger for God. Almost every night found me taking part in some meeting. The Lord continued to pour out His Spirit.

About this time I had an awful attack of neuralgia of the stomach. I felt I would die. I fasted and prayed a whole day and night and the Lord delivered. It seemed the devil wanted to kill me. I wrote another tract, entitled "That They All May Be One." This stirred the sectarian devil fiercely. But it was Jesus' own prayer—-John 17, "that the world may believe."

A friend paid our expenses at the Holiness camp meeting in the Arroyo for a few days, so we tented there. It was mid-summer. We enjoyed the change and outing. I spent most of my time on my face in the woods, in prayer. In the moonlight evenings I poured out my soul unto God, and He met me there. There was much "empty wagon" rattle in the camp. Most were seeking selfish blessings. They rushed to meeting like a big sponge, to get more blessing. They needed stepping on. And so with the Pentecostal people today, largely.

Our cottage rent was due again and the devil fought hard. But God came to our help. Little Ruth was taken very sick at the camp. The weather was hot. We prayed all one night for her and the Lord touched her. I found my soul crying out for God far beyond the seeming aspirations of the most of the Holiness people. I wanted to go deeper, beneath the mere emotional realm, to something more substantial and lasting that would put a rock in my soul. I was tired of so much evanescent froth and foam, so much religious ranting and bombast. And the Lord did not long disappoint me.

The camp meeting committee now got me on the carpet because of the tracts I was distributing in the camp. They thought I was attacking the Holiness movement. But I was only exhorting them to a deeper place in God. They needed more humility and love. My tract against sectarianism, "That They All May Be One," stirred the camp. Surely man-made movements need to be stirred. God has but one "movement," "one body." This was the message at Azusa Mission in the beginning.

I received a second letter from Evan Roberts, which read as follows: "Loughor, Wales, 7, 8, 1905. Dear brother: I am very thankful to you for your thoughtful kindness. I was exceedingly pleased to learn the good news of how you are beginning to experience wonderful things. Praying God to continue to bless you, and with many thanks repeated for your good wishes, I am yours in the service. Evan Roberts."

One evening at the Holiness camp the Lord told me He wanted me to preach. I went out in the woods and tried to pray for the meeting. But He said, I want you to preach. I told Him they would not let me. They had a dozen of their own itching for the opportunity. Besides they were half afraid of me. I did not belong to their particular branch of religion. But He said preach! I told Him if He would close every other mouth that night I would obey Him. Throwing the responsibility thus on Him I went to the meeting. It was time for the message. They looked at one another, but every tongue was tied. No one looked at me. The Spirit came upon me and I sprang to my feet. God flooded my soul with power. The message came straight from Him and went like an arrow to the mark. It shook the camp.

Little Ruth was now taken with convulsions and the devil tried to kill her. It was very hot and she was teething. This was the devil's pay for me. We moved back to our cottage in Pasadena again. I mailed eighteen separate packages of my tracts to as many missions on the Pacific Coast. Then God gave me another tract, "The Heart of the Matter." In this I sought to set forth the real object of our worship and faith, Jesus Christ, central preaching, without innuendos. Little Ruth grew worse until we had but small hope in the natural for her life. But God heard our cries and spared her. The enemy seemed determined to rob us of our last remaining child. Financially we were in hard straits also. Not a penny was coming in. But help came, just in the nick of time. God did not fail us. We were trusting Him.

One night the devil came very close to me. I awoke suddenly out of my sleep to find his presence almost as real as my own in the room. I cried to God for help and he fled. Wife felt his presence also, just before I awoke. We were going through a furnace of fire. But the "fourth" was with us. Human help seemed to fail us utterly. The enemy seemed determined to drive me from the work. I was spending whole nights and days in prayer. Evidently Satan's kingdom was suffering. The neighbors hearing me groan in prayer thought I must be sick and inquired of my condition. But it was only soul burden.

The Lord had undertaken wonderfully for me on my last tract. The printer miscalculated and took the job for $6.50. It was worth $9.00. He stood by his bargain. Then he spoiled 1000 by a slight misprint. These he gave me for almost nothing. I corrected the mistake with my pen.

At Peniel Mission, Los Angeles, a sister spoke to me after the meeting one day, and then passed on. I felt the Lord wanted her to give me some money. I was much in need. So I silently prayed. She stopped about ten feet from me, came back, and handed me one dollar. I was telling a brother of the incident a few minutes later when he told me to wait a minute for him. He went to his room in the mission, and returned at once with two dollars for me. God had heard my prayer.

I went to Smale's church that night, and he resigned. The meetings had run daily in the First Baptist Church for fifteen weeks. It was now September. The officials of the church were tired of the innovations and wanted to return to the old order. He was told to either stop the revival, or get out. He wisely chose the latter. But what an awful position for a church to take, to throw God out. In this same way they later drove the Spirit of God out of the churches in Wales. They tired of His presence, desiring to return to the old, cold, ecclesiastical order. How blind men are! The most spiritual of Pastor Smale's members naturally followed him, with a nucleus of other workers who had gathered to him from other sources, during the revival. They immediately contemplated organizing a New Testament church. I had a feeling perhaps the Lord was cutting Brother Smale loose for the evangelistic field, at least for a time, to spread the fire in other places. But he did not see it so. I had a conference with him with this object in view, and was able to arrange for him to speak at the Lake Avenue M.E. Church, for Pastor Brink, in Pasadena. This had been the storm center of the revival there.

I walked all day spreading the news of the meeting, not having money for carfare, and was so tired at night I could not sleep. We had not a penny, our rent was due, and yet I was literally pouring out my life in the service of God. We had barely the necessities for living. Surely some one must have been failing God. The Lord was wonderfully with me in the Spirit. Many were being blessed by my ministry. The leaders did not encourage me very much. But the humble, hungry souls heard of Jesus gladly. A revival almost always begins among the laity. The ecclesiastical leaders seldom welcome reformation. History repeats itself. The present leaders are too comfortably situated as a rule to desire innovation that might require sacrifice on their part. And God's fire only falls on sacrifice. An empty altar receives no fire. Cold intellectualism, formal ecclesiasticism, and priestly domination are altogether outside the genius of the Gospel. Thank God there are exceptions among the leaders. But we are saved to serve. The true minister is a servant. Jesus came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. Even the mighty evangelist, Chas. G. Finney, was so poor after fifteen years prodigious labors for the Lord that he was obliged to sell his traveling trunk to buy a cow, for the support of his family.

The night before Brother Smale's services at Lake Avenue Church two of us spent the night until after midnight in prayer. Brother Smale preached twice on Sunday. He was wonderfully anointed of God for the occasion. We spent the time between the services in prayer. His message was on the revival in Wales. The people were greatly moved. Brother Smale soon organized a New Testament Church. I became a charter member, as I felt I ought to stay with them, though I did not care very much for the organization.

We got to the point where we had to have money for rent and food, or be turned out to starve. While sitting at my table writing, the Lord spoke and told me to go and see Brother Geo. Crary. The impression was so strong I dropped my pen and went at once. After a season of prayer with Brother Crary and his wife I started to go. I had not said a word about our needs. They handed me $2.50, with the remark that the Lord had sent me there for them to give me this. The devil had tried to run Brother Crary off three times before I got there. But God held him. A little later another brother gave me a dollar. The Lord showed him to do this. So I had three dollars for my rent, and fifty cents to buy food with. We could buy much more for fifty cents in those days than we can now.

One morning soon after this, while we were on our knees praying at home, and in much need of food, the groceryman drove up and left five dollars worth of groceries. He would not tell us who sent it. Some one had paid for it for us. Little Ruth ate a green peach and came near dying again. Prayer saved her. Brother Smale now rented Burbank Hall, and prepared to hold meetings there. I secured the Fourth St. Holiness Hall for him, until Burbank Hall was ready. The Lord gave me another tract, entitled "Pray! Pray! Pray!" I took it to the printer in faith and He sent me the money on time. It was a strong exhortation to prayer. Like the prophets of old we must pray for those who will not pray for themselves. We must confess the sins of the people for them.

At one time while Brother Boehmer and I prayed the Spirit was poured out in a wonderful way in several meetings we were praying for. We felt we had hold of God for them. Following reports proved our convictions. Prayer changes things. There is wonderful power in the proper kind of prayer. Instance Elijah on Mt. Carmel, a man of "like passions" with us. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much in its working." —Jas. 5:16. Confession may also be necessary in this connection. "Confess therefore your faults one to another."

I now had a cottage offered me in Los Angeles, for eight dollars per month. We had felt for some time the Lord wanted us back in Los Angeles. He sent us the first month's rent, and Brother Penfield in Pasadena loaned me his mule team to move with. We located in the rear of the lot at 619 Towne Avenue. The landlady lived in the front house. It was September 27, 1905.

I was strongly impressed one whole night in prayer to go to San Diego, so I wrote Sister Tillie Haefner, in charge of Peniel Mission there. The money came in for my fare without solicitation. It was God's will. I preached in Peniel Mission in San Diego, and held street meetings. The police hindered me much, standing in with the saloons, etc. But God gave strength and victory. I visited and prayed with a number of sick people there also, and took a little run over to old Tia Juana, Mexico.

The Burning Bush had spoiled the spirit of the saints greatly in San Diego. It had made them harsh and hard. There was little love, but much strife and contention. God made me a messenger of peace, as usual. I have always stood for the "one body" of Christ. Sister Haefner expressed herself as being much encouraged by my visit. She had had a very hard fight of it. I was taken very sick before I left there, and lay awake all one night with chills and fever. But I had a remarkable experience in this. I had the grippe. Although racked with pain, and burning up with fever, a tremendous spirit of prayer was upon me. I seemed like two separate persons. My brain seemed separate, and alive for God. I felt all spirit. In my body I was sick enough to die. My suffering but seemed to press my soul outside of my body. It was a peculiar experience. I am sure the devil was the loser by it. My spirit seemed completely lifted above my physical condition.

I spoke at the Friends Church Sunday morning on the revival in Wales, and then returned home to Los Angeles. I was so weak I was afraid I would have to be taken from the train on a stretcher. But I got home safely. I had just enough money to get home with. We were up against it financially again. A brother sent me two dollars in a letter, stating the Lord had shown him we were in need. We were praying hard. What a blessed thing to be living where God can speak to one, even though it may cost us some-thing in obedience. Few seem to be living in this place today. Hence the tremendous suffering among God's workers. I am convinced that many true workers are hated bitterly simply because those who feel their prayers, and to whom God is speaking to help them, will not obey the voice of the Lord. Selfishness is a damning sin. Those who give to God cannot possibly lose by it. In fact the only thing we really save is what we give to God. The rest is all lost eventually.

Almost every day in Los Angeles found me engaged in personal work, tract distribution, prayer, or preaching in some meeting. I was writing articles for the religious press continually. I fasted and prayed before going to a tent meeting in Pasadena. The Lord wonderfully anointed me in preaching and twenty souls came to the altar. By this time the spirit of intercession had so possessed me that I prayed almost day and night. I fasted much also, until my wife almost despaired of my life at times. The sorrows of my Lord had gripped me. I was in the Garden with Him. The "travail of His soul" had fallen in a measure on me. I was led to fear, like Him, that I might not live to realize the answer to my prayers and tears for the revival. But He assured me, sending more than one angel to strengthen me, I am satisfied. I felt I was realizing a little of what Paul meant about "filling up the cup of His sufferings" for a lost world. Some were even afraid that I was losing my mind. They could not understand my tremendous concern. Nor can very many understand these things today. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit." They are "foolishness" unto him. Selfish spirits can never understand such sacrifice. But "he that would save his life shall lose it." "Except a grain of corn fall into the ground and die, etc." Our Lord was a "man of sorrows," as well as of joy.

I frequently went to Pasadena having to trust God for carfare to get home. On one occasion Brother Boehmer had an impression I was coming. He went to the little Peniel Mission and found me there. We spent several hours in prayer. Then he paid my carfare home. We often spent whole nights together in prayer during those days. It seemed a great privilege to spend a whole night with the Lord. He drew so near. We never seemed to get weary on such occasions. Boehmer worked at gardening. I never asked him for a penny but he always gave me something. God finally not only got his money, but his life also, in His service. He was a wonderful man of prayer. God taught us what it means to "know no man after the flesh." He lifted us into such a high relationship that our fellowship seemed only in the Spirit. Beyond that we died to one another.

I wrote Evan Roberts a third time to have them continue to pray for us in Wales. In those days after I had preached I generally called the saints to their knees and we would be for hours in prayer before we could get up. The Lord led me to write many leaders throughout the country to pray for revival. The spirit of prayer was growing continually. The New Testament Church seemed to be losing the spirit of prayer as they increased their organization. They now tried to shift this ministry on a few of us. I knew God was not pleased with that and became much burdened for them. They had taken on too many secondary interests. It began to look as though the Lord would have to find another body. My hopes had been high for this particular company of people. But the enemy seemed to be sidetracking them now, leading them to miss God's best for them at least.

They were now even attempting to organize prayer, a thing impossible. Prayer is spontaneous. I felt it were better not to have organized than to lose the ministry of prayer and spirit of revival as a body. It was for this they had been called in the beginning. They had become ambitious for a church and organization. It seemed hard to them not to be "like the other nations (churches) 'round about them." And right here they surely began to fail. As church work increased the real issue was lost sight of. And the Pentecostal missions appear to be facing the same danger today. Human organization and human programming leave very little room for the free Spirit of God. It means much to be willing to be considered a failure, while we seek to build up a purely spiritual kingdom. God's kingdom cometh not "by observation."

It is very easy to choose second best. The prayer life is needed much more than even buildings or organizations. These are often a substitute for the other. Souls are born into the kingdom only through prayer.

I feared the New Testament Church might develop a party, sectarian spirit. A rich lady offered them the money to build a church edifice with. The devil was bidding high. But she soon withdrew her offer. I confess I was glad she did. They would soon have had no time for anything but building then. It would have been the end of their revival. We had been called out to evangelize Los Angeles, not to build up another sect or party spirit. We needed no more organization nor machinery than what was really necessary for the speedy evangelizing of the city. Surely we had enough separate rival church organizations already on our hands. Each working largely for its own interest, advancement, and glory.

We had nothing to eat in the house but a little dry bread on one occasion about this time, when I received a letter from Brother Boehmer with a dollar in it. He was in close touch with God. Possibly the saints would do better by the true ones if there were not so many frauds to shake their confidence. Every false shepherd and deceiver in the ranks makes it just that much harder for the true ones.

The New Testament Church seemed to be drifting toward Intellectualism. I became much burdened for it. During one meeting I groaned aloud in prayer. It was killing after the meetings we had had. One of the elders rebuked me severely for this. "How are the mighty fallen," kept ringing in my ears. A few of the most spiritual had the same burden with me.

Prayer again seemed to prevail in a measure. We had a great meeting in the church soon after. One hundred knelt at the altar at a single Sunday night service. I met with the Peniel boys in Pasadena for prayer and we had a breaking through time. We felt the Lord would soon work mightily. At Brother Brownley's tent, at Seventh and Spring streets, Los Angeles, we had a deep spirit of prayer and powerful altar services. There was a feeling that God was about to do something extraordinary. The spirit of prayer came more and more heavily upon us. In Pasadena, before moving to Los Angeles, I would lie on my bed in the daytime and roll and groan under the burden. At night I could scarcely sleep for the spirit of prayer. I fasted much, not caring for food while burdened. At one time I was in soul travail for nearly twenty-four hours without intermission. It nearly used me up. Prayer literally consumed me. I would groan all night in my sleep.

Prayer was not formal in those days. It was God breathed. It came upon us, and overwhelmed us. We did not work it up. We were gripped with real soul travail by the Spirit that could no more be shaken off than could the birth-pangs of a woman in travail, without doing absolute violence to the Spirit of God. It was real intercession by the Holy Spirit.

For several days I had an impression another letter was coming from Evan Roberts. It soon came, and read as follows: "Loughor, Wales, Nov. 14, '05. My dear comrade: What can I say that will encourage you in this terrible fight. I find it is a most awful one. The kingdom of the evil one is being besieged on every side. Oh, the millions of prayers—not simply the form of prayer—but the soul finding its way right to the White Throne! People in Wales can pray during the last year. May the Lord bless you with a mighty downpouring. In Wales it seems as if the Holy One rests upon the congregation, awaiting the opening of the hearts of the followers of Christ. We had a mighty downpouring of the Holy Spirit last Saturday night. This was preceded by the correcting of the people's views of true worship. 1.—To give unto God, not to receive. 2.—To please God, not to please ourselves. Therefore looking to God, and forgetting the enemy, and also the fear of men, we prayed, and the Spirit descended. I pray God to hear your prayer, to keep your faith strong, and to save California. I remain, your brother in the fight. Evan Roberts." This was the third letter I had received from Wales, from Evan Roberts, and I feel their prayers had much to do with our final victory in California.

Evan Roberts tells us of his own experience with God: "One Friday night last spring, while praying by my bedside before retiring, I was taken up to a great expanse, without time or space. It was communion with God. Before this I had had a far off God. I was frightened that night, but never since. So great was my shivering that I rocked the bed, and my brother, being awakened, took hold of me, thinking I was ill." This experience took place every night after this with Evan Roberts, for three months, from 1 o'clock until 5. He wrote a message to the world about this time, as follows: "The revival in South Wales is not of men, but of God. He has come very close to us. There is no question of creed or of dogma in this movement. We are teaching no sectarian doctrine, only the wonder and beauty of Christ's love. I have been asked concerning my methods. I have none. I never prepare what I shall speak, but leave that to Him. I am not the source of this revival, but only one agent among what is growing to be a multitude. I wish no personal following, but only the world for Christ. I believe that the world is upon the threshold of a great religious revival, and pray daily that I may be allowed to help bring this about. Wonderful things have happened in Wales in a few weeks, but these are only a beginning. The world will be swept by His Spirit as by a rushing, mighty wind. Many who are now silent Christians will lead the movement. They will see a great light, and will reflect this light to thousands now in darkness. Thousands will do more than we have accomplished, as God gives them power."—Evan Roberts. What beautiful humility! This is the secret of all power.

An English eye-witness writes of the revival in Wales: "Such real travail of soul for the unsaved I have never before witnessed. I have seen young Evan Roberts convulsed with grief, and calling on his audience to pray. 'Don't sing,' he would exclaim, 'it's too terrible to sing.'" (Conviction has often been lifted from the people by too much singing.)

Another writer declares it was not the eloquence of Evan Roberts that broke men down, but his tears. He would break down, crying bitterly for God to bend them, in an agony of prayer, the tears coursing down his cheeks, with his whole frame writhing. Strong men would break down and cry like children. Women would shriek. A sound of weeping and wailing would fill the air. Evan Roberts in the intensity of his agony would fall in the pulpit, while many in the crowd often fainted."

Of the later work in India we read: "The girls in India so wonderfully wrought upon and baptized with the Spirit (in Ramabai's mission), began by terrifically beating themselves, under pungent conviction of their need. Great light was given them. When delivered they jumped up and down for joy, for hours without fatigue, in fact were stronger for it. They cried out with the burning that came into and upon them. Some fell as they saw a great light pass before them, while the fire of God burned the members of the body of sin, pride, anger, love of the world, selfishness, uncleanness, etc. They neither ate nor slept until the victory was won. Then the joy was so great that for two or three days after receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit they did not care for food. About twenty girls went into a trance at one time and became unconscious of this world for hours; some for three or four days. During that time they sang, prayed, clapped their hands, rolled about, or sat still. When they became conscious they told of seeing a throne in Heaven, a white robed throng, and a glory so bright they could not bear it. Soon the whole place was aflame. School had to be suspended, they forgot to eat or sleep, and whole nights and days were absorbed in prayer. The Spirit was poured out upon one of the seeking girls in the night. Her companion sleeping next to her awoke, and seeing fire envelope her, ran across the dormitory and brought a pail of water to dash upon her. In less than an hour nearly all the girls in the compound were weeping, praying, and confessing their sins. Many of these girls were invested with a strange, beautiful and supernatural fire."

The spontaneous composition of hymns was a curious feature of some of the meetings in other parts of India. At Kara Camp pictures appeared on the walls to a company of small girls in prayer, supernaturally depicting the life of Christ. The figures moved in the pictures and were in colors. Each view would last from two to ten minutes and then the light would gradually fade away, to reappear in a few moments with a new scene. These appeared for twelve hours, and were not only seen by the native children of the orphanage and eight missionaries, but by native Christians living near, and even heathen coming to see the wonderful sight. These pictures were all depicting faithfully the Bible narration and were entirely supernatural. They had a tremendous effect in breaking up the hard hearts of the heathen. In Wales colored lights were often seen, like balls of fire, during the revival there.

I kept going day and night to different missions, exhorting continually to prayer, and faith for the revival. Spent another whole night with Brother Boehmer in prayer. One night at the New Testament Church, during a deep spirit of prayer on the congregation, the Lord came suddenly so near that we could feel His presence as though he were closing in on us around the edges of the meeting. Two-thirds of the people sprang to their feet in alarm, and some ran hurriedly out of the house, even leaving their hats behind them, almost scared out of their senses. There was no demonstration in the natural out of the ordinary to cause this fright. It was a supernatural manifestation of His nearness. What would such do if they saw the Lord?

I started a little cottage prayer meeting where we could have more liberty to pray and wait on the Lord. The spirit of prayer was being hindered in the meetings. The more spiritual were hungry for this opportunity. But the leaders misunderstood me and opposed me. Then our landlady got the devil in her and wanted to throw us out of our home. She was not right with God. Our rent was paid up. But the enemy tried to use her. The fight was on. They began to oppose my ministry at the New Testament Church. A sister tried to persuade me to discontinue the prayer meetings I had started. I asked the Lord to show me His will in the matter. He came and filled our little cottage with a cloud of glory until I could scarcely bear His presence. That settled it for me. "We ought to obey God rather than men." I suffered much criticism at this time. I think they were afraid I would start another church. But I had no such thought at that time. I only wanted to have freedom to pray. Many a mission and church has gone on the rocks opposing God.

I wrote more articles for the religious press, of which the following are extracts: "Slowly but surely the conviction is coming upon the saints of Southern California that God is going to pour out His Spirit here as in Wales. We are having faith for things such as we have never dreamed of, for the near future. We are assured of no less than a 'Pentecost' for this whole country. But we can never have Pentecostal results without Pentecostal power. And this will mean Pentecostal demonstration. Few care to meet God face to face. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.'—Christian Harvester."

Again I wrote: "The current of revival is sweeping by our door. Will we cast ourselves on its mighty bosom and ride to glorious victory? A year of life at this time, with its wonderful possibilities for God, is worth a hundred years of ordinary life. 'Pentecost' is knocking at our doors. The revival for our country is no longer a question. Slowly but surely the tide has been rising until in the very near future we believe for a deluge of salvation that will sweep all before it. Wales will not long stand alone in this glorious triumph for our Christ. The spirit of reviving is coming upon us, driven by the breath of God, the Holy Ghost. The clouds are gathering rapidly, big with a mighty rain, whose precipitation lingers but a little.

"Heroes will arise from the dust of obscure and despised circumstances, whose names will be emblazoned on Heaven's eternal page of fame. The Spirit is brooding over our land again as at creation's dawn, and the fiat of God goes forth. 'Let there be light.' Brother, sister, if we all believed God can you realize what would happen? Many of us here are living for nothing else. A volume of believing prayer is ascending to the throne night and day. Los Angeles, Southern California, and the whole continent shall surely find itself ere long in the throes of a mighty revival, by the Spirit and power of God."—F. Bartleman, in "Way of Faith," Nov. 16, 1905.

December 14, I was 34 years old. I felt I had done so little in my time for God. I longed to be used for Him more definitely. There was not a penny in the house, and we had no milk for little Ruth. But God got help through us, after a fierce battle in prayer. The answer is often hindered today, even as in Daniel's time. The devil influences the saints to hold back. I went to a tent meeting and preached and the fire fell in the camp. Souls were saved. We had been for some time led to pray for a Pentecost. It seemed almost beginning. Of course we did not realize what a real "Pentecost" was. But the Spirit did, and led us to ask aright.

I had been praying for a fountain pen. A brother found one and gave it to me. He already had one. I wrote thirty letters of exhortation to prayer and faith for a. revival, to as many missions, on the coast and in foreign fields. But I had no postage. While I was writing a sister came in and handed me four dollars. I had asked for a witness if the letter were from Him. I was given several more articles for the religious press. After spending another whole night in prayer with Brother Boehmer I was given a message of exhortation which I delivered in a number of churches and missions.

I felt the New Testament Church was failing God, and was looking to see where the Spirit might come forth. They tried to take the edge off my message in many places. My aim was too straight for them. But I determined the devil should not escape me. The curse everywhere was spiritual pride. Hiding their nakedness from God. But away with everything that will not bear the test of God's Word. And away with party spirit. Souls must be reached and saved. To hinder God's message is like catching lightning bolts in one's hand.

The Lord gave me several new tracts to write at this time. But I saw more clearly than ever that my main work was to go below, out of sight, in prayer. I prayed often that the spirit of intercession might not leave me. Mother Wheaton arrived from the east again. God sent her to help me in prayer. I had a blessed weeping burden for a number of days during which my heart became very tender. I had such a burden one night I could not sleep. I called Mother Wheaton, who was stopping with our landlady in the front, and she helped me pray through. The battle was too hard for me. Many were trying to draw me away from the prayer ministry God had given me. But, "Could ye not watch with me one hour?" kept ringing in my ears. The "fellowship of His sufferings" in prayer is the sweetest ministry of all. The Lord had shown me some days before Mother Wheaton arrived that He was sending her. I was not in touch with her. She told me later she was about to start for Florida for the winter when the Lord told her to go to Los Angeles. She did not understand what for until she found me so burdened in prayer. I lived in the spirit of prayer for many months, momentarily, without a break. It became my native element.

The Lord told Brother Boehmer to stand for the whole of our house rent, so that my mind could be completely free for intercession. This was wonderful. And he was earning only two dollars per day. But he obeyed God. How often I have wished that He could speak to some one today on that line. It would mean so much for the work of the Lord.

I went often at this time to pray for a sick woman in Pasadena, at her urgent request. She had considerable means, and often helped us in a small degree financially. The Lord used this means to supply our temporal needs largely, for a time. I used to ask Him to impress her to give a certain amount, whatever I needed, and on several occasions I received exactly the amount I prayed for. Sometimes it was a battle. She had a powerful will, and loved her money. Besides, she was very deaf. I could not talk with her. I never asked her for a cent, however. She had been a powerful Holiness evangelist, but had gotten out of the order of the Lord. When she died all her money went to ungodly relatives, and the Lord got no more of it. I used to write when I wanted to communicate with her, because of her deafness. Her spirit nearly wore me out. It was so heavy.

One afternoon, after a service in the New Testament Church, seven of us seemed providentially led to join hands and agree in prayer to ask the Lord to pour out His Spirit speedily, with "signs following." Where we got the idea from at that time I do not know. He must Himself have suggested it to us. We did not have "tongues" in mind. I think none of us ever heard of such a thing. This was in February, 1906.

While at a prayer meeting, on my knees, the Lord told me to get up and go to Brother Brownley's tent, at Seventh and Spring streets. He gave me a message for them. I went, greatly burdened, and after speaking we had a real breaking up time, weeping before the Lord. I then wrote a moving tract on "Soul Travail." The Lord was dealing with me much also about the "blood." I spent another all night of prayer with Brother Boehmer and the Lord gave me a blessed ministry at Pasadena, in different meetings. At one meeting I lay for two hours helpless under a burden for souls.

My nerves were getting very worn from constant conflict in prayer with the powers of darkness. Wife was sick all night, and I sat up until morning praying for her. She was about to be confined again. She was delivered of our first baby boy at 1:45 P.M., Sunday, March 4. We named the little one John. Conditions were very critical with the mother before he was born. It was a dry birth. But God had mercy. He also supplied our needs in a precious way at this time.

I mailed fifty packages of my revival tracts to as many Holiness evangelists, in different states, to stir them up to faith and prayer for a revival. Soon after this I mailed eighty more packages, to as many more pastors and evangelists. Some wrote thanking me for the inspiration they had been to them. I spent another all night in prayer, and then went to the Seventh Street tent meeting again. A man jumped up, just as I was about to speak, declaring he had a message he must deliver. He rattled like an empty wagon for a half hour, saying nothing. Then I got up. But up he jumped again, and went at it. Evidently the devil had him there to hinder my message. Finally he got wild, serving his master too well. The Lord enabled me to bring order again, and I delivered my message. The meeting ended in victory. The devil has no conscience, and the flesh has no sense. Many have never learned submission, courtesy, nor anything else, even in the way of common manners. A spirit of self-importance is one of the most disgusting things in the world.

The oil (the Holy Ghost) ceases to flow, as in Elijah's time, when there are no more empty vessels to be filled. People do not sense their need of God. But wherever there is a hungry heart God will fill it. "The rich (full) He hath sent empty away." I had a tremendous burden one night and could not rest at home. I went out, not knowing where to go. The Spirit led me to the Seventh Street tent. There I delivered a message, partly on my knees, and the saints flocked to the altar for prayer. We remained there for two hours, while the Spirit wrought mightily. It was a wonderful visitation. I was given more tracts to write, ordering 34,000, of different kinds, at one time. I had a real tract ministry, with faith for the means to pay for them.

The battle was getting more and more earnest. March 26, I went to a cottage meeting on Bonnie Brae Street. Both white and colored saints were meeting there for prayer. I had attended a cottage meeting shortly before this, at another place, where I first met Brother Seymour. He had just come from Texas. He was a colored man, very plain, spiritual, and humble. He attended the meetings at Bonnie Brae Street. He was blind in one eye.

I needed twenty-five dollars to pay for tracts and was impressed to pray that a certain party might send it to me. She knew nothing of my need. That very afternoon just one letter came in the mail. It was from this very party, with a check for just twenty-five dollars. Before I had prayed He had started the money.

I went with Mother Wheaton to the Bonnie Brae Street meeting again, March 28, and attended an all night of prayer at the New Testament Church. We had been praying for a larger house to live in. We had only two small rooms, and I had no quiet place to pray or write. I had done all this in the past with my family around me. One day I met Brother Fred Shepard on the street. He asked if I knew of a preacher who would like to rent a nice cottage, at half price, with the first month's rent free. It would be only ten dollars per month. I immediately took it myself. We had been praying for just this thing, but he had not known it. So we moved April 13 to 714 East Thirty-First Street. It seemed like a palace after living in two-room shacks and sheds. God was wonderfully providing for us.

The latter part of March the Lord had given me another tract, entitled "The Last Call." This was used mightily to awaken the people. The following are some extracts: "And now, once more, at the very end of the age, God calls. The Last Call, the Midnight Cry, is now upon us, sounding clearly in our ears. God will give this one more chance, the last. A final call, a world-wide Revival. Then Judgment upon the whole world. Some tremendous event is about to transpire, etc."

Chapter 3: The Fire Falls At Azusa

I went to Burbank Hall, the New Testament Church, Sunday morning, April 15. A colored sister was there and spoke in "tongues." This created a great stir. The people gathered in little companies on the sidewalk after the service inquiring what this might mean. It seemed like Pentecostal "signs." We then learned that the Spirit had fallen a few nights before, April 9, at the little cottage on Bonnie Brae Street. They had been tarrying very earnestly for some time for an outpouring. A handful of colored and white saints had been waiting there daily. It was just at Easter season again. For some reason I was not privileged to be present at that particular meeting. A number had spoken in "tongues" there. I went to the Bonnie Brae meeting in the afternoon, and found God working mightily. We had been praying for many months for victory. Jesus was now "showing himself alive" again, to many. The pioneers had broken through, for the multitude to follow.

There was a general spirit of humility manifested in the meeting. They were taken up with God. Evidently the Lord had found the little company at last, outside as always, through whom he could have right of way. There was not a mission in the country where this could be done. All were in the hands of men. The Spirit could not work. Others far more pretentious had failed. That which man esteems had been passed by once more and the Spirit born again in a humble "stable," outside ecclesiastical establishments as usual.

A body must be prepared, in repentance and humility, for every outpouring of the Spirit. The preaching of the Reformation was begun by Martin Luther in a tumble down building in the midst of the public square in Wittenberg. D'Aubigne describes it as follows: "In the middle of the square at Wittenberg stood an ancient wooden chapel, thirty feet long and twenty wide, whose walls, propped up on all sides, were falling into ruin. An old pulpit made of planks, and three feet high, received the preacher. It was in this wretched place that the preaching of the Reformation began. It was God's will that that which was to restore His glory should have the humblest surroundings. It was in this wretched enclosure that God willed, so to speak, that his well-beloved Son should be born a second time. Among those thousands of cathedrals and parish churches with which the world is filled, there was not one at that time which God chose for the glorious preaching of eternal life."

In the revival in Wales the great expounders of England had to come and sit at the feet of crude, hardworking miners, and see the wonderful works of God. I wrote for the "Way of Faith" at this time: "The real thing is appearing among us. The Almighty will again measure swords with Pharaoh's magicians. But many will reject Him and blaspheme. Many will fail to recognize Him, even among His professed followers. We have been praying and believing for a 'Pentecost.' Will we receive it when it comes?"

The present Pentecostal manifestation did not break out in a moment, like a huge prairie fire, and set the world on fire. In fact no work of God ever appears that way. There is a necessary time for preparation. The finished article is not realized at the beginning. Men may wonder where it came from, not being conscious of the preparation, but there is always such. Every movement of the Spirit of God must also run the gauntlet of the devil's forces. The Dragon stands before the bearing mother, ready to swallow up her child.—(Rev. 12:4.) And so with the present Pentecostal work in its beginning. The enemy did much counterfeiting. God kept the young child well hid for a season from the Herods, until it could gain strength and discernment to resist them. The flame was guarded jealously by the hand of the Lord, from the winds of criticism, jealousy, unbelief, etc. It went through about the same experiences that all revivals have. Its foes were both inside and out. Both Luther and Wesley experienced the same difficulties in their time. We have this treasure in "earthen vessels." Every natural birth is surrounded by circumstances not entirely pleasant. God's perfect work is wrought in human imperfection. We are creatures of "the fall." Then why expect a perfect manifestation in this case? We are coming "back to God."

John Wesley writes of his time: "Almost as soon as I was gone two or three began to take their imaginations for impressions from God. Meantime, a flood of reproach came upon me almost from every quarter. Be not alarmed that Satan sows tares among the wheat of Christ. It has ever been so, especially on any remarkable outpouring of the Spirit; and ever will be, until the devil is chained for a thousand years. Till then he will always ape, and endeavor to counteract the work of the Spirit of Christ." D'Aubigne has said: "A religious movement almost always exceeds a just moderation. In order that human nature may make one step in advance, its pioneers must take many."

Another writer says: "Remember with what accompaniments of extravagance and fanaticism the doctrine of justification by faith was brought back under Luther. The wonder was, not that Luther had the courage to face pope and cardinals, but that he had courage to endure the contempt which his own doctrines brought upon him, as espoused and paraded by fanatical advocates. Recall the scandal and offense which attended the revival of heart piety under Wesley. What we denounce as error may be 'the refraction of some great truth below the horizon.' "

John Wesley himself once prayed, after the revival had about died out for the time: "Oh, Lord, send us the old revival, without the defects; but if this cannot be, send it—with all its defects. We must have the revival."

Adam Clark said: "Nature will always, and Satan too, mingle themselves as far as they can, in the genuine work of the Spirit, in order to discredit and destroy it. Nevertheless in great revivals of religion, it is almost impossible to prevent wild-fire from getting in among the true fire."

Dr. Seiss says: "Never, indeed, has there been a sowing of God on earth, but it has been oversown by Satan; or a growth for Christ, which the plantings of the wicked one did not mingle with and hinder. He who sets out to find a perfect church, in which there are no unworthy elements, and no disfigurations, proposes to himself a hopeless task."

Still another writer says: "In the various crises that have occurred in the history of the church, men have come to the front who have manifested a holy recklessness that astonished their fellows. When Luther nailed his theses to the door of the cathedral at Wittenberg, cautious men were astonished at his audacity. When John Wesley ignored all church restrictions and religious propriety and preached in the fields and by-ways, men declared his reputation was ruined. So it has been in all ages. When the religious condition of the times called for men who were willing to sacrifice all for Christ, the demand created the supply, and there have always been found a few who were willing to be regarded reckless for the Lord. An utter recklessness concerning men's opinions and other consequences is the only attitude that can meet the exigencies of the present times." God found His Moses, in the person of Brother Smale, to lead us to the Jordan crossing. But He chose Brother Seymour, for our Joshua, to lead us over.

Sunday, April 15, the Lord called me to ten days of special prayer. I felt greatly burdened but had no idea of what He had particularly in mind. But He had a work for me, and wanted to prepare me for it. Wednesday, April 18, the terrible San Francisco earthquake came, which also devastated the surrounding cities and country. No less than ten thousand lost their lives in San Francisco alone. I felt a deep conviction that the Lord was answering our prayers for a revival in His own way. "When Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness."—Isa. 26:9. A tremendous burden of prayer came upon me that the people might not be indifferent to His voice.

Thursday, April 19, while sitting in the noon meeting at Peniel Hall, 227 South Main Street, the floor suddenly began to move with us. A most ugly sensation ran through the room. We sat in awe. Many people ran into the middle of the street, looking up anxiously at the buildings, fearing they were about to fall. It was an earnest time. I went home and after a season of prayer was impressed of the Lord to go to the meeting which had been removed from Bonnie Brae Street to 312 Azusa Street. Here they had rented an old frame building, formerly a Methodist church, in the center of the city, now a long time out of use for meetings. It had become a receptacle for old lumber, plaster, etc. They had cleared space enough in the surrounding dirt and debris to lay some planks on top of empty nail kegs, with seats enough for possibly thirty people, if I remember rightly. These were arranged in a square, facing one another.

I was under tremendous pressure to get to the meeting that evening. It was my first visit to "Azusa Mission." Mother Wheaton, who was living with us, was going with me. She was so slow that I could hardly wait for her. I have always been a "lone wolf" for this very reason. My time is not my own. I am His servant. "The King's business requires haste." We cannot wait all day for some one to get ready who neither has the orders, nor feels the necessity. "Salute no man by the way." God's business is important. He requires obedience. Thus we also keep out of some one else's way. There is too much involved to fail God. Let those take their time and come behind who have no message. The devil can often use them tremendously to hinder those who have.

We finally reached "Azusa" and found about a dozen saints there, some white, some colored. Brother Seymour was there, in charge. The "Ark of God" moved off slowly, but surely, at "Azusa." It was carried "on the shoulders" of His own appointed priests in the beginning. We had no "new cart" in those days, to please the carnal, mixed multitude. We had the devil to fight, but the Ark was not drawn by oxen (dumb beasts). The priests were "alive unto God," through much preparation and prayer. Discernment was not perfect, and the enemy got some advantage, which brought reproach to the work, but the saints soon learned to "take the precious from the vile." The combined forces of hell were set determinedly against us in the beginning. It was not all blessing. In fact the fight was terrific. The devil scraped the country for crooked spirits, as always, to destroy the work if possible. But the fire could not be smothered. Strong saints were gathered together to the help of the Lord. Gradually the tide arose in victory. But from a small beginning, a very little flame.

I gave a message at my first meeting at "Azusa." Two of the saints spoke in "tongues." Much blessing seemed to attend the utterance. It was soon noised abroad that God was working at "Azusa." All classes began to flock to the meetings. Many were curious and unbelieving, but others were hungry for God. The newspapers began to ridicule and abuse the meetings, thus giving us much free advertising. This brought the crowds. The devil overdid himself again. Outside persecution never hurt the work. We had the most to fear from the working of evil spirits within. Even spiritualists and hypnotists came to investigate, and to try their influence. Then all the religious sore-heads and crooks and cranks came, seeking a place in the work. We had the most to fear from these. But this is always the danger to every new work. They have no place elsewhere. This condition cast a fear over many which was hard to overcome. It hindered the Spirit much. Many were afraid to seek God, for fear the devil might get them.

We found early in the "Azusa" work that when we attempted to steady the Ark the Lord stopped working. We dared not call the attention of the people too much to the working of the evil. Fear would follow. We could only pray. Then God gave victory. There was a presence of God with us, through prayer, we could depend on. The leaders had a limited experience, and the wonder is the work survived at all against its powerful adversaries. But it was of God. That was the secret.

A certain writer has well said: "On the day of Pentecost, Christianity faced the world, a new religion—without a college, a people, or a patron. All that was ancient and venerable rose up before her in solid opposition. And she did not flatter or conciliate any one of them. She assailed every existing system, and every bad habit, burning her way through innumerable forms of opposition. This she accomplished with her "tongue of fire" alone.

Another writer has said: "The apostasy of the early church came as a result of a greater desire to see the spread of its power and rule than to see new natures given to its individual members. The moment we covet a large following and rejoice in the crowd that is attracted by our presentation of what we consider truth, and have not a greater desire to see the natures of individuals changed according to the divine plan, we start to travel the same road of apostasy that leads to Rome and her daughters."

I found the earthquake had opened many hearts. I was distributing especially my last tract, "The Last Call." It seemed very appropriate after the earthquake. Sunday, April 22, I took 10,000 of these to the New Testament Church. The workers seized them eagerly and scattered them quickly throughout the city.

Nearly every pulpit in the land was working overtime to prove that God had nothing to do with earthquakes and thus allay the fears of the people. The Spirit was striving to knock at hearts with conviction, through this judgment. I felt indignation that the preachers should be used of Satan to drown out His voice. Just as he later used them to stir up hatred and murder, during the great war. Even the teachers in the schools labored hard to convince the children that God was not in earthquakes. The devil put on a big propaganda on this line.

I had been much in prayer since the earthquake, and had slept little. After the shock in Los Angeles the Lord told me definitely He had a message for me for the people. On the Saturday after, He gave me a part of it. On Monday the rest was given. I finished writing it at 12:30 A.M. Tuesday, ready for the printer. I kneeled before the Lord and He met me in a powerful way, a powerful witness that the message was from Him. I was to have it printed in the morning. From that time until 4 A.M., I was wonderfully taken up in the spirit of intercession. I seemed to feel the wrath of God against the people and to withstand it in prayer. He showed me He was terribly grieved at their obstinacy in the face of His judgment on sin. San Francisco was a terribly wicked city.

He showed me all hell was being moved to drown out His voice in the earthquake, if possible. The message He had given me was to counteract this influence. Men had been denying His presence in the earthquake. Now He would speak. It was a terrific message He had given me. I was to argue the question with no man, but simply give them the message. They would answer to Him. I felt all hell against me in this, and so it proved. I went to bed at 4 o'clock, arose at 7, and hurried with the message to the printer.

The question in almost every heart was, "Did God do that?" But instinct taught men on the spot that He had. Even the wicked were conscious of the fact. The tract was set up quickly. The same day it was on the press, and the next noon I had my first consignment of the tract. I was impressed I must hasten and get them to the people as quickly as possible. I was reminded that the ten days I was called by the Lord to prayer was up the very day I received the first of the tracts. I understood it all now, clearly.

The enemy tried to hinder, by smashing a part of the type in the press. I had warned the printer of this. But it was set up again so that I lost no time through it. I distributed the message speedily in the missions, churches, saloons, business houses, and in fact everywhere, both in Los Angeles and Pasadena. Besides I mailed thousands to workers in nearby towns for distribution. The whole undertaking was a work of faith. I began without a dollar. But He supplied the money, as needed. I worked hard every day. Brother and Sister Otterman distributed them in San Diego. It required courage. Many raved at the message. I went through all the dives with them in Los Angeles. All hell was stirred. A man followed me on the street raving like a maniac. He followed me into a business house, to do me violence. But the Lord protected. He then tore my tract up publicly at the curb, to show his hate. Many threw the message down in a rage, only to pick it up again and read it. It seemed God held them to it. The saddest part was the fact that nearly all the preachers worked with the enemy in the matter. But I was only giving them the Word of God, on earthquakes.

I ordered the tracts in 25,000 lots. A policeman was put on my track. The people were stirred up so. But the Spirit warned me and I saw him coming. I was enabled to dodge him. He would have stopped the circulation of the tract before my work was done. I could feel hell's rage rolling up against me like a cloud. But God gave me courage for the work. Hundreds were distributed in Santa Barbara. A conductor stopped me giving them out on a Pasadena car, though the people were reaching out their hands for them. He threatened to throw me off the car. The devil was stirred. Orders came in for thousands from towns in Southern California, which I mailed to them. Everyone was curious for the tract, though it burned the most of them like fire. Sometimes they would get so excited on the street cars they would get off before they reached their street. My very presence seemed to convict many. My soul was steeped in prayer. The message struck consternation to thousands of souls. I have never written a tract that had so much influence.

God sent Brother Boehmer from Pasadena to help me. He stood outside and prayed while I went into the saloons with them. They were mad enough to kill me in some instances. Business was at a standstill after the news came from San Francisco. The people were paralyzed with fear. This accounted to some extent for the influence of my tract. The pressure against me was terrific. All hell was surging around me, to stop the message. But I never faltered. I felt God's hand upon me continually in the matter. The people were appalled to see what God had to say about earthquakes. He sent me to a number of meetings with a solemn exhortation to repent and seek Him. At "Azusa Mission" we had a powerful time. The saints humbled themselves. A colored sister both spoke and sang in "tongues." The very atmosphere of Heaven was there.

Sunday, May 11, I had finished my "Earthquake" tract distribution. Then the burden suddenly left me. My work was done. Seventy-five thousand had been published and distributed in Los Angeles and Southern California, in less than three weeks' time. At Oakland, Brother Manley, of his own volition, had printed and distributed 50,000 more, in the Bay Cities and 'round about, in about the same space of time. The following are some extracts from the "Earthquake" tract: "But what has God to do with earthquakes? 'When Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness'—Isa. 26:9. 'Which removeth the mountains, when He overturneth them in His anger, which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble'—Job 9:5, 6. The mountains quake at Him, and the hills melt; and the earth is upheaved at His presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken asunder by Him'—Nahum 1:5, 6. 'And I will punish the world for their evil. Therefore I will make the heavens to tremble, and the earth shall be shaken out of her place, in the day of His fierce anger'—Isa. 13:11, 13-'Then the earth shook and trembled, the foundations also of the mountains moved, and were shaken, because He was wroth. There went up a smoke in His wrath, and fire out of His mouth devoured. The Lord thundered from Heaven, and the Most High uttered His voice. Then the channels of the sea appeared, the foundations of the world were laid bare, by the rebuke of the Lord, at the blast of the breath of His anger'—Ps. 18. 'Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and turneth it upside down (perverteth the face thereof), and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. The foundations of the earth do shake, the earth is utterly broken, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall stagger like a drunken man, and shall be moved to and fro. The transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it.'—Isa. 24:1, 18, 20. Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of Hosts with earthquakes, and great noise, and the flame of a devouring fire.'—Isa. 29:6. 'Men shall go into the caves of the rocks, from before the terror of the Lord, when he arises to shake terribly the earth.'—Isa. 2:19- 'And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air and there was a great earthquake.'—Rev. 16:17, 18. And will you claim there is no God in earthquakes? John Wesley has said, 'Of all the judgments which the righteous God inflicts on sinners here, the most dreadful and destructive is an earthquake.' "—From "Earthquake Tract," April, 1906.

The San Francisco earthquake was surely the voice of God to the people on the Pacific Coast. It was used mightily in conviction, for the gracious after revival. In the early "Azusa" days both Heaven and hell seemed to have come to town. Men were at the breaking point. Conviction was mightily on the people. They would fly to pieces even on the street, almost without provocation. A very "dead line" seemed to be drawn around "Azusa Mission," by the Spirit. When men came within two or three blocks of the place they were seized with conviction. I took a run to San Diego and preached twice a day for Brother and Sister Otterman. The Lord blessed my ministry, and the change was a blessing, after the tremendous strain I had been under. I had asked the Lord for my fare if He wanted me to go, and He gave it. It was now June. Returning home I distributed tracts at the Free Methodist camp meeting. I asked the Lord for ten dollars and he gave me twenty.

The work was getting clearer and stronger at "Azusa." God was working mightily. It seemed that everyone had to go to "Azusa." Missionaries were gathered there from Africa, India, and the islands of the sea. Preachers and workers had crossed the continent, and come from distant islands, with an irresistible drawing to Los Angeles. "Gather my saints together, etc."—Ps. 50:1-7. They had come up for "Pentecost," though they little realized it. It was God's call. Holiness meetings, tents and missions began to close up for lack of attendance. Their people were at "Azusa." Brother and Sister Garr closed the "Burning Bush" hall, came to "Azusa," received the "baptism," and were soon on their way to India to spread the fire. Even Brother Smale had to come to "Azusa," to look up his members. He invited them back home, promised them liberty in the Spirit, and for a time God wrought mightily at the New Testament Church also.

There was much persecution, especially from the press. They wrote us up shamefully, but this only drew the crowds. Some gave the work six months to live. Soon the meetings were running day and night. The place was packed out nightly. The whole building, upstairs and down, had now been cleared and put into use. There were far more white people than colored coming. The "color line" was washed away in the blood. A.S. Worrell, translator of the New Testament, declared the "Azusa" work had rediscovered the blood of Christ to the church at that time. Great emphasis was placed on the "blood," for cleansing, etc. A high standard was held up for a clean life. "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him."—Isa. 59:19. Divine love was wonderfully manifest in the meetings. They would not even allow an unkind word said against their opposers, or the churches. The message was the love of God. It was a sort of "first love" of the early church returned. The "baptism" as we received it in the beginning did not allow us to think, speak, or hear evil of any man. The Spirit was very sensitive, tender as a dove. The Holy Spirit is symbolized as a dove. A dove has no gall bladder. We knew the moment we had grieved the Spirit, by an unkind thought or word. We seemed to live in a sea of pure divine love. The Lord fought our battles for us in those days. We committed ourselves to His judgment fully in all matters, never seeking to even defend the work or ourselves. We lived in His wonderful, immediate presence. And nothing contrary to His pure Spirit was allowed there.

The false was sifted out from the real by the Spirit of God. The Word of God itself decided absolutely all issues. The hearts of the people, both in act and motive, were searched to the very bottom. It was no joke to become one of that company. No man "durst join himself to them" except he meant business, to go through. It meant a dying out and cleaning up process in those days, to receive the "baptism." We had a "tarrying" room upstairs, for those especially seeking God for the "baptism," though many got it in the main assembly room also. In fact they often got it in their seats in those days. On the wall of the tarrying room was hung a placard with the words, "No talking above a whisper." We knew nothing of "jazzing" them through at that time. The Spirit wrought very deeply. An unquiet spirit, or a thoughtless talker, was immediately reproved by the Spirit. We were on "holy ground." This atmosphere was unbearable to the carnal spirit. They generally gave this room a wide berth unless they had been thoroughly subdued and burned out. Only honest seekers sought it, those who really meant business with God. It was no "lethal chamber," nor place to throw fits, or blow off steam in. Men did not "fly to their lungs" in those days. They flew to the mercy seat. They took their shoes off, figuratively speaking. They were on "holy ground." "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."

Arthur Booth-Clibborn has written the following weighty words for the "Pentecostal" people: "Any cheapening of the price of Pentecost would be a disaster of untold magnitude. The company in the upper room, upon whom Pentecost fell, had paid for it the highest price. In this they approached as near as possible to Him who had paid the supreme price in order to send it. Do we ever really adequately realize how utterly lost to this world, how completely despised, rejected and outcast was that company? Their master and leader had just passed, so to speak, through the 'hangman's rope,' at the hands of the highest civilization of the day. Their Calvary was complete, and so a complete Pentecost came to match it. The latter will resemble the former in completeness. We may, therefore, each of us say to ourselves: As thy cross, so will thy Pentecost be. God's way to Pentecost was via Calvary. Individually it must be so today also. The purity and fullness of the individual Pentecost must depend upon the completeness of the individual Calvary. This is an unalterable principle."

Friday, June 15, at "Azusa," the Spirit dropped the "heavenly chorus" into my soul. I found myself suddenly joining the rest who had received this supernatural "gift." It was a spontaneous manifestation and rapture no earthly tongue can describe. In the beginning this manifestation was wonderfully pure and powerful. We feared to try to reproduce it, as with the "tongues" also. Now many seemingly have no hesitation in imitating all the "gifts." They have largely lost their power and influence because of this. No one could understand this "gift of song" but those who had it. It was indeed a "new song," in the Spirit. When I first heard it in the meetings a great hunger entered my soul to receive it. I felt it would exactly express my pent up feelings. I had not yet spoken in "tongues." But the "new song" captured me. It was a gift from God of high order, and appeared among us soon after the "Azusa" work began. No one had preached it. The Lord had sovereignly bestowed it, with the outpouring of the "residue of oil," the "Latter Rain" baptism of the Spirit. It was exercised, as the Spirit moved the possessors, either in solo fashion, or by the company. It was sometimes without words, other times in "tongues." The effect was wonderful on the people. It brought a heavenly atmosphere, as though the angels themselves were present and joining with us. And possibly they were. It seemed to still criticism and opposition, and was hard for even wicked men to gainsay or ridicule.

Some have condemned this "new song," without words. But was not sound given before language? And is there not intelligence without language also? Who composed the first song? Must we necessarily follow some man's composition, before us, always? We are too much worshippers of tradition. The speaking in "tongues" is not according to man's wisdom or understanding. Then why not a "gift of song?" It is certainly a rebuke to the "jazzy" religious songs of our day. And possibly it was given for that purpose. Yet some of the old hymns are very good to sing, also. We need not despise or treat lightly of them. Some one has said that every fresh revival brings in its own hymnology. And this one surely did.

In the beginning in "Azusa" we had no musical instruments. In fact we felt no need of them. There was no place for them in our worship. All was spontaneous. We did not even sing from hymn books. All the old well known hymns were sung from memory, quickened by the Spirit of God. "The Comforter Has Come," was possibly the one most sung. We sang it from fresh, powerful heart experience. Oh, how the power of God filled and thrilled us. Then the "blood" songs were very popular. "The life is in the blood." Sinai, Calvary, and Pentecost, all had their rightful place in the "Azusa" work. But the "new song" was altogether different, not of human composition. It cannot be successfully counterfeited. The crow cannot imitate the dove. But they finally began to despise this "gift," when the human spirit asserted itself again. They drove it out by hymn books, and selected songs by leaders. It was like murdering the Spirit, and most painful to some of us, but the tide was too strong against us. Hymn books today are largely a commercial proposition, and we would not lose much without most of them. The old tunes, even, are violated by change, and new styles must be gotten out every season, for added profit. There is very little real spirit of worship in them. They move the toes, but not the hearts of men. The spirit of song given from God in the beginning was like the Aeolian harp, in its spontaneity and sweetness. In fact it was the very breath of God, playing on human heart strings, or human vocal cords. The notes were wonderful in sweetness, volume and duration. In fact they were oftentimes humanly impossible. It was "singing in the Spirit."

Brother Seymour was recognized as the nominal leader in charge. But we had no pope or hierarchy. We were "brethren." We had no human program. The Lord Himself was leading. We had no priest class, nor priest craft. These things have come in later, with the apostatizing of the movement. We did not even have a platform or pulpit in the beginning. All were on a level. The ministers were servants, according to the true meaning of the word. We did not honor men for their advantage, in means or education, but rather for their God-given "gifts." He set the members in the "body." Now "A wonderful and horrible thing is come to pass in the land. The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and My people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof."—Jer. 5:30, 31. Also "As for my people, children are their oppressors (sometimes grown up ones), and women rule over them."—Isa. 3:12.

Brother Seymour generally sat behind two empty shoe boxes, one on top of the other. He usually kept his head inside the top one during the meeting, in prayer. There was no pride there. The services ran almost continuously. Seeking souls could be found under the power almost any hour, night and day. The place was never closed nor empty. The people came to meet God. He was always there. Hence a continuous meeting. The meeting did not depend on the human leader. God's presence became more and more wonderful. In that old building, with its low rafters and bare floors, God took strong men and women to pieces, and put them together again, for His glory. It was a tremendous overhauling process. Pride and self-assertion, self-importance and self-esteem, could not survive there. The religious ego preached its own funeral sermon quickly.

No subjects or sermons were announced ahead of time, and no special speakers for such an hour. No one knew what might be coming, what God would do. All was spontaneous, ordered of the Spirit. We wanted to hear from God, through whoever he might speak. We had no "respect of persons." The rich and educated were the same as the poor and ignorant, and found a much harder death to die. We only recognized God. All were equal. No flesh might glory in His presence. He could not use the self-opinionated. Those were Holy Ghost meetings, led of the Lord. It had to start in poor surroundings, to keep out the selfish, human element. All came down in humility together, at His feet. They all looked alike, and had all things in common in that sense at least. The rafters were low, the tall must come down. By the time they got to "Azusa" they were humbled, ready for the blessing. The fodder was thus placed for the lambs, not for giraffes. All could reach it.

We were delivered right there from ecclesiastical hierarchism and abuse. We wanted God. When we first reached the meeting we avoided as much as possible human contact and greeting. We wanted to meet God first. We got our head under some bench in the corner in prayer, and met men only in the Spirit, knowing them "after the flesh" no more. The meetings started themselves, spontaneously, in testimony, praise and worship. The testimonies were never hurried by a call for "popcorn." We had no prearranged program to be jammed through on time. Our time was the Lord's. We had real testimonies, from fresh heart-experience. Otherwise, the shorter the testimonies, the better. A dozen might be on their feet at one time, trembling under the mighty power of God. We did not have to get our cue from some leader. And we were free from lawlessness. We were shut up to God in prayer in the meetings, our minds on Him. All obeyed God, in meekness and humility. In honor we "preferred one another." The Lord was liable to burst through any one. We prayed for this continually. Someone would finally get up anointed for the message. All seemed to recognize this and gave way. It might be a child, a woman, or a man. It might be from the back seat, or from the front. It made no difference. We rejoiced that God was working. No one wished to show himself. We thought only of obeying God. In fact there was an atmosphere of God there that forbade anyone but a fool attempting to put himself forward without the real anointing. And such did not last long. The meetings were controlled by the Spirit, from the throne. Those were truly wonderful days. I often said that I would rather live six months at that time than fifty years of ordinary life. But God is just the same today. Only we have changed.

Someone might be speaking. Suddenly the Spirit would fall upon the congregation. God himself would give the altar call. Men would fall all over the house, like the slain in battle, or rush for the altar enmasse, to seek God. The scene often resembled a forest of fallen trees. Such a scene cannot be imitated. I never saw an altar call given in those early days. God himself would call them. And the preacher knew when to quit. When He spoke we all obeyed. It seemed a fearful thing to hinder or grieve the Spirit. The whole place was steeped in prayer. God was in His holy temple. It was for man to keep silent. The Shekinah glory rested there. In fact some claim to have seen the glory by night over the building. I do not doubt it. I have stopped more than once within two blocks of the place and prayed for strength before I dared go on. The presence of the Lord was so real.

Presumptuous men would sometimes come among us. Especially preachers who would try to spread themselves, in self-opinionation. But their effort was short lived. The breath would be taken from them. Their minds would wander, their brains reel. Things would turn black before their eyes. They could not go on. I never saw one get by with it in those days. They were up against God. No one cut them off. We simply prayed. The Holy Spirit did the rest. We wanted the Spirit to control. He wound them up in short order. They were carried out dead, spiritually speaking. They generally bit the dust in humility, going through the process we had all gone through. In other words they died out, came to see themselves in all their weakness, then in childlike humility and confession were taken up of God, transformed through the mighty "baptism" in the Spirit. The "old man" died with all his pride, arrogancy and good works. In my own case I came to abhor myself. I begged the Lord to drop a curtain so close behind me on my past that it would hit my heels. He told me to forget every good deed as though it had never occurred, as soon as it was accomplished, and go forward again as though I had never accomplished anything for Him, lest my good works become a snare to me.

We saw some wonderful things in those days. Even very good men came to abhor themselves in the clearer light of God. The preachers died the hardest. They had so much to die to. So much reputation and good works. But when God got through with them they gladly turned a new page and chapter. That was one reason they fought so hard. Death is not at all a pleasant experience. And strong men die hard.

Brother Ansel Post, a Baptist preacher, was sitting on a chair in the middle of the floor one evening in the meeting. Suddenly the Spirit fell upon him. He sprang from his chair, began to praise God in a loud voice in "tongues," and ran all over the place, hugging all the brethren he could get hold of. He was filled with divine love. He later went to Egypt as a missionary. Let us have his own testimony for it: "As suddenly as on the day of Pentecost, while I was sitting some twelve feet right in front of the speaker, the Holy Spirit fell upon me and filled me literally. I seemed to be lifted up, for I was in the air in an instant, shouting "Praise God," and instantly I began to speak in another language. I could not have been more surprised if at the same moment someone had handed me a million dollars."—Ansel Post, in "Way of Faith."

After Brother Smale had invited his people back and promised them liberty in the Spirit, I wrote the following, in "Way of Faith: "The New Testament Church received her 'Pentecost' yesterday. We had a wonderful time. Men and women were prostrate under the power all over the hall. A heavenly atmosphere pervaded the place. Such singing I have never heard before, the very melody of Heaven. It seemed to come direct from the throne."—June 22, 1906.

In the "Christian Harvester" I wrote, at the same date: "At the New Testament Church a young lady of refinement was prostrate on the floor for hours, while at times the most heavenly singing would issue from her lips. It would swell away up to the throne, and then die away in an almost unearthly melody. She sang, 'Praise God! Praise God!' All over the house men and women were weeping. A preacher was flat on his face on the floor, dying out. 'Pentecost' has fully come."

We had several all nights of prayer at the New Testament Church. But Pastor Smale never received the "baptism" with the "speaking in tongues." He was in a trying position. It was all new to him. Then the devil did his worst, to bring the work into disrepute and destroy it. He sent wicked spirits among us to frighten the pastor and cause him to reject it.

But Brother Smale was God's Moses, to lead the people as far as the Jordan, though he himself never got across. Brother Seymour led them over. And yet, strange to say, Seymour himself did not speak in "tongues" until sometime after "Azusa" had been opened. Many of the saints entered in before him. All who received this "baptism" spoke in "tongues."

Many were stumbled in the beginning at "Azusa" because of the nature of the instruments first used. I wrote in "Way of Faith" as follows: "Someone has said it is not the man who can build the biggest brush heap, but rather the one who can set his heap on fire, that will light up the country. God can never wait for a perfect instrument to appear. If so He would certainly be waiting yet. Luther himself declared he was but a rough woodsman, to fell the trees. Pioneers are of that nature. God has polished Melancthons, to follow up and trim and shape the timber symmetrically. A charge of dynamite does not produce the finished product. But it does set loose the stones that later stand as monuments, under the sculptor's skilled hand. Many high dignitaries of the Roman church in Luther's time were convinced of the need of a reformation, and that he was on the right track. But they declared, in so many words, that they could never consent that this new doctrine should issue from "such a corner." That it should be a monk, a poor monk, who presumes to reform us all, said they, is what we cannot tolerate. "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?"

Fallen humanity is such a peculiar thing at its best, so shattered that it is very imperfect. "We have this treasure in earthen vessels." In the embryotic stage of all new experiences much allowance must be made for human frailty. There are always many coarse, impulsive, imperfectly balanced spirits among those first reached by a revival, also. Then our understanding of the Spirit of God is so limited that we are liable to make a mistake sometimes, failing to recognize all that may be really of God. We can understand fully only in the measure that we ourselves possess the Spirit. Snap judgment is always dangerous. "Judge nothing before the time." The company used at "Azusa" mission, to break through, were the "Gideon's band" that opened the way to victory for those to follow.

I wrote further in "Way of Faith," August 1, 1906: "Pentecost" has come to Los Angeles, the American Jerusalem. Every sect, creed, and doctrine under Heaven is found in Los Angeles, as well as every nation represented. Many times I have been tempted to wonder if my strength would hold out to see it. The burden of prayer has been very great. But since the spring of 1905, when I first received this vision and burden, I have never doubted the final outcome of it. Men are now in trouble of soul everywhere, and the revival with its unusual phenomena is the topic of the day. There is terrible opposition manifested also. The newspapers here are very venomous, and most unfair and untrue in their statements. The pseudo systems of religion are fighting hard also. But, 'the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies.' Their 'hiding places' are being uncovered. A cleansing stream is flowing through the city. The Word of God prevails.

"Persecution is strong. Already the police have been appealed to break up the meetings. The work has been hindered much also by fanatical spirits, of which the city has far too many. It is God and the devil for it, a battle royal. We can do little but look on and pray. The Holy Spirit Himself is taking the lead, setting aside all human leadership largely. And woe to the man who gets in His way, selfishly seeking to dictate or control. The Spirit brooks no interference of this kind. The human instruments are largely lost sight of. Our hearts and minds are directed to the Lord. The meetings are crowded out. There is great excitement among the unspiritual and unsaved.

"Every false religion under Heaven is found represented here. Next to old Jerusalem there is nothing like it in the world. (It is on the opposite side, near half way around, with natural conditions very similar also.) All nations are represented, as at Jerusalem. Thousands are here from all over the Union, and from many parts of the world, sent of God for 'Pentecost.' These will scatter the fire to the ends of the earth. Missionary zeal is at white heat. The 'gifts' of the Spirit are being given, the church's panoply restored. Surely we are in the days of restoration, the 'last days,' wonderful days, glorious days. But awful days for the withstanders. They are days of privilege, responsibility, and peril.

"Demons are being cast out, the sick healed, many blessedly saved, restored, and baptized with the Holy Ghost and power. Heroes are being developed, the weak made strong in the Lord. Men's hearts are being searched as with a lighted candle. It is a tremendous sifting time, not only of actions, but of inner, secret motives. Nothing can escape the all-searching eye of God. Jesus is being lifted up, the 'blood' magnified, and the Holy Spirit honored once more. There is much 'slaying power' manifest. And this is the chief cause of resistance on the part of those who refuse to obey. It is real business. God is with us in great earnestness. We dare not trifle. Strong men lie for hours under the mighty power of God, cut down like grass. The revival will be a world-wide one, without doubt."—F. Bartleman in "Way of Faith," August, 1906. Some time later, the pastor of the Trinity Church, M.E. South, of Los Angeles, uttered the following words: "Here on the Pacific Coast, where the sons of men meet from every quarter of the globe, prophetic souls believe the greatest moral and spiritual battles are to be fought—the Armageddon of the world."

Evan Roberts' "Message to the Churches," was voiced by him in the following lines of an old poem: "While the fire of God is falling, while the voice of God is calling, brothers, get the flame. While the torch of God is burning, men's weak efforts overturning, Christians get the flame. While the Holy Ghost is pleading, human methods superseding, He himself the flame. While the power hard hearts is bending, yield thy own, to Him surrendering, all to get the flame. For the world at last is waking, and beneath His spell is breaking, into living flame. And our glorious Lord is seeking, human hearts, to rouse the sleeping, fired with heavenly flame. If in utter self-surrender, you would work with Christ, remember, you must get the flame. For the sake of bruised and dying, and the lost in darkness lying, we must get the flame. For the sake of Christ in glory, and the spreading of the story, we must get the flame. Oh, my soul, for thy refining, and thy clearer, brighter shining, do not miss the flame. On the Holy Ghost relying, simply trusting and not trying, you will get the flame. Brothers, let us cease our dreaming, and while God's flood-tide is streaming, we will have the flame."

I wrote a little tract in June, 1906, of which the following are extracts: "Opportunity once passed, is lost forever. There is a time when the tide is sweeping by our door. We may then plunge in and be carried to glorious blessing, success and victory. To stand shivering on the bank, timid, or paralyzed with stupor, at such a time, is to miss all, and most miserably fail, both for time and for eternity. Oh, our responsibility! The mighty tide of God's grace and favor is even now sweeping by us, in its prayer-directed course. There is a river (of salvation) the streams whereof make glad the city of God.—Ps. 46:4. It is time to 'get together,' and plunge in, individually and collectively. We are baptized 'in one Spirit, into one body.'—1 Cor. 12:13. Let us lay aside all carnal contentions and divisions, that separate us from each other and from God. If we are of His body, we are 'one body.' The opportunity of a lifetime, of centuries, is at our door, to be eternally gained or lost. There is no time to hesitate. Act quickly, lest another take thy crown. Oh, church of Christ, awake! Be baptized with power. Then fly to rescue others. And to meet your Lord."—F. Bartleman.

"If anti-Christ is about to make his mightiest and most malignant demonstration, ought not the church to confront him with mighty displays of the Spirit's saving power?"—Gordon.

A.B. Simpson said: "We are to witness before the Lord's return real missionary 'tongues' like those of Pentecost, through which the heathen world shall hear in their own language 'the wonderful works of God,' and this perhaps on a scale of whose vastness we have scarcely dreamed, thousands of missionaries going forth in one last mighty crusade from a united body of believers at home to bear swift witness of the crucified and coming Lord to all nations."

Arthur T. Pierson has said: "The most alarming peril of today is naturalism—the denial of all direct divine agency and control. Science is uniting with unbelief, wickedness and worldliness, skepticism and materialism, to rule a personal God out of the universe. This drift toward materialism and naturalism demands the supernatural as it’s only corrective. In Enoch's time human sin was fast making atheists, and God 'took him,' spirit, soul, and body, that men might be startled with the proof of a Divine Being, and an invisible world. In Elijah's day, general apostasy was rebuked by the descent of horses and chariots of fire; and if ever men needed to be confronted with fruits of power above nature—a living God back of all the forces and machinery He controls, who does answer prayer, guide by His providences, and convert by His grace, it is now." Oh, our weakness! Oh, our unbelief! May the Lord help us back to Pentecostal experiences. "When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?"

"The presence of God in the church will put an end to infidelity. Men will not doubt His Word when they feel His Spirit. For a thousand reasons we need that Jehovah should come into the camp, as aforetimes He visited and delivered His people from bondage in Egypt."—Spurgeon's Dying Appeal.

Chapter 4: Eighth And Maple Meetings

August 8, 1906, I rented a church building at the corner of Eighth and Maple streets, for a Pentecostal Mission. I was led to this church in February. It was then occupied by the "Pillar of Fire" people, of which Mrs. Alma White of Denver was leader. I had been impressed to pray for a building for services, after I found the New Testament Church not going ahead. But I had not known even of the existence of this building until the Lord brought me in contact with it one day, all unexpectedly. I was passing by, and saw it for the first time. I noticed it was out of regular use. It had been a German church. Through curiosity I opened the door, which was unlocked, and entered. I found the "Pillar of Fire" had it. Kneeling at the altar for a season of prayer, the Lord spoke to me. I received a wonderful witness of the Spirit. In a moment I was walking the aisles, claiming it for "Pentecost." Over the door was a large motto painted, "Gott ist die Liebe" (God is Love). This was two months before the "Azusa" work began.

I looked no further for a building, knowing that God had spoken, but waited His time. One night, six months later, in August, I was passing that way, going home from meeting, when I saw a sign, "For Rent," on the church. It had just been vacated. The Lord spoke to me: "There is your church." The "Pillar of Fire" had gone up in smoke, not able to raise the rent. They had been the most bitter opposers of the "Azusa" work. The Lord had vacated the building for us. The next day I was led to tell our landlord, Brother Fred Shepard, of the situation. I did not ask him to help me. But the Lord had sent me to him. He asked how much the rent was, went into another room, and returned quickly with a check for fifty dollars, the first month's rent. I secured the place at once.

I had another attack of stomach trouble at this time. I could scarcely eat for days, and suffered terribly. But God finally delivered. The devil tried to kill me.

I visited the M.E. camp meeting at Huntington Park to give out some revival tracts and they chased me off the grounds. One preacher threatened to knock me down. He was very zealous. I had made no trouble, only they were afraid of heresy.

The truth must be told. "Azusa" began to fail the Lord also, early in her history. God showed me one day that they were going to organize, though not a word had been said in my hearing about it. The Spirit revealed it to me. He had me get up and warn them against making a "party" spirit of the Pentecostal work. The "baptized" saints were to remain "one body," even as they had been called, and to be free as His Spirit was free, not "entangled again in a yoke of (ecclesiastical) bondage." The New Testament Church saints had already arrested their further progress in this way. God wanted a revival company, a channel through whom He could evangelize the world, blessing all people and believers. He could naturally not accomplish this with a sectarian party. That spirit has been the curse and death of every revival body sooner or later. History repeats itself in this matter.

Sure enough the very next day after I dropped this warning in the meeting I found a sign outside "Azusa" reading "Apostolic Faith Mission." The Lord said: "That is what I told you." They had done it. Surely a "party spirit" cannot be "Pentecostal." There can be no divisions in a true Pentecost. To formulate a separate body is but to advertise our failure, as a people of God. It proves to the world that we cannot get along together, rather than causing them to believe in our salvation. "That they may all be one; that the world may believe."—John 17:21. And from that time the trouble and division began. It was no longer a free Spirit for all as it had been. The work had become one more rival party and body, along with the other churches and sects of the city. No wonder the opposition steadily increased from the churches. We had been called to bless and serve the whole "body of Christ," everywhere. Christ is one, and His "body" can be but "one." To divide it is but to destroy it, as with the natural body. "In one Spirit were we all baptized into one body."—1 Cor. 12:13- The church is an organism not a human organization.

They later tried to pull the work on the whole coast into this organization, but miserably failed. The work had spread as far as Portland and Seattle, under Sister Crawford. God's people must be free from hierarchism. They are "blood-bought," and not their own. An earlier work in Texas, later tried to gather in the Pentecostal missions on the Pacific Coast, and Los Angeles, but also failed. Why should they claim authority over us? We had prayed down our own revival. The revival in California was unique and separate as to origin. It came from Heaven, even Brother Seymour not receiving the "baptism" until many others had entered in here. He did not arrive in Los Angeles until the "eleventh hour." The great battle from the beginning, both in Los Angeles and elsewhere, has been the conflict between the "flesh" and the Spirit, between Ishmael and Isaac.

Sunday, August 12, we opened up at Eighth and Maple streets. The Spirit was mightily manifest from the very first meeting. He was given complete control. The atmosphere was terrible for sinners and backsliders. One had to get right in order to remain at Eighth and Maple. 'Tearfulness" truly "surprised the hypocrites." For some days we could do little but lay before the Lord in prayer. Sister Hopkinson was a great help to me in the beginning.

The atmosphere was almost too sacred and holy to attempt to minister in. Like the priests in the Tabernacle of old we could not minister for the glory. We had terrible battles with fleshly professors and deceivers also. But God gave victory. The Spirit was much grieved by contentious spirits. The atmosphere at Eighth and Maple was for a time even deeper than at "Azusa." God came so wonderfully near us the very atmosphere of Heaven seemed to surround us. Such a divine "weight of glory" was upon us we could only lie on our faces. For a long time we could hardly remain seated even. All would be on their faces on the floor, sometimes during the whole service. I was seldom able to keep from lying full length on the floor on my face. There was a little raise of about a foot, for a platform, when we moved into the church. On this I generally lay, while God ran the meetings. They were His meetings. Every night the power of God was powerfully with us. It was glorious. The Lord seemed almost visible, He was so real. We had the greatest trouble with strange preachers, who wanted to preach. Of all the people they seemed to have the least sense. They did not know enough to keep still before Him. They liked to hear themselves. But many a preacher died in these meetings. The city was full of them, just as today. They rattled like a last year's bean pod. We had a regular "dry bone" yard. We always recognized "Azusa" as having been the mother mission, and there was never any friction or jealousy between us. We visited back and forth. Brother Seymour often met with us.

I wrote in the "Christian Harvester" at that time, as follows: "The meetings at Eighth and Maple are marvelous. We had the greatest time yesterday that I have ever seen. All day long the power of God swept the place. The church was crowded. Terrible conviction seized the people. The Spirit ran the meetings from start to finish. There was no program, and hardly a chance for even necessary announcements. No attempt was made to preach. A few messages were given by the Spirit. Everybody was free to obey God. The altar was full of seeking souls all day. There was hardly a cessation of the altar service. Souls were coming out and getting through, while the meeting swept on. Men and women lay around the altar, stretched out under the power all day. A Free Methodist preacher's wife came through to a mighty "baptism," speaking something like Chinese. All who received the "baptism" spoke in "tongues." There were at least six Holiness preachers, some of them gray headed, honored and trusted for fruitful service for years, seeking the "baptism" most earnestly. They simply throw up their hands in the face of this revelation from God and stop to "tarry," for their "Pentecost." The president of the Holiness Church of Southern California (Brother Roberts, a precious man), was one of the first at the altar, seeking earnestly."—F. Bartleman, Los Angeles, Sept. 10, 1906.

Again I wrote, in the same paper: "The Spirit allows little human interference in the meetings, generally passing mistakes by unnoticed, or moving them out of the way Himself. Things that ordinarily we would feel must be corrected, are often passed over, and a worse calamity averted thereby. To draw attention to them brings the spirit of fear on the saints, and they stop seeking. The Spirit is hindered from working. He moves them out of the way. There are even greater issues at stake at present. We try to keep from magnifying Satan's power. We are preaching a big Christ instead. And God is using babes. The enemy is moving hell to break up our fellowship through doctrinal differences. But we must preserve the unity of the Spirit by all means. Some things can be adjusted later. They are much less important. God will never give this work into the hands of men. If it ever gets under man's control it is done. Many would join themselves to us if they did not need to 'lose their heads,' get small."

On the afternoon of August 16, at Eighth and Maple, the Spirit manifested Himself through me in "tongues." There were seven of us present at the time. It was a week day. After a time of testimony and praise, with everything quiet, I was softly walking the floor, praising God in my spirit. All at once I seemed to hear in my soul (not with my natural ears), a rich voice speaking in a language I did not know. I have later heard something similar to it in India. It seemed to ravish and fully satisfy the pent up praises in my being. In a few moments I found myself, seemingly without volition on my part, enunciating the same sounds with my own vocal organs. It was an exact continuation of the same expressions that I had heard in my soul a few moments before. It seemed a perfect language. I was almost like an outside listener. I was fully yielded to God, and simply carried by His will, as on a divine stream. I could have hindered the expression but would not have done so for worlds. A Heaven of conscious bliss accompanied it. It is impossible to describe the experience accurately. It must be experienced to be appreciated. There was no effort made to speak on my part, and not the least possible struggle. The experience was most sacred, the Holy Spirit playing on my vocal cords, as on an Aeolian harp. The whole utterance was a complete surprise to me. I had never really been solicitous to speak in "tongues." Because I could not understand it with my natural mind I had rather feared it.

I had no desire at the time to even know what I was saying. It seemed a soul expression purely, outside the realm of the natural mind or understanding. I was truly "sealed in the forehead," ceasing from the works of my own natural mind fully. I wrote my experience for publication later, in the following words: "The Spirit had gradually prepared me for this culmination in my experience, both in prayer for myself, and others. I had thus drawn nigh to God, my spirit greatly subdued. A place of utter abandonment of will had been reached, in absolute consciousness of helplessness, purified from natural self-activity. This process had been cumulative. The presence of the Spirit within had been as sensitive to me as the water in the glass indicator of a steam boiler."

My mind, the last fortress of man to yield, was taken possession of by the Spirit. The waters, that had been gradually accumulating, went over my head. I was possessed of Him fully. The utterance in "tongues" was without human mixture, "as the Spirit gave utterance."— (Acts 2:4). Oh, the thrill of being fully yielded to Him! My mind had always been very active. Its natural workings had caused me most of my trouble in my Christian experience. "Casting down reasonings," (marginal reading, 2 Cor. 10:5). Nothing hinders faith and the operation of the Spirit so much as the self-assertiveness of the human spirit, the wisdom, strength and self-sufficiency of the human mind. This must all be crucified, and here is where the fight comes in. We must become utterly undone, insufficient and helpless in our own consciousness, thoroughly humbled, before we can receive this possession of the Holy Spirit. We want the Holy Ghost, but the fact is He is wanting possession of us.

In the experience of "speaking in tongues" I had reached the climax in abandonment. This opened the channel for a new ministry of the Spirit in service. From that time the Spirit began to flow through me in a new way. Messages would come, with anointings, in a way I had never known before, with a spontaneous inspiration and illumination that was truly wonderful. This was attended with convincing power. The Pentecostal baptism spells complete abandonment, possession by the Holy Ghost, of the whole man, with a spirit of instant obedience. I had known much of the power of God for service for many years before this, but I now realized a sensitiveness to the Spirit, a yieldedness, that made it possible for God to possess and work in new ways and channels, with far more powerful, direct results. I also received a new revelation of His sovereignty, both in purpose and action, such as I had never known before. I found I had often charged God with seeming lack of interest, or tardiness of action, when I should have yielded to Him, in faith, that He might be able to work through me His sovereign mighty will. I went into the dust of humility at this revelation of my own stupidity, and His sovereign care and desire. I saw that the little bit of desire I possessed for His service was only the little bit that He had been able to get to me of His great desire and interest and purpose. His word declares it. All there was of good in me, in thought or action, had come from Him. Like Hudson Taylor I now felt that He was asking me simply to go with Him to help in that which He alone had purposed and desired. I felt very small at this revelation, and my past misunderstanding. He had existed, and been working out His eternal purpose, long before I had ever been thought of, and would be long after I would be gone.

There was no strain or contortions. No struggle in an effort to get the "baptism." With me it was simply a matter of yielding. In fact it was the opposite of struggle. There was no swelling of the throat, no "operation" to be performed on my vocal organs. I had not the slightest difficulty in speaking in "tongues." And yet I can understand how some may have such difficulties. They are not fully yielded to God. With me the battle had been long drawn out. I had already worn myself out, fully yielded. God deals with no two individuals alike. I was not really seeking the "baptism" when I got it. And in fact I never sought it as a definite experience. I wanted to be yielded fully to God. But beyond that I had no real definite expectation or desire. I wanted more of Him, that was all.

There was no shouting crowd around me, to confuse or excite me. No one was suggesting "tongues" to me at the time, either by argument or imitation. Thank God He is able to do His work without such help, and far better without it. I do not believe in dragging the child forth, spiritually speaking, with instruments. I do believe in sane, earnest prayer help in the Spirit. Too many souls are dragged from the womb of conviction by force, and have to be incubated ever after. As with nature, so in grace. It is best to dispense as far as possible with the doctors and old mid-wives. The child is almost killed at times through their unnatural violence. A pack of jackals over their prey could hardly act more fiercely than we have witnessed in some cases. In natural child birth it is generally best to let the mother alone as far as possible. We should stand by and encourage, but not force the deliverance. Natural births are better.

I had been shut up largely to a ministry of intercession and prophecy before this, until I should reach this condition of utter abandonment to the Spirit. I was now to go forth again in the service. When my day of "Pentecost" was fully come the channel was cleared. The living waters burst forth. The door of my service sprang open at the touch of the hand of a sovereign God. The Spirit began to operate within me in a new and mightier way. It was a distinct, fresh climax and development, an epochal experience for me. And for this we had been shut up as a company. The preparation was world-wide, among the saints of God. The results have already made history. In fact this has proven an epoch in the history of the church just as distinct and definite as the Spirit's action in the time of Luther and Wesley, and with far greater portend. And it is not yet all history. We are too close to it yet to understand or appreciate it fully. But we have made another step back on the way to the restoration of the church as in the beginning. We are completing the circle. Jesus will return for a perfect church, "without spot or wrinkle." He is coming for "one body," not a dozen. He is the Head, and as such He is no monstrosity, with a hundred bodies. "That they all may be one, that the world may believe." This after all is the greatest "sign" to the world. "Though we speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, etc."—1 Cor. 13.1 felt after the experience of speaking in "tongues" that languages would come easy to me. And so it has proven. And also I have learned to sing, in the Spirit. I never was a singer, and do not know music.

I never sought "tongues." My natural mind resisted the idea. This phenomena necessarily violates human reason. It means abandonment of this faculty for the time. And this is generally the last point to yield. The human mind is held in abeyance fully in this exercise. And this is "foolishness," and a stone of stumbling, to the natural mind or reason. It is supernatural. We need not expect anyone who has not reached this depth of abandonment in their human spirit, this death to their own reason, to either accept or understand it. The natural reason must be yielded in the matter. There is a gulf to cross, between reason and revelation. But this principle in experience is just that which leads to the "Pentecostal" baptism, as in Acts 2:4. It is the underlying principle of the "baptism." And this is why the simple people get in first, though perhaps not always so well balanced or capable otherwise. They are like the little boys going swimming, to use a homely illustration. They get in first because they have the least clothes to divest themselves of. We must all come "naked" into this experience. All of self gone.

The early church lived in this, as its normal atmosphere. Hence its abandonment to the working of the Spirit, its supernatural "gifts," and its power. Our wiseacres cannot reach this. Oh, to become a fool, to know nothing in ourselves, that we might receive the mind of Christ fully, have the Holy Ghost teach and lead us only, and at all times. We do not mean to say we must talk in "tongues" continually. The "baptism" is not all "tongues." We can live in this place of illumination and abandonment and still speak in our own language. The Bible was not written in "tongues." But we may surely live in the Spirit at all times, though possibly few, if any, always do. Oh, the depth of abandonment, all self gone! Conscious of knowing nothing, of having nothing, except as the Spirit shall teach and impart to us. This is the true place of power, of God's power, in the ministry of service. There is nothing left but God, the pure Spirit. Every hope or sense of capability in the natural is gone. We live by His breath, as it were. The "wind" on the day of "Pentecost" was the breath of God. —Acts 2:2. But what more can we say? It must be experienced to be understood. It cannot be explained. We have certainly had a measure of the Spirit before without this. To this fact all history testifies. The church has been abnormal since its fall. But we cannot have the "Pentecostal" baptism without it, as the early church had it. The Apostles received it suddenly, and in full. Only simple faith and abandonment can receive it. Human reason can find all kinds of flaws and apparent foolishness in it.

I spoke in "tongues" possibly for about fifteen minutes on this first occasion. Then the immediate inspiration passed away, for the time. I have spoken at times since, also. But I never try to reproduce it. The act must be sovereign with God. It would be foolishness and sacrilege to try to imitate it. The experience left behind it the consciousness of a state of utter abandonment to the Lord, a place of perfect rest from my own works and activity of mind. It left with me a consciousness of utter God-control, and of His presence naturally in corresponding measure. It was a most sacred experience. Many have trifled most foolishly with this principle and possession. They have failed to continue in the Spirit and have stumbled many. This has wrought great harm. But the experience still remains as a fact, both in history and present day realization. The greater part of most Christians' knowledge of God is and has always been, since the loss of the Spirit by the early church, an intellectual knowledge. Their knowledge of the word and principles of God is an intellectual one, through natural reasoning and understanding largely. They have little revelation, illumination or inspiration direct from the Spirit of God.

We will quote from well-known authors some interesting extracts on the subject of "speaking in tongues." Dr. Philip Schaff, in his "History of the Christian Church," Vol. 1, page 116, says: "The speaking with tongues is an involuntary psalm—like prayer or song, uttered from a spiritual trance, and in a peculiar language inspired by the Holy Ghost. The soul is almost entirely passive, an instrument on which the Holy Ghost plays His heavenly melodies."

Conybeare and Howson, commentators, write: "This gift (speaking in tongues) was the result of a sudden influx of the supernatural to the believer. Under its influence the exercise of the understanding was suspended, while the spirit was wrapped in a state of ecstasy by the immediate communication of the Spirit of God. In this ecstatic trance the believer was constrained by irresistible power to pour forth his feelings of thanksgiving and rapture in words not his own. He was usually even ignorant of their meaning." Space forbids our quoting from other standard commentators on this subject. Many have written very illuminatingly on the same subject, and to the same general end as those we have quoted. We will quote from just one more writer.

Stalker, in his "Life of Paul," page 102, has the following to say: "It (the speaking in tongues) seems to have been a kind of tranced utterance, in which the speaker poured out an impassioned rhapsody, by which his religious faith received both expression and exaltation. Some were not able to tell others the meaning of what they were saying, while others had this additional power; and there were those who, though not speaking in tongues themselves, were able to interpret what the inspired speakers were saying. In all cases there seems to have been a kind of immediate inspiration, so that what they did was not the effect of calculation or preparation, but of a strong present impulse. These phenomena are so remarkable, that, if narrated in a history, they would put a severe strain on Christian faith. They show with what mighty force at its first entrance into the world, Christianity took possession of the spirits it touched. The very gifts of the Spirit were perverted into instruments of sin; for those possessed of the more showy gifts, such as miracles and tongues, were too fond of displaying them, and turned them into grounds of boasting." There is always more or less danger attached to privileges. Children frequently cut themselves with sharp knives. But we are certainly in more danger from remaining in stagnation, where we are, than in going ahead trustingly for God.

Describing some of my personal experiences, previous to my "baptism," I wrote the following in "Christian Harvester": "My own heart was searched until I cried out under the added light, 'God deliver me from my religious self-consciousness!' Seldom have I suffered in humility, shame and reproach, as at this vision of my very best in the sight of God. My religious comeliness was indeed turned into corruption. I felt that I could not bear to hear, or even to think of it again. I felt I would be glad to forget even my own name and identity. I even destroyed with extreme satisfaction records of my past achievements for God, upon which my eyes had loved to linger. I now abhorred them, as a temptation from the devil to self-exaltation. Letters of commendation for religious services rendered, literary works of seeming excellence to me, and sermons which to me had seemed wonderful in knowledge and construction, now actually nauseated me, because of the element of self-pride detected in them. I found I had come to rest on these more or less for expected divine favor and reward. 'Nothing but the blood of Jesus,' had at least partially been lost sight of. I was depending on other things besides to recommend me to God. And in this lay great danger. I now destroyed these treasured documents, false evidences, as I would a viper, lest they tempt me from the efficacy of His merits alone. It meant a deep heart searching. I knew of but few Holiness leaders who were really being dealt with on this line so deeply.

"Past services now became a very blank to me, and with the greatest relief on my part. I began again for God, as though I had never accomplished anything. I felt that I stood before Him empty handed. The fire of testing seemed to sweep away all of my religious doings. God did not want me to rest in these. For the future I was to forget all that I might ever do for God, as quickly as it was accomplished, so that it might not prove a further snare to me, and go on as though I had never done a thing for God. This was my safety." Without a doubt the least satisfaction to self in one's religious service is the greatest hindrance to the blessing and favor of God. It must be shunned as we would a serpent.

We continued to have wonderful meetings at Eighth and Maple. The Lord showed me He wanted this work to go deeper yet than anything we had at that time attained to. He was not even satisfied fully with the "Azusa" work, deep as it had gone. There was still too much of the self-life, the religious self, among us. This naturally meant war, hard and bitter, from the enemy. Ours was to be a sort of "clearing station," where fleshly exercises, false manifestations, and the religious self in general should be dealt with. We were after real experience, permanent and established, with God-like character, and no relapses.

The Holiness people were especially most tenacious of their attainments and position. In fact many of them were filled with hard-hearted pharisaism. Only God could hope to get light to them on their condition and need. They had largely lost their "first love," with little left but the shell of their profession. There seemed even more hope for the church people. They were not so hard, censorious, critical and bigoted, on the whole. Our "shibboleth" may become a "brazen serpent," which we set up on a pole to worship. As such it will cease to heal us, and become a "piece of brass" (margin, 2 Kings 18:4), to be smashed.

I was greatly tested financially again. One day I had to walk twenty-five blocks to town, not having even car-fare. A brother almost as poor as myself gave me a nickel to ride home. At the same time we were having glorious meetings. Many were prostrated under the power. The devil sent two strong characters one night to sidetrack the work. A spiritualist woman put herself at the head, like a drum major, to lead the singing. I prayed her out of the church. The other, a fanatical preacher with a voice that almost rattled the windows, I had to rebuke openly. He took over the whole meeting. Conceit fairly stuck out of him. The Spirit was terribly grieved. God could not work. I had suffered too much for the work to turn the whole thing over to the devil so easily. Besides I was responsible for souls, and for the rent. So I had to tell him to leave.

We had a fierce battle with such spirits. They would have ruined everything. The devil has no conscience, and the "flesh" has no sense. The very first time I opened the church for meetings I found one of the worst fanatics and religious crooks sitting on the steps waiting for me. He wanted to run the place. He was a preacher. I chased him from the place, like Nehemiah did the son of Joiada. (Neh. 13:28) I had never dreamed there was so much of the devil in so many people. The town seemed full of them. It tempted the saints to fight and hindered the Spirit. These crooks and cranks were the first at the meeting. We had a great clearing-up time. Especially in the case of old professors. There was much professional, religious quackery. Judgment had to "begin at the house of God." Luther was greatly troubled with willful, religious fanatics in his day. He wrote from the Wartburg, where he was then concealed, to Melancthon at Wittenberg, a test-stone for these fanatics, as follows: "Ask these prophets whether they have felt those spiritual torments, those creations of God, that death and hell which accompany a real separation." When he returned to Wittenberg and they tried their sorcery on him he met them with these crude words: "I slap your spirit on the snout." They acted like devils at that challenge. But it broke their spell.

We were obliged to deal firmly with extreme cases, but in the main the Spirit passed over and moved out of the way irregularities, without further advertising them. Many have declared we cannot throw our meetings open today. Then we must shut God out also. What we need is more of God, to control the meetings. He must be left free to come forth at all costs. The saints themselves are too largely in confusion and rebellion. Through prayer and self-abasement God will undertake for the meetings. This was the secret in the beginning. We held together in prayer, love, and unity, and no power could break this. But self must be burned out. Meetings must be controlled by way of the throne. A spiritual atmosphere must be created, through humility and prayer, that Satan cannot live in. And this we realized in the beginning. It was the very opposite of religious zeal, and carnal, religious ambition. We knew nothing about present day "pep" and "make it snappy" methods. That whole system is a bastard product, as far as "Pentecost" is concerned. It takes time to be holy. The world rushes on. It gets us nowhere with God.

One reason for the depth of the work at "Azusa" was the fact that the workers were not novices. They were largely called and prepared for years, from the Holiness ranks, and from the mission field, etc. They had been burnt out, tried and proven. They were largely seasoned veterans. They had walked with God and learned deeply of His Spirit. These were pioneers, "shock troops," the Gideon's three hundred, to spread the fire around the world. Just as the disciples had been prepared by Jesus. We have now taken on a "mixed multitude." And the seeds of apostacy have had time to work. "First love" has been also largely lost. The dog has "returned to his vomit" in many cases, to Babylonic doctrines and practices. An enfeebled mother can hardly be expected to bring forth healthy children.

The Spirit dealt so deeply, and the people were so hungry in the beginning, that the carnal, human spirit injected into the meetings seldom failed to hinder largely the working of the Spirit. It was as though a stranger had broken into a private, select company. The presence was painfully noticeable. Men were after God. He was in His holy temple, earth (the human) must keep silence before Him. It only caused grief and pain. Our so-called tarrying and prayer rooms today are but a shadow of the former ones, too often a place to blow off steam in human enthusiasm, or become mentally intoxicated, supposedly from the Holy Ghost. Many of them are a kind of lethal chamber, with very little of the pure Spirit of God. This should not be. We had a tremendous lot of fanaticism in the Holiness movement also. In the early days the "tarrying room" was the first thought and provision for a "Pentecostal Mission." It was held sacred, a kind of "holy ground." There was mutual consideration also. There men sought to become quiet from the activities of their own too active mind and spirit, to escape from the world for the time, and get alone with God. There was no noisy, wild, exciting spirit there. That at least could be done elsewhere. The claims and confusion of an exacting world were shut out. It was a sort of "city of refuge" from this sort of thing, a "haven of rest," where God could be heard, and talk to their souls. Men would spend hours in silence there, searching their own hearts in privacy, and securing the mind of the Lord for future action. This sort of thing seems well nigh impossible today amid present surroundings. We die out to self by coming into His presence. And this requires great quietness of spirit. We need a "holy of holies." What Jew of old would have dared to act in God's temple as we do today in the missions? It would have meant death to him. We are full of foolishness and fanatical self-assertion. Even the formal Romanists have more reverence on the whole than we.

Sunday, August 26, Pastor Pendleton and about forty of his members came into Eighth and Maple, to worship with us. They had received the "baptism" and spoken in "tongues" in their church. The Holiness Church had thrown them out of their own building for this, to them, unpardonable crime. This congregation had built a church with their own money. The property was worth ten thousand dollars. But they gladly left it to follow Jesus. It had been deeded to the Association. This would seem to be a great mistake in such cases. The property should belong to the local assembly. I had been impressed to say to Brother Pendleton some weeks before this, when meeting him at "Azusa," that I believed we would yet worship together. This was even before I had gotten Eighth and Maple. I had no meeting of my own at that time. But the impression proved to have been from the Lord. At that time he was not thinking of ever needing another place to worship. He had not yet received the "baptism." When I heard the church was going to try him for heresy I invited them to come in with us if they were thrown out. Two days later they were expelled, and accepted my invitation. They came in a body. I had been praying for just such help as I was by this time very much worn in body.

Tradition is a tremendous curse in its power for thralldom. The Holiness church doubtless verily believed that Brother Pendleton and his flock had gone radically astray. They had no better pastor nor members in their connection. Brother Pendleton declared after this experience that he would never build another doctrinal roof over his head. He was determined to go on for God. Multitudes are shut up in ecclesiastical systems, within sectarian boundaries, while God's great, free pasture lies out before them, only limited by the encircling Word of God. "There shall be one flock, and one Shepherd."— (See Ps. 23.) Traditional theology, partial truth and revelation, soon becomes law. The conscience is utterly bound, like Chinese foot-binding, shut up against further progress.

I first met Brother Daniel Awrey here at Eighth and Maple. He came to the meetings and we had a laughing blessing together. I was with him later in India and China. He finally died in Africa. We were tremendously burdened for souls in those days, and had many all nights of prayer at the church. It seemed an easy thing to remain in prayer all night. It generally became daylight almost before we could realize it. We did not get sleepy. We had entered into the life of eternity, where there is no time. The presence of the Lord was wonderfully real. Sometimes the night seemed not more than half an hour, we were so quickened and exhilarated by the Spirit.

Sunday, September 9, was a wonderful day. Several were stretched out under the power for hours. The altar was full all day, with scarcely any cessation to the services. Several received the "baptism." In those days we preached but little. The people were taken up with God. Brother Pendleton and myself could generally be found lying full length on the low platform on our faces, in prayer, during the services. It was almost impossible to stay off our faces in those days. The presence of the Lord was so real. And this condition lasted for a long time. We had but little to do with guiding the meetings. Everyone was looking to God alone. We felt almost like apologizing when we had to claim any attention from the people, for announcements. It was a continuous sweep of victory. God had their attention. The audience would be at times convulsed with penitence. God dealt deeply with sin in those days. It could not remain in the camp.

At times my prayers were wonderfully answered for finances. I needed ten dollars for our house rent, and five dollars to pay for tracts. The owner cancelled the month's house rent, without a word from me. Then a sister handed me a sealed envelope. I opened it and found just five dollars in it. I had not said a word about my needs.

The New Testament Church had a split about this time. I was glad I had nothing to do with that. Brother Smale had forced the "baptized" saints to the wall. He had rejected their testimony finally. Brother Elmer Fisher then started another mission at 327'/2 South Spring Street, known as the "Upper Room" mission. Most of the white saints from "Azusa" went with him, with the "baptized" ones from the New Testament Church. This later became for a time the strongest mission in town. Both "Azusa" and the New Testament Church had by this time largely failed God. I soon after turned Eighth and Maple over to Brother Pendleton, as I was too worn to continue longer in constant service in the meetings. I had been for a long time under constant strain in prayer and meetings, and needed a rest and change very badly.

In the beginning of the "Pentecostal" work I became very much exercised in the Spirit that Jesus should not be slighted, "lost in the temple," by the exaltation of the Holy Ghost, and of the "gifts" of the Spirit. There seemed great danger of losing sight of the fact that Jesus was "all, and in all." I endeavored to keep Him as the central theme and figure before the people. Jesus should be the center of our preaching. All comes through and in Him. The Holy Ghost is given to "show the things of Christ." The work of Calvary, the atonement, must be the center for our consideration. The Holy Ghost never draws our attention from Christ to Himself, but rather reveals Christ in a fuller way. We are in the same danger today. There is nothing deeper nor higher than to know Christ. Everything is given of God to that end. The "one Spirit" is given to that end. Christ is our salvation, and our all. That we might know "the lengths and breadths, and heights and depths of the love of Christ," having a "spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him (Christ)."—Eph. 1:17. It was "to know Him (Christ)," for which Paul strove. I was led to suddenly present Jesus one night to the congregation at Eighth and Maple. They had been forgetting Him in their exaltation of the Holy Ghost and the "gifts." Now I introduced Christ for their consideration. They were taken completely by surprise and convicted in a moment. God made me do it. Then they saw their mistake and danger, I was preaching Christ one night at this time, setting Him before them in His proper place, when the Spirit so witnessed of His pleasure that I was overpowered by His presence, falling helpless to the floor under a mighty revelation of Jesus to my soul. I fell like John on the Isle of Patmos, at His feet.

I wrote a tract at this time, of which the following are extracts: "We may not even hold a doctrine, or seek an experience, except in Christ. Many are willing to seek 'power' from every battery they can lay their hands on, in order to perform miracles, draw the attention and adoration of the people to themselves, thus robbing Christ of His glory, and making a fair showing in the flesh. The greatest religious need of our day would seem to be that of true followers of the meek and lowly Jesus. Religious enthusiasm easily goes to seed. The human spirit so predominates, the show-off, religious spirit. But we must stick to our text, Christ. He alone can save. The attention of the people must be first of all, and always, held to Him. A true 'Pentecost' will produce a mighty conviction for sin, a turning to God. False manifestations produce only excitement and wonder. Sin and self-life will not materially suffer from these. We must get what our conviction calls for. Believe in your own heart's hunger, and go ahead with God. Don't allow the devil to rob you of a real 'Pentecost.' Any work that exalts the Holy Ghost or the 'gifts' above Jesus will finally land up in fanaticism. Whatever causes us to exalt and love Jesus is well and safe. The reverse will ruin all. The Holy Ghost is a great light, but focused on Jesus always, for His revealing."

A.S. Worrell, translator of the New Testament, was an earnest friend of "Pentecost," and a seeker after the "baptism." He wrote the following in the "Way of Faith": "The blood of Jesus is exalted in these meetings as I have rarely known elsewhere. There is a mighty power manifest in witnessing for Jesus, with a wonderful love for souls. There is also a bestowal of 'gifts of the Spirit.' The places of meeting are at Azusa Street, at the New Testament Church, where Joseph Smale is pastor; some of his people were among the first to speak with 'tongues,' but most have withdrawn because they felt restraint in his church; and at Eighth and Maple streets, where Pastors Bartleman and Pendleton are the principal leaders."

In September, 1906, the following letters appeared in the "Way of Faith," from the pen of Dr. W.C. Dumble, of Toronto, Canada, who was visiting Los Angeles at this time. But, first, a note from Editor Pike himself. He wrote: "For some months we have been receiving letters from our dear Brother Bartleman concerning the great work of the Holy Spirit in Los Angeles. There has been some criticism of the reports we have published, and we were just on the point of writing to others on the ground, when our dear brother, Dr. W.C Dumble, favored us with the following most interesting description of what he has seen and felt there." The following from Dr. Dumble: "Possibly some of your readers may be interested in the impressions of a stranger in Los Angeles. A similar gracious work of the Spirit to that in Wales is in progress here. But while that is mostly in the churches, this is outside. The churches will not have it, or up to the present have stood aloof in a critical and condemnatory spirit. Like the work in Wales, this is a laymen's revival conducted by the Holy Spirit, and carried on in halls, and old tumble-down buildings, such as can be gotten for the work.

"This is a remarkable movement, that may be said to be peculiar by the appearance of the 'gift of tongues.' There are three different missions where one may hear these strange tongues. I had the rare joy of spending last evening at Pastor Bart leman’s meeting, or more correctly at a meeting where he and Pastor Pendleton are the nominal leaders, but where the Holy Spirit is actually in control. Jesus is proclaimed the Head, and the Holy Ghost His executive. Hence there is no preaching, no choir, no organ, no collection, except what is voluntarily placed on the table, or put in the box on the wall. And God was mightily present last night. Some one begins to sing: three or four hymns may be sung, interspersed with hallelujahs and amens. Then some overburdened soul rises, and shouts, 'Glory to Jesus!' and amid sobs and tears tells of a great struggle, and a great deliverance. Then three or four are on the floor with shining faces. One begins to praise God, and then breaks out with uplifted hands into a 'tongue.' Pastor Pendleton now tells how he felt the need, and sought the 'baptism,' and God baptized him with such an experience of the divine presence and love and boldness as he had never had before. The officials of his church therefore desired him to withdraw, and a number of his people went with him and joined forces with Pastor Bartleman. Then a sweet faced old German Lutheran lady told how she wondered when she heard the people praising God in 'tongues,' and began to pray to be baptized with the Spirit. After she had gone to bed her mouth went off in a 'tongue,' and she praised the Lord through the night to the amazement of her children.

"Next an exhortation in 'tongues' comes from Pastor Bartleman's lips in great sweetness, and one after another make their way to the altar quickly, until the rail is filled with seekers. Whatever criticism may be offered to this work it is very evident that it is divinely endorsed, and the Lord is 'adding to them daily such as are being saved.' It is believed that this revival is but in its infancy, and the assurance has been given that a great outpouring is imminent, and that we are in the evening of this dispensation. The burden of the 'tongue' is, 'Jesus is coming soon.'"—W.C Dumble, Los Angeles, Calif., Sept. 6, 1906.

Dr. Dumble wrote again, for the same paper: "At Pastor Bartleman's church meetings are held every night, all day Sundays, and all night every Friday. There is no order of services, they are expected to run in the divine order. The blessed Holy Ghost is the executive in charge. The leaders, or pastors, will be seen most of the time on their faces on the floor, or kneeling in the place where the pulpit commonly is, but there is neither pulpit, nor organ, nor choir. A young lady, for the first time in one of these meetings, came under the power of the Spirit, and lay for half an hour with beaming face lost to all about her, beholding visions unutterable. Soon she began to say, 'Glory! Glory to Jesus!' and spoke fluently in a strange tongue. On Sabbath last the meeting continued from early morning to midnight. There was no preaching, but prayer, testimony, praise, and exhortation."— W.C. Dumble. Much more of interest was contained in these published letters, but space forbids.

It is a fact that in the beginning platforms and pulpits were as far as possible removed out of the way. We had no conscious need of them. Priest class and ecclesiastical abuse were entirely swept away. We were all "brethren." All were free to obey God. He might speak through whom He would. He had poured out His Spirit "on all flesh," even on His servants and hand maidens. —Acts 2. We honored men for their God-given "gifts" and offices only. As the movement began to apostatize platforms were built higher, coat tails were worn longer, choirs were organized, and string bands came into existence to "jazz" the people. The kings came back once more, to their thrones, restored to sovereignty. We were no longer "brethren." Then the divisions multiplied, etc. While Brother Seymour kept his head inside the old empty box in "Azusa" all was well. They later built for him a throne also. Now we have, not one hierarchy, but many. ("Azusa Mission" is deserted, and Brother Seymour is in Heaven at this writing.) Kipling's immortal poem might well be recollected here: "The tumult and the shouting dies; the captains and the kings depart: Still stands thine ancient sacrifice, an humble and a contrite heart." God will not have us worship men or places.

I wrote for another religious paper the following, in 1906: "Cursed with unbelief we are struggling upward, only with the utmost difficulty, for the restoration of that glorious light and power, once so bountifully bestowed on the church, but long since lost. Our eyes have been so long blinded by the darkness of unbelief into which we were plunged by the church's fall, that we fight the light, for our eyes are weak. So far had we fallen as a church that when Luther sought to restore the truth of 'justification by faith' it was fought and resisted by the church of his day as the utmost heresy, and men paid for it with their lives. And it was much the same in Wesley's time. But here we are the restoration of the very experience of 'Pentecost,' with the 'latter rain,' a restoration of the power, in greater glory, to finish up the work begun. We shall again be lifted to the church's former level, to complete her work, begin where they left off when failure over-took them, and speedily fulfilling the last great commission, open the way for the coming of the Christ.

"We are to drop out the centuries of the church's failure, the long, dismal 'dark ages,' and telescoping time be now fully restored to pristine power, victory and glory. We seek to pull ourselves, by the grace of God, out of a corrupt, backslidden, spurious Christianity. The synagogues of a proud, hypocritical church are arrayed against us, to give us the lie. The 'hirelings' thirst for our blood. The scribes and pharisees, chief priests, and rulers of the synagogues, are all against us and the Christ.

"Los Angeles seems to be the place, and this the time, in the mind of God, for the restoration of the church to her former place, favor and power. The fullness of time seems to have come for the church's complete restoration. God has spoken to His servants in all parts of the world, and has sent many of them to Los Angeles, representing every nation under Heaven once more, as of old, come up for 'Pentecost,' to go out again into all the world with the glad message of salvation. The base of operations has been shifted, from old Jerusalem, for the latter 'Pentecost,' to Los Angeles. And there is a tremendous, God-given hunger for this experience everywhere. Wales was but intended as the cradle for this world-wide restoration of the power of God. India but the Nazareth where He was 'brought up.' "—F. Bartleman, Oct., 1906, in "Apostolic Light."

Again I wrote in the same paper: "If ever men shall seek to control, corner or own this work of God, either for their own glory or for that of an organization, we shall find the Spirit refusing to work. The glory will depart. Let this be one work where God shall be given His proper place, and we shall see such a work as men have never yet dreamed of. It would be a fearful thing if God were obliged to withdraw His blessed Spirit from us, or withhold it at such a time as this, because we tried to corner it. All our business is to get God to the people. Let us yield ourselves for this, and this alone. Some of the 'canker worms' of past experience have been party spirit, sectional difference, prejudices, etc., which are all carnal, contrary and destructive to the law of love, to the 'one body' of Christ. 'For in one Spirit are we all baptized into one body.'—1 Cor. 12:13. Self-satisfaction will always cause defeat. Oh, brother! Cease traveling 'round and 'round your old habit-beaten path, on which all grass has ceased to grow, and strike out into pastures green, beside the living waters." —F. Bartleman, Dec, 1906.

In the "Way of Faith" I wrote the following: "We are coming back from the 'dark ages' of the church's backsliding and downfall. We are living in the most momentous moments of the history of time. The Spirit is brushing aside all our plans, our schemes, our strivings, and our theories, and is Himself acting again. Many who have feathered well their nests are fighting hard. They cannot sacrifice to rise to these conditions.

"The precious ore of truth, the church's emancipation from the thralldom of man's rule, has been brought about in a necessarily crude form at first, as rough ore. It has been surrounded, as in nature, by all kinds of worthless, hurtful elements. Extravagant, violent characters have sought to identify themselves with the work. A monster truth is struggling in the bowels of the earth, entombed by the landslide of retrograding evil in the church's history. But it is bursting forth, soon to shake itself free from the objectionable matter yet clinging to it, unavoidably for the time. Christ is at last proclaimed the Head. The Holy Spirit is the life. The members are in principle all 'one body.' "—F. Bartleman, Dec., 1906.

Again, some extracts from an article in the "Way of Faith:" "We detect in the present hour manifestations in our midst the rising of a new order of things out of the chaos and failure of the past. The atmosphere is filled with inspiring expectation of the ideal. But unbelief retards our progress. Our preconceived ideas betray us in the face of opportunity. They lead to loss and ruin. But the world is awakening today, startled from her guilty slumber of ease and death. Letters are pouring in from every side, from all parts of the world, inquiring feverishly, 'what meaneth this?' Ah, we have the pulse of humanity, especially of the church of today.

There is a mighty expectation. And these hungry, expectant children are crying for bread. Cold, intellectual speculation has had nothing but denials for them. The realm of the Spirit cannot be reached alone by the intellect. The miraculous has again startled us into a realization of the fact that God still lives, and moves among us.

"Old forms are breaking up, passing away. Their death knell is being sounded. New forms, a new order and life, are appearing. There is naturally a mighty struggle. Satan moves the hosts of hell to hinder. But we shall conquer. The precious ore must be refined after it has been mined. The 'precious' must be taken 'from the vile.' Rough pioneers have cleared the way for our advance, through the thick underbrush. Heroic, positive spirits are necessary for this work. But purer forms will follow.

"Men have been speaking adown the ages, but the voice of God the Spirit is calling us today. Since the early church lost her power and place with God we have been struggling back. Up through 'its' and 'isms,' theories, creeds and doctrines (and schisms), issues and movements, blessings and experiences and professions, we have come. The stream could rise no higher than its source. We need no more theology or theory. Let the devil have them. Let us get to God. Many are cramped up in present experiences. They are actually afraid to seek more of God for fear the devil will get them. Away with such foolish bondage! Follow your Heart! Believe in your own heart's hunger, and go ahead for God. We are sticking to the bottom. We need the fire of God. Strait-jacket methods and religious rules have well nigh crushed out our spiritual life altogether. We had better grieve all men rather than God."—F. Bartleman, Jan., 1907.

Before the "Azusa" outpouring everything had settled down in concrete form, bound by man. Nothing could move for God. Dynamite, the power of the Holy Ghost, was necessary to free this mass. And this God furnished. The whole mass was set free once more. Our "year of Jubilee" had come. The last one had been realized in the great revival of '59, fifty years before.

The house we were living in was sold and we were obliged to move. I went to see some rooms and they looked so nice and large I took them at once. It was God's place for us, at 1319 San Pedro Street. But I had a strange experience in this connection. I hardly knew them when we moved in. They looked so much smaller. It had been a divine "optical illusion," by the Spirit. But He made us satisfied. We had been so nicely situated before it was a great change. The owner lived in one side of the house and was very wicked. We had a single, partnership aisle between, with a "slot" gas meter for both parties. We had much trouble as to whose turn it was to drop in the quarter. But the Lord kept us sweet. The owner drank and caroused much. We suspicioned her of being immoral also. She was a widow, with a family. She had male callers. It required much grace to remain there. But it was God's choice for us at the time.

Our church landlord, a Jew, now raised the rent on us. He evidently thought we were too prosperous. I was so worn by this time, from prayer and constant meetings, that I turned the pastorate over to Brother Pendleton fully. He had been a pastor before. I then began to stay at home more to rest and recuperate. I had written much, attended meetings constantly, besides going through the terrific siege of prayer both before and after the outpouring, so that my nerves were completely exhausted. I could hardly contemplate the writing of an ordinary postcard without mental agony at this time. I now decided to give myself to prayer, the study of the Word, and evangelistic work, as the Lord should lead. I had been tied to the Eighth and Maple meetings night and day. I can sympathize with Evan Roberts' nervous breakdown, after the revival in Wales. Eighth and Maple meetings ran for years after this, as a free mission. We never gave it a name. God marvelously used it. Dr. Yoakum held meetings there for a long time, in connection with Pastor Pendleton. Hundreds of souls were saved and blessed there. Brother Pendleton finally died, the lot was sold, and the building torn down. Only Heaven will reveal the good done and the souls and bodies blessed at Eighth and Maple. I want to repeat again there was never any jealousy or rivalry between Eighth and Maple Mission and "Azusa." God saved us from that spirit. It would have robbed us of His blessing. Brother Seymour always declared I had a company of angels traveling with me.

I spent whole nights in prayer, which did not seem a hardship but a privilege. The Lord was so near. I also wrote a number of new tracts, though very weak in body. My spirit could not rest from constant service. The message was upon me. Traditional teaching was so deep rooted in the people the Spirit strove constantly to free them, through this tract ministry.

"We should bring all human opinions and maxims to the Scriptures, as to a touchstone, by which to try them."—Luther. Luther himself suffered Gethsemanes of agony in breaking away from the Roman traditions. It is like death to break away from that which has become a very part of our religious being. Tradition becomes as binding upon us as the Word of God itself, and has become accepted as the same. And yet how much tradition has been proven all wrong scripturally.

I went to Santa Barbara for a change, preaching at the "Faith Mission," and at the Holiness Church there. I then spent a Sunday with Brother Harry Morse, in the Peniel Mission at San Pedro. Had a blessed time preaching. My time was mostly divided between meetings at Eighth and Maple, "Azusa" mission, Pasadena and Hermon. I frequently visited the "Upper Room" mission, 327 ½ South Spring Street, also. We came into severe testings in January. I had no money and we were almost out of food. Then the devil attacked me with a terrible stomach neuralgia. I cried to the Lord in desperation, as I was suffering horribly. He touched and relieved me at once of the pain, and I was also able to go to meeting and give Him glory.

The missions were drifting into the hands of man again and much "flesh" at times was manifest. I tried to keep true to the "heavenly vision." At times the manifestations would become of such a character there seemed little Spirit in them. They would evaporate into thin air. At other times the meetings were very powerful. But the temptation seemed to be always, as today, toward empty manifestation. This does not require any particular cross, or death to the self-life. Hence it is always popular. But there is only one safe, honest course to pursue with the "old man." Bury him under six feet of earth, with his face downward. The harder he scratches the deeper he will go.

I went to San Pedro again, and preached at Peniel Mission on Acts 2:4. While I was "yet preaching" the Spirit fell. We went immediately to prayer and had a wonderful time. At Hermon I preached a number of times.

God had given me a wonderful tract ministry. In two years' time I had published, by faith purely, without a dollar to begin with, fifty-eight separate tracts. About fifty of these I had written myself. I circulated two hundred and fifty thousand, at a cost of at least five hundred dollars. No money was solicited, and thousands were mailed free to all parts of the world also. I ended the ministry without a dollar. No money had been made out of it.

One evening at this time I went to the little Alley Mission in Pasadena. I had a heavy burden of prayer during the meeting. There was a young wife, an ex-Volunteer officer, there, who had been backslidden for several years. God laid her heavily upon my heart and I felt she must be saved that night. The meeting was about to close, but she still sat unmoved. It was after eleven o'clock. I spoke to her and warned her it might be her last chance. Still she sat indifferent. Then I began to plead with her. The people resented this as I pressed her for a decision. They thought I was going too far. But an agony of prayer was upon me for her soul. I had to resist the opposition of the most of the other workers, as well as the enemy. For a full hour I battled thus, almost alone. At times I was driven back by the unequal conflict, and even tempted to think I must have been mistaken as to the mind of God. Finally I fell to the floor under a real travail of soul for her. It was the crisis. My life seemed almost pressed out of me. I felt a little bit of what Jesus must have felt in Gethsemane for us. This kind of prayer costs. Then all at once the burden left me. It fell on her. Conviction seized her. She fell to the floor as though shot and began to cry in an agony of soul. And so for nearly three hours she struggled and wept her way through, with a broken heart, to Calvary and to restoration. It was about 3 A.M. when she arose, with the very shine of an angel on her face, in perfect victory. It had paid to hold on to God and obey my convictions, be obedient to the Spirit. She confessed she had been very near the "dead line" that night, in her resistance to God. This sister later received a ministry of intercession, and was used of God in a marvelous way in soul travail in the meetings.

One night while preaching at Hermon a preacher jumped to his feet and cut my message off. He said he had to go home and wanted to testify. After speaking for some time he sat down. He had destroyed my message and the Spirit was greatly grieved. I did not resist him but committed the whole matter to God. The meeting was ruined. I did not attempt to speak further. He remained for at least half an hour after he was through speaking. This same man had opposed me in other meetings before. The devil had put him on my track to hinder my ministry. But this time he had gone too far. God smote him. Two days later he wrote me for forgiveness, promising not to oppose me anymore. He also returned to Hermon and asked forgiveness publicly in the meeting.

I went to Pasadena again and spoke at the little Alley Mission. My message was one of warning. The sinners had been terribly trifling with God. While I was speaking the spirit of prayer fell upon two sisters (Mamie Craybill, and Jessie Hewett, the sister lately so wonderfully reclaimed). I closed the meeting and called the workers to prayer, but no one stayed but these two sisters. They could not leave. The others deserted us in the battle. I could not leave the sisters alone. They were under heavy burden of prayer on their knees. The Lord held them. Then a spirit of prayer seized me also. The sinners crowded in upon us as we prayed and wept there before the Lord. Our burden was for them. The gang of toughs became almost demoniacal in their resistance. It was an "hour of darkness." The mission itself was located down a dark alley, in the middle of the block. We had no street lights there, and no police protection. The Spirit warned me three times that my life was in danger. By this time the hoodlums seemed thirsting for my blood. They were led by a German, a very wicked atheist.

They now accused me of hypnotizing the two sisters. We were in the lion's den, with no possible, natural way out. This gang had heard the Gospel, sat in the meetings, and resisted the Spirit, until they were capable of most any act of cruelty. I had to be willing to face martyrdom, if need be, at their hands. This was the real test I was up against. I thought of the wife and children at home, in Los Angeles. But God took all fear away from me in that moment. It was a wonderful experience. Finally one more bold than the rest seized me by the shoulder and commanded me to get up and quit praying. I offered no resistance but threw my hands up and called on God. The martyr spirit was upon me. The fire of God seemed to encircle and possess me. I felt no fear. The next moment, to my surprise my assailant lurched forward on his knees and began to beg me to pray for him. He had gone too far. God had struck him. Seriousness seized the rest of the mob for a moment. But they soon recovered.

Two of them seized one of the sisters. She threw up her arms and shouted victory. The power of God fell upon her. Fear fell upon the gang again and they left her. The other sister by this time was on her feet praising God. They stood the test like soldiers. I believe they would have died willingly for the Lord that night. It was midnight and we could do no more good there. We were in a nest of demons. I turned the lights out and had the sisters pass out ahead that I might know they were safe. They passed the mob safely. But the gang was outside waiting for me. The German atheist stood with a short club in his hand, ready for me. I shook hands with the first two toughs I met, evaded the leader, and passed through their midst without a scratch, by the mercy of God. They could not touch me. No doubt they expected me to show fear. But God kept me in peace, without a tremor. They could not even follow us. We soon reached the lighted street and were safe. It had been a rough experience, but the Angel of the Lord had protected us. And we had not failed Him. The sisters were real heroines. Wife told me when I reached home that she had been awakened from sleep (just at the time we were in the most danger), and prayed for my safety, though knowing nothing of the trouble. She felt I was in danger.

The gang had mocked our tears and prayers for them that night. But they had not mocked us, but Christ. I had never seen such daring before, and had a feeling they might have to pay for it. The very devil almost seemed to possess them. Some had Christian parents too, and knew better. Only a little while after this several of these same young men met a sudden, unnatural and horrible death. One had his head cut off by a train, while on a motorcycle. Another was burned to a cinder at the top of a telephone pole, by a live wire. He was a lineman. A third was burned to death with gasoline. He was passing a repair shop with his motorcycle, near this same mission, in the alley, when a man threw a burning rag with gasoline out of the shop. It had caught fire accidentally. It caught the young man full in the face and killed him.

Chapter 5: From California To Maine

The latter part of March, 1907, I received an invitation to come to Conneaut, Ohio, with a check enclosed for fifty dollars. They wanted "Pentecostal" meetings there. The leader wrote me they were hungry for "Pentecost." I felt it was a call from God to go east but could not help wondering if they really knew what they were inviting for themselves. The letter seemed full of enthusiasm, the thing John Wesley so strongly discouraged and depreciated. His definition of "fanaticism" was, "expecting the end without the means." I did not cash the check, fearing lest they might be disappointed when they got through with me. They had to learn that "Pentecost" meant the dying out to the self-life, carnal ambition, pride, etc., etc. It meant for them to enter into the "fellowship of His sufferings," not simply to have a popular, good time. This I felt they did not realize. A real Christian means a martyr, unavoidably, in one way or another. Few people are willing to pay the price to become a real Christian, to accept the ostracism, false accusation, and condemnation of others. But God has only one standard for His church, for all time. Present day profession is for the most part a mere sham. Only a small percentage of it is real.

A man once asked Luther to recommend to him a book both agreeable and useful. "Agreeable and useful!" replied Luther, "Such a question is beyond my ability. The better things are the less they please."

"Except a man forsake 'all'," said Jesus, "he cannot be my disciple." This may require some qualification, or explanation, as to positive action, but the principle remains the same for all. The church since her fall in the early centuries has had altogether a mistaken conception of her calling, and of salvation. All believers are called to a one hundred per cent consecration. God has no two standards of consecration for the foreign missionary, and the home Christian. We cannot find it in the Bible. One is called to consecrate their all as well as the other, as God's steward, in their own place and calling. One goes, one prays, and one gives. It takes the three to make a missionary. "This is a hard saying. Who can hear it?"

God has had but one purpose, and interest, in humanity since the "fall." That has been to bring man back to God. The whole old dispensation, with its providential dealings, was unto this one end. God had one recognized people, the Jews. He had one purpose in this nation. All their operations were to one end. All their worship pointed to that one end—to bring back the race, nations, to the true knowledge of God, and to bring in the Messiah of the world. Jesus Christ had but one interest in coming to this earth. His second coming waits for but this one thing also. When this Gospel shall have been preached in all the world "then shall the end come," the "curse" be lifted. Is the church working, with all her resources, for this one purpose, and to this one end? That certainly does not mean the selfish heaping up of property and riches, more than we really need. It does not mean getting all we want for ourselves, and then tossing the Lord a dollar we do not need. We have had the order totally reversed since the early church's fall. God requires exactly the same consecration of all. And here is where the Ananias and Sapphira business has come in. Not "one-tenth," in this dispensation, but "all." Our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost, and we are to be one hundred per cent for Him at all times. We belong to Him. He has created us, and bought us back, redeemed us, after we had mortgaged His property, not ours, to the devil. In no sense are we our own. We are redeemed back, with the "blood." How long would it take, or have taken, to evangelize the world under this rule? Think on these things! Is the church moving normally, in divine order? The politico-religious system, since the early church, and today, is largely a hybrid, mongrel institution. It is full of selfishness, disobedience, and corruption. Its kingdom has become "of this world," rather than a "heavenly citizenship," calling, with spiritual weapons.

The doctrinal issue has also been a great battle. Many were too dogmatic at "Azusa." Doctrine after all is but the skeleton of the structure. It is the frame-work of the "body." We need flesh on the bones, the Spirit within, to give life. What the people need is a living Christ, not dogmatic, doctrinal contention. Much harm was done the work in the beginning by unwise zeal. The cause suffered most from those within its own ranks as always. But God had some real heroes He could depend upon. Most of these sprang from the deepest obscurity into sudden prominence and power, and then as quickly retired again, when their work was done. Some one has well said: "Men, like stars, appear on the horizon at the command of God." This is a true evidence of a real work of God. Men do not make their times, as some one has also truly said, but the times make the man. Until the time no man can produce a revival. The people must be prepared, and the instrument likewise.

The historian D'Aubigne has well said: "God draws from the deepest seclusion the weak instruments by which He purposes to accomplish great things; and then, when He has permitted them to glitter for a season with dazzling brilliancy on an illustrious stage, He dismisses them again to the deepest obscurity." Again he says: "God usually withdraws His servants from the field of battle only to bring them back stronger and better armed." And this was the case with Luther, shut up in the Wartburg, after his glittering triumph over the great ones of earth at Worms.

D'Aubigne writes again: "There is a moment in the history of the world, of such as Charles II, or of Napoleon, which decides their career and their renown. It is that in which their strength is suddenly revealed to them. An analogous moment exists in the life of God's heroes, but it is in a contrary direction. It is that in which they first recognize their helplessness and nothingness. From that hour they receive strength of God from on high. A great work of God is never accomplished by the natural strength of man. It is from among the dry bones, the darkness, and the dust of death, that God is pleased to select the instruments by means of which He designs to scatter over the earth His light, regeneration and life. Strong in frame, in character and in talents, Zwingle, whose defect consisted in this strength, was destined to see it prostrated, that he might become such an instrument as God loves. He needed the baptism of adversity, and infirmity, of weakness and pain. Luther had received it in that hour of anguish when his cell and the long galleries of the convent of Erfurth re-echoed with his piercing cries. Zwingle was appointed to receive it by being brought into contact with sickness and death."—D'Aubigne.

Men must come to know their own weaknesses before they can hope to know God's strength. The natural strength and ability of man is always the greatest hindrance to the work of God, and to God's working. That is why we had such a deep dying out, especially for the workers and preachers, in the early days of "Azusa" Mission. God was preparing His workers for their mission.

In answer to prayer the Lord opened the way for us, as a family, east. I carried my check from Conneaut, Ohio, in my pocket, uncashed. Wife wanted to see her people in New York State, and I did not know when I would be ready to return to California. I wanted to be free for God's full will. I remembered then, for the first time, that I had prophesied when we left Pittsburgh for the west that we would be back in five years' time. God must have shown me, for it was now exactly five years.

Mother Wheaton, the prison evangelist, and Brother Amil Alien, traveled with us. We got a pass part way. At Salt Lake City we saw the Mormon Temple, held a service in the penitentiary, and then ran on to Denver. Ruth and John, our two children, were taken very sick, but God delivered. I preached at Holiness headquarters one night in Denver. Here we had been members and labored before we came to California. I preached for Brother Fink at the Pentecostal Hall, and we had a powerful time. Several souls were saved, among them one whole family, and the saints were wonderfully built up. Some received the "baptism." I had three meetings in all. God wonderfully used two little girls here. They both had the "baptism," and a real ministry of prayer. Their pleadings with the unsaved broke up the house. Their freedom from self-consciousness was a powerful lesson to us all. It was a strange work and ministry of God. Terrible conviction was upon the unsaved. "Except ye become as a little child," we learned anew. Evidently modern evangelistic methods are not altogether essential for the salvation of souls. The churches can possibly beat us on that line. We had better stick to our peculiar gift, though it be a "strange work." We will succeed better at that. Let God have His way. In those days the power and presence of God among us often converted sinners in their seats. We did not have to drag them to the altar and fight with them to get them saved. They did not come to the altar to fight God. There was much of the "singing in the Spirit" at Denver, as at "Azusa." This peculiar "gift" seemed to accompany the work wherever it broke out.

At Chicago we stopped at Beulah Rescue Home. I preached in the Home, and also at Brother Durham's mission, on North Avenue, under a most precious anointing. I preached three times also at S.B. Shaw's mission, the author of the little book, "The Great Revival in Wales." We finally reached Conneaut, Ohio, April 30, in a snowstorm. God had shown me in Los Angeles that I would start my meetings there May 1. They tried to hurry us through a month sooner. But we kept in divine order. The presence of the Lord was with us in Conneaut, from the start. It was a Holiness mission. We really had little to do in the main but look on and see God work. The Spirit took the meetings. In fact we were on our faces most of the time in prayer. I could hardly keep off my face at Conneaut. The battle was the Lord's. And no one else could have fought it there. We were up against most stubborn resistance. The Lord had warned me of this condition before we left Los Angeles. The leader who had written inviting me had not the slightest idea what "Pentecost" meant, just as I had feared. He wanted a big time, with a big increase in the mission, to build up the work in numbers, etc.

I soon found him planted squarely in the way. While professing holiness he was tremendously alive to his own importance. God exalts no man or mission, but rather humbles all in the dust together, that He alone may be glorified. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." Only God knows it. Sister Ivy Campbell, from "Azusa," was there with us. God had sent her on ahead some time before, to blaze the way for us. Her home was in Ohio. Brother Kennedy, a Wesleyan Methodist preacher, had been preaching for them. He was a most humble man of God.

The Lord wrought very deeply. Several were under the power all night on one occasion. There was no closing at 9 o'clock sharp, as the preachers must do today in order to keep the people. We wanted God in those days. We did not have a thousand other things we wanted before Him. And He did not disappoint us. One sister sang and spoke in "tongues" for five full hours. Souls were saved. The saints were wonderfully built up and strengthened by the presence of the Lord. A number received the "baptism," and the mission became full-fledged for "Pentecost." One Sunday night the hall was packed out, to the middle of the street. I went to the hall one morning to look up the folks, who had not come home. Several had stayed all night. I found them lost to all but God. They could not get away. A very shekinah glory filled the place. It was awesome, but glorious.

Our big fight proved to be with the leader, who had sent for me. The meetings had not gone far until we found him wedged squarely in the way. One sister nearly died under a travail of soul for him. He was fleshly, proud and self-important, and would not let the meetings go deeper. We could go no further. He did not seem to have the least idea of humbling himself with the rest of us. But he had to come down. God showed me I must deal with him. I had to obey, or quit. There was no use going any further. We were eating at his table and sleeping in his beds. It was a hard thing to have to do. But I went after him. We locked horns and he resisted me fiercely. But God brought him down. The Spirit convicted him and he fell in a heap. He almost jarred the building when he fell. He lay under a bench for five hours and began to see himself as God saw him. The Spirit took him all to pieces and showed him his pride, ambition, etc. Finally he got up, without a word, and went home. There he locked himself in his room and remained until God met him. He came out from that interview meek as a little lamb, and confessed his shortcomings. The hindrance was out of the way and the meetings swept on in power. He got the "baptism" himself some time later, after we had gone.

Brother Kennedy bought me a new suit of clothes before I left. So the Lord rewarded me for my faithfulness, and He did not have to depend on the leader, either. It pays to obey God. I visited Brother Thomas K. Doty, editor of "Christian Harvester," at Cleveland. Here I also preached with much anointing, for Brother Kramer, at the C.M.A. I spoke for two solid hours. I cashed my check here, that they had sent me from Conneaut to come east on. The meetings had been a success and all were satisfied. They gave me an offering, besides.

Our next meeting was at Youngstown, Ohio. Here I preached for the Christian Missionary Alliance. Some nights we were held in the hall until daylight. We could not get away. God was so near no one felt tired or sleepy. I had much real soul-travail here. In some meetings suppressed groans were about all one could hear. Very much prayer characterized the services. The Spirit was waited upon for every move, and He took complete control. No two services were alike. In one meeting the very silence of Heaven took possession of us for about four hours. Scarcely a sound was uttered. The place became so steeped in prayer and sacred that we closed the door softly, and walked the same, scarcely speaking to one another, and then only in whispers. Another night we were held in adoration and praise for hours. We seemed to be looking into the very face of God. There was no boisterousness in these meetings, but a subdued spirit throughout.

Another night we were all broken up by the love of God. We could do nothing but weep for a whole hour. Every meeting was different, and each seemed to go deeper. Two or three whole nights were spent in prayer. One night the Spirit fell upon us like an electric shower. Several went over on the floor and God was master for the time. Such singing in the Spirit, the "heavenly chorus," I have seldom heard. A number came through speaking in "tongues." But again our battle was with the leader. He opposed me fiercely. He was not right with God, and would not yield. His wife was now under the power, seeking the "baptism," but he carried on in the "flesh" until the Spirit was terribly grieved. The devil often gets into a preacher's coat. Satan used him persistently in the beginning of the meetings. But God got the victory, in spite of him. He did not yield. It is amazing the hold the devil has on some preachers.

I preached one night at Akron, Ohio, for Brother McKinney, with much blessing. We then had five services at New Castle, Pennsylvania, with the C.M.A. again. God greatly blessed here also. From here we went to Alliance, Ohio, for the Pentecostal camp meeting. It was June 13. We had a wonderful camp. It was the first one of its kind in the northeast. I led the preachers' meetings. The first Sunday morning I was given a message, but the leader asked me to speak in the afternoon, instead. I said nothing, but prayed. In a few minutes he came back and told me to preach in the morning. In those days men did not get far without God. I preached with great help from the Lord on, "Jesus Christ, in World-wide Evangelism, in the Power of the Holy Ghost." Everything centers around Jesus. We may not put the power, gifts, the Holy Ghost, or in fact anything ahead of Jesus. Any mission that exalts even the Holy Ghost above the Lord Jesus Christ is bound for the rocks of error and fanaticism.

This was a very important camp, in the inception of the work in that part of the country. We remained two weeks, and I preached eleven times in all. We had a powerful time and a large, representative attendance. Four hundred camped on the grounds. Often meetings lasted all night. Missionary enthusiasm ran high. Meals were on the free-will offering plan. God bountifully provided and a precious spirit of unity prevailed. We were "brethren," baptized in "one spirit," into "one body." Thus Jesus' prayer was answered, "that they all may be one." The harmony between the preachers was especially blessed. Such a spirit of love we have seldom seen displayed. Those were wonderful days. It could be truly said that in honor we preferred one another in those days.

No organ or hymn books were used. The Spirit conducted the services and there seemed no place for them. Hundreds definitely met God. Numbers were saved, baptized in the Spirit, and healed. Many received a call to foreign fields, to prove God along real faith, Bible lines. The rapid evangelism of the world, on real apostolic lines, was the goal set. The present generation must be reached by the present generation of necessity, or lost. The altars were seldom empty of seekers day or night. Men who had been both in the Wales and India revivals declared this to be the deepest work of all. We determined to fight nothing but sin, and to fear nothing but God. I asked the Lord for a certain amount of money, which we needed to get on east. The committee gave me exactly the amount I had prayed for, without a single hint from me. God did it. Praise Him!

I took the wife and children to my father-in-law's near Peekskill, New York. He was a Methodist pastor, living six miles back in the hills, in a beautiful, hid-away, quiet place. Here they remained while I ran out to conventions, etc. I preached three times, the first Sunday for my father-in-law, but both he and his churches were spiritually dead. Some of his official board both smoked and drank. I could do little for them. They did not want what I had. In New York City I visited Stephen Merritt, and attended a service at the C.M.A. headquarters. I also preached at a colored Pentecostal assembly. At Nyack (N.Y.) C.M.A. Convention, I spoke at two services, with much blessing. Some one paid my expenses there. I had not been invited. After a few days' rest with my family I went to Philadelphia, visited the Grace Baptist Church, where I had once been a member, and from there ran on to Pittsburgh. Here I preached for Brother Whitesides, at the C.M.A., afternoon and evening. I was to take the train the same night for Cincinnati, but could not stop my message in time. The people were so hungry. I preached for two hours. They gave me fifteen dollars, and I proceeded the following morning. This money paid my fare from Peekskill to Cincinnati. The Lord was with me.

I stopped at Brother Knapp's Bible School, and next morning ran on to Wilmore, Kentucky, to attend a prayer convention. Here I preached seven times during the convention. The object of this camp was to develop unity among the brethren, and to raise up intercessors. S.B. Shaw and Thomas K. Doty were there. Rev. Shaw had invited me. But the camp was pretty well divided. Many of the saints were hungry for more of God. Conditions proved very detrimental to this. Brother Pickett had charge of the camp and charged a gate fee. This was mercenary. The holiness manifested I felt was of a rather acrid nature. It was not a "Pentecostal" camp.

I was taken quite sick with fever here but a missionary from India prayed for me and God broke the fever. Both the food and the water were bad. The convention voted me twenty dollars. This paid my fare home, to my family. I had traveled eighteen hundred miles. It seemed a long trip as I had never been more than a hundred miles from my family before. Our train ran over and killed a man on the way south. How uncertain is life! Brother Doty wrote in "Christian Harvester," concerning this camp: "There was loftier preaching, but Brothers Bartleman and Shaw were probably the greater prayer contingent for the work in hand." So I thanked God, and took further courage.

I next went to Old Orchard, Maine, changing cars at Boston. There was a C.M.A. Convention at Old Orchard. Some souls hungry for "Pentecost" arranged a meeting in the woods and invited me to speak to them. The Lord visited us in a most wonderful way. The devil had tried to keep me from coming here. The trip would cost me at least twenty dollars, and I was not invited. But I knew God had sent me. One evening I had been praying in the grove with a visiting preacher from Scotland. He suddenly took me by the arm and led me up onto the platform, seating me beside himself. He was to preach that evening. He wanted me to pray for him. It was a bold thing to do, but he was a fearless man. I knelt in prayer while he spoke and God greatly helped him. I had never met him before that evening, and have even forgotten his name. The leaders were greatly surprised to see me on the platform, but it was not my doing. I did not, however, venture on again.

A score of hungry souls repaired to the village church for a whole night of prayer, having secured the key from the local pastor. We were not allowed to tarry on the camp grounds. One member of the Nyack C.M.A. faculty got the "baptism" that night, and a backslider was reclaimed. I spoke to this little company in the church the next afternoon and evening, as they would allow no meetings of this kind in the camp. The camp meeting committee then forced the pastor to close the church against us. They did not want their people to get the "baptism." We went to the woods again. There I spoke the next morning and evening to a good sized congregation. I had nothing to do with arranging these meetings. There were so many hungry for "Pentecost" they insisted on my preaching to them. I did not dare deny them. I spoke in all about four hours that day. The committee had no jurisdiction over the woods outside the camp. I am sure Jesus would not have refused these hungry souls the bread of life. There was no less than one hundred people at the woods meeting. And all hungry for God. Surely He had sent me there for that purpose.

They pressed about thirty dollars in money into my hands. So the devil had lied to me. I came out ahead of all expenses. One sister who had been a physician ran after me one day and begged me to receive twelve dollars restitution money that was burning a hole in her conscience. She could not locate the party she had wronged, so turned it over to the Lord. That was a real work of God. The Lord had blessed so mightily in our little meetings that the camp became stirred. Rather than have further, outbroken trouble, the saints thought it best to discontinue the meetings, and I dropped quietly out of camp before the committee could take any definite further action in the matter. Thus we avoided further unpleasantness and strife. The hungry ones were fairly dogging my steps and thronging me. The committee became afraid of my influence with the people.

I stopped a few days at the Moody Convention, at East Northfield, Massachusetts, where I had attended years before, while a young student. Here I had a good rest and took some part in the meetings. Returning to my family, I removed them to my parents' home at Michener, Pennsylvania. I had not been home for several years. Here I spent a little time with them, resting, and studying the Word. They were very glad to see us. They had never seen the children. Near here I had been raised on a farm, as a boy. At Carversville, nearby, I preached in the Presbyterian Church. My older brother, Will, heard me preach here for the first time.

It was now September. I went south to Columbia, South Carolina, preaching a number of times at the Oliver Gospel Mission there in connection with the "Way of Faith" office, where Brother J.M. Pike was editor. I had written many articles for this paper. We had much blessing in the services and I had a good visit with Brother Pike, whom I had never met before. I wrote two articles while here. A sister in New York City sent me ten dollars, Brother Pike gave me fifteen dollars, and another party gave me three dollars. So the Lord provided for my expenses again. I dropped off at Dunn, North Carolina, where Brother Cashwell's family lived, and preached five times in the little Pentecostal Church there. Brother Cashwell had gotten his "baptism" earlier, at "Azusa" mission, and had spread the fire in the south. He was away from home at this time. Brother Pike wrote in the "Way of Faith," after my visit: "Brother Bartleman dropped in upon us, unexpectedly, last week. His presence was a benediction to us and our home. His services were made a blessing to those whose hearts are longing for the Pentecostal blessings. None who have intercourse with him can doubt his absolute abandonment to God, and the fullness of the Spirit within him. He lives, moves and has his being in the will of God. We commend him to all who are seeking God's highest and best."—"Way of Faith." We hesitate to reproduce in print such a high commendation, knowing we are not worthy, but do so in order that we may have it before us continually as a goal to be striven to attain to.

The Lord was wonderfully with us in those early days. I preached six times in Washington, D.C., reaching my family again safely, at Michener, Pennsylvania. At Forty-second Street Mission, New York City ("Glad Tidings Hall"), we had powerful times. I had developed brain fag in the long and constant work in California, but this began to leave me now. What I needed was a change. That is the best rest after all. I visited Nyack, New York, again, preaching three times at the C.M.A. Then I removed my family to Philadelphia, to my brother Will's. Returning to New York City I attended the C.M.A. Convention at the Tabernacle. The saints paid my board at the Alliance House. Just before I arrived there was not a vacant room in the house. But the Lord emptied one almost the moment I reached there and I was dropped right into it. Rooms were in great demand. A brother gave me ten dollars besides. The Lord had spoken to me upon arriving there: "Let there be no strife between us, for we be brethren."

I spoke for three hours one night at "Glad Tidings Hall," while here. Then the people wanted me to continue. They were so hungry for the "Pentecostal" message. I stopped at 11:40 P.M. Workers kept coming in from the Alliance convention, after the meeting closed there. But the devil fairly tore up the earth at the beginning of the meeting, through the rabble outside. He evidently sensed something of what was coming. The next night I preached again and many were prostrated under the power. Some stayed all night. The evangelist in charge of the night meetings at the convention came in himself, after the services had closed at the Tabernacle.

The next night they had an all-night meeting at the convention. A young girl came under the power and her spirit was caught up to the throne. She sang a melody, without words, that seemed to come from within the veil, it was so heavenly. It seemed to come from another world. I have never heard its equal before or since. A.B. Simpson was there himself that night and was tremendously impressed by it. He had been much opposed to the "Pentecostal" work. Doubtless God gave it as a witness for him. Several were slain under the power. Toward morning the presence of the Lord was wonderful. I went to leave the hall just at daybreak and shook hands with a sister hungry for the "baptism." The Spirit came upon her and I could not turn her loose until she fell at the altar, and came through speaking in "tongues." I shook hands with another hungry sister, as I started to leave the hall again. The Spirit fell upon her and she received the "baptism" right there on her feet, speaking in "tongues" before I could turn her loose. That was a wonderful night.

It was now time for us to start for California again. October 16, 1907, we left Philadelphia, stopping at Pittsburgh, where I preached twice for Brother Whitesides, at the C.M.A. again. God met us in a powerful way. Several received the "baptism." The last one came through at 1 A.M. I preached twice at Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, at a C.M.A. Convention, stopping off between trains, by special request. God greatly honored the Word. At Alliance, Ohio, I preached three times. The Lord was powerfully with us. We then proceeded to Chicago, where I preached at Beulah Home, and at Brother Durham's mission again. At St. Louis we stopped with Brother Seeley Kinne for some time. I preached here eighteen times in all, to as hungry, humble, and appreciative a company as I have ever met anywhere. God was wonderfully with us. I spoke twice at Mother Moise's Rescue Home, and four times at the C.M.A. hall, with much blessing, also.

At Topeka, Kansas, I preached five times for Brother Foster. One of the meetings here did not break up until daylight. God drew very near. At Denver I preached seven times. The Lord wrought again mightily among the people, but the leader was not true. He came very near causing the death of our little boy, John. He held back the collection the saints had given for me, to buy himself a pair of shoes with. The shoes he already had were better than mine. When I went to buy our tickets for Colorado Springs I found myself short, and had to return to the house and get the balance of the fare from his secretary. He had left town, with my money. We missed our train, and were thrown into Colorado Springs after night. No arrangements had been made for the family. They thought I was alone. We were taken hurriedly to a house without fire the first night. Little John contracted congestion and nearly died. It was freezing weather. And all this because of the sin of the leader in Denver. He had resisted the Spirit greatly in our meetings there. God made Him send me my collection later. Some years later he confessed he had faked "Pentecost." I am afraid too many leaders have done the same.

At Colorado Springs I preached six times. The Spirit flowed like oil. I have seldom found such liberty anywhere. Oh, the possibilities, where purity and unity reign! Brother Beresford was pastor here. He later went to Egypt as a missionary. Trinity, Colorado, was our next stop. I preached ten times here, to a very hungry band of saints. They were much strengthened and blessed. But the high altitude was hard on us. Then the devil had tried to ditch our train just before we arrived there. We came on to Los Angeles from here, over the Santa Fe railroad. One night our wheels began to slide, down a steep grade in Arizona. I put on the brakes with prayer. The Lord brought us through. But I slept very little for two nights. We saw several wrecks along the way, and came near jumping the track ourselves twice before we reached California. The high altitude was also a great strain on my nerves. I was very tired from the summer's strenuous work. We were glad to be back in California again.

We had checked our trunks to Los Angeles, not knowing where we would find our next home. But before reaching Pasadena the Lord showed me we should get off there. We did not expect anyone to meet us, though I had written Brother Boehmer that we would get back on that train. When we reached Pasadena, with no place to go, we found Brother Boehmer at the depot waiting for us. He took us to a mission home on Mary Street they had just opened in connection with the Alley Mission. So God had it all arranged for us, without our knowledge. We were weary pilgrims indeed, needing rest. We arrived December 5, 1907.

We were scarcely located when I went down with a terrible attack of the grippe. Ruth and John were both sick also. The devil had tried to hinder our return, and now seemed determined to kill us. I had shooting pains like needles for three days, in my shoulders and arms, until I was almost insane. The saints prayed and I was delivered. I found the work had fallen back considerably. The saints were badly split up. The Spirit was bound also. The outside opposition had become much more settled and determined. It was the same condition in Los Angeles.

The saints had suffered greatly under the tyranny of a leader who did not himself have the "baptism," at the Alley Mission. I now helped them to pray him out of the mission and the home, and they were delivered. He had imposed himself on the work. He was a regular "dog in the manger." A larger mission was opened up on Colorado Street, and I had some ministry there also. I found the power had been dissipated much. There was much empty manifestation. A great deal of it was simply froth and foam. This burdened me greatly. The spirit of prayer had been largely lost. In consequence much flesh and fanaticism had crept in. Prayer burns out the proud flesh. It must be crucified, cauterized.

One day I had a strong impression that Brother Allen was in town. We had left him east. Sure enough that very evening he walked in on us. He had just gotten back. The Lord had shown me. We now moved to 194 Stevenson Avenue, next door to Brother Boehmer, into a little cottage. The ministry of intercession was heavy upon me. I preached a number of times at Hermon, Eighth and Maple, and at Azusa Street. One evening at Azusa Mission the spirit of prayer came upon me as a rushing, mighty wind. The power ran all through the building. I had been burdened for the deadness that had crept in there. The temporary leaders were frightened and did not know what to do. They telephoned for help. They had not been with us in the beginning. Brother Seymour was out of town.

I was upstairs in the hallway. Others joined me in prayer. We went down stairs and the fire broke out in the meeting. But the leaders in charge were not spiritual. Other rulers had arisen that "knew not Joseph." They did not understand it. God was trying to come back. They seemed afraid someone might steal the mission. The Spirit could not work. Besides they had organized now fast and hard, and I had not joined their organization. And so it is largely today. Sign on the dotted line or we cannot trust you. We affiliate only with those carrying our papers. "Pentecost" took that thing out of us. Why go back to it? All who belong to the different divisions in the Pentecostal work today have not the spirit of division. But God would hold us to the ideal of the "one body."

The Lord showed me my place of hiding. I determined to follow Him. That is the place of power. Fear nothing but God, and obey Him. I spoke many times at Eighth and Maple, and at Azusa, and also at the Alley Mission in Pasadena, exhorting them to more earnestness, and to walk in the Spirit. I had suffered much in prayer in the bringing forth of this work, and felt I had a right to admonish them. Our great battle from the beginning was with fleshly religious fanatics, purporting to be of the Spirit of God.

Chapter 6: A Second Ministry East

Brothers Boehmer and Alien received the "baptism" about this time. March 11, 1908 I received a letter from Brother Sawtelle, leader of the Christian Alliance work in Portland, Oregon, to come north and hold some meetings for them. God had shown me that we would be called out again. I recognized His call. We were to go north and east again. Brother Boehmer now decided to go with us in the work. I felt we had come back to the coast largely to get him out. I was exhorting the saints all winter to push out in the spring for God. About a dozen followed us, to different points, as we started out again. I began to feel the world-wide call heavily upon me, also. The Lord seemed to show me the oceans must yet be crossed for Him. And this we realized later on. Like Peter the Hermit I felt at times like stirring all Christendom with my cry for a revival.

March 25, we started north, for Portland, Oregon. We reached Stockton safely. It was hard to leave Los Angeles. I saw a hardening coming over the work and was much burdened for it. Oh, that we might know "the time of our visitation," and lay up corn, not dissipate our blessing. We were to need it all, to be established, as the past years have proven. We have had our "seven years of famine," as well as plenty. I spoke six times at Stockton, where I found the "flesh" pretty strong. But God gave the victory. It was the same old story. They were expecting God to baptize their strength, instead of their weakness. I suffered much here physically, from cold and neuralgia.

Little John was taken very sick. We next stopped at Carrie J. Montgomery's Home at Beulah, near Oakland, for a few days. While here I visited San Francisco and went over the stricken city. I had not been there since the earthquake. In spite of two years' labor almost night and day to repair the damage, the whole city still lay practically in ruins. A few towers had gone up, in the shape of modern buildings, but they were only an apology for a city. There was still so much rubbish they could scarcely clear space enough to rebuild. Many streets were even yet so twisted, sunken, and raised, that it was difficult to make one's way along them. It looked like a straggling country town, largely gone to ruin, instead of the proud city it once had been. Many cheap wooden buildings had gone up. But the proud mansions still lay as they had fallen, in total ruin.

Sin seemed more openly rampant, if possible, than ever, the people more reckless and abandoned. Dens of infamy were running full blast in the very midst of the ruins where thousands of lives had been lost. Space was cleared, buildings run up, and the dance with death moved on. The dives were the first to be restored. God was openly defied. In fact boasting against Him could be heard on every side. What fools sin makes of men. A skull and cross-bones, illuminated by an electric light, adorned the entrance to one of the most infamous dives. I felt I wanted to get away. The wrath of God seemed hanging over the place.

We took the boat from here to Portland, and had a rough voyage. Most of us were sick. But God brought us through. Stopping at Astoria we got steadied up a little. We reached Portland in the morning, and wife and the children went by train to Auburn, Washington, to visit some friends we had known earlier in Los Angeles. I preached in all about twenty-four times in Portland, at the C.M.A. Brother Boehmer was with me. God blessed preciously, but we did not break through fully. There was too much opposition and conservatism. Altogether however, much good was accomplished, and the saints especially were greatly benefited and blessed. Brother Sawtelle was very kind to me. Later he left the Alliance, to enter a profession. He became discouraged because he could not go on with God in the Alliance, and so quit the work entirely. It was a very pitiful case. He was a good man. They gave me sixty-three dollars, while in Portland.

I ran on to Auburn, Washington, and found wife and the children well. After two days I started meetings at Tacoma. Here I preached ten times, at the Christian Missionary Alliance. God wonderfully blessed, and several received the "baptism." We had a very sweet spirit at this place. Great love and unity prevailed. The Lord was pleased with this. They gave me twenty dollars. At Seattle I visited Brother Gourley's mission, preaching there once. Boehmer and I took a little side trip by boat to Victoria, B.C., on Vancouver Island. I spoke at Brother Burns' mission in Seattle also. Taking my family from Auburn we left Seattle for Spokane, over the Great Northern railroad.

God gave us a furnished home to ourselves to live in while in Spokane. We could not have been treated more kindly. Brother Herbert Bursell had called us there. We found a strong company of fine saints at this place. I preached thirty-five times in all and we had some very powerful meetings. We were there three weeks. The meetings began in a home, but they opened a mission before we left. At times I had much soul travail. Often God broke through until I could not preach. We had powerful altar services. The saints were hungry for teaching. I suffered much from neuralgia at Spokane. Brother Boehmer left us here, to visit his brother, and unite with us east again. Besides our living expenses they gave us one hundred dollars. We needed a lot of money to make our next connection, so we did not have any too much. The love of the saints in Spokane for us was very deep.

We passed through Deer Lodge, and Butte, Montana, and near the Yellowstone Park, via the Northern Pacific railroad, on the way to Minneapolis. At Minneapolis I spoke four times in the little mission, to a precious company of saints. I visited Minnehaha Falls while there also.

We ran on from here to Chicago. I visited Zion City, and then preached at Brother Durham's mission. Our next stop was at Grand Rapids, Michigan. Here I preached once, and we passed on to Toledo, Ohio, where I spoke twelve times, at the Pentecostal Mission. We had very precious meetings. God especially favored me with illumination in the Word. They gave us twenty-four dollars here.

Our next stop was at Alliance (Ohio) Camp Meeting, where we had been the year before. I preached nine times at the camp. It was a harder fought battle than the year before. There had been much fanaticism and lawlessness developed. The "flesh" tried to run the meetings. I spoke on "soul-travail" with great help from God. The Lord began to break through. Little John was taken with convulsions and the devil tried to kill him. The saints were not under the burden as they needed to be. They were there too much to have a good time and get blessed. I preached one afternoon under a very heavy anointing. Just as we sat down at the supper table and were about to eat, the Spirit suddenly fell upon us. We had a table with "all things common." The Lord seemed to desire to show His pleasure at this condition. The fire ran through the whole camp in a powerful way. The supper remained untasted for an hour. Many went down under the power. It was a deluge. I preached again that night. On two occasions during the camp nearly fifty were swept down under the power at one time. There were many missionaries there. In fact the missionary spirit ran high. The newspapers were more abusive and untrue than ever. But they thus did our advertising for us, free. Many received the "baptism," numbers were saved, and quite a few healed. The supreme thought was that of Jesus' soon coming, and the evangelization of the world in preparation for this.

I was getting very tired in body and mind. At Grand Rapids the devil had seemed to take possession of the very children where we were staying, for my benefit. They would tear around the house until midnight, without a cause, simply to wear me out. I was so tired I could hardly live. At Toledo the enemy would catch the thoughts out of my mind while I was preaching before I could express them. I was under especial illumination of the Spirit at this place, capturing new territory from the devil. One can always tell in preaching when they have gotten onto new territory, not before recovered. The enemy is always discovered, and generally makes a furious attack upon you.

We stopped at Pittsburgh next, at the Christian Missionary Alliance, with Brother Whitesides. Here I preached four times, and wrote five articles for the "Way of Faith." I preached three times also at Braddock. The saints gave me forty dollars. We went on to Philadelphia and I left my family with my parents at Michener, Pennsylvania, not far from there. Brother Boehmer had rejoined us at Alliance, Ohio, and was now with me again. We went together to Rochester, New York, stopping at Elim Home. Here I preached four times. I had the message one night, but the leader refused to let me speak, because I had already preached over an hour in the afternoon. She was not used to letting God choose His own way. Human reason prevailed with her and she took the meeting in her own hands. The Lord dropped it right there. A crank got up and wore them all out with a long harangue. Then they allowed me to get up and deliver my message. A great burden came on Brother Boehmer and myself one night after going to bed. For over an hour we were tremendously pressed by the Spirit in prayer. We felt it was for some one. The next morning a preacher in the Home told of having received the "baptism" during the night. Then we understood. The burden had been for him.

We started for Toronto, Canada, visiting Niagara Falls on the way. At Toronto I spoke at Brother Sawder's mission one night, and at Brother Hebden's another. At both places God greatly blessed us. We then went to Brother Craig's mission at Camden Street. Here I spoke fourteen times in all. I preached also at the C.M.A., for Pastor Salmon, and at Sister Builder's home. One night the Spirit held us all through the service in silence at Brother Craig's. The Lord would not let me say a word, though the Spirit was heavy upon me. I tried never to speak unless God gave me something to say. Pastor Craig could not understand this. He had not received his "baptism," and was very brainy. He was a good man, but seemed oblivious to the influences of the Spirit. It requires a copper wire to receive and carry a current of electricity.

The Spirit wrought very deeply in the meetings at Toronto. But the leader was very much tried with me because he did not understand the Spirit. He expected things done the old way, new wine in the old skins. The Lord had given me a premonition of conditions in Toronto before I reached there. Thus the Spirit often prepared me for my ministry. The Lord would give me the message for the place and prepare me to meet the particular conditions and need. He put the quiet spirit on me for Toronto. There was too much "flesh" there. The first two or three days He would not even allow me to look around town to note the differences between English and American customs, though they were many. He did not want my spirit taken up with earthly surroundings. It was a close ministry. Later I was allowed to look around a little. The "fleshly" ones largely dropped out at the first message. They could not live in such an atmosphere.

We next stopped at Potter Brook, Penn. I spoke three nights there, but it was haying time and hard to get the farmers out. We went on to Elkland, nearby. Here we had a great battle. A child had a whining demon, and a dog seemed possessed with barking. This disturbed the meetings greatly. I spoke four times at the latter place and many received help and blessing. We rode twelve miles with a hired livery wagon to catch the early morning train on the main line, and reached Michener, where my family was staying, that evening.

We next went south, to Falcon (N.C.) Camp Meeting. Here I preached eight times. One night I was burdened all night in prayer. I could not sleep. The next day God came in the camp in great victory. The Spirit helped wonderfully. A multitude of people were there. We had some great altar services and many souls were wonderfully helped. Sinners were saved, and saints filled with the Holy Ghost. Some were healed. I had asked the Lord for forty dollars from the camp, but He told me to ask Him for fifty dollars. The trip was quite expensive. At the close of the camp Brother Culbreth handed me just fifty dollars. I had not even hinted about money. Someone else handed me six dollars. In Toronto God had shown me that Brother Sawders, whom they had invited to this camp, would not be there. I was not invited nor expected but God had shown me I was to go in his place. This, of course, I had kept to myself. Sure enough, Sawders did not get there. God knew. The devil had threshed me up to the last minute about going to Falcon without an invitation. It was an expensive trip. I had promised the Lord if He would give me forty dollars at Falcon, I would leave five dollars for the work there. But he gave me fifty dollars instead, and six dollars extra, to pay my pledge with. The Lord will never go in debt to us.

Dr. Hood wrote in the "Way of Faith," from the Falcon camp, as follows: "The preaching was of a high order. We were sorry of the inability of Rev. J.E. Sawders to be present, but we are sure the Holy Ghost guided in the matter, for he sent us 'a man of God' with a message most timely, and direct from the throne. We refer to Rev. Frank Bartleman, whom I believe to be perhaps the most humble and saintly person with whom I ever came in contact. He came to the pulpit from off his knees, charged with the power of God, and would hold the large audience in a very quiet way for hours as he delivered the message for 'this hour.' I believe he is truly one of God's men for this day."—Dr. D.H. Hood. I record the above with humility and shame, and only pray that I may become at least somewhat like the high order this dear brother has so graciously accredited to me.

I wrote myself at this time, in brief, concerning the situation at Falcon camp, as follows: "The Spirit impressed me while at Toronto that dear Brother Sawders would not be able to get to Falcon, and made known His desire for me to go. So I went without further call, just in obedience to Him. We are getting our calls that way these days, and God is also seeking to release us from the responsibility of choosing the workers ourselves. Dear Brother Culbreth was kind and patient, both toward friend and foe, in a most marked degree. Evidently God knows His man. An able heart of love is a most capable thing. Dear Brother Floyd Taylor reminded me of the little brown bird to whom God has given no fine plumage, but has recompensed with a most beautiful song. Doubtless God keeps some samples in affliction, for His glory. Mephibosheth was also 'lame in both his feet,' but he 'ate at the king's table,' and 'dwelt in Jerusalem.' (Brother Taylor was a cripple.) God bless these humble southern brethren. They have been an inspiration and an example to me."—F. Bartleman, in "Way of Faith."

Brother Pike, editor of the "Way of Faith," wrote regarding the Falcon camp meeting: "Rev. J.H. King, one of the regularly appointed leaders, preached with unusual unction and power, and the voice in preaching and prayer of Rev. F. Bartleman was like that of one of the old prophets, with the Pentecostal enduement superadded. 'From his knees to the pulpit,' may be literally said of this Heaven-anointed messenger, and though his bodily presence is weak, it is soon apparent that he is a man sent of God, and he speaks with authority. We have rarely heard more unctuous preaching than that of Brother King on Sunday night, and Brother Bartleman on Monday morning."—J.M. Pike. I sincerely appreciated the kind words of Brother Pike on this occasion. We generally get enough of the other kind to keep us humble, but I really feared the brethren had overestimated me. I only prayed I might not prove too great a disappointment to them. They had at least set a goal for me to strive for.

We came back to Washington, D.C., where I spoke four times with much blessing. We stopped in the home of Mother Perry. A precious sister was restored in these meetings. We stopped at Baltimore, where I also preached four times. Brother Boehmer seldom spoke in public. He had a wonderful ministry in prayer, and traveled with me for that purpose. His ministry was a hidden one. But I am satisfied it had much to do with the victory in our meetings. God may perhaps reward him even more than myself, though I did practically all of the preaching.

I removed my family from Michener to Peekskill, N.Y., to my wife's people, and then went to New York City and spoke twice at Forty-second Street Mission, for Pastor Robert Brown. From there Boehmer and I went to Boston, to attend a Pentecostal convention. It was a fierce battle. The "flesh" was simply rampant. I gave a message in the morning against the "flesh." Both afternoon and night a message was given in the same tenor, by different parties, both ignorant of the nature of my message in the morning. And yet the leaders would not heed. They confessed to me some years later that they were wrong on this occasion. They took their own way and came into great grief and shame. God is not mocked. They refused to be corrected by the Spirit.

We next stopped at Springfield, Massachusetts. Here I spoke three times, at the Christian Missionary Alliance Church, at "Rock Rimmon." We stopped in Sister Weaver's home. She was a very wealthy woman. Brother Cullen was the pastor. He had been a missionary in South America, and spoke Spanish fluently. The Alliance later sent him to Portland, Oregon, to fill the place of Brother Sawtelle, whom they had removed to Texas. Brother Cullen was later drowned at Portland. He was a good man and his end seemed very pitiful.

Boehmer and I returned to Peekskill for a few days rest, and then went west to Grand Rapids, Michigan, to attend a prayer convention. Riding all night through Canada we reached Grand Rapids safely. Here we stopped in the Pentecostal Home, with Sister Noble. I preached a number of times at the convention. But we had a great battle. They opposed the Pentecostal testimony and experience. God had sent me there to stand for this. I had such a soul travail one evening I rolled off the bed onto the floor, and under the bed. The battle was awful. I tried to run from it, and called up the railroad station to find when the next train left town. But the line was busy. While waiting my eyes fell on a Scripture motto just over the phone. It read: "My times are in Thy hand." The Spirit smote me with conviction. I had not felt clear in leaving, but was under strong temptation. We stayed and fought the battle out. God gave us victory. But I received no offering from this meeting.

We next went to Indianapolis. Here Boehmer bought himself a watch. At the same time he bought one for me, for a present. I was needing one. Thus the Lord rewarded me for my faithful stand at Grand Rapids. I had a feeling we were due for a freshet of God's power at Indianapolis, after our desert experience at Grand Rapids, and remarked as much to Boehmer. And sure enough, it came. We found a convention on at Indianapolis. This we had not known of. We had not been invited. But the Lord had appointed it.

Brother Copley, and the Brelsford family were there ahead of us. The Lord gave me a number of messages. We had a wonderful time. In fact I had not felt the power of God in such measure for a long time. There was tremendous opposition also, but God gave the victory. The work had been split into two factions. They came together in the meeting but were not reconciled. At one meeting the Spirit was so mightily on me in the message that the opposing faction held on to their seats and stiffened their backs to keep from yielding. I have seldom seen such resistance to the Spirit of God, and by Pentecostal saints, at that. It was simply awful. One night they had arranged for foot-washing. I gave the message that night and by the time I got through I think they had forgotten all about the foot-washing. They were too busy getting right with God, and with one another. Their souls needed washing more.

The Lord blessed me much at Indianapolis. I was so glad I had obeyed Him and gone there. I was there by His invitation purely. But I seldom if ever had felt such a wonderful flow of the Spirit before. The message seemed to be fairly drawn out of me in preaching. I felt almost drawn off the platform by the hungry desire of the people. I could not talk as rapidly as the thoughts came to me and almost fell over myself trying to speak fast enough. At one meeting when I was through the slain of the Lord lay all over the floor. I looked for the preachers behind me and they lay stretched out on the floor too. One of them had his feet tangled up in a chair, so I knew they had gone down under the power of God. I stepped over near the piano, among the people. My body began to rock under the power of God and I fell over onto the piano and lay there. It was a cyclonic manifestation of the power of God. We left the convention with great victory. I had not received a penny since leaving home and the devil was tempting me much over the matter. But the Lord kept assuring me He would make it up to me later on. I had to take His word for it, for I could not understand the situation. It was a new one to me. But I knew God had spoken.

We proceeded to Alliance, Ohio, where I spoke twice to the Bible Students. Our next stop was at Beaver Falls, Penn. Here I preached five times in all, at the C.M.A. Brother Rossiter was in charge. I had stopped here, between trains, the year before. We had a most precious and profitable meeting. I was much pressed in my body, being attacked by a terrible neuralgia pain in my stomach. Much of the time while preaching I had to hold on to the desk in front of me, and every effort seemed to drive a knife thrust through me. When I attempted to pray the very demons seemed to attack me, with extra pains. God was trying to get the leaders here into the Pentecostal experience and all hell was moved to oppose it. They were very precious workers. Sister Rossiter was especially deep in the Lord. I seemed to be battling for them, and for my own life also.

Brother Rossiter was a very active man, and very nervous. He could not get quiet. While I was preaching and the Lord wanted to get hold of him he would be running around looking after the ventilation, etc. The ventilation was all right, but he could not rest. The habit had grown upon him until only God could deliver him from it. This he himself realized, and begged me to pray for him. His mind was always at work. Nothing hinders God more than this, especially when waiting on Him for the "baptism." The mind must cease from its own operations and activities before God can get possession of it. And this is just where the death comes. We must be "sealed in the forehead," so to speak. Our own activities must die. The Lord chased dear Brother Rossiter all around the church trying to get hold of him. But He could not catch him while we were there. Otherwise he was a most blessed man. But the Spirit could not get His way with him. At Findlay, Ohio, sometime later, I had a convention, where the leader was so nervous the enemy had him on his knees on the platform striking matches and examining the straps on the pedals of the organ, while I was trying to preach. When a preacher is out of the Spirit the devil can get him to do the most fool things to hinder the success of a meeting. God was trying to deepen the work there and get the preacher quiet. But He could not. Perhaps the most distressing experience I ever had with a preacher in the "flesh" was at a convention just outside of New York City. A representative company of saints were there from many points. It was in the early Pentecostal days. This preacher was determined to preach, though I was burning up with the message. He wore the people out with a blackboard demonstration of mere statistics, long drawn out, while the saints groaned and waited for the message from the Lord. It was too late when he quit. Most of the people had to go early. I suffered for months over this defeat for the cause of Christ. Years later I met saints who had been at this meeting. They declared they were still waiting for that message that had been hindered. They felt they had missed a message of peculiar import for that occasion. I had seldom had such an anointing. We sometimes hear people say, "My message will keep." If God has given you a message for the people present, and for that hour, it cannot keep. When God gave a message to the prophets of old, or to the Apostles, it was to be delivered at a certain occasion, to a certain people. And just so today with a real messenger of the Lord, who is led by the Spirit of God in his ministry. The message, if not delivered on time, is lost.

It is hard for preachers to get the "baptism." They must die to so much self-ability, activity, etc. It puts self absolutely out of business. To become nothing is too hard for them. They may lose their position, support, reputation, etc. But God has always something better for us. We will have nothing left but God when the Spirit is through with us. But most of us cannot trust Him, so we go on our own way, follow our own calling. To be a real servant of God, obey His orders implicitly, with no plans of our own, is a path few care to tread. It comes too high.

Sister Rossiter was wonderfully visited of the Lord at this time. He laid hold of her in a very deep way for a deeper possession of her than she had ever known. But she struggled hard. I think she was afraid she might have to die to the Alliance. She was a blessed woman, a wonderful instrument for God. But to follow Jesus only is a very narrow way. We were kept awake all one night by the Spirit. No one could sleep. The Spirit was like a wind blowing through the house. We all prayed all night in our beds. Boehmer and I were stopping with the Rossiters. God wanted that pair for something far greater than they had ever known. What became of them later I have never learned.

Boehmer and I returned to New York City. I visited my family at Peekskill, and then returned again to New York City. We called on Sister Weaver, with whom we had stopped at Springfield, at her request. She had a home in New York City also. All the previous day the words of the hymn had been ringing in my ears, "God is faithful, etc." The Spirit had said to me when we left Grand Rapids, "Ye have need of patience," when tempted over the money phase of the situation. The evening before we went to see Sister Weaver I seemed to feel the promise was near fulfillment. Sister Weaver knew nothing of my sacrifice on my trip west. I had received only a very few dollars on that trip. The workers ahead of us got all the money at Indianapolis. I had paid out of my own pocket forty dollars.

The morning we went to see Sister Weaver, Brother Boehmer had asked the Lord to give me fifty dollars. He had means of his own at this time and was bearing his own expenses. I was also impressed to ask the Lord to speak to Sister Weaver to give me that amount. We were about to start for Columbia, South Carolina, en route for California again, and we had very little money on hand. While we were on our knees praying at Sister Weaver's, before leaving her, the Lord told her to give me just fifty dollars. No one had said a word to her about my needs. She handed me that amount. So the Lord had kept His promise and given me my fare back that I had expended on my last trip, west. But I had to be willing to make the sacrifice in faith, and wait until the end of the trip to receive it back.

At New York City I spoke three times at Forty-second Street Mission, and then went to Nyack (N.Y.) Y.M.C.A. Training School. One of the faculty, whom I knew, and who was Pentecostal, asked me if I would speak there again this year, and then we both broke out in a holy laugh. The Spirit witnessed His pleasure. The opposition was great by this time at the school. He arranged the meeting by telephone, as we were some distance from Nyack. The faculty were caught off their guard. Five minutes later they would have canceled the engagement if God had allowed them to. They subjected me to an attempted severe censorship before I went to the platform, as to what I would preach. It tied me up a little, but the Lord gave victory. I was speaking to the students. And they were a hungry lot. I was allowed to speak again the next morning, after sleeping in the building. God touched their hearts in the end. I returned to New York City and spoke four times at "Glad Tidings Hall." The Lord greatly blessed us. Next I took my family from Peekskill to my brother Will's, in Philadelphia, and ran up to Michener alone to bid my aged parents good-bye.

Boehmer and I then took the train for Providence, R.I., to attend a convention. Here I was the principal speaker, speaking eighteen times in all. We had a time of suffering. The leader hindered me much in the spirit, wanting everything run a certain way. But I had to obey God. I was not playing religion. I would rather farm for a profession. The people were very hungry, but the devil tried to hinder my messages. The Lord had faithfully warned me beforehand of this very situation.

I had a peculiar experience at this convention. God was wonderfully blessing my ministry. Preachers and leaders were coming in from many points. The message was largely new to them. The Lord so preciously used me that some got their eyes on the preacher. The Spirit could not stand for this naturally, so one afternoon with a full house, come to hear the speaker from Los Angeles, the Lord told me to go and sit back of the piano, out of sight, to the end of the meeting. It was time for the people to have this lesson. In those days I would rather have gone to the woods and prayed many a time than to come before the people to preach. I was tired of the adulations of the people, preferring to get away from them, and alone with the Lord. Some of them were very much tried with me, for they had no message that afternoon. But God knew His business.

I asked the Lord to give me fifteen dollars from this convention, and the leader without knowing a thing about this, handed me just fifteen dollars in a sealed envelope, before I left. It was a small, poor mission. I was not covetous for money. All I wanted was the privilege of working for God, and being used in blessing to the people. But I needed help to get my family back to California.

We started south for Columbia, S.C. Here I preached for Brother Pike at the Oliver Gospel Mission. The "Way of Faith" office was in this connection. I got a little chance to rest and pray here, with my family. I had been writing for the "Way of Faith" for a long time. We had meetings practically every night, however. Much intercession for this work was given me. Many of our meetings were taken up largely with waiting on God. And He met us in a wonderful way. Brother Pike was himself much blessed in these meetings. He was a very precious child of God. I spoke also at a Presbyterian church. I helped publish my little book, "My Story of the Latter Rain" (now out of print), while here also.

While we were here one of the workers in the mission had the mumps. Brother Boehmer and I were called to pray for him. The Lord had shown me sickness ahead before we started south. But I did not understand it then. Brother Pike handed me forty dollars when we left Columbia. That helped to clear the way forCalifornia. I had written for the "Way of Faith" for years without pay. In fact I have never written for any paper for pay. I could no more do so than preach for salary. We take what God gives us. I have written as many as 550 articles for the religious press, with not more than a half dozen failing to get in print, but have yet to write a single one for pay. My labor has been one of love. "Freely ye have received, freely give."

Brother Pike, editor of the "Way of Faith," wrote as follows regarding the meetings we held with him: "A remarkable meeting is now in progress at the Gospel Tabernacle, Columbia, S.C. It is remarkable for the prolonged vocal and silent prayer that is being offered, and for the unusual manifestation of the Divine presence that is being realized. Brother F. Bartleman is supposed to be the leader, but he will do no leading unless consciously prompted by the Holy Spirit. So the meetings are left perfectly free to the Holy Spirit's guidance. It is very certain that for depth of spirituality no such meetings have ever been held in the Tabernacle before."

Brother Pike wrote again, so complimentarily of my visit to Columbia, that I almost hesitate to reproduce it. He set a very high mark for me. He wrote as follows: "We have been enjoying the companionship and ministry of Brother Bartleman for the past two weeks, and have received a stimulus to our faith, and learned lessons which will be of great value to us in our experience and work in the future. The prayers that have been bottled up in Heaven, and the seed that has been sown in our midst, are sure to produce marked results in the future. Brother Bartleman's quiet ways, and his insistence upon quiet, prayerful waiting upon God, will find ready acceptance only among those who are accustomed to intimate fellowship with the Deity, and who know the blessedness of stillness. We are fully persuaded that God has some remarkable manifestation of His presence and power in store for this Institution if He is permitted to have His own way, and much of it will be due to the intercession and influence of this devoted brother, who leaves blessings wherever he goes.

"We do not know the secret history of how this man of God was brought into connection with the 'Way of Faith,' but that the whole arrangement was of God we have not the shadow of a doubt. He is a man after the editor's own heart, and we are sure that his connection with this paper was brought about by God, in the fullness of time. The pressure of the Divine presence is sometimes so great upon him that food has no attraction for him, and possibly he sometimes errs on the line of abstinence. Hence his appearance frequently indicates weakness, if not emaciation. God has committed to him, in large degree, the ministry of intercession; but He has also given him special messages for the present time to the saints in every part of the world. They are being delivered in various sections of the United States, and Canada, by the living voice, and through the paper they reach the saints in all nations. We commend him to the prayers of God's people everywhere, for, be very well assured, that he has come to the kingdom for such a time as this."—J.M. Pike.

I think perhaps no one knows better than myself how far short I fall at all times of being worthy of such high commendation, but I give it here to show the wonderful spirit that existed between brethren in those days. If we erred it was on the right side after all. I wrote regularly for some years for the "Way of Faith," my articles for a long time appearing almost weekly.

We stopped next at Atlanta, Ga., where we received a hearty welcome from Sister Sexton. The Lord blessed our ministry much there. Brother Boehmer left us at Columbia, for Altamont Bible School. He later took up pastoral work for himself in the south. We were glad we had helped to get him into the field definitely for God. (He is still active in the work at this writing.) We had some blessed meetings in Atlanta. Little Ruth developed the mumps there. She evidently had contracted them at Columbia. Here then was the sickness the Lord had shown me before we started south. Little John began to show symptoms of them also. Hell began to rage. I was preaching twice daily.

My main message here was the revelation of Jesus in the "baptism." It was the same message God had held me to at Eighth and Maple. The great danger was of the people worshipping the sign of "tongues," rather than the Lord, thus making a brazen serpent of it again (a "piece of brass.") It must be Jesus first of all. The Holy Ghost reveals Jesus. Both Ruth and John had the mumps now. The question was, would wife and myself escape them? But I went on in the work, trusting God.

I left my family here and took a little side trip to Birmingham, Ala. Here I began to suffer much in my body. The mumps evidently were working on me, though I refused to acknowledge it. At Birmingham I had a fierce battle. I met some most precious saints there, but there were some very strange spirits working in the meetings. Brother Pinson was in charge. He was a precious brother, but he had his hands full. The devil evidently wanted to ruin the work. We had a fair share of victory and blessing in spite of the enemy. I began to suffer intensely in my body. I was sick. The spiritual fight was one of the hardest ones I had ever been in. This caused me much suffering in my spirit. The weather was also very hot.

I found many professing a very high state of holiness here. But there was much of "self," and the spirit was very hard. When "holiness" loses its sweetness it is a fierce thing to come in contact with. This was largely the condition among the opposers of "Pentecost" in Birmingham. A backslidden spirit can become positively devilish, and that in the name of holiness even. I preached ten times in Birmingham.

Returning to Atlanta we started for Houston, Texas. The children had recovered from the mumps. We passed over the same track at night, this time in a Pullman sleeper (the only kind they had on this train), that I had walked the ties over, some years before, as a street evangelist to Mobile. I had some hours between trains at New Orleans, and visited the French quarters there. We reached Houston Dec. 24, just in time for Christmas. I began to develop the mumps on the train the night before. Wife was also beginning to have them. We went to Brother M.E. Layne's home, I got our trunks from the depot, and went to bed, just in time. I was to have attended a convention there.

God had opened a beautiful home to us there, with every care. We could not have been treated more kindly. I had one of the worst spells of sickness I had ever had. What I suffered was awful. I felt like dying. My jaws locked solid until I could not get a knife-blade between my teeth. But for the fortunate fact of having some front teeth out I could hardly have taken any nourishment. After a week of awful suffering however I began to recover. Wife did not have them quite so bad and was able to wait on me. The Lord protected the family we were stopping with from getting them. We prayed they might be spared, after the kindness they had shown us. They had several children. After three weeks I was able to get out, though very weak, and spoke a few times at the close of the convention. Here I met Brother E.N. Bell for the first time. We can never forget the kindness of Brother and Sister M.E. Layne to us at this time, in whose home we were staying.

I wrote for the "Way of Faith" while sick in Houston, the following observations on the life of a pioneer Pentecostal evangelist, as follows: "The Pentecostal preacher of today is obliged to spend most of his life in old drafty halls, with the poorest kind of ventilation. That means constant tearing down. The nervous strain brings on neuralgia and chronic congestion, through constant cold contracted, and overwork, for there are so few to do this strenuous kind of work today. This means a "living sacrifice," and the evangelist must find a place to rest, or go under shortly. We have said nothing about the separation from one's family, whose company others are able to enjoy. Then there are hundreds of other things the people know nothing about, such as dangers in traveling, constant change in beds, food, climate, etc. And we have said nothing of the spiritual conflict, the centering of spiritual opposing forces in each battle, and the constant, awful pressure of the forces of evil of the highest order. One is drawn upon for their utmost resources constantly. The worker is on the floor so much, on his knees in prayer in the meetings, that cold drafts in drafty halls sweep the body constantly. It is hard to keep off your knees in the present work. In fact you are driven to your knees and face in prayer constantly, and that for hours at a time. The remuneration generally is little if any more than expenses paid, and the evangelist is simply a channel in constant, strenuous use, soon to be worn out, and often then cast aside. His only refuge seems to be Heaven. But Jesus is coming soon. Then we shall need nothing more."—F. Bartleman. Old worn out Pentecostal horses are too often turned out by the roadside, to pick what grass they can find, with poor teeth, until they mercifully die. They are not as a rule turned into a fat pasture, after they are of no more service, to end in comfort and free from care the remainder of their days. Many are under the sod already, from overwork and neglect.

Our next stop was at San Antonio, Texas. Our money was all gone. Little John was taken very sick again. I felt on the train a warning that the devil was about to attack him, but tried to throw off the impression. He had not yet shown any symptoms of sickness. But that night he had convulsions. We spent a terrible night fighting for his life, on our knees, in prayer. The very demons seemed to attack us. He had both grippe and the malaria. We were stopping in the home of Brother and Sister Smale. He was finally delivered.

I preached in all about ten times here. My back pained me terribly, and I was still weak from the mumps and the hot weather. The grippe was attacking me also. I preached at a tent meeting where I met with much fanaticism. My message ran three false prophets out of town. The devil fairly howled. There were many soldiers encamped here and I preached a number of times to these boys in a little mission. I was looking to God for our fare to Los Angeles, and received several letters from a distance with money, after a fierce battle in prayer, and we were able to get on to Phoenix, Arizona. The devil had seemed determined to kill us in Texas. While at San Antonio I visited the old Alamo fort and mission, where Davy Crockett had made his last, heroic stand.

We had a pleasant journey to Phoenix. Running along the Rio Grande we could see old Mexico on the opposite side. We passed through El Paso, and received a warm greeting at Phoenix. We were very tired, and did not have our fares from there to Los Angeles. They were very kind to us in Phoenix. A sister went to look for rooms for us, while I prayed. I soon had the witness that she had found what we needed. Sure enough, she returned soon, having secured housekeeping rooms for us. We now began meetings in a little mission conducted by Brother Scull. We were there nearly three weeks. I spoke twice daily, and three times on Sundays. We spent more time at the altar than we did in preaching, however. The Lord met us in a very deep way.

We had a hard fight with the devil to begin with. Someone threw a rock through the window one night. It just passed over our heads. We were praying with a poor drunk at the altar. The devil did not want to lose his servant. In fact he even sent a preacher all the way from Pasadena, California, to oppose me here. So the enemy met me before I reached the state line, to oppose my return to California. But God gave the victory.

Little John was taken very sick again at Phoenix. I battled for his life one whole night in prayer. Was much worn out myself by this time. The money was given us here for our fares to Pasadena, where the Lord showed me we were to locate in California. We arrived there safely February 26, 1909. We had prayed for a home, not knowing where to go. I sent a note to one of the saints that we were coming. Mother Wheaton and Brother Crary met us at the depot. A new Pentecostal Home had just been opened up, at 786 Winona Avenue, and they dropped us in there. Thus God had provided again, without our foreknowledge.

I stayed at home over two Sundays, to rest up, and then plunged into the work again. I visited old Azusa Mission, where the Lord met me in great power. At Eighth and Maple He also blessed me wonderfully. I also visited the Upper Room Mission, at 327/2 South Spring Street. When nearly home one night, in Pasadena, on Winona Avenue, about 11:3 0, two dogs came tearing out at me from a nearby yard. They were known as vicious and dangerous, having already bitten a number of people. Their owner had gone to bed. Strangely enough, just at the same moment the street light went out. It was "the hour of darkness." Hell seemed suddenly turned loose upon me. The attack was so sudden and unexpected I did not even have time to think. But I cried out instinctively the name of Jesus for help. Instantly the dogs fled from me as though they had been shot. The light came on in the street again at the same moment. It was a strange coincidence. I am sure the devil set the dogs on me. He evidently had the light turned off some way also. But God delivered.

The Lord met and blessed me wonderfully both in Los Angeles, and at Hermon, in preaching, after this. He often broke me up with His love until I would weep like a child, especially at the Upper Room Mission. The leader here opposed me much. His spirit was largely unbroken and he thought me weak. He even implied at one time that I was mentally unbalanced. But he did not understand the love of God. Charles G. Finney, the great evangelist, once said: "If you have much of the Spirit of God, it is not unlikely you will be thought deranged by many. You must make up your mind to be so judged, and so much the more as you live the more above the world, and walk with God."

Chapter 7: Visit to Hawaii - Volcano Kilauea

I came home one night and found a letter waiting for me from Honolulu. For some time I had felt drawn to the Islands. Every day I would look at the foothills back of the Home in Pasadena, and something would say to me, "Hawaiian Islands." I had seen pictures of Hawaii that resembled these foothills. The letter was a complete surprise to me, coming from a party I had never known. When I saw it I felt at once before opening it that it was a call to come there. It contained a check for $165. I had never received so much money at one time in my life. Sure enough it was an urgent call to Honolulu, from Sister Henrietta Nuzum, and the saints there. In the natural I shrank from leaving my little family, to go so far, and across the water. But it was the voice of God. I dared not disobey.

I visited Azusa Mission and Eighth and Maple to say farewell. At the Upper Room Mission they tried to discourage me from going. Some even warned me of disaster if I persisted in going. But I knew the voice of God. The leader tried to discourage me from going. I had learned however, by bitter experience, long before this, even in the Holiness movement, that one must get their directions from God, and not from the mission leader. I think one would seldom attempt anything for God if they were to listen to those who always seem ready to discourage you. No one can get our leading for us. We must hear from God ourselves. Very often we are discouraged by jealous parties who desire themselves such a call from God, but have it not.

I took my family north, leaving them at Sister Carrie J. Montgomery's Home near Oakland. They were to have reduced rates for board, and await my return from the Islands there. I felt led to labor in that section when I should return. I paid one month's board for them, and sailed May 15, 1909, for Honolulu. We had an exceptionally smooth voyage. I was sick the first two days, but not after that. The Lord met me wonderfully on the vessel just before I landed. He welcomed me Himself to the Islands. I was met again wonderfully by the Spirit when I reached the home of Brother and Sister Harold Hansen, in Honolulu, where I was to stay.

The "fragments" of the continents (the Islands), must be gathered up also, that "nothing be lost." I found the Hawaiian Islands a natural paradise. Tropical fruits and foliage greeted me. There were Hawaiians and Koreans, Chinese and Japanese, but a very small white population. The sea voyage was a great benefit to me physically. Six days travel away from the little family, and without seeing land, seemed a long way, however. I had never been so far from them before. It was 2,100 miles from San Francisco. From here the "southern cross" was plainly visible in the heavens.

The power of God was wonderfully poured out in our meetings. They had no hall but we met in the homes of the saints. Many were greatly benefited and quickened in their faith. I took a trip to the largest Island, Hawaii, by boat, on the leeward side. We passed by the islands of Molokai, Maui, Lanai and Kahoolawe. I stopped at Kailua, Kone, with a missionary who owned a home there. Dr. Yoakum had visited here before me. We were in the same latitude as Central America. A party of us rode horseback to the top of Mt. Hulalai, 9000 feet high, through very wild vegetation, up the mountain side, guided by a Portuguese cowboy. We had a wonderful trip and a magnificent view, visiting a number of extinct volcano craters. I sent another month's board home to the family from Honolulu.

After returning to Honolulu, I took another trip to Hawaii, this time on the windward side, to Hilo. I found this a very wicked place. While here I visited the active volcano, Kilauea. This was truly a very picture of the "lake of fire," hell proper. I wrote an article on the volcano, from which I give the following extracts: "We reached the 'Volcano House,' Kilauea, Hawaii, at dark, and started for the crater afoot, three miles farther on, in the center of a deep basin, over a floor of lava rock seven miles in diameter. It was cold and raining. Down several hundred feet, over loose sand, and then over the hard lava flows, jagged, rough and craggy, we plodded. The lurid light of the crater glared in the distance, like a great chimney, flaring and smoking against the murky sky. The surroundings were most uncanny. The trail was dim. We were on our way to the 'pit.'

'Surely Thou settest them in slippery places.' 'Give glory to God, before He cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountain.' We crossed fearful chasms, rent by convulsions of internal conflict, from the fires of torment in earth's bosom. Hot blasts fanned us from beneath. Vapors of sulphur greeted us from the fissures. The whole earth seemed 'turned up' as it were by fire. Finally we reached the volcano. It was a terrible sight. 'Outer darkness' encompassed the lurid fires. Hot air greeted us fiercely, as we approached the brink. Sulphur fumes rose almost stifling from its depths. A very 'belly of hell.' Nothing was lacking but the forms of demons, and they seemed hovering near. The natives worship this crater.

“'Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.' Truly 'salted with fire.' Here was a fire no one could explain. The splashing of its fusions struck the heart with terror. Like the just punishment for sin. They lashed themselves against the sides of that cavernous pit as if conscious of being confined only for a season. They seemed like living, 'eternal fires,' awaiting restlessly their prey. The 'pit' proper is 1000 feet in diameter. In it is situated the lake of fire. The dismal shadows, the lurid light cast upward on its deep, cavernous sides, by the continuous unrest of its fierce, fiery commotions, as though demons struggled with one another in fearful conflict, with the fumes of stifling sulphur that arose from its awful, abysmal depths in clouds to the top of the sheer, jagged precipices that mark the naked heights of its lonely confines, made it a picture terrible to behold. One stood solemn and awe stricken, as in the presence of offended Deity. The dark background of the mountain shadows, the rain and piercing cold of the night, all added terror to the picture. It made one, like Moses at Sinai, 'exceedingly fear and quake.'

"These fires, in mighty conflict of convulsion, threw up those mountain peaks, from three miles under sea level, to their present height of 13,000 feet above the sea. The 'pit' itself is 4000 feet above sea level. What an awful mass of uncontrollable, fiery matter must heave and roll beneath this monster chimney of the Pacific, in earth's belly. Are not God's fires eternal? I thought of 'the waves of the sea that cannot rest,' to which the wicked are likened. There is no rest in hell. 'The lake of fire that burneth with brimstone.' 'And the smoke of their torment goeth up forever and ever.' 'They have no rest day or night.' All the elements were there. It was a perfect picture.

"Two great channels or fountain furnaces were pouring from their subterranean depths tons of liquid fire, molten world matter, continuously. Billions of tons were heaving in seeming production. World making seemed in process. One seemed to be standing by the Almighty as at creation's dawn, when worlds were flung into far space, spoken into being by His fiat. But what makes these fires? What keeps them going? There is no answer from their abysmal depths. They scorn to answer. It is God.

"Their noise, between a hiss and a roar, like the cry of a wounded serpent or beast, seems crying for vengeance. They dashed against the sides of their unwilling confines, by force of continuous, internal conflict, with a cry almost human; then lashed themselves into greater fury, in their disappointed effort for liberation. What could man do once these fires were liberated?

"There was no rest for the fiery waves in that volcano. They rose by their mighty fusions, some forty feet high, all over this lake of fire, continuously night and day, only to fall back again baffled, with a sickening, terrifying thud, like the muffled rumbling of distant thunder. Their failure to scale their prison walls seemed but to enrage them more. As they lashed themselves against the sides their matter cooled, clinging to the rocks of their own production, but to encase and entomb them further. Others fell back, only to be fused again in that awful furnace of unbearable heat and fury. There is no escape from hell. A million years but makes the doom more sure in those lonely confines of despair.

"This mighty stream of molten lava was churned continuously into an underground passage at the other side of the lake. And still those two great feeding furnaces poured their red hot, molten matter from God knows where, to where God only knows, by some subtle, awful power, in a continuous, fiery flow. There is no Niagara to quench its fires. Its torment is only increased by its continuous, constant action. There is a fire that feeds itself, a worm that 'never dies.' 'It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.'

"There could be no trifling with the fires of that crater. The natives call it Pele. They say Pele was a woman. She was robbed of her husband by another native woman, who enticed him. Pele wandered from island to island (leaving extinct volcanoes behind her), and finally settled on Hawaii in her wrath. The natives fear her. They throw bottles of gin, their favorite drink, to her, in order to appease her. And should not sinners fear a 'jealous' God? Presumption means swift, certain ruin. I turned from these lurid, mysterious fires in earth's bosom, with the weird surroundings of gloom that hung like a pall over the surrounding situation, with a feeling of awe, almost akin to terror. I shall not trifle with God."—F. Bartleman.

We had a rough voyage home from Honolulu. I brought a large basket of tropical fruits with me, for the family. The Lord had kept them safely in my absence. I preached at Beulah Chapel, at Sister Montgomery's a few times, then took a trip to Ukiah, Santa Rosa, and Healdsburg, holding several meetings. God was with me in power. I then preached five times in Oakland, at Barney Moore's tent. My next trip was to Woodland. Here I delivered my message under great affliction and suffering. The saints were in a peculiar condition of need. The evening I reached there I was seized with a terrible attack of appendicitis. It looked like death. The pain was terrible. I cried to the Lord in desperation and He delivered me. But a bad state of stomach neuralgia and colic remained. I could scarcely eat and got no sleep at nights. I could neither sit, lie down, nor walk without most severe pain. But in spite of this I delivered my message, remaining several days. My visit delivered the work from much extravagance that had killed the Spirit, but it nearly killed me also.

I had a blessed ministry at Stockton, preached a number of times more at Beaulah and at Oakland, and then took my family to Santa Cruz. Here they visited with friends while I went to San Jose, preaching six times at the Pentecostal Mission there. The Lord greatly helped me. The saints were badly split up. I spent three whole days in prayer in the mission. My message was a plea for love and unity.

We then returned to Los Angeles, and located at 163 South Gless Street. We had learned through a brother that Sister Throop had rooms about to be vacated. I phoned her from the depot and learned the rooms had just been emptied, and were for rent. The Lord had timed our arrival exactly. God had shown us to come, but we did not know where we should locate.

The missions, I found, were very zealous for doctrine, as usual. I began to preach at Eighth and Maple, Azusa Mission, and Hermon. Azusa had lost out greatly since we left. "How are the mighty fallen," came to me most forcibly. But the Spirit came upon three of us mightily in prayer one evening there. He assured us He was going to bring the power back to Azusa Mission again as at the beginning. We felt we had prayed through. (And the answer came a little over a year later, when Brother Durham came from Chicago. The place was then once more filled with the saints, and with the glory of God, for a short time.)

The work had gotten into a bad condition generally at the time we returned to Los Angeles. The missions had fought each other almost to a standstill. Little love remained. There was considerable rejoicing, but in the "flesh." A cold, hard hearted zeal, and human enthusiasm, had taken the place of divine love and tenderness of the Spirit largely. I suffered much from contact with this thing. The Lord continued to bless my ministry at Eighth and Maple, and at Azusa Street. In some of the missions 1 met with persistent opposition, especially from the leaders. But I kept my eyes on the Lord. He has never allowed me to become the satellite of any man, even for a place to preach. If we are servants of men we cannot please God.

October 14, 1909, wife presented me with another daughter, Lois. God graciously undertook for her. My ministry was principally divided now between Eighth and Maple, Azusa Mission, and Brother Hill's. The Lord blessed much and I also started weekly Bible studies at Eighth and Maple. In these the Lord blessed richly. We had some times of real testing, being completely out of money at times, but God always came in time to save us from actual suffering.

At one time our gas bill and rent were both due. I went to Pasadena, out of money. A brother was debating in his mind whether to help me or not. But I walked away from him. The devil was tempting me and I determined to trust God and not man. I went home without a cent. Before bed-time another brother brought eight dollars to the house. It was the exact rent. He said the Lord told him to bring it and he dared not disobey. He was a poor day laborer, too. But he got his reward from God. He was able to give him ten times as much, with ease.

Nearly every night found me either at Eighth and Maple or Azusa Street, preaching or testifying. We passed through another hard test for rent and food, but the Lord delivered. I received money from the saints in Honolulu on two different occasions, at one time ten dollars, and at another time fifteen dollars. The last time little John had volunteered to pray for money. We were about out of food. He went to his knees and put us to shame with his childish simplicity and faith in prayer. We had been sorely tempted. He asked us if Jesus would send us money if we asked Him. What could we say? Of course He would. Very soon the money came, from Honolulu. The Lord had answered before we called on Him, as He has said. "Before they call, I will answer." This strengthened John's faith greatly. "He knoweth of what things we have need before we ask Him." If this were not true He frequently could not get the answer to us in time.

Old Azusa Mission became more and more in bondage. The meetings now had to run just in appointed order. The Spirit tried to work through some poor, illiterate Mexicans, who had been saved and "baptized" in the Spirit. But the leader deliberately refused to let them testify, and crushed them ruthlessly. It was like murdering the Spirit of God. Only God knows what this meant to those poor Mexicans. Personally I would rather die than to have assumed such a spirit of dictatorship. Every meeting was now programmed from start to finish. Disaster was bound to follow, and it did so.

Many a God-sent "prophet" has been done to death, both physically and spiritually, in Los Angeles. God has been obliged to remove leader after leader for this sin. I had prayed five years for a typewriter. A sister gave me twenty dollars, and I bought a second-hand one for $12.50. This I carried around the world with me later, to write my diary with.

I now began to feel the Lord was calling me to girdle the globe on a missionary trip for Him. It was to be by faith, and I had not a cent in sight. I had really felt the call to make this trip for years, and the time had now come. It looked like madness to attempt such a thing in the natural. I was just at that time up against a very severe test both physically and financially. But the conviction became an assurance. After a very severe financial test, in which it seemed almost impossible to get even as much as a ten-cent piece, the Lord opened the way for me to start. I believe God allowed me to be thus tested in order to prove me for the journey. It looked almost like actual starvation just before the way finally opened up.

Dr. Sister Trout gave me fifty dollars to put in the bank for wife to draw on for the rent. Then Brother Pike, editor of the "Way of Faith," sent me twenty-five dollars from Columbia, S.C. This was to be used to start around the world, and with this amount I started. All this was absolutely unsolicited. I would not have dared to take a step in such a tremendous undertaking, impossible in the natural, had not God made it so plain to me that I could not doubt His will in the matter. Besides, to leave my little family without means, to go around the world, with all its possibilities for evil and disaster, to be gone nearly a year, would have been too much for a heart of flesh to bear, except God should guide fully and strengthen.

They gave me a little offering at Azusa Mission of eleven dollars. This I left with my family. I received no help from any other mission. It was all I had to leave them.

When I started to circle the globe I was warned by many of the saints not to attempt it. Some told me God had revealed to them awful disaster to follow, both for myself and family, should I persist in my purpose. But I knew God had called me. I had to obey Him, and in doing so I realized one of the greatest privileges and blessings of my whole ministry. I felt I could read considerable jealousy between the lines in some of the letters I received. One sister even declared she did not believe the Lord was sending me because she had always wanted herself to go on such a trip and the Lord had not allowed her. Her warning naturally did not have much weight with me. I did not carry a single dollar with me from Los Angeles.

I left home March 17, 1910. (My world-trip is published in a separate book, to which the reader is referred, "Around the World by Faith, With Six Weeks in the Holy Land."—price 50c.) Circling the entire globe by faith, visiting Europe and most of the principal mission fields in my course, I spent six delightful weeks in Palestine, returning home by way of Egypt, India, Ceylon, China and Japan, and across the Pacific, via Honolulu. I was gone eleven months and one week. My family trusted God fully and were better cared for than they had ever been while I was with them. I returned with about one dollar in my pocket. My wife had fifty dollars in bank. "Faithful is He who calleth you, who also will do it."

Brother Pike very kindly wrote the following notice of my trip in the "Way of Faith" when I started: "We take pleasure in publishing the personal letter of Brother Bartleman, who is following what he believes to be divine guidance, in his trip around the world. We do not know of anyone whose ministry is more needed, and will be more helpful in the present stage of the Pentecostal movement, than our dear Brother Bartleman."—J.M. Pike. I appreciated greatly this note of confidence. Also the following by the editor of the "Latter Rain": "Brother Bartleman spent a few days with us just before he sailed for England. Our brother is filling a very important place in this movement, in Bible teaching, and sober counsel, which is as ballast to a ship in storm. Let us follow this self-sacrificing servant of God with our prayers and support, as he goes out into the regions beyond."

Brother Albert Norton wrote for the "Way of Faith," from Dhond, India: "We were privileged last month to have a visit at Dhond from Brother Daniel Awrey, and Brother Frank Bartleman. Both of these beloved servants of Christ, like Barnabas, were 'full of faith and the Holy Ghost,' and they received a warm welcome both at Dhond and at Kedgaon (Ramabai's). Our only regret was that they could not stop longer in India."—Albert Norton. Brother Aurey and myself arrived in India on different vessels, providentially, at the same time.

Brother Pike wrote in "Way of Faith," at my homecoming, as follows: "Our readers will join us in humble and hearty thanks to God for keeping our dear brother on land and sea, in storm and calm, amid friends and foes, unwholesome surroundings and uncomfortable lodgings. Amid all he has been kept in health, and we believe has fulfilled the mission which was accomplished, under divine direction. The results of that mission will only be known when the books are opened and the record read. Money to meet every necessity as it was presented was on hand, sent in direct answer to prayer, without any personal solicitation."—J.M. Pike. I feel personally I can never be too grateful to God for the facts contained in this statement.

Pastor Alex. Boddy, of Sunderland, England, very kindly wrote the following in "Confidence": "Brother Bartleman is known to many through his recent journey around the world, and also through his writings. His life is a 'life of faith,' and on that round the world journey all his needs were wonderfully supplied. He never, however, mentions his circumstances, and we should uphold him in prayer. He is always about his Father's business, without a thought as to self."—Alex. Boddy.

While I am not able to describe my world trip here (the reader can secure this from me, in separate booklet, at any time), yet I feel to repeat a few statements published from my pen in the "Way of Faith," upon my safe home arrival, as follows: "I am so glad I was 'not disobedient to the heavenly vision.' Before I started I received a number of communications, both encouraging and discouraging. Some prophesied blessing, others disaster. Having settled it in my heart however that it was God's call, and not my own imagination and desire, I could do no other than go. If the Lord did not take me around I do not know who did. I did not pull any wires, no individual or Assembly pledged my traveling expenses, and I did not pledge or commit myself to any man or party. I knew that God was sending, and I trusted Him fully to take me through. Physically I had reason to believe, in the natural, that I might not live to get half way around. But I was not going in the natural.

"In a wonderful way the Lord preserved me from sickness. I passed through cholera, plague, and smallpox districts and exposure, and through fever sections at the most deadly time of the year. But the Lord preserved me. I came home weighing ten pounds heavier than I had weighed for years. My family had been kept in fair health during my absence, and with plenty for their temporal needs. I never asked for a penny nor a collection. All was given me voluntarily. I only received fifty dollars from America after leaving her shores. In Palestine, India and China, help came from the most unexpected and unlikely sources. God proved He could provide abroad as well as at home. I reached China with only ten dollars. No money came from America to me there. I visited England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Holland, Germany, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy, Egypt, Palestine, Ceylon, India, China and Japan, touching at Honolulu on the way home. Reached home February 25, 1911."

Chapter 8: Brother Durham in Los Angeles

Just about one week before I arrived home Brother Durham began meetings at old Azusa Mission. He was sent of the Lord from Chicago with a message for the Pentecostal saints in Los Angeles. He was first refused a hearing at Upper Room Mission, so he went to Azusa Street. Brother Seymour was absent in the east. He started meetings and the saints flocked back to the old place and filled it again with the high praises of God. This was what the Lord witnessed to three of us while in prayer, more than a year before. I had gotten back just in time to see it. God had gathered many of the old Azusa workers back, from many parts of the world, to Los Angeles again evidently for this. It was called by many the second shower of the Latter Rain. On Sunday the place was crowded and five hundred were turned away. The people would not leave their seats between meetings for fear of losing them.

With this the bottom dropped out of Upper Room Mission over night. The leader had abused his privilege, and also the saints. He had failed God in other ways also. The Lord can spare any man or mission if He is obliged to. We cannot persistently abuse our privilege, destroy the prophets of God, and hope to finally get away with it. Great was the fall of Upper Room Mission. The leader had at one time been much used of God. But God had another place, man, and message ready. He never deserts His true flock. The "cloud" moved on, and the saints with it.

The fire began to fall at old Azusa as at the beginning. I attended these meetings with great interest and joy. The Lord also blessed me much at Eighth and Maple, which was still running. At Lake Avenue, Pasadena, the little Methodist Church where God had wrought in 1905 so blessedly, had now for some time been turned over to the Pentecostal saints. They still occupy it at this writing.

We moved to Long Beach soon after my return, my family needing a change from Gless Street very badly. We were invited to occupy a nice Rest Cottage Home, at 323 Short Street, ready furnished, quite near the beach. This was a great treat. We had not even dared ask the Lord for so much. But He was so good to us. May 2, I went to Azusa Street, after noon, as usual. But to our surprise we found the doors all locked, with chain and padlock. Brother Seymour had hastened back from the east and with his trustees decided to lock Brother Durham out. But they locked God and the saints out also, from the old cradle of power. It was Durham's message they objected to.

I secured Kohler Street Mission temporarily, and the "cloud" moved with us. Rather, it led us there. In a few days Brother Durham rented a large building at the corner of Seventh and Los Angeles streets. A thousand people attended the meetings here on Sundays. We had an ordinary congregation of four hundred week nights. Here the "cloud" rested. God's glory filled the place. "Azusa" became deserted. The Lord was with Brother Durham in great power. God sets His seal especially on present truth to be established. He preached a gospel of salvation by faith. He was used mightily to draw anew a clear line of demarcation between salvation by works and faith, between law and grace. This had become very much needed, even among the Pentecostal people. And it is certain that such a revelation and reformation is needed in the churches today almost as badly as in Luther's day. We have largely a Romanized Protestantism.

"Learn from me," said Luther, "how difficult a thing it is to throw off errors confirmed by the example of all the world, and which, through long habit, have become a second nature to us." But a multitude of souls accepted the message Brother Durham brought with joy. "Men were astonished that they had not earlier acknowledged truths that appeared so evident in Luther's mouth," says the historian, D'Aubigne. And so with Durham's message. But it received great opposition also. Some abused the message, as they do every message sent of God, going to the extreme of declaring that because the work of redemption was fully accomplished on the cross it was of necessity finished in us also, the moment we believed. This was a great error, and hindered the message and work considerably. Man always adds to the message God has given. This is Satan's chief way to discredit and destroy it. Both Luther and Wesley had the same difficulties to contend with. And so has every God given revival. Men are creatures of extremes. The message generally suffers more from its friends than from its foes. We have this treasure in "earthen vessels." The truth can always be abused. Some even went so far as to fight the principle of holiness itself, pretending to justify themselves by Durham's message. But they had either misunderstood it, or more likely seized a pretended opportunity to fight the principle that their own hearts refused to yield to, and thus abused the message God had brought them.

The owner of the Rest Home in Long Beach decided to sell it, so we were obliged to move. We returned July 1 to the Pentecostal Home, at 786 Winona Avenue, Pasadena, where we had lived before I went to Hawaii in 1909- We should have moved one month earlier, but a party occupied the house and would not move, though God called them to Sacramento. Refusing to obey God they kept us out, and caused much suffering all around. They confessed their wrong later. Thus they missed the mind of the Lord for themselves, got out of divine order, and suffered much, besides causing great suffering to others. The party owning the beach home insisted on our vacating, but we had no place to go. God wanted us in the Home in Pasadena. We never know how much we are causing others to suffer when we are failing God ourselves. The Lord had blessed our stay in Long Beach. But now He wanted us in Pasadena.

I had a terrible attack of hemorrhoids, and was prostrated for days, suffering awful things, soon after arriving in Pasadena. Through earnest prayer the Lord delivered. My nervous system suffered greatly. It was an awful strain on the nerve centers, and the brain. Little John was taken with a terrible attack of convulsions also. The devil tried to kill him. Through prayer his life was spared. Many times the devil has come to me and actually tried to bargain with me. He has promised me if I would not press him quite so hard he would let me off easier. But God forbid that I should ever bargain thus with him.

1911 was a wonderful year in Los Angeles. The battle was clearly between works and faith, between law and grace. Much of the old time power and glory of the Azusa Mission days returned to us. I had much liberty and joy in Brother Durham's mission, especially in the beginning. God had prepared me beforehand peculiarly for the message. I had been brought completely to the end of self-dependence. Works had no further place with me in meriting salvation. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, unto good works."—Eph. 2:10. We are called to humility again, that the power of God might rest upon us.

So determined was I to take no chances of self surviving in my life that I burned at this time no less than five hundred personal letters that I had received in the early Azusa days, from leading church workers, preachers and teachers, all over the world, inquiring anxiously about the revival that was then in our midst. Some of these inquirers were in very high positions officially. They had read my reports of the revival in various papers. But I was afraid these letters might someday prove a temptation to me to imagine that I had been a person of some importance. Many of these inquirers begged an interest in my prayers. I almost wish at times that I had kept these letters. They would have been of much interest now as historical evidence to the widespread influence of the revival. No doubt the Lord could have kept me humble without this sacrifice, but I determined to take no chances. So deep and genuine was the work begun again in our hearts in Brother Durham's day.

We feared nothing more in those days than to seek our own glory, or that the Pentecostal experience should become a matter of past history. In fact we hoped and believed that the revival would last without cessation until Jesus should come, which it doubtless would, and should, if men would not fail God. But we drift back continually into the old, backslidden, ecclesiastical conceptions, forms and ceremonies. Thus history sadly ever repeats itself. Now we must work up an annual revival. We go to church on Sundays, etc., etc., just "like the nations (churches) 'round about us." But in the beginning it was not so. In the early Azusa days you could hardly keep the saints off their knees. Whenever two saints met they invariably went to prayer. Today we can hardly be dragged to prayer. Some make as much fuss about it as the old camel does in the east in kneeling to receive his load. He fusses, and bites, and groans, before the driver can bring him down. I am glad I did not destroy my diary, however, nor the articles I wrote all through those early Pentecostal days, with reports of meetings, experiences in different parts of the world, etc. I have preserved between five and six hundred separate, printed articles, besides more than one hundred different tracts written and published in the same connections. From these I have been able to draw a tremendous amount of most reliable information for the present book. Had I destroyed these the book would probably have never been written. In all my writings for at least twenty-five years I have labored for the unity of the body of Christ. They are full of the sentiment of John 17:21. I have also plead for reality from the beginning. My first article was titled, "Live the Life." My second one, "Salvation vs. Imitation."

The Lord gave us a little private school in Pasadena for our children. We had dreaded to throw them in among public school influences. Sister Anna Palmer, a precious Pentecostal sister, came to live with us and to teach them. She was a woman of most sterling character, and absolutely self-sacrificing spirit. She was also a woman of special ability. It was purely a labor of love on her part, for the Lord. Some of the neighboring children availed themselves of this opportunity also. We were very grateful for this, God's special mercy.

I had a powerful manifestation of the Spirit about this time at Lake Avenue Mission, Pasadena. The power of God came on me one Sunday morning, as I sat in my chair in the meeting. The Lord had given me a tremendous message on the way to the meeting. Brother Ansel Post had the floor and was commenting on the Word. What he was saying was good, but without special anointing. Suddenly the Lord anointed me to give my message. I hesitated, as Brother Post had the floor. The Spirit ran through me like a sword thrust and I was lifted from my chair. I ran across the floor shouting at the top of my voice, but sat down again. I did not want to interfere with the one speaking. The message was almost consuming me. I had already hesitated too long. God wanted it delivered then. The Spirit struck me again and nearly threw me off my chair. Then I knew I must obey God. I got up and spoke to Brother Post and he graciously gave way to me. I delivered the message with great anointing. How many times I have failed God by not obeying Him under similar circumstances. It seemed this time as though God would kill me if I did not obey Him. We fear to grieve men more than we do Him. It requires much grace to obey God under such circumstances.

I had much ministry and blessing in Brother Durham's mission during this summer. I also wrote and published a little booklet, entitled "A Prophetic Chart," which the Lord gave me. Three thousand of them cost me thirty-five dollars. He provided the means. We moved from Winona Avenue to Altadena in September. Our home was on Pine Street. Here we opened a little day school, with Miss Palmer for teacher. Other children came from the neighborhood. We saw some very hard financial pressure here. One sister gave me twenty-five dollars, in answer to most earnest prayer. I began to have a strong desire to get out into the active work of the Lord again.

Taking a little trip to San Diego, I preached nine times, with much blessing. I then took a trip, by water, to Oakland, where I held some meetings, with considerable blessing and profit. From there I went to Stockton, where I preached twice, but found a hard field. The spirit was not deep. Returning home I worked in Brother Durham's mission again.

The opposition against Brother Durham was tremendous and he was finally tempted to strike back. This I felt was not the Spirit of Christ, though he had tremendous provocation. Possibly few have been able to stand successfully such a test. I left the platform finally, not willing to stand for a spirit of retaliation. I felt I must keep clear of carnal strife and controversy. But the Lord had wonderfully used dear Brother Durham. He was sent of God to Los Angeles. Possibly his work was done. For him to have remained much longer might have destroyed his victory. His word was coming to be almost law in the Pentecostal missions, even as far as the Atlantic Coast. The paper he instituted in connection with his work began to take on especially the nature of a carnal controversy, fighting the old "second work of grace" theory. This spirit the Lord showed me He was about to stop. Too much power is unsafe for any one man also.

Brother Durham wrote the following observations on the work some time before he died, which are of such vital importance we feel led to reproduce them, as follows: "A great crisis is now on. Men do not see the plan of God in the present Pentecostal movement. Such a complete revolution is necessary that it staggers them. They are unwilling to see that which they have labored so hard to build up, thrown down; but before God's plans can be carried out, man's plans must be set aside. They fail to see that God, having set aside all the plans of man, is beginning to work after His own plan. God is revealing His real plan to so many that they will never consent to having the present work turned into a sect. God's people are simply not going to be led into the snare of human organization again.

"God has poured out His Spirit again that Jesus may be glorified. All past movements have resulted in the promotion to positions of honor of one or more men. The present movement will honor and exalt Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit always exalts Jesus, and His precious blood. As He is exalted, and faithfully preached, God is restoring the old time power. But it is not all restored yet. Not seeing the plan of God, men have not met the conditions, and therefore have not received all God has for them by a great deal. Many have run ahead of God."

Shortly after God filled me, His Spirit rested mightily upon me one morning, and He said to me: "If you were only small enough I could do anything with you." A great desire to be little, yea, to be nothing, came in my heart. But it has been, oh, so hard to keep low enough for Him to really work through me. And He only really uses me when I am little in my own eyes, and really humble at His feet. When I feel that I must do something, He always lets me fail. But when I stay at His feet, and feel that I am nothing, and that He is all, and so just trust Him, He does His work in such a beautiful way that it is wonderful to me.

"God is not trying to build up something else, or to do something for men that will make them great and mighty, but rather to bring all men to naught, and do the work through the power of the Holy Ghost. The call of God to His people now is to humble themselves; to recognize their weakness and lack of power, to get down before Him, and wait till His power is restored. The great question is, will men see the plan of God, and yield to it? Will men get down in humility at Jesus' feet, and pray and wait till He restores His full, Pentecostal power? Or will they continue to run ahead of Him, and fail in the end?

"Let God's people everywhere see His plan, and begin to seek in deep, true humility. Then He will reveal Himself, and His plan, to them. One man with the real power of God upon him can do more than a thousand who go on their own account. Only those who are true and loyal to God, and His present day message, will share in this great victory. The company who really humble themselves, and stand the test, God will use to do His work." —Wm. H. Durham. The fact is when a man gets to the place where he really loves obscurity, where he does not care to preach, and where he would rather sit in the back seat than on the platform, then God can lift him up and use him, and not very much before.

The old Upper Room, 327 ½ South Spring Street, was opened up again about this time, under the leadership of Brother Warren Fisher, Brother Manley, and Brother Alien. I delivered a message there one Sunday and two received the "baptism." God wonderfully anointed me. The presence of the Lord was very near. I had asked Him for a witness. So I now shifted my ministry to the Upper Room Mission. Conditions seemed to be changing at Brother Durham's mission. After I left his platform he seemed to mistrust me. Perhaps he thought I would work against him. I spoke many times now at Upper Room Mission where the Lord greatly blessed me. Brother Durham soon after this went to Chicago to hold a convention. It was in the winter and he contracted a cold there, from the effects of which he soon after died, after having returned to Los Angeles. He was wonderfully used in Chicago.

By this time the Lord was speaking loudly to me about getting out into the field again, with my family. I felt strongly drawn to Europe. I had had a conviction of this when passing through Europe in 1910. The time had come. The Lord began to touch hearts in a marked way on our behalf, to this end, although nearly all of our financial help, as it always had, peculiarly, before, came from outside of Los Angeles. A brother in Stockton, and a sister (not Pentecostal), in Pasadena, furnished our fares to Denver, our first stop. God did not allow any mission or party as such to send us forth. And perhaps it was better so. Today you are all right. Tomorrow you may be standing on your head with them. So it is better at least to look to God. Our poor missionaries on the foreign field seldom know where they stand in relation to most of the missions. Before the next letter can pass between them the whole doctrinal situation may be changed, or the society have been totally dissolved for that matter. They need our sympathy and our prayers. When will God's people become "one flock," with "one Shepherd," Jesus, as He has promised? It is surely time to pray as Jesus prayed, "that they all may be one; that the world may believe."—John 17:21.

We left Los Angeles, after sacrificing our little all of household goods, as we had so often done before, and started to work our way across the continent once more, this time, as we believed, en route for Europe. We had just enough money to take us to Denver. But the account of our "Two Years Mission Work in Europe, Just Before the World-War, 1912-1914," with labors in England, Scotland, Wales, Holland, Switzerland, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and old Russia itself, where I had to preach in secret, although almost under the Czar's nose; with a lively account of the first few weeks of the Great World War, before we got out of Europe, and which finally drove us back to America, through the war zone, must be secured in a separate booklet, already published, price 30C. We did not want to return to America so soon, but were obliged to, in safety to the family. Besides, the whole effort of the nations now became one of filling their people's hearts with hate and murder. There seemed no place for the spirit of the Gospel. The Sermon on the Mount has nothing whatever in common with the tenets of the "god of war." You are expected to do all you can to hate, curse, or kill the enemy in war-time, certainly not to love him. Let others do this, however, if they will; but as for me, the Gospel is just the same in peace or war. "Jesus Christ the same, yesterday, today, and forever." –Los Angeles, Calif., April, 1925.

Chapter 9: Sparks From the Anvil

"The Fathers must be explained, interpreted, according to Scripture, and not Scripture according to the Fathers. How often has not Jerome, Augustine, and Ambrose been mistaken! How often their opinions are different, and they retract their errors!" —Melancthon.

"The highest degree of wisdom attained ambitious minds, or by souls thirsting with the desire for perfection, has been to despair of themselves."—D'Aubigne.

"God, who prepares His work through ages, accomplishes it by the weakest instruments, when His time is come, that the work may be seen to be of God and not of man. To effect great results by imperceptible means such is the law of God."—D'Aubigne.

"It is a sair thing to the flesh for a man to have a little mair light than his brethren." A Scotch saying. They will make him smart for it.

The early church put God first, self last. We have self first, God last. This was the secret of the early church's power. The church is a backslider. But we are coming around the circle. She is to be fully restored. The Spirit is lifted from her, as in Ezekiel's vision. Her ministers need to "weep between the porch and the altar." The "carcasses" of the old crowd may have to "fall in the wilderness" today. We are too hard-hearted. Oh, to be a Joshua, or a Caleb!

There are two errors to be avoided. Dictatorship and lawlessness. Unorganized missions frequently have a tighter ring of fellowship than those organized. Sects generally begin with an honest effort to preserve and restore some long lost truth. They end in division. History repeats itself. No religious body has ever recovered itself after its "first love" was lost.

Every wrong influence in Christian profession makes the way just that much harder for the whole body of Christ. Each individual must be judged also on his own merits, apart from the particular party that he runs with.

The "tongues" were the "sign," the "burning bush," that God used to attract the attention of the people to the Pentecostal outpouring, as He had used "healing," etc., in previous outpourings. What particular "sign" will accompany the next outpouring?

Philosophical reasonings, intellectual speculations, etc., are rampant and the contagion of the hour, actuated by demon forces, to sweep us from the basis of a child-like faith in God, salvation through the blood. Many are in a mental maze, beguiled by the "serpent," like Eve. This is a terrible universe to be lost in.

To be like Jesus, is the standard that God has set us. Be as much in earnest as God is. If Heaven is real we should live like it. This will produce "Pentecost." The human spirit too often predominates, while love and humility are clothed in rags and sit by the wayside begging. The gentle Jesus is run over again and again and knocked down in the meetings. Sin and the "flesh" will kill any "Pentecost." The doctor looks at the tongue first thing. Have you been speaking evil? That denotes a bad heart. Every radical movement for God has ultimately failed on the test of love. The Philadelphia church ("brotherly love"), had the "open door."—Rev. 3.

If they had been "digging," going down, at Babel, instead of going up, God might have spared them. Israel sinned by asking an earthly king, and dividing the nation. We reject the Spirit rule, and divide the "body." "If thou take the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as My mouth."—Jer. 15:19. Better grieve all men than God. The very truths that gave birth to the Pentecostal movement are today generally rejected as too strong. But if Israel followed the pillar of fire and cloud so carefully, how much more should we the Holy Ghost. Every work of God so far has been sidetracked, or fallen short of its real object and purpose. Hence we have needed "new lumps" continually. Party spirit, and temporal interest, self, is the difficulty.We have too much Chinese Joss, and Dance Hall Jazz music. Charles G. Finney, the mighty evangelist, discouraged even too much good singing. It kills conviction. We spend too much steam on our whistle. Pentecost means "fifty." Some of ours is "fifty-fifty."

Millions are shut up in fixed systems of finality, both doctrinally and experimentally. They are bound, and frightened to move out with God in His great, green pasture. Tied to a stake, the pasture is all gone. The stream is moving beneath them, but they fear to let go the bank, separate from past attachments, and trust themselves to the current of God's onward move in restoration of truth once lost. Heathen, not indoctrinated, realize God's sovereignty of operation. They get the most.

Both Jonah and Balaam had the "gift of prophecy," but were largely graceless men. We need holiness of heart. It is a vital error to substitute light for heat. "Knowledge puffeth up, but charity (love), edifieth." Read 1 Cor. 13, once more. Be not drawn away from "the simplicity that is in Christ." Faith gets the most, love works the most, humility keeps the most. God's vision comes to humble men. He who seeks to make foot-prints and do sublime things is a failure. A self-conscious poser is a loser. Let self intrude and the whole is spoiled. Excellency is proportioned to the oblivion of self. A fisher for compliments has lost God. Self-consciousness must go. We are too conscious of the other fellow also. We need God-consciousness.

Humility, not infallibility, becomes fallen creatures. Water seeks the low places. Infallibility is the apex of Satan's proposition to man. The deepest repentance and humility, our own frailty and weakness, must be realized before we can know God's strength. Receding guns vanish out of sight after firing. And so must we, for safety. We need to be "broken."

Zealous religionists care only for the triumph of their particular doctrine or party. Anyone can have a standing and prestige if they will but work for some party's selfish interest. To stand for principle alone is another thing. Such are little understood. A selfish person can never understand unselfishness.

Most people need to carry heavy to keep steady. Waiting is God's common instrument of providential discipline. He tries acceptable men in the furnace of affliction. Most great men accomplish their life work in a short time. It burns them up. No man creates his own times. The times create the man.

The devil has no conscience, the "flesh" has no sense. Then why expect them to behave themselves in meeting? We should act and speak as in the immediate, conscious presence of God. Settle all differences before His throne also. Protect others' good name and they will speak well of you. Our influence, for good or evil, sets waves in motion only to break on the shores of eternity. A little push, just at the right time, may hurl a soul to hell, or lift it to Heaven.

Priest-craft is passing away. Men think for themselves today, not one man for thousands. The Holy Spirit will not resign His authority to any man or party. We have too much dogmatic controversy. To analyze Christ is to destroy Him. Terms mean little, except for conscious realization.

The human soul is naturally lazy toward God. All the weakness of humanity is shown up under the "Pentecostal baptism." We have but one life, one chance. It will pass quickly. Are our spiritual stocks inflated? Better take account.

"Seven years of plenty," in the beginning of the Pentecostal outpouring. "Seven years of famine," with the advent of the World War. We prophesied of this in the beginning. We also saw that the churches would largely go into it. This brought a hardening over the whole religious situation. What next? Luther looked for the "end of the world" in his day.

"Know no man after the flesh." What would this do to most of our meetings, which have become a babel of confusion and over-developed, fleshly sociability? They are as hard to sink into God in as the Dead Sea. The waves of human enthusiasm and zeal have no rest. In "Azusa" days when two saints met they invariably went to prayer. We could scarcely keep off our knees. In those days we had to dig the preachers out of the sawdust. Today we cannot keep them off the platform. They make a fearful howl if not invited.

Jesus in town would stop the traffic. He would stand in a class by Himself. But we need men with His character and spirit to handle the situation. Few men are big enough to deal with the difficulties, questions, and the people in the missions, successfully. We need more wisdom, patience, humility, love, everything. What would Jesus do? We need deliverance from strife and confusion, a deeper consecration and death to self. Human zeal and enthusiasm, the spirit of joking and lightness, in the preacher or Assembly, must result in ruin. If we have lost our "pilgrim and stranger" role we are not Bible Christians. Cares of life, deceitful-ness of riches, covetousness, etc., are the "canker-worms." Most Christians get their "oil" at the gasoline station.

The organized church has largely proven a tremendous framework of form and ceremony, built up against God. The Spirit had no right of way. They would offer violence if pressed by the claims of Jesus, as in His day. Are we not drifting also? Large churches, popular evangelism, sensational advertising, etc., etc. "One man" meetings, order of services announced beforehand. Is this "Pentecostal"? We have got to leave room for God somewhere. We need not be lawless either. We have gotten the Ark on a "new cart" again. God smote Uzzah for this mistake, and David left it by the way. When they put it on the "priests' shoulders" again all went well.—2 Sam. 6. We advertise "miracles," wonderful preachers, etc., and have the crowds following the bill-board "signs," to the next big meeting. But are the "signs following"? Men love the spectacular. What we do not understand is "wonderful."

God's fire falls on sacrifice, as in Elijah's case. The greater the sacrifice, consecration, the more fire. But Ananias and Sapphira are in the mission work today. They are striking the Peters dead, with their money and influence. The man who is paying the full price in consecration has very little voice in the meetings. Then multitudes are evidently serving the Lord for what they can get out of it, in selfish blessings, etc. There are plenty of "rice Christians" in America. A young man will sacrifice everything, even life if need be, for the girl he loves. Do we really love the Lord?

The Holy Ghost was given to witness of the "resurrection," not to help propagate every little fellow's pet notion and theory. The truth discovers itself to, and makes its dwelling with, the humble. The "baptism" is only a beginning, not the end all. He is to "guide us into all truth." The early church started out with it. We are coming back to the beginning, ready to start, from the church's fall

The Christian life is a "travail." We are on probation until finally delivered. "He must increase, but I must decrease." Luther's translation of the New Testament, the greatest work of his age, did not bear his name. It read, "The New Testament—German— Wittenberg." Here was self-abnegation. These are times of general sacrilege and peculiar presumption. Beware of undue familiarity with God. "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." Let the lid stay on the Ark.—1 Sam. 6:19. Daniel, and John the Revelator, fell on their faces when they met God.

A woman after child-birth is subdued, but has a joy that no other knows. The father does the shouting. Demonstration is not necessarily deep joy. Crude spirits trample the gentle spirit of Jesus under foot. Possibly ninety per cent of religious demonstrations since the early church's fall has been human. Note the continuous warring sects, strife of creeds, contention, and even inquisition.

Keep free from party spirit if you would have a clear vision, and speak the truth at all times, without fear or favor. Preach not to please a "party," but to raise a standard. Most movements go 'round a circle. They wear a rut so deep they cannot see out. God has just one "issue." That is "Jesus."

We have too much human manipulation and wizardry. Like the Church of England we must get up, sit down, now do this, now that. Where does "Pentecost" come in at? How can we follow both the Lord and the leader? "No man can serve two masters." Suppose we are in the spirit of prayer? Some leaders like control of their congregations completely. They change the order of service at their own sweet will. We do not believe in lawlessness, but the Spirit must surely have some control. A certain amount of government is necessary at times. But we speak of the abuse of it.

God gathered a lot of seasoned saints together at "Azusa" in the beginning. They were subdued and purified through months of prayer, and years of experience with God. We live in a light, jazzy age, since the war. They refuse the fires of purifying, holiness of heart. We have an atmosphere of confusion. There is too much "professional" work, railroading seekers through, like a "quack" doctor's office. This produces a "fake" Pentecost, with spurious "tongues." The "singing in the Spirit" is also imitated. Men have learned to do these things without the Spirit, and suggest them to others for their imitation. We have even heard leaders call for any demonstration they wanted from the people. What would Peter say to such a demonstration? Many have promised an elephant, but brought forth a mouse. But these are only backslidden substitutions.

Old parties, who are found steeped in bitter, sectional, factional positions, can never be used of God for the next move of the Spirit. History repeats itself. They are in no condition. It requires a "new lump," always. God's people are free-born. Only he who has been in the "mount," has seen the heavenly vision, and received the spirit of obedience, can overleap the chasms, and climb the mountains of doubt and fear to victory. We need men "full of faith and of the Holy Ghost," to lead the people to victory.

Let us appreciate our blood-bought liberty in the Holy Ghost. The early church lost this, and slid into the "dark ages," through compromise with temporal and ecclesiastical abuse and power. We are being tested today on the very same lines. History repeats itself. We are bound for the "dark ages" as a people, if we fail to be warned. "Be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage."

Chapter 10: A Plea For Unity

Dr. Philip Schaff, the well-known scholar, has happily declared: "The divisions of Christendom will be overruled at last for a deeper and richer harmony, of which Christ is the key-note. In Him and by Him all problems of theology and history will be solved. In the best case a human creed is only an approximate and relatively correct expression of revealed truth, and may be improved by the progressive knowledge of the church, while the Bible remains perfect and infallible. Any higher view of the authority of creeds is unprotestant and essentially Romanizing."

The editor of "The Friend of Russia" writes: "God's people can never get together on human creeds and disciplines. They are too narrow and changeable. We have a foundation that is broad enough to hold all. Christ Himself is this foundation. In Christ, all God's people are one, irrespective of race, color, social standing, or creed."

A certain preacher of standing, in a prominent church outside the Pentecostal ranks, addressing the "baptized" saints not long ago, said: "As we look upon the church divided, upon the sect-ridden multitude, none of whom can see alike, how our tried souls cry out for that original love, and we will never win the world on any other plane. It was said of the early Christians, by the beholding heathen, 'Behold how these Christians love one another!' While we are breaking up into sects, creeds, isms, and doctrines, our love is dying, our churches will be empty, and our people lost. Your beautiful Pentecostal work, so full of promise, where God has designed to come in and fill souls and wonderfully baptize them in the Holy Ghost, is broken and peeled and ruined for lack of love." Is not this a terrible indictment?

Eric Booth-Clibborn, one of our own people, who recently died in Africa, wrote: "Before the terrible agony of Gethsemane, our blessed Savior prayed earnestly that His disciples might be one even as He was one with the Father. As long as the church was contending with the onrushing forces of heathenism, it was kept pure and united, but as soon as it lost out in this conflict, the warfare instead of being with the outside forces of evil, was now within the church's walls. There arose terrible controversies. The Ecumenical Councils called for the purpose of peace and unity, brought nothing but dishonor and disgrace on the name of Christ, by the hatred and dissension manifested there. I have been in many places where 'Pentecost' had 'gone to seed.' They had been busy setting the other fellow right, and advancing some pet theme or doctrine. As to proving the other fellow to be wrong, this will take care of itself as we get on the forward march."

Someone has said: "On the day of battle one and the same feeling animates every bosom; after the victory they become divided." And this is only too sadly true of God's people.

Shortly after the World War started the Kaiser of Germany had a medal struck, with the following inscriptions on either side: "I know no parties more, I know only Germans." "The King called, and they all came." And should not the church be at least as wise?

John Wesley wrote the following: "I am sick of opinions. Give me a humble, gentle, lover of God and man, a man full of mercy and good fruits; without partiality or hypocrisy. Let my soul be with such Christians, wheresoever they are and whatsoever opinion they are of. Whosoever doeth the will of my Father, the same is my brother."

In an article against bigotry Wesley wrote: "Bigotry is too strong an attachment to, or fondness for, our own party or opinion. How unwilling men are to allow anything good in those who do not in all things agree with themselves. We must not narrow the cause of God to our own party, but rejoice in goodness, wherever it appears."

Wesley writes again: "May we not all be of one heart, though not of one opinion? Without doubt we may. There was a time when all Christians were of one mind, as well as of one heart; so great grace was upon them all, when they were first filled with the Holy Ghost. But no animosities are so deep and irreconciliable as those that spring from disagreement in religion." What a terrible statement, yet how true.

The recovery of the church to unity again, as at the beginning, has been the fond dream of many of the noblest minds in Christendom. Melancthon's famous maxim was: "In essentials unity, in doubtful points liberty, in all things charity." Melancthon labored for the unity of the body of Christ unceasingly in his day. We hear some saints say this can never be. Then we shall have to reject the last prayer of our Savior, in John 17. Possibly few would care to confess that the Lord could not restore them to this right Christian spirit. Then if myself, why not the other fellow? Am I of so much more hopeful fiber than he?

As a matter of history even the Greek Orthodox Church has looked forward hopefully since the Seventh Ecumenical Council, A.D. 787, to a future Eighth one (not yet held), when all the controversies of Christendom will be settled. They know they should be.

We are told that when General Allenby took Jerusalem he did not know what to do with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. He could not find a real Christian committee to entrust with its care. The Christian sects hate each other so there. There are an even dozen of them worshipping under the same roof. So he was obliged to appoint an old Moslem to make up the timetable for the services of these various sects, and to keep them from actually killing one another in their religious fervor (a thing that often happens there). Under the old regime the Turkish guard kept order. This old Moslem laughingly tells the visitor that he is there to keep the Christians from killing one another. And he tells no lie. Can anyone tell us about how long it ought to take to get this Moslem converted at this rate?

History records of the Crusaders of the Middle Ages, the following: "The pious pilgrims entering humble and barefoot within the walls of Jerusalem, burned the Jews in their Synagogue, and watered with the blood of thousands of the Saracens the places where they came to trace the sacred footsteps of the Prince of Peace." Is it any great wonder the Jews have not been saved? Think of the "pogroms" in Russia, instituted by the Greek Orthodox Church against the Jews. The State Church in Europe, for centuries past, whenever waxing especially zealous, would pledge themselves to plunder the Jews.

Someone has said: "The passions never show themselves more violently than in religious discussion." It is a fact also that in no part of the world have there been more terrible wars than among Christians. Instance the one just past. These things being facts how it behooves us all to see that we have the Spirit of Christ, and not that of religion. Someone has also declared, "Factions are pitiless, and what should excite their compassion, does but inflame their anger." Multitudes seem to really think seriously that "the end justifies the means" in religion.

Luther in his day writes of the spirit of disunity among the various sects and divisions of the Roman Church, as follows: "Priests, monks, and laymen have come to hate each other more than the Christians hate the Turks. Each one is attached to his own sect, and despises all others. The unity and charity of Christ are at an end." So it appeared to Luther.

The historian, D'Aubigne, writing of the Reformation in Switzerland, says: "The Dominicans and Augustines and Capuchins, so long at enmity, were reduced to the necessity of living together (because of poverty); a foretaste of hell for these poor monks."

In the Council where Luther and Zwingli finally met, Zwingli plead with Luther to be reconciled to the Swiss reformers. "Let us confess, said he, our union in all things in which we agree; and as for the rest let us remember that we are brothers. There will never be peace between the churches if, while we maintain the grand doctrine of faith, we cannot differ on secondary points." Luther was very slow to yield this point, and as a consequence of his uncharitable and violent spirit he fell into a fit of melancholy and despair in which he felt God Himself had forsaken him. And so He doubtless had, for the time. Love is its own avenger, and Luther had violated that very principle. And that is the exact trouble with a multitude of preachers who suffer at times great depression of spirit. It is the law of retribution, rebounding on their own heads. When Zwingli and Luther finally did get together they were astonished to find in how many things they agreed. How much better it would be today if we would seek to find how many things we agree in, instead of how many we can differ in.

H.L Hastings has written as follows: "It seems to have been a favorite device of the devil for ages to nickname, and thus separate and persecute the people of God, for whose unity the Savior so earnestly prayed." John Bunyan was very crude. He wrote as follows: "Since you desire to know by what name I wish to be called, I desire, if God should count me worthy, to be called a Christian, a believer, or any other name sanctioned by the Holy Ghost. But as for those factious titles, such as Anabaptists, etc., I believe they came neither from Jerusalem nor Antioch, but rather from hell and Babylon, for they naturally tend to divisions, and ye may know them by their fruits."

Hastings writes further, of conditions shortly after the early church's downfall: "In those old days, when men whose kingdom was 'of this world,' had assumed authority over the flock of God, and had established organizations in which politics was more potent than piety, and where faith instead of coming by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, was settled by the decisions of councils and the decrees of despots, etc."

Hastings writes of James Murdoch, author of the Syriac translation of the New Testament, as follows: "With a well-balanced mind, resisting all tendencies to extremes, a wise sagacity to detect eternal principles, as distinguished from temporary forms of expression, with boldness to cast aside traditional fetters, and a breadth of view which comprehended a subject in all its bearings, his devotion to truth and righteousness was supreme. Questions of minorities, majorities, and policies, were of little account in his eyes."

It is said of Fryth, one of the early reformers: "Instead of propagating his particular opinions and forming divisions, he clung only to the faith which saves, and advanced the dominion of the true unity. This," adds the historian, "is the mark of the great servants of God." We are to "contend earnestly" for the great fundamental saving principles of the Gospel, not each for some little pet theory.

Cranmer, another of the reformers, did not embrace any particular party or age; but possessing a free and philosophical mind, he weighed all opinions in the balance of his judgment, taking the Bible for his standard.

How different another character of those times, of which we have far too many today. It is said of him: "Of a restless disposition, unable to enjoy any repose, always requiring new pursuits, he was a torment to all around him. Confusion was his native element; he seemed born for contention, and when he had no adversaries he fell afoul of his friends."

Someone has recently written as follows: "It is a common thing to read in the daily papers such words as these, 'Only union men need apply.' And it is becoming a common thing to read in the Pentecostal papers: 'Affiliating brethren are invited.' What is the difference, asks this writer. And he answers, 'No difference, except one is a secular union, the other is a religious union.' "

Every fresh division or party in the church gives to the world a contradiction as to the oneness of the body of Christ, and the truthfulness of the Gospel. Multitudes are bowing down and burning incense to a doctrine rather than Christ. The many sects in Christendom are, to say the least, evidence to the world that Christians cannot get along together. Written creeds only serve to publish the fact that we cannot understand the Word of God alike, and get together on it. Is the Word of God, then, so hard to understand? They who establish a fixed creed bar the way to further progress.

It is said of the mighty evangelist, Charles G. Finney, that he "forged his theology on the anvil of prayer, in his own heart." He was not bound by the systems of his day.

The Spirit is laboring for the unity of believers today, for the "one body," that the prayer of Jesus may be answered, "that they all may be one, that the world may believe." But the saints are ever too ready rather to serve a system or party, to contend for religious, selfish, party interests. God's people are shut up in denominational coops. Like chicks they must get their food only in these, their own coops. "Error always leads to militant exclusion. Truth evermore stoops to wash the saints' feet." One feels even in visiting many Pentecostal missions today that they do not belong there, simply because they have not lined up officially with that particular brand or variety. These things ought not to be. "In one Spirit are we all baptized, into one body."—1 Cor. 12:13. We should be as one family, which we are, at home in God's house anywhere.

We belong to the whole body of Christ, both in Heaven and on earth. God's church is one. It is a terrible thing to go about dismembering the "body of Christ." How foolish and wicked the petty differences between Christians will appear in the light of eternity. Christ is the "issue." Not some doctrine about Him. The Gospel leads to Him. It exalts Christ, not some particular doctrine, etc. To "know Christ" is the alpha and the omega of the Christian faith and practice.

"The church was in the beginning a community of brethren, guided by a few of the brethren."—D'Aubigne. "One is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren."—Matt. 23:8. We have too much "leadership" spirit. These divide the "body," separate the saints.

We are coming around the circle, from the early church's fall, back to primitive love and unity, in the "one body" of Christ. This is doubtless the church for which Christ is coming, "without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing."

2.  MY STORY - "THE LATTER RAIN"

BY F. BARTLEMAN

"Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain"

(Zech. 10:1)

Published by JOHN M. PIKE, COLUMBIA, S. C

1909

Introduction

Introduction

"If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know of the teaching," John 7:17.

Constant, perfect obedience to the divine will is sure to bring new revelations of the possibilities of grace and glory. Only a few are willing to pay the price - to keep step with God. The author of this booklet enjoys the light of the Pentecostal experience, and has discovered the way into "the secret place of the Most High," where God speaks to the one who will in stillness wait to hear His voice. Our brother has been privileged to see things and hear voices that are never seen or heard on land or sea. In the following pages he writes on subjects in which every Christian should be interested, but more especially those who are pressing the work of the world-wide evangelism.

We are evidently nearing the end of the present dispensation, and the foregleams of a new era are already seen by the faithful watchers. Only a few positively knew of the coming of the flood. Only a few were notified of the coming and presence of the world’s redeemer. Only a few are now privileged to see the gilding of the margin of the cloud which foretells the "rapture of the saints," to be followed by the world’s darkest night. The design of this booklet is to stimulate the glorious expectation of the saint, and also sound the note of warning to the thoughtless, and to impel to new effort in preparation for the coming crisis.

J. M. PIKE.

Preface

God knows I would rather die than to lead a single soul astray.

The contents of this book are offered without apology; with an exhortation to all to seek God’s best. The responsibility we prefer to leave with the reader alone.

Seek God according to the understanding He gives you of Himself. Seek His will for you. If all were honestly seeking God the question would be solved, the difficulty removed.

Now to my precious wife and living children, who have sustained me in this work by their prayers and loving sympathy, and to the sweet memory of darling little Esther, who has gone on before, and has furnished me with inspiration through her heaven-ordained ministry in my behalf, I dedicate this book. She being dead, yet speaketh. I commend all to God.

F. BARTLEMAN.

Michener, Pa.

August 19, 1908.

Chapter 1: My Story

Life testimony is always of interest, especially in such connection as the present. Hence we venture to preface with these remarks. Born on a farm, of humble parentage, in the south-east corner of Pennsylvania, December 14, 1871, my life naturally bade well for a very uneventful one. But the purpose of God, so carefully concealed in every life, takes little note of circumstance or environment. His is a sovereign choice. Ours but to fall in with Him and obey. The power is with us to frustrate the whole. And most people do. But, “before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee” (said God of Jeremiah), “and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee” (separated thee to Me); “I have appointed thee a prophet unto the nations.” Divine preference we cannot explain, but our highest joy should be to simply, contentedly work out faithfully His purpose for us. All such are “greatest” in the kingdom of heaven. A desire for greatness constitutes us “least.” “Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not,” Jer. 45:5.

But children of seeming mere accident oft-times receive even an extraordinary commission from the skies. This is hid with Him. “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Come and see.” Oh, that God’s weak ones might be encouraged to obey their convictions from Him. “The lame take the prey,” Isa. 33:23. The weak and foolish and despised are used that no flesh might glory (1 Cor. 1:29). God must have the honor. Evidence, the miner boy, Evan Roberts, rocking the cradle of the present world-wide movement (brooding) of the Spirit. Personally, I thank God for even a humble place in the “Latter Rain,” the “Last Call” of God. I barely entered in. The rafters were almost too low (as at Azusa St.). The Topeka flood rose seven feet, and so must this, submerging every intellectual conceit.

The following is written for the glory of God, and to inspire some soul to obedience to individual call. No work or calling of God is small. “Now unto Him.” Born a weakly child, at one year of age I was given up to die, but the Lord seemingly had need of even me. I grew up practically an invalid, and was consequently left much to myself and solitary thought, doubtless escaping many prevalent vices thereby. I became of a philosophical turn of mind, naturally, and my thoughts were thus early drawn toward a search for God and good. I was much misunderstood, and few prophesied any good of me; thought I would amount to little. We must let God judge. I seemed to have gotten into the wrong connection, largely, even the wrong family.

Hard work was our lot. Several times my life came near being destroyed, before I finally reached service for God. Mother was good and kind, but had not much religious light. She could not lead me into the kingdom. I think she had not herself been “born again.” She had no church relation. But she taught me bed-time prayers. Her life was one of suffering and hard toil and fear. Father had been a Roman Catholic, but left his church, through the perfidy of a priest, and had become practically an infidel. On neither side had preacher or priest ever been heard of in the family. Doubtless some had gone home to heaven, but left no particular light or testimony to shine on my path. It was all dark. Through this religious gloom I was left to grope my way to the God who had already called, and was calling me.

The light really sprang up in thy soul for the first time at twenty-one, and for one year I followed it closely, yieldingly, desperately, as my only hope, with little instruction or particular encouragement, guided only by Him. I was as ignorant as a heathen of its real meaning, or of the plan of salvation. God led me Himself. I had heard almost no preaching up to the time I became converted. From a child, however, I had hungered for God, though I scarce understood my real need. At sixteen my health became so poor I despaired of life and sought help from the skies, but only the mute stars answered me. However, God knew me.

Strangest of all, my then unsaved aunt had prophesied when I was but four years old that “Frank would be a preacher.” Of this prophecy I knew positively nothing until I had been preaching at least five years. My aunt herself was converted sometime after me.

At twenty-two I was suddenly, gloriously saved. Alone in my room on the fourth floor of a boarding house, in Philadelphia, Oct. 15, 1893, the matter was finally settled, the darkness gave way, floods of light illuminated my whole being, the burden rolled off. God spoke Himself into my soul, made Himself powerfully known. I ran down stairs, and a block and a half, to a little Gospel Mission I knew of but had never entered, and breaking in on them told my simple but eloquent story of what had just occurred. It broke up the service and everybody in the house. A scene of glory filled the place.

I immediately united with the Grace Baptist Church, at Broad and Berks St., and Russell H. Conwell, the pastor, baptized me. Upon receiving my experience, he declared that God had chosen me for some special service. God grant that I may realize at least His full purpose for me, whatever that may be.

A few months later I realized His call most definitely to me to preach the Gospel, and began the preparation. I was prepared just about this time, through the study of the Word, and my own heart’s hunger, by the light of the Spirit alone. I had never heard it preached or testified to until eight full months after I had entered in, and had been trying to tell others what had happened to me. Soon after my call to the ministry I left my business, stepped out by faith, plunged into slum mission work, and later began traveling as colporteur and evangelist.

What knowledge I secured for preaching came through night theological school, books (often going hungry to secure them), and practical experience, mostly derived on the wing. I felt there was little time to lose. From the first I had a desperate passion for souls, and the conception of a great Savior, who could reach them. My vision was very large. I was full of faith and zeal. I was reaching out after the power of God to effect this, and realized many precious and powerful anointings of the Holy Ghost, for service.

Various demonstrations, manifestations, have been mine for years. These, however, I regarded as but incidental, in the main. My eyes were on Him, my desire toward Him, the Holy Ghost, Jesus enthroned. Nor have I cared for theological distinctions, or systems, particularly. There are many schools. All hold some good. No one has possessed all. Conscious realization has been my aim. According to faith and conception it has been unto me. The mind of the Spirit for us at the time should be our quest.

I soon found out, however, that I was reaching out, desiring and realizing, beyond the holiness people, with whom I had become later associated. They seemed to little understand me. God had led me step by step in contact with various religious bodies for perfecting. Many, like myself, for years have been being prepared for present developments by God, through enlargement of vision of possibilities, the mind of God and personal desire for realization. “A body didst Thou prepare for Me,” again, as for every fresh revelation, manifestation of the Spirit of God, in the line of development to the final consummation of “the sons of God.” These are the “bruised ones,” of necessity, that in time He comes to set at liberty. They are misunderstood, abused, resisted, persecuted, by those who think they thus even do God service. The natural man “receiveth not” in just whatsoever measure he fails to prove up. They persecute him that is born of the Spirit in greater degree, just as of old. The subtle principle of jealousy, unbelief. The Pharisees of old. The same principle holds good in the natural world. Columbus is loaded down with chains, etc. The next generation build our monuments, after present truth brought forth becomes established.

I soon began to travel extensively in the States. Forty-three have been traversed, up to date, for God.

Married at twenty-eight, in the will of God, with a three-fold witness direct from the skies some weeks before, at the same moment to myself, my wife (now), in different parts of the city of Pittsburg, and a friend five miles away, as to the mind of God favoring this union, I settled down for a little time. But soon the missionary spirit was urging me to still farther fields, the region still beyond. A certain vagabondism in the blood, some one has said, is necessary for the making of a good missionary. Such was Paul. I may have had the former qualification at least.

The Spirit had shown me long time before I traveled South that such was in His will, at future date. This trip was finally made on the Moody Gospel wagon, from Chicago, for a starter, after a walk of three hundred miles to reach that city. Later I traveled a thousand miles through the Southland on foot, to preach to the destitute and forsaken. This was before my marriage, however. For some years God had shown I should reach California also for Him. My heart travels worldwide to-day for souls, especially in prayer. Jerusalem and Palestine have been promised me ever since I realized my call to preach, if I keep faithful. I must reach them, I feel, if only to pray. The world-wide call to evangelism is heavy upon me. But I anticipate.

Finally we left Pittsburg for Colorado, driven by my ill health. God’s agent to move me. A year later we reached California.

Again a strange premonition must mentioned. When we left Pittsburg I remarked quietly that we would be back in just five years. The statement passed out of my mind. I never recalled it until last spring (1907), when, after some months of prayer, because of calls from the East we had become assured it was the will of God for us to return. I had never had anything but the very strongest desire to remain on the Pacific Coast since reaching it. Just before we started back across the Continent the Spirit reminded me of my declaration, just five years before, and I recognized it prophecy. But in the meantime God had wrought out His purpose in my life, as I shall now declare; my little part in the “Pentecost,” for which He brought me to the Coast and to Los Angeles. And the news was to be carried by myself in person back across the Continent, where I had before been. Two years were spent in Northern California before the Los Angeles experience.

And now comes both the gladdest and saddest experience of my life, and that to which I owe practically all of present specific realization, attainment and commission. All of present interest and recital circles around this. God had given me Isa. 58:12, when lamenting the destitute condition of my lineage, spiritually. “They that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places; thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in.” Little Esther was born to us in Pennsylvania. We carried her to California with us. In Colorado she nearly slipped away from, us. She was a frail child, too tender for this hard, cruel world. But we kept her by prayer. The poor man’s “one little ewe lamb” was pleaded, and God could not take her. But in California little Ruth came to live with us. (And later John Wesley.)

Little “Queen” Esther was very spiritual. One day when only three years old she sensed my danger by the Spirit, a mile away, at home, while I was digging in a deep ditch. She pulled her mother to her knees and pleaded with her to pray for papa. They did so. On coming home we compared the time, and it was exactly the time I got out of the ditch, just before tons of sand caved in that would have crushed and buried me. Many times she was used to bring the smile to my then care-worn face, though herself a great sufferer. She used to take delight in inciting me to smile. “Etchie (Esther) make papa aff” (laugh), she would gleefully cry. God knows I needed it. Sickness and sore privations in His service had well nigh finished me. I had come to California (as I thought) because of this. “Thou didst hide Thy face; and I was troubled.” I needed His smile. She used to sing “Beauty for Ashes Here” in her childish way until my heart would well nigh break under its load. God was seeking, to comfort me even through her, but I never realized it as I should until she was gone. I never appreciated her as I should. I was too much bowed down. I kissed her one morning for the last time in consciousness, little realizing it was the last. Ah, that I could recall those days again, clasp her in my arms and give her the time and attention that I should, to get acquainted with her before she must leave me. But I did not, and the opportunity is gone forever, at least here below. I allowed myself to be swallowed up with sorrow, “the spirit of heaviness.” May some other soul be warned. Some things can never be recovered. The awakening was awful, when too late. And yet I would not dare call her back if I could. But oh, the loss, the sorrow, for a lifetime. I must now wait until I can meet her there. My heart must not grow hardened. God forbid that. I must not, cannot, dare not forget I miss her so. Only God’s grace can comfort and heal. God in mercy lightens the sorrow, as He said He would. Our little ones slip away so easily. Let us be warned. Oh, make the most of them. You will not miss or appreciate them till too late, when they are gone. It was a new experience for me. I had hoped my little Esther would stand by me on the mission field. But God saw better.

At this time I had lost the forward vision of younger years. Beaten and rejected by the ecclesiastical powers. This was saddest of all. The “hardening” of the years of unbelief in the people had also affected me. I had lost my zeal. To be sure I expected to remain true to my calling, but had little faith for anything much to happen, except to hold my own, and possibly gather a few souls in new fields. I thought with most people then that Jesus would soon come, of very necessity, if there should be left anyone for Him to come for, and deliver a little frightened crowd out of a dark corner. This had become the popular pessimistic view. How we excuse our failures, lack of faith. No wonder Jesus said, “Howbeit, when the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” That question was directed to the Church, first. The “fearful and unbelieving” shall have their part in the lake of fire, from among this class, for failing God. A multitude of souls that faith should reach are involved in this sin of omission. We are but just learning its real meaning. To be sure wicked men in general shall wax worse and worse, and the nominal church will continue to grow colder, as a whole, but there should be a numerous company coming up while these are going down, and for this the Spirit labors especially to-day. While comparatively they will always be a small company, yet numerically they shall yet be a mighty host, especially when augmented by the increase from the ripe heathen fields that God is calling to-day in this last outpouring of the “latter rain.” The Christian (?) nations are cursed with light refused, and become darkness. There is no contradiction of Scripture statement, foreknowledge, in this. The highways and hedges are also being scoured for the “last invitation.” The “eleventh hour” workers are going forth.

The ground was prepared in the old dispensation, the seed sown in the early centuries, the “former rain.” The “dark ages” represent the seed lying in the ground. In Luther’s time the blade sprang up, in Wesley’s time the ear was formed. Now the full corn in the ear is being ripened and completed for the harvest. The “latter rain” comes just in time, to effect this. It must be gathered speedily or be lost, spoiled. The harvesters are being prepared to-day, through the “Pentecost.”

But I had lost sight of that which I had seen in part from the beginning, and had striven for for years. I had been beaten down. My faith for souls was practically all leaked out. He would now give me His faith. But as yet I did not see this. I must have definite preparation, dealing. And this time there must be no energy in the flesh. I must be finally prepared, individually, for the vision and the service, for the deposit of the Spirit necessary for to-day. We had fondly hoped that our little family might never be broken by cruel death, but oh, how little we know of what is best for us for the working Out of God’s plan. We must be broken, ground to a pulp, in order for the realization of God’s highest preparation for us. Some must be sacrificed for others’ good. Some are but born for this. It is the penalty for our broken state. But in the “restoration of all things,” all things will be restored. Our sacrifice will yield its increase then. “Hope thou in God.” We shall yet praise Him, together.

And so we moved to Los Angeles, in beautiful Southern California, just before Christmas, 1904. I had felt strangely drawn to this city for some time. It seemed somewhat to resemble Jerusalem of old, in its religious interests, of many and varied colors. Its mixed races and creeds, gathered from worldwide sources, and every State in our Union, made it a most interesting place. Possibly there is none other like it outside of old Jerusalem. God has His eye especially on it, for a multitude of reasons, in His plan. The people are coming that way. It is the American Mecca, Jerusalem for the Saint. And geographically exactly opposite old Jerusalem, also. We had only been in the city a short time when little Esther died. It was an awful awakening. I was staggered, stunned. Could I after all have mistaken the mind of God? The country seemed so beautiful. I had really thought to preserve her life longer through this change. I am afraid I also had thought to give too much attention to my own physical man. I felt I had earned a rest. I was very tired and worn. But oh, so many preachers have come to Southern California, only to backslide. This was not at all in God’s thought for me. Bless Him! He had a new service just ahead for me and must awaken. Man’s extremity is ever God’s opportunity. He brought me to my extreme. I was practically a failure, for my faith and zeal had waned. But I knew of no one who was doing any better. Many will testify to this. We had about run out generally before this change, individually in our work, while personally our hearts may have been clean, and true to God.

It was God’s preparation in helplessness, for the present work. The former wave of quickening had again receded, just as after Luther’s time, etc. God has brought us back up through the ages as a Church on stated waves of restoration. Each time the tide has brought us through the ages toward primitive realization, and the truth brought in on this wave in the purpose of God has been thus established. But when the pendulum has again swung back, the retrograde motion begun, or when the breathing spell has been had, the Church prepared for another step, the breath of God is again felt and we go up further and higher still; that part of the Church that can be moved. Our need has been felt and we have cried once more for help, and God sends it. Out of seeming failure to higher success still.

For years many have been prepared for just this present time, in all parts of the world, through various processes; the ministry of intercession given of the Spirit for its accomplishment, the thought and desire of God imparted. My own awakening, or reawakening to this plan, was brought about through the loss of my little girl. She was out three and one half years old, but “being dead she yet speaketh.” God must needs set fire to my barley fields to get my attention for this. And as Joab of old could only be delivered the message that way, so God could only speak to me His thought by driving me in desperation of need to Him to know what meaneth this. And then He told me. But my little treasure, my heart’s love, was gone. She was the price. She had done her work up early and gone home in the morning. A little “morning glory.”

She seemed to have been born for just this, and only this. She had passed through the great ordeal ahead of me, but left me here so lonely. My heart was crushed. I loved her as I loved my life. I would have died for her. I thought of the long trip from earth to heaven as it seemed to me then, for such a little mite of a pilgrim. Oh, how I longed to go forth with her, into the great beyond. She had been so frail. Too tender, the dear Lord told me, to stay here. He showed me He would take her, just before she died, but spared her until I was willing to give her up, that it might not quite kill me. He must have her. I did not yet know why. He showed me I was prolonging her suffering by my prayers. Then I gave her to Him. I know not how. He helped me, did it for me. Her pain ceased. She folded her own little hands, after reaching up for something she seemed to see and wanted, and she was gone.

The next day, beside the little black box that held all that was left of her to me, and that soon to be put away, God began to speak to me. Our covenant was renewed. He showed me He had done this to get my heart to Him in a new, deeper way. He told me my little Esther should still go hand in hand with me, after lost souls, but from the other side. Her memory, the memory of His dealing thus with me, should be the incentive. He told me not to mourn, but hasten to gather the multitude of souls He would give me in exchange for my little jewel, required of me. It was a fair exchange. I accepted it as such, though my heart was bleeding so. To the glory of God, I have never had a rebellious thought. He has kept me. I knew that He knew best and all was well. He told me it would not seem long, for He would fill my hands so full of work that I would take no account of passing time. And it has been so. The vision was a mighty one.

Oh, how swiftly the days pass by. Time flies so rapidly. More rapidly every day. And God is working rapidly. All things are hastening to a speedy end. It is drawing very near. The six thousand years of this poor old sin-stricken world’s labor and sorrow are almost over. The seventh shall surely usher in the Sabbath, the Millennium. I shall soon meet Esther again. We will rejoice together over our reward. She holds my hand. It grips me to the Throne. Jesus is coming soon. They that go forth weeping, bearing precious seed, shall come again with rejoicing very soon. All is well. Little Esther is saved from the distress to come. I soon shall be. When we pass over we shall only be sorry for those left behind. We will joy for those who meet us there. Heaven is so real to me now. The things of Eternity so sure. Life is so serious. Oh, we must not trifle.

In the presence of death how real eternal interests become. We now have treasure there. Something we dare not lose. They are gone, but thank God we know where. We sorrow not as those who have no hope. I carried the form of little Esther in the coffin on my knees in the carriage, and laid her away on a dark and stormy day, to await the resurrection morning, without a cloud or pain. Oh God, the freshness of that morning air! I seem to breathe it even now, in anticipation. By faith I do. And the messages given to the baptized saints to-day, through the blessed Holy Ghost, is that “Jesus is coming soon.” Let us keep busy for Him. He spoke to me one day on the street, some weeks after “Pentecost,” “Work quickly; I come quickly.” I stood still, with bated breath. Ah, it is a tremendous thing to change worlds after all. Far more than we know. After little Esther’s body was laid away I begged the Lord to open the door speedily. One week later I began services in Peniel Mission, Pasadena. There had been no quickening in the whole country. When God gave me the revelation and the promise beside that little coffined clay, He gave me a “gift” of mighty faith, for it was not mine. Mine was all gone. The spirit of obedience was given me. The spirit of prophecy came upon me. A mighty ministry of intercession fell upon me for the realization of the vision.

At that time I did not know of a single thing out of the ordinary taking place in the whole wide religious world. Nor had I expected it before, as I have just described. The Revival in Wales had started a few weeks before, but the news had not reached me. Evan Roberts I had not yet heard of. I knew nothing of brother Smale until months later, when he returned from Palestine and Wales. But my cry went up for “Pasadena for God.” I began to ask for and prophesy mighty things. The mission boys took up the cry. I marveled at my own change in faith. I only dimly understood it as yet, but it was God. The boys were “dug out” in that meeting, precious material, all called of God, and the Spirit soon thrust two of them under the Lake Avenue M. E. Church. They began to pray. The revival broke out there, and in two weeks two hundred knelt at the altar. The city became stirred. Workers came in from all directions. The saints became enthused. “Pasadena for God” became the cry.

I soon began to claim the whole State for Him. “Pentecost” was the thought that was laid on my heart. I was directed of the Spirit to write for the “Way of Faith,” and began to prophesy. God showed me He would use the “Way of Faith” to report the coming “Pentecost.” Workers began to come in from other States, and foreign fields. To every one who interviewed me as to the purpose of their leading here I would declare they had been sent for “Pentecost.” This was months before the Spirit was finally poured out in the present nature and form. The vision rapidly enlarged before my mind, faith steadily increased. I prophesied more and more. Indeed, through all the past distress, the fluctuations of feelings and zeal, my faith has never changed, has not been in anywise materially affected by it. It was given from the heart of the great God, His eternal purpose, buried in Him from the ages, as sure as the Rock itself. The ministry of intercession was the most real and tremendous. Indeed when Zion travails is when she must bring forth. I was in pain, as a woman, to be delivered. It seemed as though I carried a nation on my heart. In fact I did. My concern grew to the nation, then the world. My heart pumped out such energy that it seemed it must break down. It seemed my mind would be sapped of its very blood through the tremendous concern, solicitude and agony of those fifteen months of solid prayer prior to the final “outpouring” in the Spring of 1906.

Day and night the Spirit was heavy upon me for this, until it seemed that I must die. My precious wife remarked to a friend that I would die (I did not hear it), but God promised that I should “not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” “They that have gathered it, shall eat it, and praise the Lord.” The neighbors would frequently hear me groan in spite of all I could do, and would ask if I was sick. I was, for the sins of the people. “The groanings that cannot be uttered” had seized me. I was in birth pangs. At night I would roll and groan in my sleep, and wife declared I was pleading for souls even then. The mighty divine compassion, travail, agony for souls had gripped me, and I could not shake it off. The child must be brought forth. No one else could possibly feel this as I did, except such as might be similarly exercised. Language utterly fails to describe.

I looked and listened far and wide for some one who could enter into this with me. But I found none. (There was a single exception. I must mention dear Brother Boehmer, who helped me much.) Of course there were some, but God hid them away from me. No man really seemed, however, to “stir himself up to take hold on God” in an effective way. None seemed but in a very small measure to understand my tremendous concern. Most seemed to be burdened only for themselves, if indeed at all.

God put me through about three months of the most excruciating heart-searching, individually, after the loss of my little darling, until I had no heart or desire for myself, but my life seemed to literally depend on seeing others helped. I could not live except for this, and only for this. In no other way could I escape myself. Friends came to me during this season of heart-searching and tried to lift me up, but I refused, for I knew that God had placed me there, and He only might bring me out, after His work was done with me, lest I lose the benefit.

But God “saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor,” Isa. 69:16. It is even so very largely today. And this in spite of this most wonderful of heaven’s offered privileges. For this God wonders. Read the requirement of God in Ezek. 9. The slaughter weapon follows the sealing. Only those found crying and sighing, for the abominations, are spared. And that long centuries before Christ. Ah, let the “priests weep between the porch and the altar” indeed. Thank God, since the “latter rain’ was born in Wales, and brought up in India, the floods are being poured upon the dry ground, in California, and the nation, and world-wide, in Pentecostal power. And “there is lifting up,” from the pall of unbelief and fear, spiritual depression, hardness and ecclesiastical deadlock of the centuries more or less, but especially of these later days.

Later on during the summer of 1905, Brother Smale came home from Wales, and God made a Moses of him in Los Angeles. But before this the news had come of the awakening in the little principality in the British Isles, and it fanned our embers indeed into a flame. We began to really understand. As soon as I heard of Brother Smale and the meetings started in his church, I went at once, and the Spirit witnessed to the work in line with my vision. I threw myself into it with my whole soul. We had some wonderful manifestations, and the Holy Ghost largely led. I believe the dear Lord wanted to give us “Pentecost” then had we been able to enter in at that time. But we were not out in the clear. During those months preceding the “Pentecost” the Spirit was constantly seeking a company through which He could manifest Himself, and gather the people.

He used various agencies and instruments just as far as He could. But a company must be discovered to whom and through whom He could finally reveal Himself in the power that should prove the “burning bush” to draw the people aside again to see “what meaneth this.” To Him would “the gathering of the people be,” when He was fully revealed. All was expectancy, and growingly so, but He must “overturn, overturn, overturn it,” until He should come whose right it was. Jesus must have all the glory. This men were slow to render Him.

After the Spirit had made several desperate efforts, and a number had failed Him, He finally succeeded with a crude, weak “body,” that at least would not glory in the flesh in His presence, whatever may or may not have been the result since. There was little to commend itself even in this, aside from a desperate abandonment and childish faith. But these were the prerequisites for the beginning of the work.

A number of times during my ministry of prayer I had visions of the need, and the work to come. At one time God showed me His rejection of the church in its present condition. He repulsed them as He would an enemy marching against Him. Another time, while in prayer, I saw the whole human race before me. Their condition in God’s light was most pitiable. They resembled a large insane asylum turned out doors, in violence and blood, not knowing for what they so fiercely strove. Then the hill of Calvary appeared in the distance, as the murky atmosphere of earth lifted, and I saw Jesus on the cross. God said, “This is the cure.” These visions would appear before me like pictures, thrown upon the canvas of the mind. “Your young men shall see visions.”

Sometimes I would lie awake all night traveling in prayer all over the States, where I had gone before, and the Spirit would kindle fires of promise everywhere. I would prevail with God. This has been later realized. Many times I was led of the Spirit to some vacant hall, and there in the night hours I would pour out my soul and the answer would come, almost before I called. It was a perfect circuit. The Spirit made intercession “according to the will of God.” Whole congregations were surprisingly revived. The Spirit would fall upon them most unexpectedly, and on many individuals, at the same hour I prayed for them. They were generally puzzled to understand the meaning of it all. They saw no connection in the matter. But God was working. It was my ministry. The Spirit generally kept me in such close touch with the battle that I knew beforehand when some new development would take place, and prophesied of it. It always came to pass.

Like Abraham of old, God seemed to desire to confide in me. Ofttimes I seemed to be given the map of war. I seemed to sit at a great keyboard and press buttons of faith, while the electric currents of God’s potency would sensibly leap forth in all directions through the universe. I was literally consumed with desire of prayer. Sometimes the conflict in the heavenlies would be terrific in its shock. I seemed in my spirit to draw a knowledge of the spiritual conditions from the four quarters of the earth. This brought a terrific strain, naturally, on my whole physical and mental being. And yet this soul travail is one of the very sweetest experiences man can realize. The fellowship of Jesus’ sufferings.

One night, after a most severe agony of travail, prostrate on the floor, as I usually was, Jesus appeared to me, and oh, the memory of that meeting can never be erased from my mind, in time or eternity. He stayed some time (this was months before “Pentecost” came), and my soul and whole being seemed to flow down like molten metal before Him. I worshiped at His feet. I was lost in Him. Time and place were completely forgotten. There was no sense of them. It was the “pure Spirit”. I would have been there yet had He not withdrawn. Quicker than mind could think my spirit recognized Him, and I hailed Him, “Blessed Jesus,” worshipping Him. He was revealed to my soul. For days I seemed to walk in heaven, in that marvelous Presence.

It strengthened me greatly in my calling to intercession, and in assurance of the outpouring. He is showing Himself alive to many of the dear ones today. Many have caught sight of Him. Sometimes the travail of soul would become so great I could not live at home. God had taken away, almost, the spirit of preaching, except when I would prophesy of the coming work. I was practically shut up in my closet fifteen months. When the pressure would get too great I would go out, driven of the Spirit, and something always came to pass. Things would be stirred for God mightily. Then I would go back to prayer again. My message at such a time was generally an exhortation to prayer. Like the prophets of old I would sally forth, hurl myself upon the people like a whirlwind, then hide away again. Few people understood me, most feared me, but God knew what He was about. It is all clear now.

At one time I felt so pressed it seemed I must have help. The battle was so hard. The saints had largely quit praying, for the time. I always seemed to feel the change. When the people were praying I was relieved. When they failed the burden almost crushed me. I prayed for help, and the dear Lord showed me He was sending Mother Wheaton, the prison evangelist. I had met her months before. But she might have been in the heart of Africa for all I knew, at that particular time. Three days later she arrived. She looked me up, and I said, “Well, mother, you are here.” “Why, yes, what do you know about it?” I said, “The Lord told me you were coming.” Said she, “I was in Baltimore, about to start for Florida. The Spirit said, ‘Go to Los Angeles,’ and here I am.”

Very soon I had need of her. I became so burdened that night I could not go to bed. I believe I should have died attempting to sleep. I called on her for help, and she got under the burden with me. Together we prayed through. Many and marvelous were the experiences in prayer and preparation before God finally secured the little simple, humble company who received the Spirit in April, 1906. I threw myself full length in a last agony of prayer, my strength all gone, to reach this, and it came. My work was done. That particular burden left me then. It remained largely now for others to carry it on. I was so exhausted I could hardly live. I had prophesied of the final outpouring also, just before it came. But I still had one more most important part to play, in connection with the San Francisco Earthquake. During those fifteen wonderful months I had also been given a tract ministry, and thousands had been published and circulated, through faith. Just one month before the final outpouring, which kindled and spread the fire, the Spirit gave me the “Last Call.” In all, before “Pentecost” and since, over a quarter of a million of tracts have been published, all through faith. At this writing I have no stock on hand. Some forty odd messages in tract form were given me personally, by the Spirit. Some mistakes were made. I missed His mind sometimes. But the call has gone forth, the “last call,” world-wide. And I know God has separated and commissioned me to world-wide evangelism, as many others. “God, even God, the Lord, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined forth. Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him. He shall call to the heavens above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people. Gather My saints together unto Me; those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice. And the heavens shall declare His righteousness; for God is judge Himself. Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify unto thee; I am God, even thy God,” Psalm 50:1-7. This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.

“When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like unto them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing. Then said they among the nations, The Lord hath done great things for them. The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad.” “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Though he goeth on his way weeping, bearing forth the seed; he shall come again with joy, bringing his sheaves with him,” Psalm 126:1-6.

Judgment, also, is beginning, at the house of God. (1 Peter 4:17). It must be sifted, shaken (Heb. 12:25-29). “A noise shall come even to the end of the earth; for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations, He will plead with all flesh,” Jer. 25: 31. Is not this being realized today? What mean as all this concern, interest and distress? Men’s hearts are failing them for fear. They are not prepared. God is working, pressing men with a last mighty, world-wide call for their final decision. I would rather live six months with the privileges of to-day than fifty ye of ordinary time. “A sound of battle” is also in the land. “Destruction cometh.” The nations are arming to the teeth in greed and horrid purpose of murder. They both hate and fear one another. The waves of lawlessness rise higher and higher each succeeding time, to lash their organized furs on their oppressors. The retribution of sin. A great arm of hell fast growing out to clutch with demoniacal power the throat of all law and society. Only He (the Holy Ghost) restraineth, and will restrain, till He “be taken out of the way,” with the ascending Bride. Then shall that “Lawless One” be revealed, the Anti-Christ, the heading up of all sin. Capital and labor must both take the “mark of the Beast,” Brain and muscle, forehead and hand. Only the Kingdom of Christ, in righteousness, shall stand. The times of the Gentile nations are nearly full, Israel is fast returning to Palestine. The showers are also returning, the “latter rain,” physically, to bring forth the abundance of the promise. Jesus must return soon. Events hasten Him.

Pasadena, Cal., March 17, 1908.

Chapter 2: The Earthquake

Having described my experience in intercession previous to and portending the present outpouring of the Spirit, I now write of my further experience, in connection with the San Francisco Earthquake, at that time. Both heaven and earth were shaken (Heb. 12:26) to the same end.

The Spirit was poured forth early in April, 1906, in Los Angeles. God covered the fire for a little time, protected it, until He had worked another work; also in preparation, for wide-spread outpouring. Then the fire ran rapidly, with mighty impetus. In fifteen months of previous soul-travail, the necessity of judgment had not occurred to me in this immediate connection. But further events convinced me fully of its necessity and purpose. It was an answer in part to our prayers, such as we had not expected. I had believed such things would follow the world-wide call, to mercy the Lord had been showing me He was going to give. The Word declares it for the “Tribulation.” But unbelief and denial largely shut this Peter also outside: the prayer gate.

“When Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness,” Isa. 26:9. Later, the “cities of the nations” are to fall, Rev. 16:19. The shadows or droppings of this are being realized now. We near the end. The San Francisco earthquake was a forerunner. God used it to awaken to this fact. Men seek God in times of adversity and trouble, feel their need. Better earthquakes for rebuke and warning than the indifference of God. God knocks at men’s consciences loudly today. These warnings are following thick and fast. He also started the milk of human kindness flowing through San Francisco’s distress. Hearts were opened and His Spirit entered. Selfishness was broken up. Christianity also had a chance to prove herself. An example was made of sin, but mercy tempered the stroke. Few, if any Christians were lost. Obedient ones escaped. Many were warned of God, and fled the city. Others were miraculously delivered. But at least ten thousand people, by official estimate, were destroyed. Los Angeles, the American Jerusalem, realized “Pentecost” largely through this. She received a warning of intended judgment also, but escaped through prayer. Many had come to us from other States and other lands, workers and missionaries even from heathendom, during the months previous, sent of the Lord. They had come up for “Pentecost,” but knew it not. They were to go back to the “regions beyond” and spread the holy fire. God had revealed it to us.

In the final outpouring, barriers were burned away. A heterogeneous body was thrown together, “baptized in one Spirit.” And so the present work began. A miracle in itself.

But to the Earthquake. Sunday, April 15, a few days after the Spirit was received by the little company in cottage prayer meeting, God spoke to me and said, “Tarry ten days.” I inquired why, for I had been shut up before for fifteen months. No explanation came, but He promised me strength. I obeyed. Monday and Tuesday I was shut up with Him, but no further directions came. Wednesday, April 18, I was again in my closet, when the first news was received of the earthquake. San Francisco was shaken down and burning up. I began to understand. It was in some way a strange answer to our prayers. God would reveal something to me in this connection. It was His hand.

It was a terrible time. Los Angeles was spell-bound. Nervous tension was high. Apprehension filled every breast. Friends, loved ones, money were all involved. Business stood still. Thursday we also realized a slight shock. We felt it a solemn warning. Soon the refugees began to pour in. Our concern now, however, was for Los Angeles. What would God say to us? I listened for His voice. “Did God do that?” was the question plainly written over the whole city, expressed or unexpressed. I waited closely on Him. The preachers became a mighty instrument in the hands of Satan to drown His voice, as they labored to convince the people that the quake was not a direct agency of God. Only earthquake ground. (Well, God knows how to trap the wicked into such places, anyway.) The schools also were used to declare the same. The children were studiously instructed to that effect. But while men labored so strenuously to rule God out of it, they secretly cursed Him in their hearts for it. A short time later they were actually blasphemously thanking God for tearing down the old city and saving them the trouble, that they might build a new San Francisco, earthquake and fire-proof (and God-proof). They are insanely attempting it. But they will never strike “the foundations, whose builder and maker is God,” Heb. 11:10. Let them beware of Mal. 1:4. “Whereas, Edom saith, We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places; thus saith the Lord. They shall build, but I will throw down; and men shall call them the border of wickedness, and the people against whom the Lord hath indignation forever.” A brother in the Lord received the following Scripture from God a few days before the quake, and escaped the city before the judgment came. “For this city hath been to Me a provocation of Mine anger and of My fury from the day that they built it even unto this day; that I should remove it from before My face,” Jer. 32:31.

But while hell worked for defeat night and day to blot out the fact of direct agency of God in this, the Lord would offset it by another means. Saturday eve He at last spoke to me. He bade me write. I had been given “The Last Call” a month before. He now showed me all hell was being moved to drown His voice in the earthquake as He sought to awaken the consciences of men. I could realize this, for I had been in close touch with the battle through prayer for a long time. Heaven and hell had been very near and real to me for months. I sensed the battle, and it was awful. Heaven and hell seemed both to have come to town. Men’s nerves were strung to the breaking point. A touch would undo them. I seemed at times to realize the very disposition of the forces of good and evil and their relative strength for battle. The armies of heaven would march forth at the command of the saints, through intercessory prayer, and engage in deadly conflict with the hordes of hell.

The message God was giving me now would be used to beat back the powers of hell from their fell purpose and save His voice of warning to the people. They must hear Him. If they refused, it would fare much worse with them, after San Francisco’s example. It was a critical time. The Spirit’s operations were intense. An awful call to duty was being given me. Multitudes of souls were involved. God had promised me these. I must help save them. The message must not be lost. He gave me the Word on earthquakes.

John Wesley’s sermon on Earthquakes was cited, with other Scriptures the Spirit added. “Of all the judgments God inflicts on the ungodly for sin (John Wesley says) the earthquake is the most awful.” The Word described San Francisco’s condition exactly. The message ceased for the time, but was not finished. Sunday passed. Monday eve He spoke again. The rest was given. It was exhortation, invitation, warning. At 12:30 it was finished. The Spirit was mightily upon me. I had the most solemn apprehension concerning the mind of God for us. The situation was most grave. From 12.30 to 4 o’clock a. m. I was in the very presence of God. The Spirit witnessed most powerfully again to the divine origin of the message, at my further request. Intercession surged through me like a mighty wind. Mother Wheaton was sleeping in the next room. I rocked and trembled under the Spirit’s sway. God made me to feel most terribly His indignation at the people. I cried to Him to shake the nation while I pleaded for them. I sought to restrain the spirit of indignation, feeling it could not be of God, but could not. He was making me to realize His wrath for sin. There seemed more wrath than mercy for the time. But mercy was remembered. My pleadings drove back the wrath clouds that rolled in black from Him. It was marvelous. I cannot describe it. But He finally put forth omnipotence of grace on the behalf of souls. Mercy had conquered, largely at least. I pleaded for the message given. He assured me it should go forth. But what should finally follow, whether judgment, or triumph in salvation, was not shown me. His anger was at least deferred for the time, punishment witheld, the people put on trial. My burden was mainly for Los Angeles now. Volumes of power now shot forth from His presence to convict and convert, and I knew He had heard and answered my pleadings. He was working mightily and would work. Apprehension was not fully removed, but a respite had been gained. What should follow would doubtless depend on how we received the message. I was commanded to argue the question with no man. Deliver the message quickly, were His orders. It was His Word on earthquakes. The people would settle with Him. They must know it.

I went to sleep at 4 and arose at 7 a. m. The message was soon set in type. I ordered thousands printed as fast as they could. Seventy-five thousand were published and circulated in three weeks time. Fifty thousand more were printed in Oakland at my request, and circulated in the earthquake cities in about the same length of time. All the important towns in northern and southern California were canvassed with them. Possibly forty thousand were distributed in Los Angeles alone. I warned the printers to watch the work, but the devil smashed a part of the type. God warned me he would try. But no time was lost. There was enough ahead. The pressure was terrific. All hell was surging around me. I seemed to work like lightning. My feet were like “hinds’ feet.” God overshadowed me. He raised up a small army of men to assist me in the distribution. Everything seemed to have been planned for this. Of course it was planned of Him. I was in touch with workers everywhere. Los Angeles was canvassed, the State, and hundreds sent to other States, some even to foreign lands. God’s children heard His voice and promptly obeyed. Offered themselves “willingly, in the day of His power.” I canvassed the business section of Los Angeles myself. Hell raged to destroy and hinder me. My life was in danger, but it was committed to God. A business man followed me half a block into another office and sought to quarrel with me. Failing in this he walked to the curb and deliberately tore the tract to pieces in his rage in the midst of a crowded thoroughfare. God’s Word convicted him. It burned like fire. “Is not My Word as fire?”

God gave me the soul of politeness all through. But I was true to Him. The messenger was not responsible for the message. The burden and consciousness of responsibility that rested upon me cannot be described. No one could possibly appreciate it fully except they had been in my place. I saw and felt things no one else not in a similar position could see. My face bore an expression under this that seemed to convict at a glance. There was not a tremor of fear in my soul. He sustained me. I distributed the tracts in the street cars, and they literally created consternation. Everyone eagerly caught up all earthquake news. When they discovered its import they were simply appalled. Many were terrified. They knew not that God had spoken of earthquakes, especially in such explicit terms, as punishment for sin. People would frequently get off the cars before reaching their destination, or go beyond, in confusion. My very presence seemed to bring conviction at times. God was mightily upon me. Wicked men threw down the message the moment they caught God’s Word, but in most every case they stooped and picked it up again, often with a sigh or groan and look of helplessness. They either read it or folded away carefully in their pocket. Very few were destroyed. It was a miracle. God held them to it. They must read and then decide. Proud, wicked men, ashamed for it, still were really curious to know what God had to say. They were frightened. Many were directly converted or reclaimed through it. How many God only knows. It was the one theme. How much it was used in the providence of God possibly will never be fully known. I knew the place He had given it with me, and trembled under it. I canvassed the saloons and dives on a big Saturday tight, and thousands were warned by it. A dear brother stood outside each saloon and held on to God for my life while I worked within. In several cases the bartenders attempted to intercept me to do me violence, but God delivered me out of the mouth of the lion. My life seemed charmed. A merchant in San Diego picked up one of the tracts from the street, sunburned and one corner gone, but was so convicted by it he wrote me a letter. By this time thousands were inquiring after me, many of them for evil. The police were put after me. The people were being so disturbed. But God helped me to work quickly, kept me hid. I was most conscious of this and of my danger. His hand o’ershadowed me. I lived several lifetimes during those weeks. God’s children were greatly exercised. It was not a madman’s freak. The responsibility became more awful. The police were seeking me one night, but the Spirit warned me. I escaped as by the skin of my teeth. The devil would have cut the work short by casting me into prison. I was but half done.

The first consignment of tracts had been received the tenth day of my tarrying. I had forgotten that, but as I sought to wait before the Lord He reminded me of it and pressed me out to service. The King’s business required haste. Heaven and hell were in terrible conflict over the souls of men. Earth and heaven were both shaking. Men’s souls must regard God in a spiritual upheaval.

As a climax, Sunday, May 6, as I arose from bed the Spirit spoke to me. I had seemed to hear a voice the previous week, “This week and next.” A curtain dropped before my life at May 13. All was blank beyond as though life ceased. I could see no further. God was hurrying me to finish the distribution of the message, but did not tell me so. He hastened it that way. I threw myself into it as though time would cease that day. The words He now spoke were these, “Los Angeles is in My balances, being weighed.” I requested it again. Again it came. I said, “Lord, if this is of Thee speak but once more, and if not bid it cease.” It came again more distinctly than before, “Warn the people.” I arose, and we met for family prayer. The Bible fell open in my hands in answer to prayer. I looked for the message in answer given. My eyes fell on the account of Belshazzar’s feast. “Thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting.” There was no possible collusion. It was enough. The Spirit and the Word agreed. I said, “Where, Lord?” And He showed me. I spoke to three congregations that day, and the message was generally received as from God. I exhorted the saints to pray that judgment might be averted, the hand of God stayed. They responded and sent up a mighty volume of prayer with redoubled interest. No judgment was prophesied, only the message delivered. We felt prayer might avert it. God’s wrath was kindled against sin. But as in Nineveh’s case faithful warning might prevail. False prophets were on my track, seeking reputation, and the devil sought to bring the cause into disrepute.

God even sets the date sometimes for destruction, however, as in Jonah’s case, but the judgment may be averted. He stirred us up to pray, with threatenings. Three more congregations were visited that week with the message, with similar results. Wednesday a letter was written to the Mayor, under direction of the Spirit. Thursday eve I gave the message last. Waiting upon God He gave me a black frown, and I understood He was not yet appeased. I asked for directions and went trembling once more to speak for Him. The people went down and pleaded with Him for mercy. It seemed to be enough. No more instructions came. The saints were now praying mightily under the greatest apprehension. It had the desired effect.

Saturday eve I got the last tracts out, before May 13. Then the burden rolled away. I had thought to watch in prayer all night until the break of day, but the Spirit said, “You have done your part; now leave the rest with Me.” I had had no instructions to flee the city, so stayed. I went to bed at 8 o’clock and slept like a babe. Sunday, May 13, dawned bright and clear, and instead of judgment the Spirit was poured out in a marvelous way. The crisis was past. Still God had not forgotten, but only passed by. The work bounded forward mightily, with a fresh impetus, from that very time. And still it bounds, world-wide. Few doubted the significance of this. I never have. The call to mercy is world-wide now. Judgment must follow soon on a corresponding scale. It is delayed but a little, while we do our part. Lee Spangler prophesied months before of the California earthquake, and the attendant spiritual awakening. The two go hand in hand; through history and the Word. Now, while it is mercy’s call, oh, heed His voice. The storm clouds are gathering on the horizon, harbinger of God’s great day of wrath. The “cities” are falling. San Francisco, Valparaiso, Kingston, etc. See that thou fall not.

F. BARTLEMAN.

Published in Way of Faith, Nov., 1907.

Chapter 3: The Earthquake Tract

“Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up.” - Hosea 6:1.

But what has God to do with earthquakes? “And there shall be earthquakes in divers places. But all these things are but the beginning of sorrows.” - Matt. 24:7-8. Judgment for sin.

“Arise, go to -, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness is come up before Me.” - Jonah 1:2.

Her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” - Rev. 18:5.

“When Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.” Isa. 26:9.

“God is angry with the wicked every day.” - Psalm 7:11.

For it is God that “removeth the mountains and overturneth them in His anger; that shaketh the Earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble.” - Job 9:5-6.

Therefore, “stand in awe, and sin not.” (Psalm 4:4), lest He return, and “wring out a full cup.” - Psalm 73:10.

“The mountains quake at Him, and the Earth is upheaved at His presence.

“His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken asunder by Him.” – Nahum 1:5-6.

“I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity.”

“The Earth shall be shaken out of her place, in the day of His fierce anger.” - Isa. 13:11-13.

And how else shall wicked men be kept in subjection? and wickedness be stayed?

God must needs make a fearful example at times. And who dares say that such is not deserved? God dare not wink at sin.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” - Prov. 9:10.

“THE EARTH SHOOK and trembled; the foundations also of the mountains moved and were shaken, BECAUSE HE WAS WROTH.

“There went up a smoke in His wrath, and FIRE OUT OF HIS MOUTH DEVOURED.

“The Lord thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered His voice.

“Then the channels of the sea appeared, the foundations of the world were laid bare, BY THE REBUKE OF THE LORD, at the blast of the breath of His anger.” - 2 Sam’l 22; Psalm 18.

“Who shall not fear, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? for Thy righteous acts have been made manifest” - Rev. 15:4.

“Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and turneth it upside down (perverteth the face thereof), and SCATTERETH ABROAD THE INHABITANTS THEREOF.

The foundations of the earth do shake, the earth is utterly broken, the earth is moved exceedingly.

“The earth shall stagger like a drunken man, and shall be moved to and fro.

“THE TRANSGRESSION THEREOF SHALL BE HEAVY UPON IT.” Isa.24:1, 18, 20.

“Fear ye not Me! saith the Lord: will ye not tremble at My presence!” - Jer. 5:22.

Shall I not visit for these things! saith the Lord: and shall not my soul be avenged on SUCH A NATION AS THIS?” - Jer. 5:9.

“THOU SHALT BE VISITED OF THE LORD OF HOSTS WITH EARTHQUAKE, and great noise, and the flame of A DEVOURING FIRE.” – Isa. 29:6.

“Come and see the works of God; He is terrible in His doing toward the children of men.

“Let not THE REBELLIOUS exalt themselves. - Psalm 66:5-7.

“Now consider this, YE THAT FORGET GOD, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.” - Psalm 50:22.

“Hell hath enlarged her desire, and opened her mouth without measure; and THEIR GLORY, and THEIR MULTITUDE, and THEIR POMP descend into it.” - Isa. 5:14.

Even the demons “believe, and tremble.” - Jas. 2:19.

It is not a question of bravery, but one of wisdom.

The man is A FOOL who does not fear to grieve God.

It is utter SUICIDE for one to take his life in his hands in such a case.

God has arisen “to SHAKE TERRIBLY the earth.” - (Isa.2:19) - to shake the sin out of it.

“I (God) will shake all nations.” – Haggai 2:7.

“Yet once more will I make to tremble not the earth only, but also the heaven.” (SPIRITUAL UPHEAVAL, WORLD-WIDE REVIVAL.) - Heb. 12:26.

“And THE SEVENTH ANGEL (of wrath) poured out his vial into the air and there was A GREAT EARTHQUAKE.” - Rev. 16:17, 18.

The recent earthquake has literally shaken this nation FROM SAN FRANCISCO TO BALTIMORE. The news of it has shaken the world.

WHAT NEXT?

Los Angeles received a slight shock later (a waning), at least for evil doers.

Rev. Lee Spangler, the prophet of Pennsylvania, declared some months ago that the following events would speedily transpire:

“A destructive eruption of Mt. Vesuvius.

DESTRUCTIVE EARTHQUAKES IN CALIFORNIA.

THAT CHRIST WILL MAKE HIS SPIRIT FELT AMONG THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES, IN WHICH COUNTRY THERE WILL BE A FERVENT RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT.”

It would seem as though these drastic earthquake measures were necessary in order to accomplish this in the hearts of the people.

Will we appreciate the waning, and God’s wonderful and unprecedented mercy in sparing life, in the recent shock? Also His mercy in sparing the Sister City (Oakland), for a refuge, and so wonderfully moving upon the hearts of the people to alleviate the sufferings of the stricken.

The reaction will be beneficial to our own hearts, in creating sympathy and love.

Our present and imperative duty is to pour, without stint, the oil of divine love and sympathy into the wound so recently made by the Almighty, that it may be healed, to the glory of God, and to the salvation of the souls of the people whose lives have been so miraculously preserved.

And let us “be not high minded, but fear” lest He spare not us. - (Rom II:20.)

Oh, people, tempt not God!

Would you charge God with causing the innocent to suffer? Be careful! For your sakes they suffered! Look to yourselves!

Do you claim there is no God in earthquakes? – and yet you secretly curse Him in your hearts for it. Beware!

And are you saying, “We will build another city, a greater one?” Is it for God you would build it? or for greater crime?

Remember Babel’s tower!

What is puny flesh in the presence of an Almighty, angry God?

“And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all.” - Ezek. 20:32.

“Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; I (God) did blow upon it (blow it away).

“Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of Mine house that lieth waste.” - Haggai 1:9.

John Wesley has said: “Of all the judgments which the righteous God inflicts on sinners here, the most dreadful and destructive is an earthquake.”

Now note the indisputable fact of history that it has ever been the wickedest cities that God has so visited.

There are innocent in every city, and God is mindful of them. He will spare them from the destruction, or better yet, take them to heaven in it, out of this wicked world. All shall work for their eternal good, and His glory, do they but commit their case to Him.

Innocent babes destroyed are safe with Him; will never grow up to become infidels and blasphemers, to be lost in hell. So now “go (come to us) and sin no more, lest a worse thing befall thee.” - John 5:14; 8:11.

Remember, while God has passed by, for the time, He is still within hearing distance, and may return. Be careful of your speech. Now, “except we repent, we shall all likewise perish.” - Luke 13:3.

For “God no respecter of persons.” - Acts 10:34.

The present, seeming calamity is but a blessing in disguise for a lost and ruined race, if we will have it so. A rude awakening to the fact that we are but transients here. Oh, people, let us take up our march for that City which hath foundations, “not made with hands,” whose builder and maker is God, and abideth forever.

Very soon this poor old earth will be struggling in the mighty throes of a final and complete dissolution. “Be ye reconciled to God.”

F. BARTLEMAN.

Los Angeles, Cal.

Written April 21-23, 1906.

Chapter 4: The Last Call

There is a final end to everything, even to the long-suffering of a more than merciful God. There is a last call to everything; a time when the last note of appeal dies away and is gone finally and forever. Whether it be a simple call to duty or the all and eternally, important call to repentance and reconciliation with God.

The fact that the call has come again and again, and still appears to be forthcoming, is no proof whatever that it will always come. There must be a last and final call. The fact that a man is well to-day is no proof whatever that he will not be a cold corpse to-morrow. Indisputable facts refute such logic every day.

“Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were.” Ah, yes, but they will not always so continue.

A last call came to the Antediluvian world, and they, who had for a long time scorned the warning, perished miserably.

A last call came to the Johnstown people to escape to the hills, but they had often heard it before, and they laughed at the fears of the lone horseman as he galloped through the town shouting the swift words of warning.

Where are the signs of His coming? Ah, they will never be seen by the disobedient. To them he shall appear as a thief in the night, when least expected. If there is a sign it will be that, but all too late for them, The door will then be shut.

But God’s Saints shall have escaped to their Pella in the Air.

It is an awful thing, terrible beyond all possibility of description, when the Spirit of God leaves a soul. Hope is removed, the Spirit has plead for the last time, and has taken His final departure, grieved away, forever beyond recall. Darkness ensues, harbinger of certain eternal night. All chance is gone forever, the doom is sealed, blackness of despair seizes upon the soul. There is nothing left now but “a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation,” while fiends of hell wait eagerly to drag the doomed soul to its final, everlasting and inexpressible torment.

Horrible picture! How would you sleep to-night were you to realize that God’s blessed, pleading Spirit had left you at last and forever?

Ah, it is hope alone that keeps men alive. Presumptuous, it may be, in the case of many, but hope nevertheless.

Were men to fully realize themselves eternally lost they would plunge headlong into hell by an act of their own hands, without delay. The human mind could never stand the strain and keep its balance, necessary for this life. But the last call is coming, (has come to many); the last call to individuals, the last call to a rebellious world.

All down the ages God has plead and called, but men, for by far the most part, have closed their ears and sealed their doom; plunged wilfully into a self-chosen, devil’s hell.

And now, once more, at the very ends of the Age, God calls again.

What shall the answer be?

Oh, eternal, final destiny surely hangs upon the decision of this hour, for the present race.

THE LAST CALL, the Midnight Cry, is now upon us, sounding clearly in our ears - “GO ye out to meet Him.”

God will give us this one more chance, the last. One more chance to seek Him; one more chance to work for souls.

“See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh.” One more call to mercy, before the flood-gates of His anger shall be opened wide; the vials of His wrath be poured out upon a slumbering, cursed world.

For “as it was in the days of Noah, so also shall it be at the coming of the Son of Man.” But it is mercy, then judgment on a corresponding scale.

A final call, then the Great Tribulation.

A WORLD-WIDE REVIVAL, then Judgment upon the whole earth. The magnitude proves its significance.

All is expectancy, politically, socially, financially, religiously.

Some tremendous event is about to transpire. To the Christian it means the coming of his King.

To the worldling the perfection of his dreams, the deceptive Anti-Christ.

Arthur T. Pierson has lately said: “I believe the Christ will return and end this Dispensation between 1910 and 1935.”

D. L. Moody said when dying: “I know how much better it would be for me to go, but I believe we are on the eve of another Revival like that of ‘57, and I want to have a hand in it.”

Evan Roberts has said: “It is light the world around. Jesus is coming soon.”

Hudson J. Taylor, (now in glory) said, ten years ago, in Shanghai, China: “Brethren, I have a conviction which I believe is of the Lord, that in the next ten years there will occur one of the bloodiest wars in the world’s history. In this war Russia will be the leader on the one side. The sentiment of the Christian nations will generally be against Russia. Contemporaneous with this conflict there shall burst out a Revival such as was never known in the Christian Church, and which shall spread throughout the world, turning many unto righteousness.

And, my brethren, it is moreover my conviction that immediately following this mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the Lord Himself, will come.”

How shall we use the last few uncertain days left us?

How will we wish we had used them when we meet our King?

We may no longer presume on time, for “time shall be no more.”

The “fire” alarm has sounded; answer quickly to the call. Rush to the rescue.

“Howbeit when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” - in you?

F. BARTLEMAN,

Los Angeles, Cal.

“Tract.”

Written, March, 1906.

Chapter 5: Letter Received from Evan Roberts

Loughor, Wales.

Nov. 14, ‘05.

Rev. F. Bartleman.

My Dear Comrade,

What can I say that will encourage you in this terrible fight? I find it is a most awful one. During the last few days I feel as though a deluge of sin has swept over our land. This to me, proves that the kingdom of the evil one is besieged on every side. Oh! the millions of prayers; not simply the form of prayer, but the soul finding its way right to the White Throne. People in Wales can pray during the last year. May the dear Lord bless you with a mighty, downpouring.

In Wales it seems as if the Holy One rests upon the congregation awaiting the opening of the hearts of the followers of Christ.

We had a mighty downpouring of the Holy Spirit last Saturday night. This was preceded by the correcting of their views of true worship:

(1) To give unto God; not to receive.

(2) To please God; not to satisfy ourselves. Therefore, looking to God, and forgetting the Enemy, and also the fear of man, we prayed the Lord’s prayer, and the third time the Spirit descended.

I pray God to hear your prayer, to keep your faith strong, and to save California.

May the zeal of God do so.

I remain yours in the fight,

EVAN ROBERTS.

Chapter 6: Get the Flame!

(Evan Roberts’ Message to the Churches.)

While the fire of God is falling,

While the voice of God is calling,

Brothers, “Get the Flame!”

While the torch of God is burning,

Men’s weak efforts overturning

Christians, “Get the Flame!”

While the Holy Ghost is pleading,

Human methods superceding,

He Himself the “Flame.”

While the power hard hearts is bending,

Yield thy own, to Him surrendering,

All to “Get the Flame!”

For the world at last is waking,

And beneath His spell is breaking,

Into living flame.

And our glorious Lord is seeking,

Human hearts, to rouse the sleeping,

Fired with Heavenly Flame.

If in utter life-surrender,

You would work with Christ, remember

You must “Get the Flame!”

For the sake of bruised and dying,

And the lost in darkness lying,

We must “Get the Flame!”

For the sake of Christ in glory,

And the spreading of the story,

We must “Get the Flame!”

Oh, my soul, for thy refining,

And thy clearer brighter shining,

Do not miss the Flame.

On the Holy Ghost relying,

Simply trusting and not trying,

You will “Get the Flame.”

Brothers, let us cease our dreaming.

And while God’s flood-tide is streaming,

We will have the Flame.

Chapter 7: The Time Of Our Visitation

Luke 19:41-44: “And when Jesus drew nigh He saw the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known in this day, even thou, the things which belong unto peace! . . . but, thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.” When conditions have reached their worst men are aroused from their sinful lethargy, by dint of conscious, sheer necessity, to call upon their God. This has transpired with us, and, as a consequence, in answer to our earnest and persistent cries for help, our God has come. We need Him.

Opportunity once passed, is lost forever. There is a time when the tide is sweeping by our door, we may plunge in and be carried to glorious success and blessing and victory. To stand on the bank shivering from timidity, or paralyzed by stupor, at such a time, is to miss all, and most miserably and eternally fail. Oh, our responsibility!

The mighty tide of God’s grace and favor even now is sweeping by us, in its prayer directed course. There is a river (of salvation) the streams whereof make glad the City of God. - Psalm 46:4; 65:9.

It is time for us to “get’ together,” plunge in, individually, and collectively.

“The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.” We are baptized by one Spirit into one Body. - 1 Cor. 12:13.

Let us lay aside all “carnal” contentions, forget our petty, cursed differences, that separate us from each other, and from God.

If we are of His body, we are “one body.”

The opportunity of lifetime, of centuries, is at our door, to be eternally gained, or lost. There is no time to hesitate; act quickly, lest another take thy crown, and thou be covered with eternal loss and shame.

Oh, Church of Christ, awake! Put on thy wedding garments. A helpless world lies bleeding at thy feet. To the rescue! as at Earthquake shock.

First, be baptized, thyself, with power. Then fly to rescue others.

F. BARTLEMAN,

Los Angeles, Cal.

Tract written June, 1906.

3.  FROM PLOW TO PULPIT (1924)

By

Frank Bartleman

FROM PLOW TO PULPIT

FROM MAINE TO CALIFORNIA

By FRANK BARTLEMAN

Early Life - Conversion - Call to Preach and Early Ministry

Price, 50c; $5.00 per dozen Order of F. BARTLEMAN 5606 Isleta Drive, Los Angeles, California

This little book is dedicated to the army of young workers for the Lord who need courage

to push forward with inspiration, faith and a spirit of self-sacrifice, in obedience

to the heavenly vision vouchsafed them,. That they may be encouraged by the reading of this

life narrative to give and do their best in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ, is the prayer of the Author.

August, 1924 FRANK BARTLEMAN.

[photo]

“Boyhood’s happy days down on the Farm” The Old Farm House

LphotoJ

“Just the twig is bent the trees inclined” Rocky Ridge District School House

Chapter 1: Birth, Childhood, Youth

It has been said that one should never attempt to write their life history before they are fifty years of age. Having now passed that period by a safe margin, I feel I shall be justified in relating the following story:

Born and reared on a farm near Carversville, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, aside from the unfortunate fact of having been born practically an invalid, and my life endangered a number of times during boyhood, my experience might be said to have been that of the ordinary farm boy, naturally speaking.

I was born December 14,1871. My father was a native of South Germany. His father was German, but his mother was French. The family came to America when he was but sixteen years of age, his father having died in Germany. They were peasants, very poor, and Roman Catholics. Crossing the Atlantic their ship twice caught fire and came near being lost with all on board.

The mother sickened and died soon after their arrival in America. Father went for a priest but he refused to come, because of their poverty. So they called in a Presbyterian minister instead. She died without the priest. She was evidently just that much better off. But this had the effect of driving my father into infidelity. It is an awful system that can so trifle with immortal souls.

Mother was of English and Welsh extraction, born in America. She was a school teacher. Father had learned the pottery trade in Flemington, New Jersey, and later ran a pottery of his own in connection with the farm. So in my early boyhood days I learned the meaning of Jer. I8 - “Then I went down to the potter’s hose,” etc.

Five children were born to them, all boys. The youngest died a few months old. The oldest died at forty. I was third in the family.

Father was ambitious and hard working, respected

By the community, and at one time elected to county office. He had served three years as a volunteer in the Civil War on the northern side, and was very patriotic. He bought his farm unfortunately at the close of the war at a high price and all his life had a struggle to make ends meet. This served to irritate his nature. He seldom communicated himself to any one, and we always feared to approach him. Having been stumbled in his religious faith, he did not have the consolation of God to sustain him. In fact he was doubtless more to be pitied than blamed.

Mother was raised with the Quakers, and was a very good, patient woman. Her people were held in high esteem in their community. They were farmers. Mother never joined the church, but was of a religious nature.

With little light herself, and fearing my father's infidelity, she could not help her boys to really find God. Her example was excellent, however, and bed-time prayers are am my do, recollections. Mother desired her children to go right. I grew up with no personal knowledge of God, but with a reverent nature. I always feared God.

There was an old “Uncle Benny,” four generations back, on mother’s side, who had been considered “peculiar.” He was always talking religion. But such a thing as a preacher or priest had never been heard of in the family. I have often felt that Isa. 58:I2 was given me peculiarly to fulfill, - “Thou shall raise up the foundations of many generations,” etc.

I seemed different from the rest of the family. When but four years of age a maiden aunt, mother’s sister, prophesied that Frank, (myself) would be a preacher. She was not at that time a member of the church herself, and I never knew of this prophecy until I had been converted (at the age of twenty-two), and had already been preaching for five years. So strange are God’s providences.

When I was one year of age I was given up to die by physicians. I had gastric fever. But the Lord “had need of me.” At three I fell from my high chair, cutting a long, deep gash in my forehead. At five I was afflicted with double vision. I had to be fed and led by the hand for two whole years. From six years of age to fourteen I suffered almost daily with sick headaches and dyspepsia. Life became a sore burden to me.

I attended school however, in spite of these natural handicaps, and generally stood very near, if not at, the head of my class. I was a natural student. Old Rocky Ridge District School-house lives as a green spot in my memory.

We forget much of the sad experiences in life, remembering more clearly the joys we have known. A kind providence orders this. Time softens hard lines. All my early education was realized at this country district school.

We knew nothing but the most common branches at that time.

During these early years I was left much alone. Not being strong I was obliged to work too hard for my limited strength. I became melancholy, and was frequently told I would probably amount to nothing. Mother was frail and timid, but always stood for me.

I hungered for sympathy and love, but was misunderstood largely, except by precious Mother. She been used to affection in her own home. Hardship and an uncongenial companion had well nigh crushed her. Father, being a hardy German, believed largely in the “survival of the fittest.” He had little sympathy or understanding for weakness. I followed the plough many a day so sick I could scarcely drag myself. We were slaves to our daily toil. We generally kept a large dairy, which added much to the work of the farm. Early and late at it was the motto for those years.

I early learned to fear, and I am afraid almost to hale my father. He was too hard. But I discovered also how much mother loved me. She would weep bitterly when father would punish me. She feared I might be sent from home. She stood by her boys. Mother must have suffered greatly in those days. She was ill-mated, and feared my father equally with us.

I remember the last beating father ever gave me. It was my younger brother’s fault. But he did not stop to inquire. The cows had gotten into the corn; that was sufficient. I carried the stripes for weeks. When he was mad he was furious. I dropped his watch once and broke it. For a full half day I hid in the garret. Again mother interceded. He finally forgave me. Of course we deserved punishment sometimes. But father was too severe. It did little good. We could not ask advice or him. In his old age, after great suffering and weakness, the strong man was brought low. He had changed greatly for the better. His whole life was largely a disappointed one, and we draw the mantle of charity over it.

I remember faintly a country Sunday School. It ran but a short time, and finished with a watermelon party. They disposed of the remaining funds in that way. It served to kill time on Sundays, and was quite a social affair. But the Bible stories were implanted in my mind. “My word shall not return to me void.” - Isa. 55:11. I learned of Moses, Samson, Jonah, Daniel, etc. Childhood impressions are most lasting.

It was mother again who led us to the Sunday School. She always had us repeat, “Now I lay me down to sleep,” and sealed it with a good-night kiss, as she tucked us in the little trundle bed. Precious mother! Only eternity will reveal a true mother’s love. When home is scattered, and children gone, only a mother knows the full meaning of this also. Mother has gone on beyond at this writing, but she is reaping her reward with God. From him who hath but little, little shall be required. Father died some years earlier, in great suffering and weakness. There were evidences that he had serious thoughts of eternity before he died. He had greatly changed. The old, hard nature was gone. God who is rich in mercy may have received him at the last. We will hope so. He always feared the Supreme Being in a way. But the Roman priest had stumbled him in his early days. Father was not a profane man. He might have been very religious if he had not been so stumbled in his youth. This he never could forget. He wanted his boys to do right, and he himself was perfectly honest and upright.

We had some church members in our community. But a revival was never known. They seemed just like the rest of us, aside from their profession. The preacher was old and prosy. He preached about the stars, etc. but never seemed to get beyond them. I seldom went to hear him. We boys spent our Sundays generally at the mill-pond or at pitching quoits, or playing baseball. Sometimes in season we would raid a watermelon patch, or a neighbor’s cherry tree. Conscience did not seem to hurt us. We were heathen as to a real knowledge of God. The neighbor’s cider barrel often suffered from our raids also. The Lutherans and Catholics were very persistent in church going. But they often got drunk on their way home, stopping at the numerous saloons along the road, and ended the day with music and dancing. That was a poor example.

Most of our school teachers were women. We had little discipline, and pretty lively times. However, the studies were not far advanced, and we generally made it through without much difficulty. We were as a rule more interested in the baseball game at noons and recesses than we were in our studies. My school reports hugged the I00 mark closely, however, so I had nothing to fear at home on that score. But we all feared greatly the visits of the county superintendent. Prof. Woodruff. He had a very high forehead, and bald head. To us he was the very personification of wisdom, a veritable “high-brow." He was our sworn enemy. His visits were generally “as a thief in the night." We never knew when he was coming. And woe unto us if we did not know our lessons. We feared and hated him worse than we did the devil. I did not care for grammar, and ditched that study at a very early age. My life work I supposed would he ploughing com. But of all my studies grammar has been the one I have most needed. At the age of seventeen my schooling ended. Winter months were all that could be spared from the work of the farm anyway, after we were old enough to really work.

Toothache was a bane of my childhood days. Many a long night I lay awake crying with pain, while patient, tired mother kept hot applications to my face. She should have been in bed resting. Her work was very hard.

But she never spared herself for her boys. I well remember one night being sent by the dentist to his carriage in a dark barn to get the forceps, instrument for my own torture. He sat me in a hard-backed chair in the barber shop, with the usual village crowd around me, and without anaesthetic proceeded to amuse himself with my torture. The operation was “absolutely without pain,” on his part.

When sixteen years of age I was suffering front varicosed veins, brought on from overstraining at work, and ill health. This condition developed until life became a nightmare. I wished I might die. All interest in life was lost and I became in despair. Father did not understand my condition. Nor did I tell him. I felt he would not spare me. I later realized some relief, through our family physician, and my health improved in a measure. But I have always suffered from this weakness. It has had much to do with my lifelong semi-invalidism.

At this time I knew nothing in reality of God. I often wondered about Him, and feared to anger Him. I would lay in the fields at night, looking up at the stars, and wonder if it were possible for God to speak to me. I was willing to die. In my weakness I had lost all interest in natural life. I desired to know of the hereafter. But all seemed wrapped in impenetrable mystery. The stars were silent. There seemed no medium through which I might be instructed. I might well have cried out with Job of old, for a “daysman” betwixt us. - Job. 9:33.

I became very serious in nature. The neighbors as a rule were kind to me. They pitied me. I was different from the other boys. And yet I was not without my faults. At seventeen I fell ten feet from a hay loft, onto the bare pine floor, on my head, and was rendered unconscious for a time. When I revived they had me at the well, pumping cold water over me. They placed me on a horse, and I rode home unattended, a distance of a full mile. It was haying time. My eyes bulged out, a mist was before them, and I nearly fell off the horse on the way home. I lay for two weeks in a dark room, in semiconsciousness, narrowly escaping brain fever.

Father used tobacco, and drank a little, but he never wanted his boys to do this. I learned to smoke and chew later, however. Truly “a little roll of tobacco, with a fire at one end, and a fool at the other.” I never danced much. I was too serious. I had been told so often that I would never amount to anything that I had about come to believe it. My parents early despaired of raising me. I always lived with death looking over my shoulder, and never expected to really grow up. Death seemed always on my track and pressing close. I saw no future.

But at nineteen, I became my own boss, and free. My brothers were freed at eighteen, but I remained at home another year, not being able to shift for myself. I worked among the neighbors a little during the year, between busy times at home, and earned a few dollars. But the work was very hard for me. My stomach was so weak I could eat little but dry bread. This was pretty poor diet for such hard work.

Up to this time I had only been a few times outside the county. I went to Trenton, New Jersey, with my parents when twelve years of age, and saw my first railroad train. I thought the engine would swallow us up in the dark, as it steamed into the station. At eighteen I took a trip to Philadelphia in company with some other boys to see my brother Will. He had gotten employment there. We missed him at his boarding house, but met him on a crowded street soon after. This seemed strange to me. There was little possibility of finding him on the crowded thoroughfare of a large city. But God was leading, though I did not know it. Philadelphia was to be my ultimate goal, and the place of my salvation.

My brother had invested in a “Get rich quick" project in Philadelphia. He well meaningly persuaded me to invest also. We were to gel $I00 for $25, in three months time. It seemed very tempting to a country boy. But we should have known some one must get squeezed at the end. I lost most of my hard earned cash. But this proved to be the best investment I have ever made. I have never gambled since. My brother made this loss up to me himself later.

When I remember my boyhood days at home I often wonder that any of us had any health at all. Meal time seemed to be the time chosen to settle difficulties, when we were all together. Father generally led in the wrangle. Poor mother was the chief sufferer. Small wonder we complained so constantly of the food. It is a wonder we had any digestion at all. We should have been a family of dyspeptics, by all the known laws of God and man. But my people on father’s side were all physically strong, and born fighters. My brothers were strong also. I took after mother’s side of the house. They were weaker, and of a milder nature. I remember as a little child my father asking me, in a sarcastic, disparaging manner, what I was living for. I answered him, “I live for those who love me, and the good that I can do.” Evidently I had heard this expression somewhere. It silenced him effectually for the time. I was not more than five years old at this lime.

When I was nineteen, ambition for the first time began to be born. I realized that I was now a man grown, an independent being. My life began to unfold. My health had now improved somewhat with age. A feeling of natural independence swept over me. Hitherto my father had exercised the strictest kind of discipline over me. The bow sprang back from its long tension. I was free. I began to take an interest in life. But the process was slow. Like the Children of Israel my spirit, as well as my body, had been for a long time broken. I had never known what it was to have much money of my own. Had kept a few pigeons as a boy, and had saved money enough to buy a watch with. Then I had a few dollars I had earned among the farmers in my nineteenth year.

I worked among the farmers during my twentieth year, but began to be dissatisfied with farming. The wages were very small, $I.00 a day at the best, and the work was too hard for me. God was guiding me into the proper channel. I was a vessel of His own sovereign choice, though a mean one. He called me while I was yet a child, and long before I knew Him. I marvel at the prophecy my aunt had made concerning my future, so long before I knew God.

My brother Will had taken quite an interest in my welfare and secured me a position in Camden, New Jersey, in a butcher shop, for the winter, just across from Philadelphia. So I quit husking corn and started for my new world and occupation. It seemed far from home, though only twenty-five miles. It was my first separation. For the first time I learned to sing “Home Sweet Home." Leaving mother and old associates became a solemn matter. The change of life was revolutionary. I was glad to quit farming. But I suddenly began to forget the hardships of my home life. By the end of the first week I was so homesick I was ready to quit and go back to the old associations.

I wrote mother I was coming, but true mother that she was, she stifled her own feelings, and wrote me to slick it out. I know it must have cost her much to write that letter. But it settled me. I stayed. I had my trunk already on the way to the depot, when I changed my mind, but I caught the expressman and turned him back.

I now settled down to my new occupation, and all went well. Being quick at figures I soon won the admiration of my employer. The customers liked me. I became quite handy at meat cutting, and so the winter passed quickly.

We worked long hours in the business. From 5:00 a. m. until 9:00 p. m„ and Saturdays until midnight. The weather was very cold. We had no fire in the store on account of the meat, and I suffered much from this. They wanted me to work Sundays also, but I refused and generally visited my brother Will on Sundays in Philadelphia. I only received $3.00 a week and board. During the winter I visited my parents two or three times on the farm. This helped to keep down home-sickness. A disease, however, no child should be ashamed of. Father visited me once during the winter. I thought this a great condescension on his part. He seemed to be proud that I was making good and spoke very kindly with me.

During the winter I visited the Grace Baptist Church a few times at Broad and Berks streets, Philadelphia. Here I met a fine lot of young people. My brother went to Temple College nights in the same connection. Russell H. Conwell was pastor and president of the college next door. A foundation was laid through these associations for the future. Later I returned to Philadelphia and found God there.

The next spring, the season ending, my work was done and I returned to my parents. But they had decided to sell out the farm. My younger brother was leaving for a position also in Philadelphia. Selling the old farm proved sad business. The horses were almost members of the family. We children had all been born and raised there. But there seemed no other way. My parents were getting old.

Father had secured a position at his old trade making pots, in Remington, New Jersey, where he had worked before they went to farming. He was to work for Fulper Brothers, sons of the man he had worked for there in the beginning, in the same pottery. I went with them, to their new home.

Here I secured employment in the same pottery, helping draw kiln, handle ware, etc., at $6.00 per week. I lived at home. This made it very pleasant for me. Father’s nature had become much more congenial with the burden of the farm lifted. After four months in the pottery, however, my lungs began to dry up, from the heat of the kilns and the glaze. I found myself obliged to seek other employment. The only work I could find was with the Jersey Central railroad as a section hand. This work was very hard. The boss was afraid I could not make it go. I was very pale. But I soon got quite stout from the out door work. Handling steel rails and railroad ties was no picnic. I had to lift until my back was ready to break. There was no shirking on that job. We had a gang of Americans, however, with a good boss. And so the situation was quite tolerable. The pay was $ I.20 per day.

I boarded at home.

Dr. Munhall, a mighty evangelist, came to Flemington about this time, to hold meetings in the Methodist Episcopal Church. This was the first time I had ever felt the movings of the Spirit of God. I could not understand the strange feeling that came over me in one of the meetings. But I never fully got away from it. I did not understand what I should do. It was an entirely new and strange sensation to me. I remember one man in Flemington the people thought was crazy. I know now he had the real thing. But I was afraid of him at that lime. I did not understand.

After some months work on the railroad we had an accident that nearly cost us all our lives. But it was God’s way of getting me on His track. It ditched me as far as the railroad business was concerned. Incidentally it nearly broke my back, from which I suffer in a measure to this day. But for that accident I might still be in the railroad business. God was after His preacher already.

We were obliged to run over our section with the handcar first thing every morning, as we had no track walker, and must see that the track was clear before the first train came. We had seven miles to run. On this particular morning we got started late. A strong wind was at our backs and we were running at least 30 miles an hour, down grade, when suddenly a thick set bull dog from a neighboring farm, who had been in the habit of amusing himself by chasing us before, made his appearance as usual, but jumped on the track ahead of us. The front wheel of my comer of the car caught him squarely. I saw his white belly as it turned him over. We were running too fast for him.

The steel axle snapped off squarely with the car. My comer of the car dropped the short, stout handle, used for lifting the car from the track, caught under a tie and I knew no more. The wheel ran 200 yards into a held. The dog was stone dead. Our car bucked like a Texas bronco. We were thrown clear of it; 300 pounds of heavy steel tools went hurtling through the air. Not even a spike was left in the tool box. I was thrown 30 feet through the air, and struck the track over a tie, on the broad of my back. When I became conscious I fell as though a hole the size of a bucket had been knocked clear through me, and I was trying desperately to pump air into my lungs again. The car had righted itself, and run 30 yards on the side of the track, before it stopped. I crawled to the fence at the side of the track, and managed finally to get to my feet.

But I came desperately near losing the battle. I had to work hard to get my lungs back into shape to breath and to retain consciousness. The others were hurt, but not so badly as myself. They put me on the first train, and my back seemed mashed to a jelly the size of a dinner plate. The muscles were swollen and stuck out in knots. It was a wonder my spine was not broken from the tremendous impact. For two weeks I could scarcely sit, lie down, or stand. I went back to my old job again, but it would not go. My back was ruined. My railroading days were over. God was getting His preacher on the right track. I was to go to Philadelphia again.

My brother Will secured me a position with Weimer Wright, and Watkins, Wholesale Shoe dealers, at 9th and Market Sts., Phila. This was to be my last job before I found the Lord, and went to preaching. God’s ways are wonderful. The pay was very small to begin with, and I had very little money saved. I began at $5.00 per week. This was a pretty narrow margin to attempt to live in the city on. Leaving home again I found was the hardest part of the matter. I must leave my parents behind now, never again to live with them. November I,I892, found me again in Philadelphia.

I was now nearly 2I years of age. I was to go to work the following Monday, but running up into the country over Sunday to see some of our old neighbors. I was suddenly taken very sick and came near having Diphtheria. One week later, however, I was able to return to the city, and began my new occupation.

They set me cleaning old musty shoes the first week. I suppose to try me out. But I did not complain, and the second week I was packing and filling orders. I also had to keep and pile stock. The work was hard, but I liked it. I boarded in company with my older and younger brother, in a boarding house at I2th and Mt. Vernon streets.

That winter I attended Temple College two nights a week, studying Grammar and Arithmetic. Here I made good friends among the Temple Baptist young people. They were to play a very important part, with their Christian influence, in my life.

My brother Will now married, and my younger brother Gene and myself went to live with him. Later we went to board at another place together. I soon tired of this place however, and went to I028 Race street, where my cousin, Charlie, with whom I worked in the store, was boarding. In this place I was later converted. My brother Gene remained where he was. And there our paths divided.

I visited Grace Temple Ch. some, where my young friends at the College generally attended, and began to gel hungry for God. Their lives made me hungry. They had something I needed. They did not preach very much to me. I did not seem to understand what I really wanted. I was coming up from dense darkness. But a light was springing up before me, and I began to follow it eagerly. I communicated myself to no one. I remember however telling my brother Will that it only made me miserable to go to church, and he expressed his opinion that that was probably because I needed it. He was quite a Puritan at that time. Years later he joined the Presbyterian church, after I had become a preacher, and is today quite an earnest worker for the Lord. Praise God!

The more I realized my need of God the worse I felt. The happy lives of my young friends only made me more miserable at heart. God was after me. For nearly a year He was drawing me surely, by the lives of these young people. I do not remember any preaching that convicted me. The Pastor was more of a lecturer. But I began to follow the light that sprung up before me desperately. I felt it was leading me to the goal my heart desired. In fact I began to realize that all my life this was the thing I had been wanting. How to obtain it I did not yet know. I would trust no one to advise me. And so I stumbled on. But God was leading, unconsciously to me. He knew me. And He knew how to reach me. Human instrumentality, aside from the lives of my young friends at the Church and College, seemed to count for little in the process. I think He wanted no mistake to be made in the handling of my soul. He had a purpose in my life and would lead me Himself. This has made me independent, in His service.

I began to smoke a great deal to comfort my loneliness. The theatre was also visited as frequently as my small means would permit. But this did not help matters. I never touched liquor at this time as I was afraid of coming under its power. Our family on father’s side were not altogether without the taste for alcohol. My oldest brother, Theodore, cut his life short at forty from drinking. My father sometimes drank a little too much also.

But now my soul came into real distress. My sleep was troubled. I feared I might die and be lost. God was hard after me, pressing for a decision. I visited my parents a few times during the winter.

Whether to plan to ultimately go on the road and sell shoes or not I could not seem to determine. I did not altogether fancy the shoe business for a life work. And the Lord did not intend that I should care for it. I was to give my life ultimately to Him, for the preaching of the Gospel. Of course this was all hid to me at this time. I had not yet found God. But He knew

I suffered much from pleurisy and dyspepsia during this year. Soon after I was twenty-one I joined the Knights of Pythias and remember answering the question as to whether I believed in a Supreme Being rather too earnestly in the affirmative. They told me to confine myself to bare answers please. And yet I did not know God. But I was seeking Him.

They did not want a testimony. I was the youngest member to pass through the chairs in my lodge and made it hot for some of the crooks and gamblers in the Order while I was in the chair. I also took out a life insurance policy. But both of these things were dropped soon after my conversion. I felt I had no further need of them. I had never heard any preaching on the subject. But my faith did not witness to either of these, so I let them go, to trust the Lord alone.

Some weeks before I finally found the Lord I began to seek for Him in real earnest. We were getting at close quarters. I remembered the Bible stories I had heard as a child, in the little Sunday School in the country. They seemed to offer a clue to the situation. God was leading. My mind was turned to the Word of God. I had never read it for myself and bought a Bible, beginning to read at Genesis. I was totally ignorant of how to find the way, but my will was being prepared to yield to Him. He knew how to reveal Himself to me.

I began to stay at home Sundays and read my Bible. Being non-communicative I did not express my hunger to any one. I fell God was speaking and I feared lest he should be hindered. I was getting closer. My heart was yielding. The Sun of Righteousness was melting the icy coldness that had so long time possessed it. His love was conquering. Oh, how tenderly God deals with the unsaved soul. Especially when He senses a desire in the heart to know Him. He knew me well. I was so hungry for Him. I cared little to eat or sleep now, and yet I did not know how to find Him. I had never been to a service in a Mission. And in the Baptist Church they had no altar.

Finally, on the fifteenth day of October, I893, after eating my Sunday dinner at the hoarding house, (I028 Race street), I went to my room on the fourth floor, lonely and miserable. Suddenly something seemed to say to me, “It must be settled now.” I was all alone. I sat down at my little table, and bowed my head in my hands. The crisis had come at last. I was about to find the end for which I had so long sought, about to reach my goal. As I sat there my life seemed to pass before me like a panorama. It was so empty. All my habits, everything, trooped past before me. Then a voice seemed to say to me, “Will you give up all these for peace with God?" I gladly answered, “Yes !” I felt I would rather die now than live a moment longer without God. I told, the Lord He could take me to heaven in thirty minutes if He wanted to, if He would only reveal Himself to me. And that moment He entered powerfully into my soul.

About all I had really known of the plan of salvation was that Jesus died for sinners. And this I had only grasped in a very hazy way. But now it had opened up to me by the Spirit. I consciously entered in. God had accepted me. I had found Him and peace with God. The struggles of a life time previous were over. I had at last found that for which my soul had so long and so earnestly sought. The one great question of my life had been settled. I knew it. Nothing else seemed to matter now. My soul was saved. Let time be short or long, what matter. Tongue can never tell this side of heaven the joy I felt. I had emerged with one mightly leap from the Egyptian darkness of years, into the marvelous light of God.

In an instant a great light had sprung up in my soul. It was the beginning of the “perfect day.” I had followed the glimmer of that inner light for a whole year constantly. And it had led me home. The burden of years rolled from my soul, like the pack from a country peddler's back. Oh praise the Lord! I was gloriously saved and free. I felt as light as air. It mattered little about my natural life now. My only fear was that the Spirit might leave me. It was suggested to my mind immediately that I must tell some one about it. I felt that would clinch the matter between my soul and God. It was again the voice of the Spirit speaking. I was saved to tell it. With the witness of my own acceptance came a desire to witness to others about it. And surely this is the first natural impulse of every newborn soul. It is the true spirit of salvation.

'There's a place that remembrance still brings back to me,

“Twas there I found pardon, ’twas heaven to me. There Jesus spoke sweetly to my weary soul.

My sins were forgiven, my heart was made whole.”

Chapter 2: Conversion, College Days, Mission Work

And now began a new life, for God. I was born again Sunday, October 15, 1893, when about twenty-two years of age. The impression that I must tell some one was overwhelming. I felt I would hold God in that way. “He that confesseth Me before men, him will I also confess before My Father which is in heaven.” “With the month confession is made unto salvation.” A Gospel Mission I had often seen on Ninth street, “Harvesters Mission,” but never entered, flashed into my mind. I ran, so eager was I to clinch the contract, and to commit God so He could not draw back from me. Of course it was myself that needed to be committed. But I did not know that then.

I rushed into the little Mission, interrupting the services, and asked if I might say something. They kindly submitted, and I told what had just taken place. I could not have given a better testimony. They had a season of great rejoicing. I was a little bewildered at this, but I understood it better later. It was the cry of a new born babe in their midst. That night I confessed Christ before hundreds at the Baptist Temple.

Next morning I called on my brother Will and testified to him. He said hungrily that he wished it had been him. Then the Lord showed me I must testify to my work mates. That was hardest of all. There were twenty of them, and very wicked. But He wanted me to start right, so I would not be tempted to back down. I had to work with them. I testified to each one of them before going to work. They seemed to respect me at the time, but later a fierce persecution broke out against me that raged until I quit the store.

My life condemned them. All my old habits had passed away. I was a “new creature.” Even the firm became prejudiced, because of the unrest among the other employees.

I remained at the store twenty months after my conversion, and grew rapidly under the hot persecution.

Pastor Conwell baptized me one week after my conversion, and I joined the Grace Baptist Temple. I read my Bible through, from Genesis to Revelation, at once. Thus I early knew my ground. It satisfied me fully.

We had Fourteen separate Christian Endeavor Societies in the church. I joined Sec. G. They were a very spiritual body of young people.

By the next summer, 1894, God began to call loudly for my life, for His service. At first I thought I could not, but He showed me so clearly that all He wanted was a yielded channel to work through, some one to hold up the Cross and hide behind it. I had no further excuse so consented. Like Moses I at first pleaded, “I am not eloquent,” neither learned. But He answered, “Who made man’s mouth?”

The result was that in the fall I began to study for the ministry, at the Temple College night classes, next door In the church. My holidays were spent with my parents. I told father of my conversion, but he ridiculed me, and called Jesus Christ a bastard. I felt very sorry for him. When later I left business to preach he declared me insane.

I had moved to Twelfth and Mervine streets, with a Christian family. But the son I slept with often came home drunk. This became so unpleasant I moved again to Sixteenth and French streets. Here I lived with another Christian family. Their son. Will Hill, was a special friend, and we worked much together in the service of the Lord.

Our church had a membership of 3000. Our pastor was a world-wide lecturer of much note. The church paid him $10,000 a year salary. The Endeavor Society I joined was the strongest in the church. Most of its members later became Pastors or Missionaries. My name is found on a brick today in the church, with Sec. G, C. E. Pastor Conwell encouraged me much to prepare for the regular ministry, taking a decided personal interest in me. He offered to pay my way through a university. But I refused. I was naturally independent. And my heart was going out after the humble and lowly of earth. And right there I made my choice between a popular, paying pulpit, and a humble walk of poverty and suffering. But I have never regretted this choice. I chose the streets and slums for my pulpit, where pride and egotism do not reign. He said he believed I was called for some great work. That may have been simply a temptation to vanity. At any rate I could not respond to it.

I never feared disease and vermin in the work. And God kept me. I threw away my own medicine bottles of which I had several when I was first converted, and immediately began to trust God for my body. I had never beard of Divine Healing. But my diseases, both real and imaginary, seemed to vanish. It seemed an easy matter to trust the Lord for my body when He had done so much for my soul. Would to God I could always have kept this simple faith and confidence. “Perfect love casteth out fear.”

We had a Sunday morning Bible class at the college and I urged the boys to come with me to the slums and put their theories into practice. I was spending all my spare time, both nights and Sundays, in the slums. With the lure of a popular, paying pulpit before me I chose this way. I also distributed thousands of tracts throughout the city.

A great burden had come upon me for the lost. I was only getting $7.00 a week yet at the store and I was not satisfied with business. I had decided to give my life to the Gospel. So with that end in view I took up my studies at the college.

I knew I must go out like Abraham, “not knowing whither I went,” and like Jesus my Master, with “no place to lay my head." But even that thought thrilled me. I determined to follow my heart through life and did not expect an easy time, so would not be disappointed. “If we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him.”

There were at least a dozen fine young men in the church whom God was calling. They were hesitating. I asked Him to help me blaze the way for them. They knew my poverty, and when they saw me step out they followed me almost to a man. Most of them are in the active work of the ministry today. Hardship develops character. I was to “endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” The “arm of flesh” will not do to lean upon. Unselfish advice is also a very hard thing to find. Too much advice destroys individuality.

One of my professors, Forrest E. Dager, later offered me a position as assistant pastor in his church. This was a very flattering position for a young man. He was one of the most successful pastors in the city. But I could not accept it. It would have taken me out of the particular channel God had called me to. It would have settled my financial difficulties, but that was only a secondary matter in my estimation. “Seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” I believed this.

In the college I passed the best test for Bible study. That was my hobby.

We were asked to practice preaching before the class, but I could never bring myself to do this. Preaching was too sacred a matter with me. They also practiced public praying. This I abominated and told them so. It can to little short of blasphemy. But I got through somehow and dodged these pagan exercises. My studies were the Bible, Homiletics, Natural Theology, and Christian Evidences. One of our professors was a great smoker. He was an Episcopalian pastor.

I studied hard and wasted no time in trifling. In fact I married my books, spending very little time now with the young people. My studies cost me too much in sacrifice and hard labor. I was working from 8:00 o’clock until 6:00 at the store. Four evenings a week were’ occupied at my classes, and I frequently sat up until after midnight studying. By the end of the term I was pretty well broken down. I often went without meals to buy certain books that I needed. That was literally “blood money.” I had little enough food as it was, and was obliged to sell most of my precious books at the end of the term to pay room rent.

On two occasions the second hand book man offered me exactly the price I had asked the Lord to give me for some books, without my having suggested any price to him. These little tokens spoke loudly for my encouragement from God during those days.

I was living on twenty-two cents a day, at a restaurant, at this time. A five cent bowl of stew, or a bowl of oat meal, served for my breakfast. Then a twelve cent dinner. And a five cent beef stew for supper. This was my meager fare for months, while working at the store and studying. It was a wonder I survived all. Besides this I frequently walked to work, a distance of sixteen blocks, to save car fare. My work was hard, sometimes piling heavy boxes of shoes all day. We piled them four or five boxes high, necessitating the use of a step ladder. Some of the boxes were very heavy.

Much of my mission work was done in Middle Alley and Trout street. Both were notorious for their wickedness. My own burdens were lifted often in helping others. My church did not favor this work. They were too proud. But I saw many a poor derelict saved during this ministry. The people knew I was their friend. They never offered to harm me.

A spirit of great unity prevailed among the slum workers. Only love could draw one to such a service. There was no incentive to rivalry, no gain to be realized therefrom. I was accustomed to seeing definite results, and expected fruit for my labor in every meeting. When such was not in evidence it caused great searchings of heart.

My heart became hungry for a deeper consecration, and a greater anointing from God for the service to which He had called me. I had much real soul-travail in those days and was in the glow of my “first love." My first real revival effort was made at the “Church of God.” a broken down congregation at Sixth and Germantown avenue. The pastor, Rev. Nicodemus, advertised the meetings in the daily papers. When I saw my name in print for the first lime I nearly fainted. I began with fear and trembling. But my earnestness and simplicity was rewarded beyond my most sanguine expectation. A real revival broke out, especially among the young people. The Spirit of God settled down upon them. A good congregation was built up. The result was a new church built, with a most efficient pastor called, to succeed the old one who had miserably failed.

I was afraid I had undertaken something presumptuous after I had agreed to hold the meetings. But when I preached the third night on the “Valley of Dry Bones,” Ezek. 37, conviction seized the people. We had a regular landslide of salvation. I simply stood still and watched God work. This greatly encouraged me. The pastor was the first at the altar, crying out for mercy. He had killed the church. The people forgave him, but they elected a new pastor just the same. I preached one night from Luke 5:4, - “Launch out in to the deep." Some of the seekers fell before they got to the altar. Oscar Wise, a friend from the Grace Baptist Church, was wonderfully blessed in this service. Nine souls were saved in one service, most of them in their seats. It was a real work of God. The old pastor was killed by a street car not long after. So much for my first revival.

Soon after this I applied for a license to preach, from my church. It was gladly granted. I held this for some years, until I took a charge in the Wesleyan Methodist Church in western Pennsylvania. My pastor examined me for the license and declared I had passed the best test in the Bible of any candidate be had ever examined. I thought this quite a compliment. My Bible was my text book.

Some time before this I had been badly crippled in my left knee, almost resulting in the loss of my limb through running for a street car. I was thrown from my feet, and dragged a half block aver the cobble stones, not daring to let go. From this injury I have never fully recovered. I wait for the next car now.

July 1,1895,1 left the shoe store. The persecution had become very hot. I had been there for two and one-half years. It was just one year since God had called me to preach. In the mean time I had studied my Bible assiduously in the basement during noon hours. I had also preached to many imaginary congregations there. The Gospel was a fire in my bones that roared all the day. I felt “woe is me if I preach not.” My soul was expanding in the truth. The Spirit of revelation was working mightily within me. When I drew my meager pay and stepped out of the shoe store for the last time I felt like a bird out of a cage. I had wings at last, to fly with the everlasting Gospel. I decided to sell religious books, as I had not been able to save any money from my small wages in the store, and was penniless. But God was with me. The books would help me to get into the homes of the people, to do mission work. I had to live, but otherwise I cared nothing for money. I only wanted to he used of the Lord.

A short time before this I had held a meeting in a little Methodist Church in the country near Simpson’s Grove. A number of the young people had been saved. This encouraged me greatly. I was obliged to live very scantily after leaving the store. In fact my faith was soon tried to the limit. For some weeks I almost lived entirely on corn meal mush, half cooked, just as it came from the store. I had a little sugar with it. But it tasted sweet, in the service of the Lord. The '‘zeal of His house” had consumed me. I lived on this diet until I could go it no longer.

I was now cut loose for God. Taking a little trip to the camp meeting in progress at Simpson’s Grove, I received much blessing to my soul. Evangelist Tom Harrison was the preacher. He was a regular fire brand. I lived that summer in Philadelphia from selling religious books. But living is about all that could be said of it. The weather was hot. I was doing personal work every day. God saw to it that I was not tempted, however, above that I was able to bear. One day a Presbyterian lady took a fancy to me and offered to educate me for the Presbyterian ministry. She was a wealthy woman. I had sold her a book. My trials would have been over financially. But I was obliged to thankfully refuse her.

The life of a book agent is not a bed of roses. I was bitten twice by dogs, and received much abuse from some people also. But God kept me encouraged. I frequently worked from morning until night without dinner. My breakfast often consisted of a few cinnamon buns, washed down with water, and on this fare I would work all day. This soon began to break me down. Religious books were a hard article to sell.

It came time for college again, and I started my second term. I saw some hard times that winter, confining myself almost entirely to my studies. It was my last year at college. I only left my room for scanty meals, and to sell a book when necessary to secure food. “Frequently I would sit at my Bible from morning until evening, only eating one meal a day. I was not always wise in this, but I was consumed by love of the Word. My health suffered greatly. I attended classes at night. Several hours a day were spent in prayer. But I grew in grace during those days, and deepened rapidly in God. I was being separated unto Him, for His service. He told me He had “chosen me in the furnace of affliction,” and it has proven so. My young associates were practically forgotten for the time. I was literally consumed by love for the Lord and His work and passed through a real death to all my natural desires. The Psalms of David were made very real to me during this winter. I seemed to pass through the soul experience of David largely, and to come out with him. Dr. Steam's Lectures on Prophecy were also a great help to me at this time. I lost twenty-five pounds of flesh during this winter. This I have, never regained.

Three of us young men became greatly burdened for the life of our church.

It had become so worldly. There was no place left even to pray. We gave ourselves to prayer and the outcome was a series of meetings by D. L. Moody. This brought a change for the better. Here I met Mr. Moody for the first time and sold his books in the meetings, realizing enough to buy an overcoat with, an article I was in great need of. A brother had loaned me $50.00 during the winter at his own insistence. But this was the first and last time I ever borrowed money. It was really thrust upon me. It helped to pay my room rent. I had no rest of mind until I paid it back the next summer, however, working on a farm.

I had no home but my room. My meals were scanty indeed. Sundays found me in almost a dozen meetings before the day closed. I labored unceasingly for souls. About this time I came in contact with the Salvation Army. They were then on fire. I often marched with them, and sometimes carried the banner. This my church frowned upon. They were too proud. But I was willing to be like Him who "made Himself of no reputation.”

During this winter, when pressed for food, I had worked in John Wanamaker’s store for two weeks. I only got $6.00 a week, and walked sixteen blocks at nights to save car fare. We were often required to work nights, for which we were only given our suppers. This cut off my mission work, so I soon quit, and trusted the Lord again. He had called me to work for Him.

And now my college days were ended. Just two short terms, at night school. But I was still in the school of the Master, learning to “endure hardness.” And my Bible was my main study, always with me. In June 1896,I left Philadelphia for Northfield, Massachusetts, to attend if possible the Moody summer conference. I had been through a tremendous ordeal, and my health was broken. I needed to get away from my studies, and from the city, for a complete change, for body, soul and spirit.

I first visited my parents at Flemington, New Jersey. They tried to dissuade me from going further. So I could not stay there long. I sold a few books there, and then went on to New York City. Here I visited the Jerry McAuley Mission, and the Bowery, and then took the steamer for New London, Connecticut. From there I went to Northfield, Massachusetts. I carried fifty pounds of books and baggage about a mile, from the station to the camp. On the way I bought some crackers and sat down on some one’s lawn to eat them, and to rest. Dr. Schofield came out of the house and spoke kindly to me. It was his lawn. I thought it very kind of him to notice me. I had not been used to much kindness up to this time, and was tired, sick and weak.

The mountain pine air in the camp, in the foothills, was like balm to my lungs. I had a tent on the side of the mountain. It was away from the tiresome city, with its noise and strife and din. The change seemed almost like heaven to my tired nerves. The spiritual atmosphere was grand, so helpful to my soul.

I wore a pair of number nine brogans, a relic of my railroad days, as I had worn my light shoes out. These I was very much ashamed of, but I had no money to buy others. I hid them from the people all I could. The camp lasted ten days. It seemed like heaven. Mr. Moody was the principal figure. He was very reverent and kind. There were other speakers there, from other parts, who were very helpful also and I received fresh courage and inspiration, as well as great help for my body. Northfield was very beautiful. We broke camp very regretfully.

I went from here to Boston, visited a few missions there, and then took a boat up the coast for Portland Maine, as I wanted to get as far as possible from the old associations for a time. My mind demanded a complete change. I was selling Colportage books.

The trip on the open sea from Boston to Portland was a great blessing to me. I went to the back part of the vessel and sang, to the rhythm of the waves, “Where He Leads Me I Will Follow.” And I meant it with all my heart. From Portland I returned to Boston, selling a few books on the way.

I had to make expenses, and pay my fare. I worked my way back to New York City and had just money enough left to get to my parents in Flemingington, after my books were all gone.

Reached Flemington with eight cents in my pocket. But I still owed the fifty dollars I had borrowed during the winter. This troubled me. It does not pay to borrow. I determined when that debt was paid it would be the last one. And I have stuck to that resolution. It was now July. I had been gone one month. My clothes were very poor. In a day or two I secured employment in a brick yard, at $1.50 a day. I had to carry off green bricks, and I think I never suffered so much in all my life. My back was breaking. I was not able for it and only worked one day. By that time I could sympathize fully with the Children of Israel down in Egypt. Ex. 1:4.

Mother was much troubled about me. And that made it hard for me. Her faith in God was at slake. I must prove God for her sake. I thought of Elijah’s test and determined to prove him. Mother said if God helped me this time she Would believe Him. So I started for Philadelphia, with my day’s wages in the brick yard, under heavy pressure. On the way I stopped to visit my oldest brother, who was working on a farm in Montgomery county. After supper I asked the farmer if he could give me work for the summer. He said he had just sent my brother to town to get a man. I was too late. But I prayed, and my brother returned without having been able to secure any one. He had not known I wanted work. The farmer hired me and I went to work in the morning. God had kept the job for me. Before noon there were three men after the job. But I was ahead. Mother was very much impressed with this.

I worked here until com husking time and my health greatly improved.

God was with me. Buying some new clothes, I went back to my friends in Philadelphia whom I had avoided during the summer, paid my debt in full, and was a free man once more. I made my home with the same family that I bad roomed with before.

I visited my parents at Flemington again, and while there held a meeting in a little church in the country. We had a wonderful revival. I then took a trip to Wilmington, Delaware, and to Baltimore, Maryland. In these places I visited the Salvation Army Corps, preaching for them. A number were saved, and God blessed me greatly. While on the farm I had little opportunity to work for God. The old farmer was stingy and would not allow me to bum a light in the evenings to read my Bible by. He wanted me in bed so I could work harder the next day. But I managed to smuggle a lantern into my room, and darkened it so he could not see it. I slept in a room with another hired man. He generally came home drunk, and one night attempted to commit suicide. I shut him out of the room, and he laid in the yard all night raving and moaning. The dog sat up by him and howled in sympathy until day light. As soon as I got back to the city again the old zeal for the work of the Lord came upon me. I had not broken with God.

I tried to tell books again in Philadelphia, but somehow my genius had deserted me. The Lord wanted me in the Salvation Army. Mr. Moody came to Philadelphia again, and held meetings in the Winter Circus building, and I sold books in his meetings, but the Army was ever before me. My Army friends were praying that I might join them in the work. My church despised the Army. The uniform was the hardest thing I had to overcome.

But their sacrificing spirit appealed to me. The Army seemed to offer opportunity for the work in which my soul was most interested. I cared nothing for notoriety and was perfectly willing to be sunk out of sight completely. So after an all night of prayer, to make sure of the will of the Lord, I presented myself to Col. William Evans, then commander of the Atlantic Coast Division, and was accepted. I had desired to attend the Moody Bible School at Chicago, but I let that go now. God was going to get me there later, but I did not see this at the time and had to sacrifice my Isaac of desire.

I was stationed at once with a Corps, as acting cadet, thus escaping the training garrison. They were afraid of losing me, as I did not care to go to the garrison. I wanted to be in the active work of the Lord. I was to report at Corps 17, at Second and Tasker streets, in the city. That very night I was on the Salvation Army platform, in full uniform. It was a second-hand uniform, but I did not care. Captain Urquhart, a former Canadian lumberjack, was in charge. He was fine. He took me to his big heart at once. February 3,1897,I entered the Salvation Army service. Our hall was located at 105 Tasker street, over John Hazlett's blacksmith shop. Lieutenant Mills was the other officer.

The three of us got along fine. We had wonderful fellowship in the work. Ps. 133. That was the secret of our success. We did our own housekeeping of course and I learned to cook and to do housework in general. The field where I was stationed was a tough one, strongly Catholic, but it was a new opening, and a ripe field for God.

The second night at the hall the toughs put cayenne pepper on the stove and sprinkled it on the stairs. The audience rushed down the steps to get away from the fumes, and raised a smothering cloud of cayenne pepper dust. We put the fire out with a pitcher of water. Some one then began to throw black dye. It was a factory district. I got hit in the ear and in the comer of one eye, but the Lord protected me from injury. It was a vicious act on their part. The toughs were mostly Roman Catholics. They wanted to drive the Army out. But God did not let them. They boasted they would drive us out

And this was my initiation into the Army. We were frequently pelted with eggs, vegetables, and even dead cats, on the street. They would throw barrel hoops over our heads while we were kneeling in the street praying.

At one time they even stoned me in the doorway to the hall, but the stones missed the mark. God protected. We seemed to wear a charmed life. They could not hurt us. They tried to break up our meetings a number of times. But God always gave us the victory.

Soon after I entered the Corps a revival broke out. I was very earnest in prayer for souls. It was a ripe field. We were in a factory district, of common people. And many of them heard the Word gladly, as of old. In six weeks we had 100 souls brightly saved, and soon became the banner corps of the division. In four months we had 170 souls. I was so happy one night I could not sleep.

I only received $1.00 in cash during the four months I was at this corps. Times were very hard. But I was there for souls. I was sure of a bed and food. Finally the lieutenant was promoted to a captaincy, and left us. The captain then got married, and was transferred to another corps. I was jumped over the lieutenancy, handed a captain’s commission, and ordered to Johnstown, Pennsylvania. And so our nest that God had so wonderfully blessed was broken up. The people were heart-broken. They had learned to love us. We had been used to lead most of them to Christ. This made me do some very serious thinking about the policy of the Army.

I was obliged to farewell at once, and as I left the soldiers pressed several dollars into my hand. This was against the Army rules. They wanted it all themselves. The people were loth to give me up, and I did not want to leave them. But such was Army edict. They were simple, precious souls. I had been a spiritual father to them. The succeeding officers scattered the flock. They had not travailed in birth for them, and so could not bear with their weaknesses.

June 8,1897. I took the train for Johnstown, Pennsylvania. But I had received a shock as I saw our work in Philadelphia about to be broken to pieces. The new officers were not spiritual, hut rather professional. My quarters at Johnstown consisted of two little rooms in a wooden flat, in the business section of the city. There were other roomers on the same floor. The partitions were very thin. Several lewd women roomed on the same floor. Saturday nights, just when we needed our rest most, in order to be fresh for Sunday, they made Rome howl with a keg of beer and dancing, and all kinds of licentiousness. We had to hear it all. It was hell. But we had no money to make a change. The rooms were very cheap. My lieutenant and I used to sing hymns at the top of our voice to drown the noise. They would almost break our door down.

Our hall rent had not been paid for two years. I was in a “hard shop.” The collections amounted to almost nothing. After paying our room rent there was nothing left. It was terribly hot in the wooden building. And we had to live on oat meal and dry bread. I had only a handful of soldiers, and they were nearly all in bad repute. The Corps had been kept going through pretty girl officers that had been sent there from time to time. The young fellows who had been supporting them suddenly lost their interest. They let us starve. And to make matters worse my Lieut, rebelled because he had been in the Army longer than I had. He did not want to work under a younger officer. He ruined our best open air stand by his rebellion and I had to have him removed. The new Lieut, was young and good looking. He at once proceeded to get sweet on the women in the building. That was the last straw. I saw no hope further in the place. Johnstown was a very wicked city. I would have gladly suffered if I had been able to see any hope for success. But it was no use. So I decided to leave.

I had written the Commander to send me to another corps. But he wrote me to stick it out. So I gave it up. My faith in the wisdom of the Army was shattered. I planned to leave and go west, to the Bible Institute at Chicago. This had been my desire before entering the Army. It now returned upon me. My health had suffered greatly through constant meetings, and the privations in the Army service. In Johnstown the work had nearly all fallen on me. I was there about one month.

Rev. Me Fadden, Pastor of a Gospel Mission in Chicago, had visited Johnstown and given a Stereopticon Lecture on the Mission work there. I did not meet him but heard the Lecture. I now determined to go to Chicago and appeal to him for work, at least until I could he admitted to the Bible Inst. So I sent my Captain’s commission to Col. Evans at Phila., and prepared to leave for the west the next morning. I had saved a few dollars from what the soldiers had given me in Phila. And I had also kept my citizen’s clothing.

Now I was a free man once more. In the eyes of the Army of course I would he considered a deserter. But I was God’s free man, to obey Him. The next morning a telegram came from headquarters begging me to stay, with an offer to transfer me to another Corps. But it was too late. My mind was made up. I had my ticket for Pittsburg, and was waiting for the train to leave the station, when my Lieut, brought the message to me. I had not received a dollar in salary while in Johnstown.

Reaching Pittsburg safely I stopped at the Sal. Army Lodging House over night, because it was cheap. I came near being recognized here, but I was in a strange city and felt at home with the Army. From there I went to Canton by train, which was as far as my money would carry me, and then prepared to foot it the rest of the way.

Some one paid my fare to Massillon, Ohio, on the trolley, and from there I struck out afoot, down the track. My baggage weighed at least 30 lbs. My journey had begun in earnest. It was 350 miles to Chicago. I reached a village just at dark and a good Methodist family took me in over Sunday. It was Saturday night. I attended church with them the next day, left my heavy grip with my extra clothes with them, to be sent for later, and started again on foot for Chicago.

For a week I counted R. R, ties. The weather was very warm. My feet were sore, and my shoes were wearing out rapidly. It was now July. My feet were badly swollen. Sometimes I was so tired I could hardly get one foot past the other. I bathed my feet often along the road, in the ditches where there was water. My shoe soles were too thin for such traveling. I was “enduring hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” By the next Sunday night I had almost reached Lima, Ohio.

The farmers were very kind to me along the way. Many of them were Dunkards, and very fine people. I always found food when I needed it, and a good bed to sleep in. Praise God! They could see I was no ordinary tramp. I was a young student, trying to reach the Bible Inst. This they seemed to appreciate. I testified continually along the way, and had some blessed experiences, as well as real hardships. The Lord made me a blessing to many. I think I only missed two meals on the journey.

The daily distance covered was between 20 and 30 miles, afoot. I was following the R. R. track. It was a direct route. The rolling prairies were new to me. I really enjoyed the change of surroundings and the out-door life. The country air was fine. It was a relief from constant meetings, and a great change for my mind. I refused to try to “freight it.” This I might have succeeded in doing, but it seemed dishonest to me. I was trusting God. Besides I really wanted time to pray and get my new surroundings before I reached Chicago. I enjoyed the country quiet.

The second Saturday night I stopped with a good Baptist family, spending Sunday with them. They were farmers. Monday morning they drove me to Lima, Ohio, bought me a ticket to Ft. Wayne Ind., and left a dollar in my hand. This was a great lift and encouragement along the way. From there I struck out again afoot, stopping along the way with the farmers as before.

Another week’s tramping brought me to South Chicago, Saturday noon. I had seen two weeks’ hard tramping, about 300 miles, by foot alone.

But here my faith failed me finally, just in sight of my goal. Chicago was a strange city. The Bible Inst, knew nothing of me. Rev. Me Fadden had never met or heard of me. How could I know that he would receive me? My clothes were very poor. My shoes were worn to shreds. I had just 5 cents left. With that I bought a half dozen bananas, and ate them.

I now decided for the first time to turn aside, and try to get work in the hay fields. I would fix myself up, and then present myself in Chicago. I was not willing to come “just as I am.” On inquiring the nearest way to the country a man directed me, and gave me 25 cents for car fare. So I “paid the fare thereof,” like Jonah of old, on the street car, and was soon outside the city. Walking three miles, from the end of the car line, I found the hay fields alright. But no one would hire me. It was Saturday afternoon. The farther I went the worse it got. I got nothing but abuse. It came night and I asked for lodging, but no one would receive me. This seemed strange. I had been treated so kindly on the way to Chicago. I was hungry also, but no one would give me to eat. Poor Jonah ! But I did not realize what was the matter as yet.

Finally utterly exhausted, and almost in despair, I began to rebel. I declared I would not go a step farther. But with that to my complete surprise I felt better. A conviction at once began to steal over me that possibly I was on the wrong track after all. Had not God wonderfully cared for me before? Might it not he that I had made a mistake in not trusting Him and proceeding at once into Chicago? I then and there decided I would risk it anyway. Then the light came. I knew at once that this was the cause of my trouble. I was out of the will of the Lord.

My heart became light. My body seemed to lose largely its tiredness. My mind suddenly cleared. I started to find my way back to the station. This I had left at the trolley termination. The next place I asked for food they gave it to me. And with the help of the Lord I found my way across the fields again. This I could only have done by His help, for it was very dark, and I had left the road I had come by. God must have guided me. I reached the station safely, found a train leaving later, and discovered I had just enough money left to the cent to get into Chicago with, from the twenty-five cents the man had given me. God had not allowed me to be tempted above what I was able for. He had watched that end of it.

We reached Harrison street station at 11:00 p. m. I was in the heart of Chicago, without a penny, and in one of the worst sections also. What was I to do? I had no place to sleep, was awfully tired, dusty from my tramping, shoes worn to shreds, and feet swollen. But withal I felt like shouting, because consciously in the will of God again. I applied at the police station for shelter for the night. They let me lie down on a bench in the court room. The slats were very hard. My grip served for a pillow and I finally got to sleep. The patrol wagons were bringing in their loads of drunks. After 2:00 a.m. it became comparatively quiet. I slept until 8:00 a. m.

I then started out afoot to find Brother McFadden’s Mission, on the west side. It was three or four miles to the place. I had had nothing to eat. I finally found the number, 384 South Western avenue, but passed the place, afraid to call. At last I rang the bell and was received with open arms as from the Lord. Brother McFadden was in bed with brain fever. They had been praying for some one to help them. I was installed at once in charge of the place, although a perfect stranger to them all. Oh, how foolish I felt that I had doubted God.

For some days I was so stiff I could hardly walk. I received a letter with a dollar from my mother. With this I bought a second-hand pair of shoes. I was in a Progressive Bretheren Mission. The Lord blessed me much in preaching. Several souls were saved. Brother McFadden soon recovered. He was a very good man. No one was ever kinder to me than these dear people. But I had come to Chicago to attend the Bible Institute. Had been at the Mission about two weeks.

I presented myself at the Institute and told how I had walked 300 miles to get there. Mr. Gaylord said he thought that ought to be sufficient recommendation, and after communicating with Dr. Torrey I was accepted as a student. I was to have work to pay my board. They gave me three appointments for evening services, at various missions, for practical work.

I had two nights at Pacific Garden Mission, and one at the Mission I had just been stopping at. There was a fine lot of young men at the Institute.

My work was hard, mostly scrubbing floors. But I was sometimes given the Superintendent’s and professors’ rooms to clean. Before I left the place the woman in charge of the cleaning declared I was the neatest scrubber she had ever had. I thought that quite a compliment. I was conscientious in my work. During this time I attended lectures.

Chapter 3: Evangelism in Dixie Land

While in Philadelphia Will Hill and myself had often spoken of the Institute Gospel Wagon, and wished we could take a trip on it. We had read of it. Now I thought of it again, but had not the least idea where it was, as I had not heard it spoken of at the Institute. It might have been 1000 miles away for all I knew. But God had that all planned. It was only eighteen miles any, in the country, ready for another trip, and they were just then looking for another young man to go with it. All this I was in perfect ignorance of. Otto Bidwell was in charge of it.

They wanted to send the wagon south. My health was quite poor, and it was a question as to whether I could stand the strain of the studies, and work my way through also. One day, to my utter surprise, while on my knees scrubbing, Bidwell came and asked me if I would like to take a trip on the Gospel Wagon. I had never seen or heard tell of him before. But I jumped at the chance. He wanted to start at once. I was ready, so we left the next morning. We needed to keep ahead of the cold weather. I was to take care of the horses and Bidwell do the cooking. We had a kitchen in the wagon. There were also bunks to sleep on. In fact it was a regular house on wheels.

September 6,1897, we left the Institute. I had only been there a few weeks. We were to hold street meetings, and sell Colportage books. Our wagon weighed 2800 pounds. It was really too heavy for two horses. We first traveled through Illinois. The Catholics disturbed our meetings badly. So we hurried on south. It was getting frosty any way. One of our horses went lame at McLeansboro, and a horse dealer, a church Deacon, tried to trade us an old plug for it. He said our horse would never amount to anything any more. But I prayed, and the Lord showed me to pull his shoe off. I did so and in a day or two he was all right. He had been shod wrong. A nail was making him lame.

So the Lord outwitted the horse dealer. We went on our way rejoicing. The sand hills in southern Illinois were hard to pull through. We crossed the Ohio River at Metropolis City.

In Kentucky we found excellent camping grounds. We generally rolled up in a blanket and slept under the stars. The season was very dry. We held street meeting and sold books. In this way we got enough to feed our horses and ourselves, and to keep the wagon in repair. Camp life was very fine. We sometimes traded books for sweet potatoes, sorghum, etc. At Hickman, Kentucky, we camped on the banks of the Mississippi, “Father of waters.” Here we had a good swim.

In Tennessee we went through a long covered bridge where we had only about an inch to spare between the top of the wagon and the timbers of the bridge overhead. I shuddered to think of our plight if the bridge should happen to be sprung in the middle. We would have had to take the wagon to pieces almost to get it out. I hung my weight from the top of the wagon at the front end to keep it from bouncing up and catching, and so we got safely through. One day we got lost in a great lumber woods. But we finally found a camp, and they directed us out. There were many roads, used by the lumbermen, that led nowhere. Oxen were mostly used for drawing the logs. Corduroy roads were quite common here, made of logs.

We soon reached the cotton fields. Saturday here was called “nigger day." All the colored folks were in town on that day. The streets would be black with them. The whites stayed at home, to avoid trouble. We had some great meetings with the black folks, and sold a great many Colportage books. They were only fifteen cents apiece, and they could generally raise that much money. At Jackson, Tennessee, we had a big meeting. The negroes looked upon us as their friends, being northerners. But the whites did not care so much for us. We were too friendly with the blacks to suit them. There was much race prejudice among them. But we felt called mostly to the colored people. They needed our help the most.

The roads were often lull of holes and stumps and we had trouble to got our heavy wagon through. We crossed into Mississippi, but found the yellow fever had broken out. The whole state was quarantined. Here was a fresh difficulty. They kept ordering us to move on. We could not hold any street meetings now. The colored people did not seem near as much afraid of dying as the whites. They were more trusting. And they had far less to live for. The condition of a negro in that part of the south was not very pleasant. They were often punished for some white man’s crime. It was very easy to lay the blame on a black man. In fact there seemed little justice for the man whom God had made with the black skin.

We passed through Corinth, Tupelo, Aberdeen, West Point and Macon.

Here we found some very bad roads. It seemed hardly possible to get through some places. But God helped us. We were now in the great cotton belt, and passed through many large plantations. It reminded one of anti-bellum days. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was brought vividly to my mind. There were whole rows of negro cabins. Whole families of colored people could be seen, with their bright colored clothing, picking cotton.

Mississippi was a “while man's country," although the black folks far outnumbered them in population. The black man lived in constant fear of his life. We were treated better by the colored people than by the whites. The latter seemed to fear we might do the “nigger" a kindness. Of course there was another side to the question also, but the negro seemed by far to be given the raw end of the deal.

The white man robbed the negro systematically of what little money he could earn, and seemed to have no conscience in doing so. He considered him lawful prey. A whole town would turn out to lynch a negro. And they were not always too careful to prove him guilty either. Often a white man would black himself up when he wanted to commit a crime. After all I found the negro was largely only what circumstances had made him, in the south. He was given little encouragement to do better.

In Mississippi we saw sugar cane growing. In the swamp forests the moss hung from the limbs of the trees in festoons, ten feet long. These were called “curtains of death.” They denoted “swamp fever.” The colored man was easily made happy. His wants were few. He sang at its work, and seldom complained of his hard lot. He was naturally religions. But the white man was complaining all the time.

Sometimes we would strike a “gumbo" road. This was a black, sticky, thick mud, almost impossible to pull through. The rains had begun. The roads were as slippery as glass. The people traveled only on horse back in the winter. We held a street meeting in Macon, Mississippi. There were crowds of negroes. “This was right in the black bell."

Our food was very simple. We seldom saw milk or meat. We could only get white bread in the cities. Our standing diet was oat meal, beans and syrup, with a little fruit sometimes. In the south they eat much hot biscuit and com bread. The town authorities tried to hinder our meetings. They did not want anything done for the negro. Besides they wanted his money themselves. He might buy a few books. On the whole they were suspicious of us. This made it unpleasant, and sometimes even dangerous. The Jews generally invited us to hold our meetings in front of their stores, however. This drew the negro trade, and gave them favor with the colored people. They were usually located in the negro section. Mississippi was a great turpentine state. We passed through magnificent turpentine forests.

At Meridian, Mississippi, we turned east. The yellow fever line had abated with the coming of frost. We saw colored women ploughing with oxen in the south. I often attended services at the colored church in the country. They were earnest and primeval. We found fine camping places in the pine groves. Camp life was very healthy. We averaged a street meeting about every two days, driving on an average from fifteen to twenty miles a day. Our objective was Asheville, North Carolina, where our wagon was to be delivered. It was its last trip. It really belonged to a gentleman there. It had been loaned to the Bible Institute. Mr. Moody had held meetings from it at the World’s Fair in Chicago. The owner had driven north with it.

About the last of November we crossed into Alabama. Here we saw our first rice on the stalk. Razor back hogs ran wild, living on acorns in the woods. They could root up a railroad track. Men rode ox back, like on horses. Just outside of Demopolis, Bidwel I drove into a big sink hole. He could easily have avoided it. But he was a predestinarian. He believed what is to be will be, and you cannot change it. He had nearly upset the wagon several times before this, through carelessness. But he would always say, “If the Lord wants us to upset we will upset." He was always patient, however, and never got excited. On the whole he was a good fellow. We had difficulty to get out of the hole. He was a great sermonizer, and used to say if he could collect 1000 good illustrations he would be fixed for life as a preacher. He did most of the preaching. I played my concertina, and sang.

At Demopolis the town was black with negroes. It was Saturday afternoon. We sold a lot of books, but the marshall ordered us out of town. The crowd was still begging for books. I felt we needed old Abe Lincoln about that time. December 3 we broke camp near Uniontown, Alabama. It had been raining. The roads were axle deep with “gumbo” mud. We were trapped. One of our horses slipped and fell, never to rise again. The wagon was too heavy. Our journey was ended. The horses had both been sick, from change of climate. We left the living horse, shipped the wagon to Asheville, North Carolina. Bidwell started for New Orleans, and I for Florida, for the winter.

It had rained steadily for several days. We camped ten days in the mud, axle deep, before we could remove the wagon. It was cold. The roof leaked, and we only had a small oil stove to keep warm by. I out the pockets out of an old pair of pants to wear for socks. We had been three and one-half months on the wagon, and had traveled 1500 miles. I took $5.00 worth of books with me, and vent to Selma, Alabama. Here I sold a few and went on to Montgomery. I next stopped at Troy, held a street meeting, and spoke at a mission. From Troy I struck out afoot, walking twenty miles before dark. I was awfully tired. It was several miles yet to the nearest town. There had not been a team going my way all day. I asked the Lord to send a wagon along. In less than three minutes a man drove by, and gave me a ride clear into Ozark.

There I spoke at a Baptist prayer meeting, going on by train next day to Alaga, and from there to Bainbridge, Georgia. Here I stopped with the pastor of the Baptist church. He said to his wife as he opened the door, “Something tells me to take this young man in.” His name was Rev. Parker. I found he had once visited the Baptist Temple in Philadelphia, where I was a member. And so I was among friends. They fed me up on cracklin’ bread, corn pone, sweet potatoes and hominy.

I walked to Quincy, Florida, in one day, from here, a distance of twenty-five miles. Next day I walked to Tallahassee. I had a few books left, but no money. From here I ordered more books from Chicago. I took a side trip to the Gulf of Mexico, walking twenty-two miles in one day. Stopped at St. Marks. A year or two later this little town was carried out to Sea by a tidal wave, and the people lost.

Returning to Tallahassee I called on a Baptist Missionary sister. Miss Marie Jones. Her brother was editor of the Baptist “Commonwealth,” in Philadelphia. I worked with her, and sold a few books. We held street meetings and jail services. Had six meetings on Sunday. I preached in four churches. A precious colored girl, a consumptive, was wonderfully saved. Nothing had ever been able to reach her before. She died later, triumphant in the faith.

January 11,1898,I started for Palatka, Florida. I was now counting ties again. I slept one night on the banks of the Suannee river, at Ellaville. My next stop was at Lake City, Florida. I had walked 105 miles, in five days, to reach this place. A colored pastor, Rev. Mills, fed and lodged me. He was a very humble man. I held two street meetings and a jail service, and preached in two colored churches. Several souls were saved. In this country it was dangerous for a white man to sleep in a colored man’s house. The whites would have tarred and feathered me if they had known it. They rode in separate cars here, and called for their mail at separate post office windows. I walked from here to Palatka. The people were very kind to me along the way. I had now walked all the way front Tallahassee to the St. John’s river. There was no money in this country. A nickel was as big as a dollar, and even harder to find.

Here I saw my first orange and palm trees. The thermometer stood eighty degrees in the shade January 20. I sold a few books, and took the boat for Jacksonville on the St. John’s river. It was fifty-five miles, by beautiful moonlight. Along this river my father had stood guard during the Civil War, for the north. From Jacksonville I set my face northward, toward home, afoot.

At Hilliards I bought a can of baked beans and shared it with a hungry little colored tramp. It was all swamp around St. Mary’s river. I crossed the Okefinokee, on the railroad trestle. It was very large, and full of fever. I was eager to get north. At Waycross, Georgia, I found some very fine Christian merchants. Sold a number of books. I caught cold here from too thin a mattress on my bed and could hardly walk. But the Lord delivered. From here I walked to Savannah.

I held a street meeting at Blackshear, and sold same books. At McIntosh the white people would not take me in. Even the Baptists refused me. An old colored mammy took me into her cabin, fed me, and gave me a bed. I could generally depend on them, when the whites failed me. The Lord loves His colored children. He put the coloring matter in Himself. The whites were sometimes inhuman. I carried a license from the Baptist Temple with me.

Those were days I was thankful for a bed. For long time after I had a bed of my own. I never failed to thank God at night for a place to lay my head. I never knew from one night to another, for months, where I would sleep.

From Savannah I started afoot again, for Charleston. South Carolina. This country was all swamp, and God forsaken. The thin population was mostly Catholic. I learned “Swamp Theology” here with a vengeance. One day I lived on a nickel’s worth of crackers, and shared them with half starved colored boy. Near Yamasee, South Carolina, some one shot at me twice from the swamp. It was after dark. They would kill you for your shoes in that country. Both loads just missed me. They were from a doubled barreled shotgun. I ran down the track until I reached a crossing, and soon came to town. My father had soldiered within twenty miles of this place during the Civil War. Somewhere near here I came to a long railroad trestle. No one was allowed to cross it afoot under penalty of arrest. It meant miles back and around to reach the railroad again. It was all swamp. But God was good to me. Half way across the trestle I saw the lies burning. The engine had set them on fire. The guard had not seen it. I hastened across and gave the alarm. While they were running to put out the fire I passed on.

One day I was nearly starved and very weak. I had eaten nothing that day so I held a street meeting and asked for a collection. I told my colored audience I was starving. They gave me enough to get a square meal at the restaurant. That saved my life. I seldom lifted an offering for myself. But this time I had to have it. This was at White Hall, South Carolina. Sometimes I found wicked men kinder to me than church members.

I walked 100 miles in four days to reach Charleston and had very little food. In fact I only ate six times. I bought five cents worth of bananas, and with what I had left paid for a night's lodging. Next morning I started out afoot again, on an empty stomach. There was a place fifteen miles up the track they called the “dead line." After that life would be comparatively safe along the railroad track. Many had been murdered here. But I passed it safely. Toward night I became desperately hungry. I felt if I did not get food soon I would die. Finally an old colored mammy who kept a restaurant gave me a big dish of rice. And food never tasted better. It saved my life again. One night I stopped with a colored Episcopalian preacher. I was so near starved he gave me his own supper and went hungry. He had only enough for one. I wept over this sacrifice. But I had to have it.

By this time my shoe soles were loose clear back to the heels. I tied them on with strings until I could reach the next town. There a colored shoemaker fastened them on free, for the Gospel’s sake. The colored people never failed me when in trouble. At King’s Tree, South Carolina, a poor white Baptist brother took me in, after the Baptist and Methodist pastors had both turned me down. He gave me my supper, bed and breakfast, paid for a hair cut and gave me twenty-five cents. The milk of human kindness had not yet all soured. Most of the kindness I received was from the poor people, both white and colored.

Passing through Lake City, I reached Florence, South Carolina. It was Saturday. The town was full of negroes. I held a street meeting and sold some books. At Darlington I preached from the court house steps. I had at least 1000 colored people before me. Here a white infidel threatened to kill me. Next day I fooled it to Hamlet, North Carolina, reaching there at dark. The wind was blowing a gale. Soon the sky lighted up with an unearthly hue. A forest fire was sweeping down upon the town. I had just escaped it. The people were wild with fear. It was a terrible sight. Along the horizon the fire was leaping and running toward us as fast as a horse could gallop, the wind sweeping it on. The dry grass burned like so much tinder.

I helped fight the fire. All hands were needed. For a full hour it kept us busy. There was no water. The railroad embankment on the side of the town saved us. The fire swept around us. It traveled a distance of seventy-five miles, burning a space fifty miles wide. Many towns were destroyed in its path. One boy, caught in its path, saved his life by burying himself in the sand.

At Southern Pines I found a New England health resort. It seemed almost like getting home. At the Wake Forest Baptist School they received me very kindly. I finally reached Raleigh, North Carolina, foot sore and weary, and laid down in the park to rest a while. I got a bed in a cheap hotel and went to bed at 4:00 p. m. Next morning I felt better. I bought a pair of cheap shoes from a Jewish merchant, one size too large, my feet were so badly swollen from walking. Stopping at Apex and later Gary, next morning I started on without breakfast. I passed through Weldon, and stopped one night at Jarrett. Here I had to sleep in the railroad station. It was bitter cold. The agent, a sinner, took pity on me. I had eaten nothing since morning. I bought some cakes with my last nickel, propped a chair up on the station floor, and lay down to rest as best I could. The cold wind swept the floor all night. The agent brought me some breakfast in the morning from his own table. I had appealed to the pastors of the town but they would not help me.

Passing through Stony Creek I reached Petersburg, Virginia. Here I sold a book or two and being ravenously hungry ordered a twenty-five cent beefsteak at a restaurant. After devouring this I found a place to sleep, and next morning started “on to Richmond." On the way I stopped at an old colored manny’s cabin for something to eat. She went out and found two eggs in her hen house. She came in excited and declared “De Lawd muss be suah wuhkin’ foh you, honey. I declar my ole hen done laid two eggs today.” She cooked them both for me. Then she wanted to know if I knew a hymn, “Hist de dahkened window, open wide de dooh." I happened to have a little Moody and Sankey hymn hook with me, with this very song in it. I gave it to her and her joy knew no bounds. She called down heaven’s blessings on my head. She felt well repaid for the meal.

I reached Richmond, Virginia, safely, having actually covered 1000 miles afoot in eight weeks time. Here I received a letter from my mother with a $5.00 bill in it. I was so tired I could only with great difficulty have walked any further and I was soon speeding by rail to Washington, D. C. At the Central Union Mission I got bed and breakfast. I went to the top of the Washington Monument, 555 feet high, and got a magnificent view of the surrounding country. I also visited the White House, the Museum, and the Smithsonian Institute. As I started for the station to take the train for Philadelphia, Otto Savo, one of our old Salvation Army soldiers from No. 17 Corps in that city, met me on the street. He told me our old lieutenant, now Captain Mills, was stationed only a few miles away, at Alexandria, so I decided to see him before proceeding further. He was glad to see me, and I stayed five weeks with him. I visited Mount Vernon while here, and the church where George Washington used to attend. I left Washington just two days before the declaration of war with Spain. Early in April I reached Philadelphia. I had written north some months before this that I would reach Philadelphia by April. This prophecy came exactly true. My parents had removed from Flemington, New Jersey, and were stopping with my brother Will in Philadelphia. They later located at Cottageville, Pennsylvania, near the old farm home again.

Of course my people were all glad to see me. But the house was crowded and there was really no room for me. I stopped for two weeks with a friend in a Mission Home, at Knight’s Court, Ninth and Cherry street. Mrs. Hennessey was very kind to me. Here I got a good rest, and then went to the country and hired out for the summer with Farmer Yeakel, where I had worked the year before, near Five Points, Montgomery county. My oldest brother was still working there.

Here I worked from June 5 until September 24,1898. My health greatly improved, and by fall I felt like going south again. I hail gotten some new clothes, and had a few dollars saved besides. I earned $105.00 during the summer besides my board. My Sundays I had spent in Philadelphia. October 12,1898,I started south again, by train, for Asheville, North Carolina, intending to sell books and preach, as I had done before.

I visited my parents before starting south. Mother did not want me to go. She would have spared me the hardships, and so offered to give me $100.00 to go back to the Moody Institute at Chicago. But the Lord was calling me to the work in the south again. I had been over the ground and knew the field, and had learned to love the poor people of the south, both white and colored. The first time my ministry had been mostly to the colored people. This time it was to be among the whites for the most part.

At Asheville I held a street meeting in front of the court house, and thought I ought to have an offering. I had been working all summer and had almost forgotten the nature of my calling. My money was about all gone. I got five cents out of the crowd. That brought me back. I remembered I was to trust God. I stopped at Waynesville, North Carolina. This was a health resort called “The Land of the Sky." The mountain air was grand. I was reminded of the song here, “Life is like a mountain railway." Murphy, North Carolina, was my next stop. Here I held a street meeting and sold some books. I was in the heart of the “moonshine” whiskey district. At Blue Ridge, Georgia, I preached from a pile of old lumber, in the open.

Reaching Ellijay, Georgia, next I held a street meeting. Here I met old Uncle Tillman. He as holding revival services in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

W. O. Butler was the pastor. We became friends at once. Butler was a radical fellow. Uncle Tillman was a good old man. Pastor Butler took me into his home and I was invited to help in the services. Up to this time they had had no break in the meetings The power of God came on me mightily one day while preaching. I saw a ball of fire falling from heaven. It was about the size of a cannon ball, and burst right within me. I do not know what the people saw but conviction seized them in a terrible way. In some way God had revealed Himself to them. They started to run for the altar. There were about 100 people in the audience. Only two remained in their seats, a colored man, an a cripple.

The black man did not dare go with the whites. No invitation had been given. But God had spoken. I preached a number of times there.

At another time seventy came to the altar. Many were truly saved. God had laid to His hand.

Uncle Tillman and myself joined forces and went from here to Talking Rock. I did most of the preaching there as he was sick. We were in the heart of the “moonshine” district. One night I preached against whiskey and the crowd nearly mobbed me. Most of the church members drank whiskey. It was a very wicked place. The people were very ignorant here. But they were very kind to us. They fed us on fried chicken, hoe cake and sweet potatoes. I had too much to eat. It was difficult to pray enough under such circumstances. The young men would gather around the stove and smoke cigarettes after the meeting. Their preachers used tobacco.

Our meetings were held in the school house. They were mostly Baptists in this section. They believed “once saved, always saved.” So why worry about a little thing like drinking whiskey, or using tobacco? The snuff habit was very bad among them also. Even small children dipped snuff and chewed. It was as common as their food to them. Many of them were dwarfed and sickly because of this. We saw some fruit here but the field was hard. They knew nothing of real salvation and thought they were all right. Most of them belonged to the church. They only wanted religion to get to heaven on. Holiness they feared. In fact the devil just about ran the church in this section.

The people paid our hotel bill, but we were obliged to pay our own fares out of town. We next stopped at Tate, but they were not quite ready for a meeting there. Here Uncle Tilman got a notion we had been together long enough. He thought there was not enough money in it for both of us. He had been used to working alone. He wanted to do all the preaching, and seemed to be jealous of the young preacher. He was getting old and prosy, and the people liked young blood, and fire.

But I could not get clear leading to leave him yet. He was going to stop at Nelson, Georgia, next and wanted me to go on south and leave him here.

We went to the station together, but when the agent asked me where I wanted my ticket for, I answered at once. Nelson. God spoke the word to me at that moment. I had to go with him. After results proved tremendously my clear leading in the matter.

We started our meetings in the Academy building in Nelson. The house was full from the start. Six young men came to the altar the first night. It was a ripe held. The devil had tried to side track me, and split our forces. We took turn about preaching, and were there three weeks. As high as fifteen souls were saved at one service. Salvation rolled in upon the town. They wanted us to stay longer, but we felt our work was done. Uncle Tillman insisted that we separate now. I did not feel that we should, but was obliged to give way to him. Our collections barely paid our board. The people had never been taught to give. Uncle Tillman wanted more money, and so wanted to go it alone. The money part did not bother me.

In the start of the meeting the saloon keeper had brought his family, bought a hymn book and occupied a front seat. He was just as good as the church members. They all drank at his bar, and owed him for liquor. After a few nights he dropped out. It would have cost him his business to get saved. As the church members would get saved they called on him and paid their whiskey bill, saying good-bye. Most of them had a jug of “moonshine” under the bed also. When we left that place nearly every one in town had professed conversion, and the saloon was practically busted. There were only 200 inhabitants in the town. The saloon closed up and the man left town. That was pretty good prohibition work. The worst drunkard in the place was converted, along with his wife. He wrote me a most touching letter of thanks later. The power of God had simply swept the place clean at Nelson.

Uncle Tillman went back to Tate for a meeting. The people wanted me to come with him, but he would not hear to it. So I was obliged to leave him. He had his eye on the collections. It was a great mistake but I could do nothing. I went on to Atlanta. Uncle Tillman was soon taken sick, and had to go home to South Carolina. God is not mocked.

I went to Macon, Georgia, sold a few books and heard Sam Jones preach in a tent meeting. Street meetings were not allowed here. At Camilla I held a street meeting. From there I went to Pelham where the Lord wonderfully blessed me. I preached at both the Baptist and the Methodist churches. It was a ripe field, especially among the young people. I had some converts in my street meetings. There was a fine lot of intelligent young people here. They were much revived. A number of them were school teachers in the Academy. A young woman, a school teacher of very high merit, who through over sorrow had lost her faith in God through her father’s death, was brightly reclaimed. I had one of the heaviest travails of soul for her I have had in my life. Her joy knew no bounds. Here I met Brother Jim Tucker. He was a precious, humble man. I stopped with him later, on my way north. Some one asked me here what my Alma Mater was. They admired my gift of teaching. I did not even know the meaning of the word at that time.

I next stopped at Thomasville, Ga. Here I preached twice in a country school house. It was a regular back-woods, “Georgia Cracker” district. They were busy boiling sugar cane. It was hard to arouse the people. They had no idea whatever of a change of life. The dogs all went to church with the family. It was "love me, love my dog.” They amused themselves by chasing fleas while I preached. Sometimes this performance took place on the platform. The people went to sleep in the pews. They were accustomed to this habit. I wished for Gabriel with his horn. The poorer the people were the more dogs they kept. They were “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage.” I in fact they needed old Noah to preach to them.

I was 27 years old Dec. 14,1898. My next slop was in Pavo, Ga. Here I held a meeting in the Academy. I called on the hard shell Baptist Pastor to lead in prayer. He said he had only come as a spectator. The fact was he was afraid of being unchurched if he took part in a strange service. The people were very sectish.

I preached here two or three times, but the people were so giddy I could do but little. I next stopped at Moultrie. The Baptist Pastor here advised me not to try in hold street meetings. But I had to obey God. It was Christmas week and the town was full of people. So I started street meetings. A street showman, a villianous looking foreigner, wanted to thrash me because I drew his crowd away. But the people would not let him. They had all left him and come to me. I saw I was in for trouble, and had to pray hard. The showman left his stand and made for me. That night the young men broke up his stand. They took sides with me. He had to leave town the next day. They enjoyed fair play. I had prayed God to protect me, and He did it in this way. Six men decided for Christ in one street meeting. Fifteen others held up their hands for prayer.

The merchants refused to loan me a box to preach from, so I went to a Saloon and asked for an empty barrel. The Saloon keeper seemed to enjoy this and rolled an empty whiskey barrel out into the street. I preached from the top of this, in front of his place. I had a great crowd. The Baptist Pastor came by while I was preaching and was staggered at my audacity. Before I left town he paid my hotel bill. Praise the Lord! But God had given me wisdom, as well as courage. I loved the souls of men, and never abused even the Saloon keepers. But I was true to God.

Dropping back to Pavo I held a street meeting. Here I attended a Christmas entertainment in the Academy. They had even plugs of tobacco on the tree. A string band played jigs and waltzes, and they were dancing in the rear of the building. Some were drunk. The men kept their hats on, and cigars in their mouths, during the services.

I held a street meeting at Boston, and spoke in the M. E. Church. Four men came to the altar. The Pastor kept a spittoon on the stand while he was preaching. The spiritual conditions were deplorable. I have seen preachers squirt tobacco juice all over the floor while preaching, in this country. They would generally try to spit clear of the platform. They reminded me of big, green tobacco worms. The Pastor’s wife here dipped an enormous amount of snuff. He offered to treat me to cigars, and was very much surprised when I refused. But I was not going to do like the Romans, if I was in Rome.

I stopped next at Cairo, Georgia, with Pastor Kerr, of the Methodist Church. He, was a big-hearted Irishman, and had once been in the Salvation Army.

I preached here every night for two weeks. A few were saved. It was a time of rest and refreshing for me. We had blessed fellowship together.

We sang Salvation Army choruses together until his wife got tired of us. When I left he slipped a dollar in my hand, with his blessing. The preachers got very little salary here. Brother Kerr had once been pastor at Macon, but he had incurred the wrath of his rich members through trying to enforce the Discipline on some of them who were living in sin. So the Bishop had relegated him to the piney woods. The Discipline was not made for the rich members. Unless a preacher was a Free Mason in this country he could not get a good charge in the Methodist Conference.

I preached at Climax, Ga., in the Presbyterian Ch. The atmosphere was frigid spiritually. It was torment. At Marianna, Fla, I held a street meeting, and sold a few books. I was back in Florida again. At Chipley I was received very kindly by Bro. Foster, pastor of the M. E. Church. He was a grand, good man, very humble, and poor. He believed in holiness. His family was fine. I stayed six weeks with them. It was like home. They were so kind to me.

Bro. Foster had several appointments. I preached at most of them. The farmers would drive as much as 10 miles in their ox carts, with their families, to get to meeting. They would listen attentively for two hours or more. They only had preaching once a month, and were a very humble, lovable people. They were very poor.

The malaria was bad in this part of Florida. The people died off like sheep in the summer lime. Quinine was kept on the table constantly, and used almost as commonly as salt. My own health was getting very poor by this time. I had pleurisy in both sides, and the dumb ague. In fact I was full or malaria. It was literally sticking out of me.

In February it snowed at Chipley. The thermometer went to 4 below zero. This was unheard of weather for this country. The people were all unprepared for it, both as to clothing and shelter, and suffered greatly. They had only open fire places. The snow sifted through everywhere. Hundreds of cattle died from exposure.

I had only received $15.00 since coming south on this trip. My clothes were worn out. So I wrote to a friend in Phila. to pray about this. He wrote me to send my measure for a suit of clothes. In a short time a brand new suit arrived. Some of the young people of the Baptist Temple had furnished them.

Leaving Chipley I went to De Funiac Springs. Cheap excursion rates were on for the Chautauqua. There I exchanged tickets with a colored man who had come from Pensacola, who wanted to go to Georgia. Thus I rode 100 miles, on a four-cent railroad, for fifty cents. I stopped in Pensacola over Sunday. My though was to go to Texas. But I did not realize the trouble that lay ahead for me.

I had gotten the 'Texas fever.” From Pensacola I walked 44 miles, to Flomaton Junction. Then from here I walked most of the way to Mobile, Ala. I had expected to go from Pensacola to Mobile by Boat, and on to New Orleans, and Texas, in the same way. This would have been very easy, and cheap. But I found the Boats had stopped running for the winter. They only ran in season. I reached Mobile with just $1.00. I called on the Baptist pastor, but he turned me down cold. He would not even give me a meal, or place to sleep, although I showed him my papers from the Baptist Temple, Philadelphia. The country between here and New Orleans was very barren. I was sick in body, and had only $1.00 in the world. So I knew I could not walk to New Orleans. What was I to do?

For the first time my faith failed me in the South land. I was not in God’s will. But I did not realize it at this time. The Lord had shut up the pastor’s heart against me. I was riding the “ass of my own will,” and I had to go against the wall. God did not want me in Texas at that time. I had no intimation of what was wrong, and this made it harder for me. This was March 4, 1899.

I rented a room for fifty cents and prepared for bed. But when I knelt to pray there was no God. He had simply been blotted out. I think I sweat cold sweat. This was a new experience. I could not imagine what was the matter. Every moment the situation seemed to become more terrible. The heavens were brass. But I had to realize my mistake some way. The whole situation seemed to come before me. I was 1500 miles from home, sick and penniless, in a malarial country. I had no friends. What could I do? Only those who may have had a similar experience can appreciate my predicament at that time.

My brain seemed to reel. If I had only had some premonition, or clue to the difficulty, it would not have been so terrible. I literally writhed in the agony of my soul. I had reached the limit. A “horror of great darkness” had fallen suddenly upon me. Then the devil got busy. I had foolishly carried a revolver in my grip, for dogs. He now tempted me to shoot myself. I have never had any use for firearms since. You could not hire me to sleep with a loaded gun in the house. Finally I threw myself into bed, dazed, without hope, dreading nothing more than the breaking of another day without God. I desired oblivion. Death seemed less terrible than life.

But God had not forsaken me. He was watching over me, protecting me, although hidden for a season. I was the victim of my own ambition. I had not meant to go wrong. But I was on the wrong track. This I had to see. Sleep at last mercifully dropped the curtain on the near tragedy. God had “given his beloved sleep.” It saved my life and reason.

Next morning I awoke, dazed. It was a nightmare. I sat up stunned. What did it mean? Instinctively my mind began to take the back track. I dared not look ahead. Hope revived as a way out seemed to offer itself to me. It was the way back. I gladly responded to this, and in a few moments all was clear. I had gotten out of Divine order. I now found I could pray again. God had returned.

I could hardly wait for train time. Selling a few books I bought a ticket back to Bay Minette, Alabama. Here I sold my old suit of clothes to a negro section hand for seventy-five cents. He got a cheap suit. But I did not need it. I thought only of getting back where I had gone wrong from. I walked the rest of the way to Pensacola. Stopping over night I bought a ticket for De Funiac Springs again. Fortunately for me the rates were still on. Here I sold a book or two, trading my ticket again to a colored man from Georgia, who wanted to go to Pensacola. And so I rode back to the Georgia line. I had twenty-five cents left and rented a room at Chattahooche, Ga. Next morning I started up the track without breakfast, but happy. I was back in the will of God. I had had enough of Texas for that time.

Reaching a little town called Recovery, I found friends who fed and took me in. The next night I started meetings in the school house. The town had been rightly named, for me. I here recovered my ground. Before I left the whole community was revived. The little Methodist Church was built up again in the faith. The people were very kind to me and gave me a little offering. But the Baptists opposed me here, even sending one of their big guns, Dr. Carswell, to fight me. They wanted the spoils. But the big doctor soon fizzled out. The people knew crumbs from sawdust. He had it all in his head. They had Hard Shell Baptists, Primitive, Missionary, and even Slab-off Baptists. The latter were the first cut off of the log. One of their preachers told his people “all the sins they ever had committed, and all they ever would commit, were forgiven them when converted.” I thought that was going some. I reached Clamax, Georgia, March 24,1899. And it proved to be my climax, for after preaching three times in the Baptist Church I utterly broke down. I had stopped here before. My mind became a blank while preaching. I could no longer connect a whole sentence together. The malaria had done its work. I tried to go on with the meeting, but failed. I was conquered. The people gave me $4.00. They were very sorry for me. Several were saved in the meetings.

I stopped at Cairo two days, with Brother Kerr, again. But I could preach no more. At Thomasville and Meigs I was too weak to preach. The malaria was bringing me low. At Ochlochnee they were holding revival services. Here I met Brother Oscar Maddox, a sweet Gospel singer, and Brother Brink, of the “Pentecost Band.” At Pelham, where God had so greatly used me among the young people, I stopped with Brother Jim Tucker again. He was a friend indeed, and a real saint. I was too weak to preach, so did not try. I really thought I was going to die. The malaria was destroying my kidneys.

I now wanted to get north again. Both climate and water were against me here. It was May, and getting very hot. So I decided to try to reach Atlanta. I started for the depot one morning with $2.00, feeling God wanted me to lake thal train. The fare was $5.00. It was a real test of faith. I slopped at Brother Tucker’s store on the way, to say good-bye, and he asked me if I had my fare. I said, “Not all of it,” and he handed me $5.00. A man had just paid him a bill that morning that had been outlawed, and he felt it was for me. He had not expected to get it. So wonderfully did God work.

Reaching Atlanta I went to the Grady Hospital for treatment, but they would not take me in. I was not a resident. God did not want me in the hospital. I went instead to Brother Elmer Shelhamer's home at 12 Gilmer street. Here I was welcomed cordially. It was a Free Methodist Home. This was May 10,1899. I stayed one month with them.

A doctor had told me quinine would not touch my case. So he fed me arsenic. My liver was greatly enlarged. But after two weeks my nerves were so bad I could not sleep. Then I decided to trust the Lord. There was a good well of limestone water near the home. This I began to drink copiously. I began to improve at once. But for two years after getting north, I often felt like a drowning man, struggling to keep my head above the water. The malaria poisoning has never fully left me. My system has been greatly enervated by it.

One day I met Pastor Conwell on the street in Atlanta. He was lecturing in the city. I was very glad to se him. I got able to preach again, and went with Brother Garrow, from the Home, to preach at the Stockade to the chain gang. They were mostly negroes. I met Uncle Tillman on the street here one day also. I had preached 129 times since October 12,1898, when I last came south. It was now June 1,1899. I had traveled 1500 miles. They printed tracts at the home and I distributed hundreds of them, in spite of my weakness. It was my life. I visited many saloons. The saloon keepers here were very wicked.

Brother Garrow wanted to go north to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, on their Gospel wagon. He had relatives in Braddock, Pennsylvania. This was the chance I had been praying for, to get north. Sister Shelhamer wanted the wagon to go south. So Brother Garrow finally decided to let the horses determine the route for him. He was a man of very simple trust.

There were five of the Barrow family, another young man, and myself. We carried a tent for sleeping quarters, leaving Atlanta June 5, 1899. I trembled for the decision of the horses. A mile from town the road forked to the north and south. If the horses turned south I would have to go back to Atlanta. I prayed mightily. Brother Garrow dropped the lines loose on the horses backs as we approached the forks. They turned north as prettily as though guided by a master hand. Hallelujah! God had guided them. We were bound for north and home.

We held a street meeting at Henrietta, Georgia, and slopped at Carlersville, Sam Jones’ town. I preached on the street here. Jones was not at home, but I saw his house. We next stopped at Kingston. We got in after dark, pitched our tent, and camped for the night. We generally cooked over a camp fire, living on corn bread, oat meal, sweet potatoes, etc. As I went after a pail of water I missed the foot bridge in the dark, falling into a deep ditch, walled with sharp stones. I struck the knee I had injured years before in Philadelphia running for the street car. Next day I could scarcely walk and remained lame all the way to Pittsburg. We had to climb over mountains on the way, afoot, to lighten the wagon. I nearly lost my leg, narrowly escaping white swelling.

I hobbled into Pittsburg on a cane.

It was my business to steer the party through the country. This I did by the help of maps, being used to traveling. We held street meetings at Andersonville and Calhoun. We also carried paint and brushes and painted Scripture texts all along the way from Atlanta to Pittsburg, on fences, bridges, rocks, etc. We distributed thousands of tracts also. My knee became so stiff I could scarcely walk.

At Dalton and Chattanooga, Tennessee, we held street meetings. We drove through Chicamauga Park, and up Lookout Mountain, where we painted Scripture all along the way. Thousands traveled this road every year, from all parts of the world, sight seeing. In the Park I painted Scripture all over the big rocks, on the top of Lookout Mountain, but discovered when done that there was an ordinance against it. It was a new government park, not yet developed. The fine was pretty heavy for this infringement. It was time to drive on. I have often wondered what the officials said when they discovered my work. But I was innocent. I discovered the printed park ordinance too late. We got away safely. Some of the letters I painted were two feet high. Those were fine rocks. I did not miss any of them. To God be all the glory.

Here we had a wonderful view. We could look into seven states from the top of Lookout Mountain. Range after range of mountains lay below us, like ridges in a giant ploughed field. Chattanooga appeared like a small village, the broad Tennessee river a narrow, muddy stream.

We had to cross the mountain range. The roads were terribly washed, and the wagon had to pass over stones almost two feet high at places. All hands walked. The horses could hardly keep their feet. My knee became frightfully lame. I have never gotten fully over this. We camped on top of the mountains several nights. It was very cold and we had to build a fire to keep warm. It was twenty miles between houses on the main road. Finally we reached Woodbury, Tennessee, and held a street meeting. At Franklin, Ky., we held another. We passed through Bowling Green, and within nine miles of Mammoth Cave, holding a street meeting at Cave City. We held street meetings at Munfordville, Bonnieville, Upton, and Elizabethtown, reaching the Ohio river, at West Point, July 4.

That night we stopped at Louisville, Ky. Bro. Garrow had a brother here. We held street meetings at Utica, Charlestown, and Rising Sun, Ind. The next day we reached Cincinnati, Ohio. Here we gave out many tracts from the wagon. We were all pretty tired by this time. We had been cramped in a small wagon a long time without exercise. Riding was very tiresome.

The next Sunday we rested in an old deserted church in the country. The walls had been written over with many indecent and profane things, by tramps, etc. It had been a nesting place for all kinds of foul birds. The walls were of plaster. We painted its four walls full of strong Scripture texts and left them there. From there we drove to Wheeling, West Virginia, and reached Pennsylvania the following Monday. I threw my hat up then. I was back in my native state.

Reaching Pittsburg July 25,1899, the Garrows drove on to Braddock. We had been seven weeks on the tiresome Journey, had traveled 1000 miles and held services in eighteen towns. We had painted at least 500 Scripture texts on fences, rocks, bridges, etc., besides distributing thousands of good tracts. I had traveled 2500 miles and preached 150 times since coming south the last time.

Chapter 4: Hope Mission, Marriage, Pastoral Work

But here I was in Pittsburg without a penny, quite lame and not at all well in body. What should I do now? I limped into the Salvation Army Lodging House, left my grip and went out to try to hold a street meeting. I needed ten cents to pay for my night's lodging. I had just started to sing when an officer stopped me and asked for my permit. I was blocked. I went to the mayor’s office but he was out. There was nothing doing until the next day. The Army gave me a bed that night. I did not tell them I had been a Salvationist.

Brother Garrow had told me of Hope Mission, conducted by Rev. Sandys. I took my grip there to leave it until I should know what to do. They invited me back for dinner. That sounded pretty good. The pastor in charge. Brother McCracken, was not in when I called. I came back and met him at noon. He worked under Rev. Sandys, and offered to speak to him about my staying in the work. That sounded pretty good also. I needed rest badly, and a place to sleep and eat. Brother Sandy talked with me and it was decided that I should stay for a while in the Home. My lame knee needed rest and treatment. Brother Sandys bought me an elastic supporter or knee piece, which helped me greatly. I was very weak at that time, and could hardly walk three blocks without resting. God had wonderfully planned for me. I had never received greater kindness before in my life. Strangest or all Brother McCracken left the work in a few days. He had been praying for some one to take his place. God had the place all ready for me. I was put in charge immediately. Brother Sandys left the city himself, for a month, soon after, for a rest, leaving me the spiritual responsibility for the whole work. It was a large, important Mission, one of the best known in the city. And I had been a perfect stranger to them all only a few days before. I had come altogether without recommendations. God's ways are truly wonderful.

Soon after I took charge, the matron and all the workers went out one day, leaving the Home alone, contrary to orders. There were fallen girls in the home. These could not be left alone. I in formed Mr. Sandys. It was a serious breach of rules. He immediately dismissed the old matron and put a new one in her place. Little did I realize that the new one installed through my own unintentional instrumentality, was to he my future wife. But so it proved. I simply did my duty. I had no more thought of ever marrying at that time than I had of flying, and certainly I felt and looked much more like dying.

Miss Ladd, the new matron, had been working in the ‘Working Girls’

Home, also under Mr. Sandys. I had not met her. Here in the Mission Home we saw each other daily. I was spiritual leader and she was matron. We had several other workers in the Home. Our Gospel Hall was next door, at 208 Third Avenue. I remained in charge of the Mission until September 26,1899. Beside the Mission work, preaching, etc., I distributed a great many tracts, visiting the houses of ill fame, etc. We had many conversions in the Mission. It was a live work, and very spiritual.

Up to this time I had always been very precise in my bearing. They could tell I was a preacher by the sedate way in which I walked. One night I was praying with a soul at the altar. It was a hard battle. I began to get faith for him and finally began to declare “it shall be done.” I repeated this a number of times, my voice each time rising higher, as faith touched God. Finally I struck through. God came. I was caught out of myself. When I came to my surroundings I was at the other side of the hall, shouting at the lop of my voice, and jumping up and down. How I ever got there I do not know.

After that I was much freer in the Spirit. The workers rejoiced much at my added freedom. They had been praying for it. The people had crowded around the door from the street. I must have made some demonstration. I had a rather monkish tendency during my early Christian experience.

Possibly this was hereditary. It is a wonderful thing to realize that we are “not under law, but under grace.”

We had thirty-four converts during the eight weeks that I was in charge of the Mission. I also painted Scripture texts along the road to Mount Washington, where thousands traveled during the summer season. Seven years later I found two of these still remaining.

Dr. Godbey held some meetings at the Mission during this time. He had never seen me before, but throwing his arm around me in the hall way on his arrival, he drew me into the sitting room. Catching Miss Ladd, the matron, with the other hand, he stood holding us both and praying God's blessing upon us jointly. It was prophetic. Only a few months later we were married. He knew neither of us before, and at that time we had never thought of marrying.

I received $29.36 by way of remuneration during these eight weeks. But my health was poor. I did not recuperate in the work. So I planned to go to Philadelphia to my people, and possibly take up work in eastern Pennsylvania. I had no thought of marrying. I left the Mission in Brother Schoonmaker’s hands, with no thought of ever returning to it. But upon leaving I suddenly found it was going to be hard to leave Miss Ladd. She had already crept into my life, unawares.

I was now almost twenty-eight years of age. We had been thrown together closely, and had shared a heavy responsibility. I asked for her photo before leaving Pittsburg, and requested her to write me. My health was too poor to contemplate anything definite, except it be a change of worlds. That seemed most likely.

I went to Philadelphia, spent a few days with my brother Will, and then visited a friend, but I had to sleep on the floor. There was no place for me.

I visited my parents at Cottageville. But even they did not seem to understand me.

I preached for my old friend. Will Hill, at Trevose, Pennsylvania, a few times, and visited some friends at Crozer Baptist Seminary. But there was no place for me. A friend, a dentist, offered to fill my teeth. I had many cavities, and I was to pay for the work when I was able. So for the next six days I sat two hours a day enduring torture in the dentist’s chair.

My teeth were bad. Several were already out. In Pittsburg a dentist had injured my jaw bone, and I came near having lock-jaw. Miss Ladd had carefully prepared soft food for me, and I had appreciated this kindness very much. There was little to attract any one to me at this time, except to excite pity. I was a poor, sick young man. And yet a chosen vessel of the Lord. But I needed repairs very badly.

By the time my teeth were filled my nerves were about all in. My friend, the dentist, made me some false teeth. This was quite an acquisition. I applied at the Samaritan Hospital, in connection with the Baptist Temple, for medical help for the malaria, but got no better. I also needed an overcoat and was praying for one. One day the assistant pastor at the Temple, Dr. Peltz, asked me if I needed an overcoat. He did not know I was praying to that end. A business man at the Temple had an extra one to give to some worthy young man. I accepted the offer and walked thirty blocks to the Blenheim Hotel to get it, not having even five cents car fare. I would rather walk than ask for it. Mr. Foster, the owner, gave me $2.00 with the overcoat. It was a good one, and fitted me exactly. I did not have to walk home.

I applied to the Baptist Mission Board for work, being willing to take even a mountain charge. But they would do nothing for me unless I would first go three years to the Baptist Seminary. I had to have their Baptist stamp on me. This I had no means to do. So I then and there said good-bye to the Baptist ministry. My church could not ordain me without this seal of the board upon me, and I felt God did not want me there. I did not feel the need of any more theology. I needed more of the Lord. But God himself had ordained me, even "from in my mother’s womb.” (In 1912, at my request, before going to Europe, I was finally ordained of men, by the laying on of hands, at Highway Mission, in the same city of Philadelphia, in Pentecostal connection. But I did not need this to be recognized of God. I felt it might satisfy some of the high churchmen of Europe, whom I hoped to be able to benefit.)

My old friend. Will Hill, had now taken a charge at Minersville, Pennsylvania and I decided to visit him there. But I had no carfare. Brother Oscar Wise gave me $1.00. I had to spend a little of this before starting, and had seventy-one cents left. It was November 21. I stopped over night at Royers Ford, preaching at the Baptist Church. The next day I walked to Graters Ford. Here I preached two nights in the Mennonile Church. They gave me a small offering. I now had money enough to get to Minersville.

In a few days I started a meeting at Jonestown, in a school house, among the Welsh coal miners, in the mountains. I ale my Thanksgiving dinner, consisting of five cents worth of cinnamon buns, back of a box car along the railroad. There had been no work for me at Minersville. At Jonestown I slept in a Welsh miner’s home, with the husband and the baby. About midnight the cat turned in also. With four of us in bed together I did not sleep much.

These Welsh miners were big hearted, humble folk. They treated me very kindly. I preached five nights, but the field was hard. At least one sinner was saved. One night the class leader came to meeting with his breath smelling very strongly of liquor. I was taken very sick with the grippe, and that stopped the meetings. They gave me a few dollars. For four days I lay awfully sick, burning up with fever. There was no one to take care of me. Part of the time I was out of my head. Finally God heard my cry and delivered. I crawled out of bed so weak I could hardly walk. My stomach refused food. I had gone down into a coal mine one night, and probably caught cold from the damp.

As soon as I could stand on my feet again I started meetings at another mining camp, at Delaware. Here I found the people very ignorant and wicked. It was the old stamping ground of the “Molly Maguire” band. December 141 was twenty-eight years old. I learned here the real value of coal, in the broken bodies of those who had to dig it. Many had their backs broken in the operation. Many eyes had been blinded, and visages marred. One can always tell an old coal miner by the tatooes of black coal dust under the skin, forced in by explosions.

The first night I preached at Delaware no one invited me home. I was left out in the cold. Just as the last man was leaving he asked me where I was slopping. I told him nowhere, so he invited me to the hotel with him. This was two miles away. He bought my meals the next day. The next night I was given a place in Delaware. I preached three nights. They gave me $2.46 and a pair of gum shoes. But I could not get the men out to the meetings, so I closed then.

Rev. Sandys had written me from Pittsburg to come back to Hope Mission.

I prayed about it. If God wanted me there He would provide the fare. In counting my money after the meetings at Delaware I discovered I had just enough to get back there. This I took as proof that I was to go. So I visited my parents at Cottageville again, went to Philadelphia, and from there back to Pittsburg. I had not planned my return. God had done it. I wanted His will.

December 26,I arrived again at Hope Mission with just one cent in my pocket. With this I bought a post card and wrote mother that I had arrived safely. They welcomed me back warmly. Miss Ladd and I had exchanged one letter apiece while I was gone. Now I was one of the workers in the House. Miss Ladd was also a worker. They had another matron.

I remained until April, and we saw many souls saved. But my health became worse and worse. It was evident I must leave the mission work soon. A branch mission was opened at McKees Rocks about this time. The Lord wonderfully blessed at Hope Mission. At times, in the saints meetings Sunday afternoons, there was such a weight of glory one had to gasp for breath, and cry out under it. The natural man could hardly bear it. A wonderful spirit of love and unity prevailed. This was the secret. I received $34.00 during my further stay here, up to April.

I occupied a little room by the wall in the Home, called the “Prophet’s Chamber." This was a gateway of heaven to me. I met God in prayer here many times wonderfully, especially when praying for the meetings. One night after I had been back two weeks, I found a. note under my door, from Miss Ladd. It was a refusal to marry me. I thought it strange, for I had never made any proposal, and could not understand it. But I concluded that she had suspected my care for her. I let it go at that, but began to think seriously of the matter. I found I did care a great deal for her.

Neither of us had made any advances. Such action was strictly forbidden among the workers in the Home any way. We would have been discharged immediately. I burned the note, but it was not completely consumed. This I thought might indicate a chance yet, though I had been rejected. At the thought of losing her I begun to realize how much I really cared for her.

Not until we were married did she ever tell me how she came to write that note. Another worker had written a proposal to her. Jumping at the conclusion that I had written it she did not even look at the signature, but hastily wrote the note of rejection to me. Later she discovered her mistake, and was greatly mortified. But I was kept in total ignorance of all this. It served her right to have to marry me later. But this was not very encouraging for me. However, “All’s well that ends well.”

Miss Ladd had to refuse the other man again, and she was ashamed to try to fix it up with me. Possibly the Lord allowed it all. At least the devil made a fine mess of it, to his own defeat finally. I soon felt it was time to press my claim. Miss Ladd had not changed her attitude toward me, so I did not lake her refusal very seriously. Another worker had come to the Mission, a Miss Austin. She was a fine woman, a little older than myself. She took a motherly interest in us both. Mr. Sandys had been obliged to go away for a long rest. God had removed him out of our way.

Sandys said himself later that if he had been at home I never would have gotten Miss Ladd. He would have dismissed me from the Mission. He wanted to keep her in the work with him. Schoonmaker, the leader, wanted to marry her to his son. Another young man, a convert, had tried to carry her off while I was gone. And so they were all against me but Miss Austin and the Lord.

The workers were soon to be scattered. New workers were to be installed. Miss Austin was leaving, and wanted to take Miss Ladd with her. They had become like mother and daughter. If anything was done it had to be done quickly. I was too sick to remain in the mission work. At last one day the Lord arranged the opportunity for me to speak to her. We had been appointed, with two other workers, to look after the mission at McKees Rocks. Both the other workers were unable to go that day until the evening. Miss Austin was taken sick. Schoonmaker had some business to attend to. So we went alone, to spend the afternoon in visiting. I was to call on the pastors, and Miss Ladd to visit the homes. We were not supposed to go together this way, but always two men and two women together. But God had arranged it for us. I was waiting in a pastor’s study for him to return home, when I saw the words “wedding plate,” on a box there. This struck me as very peculiar and significant. I lifted my heart to the Lord to know if He would have me propose to Miss Ladd. Immediately I felt a strong witness that I should. The pastor had not returned. Looking at my watch I discovered it was just 4 o’clock. I felt a strong impression to return to the Mission, and did so at once. When I got there I found Miss Ladd had already arrived. I at once opened my heart to her, and she consented to marry me. Then she told me that she had had her hand on a door bell to ring it, when she felt a strong impression that she should return at once to the Mission. She left without ringing. Looking at her watch she discovered it was just 4:00 o’clock. But stranger than all, when Schoonmaker and Miss Austin arrived that evening Miss Austin told how just at 4 :00 o’clock she had had a strong impression to pray for both of us. She had looked to see what time it was. Here was a three fold witness.

About this time I met Brother Frank Davis. He was a Wesleyan Methodist. He persuaded me to go with him to their Spring Conference to apply for an appointment in the country. My health demanded it. Besides I now wanted to marry, and it would furnish a home for us. Miss Ladd was also quite in need of a rest. My clothing was worn, and I prayed for a new suit. A Christian business man, in connection with the Mission, gave me a nice new suit to go to Conference with.

March 23, we started for the conference, stopping at the old Shelhamer charge on the way, preaching Saturday and Sunday. This was the home of the Brother Shelhamer with whom I had stopped in Atlanta. We visited his parents here. Sunday night we attended a Free Methodist meeting at Leechburg. Next day I preached at Templeton, Pennsylvania. Tuesday we reached the conference at Sugar Creek, near Frankin. Wednesday I preached before the conference. The Lord helped me. They assigned me to Concord charge, Erie county, Pennsylvania. Sunday I preached a I Canal, Pennsylvania. Monday we returned to Pittsburg.

But I had another dark valley to go through yet. I had a physical condition I had been born with that affected my health. An operation seemed the only way out for it. A doctor, who had professed conversion in the Mission, offered to help me free. Innocently I placed myself in his hands for the operation. He had been drinking, and simply butchered me. I prayed before I went under the ether, and came out shouting. I thought I was in an old fashioned camp meeting. The doctor was shaking like a leaf with conviction.

He sent me home improperly cared for, and before I reached the Mission Home, which had been moved while I was gone, to another pan of the city,

I found the wound was bleeding. I did not know where to find a surgeon. It was late in the evening. But just before I got to the Home I saw a surgeon’s sign. Surely this was God’s mercy. Fortunately the surgeon was in his office. I went in and he dressed my wound properly, while he cursed the doctor roundly who had left me in that condition.

For two weeks I could not sleep for the effects of the ether and the fever from the wound. I was almost insane. I did not really sleep more than three hours in all during these two weeks. Finally, when almost out of my mind, I cried to God in despair, at 3:00 a. m. in the morning. He heard my prayer. He touched me and assured me. My eyes fell on a little motto on the wall, which I still treasure among my possessions. It read, “Fear not, only believe.” I woke the house up with a shout. From that time I could sleep, and began to mend. It had been a horrible experience. But God gave the victory.

April 20,1900I went to my charge at Lovells Station, Pennsylvania. I had to leave Miss Ladd behind, to come later, as they had gotten tired of waiting for me, and had written for me to come at once, or not at all. I was obliged to leave very quickly. I did not want to lose our appointment. The Conf. Pres’t., P. B. Campbell, accompanied me to the charge. I was quite weak yet from my ordeal.

I secured a marriage license at Corry, Pa. May 2 Miss Ladd arrived by train. I met her, and we went direct to the Methodist Parsonage, and were married. I took my wife immediately to the charge. We were obliged to live at first with one of our members for a time.

This was my first year of real rest since I had been in the work of the Lord.

It was my "Sabbatic Year”, the seventh year of my Christian experience. I was now to have a rest from constant change, travel, uncertainty of abode, etc. We soon had a little home by ourselves, a rented Parsonage. This was my first home. I was now to put my feet under my own table, and sleep in my own bed. It was a new experience for me, and greatly appreciated. For months afterward I never sat down to eat, or went to bed at night, without thanking God fervently for these unaccustomed mercies to me.

We had a country charge with two appointments. But I soon found I was up against something real here also. I had been accustomed to seeing things move in the mission work. Here I was among a slow, country people, averse to innovations, and not even spiritual. It was going to lake something to move them. I found myself sympathizing with old Moses on the back side of the desert. I could not help comparing our situations.

But I had an opportunity to read and study in quiet this year such as I had never had before, and I made the most of this opportunity. I am really afraid I paid more attention to my books than I did even to my wife. I simply feasted on my books, and my Bible. It was such a quiet place to read and pray. I had plenty of time, and was sure of a place to lay my head. Our food I could trust God for, although it was never too plentiful as to variety. But we never hungered.

The members had not been used to giving, and were quite stingy. They looked upon the pastor as at best their servant. Anything would do for him. The salary ordinarily was very small. I preferred to stick to faith lines. I knew how to trust God, and I felt I could not depend on the people here anyway. So I refused to have my congregation assessed for salary, as I did not like the idea of hiring out to them. This would have given them a hold on me. I wanted to be free to obey God, especially in my messages. I early sensed the fact that they did not care to hear from God. But I had to preach the preaching that He should bid me.

The fact was the Conference had sent me to the hardest charge they had. One of the churches had been split in two. And these two factions had already lawed it for 7 years, through 3 different courts, for possession of the building. Brothers in the flesh had come to blows over the matter. It was a backslidden, Holiness charge, of which there could be naturally nothing more hopeless. I was supposed to fight for the crowd that had called me. The other faction had organized into a Congregational church. The older crowd nailed the doors and windows shut to keep the others out. But the Judge had dismissed the case with a severe reprimand to both sides to “let brotherly love continue." He had divided the costs or the trial between them, and given each an appointment in the same building. The neighborhood had been cursed for a generation.

I was supposed to help keep up the fight. Our second appointment however was in a new neighborhood, not cursed by this dissention. We were to live on the charge where the fight was. The parsonage was provided by the fighting faction.

I began to call mightily on God to convict the whole bunch, and save them, and made it a custom to go to the church where the fight had been and pray at least two hours every day. This soon stirred the devil mightily. It was the only way through. I treated the opposing faction kindly, refusing to take sides, and fellowshipped the preacher on the other side also. He was a good man, a Methodist, and free from the spirit of faction. He had a farm in the community, and they got him to preach for them. Between us we labored for the salvation of both factions.

But this only seemed to incense my backslidden officials and members the more. The fight was on. It lasted the whole of my pastorate there. But God heard my prayers. They never repented at the old charge. But at the other appointment a mighty revival broke out just before we left at the end of the year, and continued for at least six months unabated.

It swept the whole community. The Conference divided the charge, giving a separate pastor, a good man, to the revival community, who led them on with God. At the old charge the backsliders perished in their own blood, so to speak. They would not repent.

My health had been badly broken, and I had some severe conflicts in my body during this year. My nerve force was so used up that a number of limes the pressure pm on my brain seemed almost ready to drive me insane. This was aggravated further by the battle I was in. My backslidden members fought me persistently throughout the year. They did not want a revival. It would have dug them out.

We had plenty of hardships. My wife's health was broken also, from years of mission work. But God did not forsake His servants on the field. We were expecting a box of goods by freight from my wife’s parents in N. Y. state. The Lord revealed to me the very day it arrived. I had received no notice, but I went to the station for it. Sure enough it had just arrived. It had been weeks on the way. This greatly strengthened my faith.

One of my members solicited a farmer for something for the preacher. He said he had plenty of corn to hoe, if I wanted work. And this was the general sentiment of the country. I finally succeeded in securing a horse, very old and skinny. He was a disgrace, but our members did not care.

They took little interest in us. I had a good many miles to travel between my appointments.

We borrowed an old wagon and harness, and drove 40 miles to the Annual Stoneborn Camp meeting, held by the Wesleyans. The last few miles of the way I had to lead the horse. It was pitch dark. A terrible thunder storm had come up. I could only see the road by the flashes of lightning. My old horse was about all in. But we finally made it through. We wondered if our horse would get us home again.

The Camp meeting started off rather slow. I exhorted the brethren to more earnestness. I had been used to a revival spirit, and had driven a long distance, expecting great things. At first they resented my exhortation, coming from a young preacher, with his first year in the Conf. But Thomas K. Doty, Editor of the Christian Harvester, whom I met there for the first time, undertook to defend me. He was more humble. The evangelist in charge by way of excuse, insisted that God was not working now as He used to. That was very evident. But I believed He was “just the same today." I preached once during the Camp, with great earnestness.

The tide rose. We had one of the best Camps they had ever had. I spent most of the time during the Camp in prayer. One morning the Spirit was heavy upon me. I came into the lent and sat down, but soon lost all control of my body under the power. The burden was very great. I could not move. The meeting began. Suddenly the power of God began to go through me like great waves of electricity. It seemed as though I would be electrocuted under the mighty shocks. I gasped for breath like a dying man. The Evangelist never got a chance to preach. He attempted it two or three times, but finally gave it up. The Preachers all piled up at the altar, on the right side, in the place of the penitents, and the power of God literally swept the place. They told me later it went through the tent in waves. This was at the time I was experiencing the mighty shocks. I was unconscious to what was going on around me. I came back to my surroundings slowly. There was a halo all over the tent. It was some time before things looked natural to me again. It was a powerful visitation. The Conf. gave us $5.00 at the close, and we drove back home to our charge again.

We next drove to Bloomertown, N. Y., Camp meeting, just across the line. Here I preached also. But the results at this Camp were not as great as at Stoneboro. One night a terrible storm came up. It blew a hurricane. Large trees were blown down. We could only cry to God for protection. A large limb fell and crushed the tent next to ours. It had hung over our tent. The wind blew it away.

I was in need of a Bible and prayed for one. In a little while God gave me one, without solicitation. Our horse was taken lame about this time. We prayed for him and the Lord healed him. We were obliged to pray in our horse feed also. The farmers never bothered themselves whether either we or the horse had anything to eat, except when God made them help us, in answer to prayer. A farmer gave us an old wagon he had used for a hen roost for some time. With this I drove to my appointment.

Just about this time I had a very remarkable experience. Two nights in succession the devil attacked me very really. I had just gone to bed on both occasions. I was not sleepy, but was praying. The first night suddenly he seemed to enter the room, and advance toward my bed. I had not been thinking of him at all. It was a sudden, unexpected visitation. The room was dark. I could see no form, but his presence seemed as real as my own. He approached to destroy me. I cried out for Jesus to help me. With that he fled. The very next night he came again. This time he seemed almost to reach my bed. Again it was the name of Jesus that put him to flight. He came no more. I got a new conception of the power of the name of Jesus. And also of the power of the devil, and of my own helplessness in his presence, if unaided by the Lord.

I got a brush and some paint and began to fill the fences, rocks, and bridges full of Scripture. It made the sinners mad. The Word of God located them. A sister told me she had been praying for years for some one to come and do this very thing. The fences had been painted full of patent medicine advertisements. The farmers nailed boards over some of the Scriptures. Others they smeared over with mud. But the rains washed this off. They could not get away from God. The Word judged them.

We had some wonderful answers to prayer for healing. A sister came to meeting so hoarse she could only whisper. I prayed for her and she immediately testified in a strong voice. A brother was threatened with blood poison. I prayed again, and he was quickly delivered. Praise God! We frequently got out of money altogether. Then we would pray and the Lord would make some one give to us. We were trusting God, living by faith the same as when we were in the mission work.

I held special services at the church where they had had the law suit. While praying in my room one evening, just before going to preach, suddenly the very atmosphere of the room changed. Everything became unnatural. It was like heaven, a change of worlds. The whole atmosphere became supernatural. I started for the church panting for breath under the weight of the Presence of God. No pen or longue can describe the sensation.

Reaching the church I entered and stood at the desk. But I could not utter a word. The house was full of people. They were opposing me bitterly.

After a few moments of silence, in which one could almost hear a pin drop, the power of God came upon me so strong that I fell to the floor helpless. For a full half hour

I lay like a dead man. I could not move. The atmosphere was awful with conviction. I could hear groans all over the house. But the people dared not move. The fear of God was on them. It seemed like Judgment Day.

Finally I found myself able to arise, and I preached with a mighty anointing, a solemn message of warning. But my backslidden members would not yield to the Spirit. They hardened their necks and hearts still more. God was giving them a chance, if they would take it. But their church fight had cursed them. They would not repent. It was a “savon of life unto life and death unto death" in reality. The other side finally died a horrible death, with his boots on. He went to bed refusing to undress. I have seldom witnessed such desperate opposition to the Spirit of God from professing Christians.

I often sang hymns on the way to my appointment, though I had nothing to sing for in the natural. But it was a witness against the people. My old horse and wagon were a disgrace to the community. We had practically no support from our charge. The whole country lay under the power of the enemy. We had a few good members.

In Oct. my wife’s people in New York wrote us to pay them a visit, to help in revival services. I had never met them. They had adopted my wife while Methodist missionaries in Bulgaria, when she was a little girl, bringing her to America with them. Her people were Bulgarians. They were on a Methodist charge, at E. Chatham, N. Y. near the Hudson. We asked the Lord for our fares. Finally her father sent the money to us. I distributed tracts on the train on the way, until the conductor stopped me. Stopping at Buffalo, N. Y., we visited Niagara Falls. At Albany I went on the street and distributed tracts, between trains.

At my father-in-law’s the Lord made me a blessing to many. But in the preaching I had very little liberty. He was not at all spiritual, and a strong compromiser. He tried to tell me what to preach. The people seemed to enjoy my messages. Many of them were hungry for God. But Mr. Ladd would not let me give an altar call. Finally one evening he went to preach at another appointment. This was my chance. I swung out and gave an altar call. A number responded gladly and sought God. But when Mr. Ladd returned he rebuked me publicly for it.

He said he wanted the whole church to move up together. As if that would ever happen. He wanted to keep the boat from rocking. His people told him he ought to be proud of his new son-in-law. But as a matter of fact he was afraid of me. He would not let God work.

While there he tried to induce me to join the Meth. Conf. I could have had a good appointment through his influence, but I preferred to keep in the will of God for me. He stood high in the church, and was a shrewd business manager and politician. The meetings closed and we started for home again, by way of my parents at Carversville, Pa., where they had now moved. They had not yet met my wife. Her father gave us the money to get back home on. He suggested that we go back to Bulgaria with him as missionaries also.

We sailed down the Hudson, and I distributed tracts on the boat. Reached my parents’ home safely that evening. We visited the old farm in Plumstead where I was born and raised, and the old school house where I had gotten what little early education it afforded. I preached both at the Christian and the Presbyterian churches in Carversville. At the latter church my mother heard me preach, for the first and only time in her life. God greatly blessed me. I had prayed for this opportunity. Some of our old neighbors were there. We next visited my brother Will at Phila. Here I preached at a Salvation Army Corps. I gave a message at the Holiness meeting, 1018 Arch Street, where Bro. Pepper was in charge. We had a real shout in the camp. At Mariners’ Bethel I spoke also and the Lord poured out his Spirit. I visited my old church, Grace Baptist Temple.

While away from our charge I became convinced we would only stay to the end of the year. We reached home safely, and found an empty woodshed just as we had left it. It was bitter cold. There was no wood at the church either. We received very little welcome back. They did not care whether they had any services not at the old charge. I would not fight for them.

I was sick several days in bed with a severe pain in my lungs and came near having pneumonia, but the Lord delivered. My wife froze her feet on the cold floor, on account of having so little fire. Her feet remain tender to this day because of this. We had left our horse with a neighbor. I now had no feed for him, so I was obliged to walk to my appointment, four miles away, through deep snow. We were out of coal oil for light, and we were praying for some, when a man came around retailing it. This was a very unusual occurrence in this country. I had never seen it done before. The snow was so deep I could not get to town. God evidently had sent him out for our benefit. One of my trustees now called on me and insisted strenuously that I help fight the other faction to a finish. When he left I had a nervous chill. I had just gotten out of bed from a severe sickness. The devil possessed the man.

I prayed for a sleigh and one of my members gave me an old one, ready to fall to pieces. My wagon would not hold together to pull through the deep snow with. The drifts were frequently seven feet deep. The thermometer went to eighteen below zero. We scraped the bottom or the flour barrel often, but never went hungry. God always came in time. Once we had only a little com meal, and some buckwheat flour.

Finally the food supply got so low it really looked like starvation. But God spoke to the neighbors of the community outside of the church. About forty of them came to our rescue with flour, meal, potatoes, apples, etc., enough to keep us to the end of the conference year. The “ravens” were still on the job. It was a complete surprise. We never made our wants known to any one, nor even hinted of our needs. This was a rebuke to my backslidden members, who seemed willing to see us starve. The unchurched portion of the community liked my stand. So it payed to obey God.

I received a call about this time to a Wesleyan charge in Kansas. It was quite a temptation and would have assured us a good support. But it was not God’s will for us. We had been praying for a revival at Cottage Hill appointment, where there had been no strife, and I was now led to invite two evangelists, the Heath mother and daughter, to preach for us there. The people wanted them. I had the assurance that God would answer my prayers of the year for this charge, though I might not remain to see it. I began to feel that I would have to go west soon. My lungs were getting very weak. My nerve force seemed utterly exhausted.

An unsaved neighbor helped me saw up some trees in his woods, in two feet of snow, to start meetings at the old church again. My members would not help me. Then the devil tried to bum our parsonage down. The chimney caught fire and I barely succeeded in getting it put out. The runners pulled off of my sleigh on the way to meeting, and I had to drag through two feet of snow with my wagon. My old horse could hardly make it. He was so thin the crows almost followed him.

We appointed a prayer meeting at an unsaved farmer’s house, whose wife was one of my members. This farmer had had no use for the preacher. But his horse cut his leg badly just before the meeting. I helped hold him while the surgeon sewed his leg up. When he got through it was too late for prayer meeting. But the farmer was my friend ever afterward. It completely won him. It was the most eloquent sermon I could have preached. I had shown a real interest in his welfare. That meant more than a hundred sermons to him.

We were now within ten days of conference. My trustees rented the parsonage out from under us, and to make sure we understood, they had the new party move some of their furniture right in on us. We knew now we were not to stay. They had removed all doubt on that question from our minds. I had just four cents in my pocket, to face the uncertain future, with my wife expecting to be confined in a couple of months.

The Heath evangelists started revival services at Cottage Hill, and God blessed from the start. But the revival never reached the old charge. They resisted to the last. We started for Cottage Hill one Sunday morning, where the revival was, with our old horse and wagon. God had given me a message. But the devil must have sensed this. The old horse refused to go. He backed up, apparently without cause, and threw himself down in a four foot bank of snow. The devil was in him. But God kept me sweet, else I would have lost my anointing. I had to unharness the horse before I could get him out. But we got to church on time. The Lord had not allowed a ripple of unrest to enter my soul. It was a severe test. The enemy had fought hard. I preached under great anointing. One of the hardest backsliders in the whole community was gloriously reclaimed. His wife had prayed for him for years. There was not a dry eye in the house. But the devil had done his best to gel me out of fix before I got there. I tremble to think how different it might have been if I had lost my temper with the horse. It was the breaking point in the revival. The power of God literally swept the country. For six months, after we had left the community, the revival continued unabated. It was the greatest awakening they had ever had. Old feuds of twenty years standing between neighbors were wiped out.

But my fighting charge never repented. March 26 we went to conference at Pittsfield, Pennsylvania. Here I had a great battle. A backslidden delegate from the old charge lied on me. He duplicated the request of the members or the revival church for a certain pastor, and tried to get a fighter for them instead. This would have destroyed the revival. The devil wanted this. I had already told the committee they wanted a different pastor, when they consulted me about the matter. This made me out a liar and put me in a bad light. But I happened to know the delegate had been given their request for a different choice. He did not know I knew this, and was withholding it. I was in a hard place. Only God could make him produce the true paper. I had not myself seen it.

I went from the session of the conference crushed. Was this the fruit of all my suffering and labor. And was the devil to triumph in the end? I ate no supper, but shut myself up in my room to have it out with God. He asked me if I was willing to be misunderstood, so long as He understood me, and if I was willing to commit the whole matter to Him. I said yes, and a deep peace came into my soul. To have His approbation seemed enough. I died to my year’s suffering, to my hopes for the success of the revival, everything. My Isaac was given up. I was willing to be misunderstood and maligned. Yes, I was even willing for the devil to triumph over me. God knew. And His grace proved sufficient for the test. Then the Lord got

I went to meeting that evening in company with Brother Frank Davis, who had gotten us into the conference. On the way the Spirit of God suddenly fell upon me on the street. I jumped as though shot out of a cannon, and ran two blocks shouting like mad. A landslide of glory had suddenly and unexpectedly struck my soul. It was a witness to Brother Davis. I was the happiest man in the meeting. But the committee naturally were very much puzzled.

The next day my lying delegate pressed his claim for the fighting pastor. Then God spoke to me to command him to at once produce the true document from his pocket. It was a bold step to take, but I obeyed. He turned red, and without a word drew it forth and handed it to the committee. It was a complete vindication. He had not known that I knew he had it. Only God could have made him produce it. I had never seen it, but had been only told that he had it. God had spoken. He was in disgrace. The committee divided the charge, let the fighting appointment take its own course, and sent the pastor to the revival charge that they had requested. He was in sympathy with the revival, and not in the fight. God had triumphed. But I had to be willing to first lose all and to go down in disgrace, after all my sacrifice. I did not get another appointment however. There was none to be had. A number of old, tried preachers were left without appointment also. But this was all in God’s appointment. He had other plans for us. We returned home again. We had come very near not getting to the conference. We had prayed for our fares. The Lord spoke to a brother. He put his hand in his pocket three times, and each time drew it out again empty, before he finally brought $5.00 out and gave it to me. I watched the struggle going on. I had not told him of our need. The devil would have triumphed fully if I had not gotten to the conference.

We packed and stored our household goods in a neighbor's woodshed, being obliged to vacate our home, and visited at Cottage Hill for a few days. We had no home and did not know where to go. Wife was soon to be confined. We had no money. But we gave ourselves to earnest prayer.

Soon a letter of invitation came from the conference president, Brother Campbell, to come to his home at Harthegig, Pennsylvania. April I0, I90I, we left Lovells Station, and reached Brother Campbell’s home that evening, in Mercer county, Pennsylvania. We had received for our year’s services on the charge in Erie county, just $75.00 in cash, and about the same value in food stuffs, making in all about $I50.00 for the year. Our house rent of course was free.

I preached at two or three different appointments around Harthegig, among the Wesleyans. The Lord blessed me. Every day I spent some time in the church near by praying. Brother Campbell had a number of books I had wanted very much to possess. These I now read, and they were a great feast to my soul. My back was paining me very much from my kidneys, which have always been weak.

April 30, wife was delivered of a baby girl. We named her Esther. May 2, we had been married one year. The diet at Brother Campbell’s we found very slim. They almost lived on parsnips, from their garden, in order to send money for the heathen. It told on my wife’s health, and also on the child. The doctor said the baby looked as though she had been starved before being born. The mid-wife exposed little Esther’s eyes to the light too soon also.

I prayed the Lord to give me $2.00, and he sent $20.00 instead. I had gotten the decimal mark in the wrong place. Brother Hammond in Pittsburg, who had given me my suit of clothes to go to conference with, sent it. We were not in communication with him. Brother Campbell soon changed his altitude toward me. But God was in this also, to move us on in His will. He told me I must leave and look for employment. I wanted to spend my nights with my family, and look for work among the farmers, but he refused even that. So I had to leave them. They were to stay with him until I could move them.

I prayed and the Lord showed me to go to Youngstown, Ohio. It seemed pretty hard to be thus driven from my wife and new born child, but God had it all planned for us. It was time to get my family away. They were weak from lack of nourishing food. I paid my doctor’s bill, $7.00, though he had at first said he would not charge me, but afterwards got the itch for the money, and then I went to Youngstown. There I stopped with Brother and Sister Winters until I got work.

I secured employment at the Erie railroad freight depot. It was a transfer station. We had to transfer freight front one company’s cars to another.

Two railroads met here. I immediately sent for my wife and baby. My work was not steady, being on the night shift, as an extra. We rented two unfurnished rooms at $4.00 a month, and sent for our furniture.

My work was very heavy, most of the time pushing a truck with goods. We often had to handle car loads of beer, and a great deal of pig iron, railroad and construction steel, etc. It was too heavy for me. The weather was very hot, and I was sick quite often. I managed to earn enough to about meet expenses. Some weeks I only had two nights work. The night work was very trying. I got a job in an iron foundry, but only worked one day. It nearly killed me. They put me on the day shift at my old job again.

Our table was a dry goods box, but we were thankful to have something to eat on it. I was too tired for study and obliged to go to bed early, in order to work the next day. When there was no work I preached on the streets, and generally had large crowds. Youngstown was full of saloons and very wicked. I distributed great quantities of tracts also, and I preached in the jail and missions when not too tired. I visited many houses of ill fame with

The railroad iron was often as heavy as I could lift, but God always gave me strength for it. Wife had been praying for some potatoes. I had had little work. One morning I found a peck of beautiful, new potatoes, hidden under a pile of empty beer kegs which we had to load into a car. How they came there I never knew. They might have been stolen and hidden there. But the Lord gave them to us. Wife’s prayer was answered though in a strange way. She had not prayed for new potatoes. No one ever laid claim to them. They were along the railroad.

I gave out tracts among the seventy men at the freight station where I worked. I never tried to shirk my end of the hard work, and the gang, though wicked, respected me. About this lime I wrote, to Brother Kent White, of the Pentecostal Union at Denver, Colorado. They wrote us to come west to their work. This I felt was or the Lord. My health was breaking down rapidly. I needed a higher altitude.

I had done a tremendous lot of street and tract work in Youngstown during this summer, in spite of my hard work and weakness of body. When I had work I was so tired I could hardly drag myself home. I was almost too tired to eat my supper at times. August 3, Brother Frank Davis came to see us from Pittsburg, where he was managing a large Christian Hotel for men, “Hope Hotel.” He wanted me to clerk for him. I felt it was God's call, so we packed our goods and went at once. I had to keep books, rent rooms, etc. We preached also to the men. They had clean rooms and beds at reasonable rates, and generally appreciated this.

One day I left my grip on the street car, with my Bible in it. I never recovered it. This grieved me much. I had note in it I could never replace. But it made me more thoughtful.

Wife and baby stopped at the old Hope Mission Home, where we had been before when single. I slept under a little tent in the yard, and ate at a restaurant. I looked for rooms everywhere, but could find none. We had located a place on Mt. Washington where we felt the Lord wanted us, but the rooms were occupied. Finally the Lord emptied them and we moved in. Every other place had been closed against us. That was God’s choice for us. We were together again. It is hard to be an outcast from one’s own family. But this has often been my lot.

I engaged very actively in the work of the Lord while here, attending a number of missions regularly and speaking often. In the office I did much personal work among the men. I was praying for a young man who was a steel structural worker. One day he came near falling several stories to his death. I had felt a strong impression to pray for him at a certain hour that day. He told me of his near fatal experience that evening. We compared times and they were exactly the same. He said he had thought of me just as he was about to fall. Evidently my prayer saved him. He was very much impressed.

We sheltered nearly 200 men in the hotel. I took turns at night and day shifts with another clerk. Brother Virgo. After midnight the porters looked after the building. We worked in nine hour shifts in the office. His was a happy winter for me. I liked the work. But my health was getting steadily worse. We decided to go to Denver in the spring. I was getting $11.00 a week, a good pay for those times. We lived comfortably, and were able to save a little to go west with. I had to work seven days a week, however, which I did not like. It was wearing me out.

We had many drunks to deal with, and often had a rough house. I worked I in the missions at nights when not at the office. The Ohio river overflowed its banks and filled the hotel cellar. I got neuralgia and suffered much. But I only lost one day’s work while there.

Brother Davis was leaving the hotel in April, and the directors offered me the management, at $75.00 a month. This was a fine salary, but I knew I could not stand the climate any longer. We had decided to go west. We sold our furniture, at a sacrifice.

The porters gave me $10.00 as a token of appreciation. They got their orders from the office. It was time to start for Denver, for the Pentecostal Union Home. Little did we realize the trials and sufferings that awaited us there, but it was God's way to get us further in His will. He was starling us for California. But I needed the high altitude first. We had gotten in touch some months before with Brother and Sister White, through “God’s Revivalist," Cincinnati. They were at that time all right. But the work had drifted into a hard, fanatical spirit, from which we were destined to suffer greatly. I got enough for all time of harshness and lack of love there. It cured me of effectually of ever worshiping a religious zeal or creed in place of Christ. “He that loveth not, knoweth not God. For God is Love.

Chapter 5: Mission Work in Colorado

We left Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, April I, stopping in Chicago over night. It was snowing and sleeting. We passed through the great slate of Kansas, with its rolling prairies and noble proportions, as far as the eye could reach, and felt as some one has expressed it that we were for the first time really out of doors. We had received a second call to take a Wesleyan Methodist charge in Kansas, but had no liberty from the Lord. The atmosphere was very clear. We saw many prairie dogs. By the time we reached Pueblo the air seemed wonderful. It was so rare. My lungs seemed to respond in a wonderful way. All oppression seemed lifted. I fell God was truly leading. The exhiliration was grand. We got a glimpse of Pike’s Peak early in the morning. It seemed like another world to us, after smoky Pittsburg. We finally reached Denver safely, and were received at the Pentecostal Home. We were 5000 feet above sea level.

We had a nice room at the home, but no sun at all, cold and damp. Brother Kent White had a very tender spirit, but his wife was hard and tyrannical. My wife told me later that she felt soon after we got their as though the flesh was being literally tom from her bones. There was something unnatural and strained about the atmosphere of the place, but we could not locate the trouble at first. We had supposed everything was all right. We

found later a fanatical spirit had taken control of Mrs. W_, and of the work. She seemed determined to break the spirit of the workers completely, bringing them under her own dominating will. This she could not do with me, and she seemed to sense it from the beginning. The fight was on. I dared not cast away my confidence in my individual leading. I would have been all at sea. And this was the condition of most of the workers. They had lost their bearings, in yielding to her will. Mrs. W___ controlled their conscience and convictions fully. This was her object. Most of them seemed helpless to resist her. To think for themselves was to come under her malediction. It was a terrible situation and bondage. I dared not yield to it.

But we were in the dark at first. She tried to bring us under conviction. I was willing to be wrong if God should show me. This struggle went on until I went to bed sick, and nearly died under it. I lost ten pounds in two week’s time. But finally the Lord delivered. The spirit was awful that was bearing down upon us. Some were broken in body. Others lost their spiritual bearings altogether. She left many a wreck behind her. Some never recovered their confidence in God.

She finally attended a conference of the Burning Bush in Chicago and declared if the same manifestations did not come to Denver she would die. So she drilled the workers to dance in the Home, to her music on the piano, preparatory to launching this manifestation on the public. Wife and I refused to participate. It was all sham, staged for the occasion. From that time she never forgave us nor ceased in her efforts to break our wills and subjugate us. I always wanted to be with the most radical people I could find for God, but I got a dose here to last me a life time. I learned the difference here between religious zeal, and the pure, peaceable, humble, loving Spirit of Christ. In fact religion is the most cruel, intolerant exercise in the world when void of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Mrs. W_____________ was Mother Superior, Inquisitor General, and in fact every other intolerant thing that could well be imagined.

I soon found the high altitude deceptive in its effects upon my nervous system. It acted like a stimulant. But if not careful of one’s reserve strength, one would soon collapse. High altitude is hard on the nerves. One feels like flying, but this feeling of strength is very deceptive.

I had a precious token from God while in the Home. I wanted a certain book, and went to a second hand book store to inquire for a copy. As I entered a clerk was holding the very book I wanted in his hand. I had never been in the store before, nor did they know I wanted such a book. I was a complete stranger there. I bought the book at once, marveling at this strange incident. Some one had just brought it in and sold it to them. The clerk had not yet had time to put it in stock, but was about to do so, when I entered. It was only one among a thousand other different books in the store. It could not have been a mere accident. It was a token from God. He was with me.

The food was quite coarse at the Home. It was mostly donated, pick-ups and leftovers from the market. We had enough of it such as it was. All workers on entering the Home were expected to give all the money they had to Mrs. W_______. We had reached Denver with $60.00. I felt I should hold this for emergencies when I found how things were going. I did not like the principle of giving up all to her anyway. It placed one completely in her power. By keeping my little amount I was enabled to smuggle in a few things extra that we so badly needed from time to time. I bought canned milk for Esther regularly. Otherwise I do not see how she could have lived. Our little fund just lasted us until we were able to get away from the home. We would have suffered much more than we did otherwise.

But words cannot express the suffering in the spirit of those three months in this Home. The Pressure became heavier and heavier. One day in my room I suddenly fell to my knees. It was as though I had been struck with a club. The prayer sprang from my lips, “Oh, God, keep your hand on Mrs. W________ I felt she was about to attempt some more hellish persecution, through the powers of evil with which she seemed to be so in league. She appeared absolutely without mercy.

We began to pray for deliverance. I felt we should try to gel out in the country for the summer. We were all three sick by this time, largely from the harsh, unChristlike treatment we had undergone. I am obliged to say in all honesty I think I have never met, before or since, a crueler spirit under the guise of Christianity. The experience was not altogether without profit to me. It taught me many things from which I have profited through my Christian life. Religious zeal without Christ is a monster.

An atmosphere of suspicion reigned among the workers. It could not well be otherwise. They were encouraged to spy on one another. This produced favoritism, betrayal, etc. The workers were blamed for every failure of the Home along financial lines. Fault finding and condemnation became daily diet. There was no love manifest.

While Mrs. was at Chicago I decided to run up to Cripple Creek and Victor, for a change, to get away and pray over the situation. When I left Denver it was threatening rain, but as we climbed the mountains from Colorado Springs the clouds were left behind, and the sun was shining above them most beautifully. So faith carries us above the clouds and storm.

We reached an altitude of I0,000 ft. The atmosphere became very rare. All nature was smiling. I almost forgot my troubles for the time. But I could not forget the wife and baby in the Home. I felt like a pilgrim, ascending in faith above the clouds of doubt and fear. We need to rise higher, nearer heaven, and leave the shadows of the valley behind us. We soon reached Cripple Creek and Victor. Prospectors for gold had been “gophering” all over these hills. The mountain tops were bare. In fact nothing short of gold could draw men here. Huts, shacks, and dugouts, littered the hills. There human beings were willing to exist for the sake of gold. Their homes were mere hovels. Many a man had dug his own grave on these lonely mountains. And only a few after all had found gold. Oh, that men would seek for God as they do for gold! They would strike a “lead" that would land them on the gold paved streets of the New Jerusalem.

I found Victor and Cripple Creek very wicked. They had a branch mission from the Home in Denver there. I was wishing wife and baby were with me. The workers here had a different spirit. I had to he careful not to over exert myself. The altitude was nearly I2,000 ft. But God seemed to pour on oil and I spoke with little difficulty. In fact I seemed to speak almost out thinking. It was a peculiar experience. It seemed as though the thoughts were hardly my own, a kind of direct inspiration, without mental effort on my part. God must have specially undertaken for me on this occasion.

I spoke seven times in all, Saturday evening, and over Sunday. It was enough to kill me, physically speaking, in my weak condition, considering the altitude. We were up among the big ranges of snow covered peaks. The sight was magnificent. The snow never melted on the mountain lops of the Sangre DeCristo Range. I returned to Denver with a firm determination to get my wife and baby out of the Home at the first opportunity. It was only a question now of where to go. I had had enough of the Home. There was a rate war on. The fare to Cripple Creek from Colorado Springs was only 75 cents round trip. Ordinarily it was $4.00. The scenery along the way had been wonderful. The constant changes, the twistings and turnings, were ever bringing new visions of beauty before us. I decided to go to the top of Pike’s Peak on the way home. I might never have another opportunity. The Lord had shown me He was pleased for me to go. We ascended the mountain by the Cog Wheel R. R.

Reaching the timber line it began to get quite cold. Beyond there was very little vegetation. At the top there was only rugged, bare rocks. The altitude was I4,I47 ft. The scene from the top was indescribable. We had some beautiful scenery along the way, but now the full grandeur of the situation burst upon us. We had climbed a number of smaller mountain peaks in reaching our present altitude. Like the journey of life we often sight the final goal clearly before us, but there are many difficulties, smaller peaks to climb, before we arrive at the end of our journey.

Hundreds of miles of rolling prairie lay before us on the east, as far as the eye could reach. Range after range of less lofty, noble mountain peaks, lay stretched out like giant ridges on our west, but each one mighty in itself.

We were above them all. The rest were small only by contrast. Almost the whole state of Colorado could be seen. Colorado Spgs, I2 miles away, appeared like a tiny village. Its streets were barely outlined. The plains seemed to run up grade to the horizon, from our elevated position. There were many dark patches, the shadows from great clouds. Clouds lay also below us, on the mountain sides. It was raining beneath us. The lightning flashed, and the thunder roared, but all below us. The sight was awe inspiring. We were far above it all. We saw a great eagle burst through the clouds, after his struggle with the lower elements. And so we may rise by faith above the clouds in this low-land world of ours. We should live in higher spiritual altitudes.

Snugly ensconced among the huge mountain ranges on the west lay beautiful, peaceful valleys. Abrupt descents of thousands of feet lay in sheer precipices all around us. It seemed like a playground for the gods.

We remained but thirty minutes. The air was too rare to stay longer. One could scarcely walk without staggering. The heart action was so rapid. One lone grave lay on the top of Pike’s Peak. At the trump of God they shall come from the highest mountains, from the deepest seas, from the bowels of the earth and the deepest valleys.

Ninety minutes brought us to the base of the mountain again, a ride of nine miles, circuitously. I reached Denver after dark, and went to sleep with my mind full of giant mountain peaks, and great rolling prairies. My brain was intoxicated with the scenes of the day. It had been a joy to live. I determined to engage in needless strife no more.

I had been very active in the work in Denver, in spite of our difficulties, and had distributed thousands of tracts in the saloons and houses of ill fame, and preached on the streets many times. I lost no opportunity to sow beside all waters. We had meetings every night at the Mission. I read many hooks while in the Home. By this time I had read the lives of J. Wesley Redfield, Phoebe Palmer, David Brainerd, Rolland Hill, Thos. Harrison, Father Dyer, Amanda Smith, Geo. Muller, D. L. Moody, Luther Lee, Chas. C. Finney, Jonathan Edwards, John G. Paton, Benj. Abbot, John Nelson, Peter Cartwright, and Wm. Carvosso. I received great help from the lives of these old saints.

But now Mrs. W_________ returned from Chicago. The workers had to step lively at the crack of her whip. I concluded it was time for us to get out.

Her Secretary had just returned from a vacation on a farm near Greeley. He told me he thought the farmer would take us in. So I ran up on Saturday and saw Bro. Ingersoll, near Kersey Station. Mrs. W__________ did not know

where I had gone. This farmer was a good man and invited me to bring my wife and baby and stop with them. I was to help on the farm. God had delivered. I returned full of joy.

That night we packed our trunk, and got ready to leave in the morning. We did not dare tell Mrs. W______. We had packed a barrel with the rest of our things a few days before, ready to get out. I got an Expressman in the morning, moved our things out, and went with him to the Depot. After buying our tickets I found I had just $2.00 left, to face the world with. And now the last battle began. Mrs. W________ had seen the Expressman remove our goods and was simply furious. I had not told her, for I feared she would try to hinder us. While I was gone she had abused my wife shamefully.

But it was her last shot.

She had made a desperate effort to induce my wife to stay with her and leave me. Now she read a letter to us that she had written, after she saw our goods go out. She had questioned her Secretary and found out where I had been. In this letter she warned the farmer against us. He had been one of her former members in the country. She was now seeking to move heaven and earth to hold us. This letter was to follow us. If that did not deter us from going she meant to telephone the farmer at once, and reach him ahead of us. Thus she hoped to close the door against us. She asked me to go to the telephone with her. She thought in that way to gel him to tell me direct not to come. Thus she would have beaten me. A more cruel procedure could not well be imagined. I told her to go to the telephone if she wished, but I would not go with her. If God did not deliver us we would perish, but we would trust God. And so we went to the Depot. But we were up against it. If God did not deliver we might indeed perish.

Mrs. W_______ started for the telephone office. We prayed. What lay before us we could not tell. But we would trust Him. It could not be much worse than the Home. We had every reason to expect that she could shut the door before us. What would we do? We would be among strangers, sick, and with only $2.00 and our baggage, turned out on the prairie, perhaps to die. The outlook was gloomy indeed. We had fasted that morning, too deeply burdened to eat. As the train pulled out of Denver I felt a sense of relief, but soon the realization or our situation settled down upon me. If God had not undertaken I think I would have lost my reason. But something like a rubber blanket seemed to settle down around me. It was from God. It was a kind of stupor, that seemed to render me semi-conscious for the time.

This lasted until we reached Kersey Station. It was God’s protecting mercy.

We supposed Mrs. W____________ had telephoned, especially when we did not find the farmer waiting for us. He was to have met us at the station with his team. Wife asked what we were now going to do. I answered, we will wait for God to come for us. I had reached the limit of human endurance, and was ready to die if the Lord did not undertake. Kersey was 50 miles from Denver. Our faith was tested here for a full half hour, but God had not forsaken us. At last we saw Sister Ingersoll coming for us. Our hearts leaped for joy. But what would she say? Had she received the telephone message? She told us some one had tried to telephone her but she could not tell who it was nor what they wanted. And so God had gotten on the line.

He had thwarted Mrs. W________'s diabolical plot. I thought best to tell her we had left the Home, and left it with the Lord and her to decide what to do with us. I told her to obey God, and if it meant for us to remain on the prairie we would remain and trust Him. But she would not allow this. She look us home with her.

In a day or two the letter came. It puzzled them much. I explained as best I could, and again left it with them whether to turn us out or not. I told them to set us out in the road if they felt they should. We were determined to trust God. But they were too kind hearted to do that. And so we stayed. I helped on the farm, and wife helped in the house. They were hoeing com. How glad we were! The country seemed so quiet a and peaceful after our life of bitter struggle in the Home. We praised God for deliverance from the lion’s mouth.

But for a long time I felt like a man who had been hit on the head and stunned. The mental strain had been so great. It took me some time to get my bearings. The strain on my convictions had been so terrible. But I gradually recovered from the evil effects of this ordeal. My confidence and courage returned. I had learned a great lesson, not to surrender my own convictions lightly for those of another.

God had given me Ps. I8, at the time of our greatest pressure, and I could almost see Him in vision coming to our rescue. This vision had been fulfilled. The fresh air and country food built us all up wonderfully. It was so quiet and restful. The Home seemed like the very Inquisition in contrast, which spirit indeed ruled it.

I went to Greeley to attend a tent meeting being conducted by Evangelists Hattie Livingstone and Rose Potter Grist, and found they were Wesleyan Methodists, so that put me right at home. Sister Livingstone gave me $I0.00 at the first service. The Lord was leading. They asked me to help them in the meetings. Wife and baby stayed at Ingersoll's, and I stopped in Greeley. I felt the Lord would have us move there soon. The Ingersolls were going to Denver, to attend a Convention at the Home we had left. It would be all off with us after that.

The first night in Greeley I slept in a tent. A drunken man showed me $I000 in bills. He asked me if I wanted any money. But I would not take any. I would probably have been accused of robbing him. The devil was tempting me. It was not the Lord’s provision. Many were saved in the meetings. God used me much in prayer. One night I was greatly burdened during the service. I lay behind the organ through the meeting, groaning in prayer in the straw. A fearful storm was coming up. It blew almost a cyclone. Sister Livingstone quit preaching and wanted to send the people home. But I begged her not to. A great conviction was on the people.

The Lord got busy. It was raining in torrents now so the people could not leave. A spiritual cyclone suddenly struck the Tent. We had only to keep out of the way of the Spirit. Several hardened sinners, who had been standing in the way of the meeting, suddenly went down. The power of God seemed to go around the lent in circles. It moved the sinners off their seats as it went. They lay like sheaves of wheat on a threshing floor. And all without human intervention. God did it. Some of the hardest of them were gloriously saved. It was the real break in the meetings. Many were saved in the next few days. At the close of this service Sister Crist gave me $5.00.

I joined the State Holiness Assoc, of Colo., of which Bro. Da Foe was President. He lived in Denver. I had not met him. He came to Greeley and installed me as pastor of the Holiness Band there. About 60 souls had been saved in the Tent meetings. I was used personally to lead a number of these to Christ. This fitted me to shepherd them. I moved the wife and baby to Greeley, and we located temporarily in the home of Bro. Hamman. Later I bought a tent with the $I0.00 Sister Livingstone had given me, and a stove with the $5.00 Sister Crist had given me. The saints furnished other articles necessary, a brother gave me some groceries, and so we were in our own little home again. We were tenting, like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. "A tent or a cottage, why should we care?”

We saw some hard times while in Greeley however, but the Lord never forsook us. Help always came on time. My kidneys got very bad on me again. The high altitude made me very nervous. I visited among the people a great deal at Greeley, and preached at my regular services. We prayed for a sick boy with tuberculosis of the hip joints. The power of God came so mightily upon him we thought he would be healed. The room was full of the presence of the Lord. It was a wonderful visitation. But the Lord took him home a few days later. It was the preparation for his home going instead. His backslidden father was reclaimed through this visitation of the Lord.

Little Esther came near dying here in Greeley. We stayed up and prayed all one night with her. She was very frail in body. I filled the irrigation ditch bridges with Scripture, with paint and brush here. The ditch ran half way around the town. This I found when too late was against the city ordinance. But it was done. Blessed ignorance! I also painted Scripture on several river bridges around Greeley. This stirred the devil generally throughout the country. It began to get warm for me at Greeley.

There was a Holiness camp at Denver and I wanted to go. I asked God for the fare and an old Sister came home from shopping and found she had $5.00 too much change. She could not find who it belonged to and the Lord told her to give it to me. I never knew who He had collected it from, but it took me to Denver. I only had 7 cents before.

At the camp they put me in charge of the Book Stand, to pay for my meals. Thus the Lord provided for me. I was given a cot in a tent to sleep on.

Here I met Bro, Charlie Williams. I suffered much in body, but the Lord touched me at night while I lay earnestly praying. Father Haney, A. M. Hills, Sister Boyce, and Luther Powers, did the preaching. Bro. Powers was a great help to me. At one service he preached and the Spirit of God was so mightily present that neither saint nor sinner could move a muscle even to come to the altar. We sat as though paralyzed. The presence of God was wonderful, yet awful. I wanted to help souls to the altar but could not move. I was helpless. I gave an old brother 25 cents to get something to eat with. In less than an hour some one handed me $I.00. The Lord would not slay in debt to me. I returned to Greeley again safely. Was able to help a number of souls at the Camp.

We had been praying for fire wood. A big wind came up and split a tree that hung over our tent. A big limb had to be removed to make it safe. The owner gave me the wood for trimming it. Thus the Lord answered our prayer. We had wood enough to last the remainder of our time there. The answer hung right over our heads, in the tree. I began to suffer with pressure on the brain, from the high altitude. I read the Life of Lorenzo Dow, and was greatly encouraged by his faith in the midst of constant physical sufferings. He was a real martyr.

At one time we were brought three chickens in two days. The quails rained in the camp. But they came no more. Another time some bees attempted to swarm in our tent. They drove us out. The Lord finally chased them away for us.

I began to be very weak in body and had a conviction we would not stay in Greeley much longer. The Band did not seem to want to go on with God.

A number of them belonged to Secret Orders. Their old leader, a proud, worldly church member, who had led them before the revival, now began to assert herself. She had gone through the tent meetings untouched. She stirred up the carnal members against me, and wanted to lead again. But it was God’s way of indicating His further will for us.

A family in Boulder invited us to come and live with them, to do mission work in that city. It looked like the Lord. Six different complaints had been filed against me for painting Scripture on the irrigation ditch bridges. The devil was stirred. The marshal sent me notice not to paint any more. I did not. There were no more empty bridges. I had already cleaned up on the job. But they were after me. It seemed time to leave.

We received another urgent letter to come to Boulder. So we decided to go. September 24 we struck camp and left. We had been in Greeley since the middle of July and had received in cash offerings $32.40, and in donations the value of $I3.35. At Boulder we stopped with the family who had sent for us. Brother Foster’s.

Here it was only two miles to the highest foothills of the Rockies. Just behind these lay the snow-clad peaks. The air and scenery were very exhilarating. We were living right under the shadow of the Grand Old Rockies. The first years of my Christian experience had been spent in the slums of the big cities, and in the lowlands, void of natural inspiration, but I was now riding on the high places of the earth. My natural forces had been almost spent in His service, without thought of reward. I had known only to pour my life out for God. And now He was rewarding me. Praise the Lord!

I pitched my little tent in the yard at Brother Foster’s. We cooked and ate in it, and I slept under it. Wife and Esther had a small room in the house. We were separated in a measure, but still together. A lady had sent six cans of fruit for us before we arrived. This we accepted as a token from the Lord that He would provide. “He knoweth of what things we have need, even before we ask Him.” I immediately entered into the mission work with all my strength. I attended the Free Methodist Church, testifying and preaching often, with great blessing.

One day I climbed to the top of Flagstaff Mountain. Boulder had an elevation of 5500 feet. This mountain top was I500 feet higher. As I journeyed upward I began to feel the glory of living. The air was most exhilarating. I was almost tempted to feel that I had gambled too much with life. I had simply worn myself out in the work of the Lord. The cause was right, the most paying sacrifice on earth, but I felt I had not always acted wisely. I might have cared for my reserve force better, and thus possibly made my life last a little longer for God. I resolved to pray for wisdom in this direction in the future.

As I climbed higher I began to feel more free. I was leaving the haunts of men and the strife of earth behind, and was alone with God. It was an intoxicating joy, an exhilaration like nothing else I had ever known. I had dreamed of such a privilege for years. As I left the smoke and dust of earth, the confusion of the battle of life, I began to see more clearly. The noise of the city came now but faintly to my ears as I reached the topmost I height, simply reminding me of duties yet before me. The heavy, thick smoke and dust of earth hung over the horizon like a pall, circumscribing my further, eastern vision. But where I sat all was pure, clear and serene, the air sweet and invigorating, free from all contamination of earth, and from earth’s activities.

The sky overhead was blue. The strong zephyrs swayed the pines, making sweet, prolonged music to my soul, over miles of mountain tops and sides. Thus extricated from the confusion and disturbing din of earth I sal alone, with God. Before me, far below, lay the town, and dotted plains. The distant desert lay bare and desolate for the most part, unirrigated and uncultivated. As I gazed I prayed that God might also give me a clear spiritual vision of duty for him, before I must descend again the mountain side in to the valley of human trouble, strife and turmoil, among wicked men, to grapple again with the question of living among a fallen race of rebels against God.

I could hear faintly the children shouting at their play. The air was very clear. The dull sound of the carpenter’s hammer was mingled with the general, faint combined medley of human sounds, that reached my ears but indistinctly, in my exalted position above the world. They were building earthly temples. I was communing with Him who was the great Master Builder, the Carpenter of the skies. Builder of the “New Jerusalem," not made with hands.

As I looked behind, or rather still beyond me, my forward vision caught the most glorious sight of all. A range of snow capped peaks, the “eternal snows,” glitened in the sunlight. These lofty peaks entranced my soul. No habitation of man was there. They were always white. The snow never melted. And the foot of man had never yet defiled their unsullied whiteness. No sound of human life was there. Fallen man had never yet brought discord there, nor despoiled that picture. Fresh and original, as though just from the hand of the Creator, this vision stood before me. The pure, untarnished snow, glistening in the sunlight, spoke to me of the holiness of God. The scene was quiet, serene, all glorious. Oh, God, what peace exists alone with Thee!

My eyes would fain have remained fixed upon this scene until my soul should lake her flight, far above even this enchanted ground, to the Celestial City, where God Himself is found. But a rude awakening awaited me. I must go down again into the battle with sin. But memory will carry this vision with me. I lingered for a parting, fond look, and then slowly, reluctantly, turned my eyes away, and wended my way perforce adown the mountain side once more. The scene was gone. But patience! Just a little longer, and the race is run. We must yet stay below to bear the cross for Him, among sinful men. Soon He will call us home.

I would keep my soul clear from the strife of man, as when I stood alone upon the mountain height, with Him. “Nearer my Father’s House; Where the ‘many mansions’ be.. Nearer the great white throne; Nearer the crystal sea. Nearer the bound of life, Where we lay our burdens down; Nearer leaving the cross - Nearer gaining the crown. And it may be I’m nearer Home - Nearer now than I think.”

My brain began to feel languid at Boulder, from the high altitude. It seemed hard to read, converse, or preach. I felt this might kill the malaria still lurking in my system, but it was liable to drive me insane in the process. I had to pray much. High altitude is heroic treatment. It generally kills or cures the patient very quickly. The people were generally hard in spirit in this country. There were no softening influences naturally there. I began to have a strong desire to get to California. I have always feared a hard spirit.

I began to visit the hospital and jail, and to distribute tracts on the streets. Boulder was a very wicked town. Greeley had been a no-saloon town. But here the saloons and houses of ill fame were run wide open. Entering the police station while the officers were all out in the rear one day, looking at a horse, I scattered red hot tracts all over their desks. I had possession of the whole building, and got out without even being seen. I could have carried the whole place off.

Here at Boulder I came into temptation to get a position and go to work. Everybody seemed to have plenty of money but me. We saw hard times. The people were so hard. We had no band of Christians behind us here, and were obliged to look directly to the Lord for everything. I would gladly have gone to work with pick and shovel. But God would not let me. There was great need of mission work here.

Our food was very scarce. Cold, hunger, persecution, misunderstanding, all might come to us, as to Our Master, but we must not fail God. I distributed tracts among the business houses and preached and testified everywhere I could find open doors, and also spent much time in prayer. I felt much impressed here with the need of ‘taking time to be holy." When men used hour glasses they had time to pray. Our watches divide the time up into seconds. We have some human appointment for every moment of the day.

At the hospital the foreign patients were especially receptive. They were lonely, and strangers. I also began to deal with the bartenders personally in the saloons. This was pretty rough work and I had some narrow escapes from violence. They were very wicked in Boulder. I distributed tracts among the university students, around the railroad station, and among the houses of ill fame. There was plenty to do and I seemed to have the field all to myself. I kept steadily on the job. There seemed to be no one else at this work at all. I canvassed the whole city or Boulder with tracts, visiting every house in the city systematically, both business and residential. Street meetings were not allowed in Boulder.

A son of the family where we lived now got the typhoid fever. We had to pray mightily to be kept from this plague. But God delivered him finally, and we were kept from it. The high altitude began to affect my nerves more and more. I felt led to write to Brother Ferguson of Los Angeles, California, to give us an appointment in one of his Peniel Missions on the Pacific coast. Food became very scarce with us. We were without butter, sugar, or milk. The family where we were living began to tire of us. It was getting time for us to move. On the whole, however, the family had been very kind to us.

I was offered money one day by the madam in a house of ill fame where I was doing mission work. I needed the money badly, but I refused it. It was tainted money. I could trust God. About this time I got work addressing envelopes for an oil promoter. He was a consumptive, and an ex-preacher. He paid me $I.25 a thousand. I earned about $25.00 in all at this job. I was handy with the pen and we needed the money badly. It was soon gone.

We soon received a letter from Brother Ferguson to come to the coast and lake charge of their mission at Santa Rosa. But I was to furnish $20.00 on our tickets. This I did not have. So I had to throw up the chance, for that time. Possibly God was not through with us yet in Colorado.

We moved to a brother's house near the Free Methodist Church, where we rented rooms. This was more free. We attended the Free Methodist Church regularly. I was much blessed of the Lord helping in the services, and we had some powerful times. Many of the members were very hard and Pharisaical, however. They would not humble themselves and move up for God. But the pastor. Rev. Hockett, was a blessed man of God.

I was now thirty-one years old. My health was very poor. Little Esther was sick also. The power came mightily upon me at times in the Free Methodist services. I often fell under the power, remaining helpless for several hours at one time. God greatly blessed my soul. One night after dark I tacked Scripture posters to all the telegraph poles in the town. I had to work very carefully, as the police would have stopped me if they had caught me at this job.

I prayed for my carfare to go to Denver with, as I felt the Lord would have us move back there. A sister gave me $5.00 without any solicitation. Gods will seemed clearly indicated in the matter. But before I went I painted seventy-five Scripture texts on the rocks the whole length of Boulder Canyon, a distance of four miles. These would be read by thousands. “Let rocks their silence break,” for God. Later I discovered I had broken an ordinance in doing this. The canyon was a natural public park. “Where ignorance is bliss, ‘twere folly to be wise." God got the glory.

I had a feeling my work was done in Boulder when I went to Denver, but was not welcomed at the Holiness Association as I had expected to be.

They had plenty of vacant rooms but for some reason acted very cold. I soon found the president. Brother Da Foe, had about all the salvation the Association contained. He was sick in bed and on the outside of the city. I could not see him. He was a consumptive and only had a part of one lung left, but when he preached heaven and earth came together. He was a saint if ever one lived. Be died soon after this.

I found myself in Denver at I0:30 p. m., without a bed. The Holiness Association had turned me down. But God had His purpose in this also. I tried two lodging houses but they were both full. Their charge was $I.00 a night anyway, too steep for me. Satan suggested that I sit up in the railroad station that night and take the first train home again. But God’s purpose would have been thwarted. The devil wanted that.

I became almost rebellious. It seemed the Lord Himself had forsaken me. I did not understand or know what to do. Why had the Holiness Association refused to receive me? I was sick with temptation to doubt God. But I got the victory and determined to trust Him recklessly, though I perish. I determined I would try for rooms no further, but would wait for God to speak to me. And just then He spoke. He was waiting on me for this.

But what He said was a complete surprise to me. Nothing could have been farther from my thought or desire. He told me to go to the Pentecostal Union Home for the night, from where we had left to go to Kersey. I was staggered. My pride tried to rise up, and reason opposed the suggestion.

But God said “go!”

It was now near midnight. I knew of nothing else to do. So I went. It looked like compromise. Certainly if there was any self left in me in the matter that killed it. If I had not fully forgiven them I had to now. And my coming would prove that to them. Possibly this was why I had to go there that night. If I wanted the continued favor and guidance of God I had to obey Him.

Almost contrary to my expectations they received me. I went to bed, and in the morning met Mrs. While. I think she must have imagined I had come to repent. But I had not. I felt nothing but love toward them. Our meeting was peaceable. I think they were too much surprised to quarrel with me. They may have fell a little compunction at the way they had treated us also. They could not help but see that God had been with us. And I had shown a forgiving spirit. The next night the Holiness Association took me in. I think they were afraid I would go back to the Pentecostal Union work.

They were greatly opposed to one another.

I called on a brother who had been in the Home also. He had left there soon after we did, and was living with Mrs. White’s mother, who was not in fellowship with her. This brother invited me to bring my family and stay with them until I could find other quarters. This was what I wanted. I returned to Boulder and we packed immediately and moved to Denver.

They told me before we left of a business man who had been gloriously saved riding down the canyon and reading the Scriptures I had painted on the rocks there. But I learned I was to be arrested for violating the ordinance. So it was time to go. We got out safely.

We arrived in Denver with seventy-five cents. It would cost that to get our goods removed from the depot. We could not stop in the home where we had been invited very long. I was sorely tempted soon, with only three cents in my pocket. What should we do? But God provided food as we needed it. My brain became so oppressed I could hardly sleep nights. I feared I was going insane. I had had enough of high altitude. I seemed to fight with demons at night. My mind was it the breaking point. I could not bear the slightest sound at night, and the least ray of light in the bed room would cause me excruciating pain. My brain seemed literally on fire. My wife was badly worn down also. I learned that many go insane in that altitude. Many had to get out of the country in order to sleep at all. But I was obliged to suffer for a little time yet under this dreadful strain. My work was not yet done in Denver.

One night they had a prize fight in the city. I walked up and down the waiting line of ticket purchasers and poured the Word of God into them. If they had not been afraid of losing their place I think they would have killed me. Finally I made it so hot for them that the fight promoters gathered around me and sought to silence me. A mob surrounded me. I was in a tight place and did some earnest praying. All at once they fell to quarreling among themselves. God gave me the signal and I slipped out and away from them. The landlord threatened to turn the Holiness Association out of their hall if they did not stop me. They rented a hall in the same building. He knew I belonged to the Association. I now began a systematic canvass or all the saloons in Denver. There were hundreds of them and I felt I must do this before God would let me go to California. I had a rough time in some of these places, dealing personally with the bartenders and customers, and distributing tracts. They resisted stoutly in many places. Denver was very wicked. But before we left Denver I had visited every saloon in the city. They had heard the Gospel one time in their life at least.

We were almost without food. I got a job shoveling coal for Hallack Paint Company, unloading a car, working nearly two days. This almost killed me. But we needed the money. We received a flattering call again to take a Wesleyan charge in Kansas. If would have settled the bread and butler question, but it would have gotten us out of God’s will. So I refused it.

I worked among the fallen girls, of which there were hundreds in Denver. The Lord blessed my efforts among them. The saloons and police opposed me and made it hard and dangerous for me. They were both back of the business. I was up against the most abandoned class of criminals in the city and single handed. But God sustained me.

Wife and little Esther and myself were all sick. Esther had convulsions. It seemed the devil was determined to finish us. I had an awful attack of the grippe and nearly lost my reason. But God delivered. While still very weak and sick I was obliged to look for other quarters. It was zero weather and I nearly froze. Finally I found some furnished rooms. It was hard to find a place. There was a heavy snow on the ground. I was obliged to fairly beg for a place where they would take a child in. But finally I succeeded. I suggested in one place, in bitter irony, that the landlady kill my child, as I did not have the heart to do it, and then we would rent her rooms. There was no objection to dogs. I was almost in despair before I finally succeeded in getting a place for us.

The pressure on my mind and nervous system seemed to grow continually worse and I felt I would go insane. I worked another day unloading a car of coal for Hallack Brothers. Then I got a job in a restaurant, but had to work from 6:00 a. m. to 6:00 p. m. I practically lived there. My meals were free.

I wished wife could have eaten there, too. But I had no time to study, pray, or work for the Lord. My work was that of steward, looking after the supplies. I was too tired at night to go to meeting.

I had to scrub the food chests, etc., also, with cold water and soon got sick as my health would not stand this. So I quit the job. I had a great hunger to be in the active work in some mission. The Holiness Association president. Brother Da Foe, had told me if he was at headquarters he would have me there. But he was dying of consumption and had no more to say. His members were even neglecting him. They were the most hard-hearted, selfish bunch of holiness professors I had ever met. No one attended their meetings. The work was dead. Their own tables were groaning with food. “If any man, having this world’s goods, and seeing his brother in need, shutteth up his bowels of compassion against him, how dwelleth the love of God in Him?" It simply does not. This work went all to pieces later, through sin at headquarters.

I now wrote to Brother Ferguson at Los Angeles again, to give us work in a mission on the Pacific coast. I had asked the Holiness Association to give me charge of their work in Pueblo. They turned me down, started another worker for that point instead, and before she got there the Burning Bush had carried her off, and she never reached the place. So God rebuked them. But they did not repent.

It seemed hard to hear the wolf scratching constantly at the door. We were in danger of being put on the street, for lack of money to pay our room rent, and yet my whole time had been engaged in the most self-sacrificing work, among the saloons and brothels. We had very little to eat. The Christians did not seem at all to care. Truly the Lord had chosen me “in the furnace of affliction," as He had shown me when He first called me.

I met Charlie Williams again. He told me the Holiness Association had treated him the same. He was $I50 in debt. I thanked God I did not owe any man anything. He was a precious brother. I had met him at the Denver camp meeting.

I now got work with the Denver Gas Company, with pick and shovel, helping dig trenches for pipe laying. This work was very hard also. But God gave me strength. We would have something to eat at least. One day we had a cave-in. Three men were partly buried. I helped dig them out. One was quite badly hurt.

I received a telegram soon after going at this job, from Brother Ferguson, to come to California at once. They offered to pay our fares in full this time. I sent them a message we would come. We received a message in return that the tickets had been wired. We were to go to Sacramento. So I quit my job and we packed up, ready to go. But the tickets had not arrived. There had been some delay on the part of the company in sending them. After three days waiting they came. But they read for Los Angeles instead of Sacramento. Here was a misunderstanding. They had to telegraph back for clearer instructions. All this took time. It was very trying. I had given up my work. So we were kept in suspense, waiting from day to day. The devil seemed determined not to let us out.

A full week more passed before we heard from the tickets again. Our money was all gone. We owed more rent. I cried to God in agony to deliver us. My mind seemed breaking. Finally I felt impressed to go to the ticket office. Something told me we would go the next day. But I found the tickets had not come. I left the office but felt strongly impressed to go back after dinner. That time I found the tickets had just arrived. They read for Sacramento. All was clear. We decided to leave on the 8:40 a. m. train next morning.

Some sisters, outside of the Holiness Association, brought us a basket of food to eat on the way. But I owed seventy-five cents more on our room rent. I would not go away without paying it, so I walked six miles that evening to see a man I knew, thinking perhaps he would give me something and I could pay my rent. I never asked any one for help. But he was not at home. I was evidently not trusting the Lord. I was anxious. That night I only slept two hours, living over our past in Colorado. Next morning came and I did not know where the rent was to come from. I went to the same brother’s office, but he had not yet arrived. While waiting for him to come I met another brother on the street. He gave me a dollar, without knowing of my need at all. I had stalked the wrong man. My eyes were not fully on the Lord. Hurrying home I squared my rent, we hastened to the depot, reaching there just in time to take our train. It took quick work. We were leaving Colorado. We had been in the state just one year. We were glad to get out of it, in the will of the Lord. The high altitude was killing us all.

The hardships had been almost constant. The devil had seemed determined to destroy us.

Chapter 6: Mission Work in California

We left Denver March 27,1905. Our train stopped at Cheyenne, Wyoming, for a few hours. Just as we were expecting to start they came in and told us to change cars. It was after dark. Little Esther had been undressed for bed. We were all unpacked, ready for the night. It was a cruel thing to do. They told us we must hurry. So we had to pack hastily, take little Esther as she was, and gel out in the cold to struggle our way with the crowd to another car. Esther had been very sick also. It was enough to kill her. We had to climb over two other trains, and wait ten minutes for our car, in the cold.

We had come from a warm car.

The car we were transferred to was already packed like sheep. That meant no sleep for the night. It was inhuman. And all to save a car for the company. Corporations truly have no souls. Thu next morning we discovered that they had decided to take our first car along after all. We had been exchanged and robbed of a night’s rest, all for nothing. But we were on our way to California and we rejoiced in that. We were soon to forget the trials of the journey. We were on our way to a land of sunshine and vegetation, of birds and flowers, and of a lower altitude that would remove the pressure from the nerves and brain. So we thanked God and took courage. And we were going into the work of the Lord. We might have trials ahead of us there also. But God would help us through. Hitherto had the Lord helped us, and He would help us to the end.

I had dreamed or California for years. We reached Ogden, Utah, and had a good view of the great Salt Lake. We finally reached the state of Nevada, traveling at night through it. As we neared the California line the altitude began to lower. The atmosphere changed. It began to rain a little. I seemed to feel a soothing influence stealing over my nerves already, as we dropped in altitude, toward the Pacific coast.

About noon we reached California the Golden. We were passing through the Sierra Nevada mountains. We climbed again to an altitude of 6000 feet, in going over the range. But the air was different. It was not so dry. It felt refreshing. We passed through the snow-sheds, where little could be seen. But soon we were descending into the foot hills. Here we reached Paradise. Orange groves in fruit, and other fruit trees in blossom. The flowers were in bloom, and the grass green. We had left the bleak, arid plains and deserts behind. All seemed in the glow of a new life now. Our hearts were soothed, our overwrought nerves already seemed more quiet. There was hope in life for us yet.

We reached Sacramento 7 p. m., only 34 ft. above sea level. How good the Lord had been to bring us safely through. We went to the Peniel Mission Home, and were soon installed in charge of the work there.

At our very first service in the mission six souls responded to the altar call. Thus God set His seal upon our ministry in California from the beginning. We had services every night, with open air meetings preceding. I was very glad to be in the actual work of Lord again, with a regular platform to preach from. We held noon meetings at the R. R. shops also. God gave us souls for our hire. I canvassed the saloons and houses of ill fame, dealing personally with the bartenders, customers, and the fallen girls. I also distributed a great many tracts.

One of the first things I did was to dispense with the passing of the collection basket. We were only getting about $1.00 at a service anyway, so I thought we might as well trust the Lord, as we had always done. The money came in a little freer for a time. We had a free-will offering box at the door. I early discovered that we were in a bad malarial district. This was destined sooner or later to cause me trouble. I was very susceptible to malaria, having nearly died from it in the South. The Sacramento river and valley were full of it.

I climbed to the top of the Capitol turret one day and had a grand view of the surrounding country. I could see the Sierra Nevada Mountains, 150 miles away, lying along the horizon, their tops glistening, snow covered in the sunlight. The black foothills nearer, furnished a beautiful contrast.

We had a worker in the Home who from the start made me much trouble. She was very childish, wilful and self important. She had been spoiled greatly by the people. Nothing suited her. She was very selfish and always murmuring and complaining. She opposed me from the beginning.

I visited a dance hall in the red light district one night, and between dances crossed the floor in front of the musicians with my Bible in my hand, giving out tracts to the prostitutes, etc. My presence seemed to strike consternation to the hearts of those present. They did not offer to oppose me. But it took some courage to preform this ministry. Soon after arriving in California we had a slight earthquake shock. This was a new experience for us and gave us a quite a sensation.

Our hall rent came due and I lacked $15.00 of the amount. Our collections were very small. I received a letter from Sister Ferguson, from Los Angeles, with just $15.00 in it. The Lord did not fail us. This encouraged me greatly. We were to have moved into the Peniel Rescue Home to live, to save expenses, but were providentially delayed. In the meantime they developed small pox there. God had spared us. A Jew who occupied a small room in the front of our hall persisted in working evenings and making a great noise. It disturbed the meetings badly. I took the matter to the Lord. He failed to raise the money to pay his light bill and the company cut his wires. So the Lord delivered.

But the devil was stirred. There was a rooming house over our hall. Thu people began to pour dirty water through the floor onto us. It flooded the platform and the platform and altar. We had a lease on the hall, and soon found the landlord was in league with them. He wanted us out. The rooming house was full of prostitutes. They paid a high rent and our singing, etc., disturbed and convicted them. A saloon keeper was offering more money for the hall. The only way they could get us out was to make it impossible for us to hold meetings. The landlord insisted he could not stop the people from pouring the water on us. They pretended they were scrubbing the floor. It ruined the wall paper underneath, on our ceiling.

This was a very thin excuse. It was a strange thing they had to scrub the floor just over the platform always at meeting time. They thought to wear us out. But God gave us the grace to stick. Such was the nature of our battle with the devil here.

The prayer conflict was fierce. I found it hard to preach. My worker became so rebellious I had to have her removed. She was working behind my back trying to poison the people against me. She would continually talk on the platform while I was preaching, drawing the attention of the people away from the message. In the home she would not work, but left my wife to take the whole care of the house, while she sat around pitying herself. In fact the devil found a willing tool in her. One night, about midnight, some drunken men stopped in the street directly in front of our house, and serenaded us with the vilest language a human being could conceive of, aided by the devil. It was too filthy to describe. They evidently knew us, and no doubt had been at the mission. Had I had a telephone I would have called the police. They kept it up a long time before they left.

After our first worker left the Fergusons sent us a family. These consisted of a middle aged man and woman and their 19-year-old son. They had been in business, had owned their own home, and always had full and plenty. They had never known hardship or sacrifice. They had now stuck their money away in the bank, and expected the mission to support them. They had no business in such a work of faith and sacrifice as our mission called for at all. I was in for more trouble than before.

God knew the testings that lay ahead of me, so one day while I was sweeping the hallway at the home He suddenly dropped into my soul a landslide of glory. It was altogether unexpected. I had not even been praying at the time. I was almost caught out of the body, finding myself all at once wrapped in a cloud of glory. It was like being transported to another world, and a complete surprise to me. I soon needed this powerful assurance of His presence with me. I also received another token of his care for my needs about this time.

I had been praying for a pair of scissors, not having the money to buy them. I picked up a brand new pair in the middle of the street. Who had dropped them there I never discovered. But the Lord had evidently had them left there for me.

The family who had come to live with us began to grumble about the mission fare, about the house, the climate, the people, and about everything else. Nothing suited them. They were chronic grumblers. I felt like reading Num. 11, to them. There was nothing worse than to have a chronic grumbler about. They had cleared $1,000 in their business the year before. This they soaked away in the bank, and had then retired on the mission. We had been used to living very scantily. They expected as good as they had been used to. I could barely raise the rent, and had little left for the table. But they did not appreciate this fact. We had a hard field. They seemed to think I should have some magic power to do the impossible. In fact they were not willing to do their part and pay the price. How could God bless? They had no business in a mission. It was simply a religious fancy with them. They had retired from business to be free from care, soaked their money away for a rainy day, and were a million miles from understanding, or desiring to take, the way of a faith mission and life. Without experience, and altogether incompetent, they criticised me continually. I had all the bills to meet and pay. Their nineteen year old son was nearly six feet tall. He was too lazy to work, and spoiled like a baby, he simply laid down on the mission. He had to sleep in the bath room for lack of space in the house. Thus we were deprived of the use of the bath room. Then he smoked cigarettes incessantly. The fact was his parents had spoiled him, and now they had a grown tiger cub on their hands. He simply tyrannized over them, and thought to do the same with me. They had brought him into the mission work to try to save him. But they had left it too long to atone for their error. I was to suffer for it.

He ran to the theatre nights instead of coming to the mission, and came in very late, disturbing the home. Worst of all he would sit on the porch, in sight of the public smoking cigarettes and his pipe. This I could not tolerate, naturally. It destroyed our influence with the people. There was plenty of money for his wickedness. And I was supposed to support him in this life. His parents defended him in everything. They should have had him in their own home, not in a mission home. I was fast getting enough of the situation.

The people over our heads at the hall now began to chop wood directly above us during the services. As though that was the only time and place they could chop wood. About this lime the Burning Bush came to the coast also. They declared they had come to beak up the Peniel missions. Mrs. White, of the Pentecostal Union (later “Pillar of Fire”) in Denver, was in with them. She was an enemy to Mrs. Ferguson. The family in our home now swung in in sympathy with them, and determined to open the door for them into our work in Sacramento. Here was still more trouble.

The nineteen year old son now got work at good wages but still continued to eat off of us. He would not pay any board but squandered his money in sin. He added insult to injury by repudiating me as manager of the home, defied me, and declared he would do as he pleased in the house. His father look his part and abused me. The people had ceased to give at The mission because we were keeping the son in sin. The parents finally began to provide some of the food, when they found they would go hungry otherwise. But God was against us in the matter. I found either they or myself would have to leave.

I was feeling sick all over from this situation, and the malaria which was now getting hold of me. The hall floor and carpet was soaked again with dirty water from above. This time the landlord admitted it had been done purposely, and offered to release us from our lease. He plainly wanted us out. But we could not get another hall in such a good location. Should we allow the devil to drive us out? I decided to stick. The son smoked his pipe on the front porch again.

I went after him and his father defended him strenuously. His parents declared he should not be driven on the street to smoke. The situation seemed a hopeless one for me.

I decided to take a little run to San Francisco by boat, for a change, to get the smoke or battle out of my eyes and pray over the situation. While there I preached at the Third Street Peniel mission, and also spent a little time at Beulah Park Camp meeting. Here I met Brother Jas. M. Taylor, founder of the Southern California Holiness Association. He was a fine brother and I had much help in praying for him while he preached.

On returning to Sacramento I wrote Sister Ferguson to be relieved from the work there. The son continued to smoke his pipe on the front porch of the mission home in defiance of my orders. I decided I had had enough. Not hearing from Sister Ferguson I wrote my resignation, to date from July 1. I determined to leave the mission with them and get out as I was fairly smelling of the malaria anyway, and knew from past experience I dared not trifle with this disease. I must leave Sacramento.

Finally I heard from Sister Ferguson. She wanted me to stay. But I had to get away from the malaria. I cleared all bills, paid the hall rent one month in advance, and July 1 left, with everything clear in the work financially, having moved wife and little Esther to the Peniel Rescue Home. The family that Mrs. Ferguson had sent me could now have the place and learn something about mission work for themselves. They had been an intolerable, unreasonable burden to me, wanting to boss from the lime they arrived.

I decided to look around a little before locating again, and so went to San Jose, where I visited the Free Methodist pastor. Brother Graves. Here I found the Burning Bush had already split the Crittenton Mission. Two wealthy men pulled the string in Chicago, and their followers jumped, all over the country. Unless a certain key was struck in the meetings there was nothing doing. The general deadness of the missions on the coast made them peculiarly susceptible to this spirit of enthusiasm. The Burning Bush were making a great effort to destroy all other missions, and substitute their own organization in their place, instead of seeking to build up the body of Christ in general. If one called attention to their inconsistency and fanaticism they would immediately raise the cry of persecution and threaten with the judgments of God. It is hard to save a fanatic from plunging over the precipice.

I preached at the Crittenton Mission, and at the Free Methodist Church.

The Lord helped me greatly. The family I had left in the mission at Sacramento now wrote and warned the Burning Bush at San Jose against me. They had come from that city. But they had now uncovered their hand. They belonged to that crowd. Possibly they had gotten into the mission for that very purpose, to betray the work.

The people gave me $5.00 at San Jose, and with this I had 5000 tracts printed against fanaticism, to offset the influence of the Burning Bush. These I sent to various missions all over the coast. I went next to Gilroy, preaching there in the Free Methodist Church. From there I went to Watsonville. Here Brother Langdon was holding a tent meeting. I preached three times for him, with much blessing from God.

I next went to Santa Cruz, stopping in the Peniel Mission Home. Brother Harry Morse was in charge there. They were holding tent meetings. I had a conviction God would have us move there some time. The Lord blessed me in the meetings. From here I vent to ’Frisco, where I spoke at Jackson Street Peniel Mission. There I learned that a Burning Bush preacher was now in our mission at Sacramento with the family I had left in charge. So their game was clear. They meant to steal the mission there. I arrived back in Sacramento again July 18. Was glad to be with my family again.

I went to the mission and the man whom I had left in charge called me a devil, warning the people against me. I found the Burning Bush running the mission, in defiance of Sister Ferguson’s wishes. The leader gave me to understand that he did not care what the Fergusons thought about it. I put up such a fight against them then that they soon left the work. Mrs. Ferguson sent another leader, a good man. Brother Bradley, to take it over. And so the Lord triumphed in the end. But it had been a bitter fight. The leader who had caused me so much trouble, and whom Sister Ferguson had sent me, later died.

I went with the new leader to see Millionaire Glide, who had helped some in the past on the rent, as I wanted to introduce Brother Bradley to him. But this time to my utter surprise he suddenly grabbed me by the arm, rushed me to the door, and shoved me out. He acted like a mad man. But the Lord kept me in peace. He did not want us depending on millionaires. The next time I met Mr. Glide he had locomotor ataxia, and could hardly get one foot past the other.

The people with whom I had left the mission left all the debts unpaid when they got out. The rent was behind. I helped pull things together again financially. My back was paining me badly by this time, from my kidneys, from the malaria. I decided to try to gel to Witter Springs, Lake county, to drink the water there. I had no money and was obliged to pray in my fare. Sister Ferguson sent me $5.00 to go there on. Before I left she sent me $5.00 more. I went to Santa Rosa, and decided to stop for a few days and help them in the Peniel mission there. I was very weak in body, but they needed help badly. I was yet $3.00 short of my fare to Witter Springs.

I preached several times at Santa Rosa. The leader I found made a great profession. He would come from his room declaring he had been in the very presence of God, and then proceed to abuse his wife shamefully. One time he threw his wife on the floor, held her down, and declared she must get sanctified before he would let her up. He was either crazy, full of the devil, or both. As though she would ever get sanctified under that treatment. It was to be hoped she would not get the kind he had. He was very restless and decided he wanted to move their living quarters while I was there. There was not a thing the matter with the house. The devil simply wanted to break the interest in the meetings. God was blessing my ministry. I persuaded him to stay where they were. It was a hard fight.

I began to feel that possibly the Lord would heal me without going to the springs to spend two or three months, and I could then stay in the work. I had the pastor of the Holiness Church, Brother Arnold, anoint and pray for me. He had much faith for healing. One morning after a night of great suffering in my body, I awoke with a strong spirit of prayer upon me. I asked the Lord to tell me clearly if I should go on to the springs or not. He spoke to me deliberately and positively, “All my springs are in Thee.” Ps. 87 :7. I felt a strong assurance that He would heal me, and that I was not to go to the springs. I was to return to Sacramento.

Stopping at Vallejo, I preached in the Peniel Mission for a few days. The Fergusons were disappointed that I did not go on to the springs. But God had spoken. I pitched my little tent I had brought from Colorado, in the yard at the mission home at Vallejo. There were only sisters in the home. The Lord blessed wonderfully in the mission. I also held services on the gunboats, “Wyoming" and “Boston," and visited the sick sailors at the Marine Hospital. This was at Mare Island Navy Yard nearby. Several sailors were saved.

Here I received news that I had a new daughter. They named her Ruth.

Wife had been delivered safely at the Home in Sacramento. I had an impression in my spirit before the letter came that the event had taken place. It was hard to have to be away at such a time and I now felt the Lord would have me return to Sacramento. I had to pray for my fare, and it came. I found wife and babies well. The Rescue Home had been a former millionaire’s mansion.

I pitched my little tent in the yard to sleep in as there was no place in the Home for me. The matron had it in for me because I had not gone on to the Springs. I took care of the yard for my meals. The place was an Institution. The spirit was not that of a real home, but hard, as such places are apt to be, and I soon found I was not wanted there. They were willing to take care of my wife and babies, but I had to leave my family again.

The matron in charge had had her own home broken up, and was bitter. She soon told me to leave. I was without a cent, and began to pray for my carfare to get to Santa Cruz with. She did not want me to even see little Esther, lest she pine for me when I was gone again. But I insisted on seeing her. She was pining for us both, having been taken away from her mother until she could care for her again. The matron had little heart. What business have such people in the work? I kept little Esther with me until I left again, when her mother was able to take care of her.

I was without a penny for a week, and felt I must get employment of some kind and get my wife and babies with me again, so I finally sold my concertina at a pawn shop for $1.50, and got as far as Lodi. Here I visited Peniel Mission. From there I got on to Stockton. I preached several times at Peniel Mission there, stopping at the Home. Miss Mabel Triplett was in charge. She gave me the Sunday afternoon collection, and with that I got to Santa Cruz. I stopped on the way at San Jose, and took in the “Big Trees," Fremont Group, near Santa Cruz.

The tree called “Giant” was twenty-two feet in diameter, and sixty-five feet in circumference. It was 306 feet high. Seventy-Five feet more had been broken off the top. Many of these trees had had their tops broken off. The wood is not strong enough of fibre to bear their weight. The storms break them. These trees are presumably thousands of years old. Some are lying prostrate on the ground. No one remembers when they felt. They have small roots for such giants and are easily overthrown. But for their tops breaking off they would probably all have been overthrown before now, by their own weight. They grow in excessive moisture, and in a salubrious climate. No violent storms have ever been known here. The fallen trees have toppled over by their own weight largely. But no one living knows how long ago. They are red wood.

“Giant” is supposed to contain at least 200,000 feet of lumber, after allowing for all waste. The bark of these trees is often as much as three feet thick itself. There are sixty-five acres in this Fremont Group, near Santa Cruz. Truly “there were giants in those days." One feels as though they had been suddenly transported into another world among them. These "big trees” are only found in California. Spiritual giants today are about as scarce also as these big trees. Thank God there are a few left among us.

But they seem like relics of a past age also. We are a race of spiritual pigmies today. There are some young “big trees” growing up in clumps around the old ones. But it is a question if they will ever attain to the proportions of their elders. They are only babes in comparison. We should care for these “Big Trees” most reverently. They seemed to have been handed down to us from a better age. And so with the spiritual giants still living.

I found Brother Charlie Williams in charge of Peniel Mission at Santa Cruz this time. I had gotten him there, from Colorado. He welcomed me cordially. I was weak in body and enjoyed the air at the beach very much. I preached a few times in the mission. Brother Ferguson sent me $5.00.

They wrote me they felt I was not strong enough physically to take charge of another mission, so they released us themselves from their work. They had paid our fare from Colorado to the coast. I returned to Sacramento feeling the Lord would have me take my family to Santa Cruz. He provided our fares and we moved there.

We rented two furnished rooms at $2.00 a week. The matron of the Home at Sacramento sent me a bill for $10.00. She was not supposed to do this, but she got the money itch. So I paid it later, and left the responsibility with her. I got work with a farmer picking apples, and so the Lord provided. I preached frequently at Peniel mission. We enjoyed the beach and ocean air very much. My next job was cutting wood, but this almost used me up. I was working for George Hammond. Next I got a job painting a house, and had some calcomining to do, and also some lawns to take care of. I got several jobs house cleaning. Was earning $2.00 a day. And so we managed to live.

We then moved to a little furnished cottage in a back yard, which we got for $5.00 a month. I got another house to paint and a tree to cut up for the fire wood. Next I tried cutting cord wood, but this was loo hard for me. It nearly killed me. I was sorely tempted with the Lord because I had to work so hard. It seemed wrong to have to suffer so from hard work when I had given my life unreservedly and unselfishly in His service. I had turned down every opportunity for my own ease and gain in life, and yet here I was, sick and penniless, eking out a bare existence for my family, at the price of blood. I got more house cleaning to do, and more wood to cut. I often went fishing when I had no work, and generally caught quite a quantity of small fish. These we were very thankful for, and almost lived on them at times.

My next job was painting a bam, for a dentist. Wife had to have her teeth pulled and a plate fitted. I was to work out the bill. The devil got into a crazyman who was sleeping in the loft of a small bam next door. He ordered me off the ladder, I thought it was a joke and paid no attention to him, but when I saw him getting his revolver, through the open bam door, I changed my mind and slid down the ladder. I think I never came down a ladder quicker. I left my paint up there. Running to town I sent the officers after him. They caught him with gun in hand. He had already lined up three or four others, at his mercy. He was sent to the asylum.

I got work caring for lawns for some time, and then getting hungry to preach again I took a trip to Corralitos. Here I preached for the Free Methodists. Brother Cochran was pastor. I applied again for work in the Peniel Mission, but there was no vacancy for me. The Lord helped me to do a great deal of tract distribution.

One night I was suddenly taken with neuralgia around the heart. I suffered terribly and nearly died before the Lord delivered me. Work got very scarce. We were out of money. Wife used to go out in the yard at night and get the stale bread out of the garbage can that our landlady had thrown away. We were glad to get it. We had neither butter nor milk for some time, and very little meat.

I finally got work gardening for a rich man. He had bought a big place on the hill overlooking Santa Cruz. His name was Theo. Noel, from Chicago, of Vita-Ore fame. He was an old army officer and a hard drinker, and suffered much from gout and rheumatism. He was very profane and wicked. I wrote to Brother Brezee at Los Angeles for a charge in the Nazarene Church, but they had no vacancy.

Later I got a job with a carpenter, helping build houses, and also cleaned some chimneys. I found I had gained fifteen pounds in flesh since coming to Santa Cruz in September. This was encouraging. It was now January. But we soon got down to almost nothing to eat again. I had very little work. We almost lived on the fish I caught for a time. I got a few more odd jobs to do, and then had the grippe. This left me very weak. Our clothing was wearing out. Wife’s feet were through her shoes. There were times when I did not have more than a day’s work in ten days. At one time we had just a little wood and flour. I longed to get back into the active work of the Lord. It seemed easy to suffer when in the mission work. But it was hard to expect the people to help us when we were not.

I got a job grubbing out old blackberry bushes, but the work was in the wet and I caught much cold. I then wrote and applied for a Wesleyan Methodist charge in Oregon. But nothing came of it. God had other plans for us. Sometimes I only had bread to take with me for my dinner. That was pretty light diet to grub out blackberry bushes on. I preached at the Salvation Army a few times.

But I now got work at Mr. Noel’s again, gardening.

The head gardener was very cranky. Very few men could work with him. He was an Englishman. Out of a gang of several men he drove them all away but me. I determined to stick it out and suffer, for we needed the money very badly. He would curse and abuse me all day. In fact he imagined I was trying to work him out of his position. I was working almost steady now at $2.00 a day. The devil wanted to drive me off. Mr. Noel, liked me because I was sober and he could trust me, although he was a hard drinker himself. He finally offered me a good position in his office at Chicago. He was going to give up his place in Santa Cruz and remain in Chicago. This was a very tempting offer. He was a millionaire and would have done well by me. But it would have gotten me out of the will of God. So I had to refuse the opportunity again to become prosperous in this world’s goods.

The fever began to get bad around our neighborhood so we decided to move again. This time we went to live in George Hammond’s house. They were going for a visit to San Francisco, and wanted wife to take care of their house and children in their absence. I took another trip to Corralitos, walking ten miles of the way. Here I preached at the Free Methodist Church again. I look a tramp over the mountains, intending to climb to the top of Loma Prieta. It was 4000 feet high. But my strength gave out when five miles from the summit. I had undertaken too big a job and had to lie down several times on the way back to Corralitos. I walked ten miles each way, and began to pass blood from my kidneys. It was too much. Some one had left a team at the livery stable here at Corralitos, to be taken back to Santa Cruz. They asked me to take it back, and so I drove home, with a span of beautiful horses and a carriage. Praise the Lord !

Brother Hammond came home and we went up in the hills with his brother, Otis Hammond, for a visit. Here I left my family and took a run to 'Frisco by boat. It was now the middle of May. I preached at Third Street Peniel Mission, and went through under-ground Chinatown with a party. Leaving 'Frisco I started back, stopping at San Jose to see if the Lord wanted us there. But the more I prayed the blacker it got. The door was closed. I had no witness. That was not the place for us. I returned to Santa Cruz without having found anything.

I preached at the Salvation Army, and my toes were sticking out of my shoes. When I started the people were looking at my feet. This stirred me. The Spirit of God came mightily upon me and I told them to get their eyes on the Lord, and off of my feel. The Spirit convicted them and they came crying to the altar. We had a breaking up lime. They lost sight of my worn out shoes.

Alter much prayer I felt strongly impressed we should go to Santa Rosa.

We had no call there, except direct from God. But we had to go somewhere. A sister gave us $5.00, some brothers made up the rest of the fare, and so we left Santa Cruz June 3. We stopped at ’Frisco on the way and arrived at Santa Rosa at 7:00 p. m. I had simply dropped Brother Arnold, pastor of the Holiness Church there, a card, telling him we were coming. This was his first intimation of our move. I trusted the Lord to have him meet us. It seemed like a bold step to take, but the Lord had had me do this, almost before I realized what it might mean for us. But it proved to be of Him.

Brother Arnold had prayed for my healing when I was on the way to Witter Springs, sometime before. He met us at the depot, and took us to the home of Brother Overton. He was a Holiness preacher, quite well to do, and had a nice home in Santa Rosa. I had not known him before. They were holding meetings in a tent and had me preach a number of limes. God greatly blessed my ministry.

I soon found Brother Overton had a church at Healdsburg, a few miles north of Santa Rosa. There was no one working there and he asked me to take this work. Now I understood why we had been led to come to Santa Rosa, though without invitation. So we moved to Healdsburg. It was an independent work. This just suited me of course. We had a nice parsonage, with a fine library of Brother Overton’s books also.

There was no membership there. Only one soul came to the first prayer meeting. From the human standpoint the work looked hopeless. But God had sent us. Brother Overton was a big hearted man, but a bit too rough on the outside, and the people did not like him. I had a feast in his library. The congregation soon built up. We had 40 in one meeting soon, with 25 at the altar seeking for more of God. Brother Overton undertook to supply our needs, and sent us money regularly. This was a great blessing, after our hard struggle at Santa Cruz. We had no rent to pay.

We had some hard battles with the devil, however. Little Esther had spasms here and nearly died. I had neuralgia of the stomach and for two weeks could hardly digest even milk. I was starving with plenty to eat. One night I awoke with such awful pains in my stomach that I cried to the Lord at the top of my voice. They must have heard me a block. But God heard and I was delivered. Little Ruth was also taken with spasms. It seemed the devil was determined to kill us. I preached in the Methodist Church South also. But we had a terrible spiritual conflict. This field had never been broken through for God.

I stirred the devil in the M. E. Church South. Most of the members made their money from the wine grape culture. We were right in the wine grape country. This made a revival almost impossible. Their pastor told me he was several hundred dollars in debt and dared not preach straight. He seemed like a good fellow otherwise, but had no courage. I felt sorry for him. I thanked God I owed no man anything. I was free.

Brother Charlie Williams had taken charge of Santa Rosa Peniel Mission. His wife went to Colorado to see her people, and I ran down to visit with him. I came home, and then went back to help him a few days in the meetings. This time I found him very sick, with no one to care for him. I did the preaching, and took care of him, and the Lord blessed greatly. As soon as he was able to gel out I came home again.

Brother Overton began to lose interest in our work and ceased to send us money. The Lord was about done with us in Healdsburg. I got work sorting and cutting pears and picking prunes at $2.00 a day. We then went to the hop fields, where we pitched our tent and I picked hops. Here I averaged $3.00 a day. I was one of a half dozen of the fastest pickers in the field, though I had never picked hops before. God helped me. I preached in the hop barn Sunday night. We had a rough gang. Some of them waited outside to egg me after the service. But the Lord warned me and I eluded them in the dark.

One night I preached from a box by the camp fire, outside. A big fellow who was drunk tried to kill me with a knife and revolver, but the crowd disarmed him before he could harm me. There were many wicked people there from Frisco. They always came at hop time to pick hops and have an outing. They generally turned loose for the devil. Among the hundreds camped in the field only two or three, and they old pickers, were able to beat me picking. This gained me the respect of the most of them. I picked 3175 pounds in 11 days, earning $31.75. The job was over and we returned to Healdsburg.

I took a little run to Santa Rosa, where I preached, and then went to Sacramento, stopping at Mare Island Navy Yard on the way, holding a service on the Receiving Ship, and at the Naval Barracks, near Vallejo.

God greatly blessed in these meetings. At Sacramento I preached at the Free Methodist Church.

Returning home I got a job picking grapes. Had a whole week’s work. The farmer told me to help myself to all the table grapes I wanted. We had such a feast of grapes as we had never had before. I prayed the Lord for $10.00 extra, and He sent it to us, in the mail. This I needed for our fares back to Santa Cruz, where we felt led to go. We had seen much blessing in Healdsburg, in a very hard field, but I felt our work was done there. Soon after we left some wicked party burned the church and parsonage where we had been to the ground. Nothing was saved. A fine library went up in smoke. We stopped at Frisco on the way to Santa Cruz, over night, and I preached at Third Street Peniel Mission. I distributed tracts in the Dance Halls also. At Santa Cruz we moved into an old cottage on Brother George Hammond’s place again. I did a little mission work, but soon went to work for the Sewer Company, digging ditches in the streets. This was extremely hard work. I was so tired at times that I could scarcely crawl home a nights. But I had a full month's pay at this job, at $2.00 a day. One day two of us crawled out of a deep ditch just before the bank caved in. We had had no warning of it. It would have buried us. The Lord had delivered me just in time. We had not known we were in danger. Just at the time I was in this danger little Esther at home pulled her mother to her knees and begged her to pray for papa. So they prayed for me. Esther was only three years old. God must have put that prayer on her, to save me.

The Lord greatly blessed me in preaching at Peniel Mission for a time after this. The brother now in charge. Brother Welts, was very friendly and free. Wednesday, December 14,1 was 33 years old. My last message at Peniel Mission was “God is Love.” I had a precious anointing upon me. But we now felt led to go south, to Los Angeles. This move I had looked forward to from the time we had arrived in California. But we waited God’s perfect time. It had now come. Some one gave us $5.00 in answer to prayer. We left Santa Cruz, Dec. 20,1904. Arrived at Los Angeles 10:30 p. m. that night. Bro. Geo. Studd met us at the station. We stopped at Peniel Hall the first night, but they charged us $1.00 a night for our room, so we were obliged to find a cheaper place at once. We went next day to live with a family on West Temple St., near Beaudry Ave. Here we had two unfurnished rooms upstairs without heat. I bought a little furniture to begin housekeeping with, and pitched our tent in the yard, to cook and eat in. But it was rainy and cold.

By Jan 1. 1905,I had spent my last cent. But God provided further as we had need. And here my story must of necessity end, for this time. The Spirit had led us to Los Angeles for the "Latter Rain” outpouring. In a future book we hope to relate, God willing, our experience in detail in Los Angeles, preceding the outpouring of the Spirit at Azusa Mission, with a first hand account of that most wonderful visitation, with the events that followed it, and observations on the work, up to latest date.

4.  TWO YEARS MISSION WORK IN EUROPE

Just Before the World War

1912 -14

With Chapters on Russia - War Declared

Early Days of the War

- Home through the War Zone

By FRANK BARTLEMAN

SECOND EDITION

Price 30 Cents; $3.50 per Dozen

Order of

F. BARTLEMAN

5606 Bushnell Way, Los Angeles, Calif.

Chapter 1: OFF FOR EUROPE

While passing through Europe on my trip around the world in 1910, (described in an earlier book, entitled “Around the World by Faith, with Six Weeks in the Holy Land,”) I became convinced that I would return later, with my family, for a further ministry there. After remaining in Los Angeles from the Spring of 1911 to the Spring of 1912 it was made very clear to us that we should go forward. The Lord provided for the first lap of our journey through two individuals, one a brother in the Lord 500 miles away, the other a sister, not Pentecostal, but in sympathy. We came over the Salt Lake Route, stopping one day in Salt Lake City. We went from there over the Denver and Rio Grande. We were delayed some hours snow slide, but reached the Grand Canyon just in time to see its wonderful scenery before darkness closed down upon us.

We stopped in Denver over Sunday. I located the Pentecostal Assembly there after some searching. Had no communication with them. They received me as from the Lord. We had a wonderful day. I spoke at three services. We next stopped at Topeka, Kansas. Here we found other visiting workers ahead of us. Not wishing to embarrass them we only stopped one night, to rest the children from the long journey. Had a warm welcome from Bro. Foster, and one good meeting. In those early days all Pentecostal doors were open to the worker sent of God. We ran on next day to Kansas City, Mo. Stopped over Sunday with the Pentecostal people there, holding three services. The Lord blessed in the messages.

Our next stop, was at St. Louis, Mo. Here we remained three weeks with Mother Moise, in the Pentecostal Home. Had blessed services, the Lord wonderfully manifesting Himself. It was hard to leave there. We next jumped to Findlay, Ohio, where we held a convention. Our next meeting was at Wilkinsburg. Pastor Tom Float was very kind to us. I preached two nights, with much help from the Lord. We then came on to Washington, D. C., stopping at Mother Perry’s. Here God wonderfully wrought. Many were greatly helped. There was a very deep spirit of prayer upon us. I went to the Department of State and got our Passports for foreign parts. We only stopped one night in Washington.

We then came on to Philadelphia, reaching there with just $2.00; I preached at Highway Mission twice on Sunday. Here one man gave me $50.00 in a lump. Thank God! Leaving my family with my mother at Carversville, Bucks Co., Pa., I then ran on to New York City. There I preached two nights at “Glad Tidings Hall.” Bro. Robt. Brown was in charge. We had a blessed time.

I then went to Montwait, Mass., Camp Meeting. Here God wonderfully wrought, in the Tarrying Meetings. From there I came back to New York City, speaking one night. Next day I went to Patterson, New Jersey, and spoke twice in an all-day meeting. The Lord was with us in great power. I then came back to Philadelphia, stopping over night to give my testimony at the Grace Baptist Church, corner of Broad and Berks streets, where I had been a member after my conversion in 1893, and next day went to Homestead Camp Meeting, near Pittsburg, Pa. At Homestead I preached once a day, with great help from God. The Camp Meeting Committee gave me $50.00. I had now over $100.00 on hand.

The family then went with me to a Camp Meeting at Patterson, N. J. It was a hard battle. I spoke principally on Missions. Spoke two or three times in all. God again wonderfully undertook for us financially. Received $60.00 during the ten days we were there. This was mostly given us by individuals. The committee gave us $25.00.

We came back to New York City for two day, where I preached again with much help from God. I then took the family to my wife’s mother, in New York State, on the Hudson, and from there ran on to Jordan Station Camp Meeting, in Canada. By this time we were looking to God for clear leadings for the future.

We felt the time was approaching to sail, if we were going to Europe. I had refrained from making any positive declaration as to this step, feeling that I must be very sure before I committed myself definitely. The money given me during the season was given with the understanding that I did not bind myself to use it in any particular way, but that if God led us to Europe it would be on hand to use for that purpose.

The Lord had always made me careful in money matters. I remember receiving a check for $50.00 in the Spring of 1907, from Conneaut, Ohio, to come east on and hold a meeting. But I never cashed the check until I had gone there and held the meeting. I trusted God to give me my carfare from California some other way, rather than take chances of not suiting the people, and having a misunderstanding over the money. The meeting was a success, so I felt then the money was mine.

God has never allowed us to borrow or go in debt in all our married life, and I observed the same rule while single almost from the time I was saved. All that I have received for preaching, for almost thirty years, has been in the way of free-will offerings. Have never preached for salary or for stipulated amount. I have felt I could not hire out to preach the Gospel of Christ. Our needs have been supplied through those whose hearts God has touched for the Gospel’s sake, as at this day.

We had a wonderful time at Jordan Camp Meeting. A great spirit of unity prevailed. I was pressed forward by the brethren to preach a number of times. Stopped at Buffalo on the way home, at Erdman’s Mission, where I preached two nights. The first night I preached three hours. The second night one and one half hours. The people were so hungry and appreciative. God greatly blessed. In the beginning of the Pentecostal outpouring, I remember preaching for three hours one evening in the heart of New York City. And then the people wanted more. Those were days of great hunger for the Word of God.

I brought my family to New York City again, where I preached four times. We had powerful meetings. We then went to Philadelphia again, where I preached for about two weeks, every night, with great help from the Lord. I left the family here and went back to New York City, to see if it was God’s time for us to sail for Europe. Stopped over Sunday, preaching in “Glad Tidings Hall.” I had been told that it was almost impossible to get passage to Europe at this time as so many were going, and the berths were all engaged for weeks ahead. But the Lord was to decide. After praying earnestly for Him to indicate His will clearly in the matter, I went down, to the Cunard line and inquired about passage. I had barely spoken my wish before the clerk drew his pencil around just the cabin accommodations we needed, and the matter was settled. The Lord had had it all arranged. I had gone down willing to the last to stay or go, as He should desire. He knew my heart. I wanted His will. I left a deposit, and we were to sail Oct. 19.

I returned to Philadelphia and spent Sunday at Highway Mission, preaching three times. The saint gave me $40.00. We then went to New York City, where we stayed at “Glad Tidings Hall.” I preached two nights. I found after paying our fares to Europe, $200.00 for the family, second class, we had just $100.00 left to reach England with. God had been so wonderfully good to us.

Chapter 2: BRITISH ISLES

We sailed Saturday, Oct. 19, 1912, on the “Caronia,” from New York City. Just one person, Sister Lynch saw us off at the wharf. The vessel was a good sized one, and very steady. We made the trip in eight days, landing at Liverpool Oct. 27. A brother from Halifax met us at the wharf and brought us to his mother’s home, Sister Lydia Walshaw’s, Halifax, England, 60 miles from Liverpool. I had held meetings at this place when in England in 1910.

Here we remained one week, to rest up from the sea voyage. We had a house all to ourselves, where we could be alone and have our own family life again. This treat seemed very blessed, in a strange land, among strangers. A party of English saints welcomed us the evening we arrived, with music and songs of praise to God, at the house. It was very kind of them. I spoke three times at Emmaus Pentecostal Mission here. There was a very deep spirit in the meetings. God wonderfully blessed. They gave us ten shillings ($2.50). Brother Polhill sent me $10.00 from London.

A little incident happened just before we left the boat at Liverpool. We were waiting in the cabin for the call to go ashore, when my wife picked up a beautiful, shining, new two shilling piece, from under her chair on the floor. We accepted it as a token from the Lord to provide for our future needs in Europe. A little thing in itself, but it meant much to us as from Him.

We removed to Sunderland, Nov. 7, to a Faith Home, by the North Sea. The Home was conducted by two Sisters. Here we had a severe trial. Wife was taken very sick, and came near to death’s door. I had some little ministry among the workers, but altogether we did not stay longer than necessary for my wife to get able to move again. We enjoyed the North Sea breeze, and the Roker Sands, but found the climate pretty cold and damp for Californians. We missed the sunshine. We remained six weeks here, but on account of my wife’s health I was unable to get into meetings much, and could not leave the city. It proved rather a time for getting our new bearings. I spoke once for Pastor Alex. Boddy, and attended his meetings a few times.

From here we removed to Bolton, about twenty-five miles from Liverpool. There we rented rooms for the family, where they could do their own cooking, and thus have their own family life again, a thing much better than boarding, or being in a Home. In fact a home for one family is the only real home with a big H. We found it very rainy and cold in England. Especially in Lancashire, where we were now located. It seemed as though we hardly ever saw the sun at this time. It became dark at 4 P.M. and daylight at 8, A. M. We were not far from Manchester. Our home was called “The Hillock,” Lee Gate Lane, Bolton, England.

I spoke once in a little Pentecostal Mission in Bolton, and we had meeting every Sunday morning in the house where we were living. I went to Bro. Mogg’s Conference, in Manchester, for a few days. Here I spoke several times, with much blessing. Took a trip to Liverpool, and met a very earnest brother by the name of Mr. Breeze.

My next trip was to Scotland, stopping between trains on the way at the old English city of Carlisle. Had a good look at the old Castle there. I then ran on to Stirling, Scotland, where I took part in a Pentecostal Conference. Preached at two morning services. I was much helped of God. From there I went to Kilsyth, where I had been in 1910. Here I spoke three times in two days. God wonderfully blessed in the messages.

Bro. Murdoch, the leader, gave me $5.00. From there I went to E. Wemyss, where I spoke three times in two days, at a Convention. Received $5.00 here also. Next I came to Edinburg. I stopped at Sister Beruldsen’s, my stopping place in 1910 also. Spoke at their Mission in Leith one night. Bro. Polhill sent me a check here, for $34.00.

I then ran back to Stirling, stopping over one night and preaching at the Mission. God gave us a good time. Next day I started for home. Had a strong impression to get out of Scotland. I had wanted to go to Kilsyth again, but did not have the liberty. Before I reached England on the train a gale was blowing. It turned suddenly very cold. It began to snow in the middle of the night and by morning winter was on in earnest. We had had beautiful, mild weather up to this time in Scotland. They had twenty-three inches of snow before it stopped storming. Then I was glad I had left on time. I reached Bolton in the morning and found five inches of snow even there. That was pretty rough for Californians, but I was glad I had gotten home. We had not seen snow for nine years, to remain in it.

I preached in Bolton Mission again and then went to Halifax for a four days’ convention. We had three services a day and I preached at every service. God wonderfully blessed. Returned home again, and later took a trip farther south to Hereford. Here I had a wonderful time with Bro. Frank Hodges, and his band of Pentecostal saints. The Lord made it clear in this meeting that I was to remove with my family there. It would be much warmer in Hereford. Lancashire was very cold for us. I spoke six times at Hereford, with much blessing, before returning to Bolton.

We moved to Hereford, March 1. Had a beautiful little furnished home at No. 3 Cotterell street by ourselves. Thank God for home life in foreign parts. God had wonderfully supplied our needs up to date. A Brother Fisher from Hereford and myself took a trip to Llandrindod Wells, Wales. A meeting was going on at Penybond. Bros. Stephen and George Jeffries were the preachers. They were both kept away from the meetings Friday and Saturday evenings. Bro. Fisher and myself spoke in their place. God wonderfully blessed. I came home again to Hereford.

I went to Liverpool again to meet a Bro Longstreth from America. He was on his way to Africa, as a Missionary. Returning again I preached at the mission in Hereford for a week, every night. The Lord visited us in a wonderful way. This was the most spiritual place I had yet found in England.

Chapter 3: FRANCE, NORWAY, SWEDEN

My next trip was to Paris, France. Spent a week there. I left home April 1. Went to Southampton, stopping off between trains at Oxford, where I saw the old College where John and Charles Wesley and others studied in their time. We had a smooth sea from Southampton to Le Havre, France. I took the train from there to Rouen, where I stopped two hours between trains to look around the old city. It was very interesting. Went on to Paris in the evening.

I stopped in a hotel at Paris, as I had lost the address of the Pentecostal leader, Bro. Michael Mast, but finally found him, and we went out to Rosny-sous-Bois, where they had a little Pentecostal Mission. I had visited this Mission in 1910. It was about ten miles from Paris. Here I received a warm welcome. I preached nearly every night while in Paris. Bro. Mast interpreted for me. At this time there was only one Pentecostal Mission in the whole of France. They had a worker in Le Havre, I believe.

I had one meeting in Bro. Mast’s tailoring establishment, in the heart of Paris. There were about thirty people present. It was very hard to get the people to a Gospel meeting in Paris. One precious soul was saved in the meeting. We held some cottage meetings also, in another part of the city. There were at that time perhaps ten baptized souls in the whole of France. It seemed to me Paris was, if anything, more wicked than when I was there in 1910. I found the climate much warmer in France and enjoyed the sunshine hugely. I returned home by the same route, reaching Hereford again safely. Stayed at Hereford for some time, working and preaching in the mission with much blessing. I then received a call from Bro. Polhill to attend the London Conference. Went and had a time of victory. I preached twice at the Convention. They gave me $24.00 and my expenses paid.

A Sister sent me the fare to go to Sunderland, and urged me to attend the Pentecostal Conference there. So I again went north. Preached once in the Convention, and once in a little meeting of workers where the Lord blessed us wonderfully. The Convention as a whole seemed rather cold. God used me to break up some of the stiffness among the people. I was given about $30.00 at Sunderland, by private individuals.

I spent a few days more, after reaching home, preaching in the little mission at Hereford, and then took another trip to Wales. Visited the Cwmtwrch Assembly at Ystelafera Sta. We had a wonderful time. I preached Saturday night and three times Sunday. God witnessed powerfully. Sunday night I preached for two hours. Came home by way of Rhonnda Valley. I stopped at Treorchy, near Tony Pandy, for a short time. The Welsh people are very humble and spiritual. Reached home safely again.

I preached again at the little mission in Hereford. Had felt for some time that God wanted me to spend a month in Norway and Sweden in the work. So I wrote to Bro. Polhill, London, for Bro. Barratt’s address in Christiania, but I did not mention my intention of going there. I received the desired address from him promptly, with a check for $24.00 enclosed, for my fare. So I knew God wanted me to go.

Left home June 3, going first to London. From there I crossed the Channel to Amsterdam, Holland. I had felt pressed to start north for Norway on short notice, so I simply wrote Bro. Barratt that I was starting, not giving him time to reply. I was afraid he might write me not to come, and I knew God wanted me there. I had learned enough of European ways not to trust to other people’s leadings too far in matters of this kind. And I found later the wisdom of this course. When I reached Christiania Bro. Barratt was just ready to start for Finland. He left the next day.

He said he would naturally have written me not to come under the circumstances, if I had given him time to reply, until he should return from Finland. So again it payed to obey God rather than man. In Europe as a rule they are not in the habit of doing things exactly that way. They generally expect you to wait for an invitation before you come.

I preached at Amsterdam one night, and the next morning went on north, as far as Bunde, Ostfriesland, Germany, just across from the Holland border. Had run through Holland all day. I spent one night at Bunde, with Pastor Voget whom I had visited there in 1910. Next morning I took the train for Hamburg. God wonderfully wrought for me on this trip north. We had desired to leave England and move to the Continent, but did not know where or how to get a foothold there. But the Lord had it all arranged beforehand. Through my stop in Bunde in 1910 I had gotten acquainted with Pastor Voget. His father lived in the next town (Weener), just a few miles farther on. I had not met him in 1910.

Pastor Voget knew we wanted to come to the Continent. His father had a large house where he lived, with plenty of room, in Weener. The youngest daughter, Talleta, was at Bunde and heard me say we wanted to move to Germany. So she ran over to Weener and spoke to her father about the matter. The father wanted to meet me, having been in America himself, and so the next morning when my train passed through Weener he was at the station. In the few minutes the train stopped he found me and introduced himself to me. Before the train pulled out he had invited me to bring my family to his home and stay as long as we wanted to, free of expense. It was all done in a very few minutes. God did it. Praise Him! He had it all arranged and it was bound to go through. I went on my way north; rejoicing in His goodness. Thus far the Lord was with me. Our coming to the Continent was settled. We were to move there the first part of July, as soon as I should return from Norway.

I looked around Hamburg a few hours, and then took the night train for Copenhagen, Denmark. Rode all night, up through Schleswig-Holstein, crossing the Kiel Canal at midnight. I reached Copenhagen in the morning and spent the day looking around that old, interesting city. Could not get another train north until evening. I saw many odd buildings in this Danish Capital. Took the night train for Christiania. Saw some beautiful country on the way. The train reached Christiania about noon the next day, Sunday. I found Bro. Barratt’s home, and received a hearty welcome. He had announced me to preach that morning, but I was too late. I preached at night. He interpreted for me.

The Norwegian people welcomed me warmly. The next morning Bro. Barratt left home for Finland. I stopped with his family, and preached in the large Mission for two weeks. Sister Barratt interpreted for me. We had a crowded hall and blessed times. The people were very receptive. They gave me $25.00.

I felt pressed to go on to Stockholm, and wrote the leader there. Received a hearty welcome to come, from Pastor Lewi Petrus. So I went and stopped four days there, preaching four times, through interpreter. We had a crowded hall. Major Sjodin, a Staff Officer in the Salvation Army, was my interpreter, and she was fine. She had been in the habit of interpreting for General Booth, and all visiting English Salvation Army officers. We engaged her from Salvation Army Headquarters. The hall was crowded.

Sunday afternoon we had an open air meeting in the woods. They gave me $20.00. I looked around Stockholm a little, finding it a beautiful city. Returned to Christiania on Monday. This was the season of the longest days in the year. The pink tinge from the sun was in the sky all night. It did not get dark. I could not see the sun at midnight, not being quite far enough north for that, but I read a newspaper at midnight on the train, by the light from the sun alone. I liked the country and people very much. Felt I would like to return to Sweden later and to Finland also if possible. They wanted me to stay longer in Sweden.

I returned home from Christiania on the Wilson line steamer “Esqulmaux”, June 25, reaching Hull, England, June 27. We sailed down the Skager Rack, and across the English Channel diagonally. Had a rough passage, as I think they generally do in that Sea. I should not care to repeat the voyage. Was very happy at the results of my trip. I was also very glad that I had not conferred with flesh and blood before taking it. If I had I would never have gotten it.

Chapter 4: HOLLAND, GERMANY, SWEDEN, SWITZERLAND

I reached home safely, spoke at the little mission in Hereford one more time, and then we started by way of London, for the Continent. I bought a new typewriter in London, showed the family around the city a little, and then we took the boat at night across the Channel, from Harwich to Hook of Holland. Left Hereford July 3. We landed in Amsterdam at Bro. Polman’s in the morning in time for breakfast. In answer to prayer the Customs officers did not open our trunks, as we were going through to Germany. Had a good time at Amsterdam over Sunday. I preached morning and evening with much help from God, through interpreter. We went on to Weener, Ostfriesland, Monday. I had my new typewriter in a new grip. There was a duty on typewriters, but I prayed and the Customs officer opened the old grip and not finding anything freed my whole baggage. We arrived in Germany just in time for a Pentecostal Conference in Bunde, to which I was invited. It was a one day conference. I preached morning and evening, - through interpreter.

So we were at last in Germany. The family were comfortably located and the friends were very kind to them. I preached at a Baptist Church at Weener one Sunday morning, in the absence of the Pastor. Had a visit with a State Church Pastor at Holtland. He gave me $5.00. Had a conference with a company of State Church Pastors also. They wanted me to tell them about the Pentecostal work. The Lord spoke to their hearts. I spoke one night to a company of poor saints at Weener. They were mostly servant girls.

I preached at the Baptist Church again and visited some Pastors in the country. Preached at Bunde, and spoke at a prayer meeting. The presence of God was wonderful among these poor saints. I received $20.00 from America about this time. Preached at the Baptist Church a third time, and at Bunde twice more. I then took a little trip to Emden with Pastor Voget, to attend a Blue Dross (Temperance) meeting. It was a very old and interesting city. I preached again at Bunde, and then went to Bremen for a Pentecostal Conference. Here I preached four times in all and was greatly helped by the Lord. The presence of God was truly wonderful. Received an offering of 75 Marks ($18.00).

I next attended the Pentecostal Mulheim Conference, in August. Nearly three thousand were in the habit of attending this great Conference, from all parts of Europe. It was a great gathering. I did not speak there. It only lasted four days, and the speakers had been already engaged. They were not accustomed to letting the Lord choose His speakers on the spot in Germany as a rule. I profited much by this conference and its associations. Met many saints here from different parts.

I returned home to Weener and then started for a second trip to Sweden. There was to be a big Conference at Orebro which I very much desired to attend. I was afraid to start without at least announcing my desire to come, so I wrote Pastor Ongman there that I would like to attend. I had never met him, and as he was not Pentecostal, and the Conference not strictly Pentecostal, although many of its contributors had received the baptism, I felt it best to get into communication with him before starting. When I got back to Weener I found that Pastor Voget had gone on to Lubeck with a letter in his pocket for me, from Pastor Ongman. I had no way of telling what its contents might be. Wife had given it to him to hand me at Lubeck, as I expected to sail from there, and had first arranged to go direct from Mulheim by way of Berlin. But I changed my plans when I found Berlin was not the place for me at that time, so had returned to Weener, before starting for Sweden. Pastor Voget had been called on business to Lubeck.

I met Pastor Voget at Lubeck, and he handed me my letter. But I feared to open it, lest it might contain a negative reply. By this time I felt sure God wanted me in Sweden, whether or no. I did not know at that time that we were to move to Sweden, but God began to talk to me about it very soon after. I really feared to open the letter lest I might be tempted to fail God, so put it in my pocket unopened and took the boat for Sweden. I opened it after sailing, and to my great joy found a hearty welcome to Orebro Conference. So God was leading.

I landed in Copenhagen after a quiet voyage and took the train for Gothenberg, Sweden. Here I met Bro. Andrew Johnson, whom I had known in the early Azusa Mission days in California. The Lord had by this time begun to show me His plan for us to move to Sweden for the winter. I spoke five times at Gothenberg, at Pastor Rhonstrom’s church, and also at Bro. Malmcrone’s Mission. Was much blessed in the messages. From here Bro. Johnson and myself traveled on together, he acting as my interpreter. We first went to Skara. Here I preached one night in the Baptist Church. There were some of its members who had received the baptism with the Holy Ghost. We next went to Skofde, where the Pentecostal fire first fell in Sweden.

Here I preached twice in the same evening, first at the Salvation Army Hall, and afterwards in the Pentecostal Hall. We then went to Kinne Kulle for over Sunday. I preached at the Station in the morning and at “Haggarden” afternoon and evening. We had a blessed time. Monday we went to Karlstad. Here I thought perhaps I would find a place for the family. Bro. Johnson had already engaged rooms there for his family for the winter.

At Karlstad I preached every night for five nights, and twice on Sunday, at the Baptist Church. The Pastor had received the baptism. But we had a hard fight. The people opposed the message. The Lord soon showed me He did not want us to move there. The devil tried to get me to run around looking for a house, but I could not do it. The Lord kept saying to me, “Seek first the kingdom of God.” I applied myself more earnestly to prayer, and finally prayed through on the matter. I had been very much burdened with the affair. The burden left me and I felt God would undertake.

I committed the matter to Him for His will to be done. I wanted Him to find the right place for us, and I believed that He would. Bro. Johnson got desperate. He was sure I ought to look for a place. Of course he naturally wanted me to live in the same town with him, and have my family near his family. Finally he could wait no longer, so he went to the nearest newspaper office and put in an Ad for rooms for us. But before he had time to get an answer God showed me we must leave town, and we did so. Johnson afterwards found the Lord did not want him in Karlstad either. He finally moved from Gothenberg to Orebro, where we later located.

We went from Karlstad direct to Orebro, where the Conference was to be held. Before we reached the Conference we met a Sister on the street. She took us to a home where she thought we could stay during the Conference. But the people were out of the city. She then took us to another home, owned by a saint. Here we found a vacant room for rent. We also discovered in a few moments that the Sister who owned the house had two rooms and a kitchen for rent, from Oct. 1, on the same floor in the same house. This was exactly what I was looking for. I felt at once that this was the place God wanted us.

In a day or two we got in touch with the owner, who lived in the country, but we found the rooms had been spoken for. Still I felt God wanted me to have them. I committed the matter to the Lord and did not look further. In fact I had no liberty to look further in the matter. I felt if the Lord wanted the rooms for us He would get them. The party who had spoken for them had not yet rented them definitely. They were expecting her to the Conference. I felt to make these rooms a test case as to whether God wanted us to move to Sweden.

I attended the Conference, preaching one night with much help from the Lord. Pastor Bjork interpreted for me. He was Pastor of a Baptist Church in Stockholm but had the baptism. I met him there before. I had a deep spirit of intercession during the Conference, so did not attend all the meetings. Monday morning came, one week from the time we had arrived in Orebro, and yet no decision about the rooms. The landlady was afraid if she rented them to me for only six months she would have them vacant the rest of the year. God had shown me we would only be in Sweden six months. They only rent in October in Sweden, once a year. If the first party took them it would be for one year.

Finally I told the landlady that if she could rent the rooms to the other party for one year she should go ahead and do so. I could only rent them for six months. But I added that if God wanted me to have the rooms I did not believe she could rent them to anybody else. I would leave the matter with God. I decided to make the rooms a test case, though I wanted them awfully bad. Then the Lord Himself spoke to the Sister and told her that she should let me have the rooms for six months, until April 1. Praise God! It was all done without my using a bit of influence or begging for them. I had committed the matter to the Lord for His will to be done. At the last moment she had discovered that the other party had made other arrangements, and did not want the rooms at all. So she was satisfied it was God’s will for me to have them.

But the rooms were unfurnished. It became now a question of where we were to get the furniture from. I again wet the sacrifice, and waited for God to answer by fire. He did not fail me. Without my turning a hand Pastor Ongman’s wife, who had engaged the first party to cook for the Bible School, thus depriving the Sister of a renter for her rooms, felt it her duty to help her to get a tenant in place of the prospective one she had carried off from her. So she offered voluntarily to collect some furniture for us to keep house with. Again it had paid to wait for the Lord.

God had sidetracked the first renter, and through the same force of circumstances furnished the rooms for us. I closed the contract, and Johnson and I left again for Gothenberg. Bro. Johnson did not have his fare back to his home. We said good-bye to Pastor Ongman before leaving, and he left ten Krone in my hand. I had told the Lord that if He would give me both our fares back to Gothenberg I would make up what Johnson lacked on his fare. The ten Krone just covered my fare and Johnson’s deficiency.

On my way home I had another token of God’s care for me. I was very tired, having lost much sleep, but I planned to take a train at 1 A. M., from Gothenberg, and travel all night, in order to catch the boat at Copenhagen for Lubeck. The brother I stopped with in Gothenberg failed to set his alarm clock right, although he assured me it would not fail to go off, so we overslept. I had to wait until morning. But I got a good night’s rest, which I needed very badly. It turned out the Lord had purposely overruled in the matter of the clock, for I took another train the next forenoon, and went from Copenhagen by train to Korsor, instead of sailing from Copenhagen, and found a boat there making quick connections with Kiel. I got to Hamburg earlier than I would have done with the night train from Gothenberg, which I had missed. I did not know of this boat connection until I reached Copenhagen. It was a wonderful token to me of God’s watch care over me. I reached home at Weener tired, but happy. Had been gone just one month. I came out just even on my expenses. And while I was away the Lord had sent us $30.00 from America in the bargain.

Father Voget, whom the family were staying with, had told me before I left for Sweden that he felt he could not keep us later than Oct. 1. He wanted to shut the house up and visit among his children for a time. But the Lord was not yet quite ready for us in Sweden. I could not pray through clearly for us to leave Germany at that date, although I had been obliged to rent rooms in Orebro from Oct. 1. I had paid a deposit on the contract. After praying much I felt I was to take a trip to Switzerland first to attend two conferences there. Father Voget had now decided that he would not close his house, and that we could stay until Nov. 1. So all was clear. It was now the latter part of September.

After returning from Sweden the Lord led me to take a trip to Berlin, with Pastor Voget. I preached at Steglitz one night. The next night I preached in Berlin, at a Mission conducted by Bros. Schilling, Ecke, and Gensigen. The Lord wonderfully blessed me. I had a good look around Berlin. Visited the Kaiser’s Church, where he frequently took the pulpit and preached. I also visited the Mausoleum of the kings in Charlottenburg. I took a side trip to Wittenburg, one hour’s ride from Berlin. Here I visited the house where Martin Luther lived and taught. I saw his old desk, books, furniture, etc. Here he taught the students of the Reformation. From here he shook the Pope on his throne at Rome. And from here he opposed Tetzel, the “Indulgence” monger. Here he nailed up the “Theses” on the church door, and burned publicly the “Pope’s Bull.” There is a new church now, on the same spot, with some of the old pillars. Bronze “Theses” are to be seen on the new church door, where the old one stood.

Here I also visited Melancthon’s house, where he lived and died. I saw the original handwriting of both Melancthon and Luther. Melancthon’s study chair and table are still there. I stood by both Luther’s and Melancthon’s graves, in the old Schloss Church. Their monuments both stand in the public square. Here is where the first preaching of the Reformation began, in a tumble down building in the middle of the public square. Historians tell us as follows: “In the middle of the square at Wittenburg stood an ancient wooden chapel, 30 feet long and 20 feet wide, whose walls propped up on all sides were falling into ruin. An old pulpit made of planks, and three feet high, received the preacher. It was in this wretched place that the preaching of the Reformation began.” I returned to Berlin, and home again, by way of Hannover. It seemed like hallowed ground to have walked over the same old scenes the Reformers had waged their battles over.

I spoke at a little Conference at Bunde after returning, and later preached a second time at a regular meeting. Pastor Voget and myself then started south for the Conferences in Switzerland. We had a very profitable time. We went south by way of Cologne, stopping at Bonn for a few hours, to visit friends.

From there we ran on to the old historic town of Worms, where we stopped over night. Next morning we looked around the city for two hours, before taking train for Basle. We saw the site of the old building where the Diet of Worms was held. This was very hard on the Pope’s stomach. In the Museum were many of the old relics of the Reformation. Parts of the old city walls were still standing.

We saw some of the old original letters of Luther and Melancthon, and a goodly collection of the original first Tracts that Luther had published against the Papacy. A large Monument stands in the public square, with the figure of Luther most prominent, among other Reformers. The Luther Denkmal is a magnificent work of art. Here this giant of the Reformation made his memorable stand against the great ones of earth, both civil and religious. “Hier stehe ich, ich kann nicht anders. Gott helfe mir. Amen!” (Here I stand, I can do no other. God help me. Amen!). This was one of the greatest stands for truth that mortal man has ever made. South of here we passed through Spires, where the Reformers were first called Protestants. At Basle we stopped an hour between trains, to visit the Pentecostal leader there.

We ran on and reached Zurich, Switzerland, in time for the night service. Here I had stopped in 1910, on my way around the world. I had a good look around the old parts of the city. Saw the house where Zwingli lived during the Reformation, and from whence he rode on his ill-fated adventure to the field of Cappell, where he was slain. “If any man shall kill with the sword, with the sword must he be killed. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.” - Rev. 13:10.

Brother Barrat from Norway was the chief speaker at this Conference. We had a very blessed time. My ministry here was mostly in prayer, and in individual work. We next went to St. Gallen, to another Conference. This was an important place during the Reformation. It contains a very old Cathedral and Convent, which I visited. I met Bro. Arthur Booth-Clibborn here, who had interpreted for me in Germany in 1910. We had a very profitable time in St. Gallen.

I started home alone, by way of the historical city of Constance, on Lake Constance. Here I stopped two hours. I saw the old Council Hall, where the Princes used to meet, and where John Huss was tried and condemned by the Pope’s agents to be burned. The old tower is still standing that Huss was imprisoned in. I visited the site where his ashes are buried, marked by an appropriate stone. Next I crossed the lake to Friedrichshaven, passed through Ulm, getting a sight of the tallest church steeple in the world, and reached Wurzburg, Bavaria, after dark. Here I had four hours to wait between trains, but it was too foggy from the river to see very much of the old town. There is a very interesting old Castle and Cathedral there. I started on for Eisenach in the night, reaching there about 7:30 a. m. Here I stopped four hours.

I saw the house of Conrad Cotta, outside of which Luther as a youthful student sang in the streets for his bread. Ursula Cotta took him in to live with them. They have a fine large monument to the memory of Luther in this town. But most important of all I climbed the mountain and visited the Wartburg Castle, which was plainly visible from the front of the railway station. It is about a half hour’s climb on foot from the town. I felt I was treading sacred soil as I climbed this mountain. The Wartburg is a grand old Castle. From its lofty height all the country round about is spread out in panorama. It has a wonderful point of vantage. The scene is magnificent, over the Thuringian forest.

This was truly an Isle of Patmos for heavenly visions. But Luther had awful conflicts with the devil also. This old castle witnessed some of Luther’s most violent struggles. His great heart came near breaking here. Here it was that the New Testament was given to the German nation, in the language of the people. I stood in the room where Luther translated it, from the original. The guide showed us the supposed spot where the ink bottle struck that Luther hurled at the devil when tormented by him. The devil was very real to Luther. Here was the very furniture that the man of God used in his strange captivity. The old bed he slept in was still there, with desk, stool, and other articles of furniture as he had left them. There was an original letter, in his own handwriting.

The Wartburg is certainly a rocky fastness. It is one of the best Castles in Germany from standpoint of preservation and location. It would not have been at all easy to obtain unfriendly access to it. “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott.” Truly! This inscription of Luther’s old Hymn is found on the old church at Eisenach. I was sorry to tear myself away from these sacred scenes. I took the train again, reaching Weener, home, at midnight. While I was gone a sister gave my wife $25.00.

We were now obliged to leave Germany for the north. Had been located in Germany just four months. It had not cost my family one cent for food all of this time. Father Voget had provided everything. He was a man of some means at that time. I appreciated greatly the unusual kindness of this man whom God had used to befriend us in the furtherance of the work of the Lord in Germany.

Chapter 5: DENMARK, SWEDEN, FINLAND, RUSSIA

We left Weener Oct. 30. The saints in Bunde gave us $12.00. It cost us just $37.50 from Weener to Orebro, Sweden. We first went to Lubeck, to take a boat from that place. Our trunks had to be sent as excess, as very little baggage is allowed with your tickets in Europe. We had hoped to sail that evening, but our trunks did not get through in time for the boat. So we stopped in a hotel over night. But in this way we had a good night’s rest. I had felt on the way to Lubeck that our trunks were not going to reach us in time, though I had taken special pains to give directions so that they might get through.

After I had had a look at the boat we were supposed to sail on I felt very doubtful whether that was the Lord’s choice for us. It was somewhat of a disappointment for us not to be able to get right on however. The trunks came later in the evening, after the boat had sailed, and I confess I was not sorry, although I was afraid we would have to remain in Lubeck several days waiting for another boat. But to our joy we found another boat, a good one, sailing the very next evening. Then we understood why the trunks were late. God had held them back for this. The boat we would have sailed on had they arrived in time was very dirty, and not really safe for women and children to sail on. The boat we took the next evening I found was the very one I had gone north on myself before. So we thanked God for thus frustrating our own plans and substituting His own in their place. How wonderfully the Lord orders when He has His way!

I also had time to look over the interesting old city of Lubeck before we sailed. The next evening we took the boat and had a beautiful smooth voyage. Reached Copenhagen early in the morning, where we made close connections, by boat again, for Malmo. Just had time to cross the city in a cab with our baggage before our boat sailed for Malmo, Sweden. In fact we only had ten minutes to spare before the sailing. I had half an hour to look around Malmo.

We left Malmo for Orebro at 3 p. m., arriving at Mjolby Junction a little after midnight. Here we had to wait until morning for the next train. We got cots in the station where they provided for night passengers, and laid down to rest until 4 a. m. We then took the train for Orebro, arriving there at 8 a. m., Sunday morning. Bro. Johnson and our landlady, Sister Lindgren, met us at the station. We were soon in our own rooms, in our own little home again. We caught a boy at the Station a little later, with a milk wagon, and hired him to haul our trunks to the house for 20 cents. And so the Lord wonderfully undertook for us all around. Praise His great name!

The Lord had shown me before we moved to Sweden a circle north, and back to Germany again. Then I had been clearly shown at Orebro that we were only to be in Sweden until April 1. That date was given me to move on to Finland. I saw three months in Finland and then back to Germany. All through this winter I could see our way clear as far as September. After that everything was blank. I could get nothing further from God. This was the winter of 1913. We had thought to go on to the Balkans after that, but I felt all the time that there was something ahead the Lord was withholding from me. He also impressed me with the seriousness of being entrusted by Him as an ambassador in foreign lands. I felt I must be faithful. Little did I realize then that He was going to give me a ministry intended to precede and prepare the saints of those countries for the greatest trial and calamity the world had ever experienced. But so it proved. The World War broke out August 1, of the next year, just after we had arrived back in Germany. In September we had started back for America, our work done in Europe (at least for that time). Then I understood the blank I had seen in the Spirit after September.

The first thing I did after our arrival in Orebro was to report the fact to the police. This was required of all new-comers in the country. A few days later I took part in a Conference in a Baptist Church in Orebro. Preached there three times during the conference. The weather was rainy and disagreeable. In fact it rained most of the time during November. The days were getting very short. I had a good time speaking to the students at the Bible School.

I left Orebro for Finland Nov. 18, a trip I had looked forward to for months. Had expected to visit Finland on my trip to the Orebro Conference in September, but when I found we were to move to Sweden I had decided to put it off until I had located my family in Orebro. I first went to Stockholm, where I was met by Pastor Bjork at the station, stopping at Brother Engzell’s over night. The next day Pastor Bjork went with me to the Russian Consul’s, where I got my passport visaed. I took supper with Pastor Lewi Petrus. Sailed on the boat that evening for Abo. We had a rough time. God kept me from sea-sickness, but it was a struggle. The boat bobbed up and down like a cork. I was cooped up in the bow of the boat, without ventilation. It was awfully hot. I had a big Russian in the cabin with me, from Petrograd. This was my first introduction to the Russians. He stunk something awful. It was impossible to sleep. Then the man above me began to vomit. I got through the night somehow, by the help of the Lord. Next morning I went on deck at daylight and the sight was beautiful. It was clear and cold. The fresh air seemed almost like a breeze from heaven after the hot, stinking night below. We were passing through the Channel with bright green pine covered islands on every side. We soon arrived at Abo.

After examining my passport it was returned to me and I was allowed to land. Brother Putula, a returned missionary (Finnish), from China, met me. He spoke English. He took me to Brother Gauffin’s. Edith Gauffin, the daughter, had learned English in England. She was to be my interpreter. I found Abo an interesting old city. It had been the ancient Capital of western Finland. The old Castle still stands, since 1100, A. D. There is a most interesting Museum in it. Two thousand Russian soldiers were stationed at Abo at that time. On the corners the streets were marked in three languages, Finnish, Russian and Swedish.

I found Finland a really beautiful country of lakes and forests. There were three and one half million population. The people were very hardy. They lived natural, bathed often, and married young. We had one of the largest halls in Abo for our Sunday meeting, but could only get it for one service. The rest of the time we had to pack into the little local Pentecostal hall. The people were packed like sardines in a box. It was fearfully hot from the animal heat. They would stand for three or four hours, for lack of sitting room, scarcely shifting their weight from one foot to the other, to listen to the full Gospel. I would come out of these meetings my clothing wet with perspiration and it was cold and very damp outside. The air in the meetings was vile. We had very little ventilation. I prayed for a great many sick people, and had two interpreters who took turns at the job when I preached. I wore them both out. They interpreted me into Finnish.

A number of sick were healed. Some were saved, and revived. In fact the Spirit wrought deeply with many. When I came to leave, the people begged me to come again. We could not get them to go home at nights until we left the building. They were so hungry for the Gospel they would have stayed with us until morning. Finland was largely controlled by the Lutheran Church, and it was as dead as a door nail. Abo was the Bishop’s seat. Our day meetings sometimes lasted for four hours. They gave me 100 Finn Marks when I left ($20.00). This was a very good offering for such a little company, of very poor people.

I next went to Tammerfors. This is called the Manchester of Finland. Here we had our night meetings in a theatre. A Finnish brother who knew English interpreted for me. The meetings were well attended and we had good interest. God greatly helped me in the messages. Brother Winai was a ready interpreter and a good fellow. We held our day meetings in the little Pentecostal hall. A number were healed. Several were saved and baptized with the Spirit. The saints were greatly quickened and encouraged. I had rather a lonesome time here. Nearly every one spoke Finnish. They did not understand even Swedish. They gave me fifty Finn Marks ($10.00).

From here I went to Helsingfors, the present Capital of Finland. It is a very large city. The leader, Brother Gerhardt Smidt, met me at the station with a band of fifty Pentecostal saints. They were singing, “The power, the power, the Pentecostal power,” in Swedish, as the train rolled into the station. I joined in in English and they recognized their man. I had never met Brother Smidt before. Helsingfors had a population of 150,000. There were many thousands of Russian soldiers stationed here also and a strong Russian Navy. The Finns at that time were not allowed to join the Army or Navy. Russia would not trust them.

I was entertained at the home of one of the saints who knew German; and having learned a little German by this time I could make myself understood. At Tammerfors they had spoken only Finnish. To my tired nerves, not being able to understand a word, it sounded like a wagon jolting over stones. I was treated very kindly in Helsingfors. We held our meet meetings in five of the largest public halls in the city, rented for that purpose, for the occasion. Two of our meetings were held in the Society Hall, where all the swell functions were wont to be held. The place was crowded to the doors with people. Even the aisles were full. They would stand in the aisles for two hours, scarcely shifting their weight from one foot to the other. In Finland they do not have seats in the State Church nor in the Greek Catholic. The people stand during the services. They are not accustomed to a comfortable religion.

I was interpreted first into Swedish, then Finnish. Had to have two interpreters. The leader, Brother Smidt, had been some years in America and had learned English. He was a Norwegian, but could speak Swedish. There are many Swedes in Finland. In one of the meetings in Helsingfors I noticed a Russian high officer come in and take his seat in the rear, in company with a younger man, who immediately produced a pencil and tablet and began to take notes of what I was saying. Just for a moment my blood seemed to stop circulating. I am not naturally a fighter. I went cold all over. I recognized that my words were being watched. If they could have “caught me in my words” they would have thrown me into prison. - (Luke 11:54).

It was against the Russian law to speak against the Greek Church or the Government. But God spoke to me and told me it was unnecessary for me to go further, to St. Petersburg itself, under the very nose of the Czar, and where the law (in old Russia) was much more stringent than in Finland, if I was going to get scared here. I was then on my way to St. Petersburg. It was a severe test for a moment, but, the Lord gave victory, and also wisdom, and I went on with my message without fear. It proved a good experience for me in courage.

Our day meetings were held in Helsingfors in the local Pentecostal hall. They usually lasted about four hours. We prayed for hundreds. Many were healed, saved, and filled with the Spirit. The people were so hungry. There were many Russians in our meetings who could understand no other language. They usually sat by themselves and had their own interpreter with them, who interpreted quietly to them. They appreciated the messages hugely. I was generally wet with perspiration and completely exhausted when I got out of the day meetings. But it was wonderful work. The people were so receptive. We had snow on the ground at this time. Here in Helsingfors I saw Finnish women carrying the hod on new buildings being erected.

Brother Smidt had been very sick from overwork. There was such a scarcity of workers. He had heart trouble and had been waking up every morning with his mouth full of blood. One day while with him in my room the Spirit of God came suddenly upon me. I went and laid my hands on him under a mighty anointing. He cried out under the power and was healed instantly. The saints gave me a fine overcoat, costing $25.00, besides a gift of $40.00 in money.

We stopped next at Lahti, for two days. Had good meetings. A number were helped and blessed. It was a small place. Our next stop was at Wiborg on the border of old Russia. This had been the ancient Capital of eastern Finland. There was an ancient Castle and an old Museum there. Wiborg had seen many battles. The old Castle bore the marks of stormy times. We held our night meetings in the basement of the High School building. The day meetings were held in the little Pentecostal hall. These were very precious. Some were healed, a number saved and some baptized with the Spirit. God was with us in much power. I was translated first into Swedish, then Finnish. Many were under the power during these meetings. The people were very hungry for God and He did not disappoint them. The life of the poor people in Finland was a very hard one. Consequently their great hunger for God. He was their only consolation. They gave me forty Finn Marks ($8.00).

Brother Smidt had come on from Helsingfors to Wiborg and we now went on to St. Petersburg together. We left the train at the Finnish station. Here we were met by friends and conducted to a hotel. We were required to surrender our passports at once, which were taken to police headquarters and kept until we made application for them to return home again. This was Russia. Once in, you were fast until they were pleased to release you. We were at their mercy. And worst of all we had gone there deliberately to break their laws, for there was a law at that time in old Russia that no foreigner was allowed to preach the Gospel in the country.

We were questioned closely as to what our business was in the city. But we simply stated that we were there to see the city (which was a part of the truth, and all we naturally dared to divulge to them). We were obliged to be very guarded in our movements. If we were caught preaching it meant a Russian prison. We passed the political prison on the way to our hotel. It was a mean looking place, called St. Peter’s and St Paul’s. I imagine it was almost as bad as some that they had been incarcerated in in their time. A Russian prison is a foul affair. We had a hard battle at first in the meetings. But toward the last we broke through. There was much fear of the authorities on the people. And the power of the Greek Church was mighty.

We had to fear both the authorities and the Greek Church. In fact the Holy Synod practically made the laws and constituted the authority in Russia. I was first translated into Swedish, and then into Estlandish. Most of those who attended the services were Estlanders. We prayed for many. Some were healed and saved, and the saints were generally built up and encouraged. The police did not find us. Even their own subjects were not allowed by law to preach the Gospel to any other congregation but their own. This cut out evangelism altogether. We were in St. Petersburg four days and held five meetings. It was impossible to remain longer without being discovered and imprisoned. This would have also closed the Mission. So it seemed the part of wisdom not to stay too long.

I had a call to Narva and Reval also, but felt I could not leave the family alone in Sweden longer at that time. They were in a strange land, with no knowledge of the language. We looked around St. Petersburg quite a little in the daytime while there, as we could not hold meetings without being discovered. The houses are built in courts, with an iron gate in the front. There are generally a number of establishments in the enclosed square of various kinds. I visited the Czar’s Winter Palace and a number of other Palaces. Went through the Czar’s wonderful Picture Gallery. The large Jewish Bazaar was also very interesting. I visited a number of fine Greek Cathedrals. Bought a Russian fur cap for eleven roubles.

The saints though poor, were very kind to us. They paid our hotel bill, bought our tickets to Helsingfors and gave us $12.00 apiece besides. We got our Passports back all right, and after a night’s run on the train were safe back in Helsingfors. The Lord had gotten us in and out of old Russia safely, right under the Czar’s nose. We had preached the Gospel in defiance of the laws of Holy Russia and of the Greek hierarchy. To God be all the glory!

I spent two days in Helsingfors, where we held two more meetings. We had a good attendance in large halls, rented for the occasion. The saints gave me 100 Finn Marks more. That made $60.00 in all, from Helsingfors, besides my new $25.00 overcoat. Praise the Lord! They saw me off at the depot with a strong representation, singing Pentecostal songs. We waked the old depot Up for God. I went direct to Abo and sailed for Stockholm. My passport had to be shown to get out of Finland also. One could neither get in nor out of Russian territory without a passport. Finland was then still under the iron heel of Russia.

I reached Stockholm safely. Looked around the city for two hours, and then took the train for Orebro. Arriving home safely in the Evening, the children met me at the depot. I had been gone five weeks.

The last year we had had an English Christmas. This year we had a Swedish one. I spent my forty-second birthday in St. Petersburg. The sun rose at 9 A. M. and set at 3 P. M. at this time in Sweden. I received a letter from Libby, Montana, with a five dollar bill in it. There was not a scratch of a pen to tell who it came from. Nothing but the bill in the letter. But God brought it through safely. He will reward the giver. That was true Scriptural giving. Received $12.00 from an old colored lady in New England, sixty-five years old. She had saved twenty-five cents a week from the money she got from selling eggs from her chickens. The money she sent me was her year’s tithing from this income. What a reward such givers will receive from God! The “widow’s mite.” The thermometer stood at 18 degrees below zero at 10 A. M., Jan. 8.

I received a call to attend a Conference at Bremen, Germany, and left Orebro, Jan. 12. Stopped at Gothenberg over night. From there I ran on to Copenhagen, and took the train for Korsor. Went from there by boat to Kiel, and on to Bremen by train. Spent a few hours in Hamburg on the way. I had a good look around Bremen before night. The next two days we had our Conference. Had a blessed time. I preached four or five times. Pastor Voget came from Bunde, Ostfriesland. The first day of the Conference a local brother asked me when we were coming to Bremen to live. I thought it strange for I had said nothing there about returning to Germany though I had been impressed that we would return in July.

The second day a brother and his wife told me they were expecting us to return to Bremen and live in their house with them. I had not said a word to them about coming back to Germany. Now I was satisfied of God’s will in the matter of our returning. The Lord was speaking. “At the mouth of two or three witnesses.” They gave me $30.00 at the Conference.

Pastor Voget and myself went to Hamburg and stopped over night. The next day we ran on to Elmshorn, where the second Conference was held. We had three meetings. I preached at two of them. We had a good time. They gave me $12.00. I went from there to Kiel, taking the boat for Korsor. From there I went by train to Copenhagen, and on to Gothenberg. Here we held some special meetings in the Pentecostal Mission. I preached every night and twice Sunday, for about a week. Bro. Malmcrona was the Pastor. We had a very profitable time. A Major from the Salvation Army interpreted for me. They gave me $15.00. I reached Orebro again safely and found the family well. Received $50.00 from Highway Mission, Philadelphia, Pa., U. S. A.

I preached at two different Baptist churches in Orebro, for Pastor Sathers and Pastor Ongman. God wonderfully helped me. A Sister gave us fifty Kroner ($13.00).

My next trip was to Stockholm, for a series of meetings. Reached there Feb. 9. I preached every night, in the “Philadelphia” Assembly. Pastor Lewi Petrus was in charge. It was a large Pentecostal Church. We had a full attendance and God greatly blessed us. Every day at noon we held a prayer meeting. One day it was at “Philadelphia” Assembly, the next, day at “Elim” Church. The latter was a Baptist Church, where Pastor Bjork was in charge. He had received the Pentecostal baptism. This Church had a membership of 1200.

The Spirit ran very deep in these meetings. Sunday we had a wonderful day. The Church was crowded at “Philadelphia.” It held 600 people. In the after-meetings frequently as many as 200 remained to seek the Lord. Many were healed, saved, and baptized with the Spirit. One night we could not close the meeting until 12:30 A. M. The second week the meetings were powerful. They were divided between the two Churches. The last night at “Elim” the meeting was wonderful. I had for my interpreter the same Salvation Army Major that I had had on my previous visit to Stockholm, Major Sjodin. The Spirit caught me up and for an hour I was like an electric wire, charged with the very dynamite of heaven. My interpreter was fine. God broke things all to pieces. We had a wonderful after-meeting. My interpreter was considered the best in Sweden. Arrangements were made for me to stop for two days when we should pass through for Finland, April 1. They gave me $40.00.

It was an exciting time while I was in Stockholm. Delegations were coming up from all over Sweden on behalf of Nationalism. War with Russia was feared. The Socialists were also marching the streets, many thousands strong, in protest against Nationalism. The King dismissed the Socialist minister, and appointed a Nationalist in his stead. There was a move on to increase the army. In fact patriotism ran high.

God gave me several strong messages against the war spirit. Even the saints were in grave danger of being carried away with the wave of world patriotism and strife. I tried to dodge the issue, but the Lord kept the message on me, much against my own desire and will. I did not understand then what was brewing in Europe. But God knew the Great War that was soon to break out in fiendish violence. He wanted His people prepared, and kept free from the spirit of it. By keeping the war spirit down we were enabled to keep the blessing and anointing of God on the saints.

I understood it all later on. I was evidently there for that purpose.

We must be true to the God-given message, and “obey God rather than men.” When the Lord sent me north He knew just what was coming. Many times I was tempted to think I must have missed the mark, as I was continually warning the people of great trial and tribulation that was to come upon them, though I did not know what. My whole ministry north seemed to be largely with that end in view. That is doubtless why the Lord gave me such a solemn feeling about my commission in this connection, when He first showed me the circle I was to take, before we had moved to Sweden. I remember prophesying of a great war when we passed through Amsterdam on the way to the Continent, from England. I pictured the whole thing out, telling them just what part little Holland would be destined to play in it. She was to stand between the wild beast forces, the nations, a haven of refuge. At that time I was tempted over this message also, and wondered what made me give it. I was afraid they would lose faith in me altogether. But when we came through enroute for home, after the World War had started, all that I had prophesied had come true.

One young man came into our noon meeting in Stockholm, heard one of my messages against Christians going to war, was convicted it was wrong to fight, and forthwith determined he would not even train for a soldier any longer. He wrote the king his convictions. He was imprisoned, but finally set free. Military training was compulsory. He was an earnest, Christian young man.

I returned to Orebro again, to my family. Preached twice for Pastor Sathers, at the Baptist Church. We were now ready to move to Finland. We left Orebro April 1, for Stockholm, where we stopped two days. I preached both nights, at “Philadelphia” Assembly, to large crowds. Major Sjodin interpreted for me again. God wonderfully helped and blessed. The next night we left on the boat for Abo, Finland, where we were to locate. We had a quiet voyage, landing safely in the morning.

Brother Gauffin, whom I had stopped with before, was a man of some means. He had a little two-roomed cottage furnished ready for us. And so we had our own little home again, in Finland, Fabriksgatan, 1, Abo.

I preached about fourteen times in all in the little Pentecostal hall at Abo, before starting out to travel again. We had some blessed meetings. The people were very hungry. They also came to the house during the day to be prayed for and instructed. The attendance was very good throughout. There was much interest. At times the hall was packed almost to suffocation. So many wanted hands laid on them for healing that many times I left the meeting wet through with perspiration, and completely exhausted. A number were healed, some saved, and some filled with the Spirit. The ventilation was very poor in the meetings. Finland is a land surrounded by water, and full of lakes. The beds are always damp when one crawls into then. I contracted much rheumatism and congestion from this. Suffered much from lumbago. Some of the time I had two Finnish interpreters. They would take turns. I wore them both out. A sister gave my wife $5.00. This work was very heavy, and very much needed in Abo. We were so glad to be on the real mission field. After this series of meetings the Assembly gave us 200 Finn Marks ($40.00). It was a great surprise. The people were very poor.

I next went to Helsingfors and Kuopio for meetings. Preached twice at Helsingfors, over Sunday, with much help from God. I laid hands on and prayed for about forty people. Went from here to Kuopio, in the far north. This point was only 200 miles south of the north Arctic circle. It was May 1, but the ice was still on the lakes. I stopped in the home of Pastor Pekka Brofeldt. Here they treated me very kindly. I had five meetings, besides Bible readings every day. The people listened to the messages very intently. Every day they were coming to be prayed for and instructed, and I had little time for rest except when in bed at night. I was suffering much from rheumatism myself, but laid hands on and prayed for about twenty-five people. In nearly every case they realized more or less immediate relief. The people were very hungry for the Gospel. It was a rare treat for them. They were a very simple, humble people. Many were greatly quickened by the Spirit. They gave me 100 Finn Marks ($20.00), besides my expenses. I returned to Abo again.

I spoke twice in the mission at Abo, and prayed for a number of sick. Several were healed. I then started again for Helsingfors. Left Abo May 13, and was gone for three weeks. I had five meetings in Helsingfors. The hall was packed. We had blessed results. But suddenly our Finnish interpreter who was to go with us to Wiborg, decided to go to Abo and visit his parents instead. He was homesick. I went to prayer. So determined was he to go to Abo at once that he had taken his grip to the station and checked it, on his ticket which he had already bought, thinking thus to make sure of going. He did not want to go with us. But while I was praying for victory, in another part of the city, God spoke to him and told him he must go with us. This was just a little before train time. The devil had tried to sidetrack our interpreter.

I had expected to return to my family in Abo again before going to St. Petersburg the second time, but God had arranged with Brother Smidt and myself to go at once. This required a battle on my part. I had to consecrate my little family anew. I might be thrown into prison in St. Petersburg. Then what of my family? They had no separate passport to get out of the country. But I got the victory over this also, and so we went to Wiborg. Wiborg was on the border of old Russia. We had been there before. Here we held two meetings in what was known as the “Devil’s Church.” It was in fact the Liquor Dealers’ Hall. But God blessed many souls there. We held one or two services in the little local Pentecostal mission also. At one of these the Russian people requested a service, and I spoke through three interpreters. I was first interpreted into Swedish, then Finnish, and finally Russian. The poor Russians waited patiently for the “water of life” to reach them, and I had the assurance that the message went through very nearly 100 per cent pure. We soldered the joints of the pipe together with prayer, while they glued their mouths to the Russian end of it. We were in Wiborg four days. I received $25.00 in Helsingfors, and $10.00 in Wiborg.

We then went on to St. Petersburg. Stopped in a hotel and sent in our passports to police headquarters, which was required of all new comers. We had to hide our real object again in visiting the city, as we had done on our former visit. They always ask that question of you. We reached St. Petersburg, May 23, 1914. Held eight meetings in all. Were there six days. God again got us in and out safely, which was a great victory under the circumstances. I have stated before that it was at that time against the law for any foreigner to come into old Russia and preach the Gospel. In Finland the Russian law was not quite so stringent.

We were going, knowingly, right into the lion’s jaws. But God was sending us. We felt as safe as Daniel. The little Pentecostal hall was crowded with people. We were in the same Mission we had been in before. But this time much of our congregation were Russians. This made our work doubly dangerous. Some were still members of the Greek Church. The Greek Orthodox Church practically made all the laws of “Holy Russia” at that time, through the “Holy Synod.” Everything was “holy” in Russia.

But God protected us and kept us hid from the knowledge of the Czar’s agents, the police. I was translated into Russian this time. Many souls were blessed. Some were saved, and healed. The people fairly thronged us for prayer. When we gave the invitation at the end of the service practically the whole congregation passed to the front and knelt. We had to push them back, instead of seeking to drag them forward as in America. We hardly had room to move around among them.

Admission to the meetings was by ticket only. The leaders arranged this plan. They were afraid of spies. They had a brother stationed at the outer gate to the court, and another outside the inner door. The meetings sometimes lasted four hours. The people came in two or three at a time, so as to avoid suspicion, and went out the same way after the meeting. The doors were fast, the windows all closed tight, with curtains drawn, to avoid possibility of discovery by the police. Our meetings were held only a few blocks from the Czar’s Winter Palace, and almost within the shadow of the “Holy Synod” buildings, where the Greek church made all its intolerant, religious laws. One night they hurried us out of the back door into the alley. The iron gate at the street had suddenly been locked by the police, and the brethren thought they were after Brother Smidt and myself. But it turned out they were after some one in the hotel in the front. There were many buildings in the square court in which our mission room was located. The walls themselves were about four feet thick.

We had one remarkable case of real miracle working power in the meetings. A woman, a member of the Greek Church, had been brought by relatives to us to be delivered. She had been demon possessed for seven sears. She herself wanted to be delivered. For some time she had been so prostrated by this evil power that she was bedridden. We challenged the demon, and commanded him to come out in the name of Jesus. But he withstood us, and we had a battle royal. It lasted nearly half an hour. The demon finally yielded ground and left her. She was almost torn to pieces inwardly under the agony of the struggle. But in obedience to our instruction she finally uttered a prayer we gave her, pleading the blood and the name of Jesus, and after a violent retching and spuming at the mouth her face lighted up. Victory had come. She was at peace. Salvation came to her soul as the demon left her body. She was so happy she could not find words to express it. I heard from her a month later, before we left Finland; and she still had the victory. She was saved, healed and happy.

While we were in the city they were holding special service at a Greek Cathedral just across the street from us in honor of their patron saint. If they had known where we were and what we were doing they would have arrested us. But God kept us hid. I looked around town considerable, visited the Czar’s Museum, Peter and Paul’s prison (the political prison), and the new Mohammedan Mosque. This last was one of the most beautiful buildings in St. Petersburg. It was adorned with mosaic and built to hold thousands of worshipers. The Moslems in St. Petersburg were chiefly Tartars. They had tolerance for their Moslem subjects, but none for the Evangelical Gospel.

I visited also a number of Greek Cathedrals. Attended a service where the Czar was in the habit of worshiping, in the Kazan. They had a male choir of wonderful singers here. I also visited a beautiful Cathedral built over the site where one of the Czars was assassinated with a bomb. Saw the Douma, and many other interesting buildings. We were driven across the city at one time by a coachman who was so drunk that he forgot where to take us and drove up at the wrong destination. The moment he stopped he was so sound asleep that we could not even wake him to find out where we were. So we left him asleep there. The wind blowing in his face while the cab was in motion evidently had kept him awake. How we ever managed to cross the crowded streets without all being killed was a miracle. My passport expired May 26, while in St. Petersburg, and I went to the American Consul to have it renewed just before leaving the city. It put me in a delicate position, but God helped me through with it. We returned to Helsingfors, where we held four more meetings. They gave me $20.00.

I reached home again safely, at Abo. Preached four times more in the little mission at Abo. They gave me 50 Finn Marks ($12.00). I prayed for a number of sick people, but was about sick myself. The Lord blessed the needy ones. Their faith was rewarded. I was having a great fight in my body with catarrh, neuralgia of the stomach, and rheumatism. The latitude was about the same here as in the Klondike, Iceland or Central Siberia. Finland is also a country of lakes. The air is very damp there.

I left Abo for Lahti with the family, June 17, 1914, for a two weeks’ Bible conference. Preached ten times during the session there. There were leaders there from all over Finland, Russia and Sweden. We had about 400 delegates in all. Many of these dear people slept on the bare floor, with only a blanket. Meals were on the free-will offering plan. All expenses were met in this way, and there was some to spare. The people gave very liberally from their poverty. God honored the stand of faith. It was Scriptural order.

The Lord now made it clear to us that His time had come for us to leave Finland. We had been there three months. That was the time He had shown me before we left Sweden. We were to return to Bremen, Germany, July 1. All things worked out exactly according to God’s plan. They gave us $50.00 at the Conference. A delegation of about 150 saints saw us off at the train for Helsingfors. We left just before the conference closed.

We were at Lahti the longest day of the year, June 21. The weather is very hot in the short summer in Finland. The sun set at 9:30 p. m. and rose at 2:30 a. m. It did not get dark at all. I found it difficult to sleep. We could read all night without a light, though we were not far enough north to see the sun at midnight. We had had a wonderful time at Lahti. I was sorry to leave the dear, simple Finnish people but I was full of rheumatism and congestion and needed a change from the cold, damp north very much. We would now be going toward the sun, and my whole system cried out for the warmth of its rays.

We stopped at Helsingfors over one night and the next day took the train for Hango, Finland, where we embarked on the boat “Nordstjernan,” for Lubeck, Germany. The harbor of Hango was blown up one month after by the Russians, after war had been declared, through fear of the Germans landing there. After a beautiful, smooth voyage, almost the length of the Baltic, with two nights and a day’s travel, we landed at Lubeck July 3, 1914. Went on to Bremen the same evening. The Pentecostal saints there had prepared a home for us.

Chapter 6: WAR DECLARED - EARLY DAYS OF WAR

I spoke several times in the little Pentecostal mission in Bremen. They had a Conference there July 17. Pastor Voget from Bunde, Pastor Paul from Berlin, and Pastor Weiss from Hamburg were there. I spoke six times during the three days of Conference. The Lord helped me greatly. I had the spirit of prophecy on me in one of the messages surely. I remember telling them that the Germans were the iron that was left out of the old Roman Empire, but that they would have to be broken and put through the fire before God could use them as He wanted to. They were too strong in themselves. Little did I realize that in two short weeks that very thing would come to pass and that they would be plunged into the terrible World War, with practically the whole world against them. But it so proved. They gave me $10.00 at the Conference. I received a letter from Brother Polhill of London. He sent me five pounds ($25.00).

I spoke four times more at the little mission at Bremen. Was just beginning to preach without an interpreter. The last week in July war began to threaten Europe. Saturday, August 1, it was finally declared. I had an appointment to go to Bunde on that date, near the Holland border, where Pastor Voget was located, to attend a one day Conference. I started early on the morning of August 1, not realizing what the situation really was or what war meant. Everything seemed so orderly in Bremen. I saw no excitement. But before I got to Bunde I began to realize.

It took me seven hours to make the journey that ordinarily should not require more than two or three hours. When we reached Leer Junction we had to change cars. Here we had to wait a long time. All was excitement. The platform was patrolled by police, looking for spies. They were catching them and giving them short shrift. I began to feel a little concerned. Finally a policeman approached me and opened conversation. But the Lord had it all arranged. He had been in Bunde the year before and had seen me there with Pastor Voget. So he recognized me. Finally our train pulled out for Bunde. Troop trains were running every few minutes for the front. All the doors and windows were fastened and guarded on our train to keep bombs from being thrown from within to blow up the bridges and stop the troop trains.

The air was by this time full of excitement. I remember the first words I uttered upon reaching Leer Junction and seeing the people excitedly waiting for their train to the Holland border were: “The whole of Europe has gone crazy.” And so it proved. The people were frantic to get out of Germany, over the Holland border.

We finally reached little Bunde only three miles from Holland. This was as far as the trains were running. Connection had been broken with Holland, although Holland was not in the war. But she must remain neutral. The border was naturally closed. Germany was shut in from all sides. I quickly discovered that I could not hope to return to my family for some time. All trains going the other way were reserved for the troops. I was up against it.

August 4, England declared war. Now they looked for the French and British navy to break in on them from the North Sea. This would have brought the contending armies into conflict right between my family and myself. Bunde lies only a few miles from the North Sea. I would be driven south, my family toward Russia. It was an anxious time for me. Now I began to realize what war meant. All the young men were leaving Bunde, from the neighborhood around Ostfriesland. They were the first troops to be sent to the French border. Those were harrowing times. All work was at a standstill. The harvest was left standing in the fields. No one had any heart to work. For a week or more, until the troops were moved, no work was done. The whole village lived at the railway station, watching the trains pull out that carried their loved ones to death and destruction. Pastor Voget and myself held meetings alone in the little Pentecostal hall as a regular Conference was out of the question. We preached to the men, who came to the meetings for the last time. Many came who would not come before. They were about to face death and their hearts were sober. I am satisfied more than one found Christ just in time. In a few days some of them were in eternity.

Some of the men, away from home when the call to arms came, had only time to report at the military headquarters, and were sent to the front and killed without ever getting home or seeing their loved ones again. How necessary to be prepared to meet God in such cases! In Europe every man knew just what he was expected to do in case of war. He knew just what class he belonged to, where to report and when. They were kept ready for war. How few are really ready for the service of Christ. I lay awake nights the first few days of the war, listening to the horses hoofs over the rough cobble stone paving in the streets as they brought them from the country to the trains to be shipped to the front also. Every horse was registered and accounted for, in readiness for war, in Europe. Every freight car was marked just how many horses and how many men it would hold. The whole creation (every creature) was subjected unto vanity and must suffer for man’s sin. No wonder the whole creation groans to be relieved from this burden. - Rom. 8.

But I had a wonderful experience also at this time. I had to have assurance from God for the safety of my family in Bremen. God spoke to me one night as I lay awake. He laid His hand on my heart and assured me that just as surely as He was the sovereign author of the Pentecostal outpouring in Los Angeles in 1906, as a result of which I was in Europe at this time, just so surely He had sovereign control of this war situation and that nothing could happen without His express permission. I went to sleep then. I knew I could trust Him. I had no more anxiety.

In a few days I was allowed to return to Bremen to my family. I got through without being questioned and reported to the police at once. This was required in order that they might keep track of us. We were required to report frequently. The journey homeward was a slow one. There were many delays and the trains which still carried some soldiers, went carefully over the bridges.

I got a wonderful lesson in “all things in common” on this trip. The whole nation was in distress. They came together as one man. At every station the country people along the way tried to outdo each other in kindness to the soldiers. They brought pails of milk, sandwiches of every description, boiled eggs, in fact everything edible to feed the soldiers, until they could eat no more. And there was not a cent to pay for anything. They would have been insulted if offered pay. It was a wonderful demonstration. I wept as I looked upon it. I could have had all I wanted to eat and drink free, but I had not the heart to partake of it. For what had I done to merit it? I felt unworthy. I was making no sacrifice. But I came to the firm conclusion that a nation like that cannot be destroyed.

The Kaiser had a medal struck during the early days of the war. On one side it read: “Ich kenne keine partein mehr; ich kenne nur Deutsche.” (I know no party more; I know only Germans.) On the other side it read: “Der Kaiser rief, und alle, alle kamen.” (The King called, and they all came.) Would to God that the servants of Christ had as much sense and that they would respond as readily when He calls.

I told my wife after the war began that we naturally need not expect much help now from the saints in the mission. They would have hard enough job to feed themselves. Business was ruined. Heads of house had to go to war. One precious brother was sent to the front, leaving his wife and three small weeping children. But the last thing he did before going was to pay another month’s rent for us, largely out of his own pocket. He was the leader of the mission. We prayed earnestly for this brother all through the war, and although he was at the front practically during the whole war, he came through without being wounded once. I do not think he took part in the active fighting. I felt very sorry to see him in the war at all.

The national conscience in Europe is much stronger than in America. They have not had as much light in these matters. It meant death for them to refuse to go. The poor saints were if any thing more liberal toward us after the war broke out than before. They seemed willing to share the last loaf with us. I could not help contrasting their supreme sacrifice and unselfishness with the greed of some other professors I have known in other countries.

There were strange sights in the sky one night in Bremen during August. Strange curling clouds, more like pillars of smoke, seemed to roll together in grotesque forms. They looked more like ghastly chariots, or aeroplanes. Even the guards on duty mistook them for enemy aeroplanes, and began to shoot at them. In fact they kept up a desultory shooting at these strange objects all over the city, the greater part of the night. There was much excitement. I learned later that the same strange objects had appeared over some parts of Holland, though at a little later date. We had just come out of the little Pentecostal mission and found the people shooting into the sky and a great crowd collected. It began at 10 p.m.

Money had been coming in in an unusual way for some time previous to the beginning of the war. I had remarked at the fact to my wife and thought perhaps the Lord was preparing us for our proposed trip to the Balkans. We had left Finland with $300.00. This was more money than I had ever had at any one time before in my life. Six months before this we had really gotten down to a very few dollars. It became evident soon that He had prepared us instead to return to America. The Balkans were now in flames. None but a madman would have attempted to go there after war began, if indeed he were able to reach there.

The American Ambassador at Bremen had wanted all American citizens to be prepared to leave Europe. We did not want to leave Europe, especially to return to America. A wonderful field of service had been opened up to us. We wished to remain. But God’s will must be done. I spent much time in earnest prayer for the will of God and determined I would not move until I knew He wished us to, even if it shut us up in the war zone. The Ambassador naturally would not tell me what attitude he expected America to take in the matter. But I suspicioned even at that early day, that he expected that the United States would come in ultimately, against Germany. We were treated fine by the Germans. We could not have been treated with greater consideration by the authorities and were perfectly safe among them.

I spoke possibly a dozen times more in the little mission, while waiting for the Lord to make clear His will for us. We were all very loth to leave. But by September 1, we began to feel that our time was short in Germany. My work appeared to be drawing to a close in Bremen. The Lord was preparing to shift us again. This I felt in my spirit. We were not sure about leaving Europe altogether yet.

September 9 was my last time at the little mission in Bremen. The next day we said good-bye and went to Weener, where we had stopped with Pastor Voget’s father when we first moved to Germany. My next plan was to go to Amsterdam and see if we could get a boat to America. If so I would take it that God wanted us to return there. It was a question whether passage could be gotten. Thousands were trying to get out of Europe to America. But if God wanted us there He would open the way. The American Consul had been urging us to get out of Germany. In fact he declared he could not promise us protection if we remained. So I stayed as long as I safely could with my little family. I had no right to unnecessarily risk their safety. We trusted God to keep us in His will.

And now I began to understand fully why all had been a blank to me in the Spirit after September, in God’s previous dealing with me. I had felt there was something He was keeping from me. It was the War, and our return to America. Pastor Voget and I went across the Holland border to Nieuwe Schans. We both carried military passes. We had to pass both the German and Holland guards to get across. I went on from there to Amsterdam to see about a boat. Was not able to make any arrangements as I found the boats from Rotterdam were all crowded for the next six weeks to come. But the Lord did show me clearly that I was to bring my family to Amsterdam. So much was plain. I preached twice Sunday at the Pentecostal Hall at Amsterdam with much blessing.

I returned to Weener, across the Holland border again to my family. But I had a remarkable experience on this trip home. I felt a strong impression Monday morning that I must hurry to Cook’s office to see about my train back to the Holland border. So I hurried Brother Polman off with me enroute for the depot. He stopped in a store near Cook’s office while I went in. I found a train was leaving in just eight minutes, which was the last one I could get home on that night. Brother Polman was not in sight. We were four blocks from the depot.

I prayed and soon saw him coming leisurely down the street. Calling to him I hurried him to the street car and I just reached the railway station platform in time to jump on my train, which was already moving out of the depot. It took quick work. I had not a moment to spare. I did not like the idea of rushing so, but I understood later why I had to take that train. I could not have crossed the border that night from any other one. All trains had stopped running over the border after war was declared, and we had to cross afoot or with carriage, a distance of six miles from Nieuwe Schans to Bunde.

When we reached Nieuwe Schans, Holland, it was dark with a storm blowing, very dark and wild and rainy. I had to cross the border and two sets of guards. It was not a pleasant prospect. I did not know how I would get home. There were no carriages crossing the border except private ones. Public conveyances only went as far as the border. As I came out from the depot I saw a closed carriage standing by the curb. I felt that was the cab for me to take.

But upon asking the driver if he could take me as far as the border, he replied, no. The carriage was a private one. So I went to another, rougher looking, that was going to the border and tried to climb into it. Some unseen power seemed to pull me back. I did not feel right about it. I went back to the first carriage again, though there was plenty of room in the one I had just left.

Again I asked to be admitted to the carriage, but was again refused with the same explanation. It was a private carriage. I returned and tried again to climb into the other carriage, but again I felt a strong influence pulling me backward. Thoroughly convinced that God wanted me in the first carriage I approached it for the third time. I knew nothing of the purpose of the driver, but had supposed it was going to the border only, like the others. When I reached it this time two women were seated in it and a third one, whom I saw was in charge of the carriage, was standing by it holding the door open. She was a perfect stranger to me, but as I approached she politely asked me to get in, just as though I had been expected, and without a word of inquiry. I wondered much at this but climbed in without asking any questions. I felt God was leading. It seemed more like a dream. I had no idea where the carriage was going to. The lady climbed in beside me and closed the door.

Still wondering how I would get home from the border, or if my carriage were indeed going to the border, we rode on. We finally reached the Holland guard and there I discovered that my military pass was no good going the other way. It was good for one way only, from Germany. I had not thought of that. I was obliged to have a pass from the Holland authorities in order to cross into Germany. Here I was up against it. We had not yet reached the border. There was a “no man’s land” between the German and the Holland guards. What should I do? I prayed and the soldier on duty expostulated. Finally he told me that he knew his business and that I would have to get out and see the Commandant. Still I sat tight, hardly knowing why, except that I felt I must stay with the carriage.

The lady finally spoke a few words to him quietly. I did not hear what she said, but to my great relief he closed the door and we drove on. We reached the German guards, passed without difficulty, a conversation was taken up between the inmates of the carriage and then for the first time I learned where the carriage was going to. The lady with the carriage lived in Weener, where my family were, and the two women whom she had met at the station in Holland were refugees, escaped from England. They were a German and an Austrian. She was conveying them into Germany and evidently knew her business well. She doubtless had seen me in Weener and recognized me at the depot. Otherwise she surely would not have trusted me in the carriage. But I did not know her.

In a short while the carriage drew up right in front of our door in Weener and I was at home again with my family. It was wonderful. It had not cost me a cent for the carriage and the whole thing seemed so mysterious I could hardly realize it could be true. Let others explain as they will my feeling of haste to get that particular train from Amsterdam and my inability from the resistance of an unseen power at the station to take the other carriage, but I shall always believe that God had the whole thing ordered just so.

September 16, I removed the family to Amsterdam; saying good-bye to Germany for the last time. We had no trouble getting over the border as I carried a military passport which I had secured in Bremen. Pastor Voget went with us as far as the Holland station at Nieuwe Schans. We reached Amsterdam safely and stopped in the Pentecostal Home with Brother and Sister Polman at 342 Kerk Straat.

I preached here at the mission with much help from God. Brother Polman wanted us to remain in Holland indefinitely. But I had no rest in my spirit there. I had to decide if we were to return to America, and when, and how. The submarine menace was setting worse continually.

I went to the Hague where a committee was located to assist Americans home, or rather lend them the necessary funds until they could pay it back. God had given me the money to get home with so I did not need to borrow any. I found all sailings were full for six weeks to come from Rotterdam. The Liverpool sailings offered a better opportunity. In looking over the list of sailings from the latter place I felt impressed with a certain vessel, the “St. Paul.” It seemed to me God would have us go home on that boat. Arrangements could not be made from the Hague however, so I returned to Amsterdam. I wanted to pray more about it also. While at the Hague I visited the Carnegie Peace Palace. It was very beautiful but it seemed like a huge farce just now.

I spoke at the mission in Amsterdam again. Felt impressed to go to Thos. Cook’s office to see if I could get in touch with Liverpool. But I found to the last that I did not want to leave Europe. I had a great struggle to submit to the will of God in returning to America. At Cook’s office I had the clerk write out a message to send to Liverpool about the sailings twice. But twice I left the office without sending it, standing around the streets for about five minutes. I was trying to get willing to return to America. But I could get no rest in my spirit. I had to go back a third time to the office. The clerk had thrown the message on the floor in disgust the last time. This time I told him to send it.

I preached twice more in the mission at Amsterdam. The Lord wonderfully blessed me. If it had not been for the family I would have remained in Holland. In a day or two I received an answer from Liverpool. “Berths reserved on the St. Paul,” the vessel I had been impressed we should sail on. It was sailing October 3, for New York City. So that was settled. I resigned myself to God’s will. It had been a real death to give up my mission work and return home to America. I bought our tickets straight through from Amsterdam to New York City, though they could not issue tickets from London to Liverpool. But they promised we should have them in London. I had enough money without borrowing a cent or asking a dollar from any one. So wonderfully had the Lord provided for us for this emergency.

Chapter 7: HOME THROUGH THE WAR ZONE

We left Holland by way of Flushing. Ran from Amsterdam to Flushing in the night. This brought us perhaps within fifty miles of the actual battle field in Belgium. It was quite close enough to suit all of us. We arrived in Flushing at 2 a. m. and went on the boat. Sailed for Folkestone, England, the next morning. They did not dare cross the channel at night on account of submarines and mines. We sailed very slowly, reaching Folkestone just at dusk. After a weary trying wait of two hours, huddled on the deck in the dampness and cold, we finally passed the doctors and the customs, were locked in a compartment in the train and on our way for London. The train was overfull, so they put us in a first class compartment, the kind only the royalty and millionaires usually ride in there. The English officials were very kind to us. We landed at Victoria Station, London. It had been a long trying trip, especially for my wife and the children. We had had practically no food since the day before. Food prices had jumped to terrible proportions. Profiteering had begun in earnest. It was a “survival of the fittest.” Every fellow was making all he could. We reached London 10 p. m. and they wanted us to go to a hotel. The prices charged were so exorbitant that I got a Cabby to drive us across the city five miles, to the Pentecostal Home conducted by Sister Cantell, an American woman, at 33 Highbury, New Park, N. We reached there exactly at midnight, more than tired but happy to be at rest with friends.

They welcomed us heartily at the Home, got a warm, midnight meal for us, and we were soon safe in bed and sound asleep all well and peaceful. Thank God! I spoke several times in the Home with much help and blessing. Most of my messages were against the war spirit. I spoke once at the Central Pentecostal Mission. The Lord gave me a strong message against the war spirit in christians. The leader said if he were a young man he would enlist himself. They were opening their meetings with a “War Hymn.” The Conscription Act had not yet passed. My message dropped like a bomb in the camp. But some thanked me for it later, especially some of the missionary student young men, members of the P. M. U.

One sister called on the Lord to bless them in their “Holy War.” They had General French, Joffre and Kitchener on their list for special prayer. No doubt they needed it, with the Kaiser and the rest of the War lords in every country. London seemed covered with blood. “Our war on German trade,” and “Death to German trade,” was displayed everywhere on banners, on the business houses and the delivery wagons. These banners frequently ran the length of the buildings. They were the most conspicuous thing in London. Any firm or delivery wagon refusing to carry and display these was boycotted promptly and forced to the wall. It looked very much like a coldblooded affair, a plain “Commercial War.” The whole sprit seemed entirely too mercenary. The young men enlisting seemed to be in high glee at the prospect of going to war. It was too much like a theatrical performance, instead of a grim necessity and tragedy as they had taken it in Germany. It made it hard for me to believe in the perfect honesty of their purpose in spite of the sentiment at times voiced in the connection. My soul became sick of it all. It seemed entirely too professional. I had not seen anything of that kind in Germany.

I spoke at Pastor Saxby’s Mission Sunday morning. Here God gave me a strong message against the war spirit also. But it was very differently received. The leader thanked me warmly. He had come into Pentecost, with his congregation, from the Baptist Church. The other mission was really Church of England. They had never severed their connection fully with the State Church system.

I went to the steamship company in London to get our passes to Liverpool, which they had promised me when I bought our tickets in Amsterdam, but they refused at first to issue them to me without the extra money. They finally gave them to me, but very unwillingly. I had been promised them, so they could not very well refuse. This saved me at least $14.00. I had left our trunks in the station in London until we should be ready to go on to Liverpool. After much prayer, and entreaty in the matter, they allowed me to ship them on without opening them. In fact they did not even charge me storage, a thing they were entitled to. God was working on our behalf. They had examined our grips at Folkestone carefully and removed all German newspapers, etc. I had a stack of German Illustrated War Magazines in the bottom of my trunk, which I wanted to get through to America, for souvenirs. They were cleaning everybody out of all of these things that they could get hold of. I had a number of other things from Germany that they would have confiscated, which would have been quite a loss to me. I wanted them for keepsakes. But I prayed hard to get them through. And through I got them. That was one reason why I had wanted to ship from Rotterdam.

We reached Liverpool safely. Stopped at a reasonable hotel. The women who ran it seemed to have a heart and were very kind to us. However the people on the streets were very suspicious of strangers. September 30, I ran over to Halifax to spend a day or two in the mission with Sister Walshaw with whom I had worked before, and to say good-bye. I received a letter from Brother Polhill of London with five pounds ($25.00) in it. This was very kind of him.

I spoke twice at the mission in Halifax. The Lord wonderfully blessed us. They gave me $20.00. Returned to Liverpool and found the family well and, safe. October 3 we sailed for New York City. We had a smooth journey without incident. While the “St. Paul” sailed under the American flag yet the crew were all English. We were not really off of English territory until we landed in New York, were watched up to the three mile limit by English gunboats. Reached New York City the evening of October 10. It seemed good to be on U.S. soil again, though I had left my heart in Europe. Under the circumstances I realized that I had done the wise thing in bringing my family back to America. But I long to go back and preach the Gospel in Europe again.

It cost us at least $250.00 to come home. We had considerable expense of one kind and another before we got out of England. I managed to get our trunks out of Liverpool also without opening. That was a great victory as the passengers were subjected to a very rigid examination at the dock. It was only effected through prayer. I was very glad when we finally passed inspection and were allowed to board the vessel. We only had about $2.00 left when we reached our friends in New York City, but we were home and safe. It seemed good to be away from the spirit of suspicion and murder. America was not yet in the war. It took two hours to get through the customs at New York. The children were so tired they went to sleep on the baggage. We went direct to the Pentecostal Home at “Glad Tidings Hall,” 454 W. 42nd street. We got to bed in good time and slept soundly, in America once more. We were very thankful to God for bringing us safely through the war zone.

We had been absent on this mission trip from October 27, 1912, to October 10, 1914. In money we had received during this time: From America, $368.34. From Finland and Russia, $367.00. From England, $324.03. From Germany, $188.40. From Norway and Sweden, $177.25. From Palestine, $8.00. From India, $1.00. Making a total of $1434.02.

I spoke nine times at “Glad Tidings Hall.” Spoke at a German Mission once, at St. John’s Street Noon Day Prayer Meeting once, and at a Colored mission at 134th street twice. They gave us $45.00 at “Glad Tidings Hall.” I brought the family to my mothers home at Carversville, Pa. Found her well after our two years’ absence. I then went to Newark, N. J., for a convention at Bethel Mission. Preached three times with much help from the Lord.

While taking a walk one day in Newark on the street the wind blew a ladder down from the side of a house just as I was passing. Some painters had been using it. The painter shouted and I jumped just in time to escape it. The ladder broke in two pieces from the force of the compact with the sidewalk. I had been in direct line with the ladder just before I jumped. And so the devil wanted to pay me for my work in Europe. But God protected.

I went to Philadelphia and preached three times at the Highway Mission. Since returning to America we had now had almost $100.00 given us. I went back to New York City and took part in a Conference. Spoke four times with much help from God. I also spoke at two or three other missions in New York, Swedish and colored. Came back to Philadelphia and spoke twice at Highway Mission. Then I ran up to mother’s again to see the family. Came back to Philadelphia again. A Convention was just starting at the Highway Mission. I preached nine times during the week. The Lord kept all other workers away, though a number had written they were coming. I had a special mission to them at this time.

I was seized with the grippe the day before the Convention started. The devil tried to kill me. I came near dying the first part of the week. A number of times I got out of bed to go to meeting so weak I could hardly crawl to the hall. I feared I would die while preaching. Death seemed hanging over me. I felt like an empty shell. I could only support myself by hanging over the pulpit desk and preached as a man walking on the brink of eternity. It was a strange experience. I do not remember ever preaching under such weakness before. In the natural I should have been in bed thinking about dying. But the Spirit moved mightily upon me and within me with the message. When I would return from the meeting I would go to bed again.

Finally the family I was staying with became so alarmed at my condition that they decided to have my family come down and be with me. I had been praying for this very thing. God had a strange way of answering it. We were praying about our future. I did not know what to do or where to go.

I went to the Grace Baptist Temple, corner of Broad and Berks streets, and testified before my old pastor, Russell H. Conwell, once more. Then I ran up to Carversville and brought my family to Philadelphia. The fight was still on at the mission. No other workers had yet arrived at the Convention. I preached twice more and then felt relieved of my burden for the place. I had delivered my soul. My feet had almost touched the cold waters of death during this ministry. Doubtless it was at least partially for their sakes I had had a very solemn ministry and messages. Other workers now arrived.

The Lord now showed me clearly that we were to return to Los Angeles, Cal. One brother, not a member of the mission nor even Pentecostal, gave me $50.00. I ran back to New York City and preached at “Glad Tidings Hall” again over Sunday. They gave me $13.00. God wonderfully blessed the message. I then returned to Philadelphia and spoke four times more at the Highway Mission. The leader, Brother Reel, handed me $100.00 in cold cash. Then I knew we were bound for Los Angeles. I went to the railroad office and bought our tickets clear through without a break. I remembered wishing the last time we had crossed the Continent by stages (in 1912), that the next time we crossed it we might be able to go straight through. The journey was so long and tiresome. God had given me my wish in that also.

December 14 we left Philadelphia for Los Angeles. It was my 43rd birthday. We went clear through in a tourist car without change. It seemed so good not to have to change cars on this trip. We had seen two hard years of service since we left America, with no certain dwelling place. To be dragged out of cars in the middle of the night had become a nightmare to me. The Lord was rewarding us for our unselfish service in Europe. We arrived in Los Angeles safely once more. Friends met us at the depot and took us to a home, 109 S. Grand Ave., where we stayed for a week and then found other more permanent quarters for the time.

And now we have been sitting in Los Angeles for almost ten years, years of trial and seeming inactivity largely. And yet we thank God for His mercy and protecting, providing love and care. We long to return to Europe again, or at least into some more active service for God. Will the reader please pray that God’s will may be done. It may be a time of waiting and preparation. But we pray it may not be long until we shall hear the summons to go forth at least one more time, in Jesus’ name, before He comes. We have absolutely no heart or interest in any other matter.

5.  THE DEITY OF CHRIST

What Think Ye of Christ?

Is He God or Man?

BY FRANK BARTLEMAN

1926

Price 50c; $4.00 Per Dozen

Order of F. BARTLEMAN

5606 Isleta Drive, Los Angeles, Calif.

Foreword

This little volume has been prayerfully collected and written to meet the oncoming, terrible onslaught against, and the denial of the absolute Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in these last, evil days of apostasy from the true and living faith.

It might be truthfully titled forty volumes in one, for it is the condensed testimony and teaching of a vast number of the very best Christian scholars, dating from the early church fathers down to the present day, on this most important and vital subject of our Christian faith. In fact it contains the very essence of Christian belief concerning the doctrine of the Godhead, both from a theological and a Scriptural standpoint.

It is a book especially to be recommended as of helpful value to scholars, and in fact to all who desire a clearer- understanding of this most sacred and profound subject. May the faith of many be built up, strengthened, and restored through its perusal, is the sincere prayer of its author and compiler.

FRANK BARTLEMAN

Los Angeles, California

March, 1926

Chapter 1

In attempting to write on this lofty and sacred subject we are well aware of the danger of “fools rushing in where angels fear to tread.” Some one has truly said, “In mysteries men soon lose their way.” Men become confounded when they seek to fathom the being of God.

By the help of God we will “let the lid stay on the Ark,” - (1 Sam’l 6:19), not seeking personally to pry into things unlawful. In fact the major part of our task will consist of quoting what others far more able have had to say upon this subject. We trust the reader may derive as much profit from this study as the writer has. If so he will feel justified in having written.

If there are any people on earth who ought to welcome such information it is the Pentecostal people, for whom we more especially write. We are free from party spirit. The fact is many of us are becoming Higher Critics, and downright Modernists, on this subject. We are in grave danger of lining up with the Antichrist in the Apostasy. Anything that opposes or rejects a full Scriptural revelation of Jesus Christ must be antichrist. Because some have gone “beyond the things which are written,” (I Cor. 4 :6, II John 9, R. V.), is no excuse for us to be frightened back and deny our Lord. Let our sympathies be placed on the side of right always. God will hold us accountable for this failure. Many have denied today truths once held through fear of being numbered “among the transgressors.” “Art thou also of Galilee?” This is ever the devil’s master stroke. He will push a people over the precipice, frightening the others back too far, one extreme always producing another. Jesus is thus again “crucified between two thieves.” Let us come up to the help of the Lord. Both are robbing Him of the glory due Him. The one by unscriptural extremes, the other through cowardly denial of their Lord. Though one extreme may hold the other in subjection for the time.

Men are naturally creatures of extremes, on all subjects. And the truth is most generally found about the middle, in between. It is also hard to be shown anything in the heat of battle. There is the smoke of conflict in our eyes. It is hard for a sectarian to believe that anyone can really be free from selfish, party spirit. But we want the balanced truth, free from preference or prejudice. Extremes divide. They can only hope to meet in the middle, in Christ. The Sun sometimes appears oblong at the time of rising, through refraction of its rays. But it is the Sun nevertheless. So truth regarding a subject does not always appear clearly in the beginning.

We have this treasure “in earthen vessels.” Crude ore is not gold bullion. It is easier to burn a man at the stake than to answer his arguments. Ignorance and prejudice are the greatest enemies of truth.

We need far more than a Sunday School or Kindergarten revelation of Jesus today to enable us to triumph over the Antichrist, the Beast and the False Prophet. “Unto a full grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” - Eph. 4:13 “A spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.” - Eph. 1:17. Any true Christian must rejoice in the discovery of all revelation that tends to bring their Lord more powerfully and fully before their vision. We only know God by revelation.

It has been often said, and truly, that men are willing to make Christ “a little more than man, but a little less than God.” But this can never be. He is either creature or Creator. If creature, we may not worship him. All great truths of the Bible run through the whole Book. They are never dependent or founded on some isolated Scripture.

Our first study will be that of the subject of the Godhead. This we will consider both from the standpoint of theology and Scripture. Tradition is so binding upon the consciences of most believers that the matter needs to be clarified for simple minds as far as possible.

As Christians we are called, according to the tenets of our faith, to walk a path between two extremes of unorthodox opinion. That is, between the idea of God as a mere. Monad, or a oneness as a single human individual is one, and the pagan idea of “gods many,” or that of three separate Gods. This latter is known as Tritheism. The fact is, as generally accepted by all orthodox believers, God is neither one as man is One, nor three, as men are three. The truth lies between these two conceptions. God is a trinity of being, a three-one God, a tri-part Being. The Germans call it’ the “dreieinigkeit” (threeoneness).

We might as well admit a most patent fact to begin with, that the Godhead has no human analogy. To this all scholars agree. The human mind can never “by searching find out God.” Men are seeking on all sides to understand and explain the being of God through human reasoning and analogy. This cannot be done. God is not “such an one as we.” - (Psa. 50:21.) “God is Spirit.”

The declaration of the doctrine of the Swiss and German Protestants (Zwingle and Luther), reads as follows: - “We believe that this same God, one in essence and in nature, is threefold in person, that is to say, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as was declared in the Nicene Council, and as all the Christian church professes.” While the word for God in Genesis is plural, yet this certainly cannot denote three Go1ds, for the very genius of the Christian faith lies in the fact of there being but one true God, one Supreme Being, one “first cause.” “Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord.” - Deut. 6:4. There have been none added since. God has no beginning. Eternity knows neither beginning nor end. Only time and finite nature begins and ends. This one true God is tripartite in nature and manifestation. He ever existed as Father, Son (Logos, the Word, more properly expressed), and Holy Ghost. There are three eternal distinctions in the Substance of God. But, “these three are one.” - l John 5:7. The Logos and the Son are one.

Wm. Smith, L.L.D., in his Bible Dict., a book all scholars are familiar with as a text-book, states on this subject: - “The plural form of Jehovah (Gen. 1:26), has given rise to much discussion. The fanciful idea that it referred to the Trinity of Persons in the Godhead hardly finds now a supporter among scholars. It is either what grammarians call the plural of majesty (‘pluralis excellentiae’), or it denotes the fulness of divine strength, the sum of the powers displayed by God.” The old Swedish monarchs titled themselves in the plural as individuals, after this idea. The late Kaiser of Germany signed himself “Wir, Wilhelm, von Gottes Gnaden,” - (We, William, by the grace of God). However, this does not in any sense affect the truth of the Godhead.

Dr. Scofield writes: - ”The Supreme Being is One but, in some sense not fully revealed in the O. T., is a unity in plurality. This is shown by the plural name, Elohim, by the use of the plural pronoun in the interrelation of Deity as evidenced in Gen. 1:26, etc. That this plurality is really a Trinity is intimated in the three primary names of Deity. God, in His own triune Person, no human being in the flesh has seen. But God, veiled in angelic form, and especially as incarnate in Jesus Christ, has been seen by men.”

No orthodox Christian or scholar has ever believed in three Gods, or in three separate Supreme Beings. That there can be but one Supreme Being, one first cause, is a fact attested to by all Christian scholarship in all the world, in all ages. God is one, and the Word of God is one. That the Jehovah of the O. T., is the’ Jesus of the N. T., is also attested to by all orthodox scholars, such as Dr. Scofleld, Dr. Torrey, Adam Clarke, etc. And this really goes without saying, for the Logos (Word), is God’s “thought and expression,” in the very meaning of the term. The thought and expression in the O. T. and the N. T. are one and the same, the revelation cumulative. It is all the Word of God, the thought and expression of the one God. “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and God was the Word” (Greek). - John 1:1. German and Spanish translations read the same. God was never a non-entity, a mere blank, without thought or expression. His “thought and expression” (Logos) are a part of His very self, of His Being, begotten of Him. Just as my thought and expression are inseparable from myself.

Dr. Adam Clarke, the “Prince of Commentators,” has the following to say: - “In all transactions between God and man, mentioned in the sacred writings, we see one uniform agency.

The Great Mediator in all, and through all, God ever coming to man by him, and man having access to God through him. This was, is, and ever will be the economy of grace.” “There is one mediator between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus.” (I Tim. 2:5) “The lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Rev. 13:8. Provision has been made for every possible contingency before it could arrive.

Clarke comments on the following Scriptures: - Gen. 12:7 “The Lord appeared unto Abraham.” This was probably by the great Angel of the Covenant, Jesus the Christ.

Gen. 12:8, - “And called upon the name of the Lord.” Abram was taught even in those early times to approach God through a Mediator; and ‘that’ Mediator, since manifested in the flesh, was known by the name of Jehovah.

Gen 16:7-10 – “The angel of the Lord.” This was Jesus Christ who in a body suited to the dignity of his nature frequently appeared to the patriarchs. Also Gen 18:22. Of God the father, no man hath at any time seen His shape (Deut. 4:12-16), nor has He ever limited Himself to any definite personal appearance.

Gen. 22:11 – “The angel of the Lord.” The Lord Jesus, who called himself Jehovah (Vs. 15, 16). “Swore by Himself,” Jehovah (Jesus). - Heb. 6:13-18.

Gen. 32:24 – “There wrestled a man with him” This was the doubtless the Lord Jesus Christ, who among the patriarchs, assumed that human form, which in the fullness of time he really took of a woman. (This was only a form at this time, possibly vaporous or gaseous, compact to visibility which could be dissipated in an instant. I have given the sense of the comment on this point, to save space.) He could produce the effect on Jacob’s body to appear a real man wrestling with him. Jacob’s wrestling was also spiritual. V. 30, “I have seen God face to face,” - the Lord-Jesus Christ. (Of course we know the human nature and body of Jesus did not exist until formed and produced in the womb of Mary. Otherwise his conception, incarnation and birth would necessarily have been a farce.)

Gen. 35:13 – “God went up from him,” visibly. This was no doubt the future Savior, the Angel of the Covenant.

Gen 48:16 – “The angel which redeemed me from all evil.” The Messenger, the Redeemer. We have full proof that this was no created angel, but the Messenger of the Divine Counsel, the Lord Jesus Christ. (The word angel means ‘messenger’ also. Not necessarily of the order of created angels Rev. 2:1.)

Ex. 4:2 - ”The angel of the Lord.” Not a created angel certainly, for he is called Jehovah (V. 4,etc.), and has the most expressive attributes of the Godhead applied to him (V. 14, etc) Yet he is an angel, a messenger, in whom was the name of God (Chap. 23:21), and in whom dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col. 2:9), and who, in all these primitive times, was the messenger of the covenant - Mal. 3:1. And who was this but Jesus the Leader, Redeemer and Savior of Mankind?” - Dr Adam Clarke. The Jehovah of the O. T. is proven to be the Jesus of the N. T. He is the Word or Memra, later made flesh, and dwelt among us.

The Chaldee Paraphrasts, the most ancient Jewish writers extant, use the word Memra, which signifies the Word, in those places where Moses puts the name Jehovah. These writers ascribe to Memra (the Word), all the attributes of Deity. They say it was Memra, or the Word, which created the world, appeared to Moses on Mt. Sinai and gave him the Law, speaking to him face to face. Which brought Israel out of Egypt, marching before the people, and wrought all the miracles recorded in the Book of Exodus. The same Memra at Bethel, appeared unto Abraham in the plain of Mamre, and was seen of Jacob to whom Jacob made his vow, and acknowledged him as God. - Gen 28 20.” - Alexander Cruden.

It is said of Augustine that one day walking by the seaside deeply engrossed in thought and meditation over the mystery of the Godhead, he observed a little child dipping the water out of the sea into a shallow hole he had just formed in the sand. Upon being asked why he did this he replied that he intended to put the sea into that hole. The conviction came powerfully upon Augustine that he was attempting precisely as impossible a thing in seeking to comprehend and explain mystery of the Three in One.

Some one has truthfully said “The infinite truth of the Godhead lies far beyond the boundaries of logic, which deals only with finite truths and categories.” But the revelation of it is ‘in the face of Jesus Christ,” according to the Word. - 2 Cor. 4:6.

The Logos (Word), the pre-existent Christ, is one with God. “In the beginning was the Word.” - John 1:1. It was already there. God exists from eternity, throughout all eternity. “From everlasting to everlasting thou art God.” - Ps. 90:2. No orthodox scholar ever taught that the Logos or Word had a beginning in eternity. In fact eternity knows no beginning. “In the beginning” predicates a starting point to reason from. Or it simply states the fact that “in the beginning” the Word was already there. The Logos is without beginning or end. In fact He is “the Alpha and the Omega the beginning and the end.” – Rev. 18:17. A beginning without beginning “And God was the Word.” - John 1:1.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is in His Deity of necessity as uncreated as God Himself. Were it otherwise He could not be Deity. Deity is uncreated, without beginning or ending. Deity is one inseparable of necessity in life and attributes. Hence all scholars declare that God the Son has the same attributes as God the Father, differing in office only, as Son, neither existing before the other.

Alexander Cruden in his Concordance gives to the Son of God the following titles in the Word which accredit him with the attributes of God. “Ancient of Days, Creator, Emmanuel, Eternal Life, Everlasting Father, Father of Eternity, First and Last God, Most High, Jah, Jehovah, Living God, Strong God, Mighty God, etc., etc.,” In fact if Jesus were not absolute Deity we would have no right to worship him. He must be God. “Worship God.” = Rev. 19:10. Cruden also says: “The Son of God is equal and consubstantial with the Father. He is, the express image of the Father, as our words are of our thoughts. – John 1:3; Heb. 1:3; 11:3.

Jesus Christ is not a created being, not a creature, but Creator. “All things were made by him.” - John 1:3. To declare him less than absolute Deity is to make him a creature. To say he is divine, but not Deity, means nothing. A long tailed coat and a piece of parchment, or a roll of sermons, makes a modern ‘divine.’ Divinity is Deity or it is nothing. “God the Father, God the Son, and Got the Holy Ghost,” are equally God. All this orthodox scholars have always taught.

A difficulty has been raised over the term “begotten,” as applied to the Son. But all scholars’ agree that the Son, or Logos, could not have had a beginning in eternity. He could not be “co-eternal with the Father,” and have a beginning. From standpoint of manifestation as the Son, and as to his human nature, He had a beginning, from the womb of Mary. But in His Deity he was uncreated, as all scholars teach and declare. Many do not seem to realize they have an Eternal Lord, in the person of Jesus Christ. He is more than a Sunday School or Kindergarten Christ, more than a mere human sacrifice, yes, more than a Son even. He is both the Son of God, and God, according to all orthodox theologians. He is both the pre-existent Logos, which “was God,” and the Son of God.

The Logos proceeded, or came forth, from God. – John 8:42. “The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” - John 1:18. This has reference to his coming into the world. The Son, and the Logos, the Word, are one. He was the Logos, (thought and expression of God, in the bosom of the Father, before he was manifested as the Son, of God. In His Deity He was always in heaven, omnipresent.

Tertullian wrote, A. D. 200: - “The Word (Logos) was sent from the Father into the Virgin, and was born of her, both Man and God, the Son of God, and called Jesus Christ.

Theologians have sometimes applied the term ‘begotten’ the pre-existent Christ, or the Logos, as though He were begotten from eternity, or eternally begotten, but this they have never implied as a beginning of existence. They all claim the Logos is eternal. The Word is begotten, as my thought and expression are begotten of me. They are a very part of myself. No less, and of as long duration. This is what theologians mean by the Logos, or Son, being ‘eternally begotten,’ or “from a;; eternity begotten of the ‘Father.” Some claim a continuous begetting.

In Acts 13:33, Paul refers the Scripture, “Thou art my son; this day have I begotten thee,” to the resurrection of Christ. - (Ps. 2:7). “This day,” in time. There is no time in eternity. (Heb. 5:5.) Read Rev. 1:5, Rom. 1:4, Heb.1;5, 6. - Compare Luke 2:13, 14, John 1:14, in parenthesis. John 1.18; 3:16-18, I John 4:9, John 17:18, Luke 1:35, “begotten.” - Rotherham. Gal. 4:4. In. Rev. 1:5, Heb. 1:6, the word is properly ‘born,’ not begotten. The Logos was sent into the world through the incarnation, as a Son, clothed in humanity. Heb. 1:2, I John 4;14, John 3;16. “A child is born, a son is given,” - Isa. 9:6, as every child is born, and son given. Though in this case Jesus was Deity, the Logos. Only his humanity was “begotten” in the womb of Mary. “And God was the Word (Logos).” – John 1:1.

The Word (Logos) was sent into the womb of Mary and “became flesh.” (the only begotten from the Father. – John 1:14), The Incarnation took place. A Son was manifest in Bethlehem’s stable. The pre-existent Word abode forever. The Son revealed the Fatherhood. God was never known as Father until the advent of the Son into the world. The Jews never knew Him as such.

Jesus and the Logos are one and the same. Leon Tucker has said: “The Word of God and the Son of God are eternal and inseparable.” “Therefore also that holy thing which shall be ‘begotten’ of thee shall be called the Son of God.” - Luke 1:35, - Rotherham. “Thou shalt call his name Jesus.” – Matt. 1:21, 1 John 4:15. “God sent forth his Son, born of a woman.” Gal. 4:4. “Hath in these last days spoken unto us in the Son.” - Heb. 1:1-2. The “Word of the Lord” (Logos) came to the prophets. “There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” - 1 John 5:7.

Dr. Adam Clarke, the “Prince of Commentators,” co-worker with John Wesley, has written the following interesting matter on this subject: “They have taken away my Eternal Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.

“I believe in the Holy Trinity; in three persons in the Godhead, of which none is before or after another. I believe Jehovah, Jesus, the holy Ghost, to be one infinite eternal Godhead, subsisting ineffably in Three Persons; I believe Jesus Christ to be, as to his divine nature, as unoriginated and eternal as Jehovah Himself; and, with the Holy Ghost, to be one infinite Godhead, neither Person being created, begotten, nor proceeding, more than another. As to its essence, but, one Trinity, in an infinite, eternal and inseparable unity; and this triune God is the Object of my faith, my adoration, and my confidence. But I believe not in an eternal sonship or generation of the Divine nature of Jesus Christ. Here, I have long stood; here I now stand; and here I trust to stand in the hour of death, in the day of judgment; and to all eternity. (One can readily judge how strong were Clarke’s convictions on this point.)

“The doctrine of the eternal Sonship of Christ is absolutely irreconciliable to reason, and contrary to itself. Eternity is that which has had no beginning, nor stands in reference to time; Son supposes time, generation, and father; and time also antecedent to such generation. Therefore the conjunction of these two terms; Son and eternity, is absolutely impossible, as they imply essentially different and opposite ideas. (Poetry and human sentiment notwithstanding.)

His human nature is derived from the blessed Virgin Mary through the creative energy of the Holy Ghost; but His Divine Nature because God, infinite and eternal, is uncreated, underived and unbegotten; which, were it otherwise, He could not be God in any proper sense of the word; but as He is God, the doctrine of the eternal Sonship must be false.” - Adam Clarke.

Clarke admits a three-fold personality, or three persons, in the being of God from eternity, but rejects the idea of Sonship before the advent of Jesus in the flesh. Before that He was the Word or Logos (John 1:1-14), the idea of sonship being transferred back to the Logos. A multitude of spiritual leaders of the church today agree with Clarke. Critics in referring to this particular view of Adam Clarke have been content to pass it over with the simple observation that “this opinion has not been generally accepted.” The Logos and the Son are one.

The Son is evidently in no sense inferior to the Father in His Deity, except in office. Deity is Deity. He was “equal with the Father.” – Phil. 2:6, but “emptied himself,” becoming inferior only in his humanity, through the Incarnation. Nothing has ever been added to or taken from God. Deity is self-existent, uncreated. Are not then the theological expressions “begotten from eternity,” or “eternally begotten,” as applied to Christ, mere technical human terms, their meaning in this connection understood only by scholars? They agree that these are not intended to postulate a beginning for God the Son, nor any increase, or inferiority in Deity. The Son of God was “begotten”, humanly speaking, in the womb of Mary. – John 3:16. Before this He existed eternally as the Logos. He is both “God the Son,” and the Son of God.

W. H. Bennett, a well-known English writer, has said: - He (Christ) became (in the Incarnation), what He before was not, but He did not cease to be what He was, - (very God).” All orthodox scholars declare the Christ to be not only the Son of God, but “very God.” “Very God and very man.’’ In fact they declare Him to be as much to God as God the Father is superior in office only. This is an accepted tenent of orthodox theology. All scholars admit there is no human analogy whererwith to express or define the matter of the Godhead. They admit that the Logos or Word is without beginning, even as the Father; and that the Word of God and the Son of God are one. The real, scriptural, mystery of the Godhead lies in the Incarnation. God manifest in the flesh.” – I Tim. 3:16.

The well known theological expression, found in the so-called Athanasian Creed, “Neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the Substance (Essence),” we consider a safe proposition. Granted that the Substance or Essence of the Godhead cannot be divided or separated, it becomes impossible to make three separate Persons or Supreme Beings out of the proposition. Hence we are saved from Tritheism, the postulation of three Gods; to which Trinitarianism is admitted by scholars to come dangerously near. As the whole-question hinges on the use of the word “Persons,” it might prove helpful to look more carefully into the meaning of this much argued term, as used and purposed originally in this connection.

In Nelson’s Encyclopedia we read: - “It is generally conceded that the Christians of the second, and even of the third century, were far from having a clearly understood and recognized doctrine on this high subject (the Trinity). At the council of Nice, A. D. 325, they began to formulate a creed on this order. But the doctrine of a Trinity of Persons was not fully complete till the addition of the Filioque clause in the Western Church of the 6th Century, which led to the separation of the Greek church from the Latin. A declaration of the nature of the Trinity was finally draw up to meet certain heretical declarations regarding the same matter.”

Philip Schaff, D. D, L.L. D., writes: - “God is one in three persons or hypostases (subsistences - used by Greek theologians to denote each of the three subdivisions of the Godhead; Latin ‘personae,’ from whence comes our modern term persons applied to the Godhead), each expressing the whole fullness of the Godhead. - (Col. 2:9, 10.)

“The term persona is taken neither in the old sense of a mere personation or form of manifestation (face, mask), nor in the modern sense of an independent, separate being or individual, but in a sense which lies between these two conceptions, and thus avoids Sabellianism on the one hand, and Tri-theism on the other.

“In modern philosophical usage the term person means ‘separate and distinct rational individual. But the tri-personality of God is not a numerical or essential trinity of three beings (like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob), for this would be tritheism; nor is it, on the other hand merely a three-fold aspect and mode of manifestation, in the Sabellian or Sweden-borgian sense, but it is a real objective and eternal, though ineffable distinction in the one Divine being, with a corresponding three-fold revelation of this being in the works of creation, redemption and sanctification.

“In the Trinity there is no priority or posteriority of time, superiority or inferiority of rank, but the three persons are coeternal and coequal.”

In the Dictionary of the. Apostolic Church, by Jas. Hastings, D. D., we read: - “The technical terms by which the christian church has expressed the faith that it derived from the Scriptures were not invented for a considerable time after the Apostolic period. Thus no one would expect to find the terms Trinity and Person in the N. T. The word “Trinity” referred to God, was first used by Theophilus of Antioch, A. D., 180. But it was not then an accepted technical term. Theophilus did not use the word “Trinity” in the technical sense in which it was even later used. The words which we render “Person” are of a still later date, and at first exhibited a remarkable fluidity of signification, being at one time used to denote what is common to the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, the Divine “Substance,” and at another time to distinguish between them.

“The student must necessarily be always on his guard against the supposition that “Person’ means ‘individual’, as when we say that three men are three persons. These technical expressions are but methods of denoting the teaching found in the N. T. that there are distinctions in the Godhead, and that while God is “One” yet he is not a mere Monad. These technical terms are not found in the Apostolic or sub-apostolic writings.

“It must be remembered that human language is limited and unable to express fully the divine mysteries, so that just as the technical terms, “Trinity,” “Person,” may be misused in the interest of Tritheism, so subordination (of Son and Spirit) may be misused in the interest of Arianism (a supreme God and two inferior deities).”

J. Munro Gibson, M. A.: D. D., writes: “The word ‘Trinity” does not occur in the scripture, nor is there anything to be found there corresponding to those complicated formulas by which theologians have tried to define the relations of Father, Son and Holy Ghost. If theologians had only followed, the Scriptures in this respect, how many bitter controversies might have been spared, and how many needless difficulties and perplexities would have been avoided.”

Dr. Scofield, in his Reference Bible, write as follows: “The name of God (El, Elah, Elohim) suggests certain attributes of Deity, as strength, etc., rather than His essential being. God subsists in a personality which is three-fold, indicated by relationship as Father and Son: by a mode of being as Spirit: and by the different parts taken by the Godhead in manifestation and in the work of redemption - Spirit, Father, Son.” A tri-personality.

“Calvin did not enforce the Athanasian Creed, and did not use the words Trinity and Person in the confession drawn up by himself and others at Geneva.” - Encyclopedia Britt.

Chapter 2

Pastor Andrew Fraser of Chicago has written: “It is in the writings of Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, toward the close of the second century, that the term “Trinity” occurs for the first time, though other writers ascribe the coining of the term to Tertullian. In this case the pen was mightier than the sword, judging by the degree of strife its use has occasioned.

The Athanasian Creed in its definition of the trinity is such as to cause some minds to sacrifice the Trinity to the Unity, while others sacrifice the Unity to the Trinity, and thus lead the mind into a doctrine of three gods, or tritheism. The one God exists as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and in some inexplicable manner the three interpenetrate each other and form but one being.

“We are fully aware of the custom obtaining among the Hebrews of using the plural term where we would generally use the singular. But since we believe in the presidency of the Holy Spirit in the task of revealing God to men, it is not difficult to believe that the use of the plural “Elohim” has behind it inscrutable wisdom looking toward a future unfolding of the truth regarding the Trinity.

“It is most unfortunate that in a discussion of so important a character we should find ourselves obliged to use words which fail to express adequately the ideas; and words which the Scriptures themselves do not employ. We are confronted with such a difficulty in the use of the word “Persons.” Since the Scripture themselves nowhere use the word, the Athanasian Creed in its attempt to suppress the Sabellian heresy went somewhat beyond the simplicity of the Bible by the introduction of the term. When we remember that there is no case exactly parallel to the relationship of the Trinity, then we understand, that necessity has not yet coined the proper word.

“We cannot separate the Father, Son and Holy Ghost into three distinct personalities as we do in the case of three human beings. We must beware of ascribing to the tri-unity of the Godhead human form and human characteristics or attributes. Would “Subsistences” prove any more satisfactory for this idea? By subsistence or substance we mean “essential nature.” Subsistences are not separations, yet they would admit of distinctions in a Being who is purely spiritual.

If we were to affirm a separate and distinct Divine Intelligence operating in each of the three “Persons” of the Godhead then we would have three Gods. We know that divine nature is one. For the sake of executing the Redemptive plan, the subsistences or substance resolved itself into a tripersonal Being in the forms of Father, Son and Holy Ghost Communion with God is not with one solitary monotheistic.

Editor R. E. McAllister has written: “We readily admit that when we express ourselves by saying “Three Persons in the Godhead” we are using terms not scripturally correct. Everything in the Godhead is prompted and executed by one personality. God is not a unit as a human being is one, neither is He three as three human beings are three. The three-fold relationship of Father, Son and Spirit is the prominent feature of the N. T. This relationship is vital and essentially necessary to a right understanding of the atonement and mediation of Jesus Christ.

“God has not seen fit to explain to reason the mode of His existence in detail as a basis for doctrinal discussion. We are met with an insurmountable difficulty when we undertake a philosophical explanation of Infinite Being in the form of finite thought and physical comparison. That there are three identities in relation in the mode of God’s existence, Scripturally termed Father, Son and Spirit, no one would deny, but that these three identities can be properly called distinct personalities in the absolute sense of the word we question.

“The terms “Person” and “Persons” are never used in Scripture with reference to God. Heb. 1:3, R. V. – “Substance.” God is infinite and eternal. Earthly limitations forbid a comparison of God’s likeness that would be explanatory. Infinite being is characterized by attributes such as Omniscience, Omnipotence and Omnipresence. Deut. 6:4, “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord,” is a compound unity. Man was made in the intellectual and moral likeness of God without reference to corporeal form. Col. 3:10, Eph. 4:23, 24. It is as inconsistent to take a stand for one Person in the Godhead as it is to take a stand that there are three Persons. God is essentially One and manifestly Three.”

Editor E. N. Bell wrote as follows: “No well informed intelligent Christian holds that there are three material bodies in the Godhead. Thousands of simple, unlearned saints think of God as a great big, mighty man sitting on a material throne in heaven, but mature and properly informed Christians know that this is error. Even that of Jesus which was corporeal was not Deity, but human. While the Father and the Spirit each have a distinct identity of their own, yet apart from the body of Jesus neither has a corporeal or material body. Jesus is the only person in the Godhead who has such a body, - a spiritual body.

“There are no other three in all the universe so related as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There is no use to look among men for a complete analogy. They could not exist separated in essence, and could not exist independently of each other without being three gods. As seen by the human eye or mind they appear as distinct persons, yet behind the screen on the eternal side they are united in one nature, one essence one life, one existence.

“God is a being who is not limited by the confines of a single personality. That Father, Son and Holy Ghost are distinct, is an unquestionable fact, but that they are separate as individuals are in the natural, or that they are in any sense independent of one another, is not at all true. Herein lies the mystery. God is not corporeal, nor material, but spiritual in His nature or being. The Spirit has no fixed for or may be manifested under any form or symbol which it pleases God to manifest. The nature of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is one, their essence is one, their being is one, their essence is one, their being is one, their existence is one. Each is uncreated and eternal, each is Deity, each is God, yet not three Deities, not three Gods.”

From “Binney’s Compend,” used as a text-book in most theological schools, we gather the following: “The Trinity is indeed a mystery, and must necessarily remain so to us. Its incomprehensibility, however, proves nothing but that we are finite beings, and not God. The Sun is three in one. Round orb, light, heat. Man is three in one. Soul, rational mind, body. Three persons in the Godhead, though distinct, are separate. The Son and the Spirit proceed from the Father, yet they are of the same duration. The same attributes and acts, in the Scriptures, are ascribed to each of them without distinction. (Then follows a list of Scriptures, are ascribed to each of them without distinction. (Then follows a list of Scriptures proving this assertion.) In a word, all divine operations are attributed to the three. – 1 Cor. 12:6, Col. 3:11.”

Augustine taught that “the Father and the Son are the one principle of the Being of the Spirit.” – John 10:30, 1 Tim. 3:16.

Dr. Isaac Barrow defines the subject of the Godhead as follows: “The sacred Trinity may be considered either as it is in itself wrapt up in inexplicable folds of mystery, or as it hath discovered itself operating in wonderful methods of grace towards us. As it is in itself it is an object too bright and dazzling for our weak eye to fasten upon, an abyss too deep for our short reason to fathom.

“There is one Divine nature or Essence, incomprehensibly united, and ineffably distinguished, a communication without any deprivation or diminution in the communication, an eternal generation, and an eternal procession, without any division or multiplication of essence.” Deity is .neither increased nor diminished. Nothing has ever been added to or taken from Deity.

The Nicene Creed, A. D. 325 reads as follows: “The only begotten Son of God, of one substance with the Father. But those who say: ‘There was a time when he was not; or the Son of God is created; they are condemned by the holy catholic and apostolic church.”

The Athanasian Creed reads: “We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in unity; neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance. The Godhood of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is all one, the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost. The Father eternal; the Son eternal; and the Holy Ghost eternal. And yet they are not three but one eternal. So likewise the Father is Almighty; the Son is Almighty; and the Holy Ghost Almighty. And yet they are not three Almighties, but one Almighty. The Father is God; the Son is God; and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet they are not three Gods; but one God. And in this Trinity none is afore, or after another; none is greater or less than another, but co-eternal and co-equal.

“Our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, is God and man. Perfect God and perfect man. Equal to the Father as touching his Godhead.” From the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds, the early church doctrine of the Trinity is principally formed.

Agreement of Bonn, 1875: “In the Godhead there is only one beginning, one cause, by which all that is in the Godhead is produced.” (“I and the Father are one.” - John 10:30.)

The Confession of the Greek Patriarch, Gennadius to Mahomet II, read as follows: “We believe that there are in the one God three peculiarities, and these three peculiarities we call the three subsistences. We believe that out of the nature of God. spring the Word and the Spirit, as from the fire the light and the heat. These three, the Mind, the Word, and the Spirit, are one God, as in the one soul of man there is the mind, the rational word, and the rational will, and yet these three are as to essence one soul.” This was the faith of the Greek church at this date. 1453, A. D.

From the Catechism of the Greek Church, Moscow, 1839, we gather the following: “The Son of God begotten of the Father expresses that personal property by which he is distinguished from the Father and the Holy Ghost. None should think that there ever was a time when he was not.” Jesus, the Word, was “in the bosom of the Father,” His “thought and expression” (Logos), from all eternity.

“Light of lights” explains the incomprehensible generation of the Son of God from the Father. Both the light we see and the Sun axe of one indivisible nature. “Very God of very God.” The Son of God is called God in the same proper sense as God the Father. - I John 5:20. (There is no increase in Deity in this so-called “generation.”)

“Jesus suffered and died not in his Godhead, but in his manhood. The Son of God is omnipresent. In his Godhead he ever was and is in heaven. He is omnipresent, on earth and in heaven. He became visible in his humanity. He was always in heaven and on earth. His humanity had a beginning.

“How does Jesus sit at the right hand of God the Father? This must be understood spiritually. Jesus Christ has one and the same majesty and glory with God the Father. God’s special presence is manifested in heaven to blessed spirits; also in the church a spiritual presence in various manifestations, gifts, etc. But “God is Spirit,” omnipresent.

“How does Scripture ascribe to God bodily parts, as heart, Eyes, ears, hands, if God is a Spirit? Holy Scripture suits itself to the common language of men; but we are to understand such expressions in a higher and spiritual sense.

“The Son of God was made man, without ceasing to be God. The “Word was made flesh.” - John 1:14. One Person, God and man together, a God-man.” - Greek Catechism.

I. M. Haldeman, D. D., Pastor of the First Baptist Church, New York City,: “God, the one being, is expressed in three persons. No one person is God without the other two. The Father can neither be seen nor felt; the Spirit can never be seen, but is felt; while the Son can be both seen and felt. The Son of God is the revelation of both the Father and the Spirit, therefore the embodiment of the fulness of God. – Col 2:9, 2 Cor. 3:17. Father, Son and Holy Spirit constitute one being and one God.

“God is ever essentially the same. The being of the Father would not be complete without the being of the Son. The Son of God is the outgoing and forthputting of the essence and energy of the Father. “Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” - Micah 5:2. He never in all eternity was unbegotten. He is the uncaused Son of God, and God the Son.

“From all eternity He has been a common part of the being and substance of God. Since this his true His mother could not conceive His personality. Therefore that which was conceived by his mother was not a personality, but an impersonal nature. “That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son, of God. - Luke 1:35. “Wherefore also that which is to be ‘begotten’ ” - Luke 1:35, Rotherham Translation. “A body hast Thou prepared for me.” - Heb. 10:5 (His human nature was ‘begotten” in the womb of the Virgin.) His body (the expression of his created human nature) was united to His unchanged personality. While the Holy Ghost came upon the virgin, and the power of the Highest overshadowed her, it was the Son (Logos) who, laying aside his “form” of God and uniting this divinely wrought (begotten of God) human nature to himself, entered the world through the gateway of a woman’s life and became the concentrated expression of the unit work of Godhead and the final and determining factor in his own incarnation,” - Phil. 2:7. The resurrection of Christ does not touch His essential and eternal relation to the Father. It is the coming forth of the Son from the grave in the humanity, which, with the Father and the Spirit, He had created for Himself.

“When it is said he is the “first born of every creature (creation),” the qualification is used in the sense not of essence or origin, but in the sense of heirship. - Heb 1:2. He is the “beginning” of the creation of God.” He was the first to rise from the dead. As such He is the “second Adam,” the last Adam, the head and beginning of the new race potentially in Him, the new creation of God. (“The primal source of all creatures.” - Col. 1:15, - A. S. Worrel.)

“Only God can atone to God. God as God cannot die. He must have a human nature. God must become incarnate. As sons of God we are subject to an dependent on him as that one of whom alone of all the sons of God it can be said, ’Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God” - Ps. 90:2. – I. M. Haldeman. “And God was the Word.) - John 1:1. “God was manifest in the flesh.” – I Tim 3:16.

“The final goal of Greek philosophy was only reached when the great thinkers of the early christian church, who had been trained in the schools of Alexandria and Athens, used its modes of thought in their analysis of the christian idea of God. The result was the evolution of the doctrine of the Trinity.” Ency. Britt.

Pastor J. T. Boddy has written the following convictions, which would seem to be very applicable at this time: “All must concede that it is impossible for the finite to comprehend or define the Infinite, and that whatever measure of knowledge of God and the great mystery of godliness procurable in this life, it must reach us by revelation through the Word, and not through reason. We have become too metaphysical. Our salvation does not depend on our correct conceptions of the Godhead, but upon our personal relation to Him through Jesus Christ.

“Many very incompetent persons mentally and spiritually, have irreverently “rushed in where angels fear to tread,” and have undertaken to analyze, define and even dissect God, and then presumptuously held up before Him their human analysis, in sacrilegious attitude. This is largely due to a lack of true veneration and reverence for divine and sacred things. And this is frequently done by so over-emphasizing a truth that we warp it out of its true relation to the other truths, and thereby weaken the whole.”

From Binney’s Compend we gather the following instructive Bible study on the subject: “Jesus Christ is verily and truly man. Jesus Christ is the very unoriginated God. - John 1:1; 20:28, Acts 20:28, Rom. 9:5 (the Spanish translation reads, “Who is God over all things, blessed forever”), Col. 2:9, Phil. 2:6, I Tim. 3:16, Titus 2:10, Heb. 1:8, I John 5:20.

“His eternity is proven by the following Scriptures: Isa. 9:6, Micah 5:2, John 1:1; 8:58, Col. 1:17, Heb. 7:3; 13:8; Rev: 1:8. His divine titles are given, a few of which are Alpha and Omega. - Rev. 1:8; 21:6; 22:13. Emmanuel, - Matt.1:23. First and last, - Rev. 1:17. Everlasting Father, Isa. 9:6. Mighty God, Isa. 9:6. King of kings and Lord of lords, - I Tim. 6:15. Lord of Glory, - I Cor. 2:8. Prince of Life, Acts 3:15. And many other titles and passages. He is proven Omnipresent, Omniscient, and Omnipotent, by many Scriptures.

“Substantial divinity and real humanity are combined in the person of Jesus Christ. As man he weeps over the grave of Lazarus. As God, He raises him from the dead. As man he himself suffers and dies. But as God He is able to raise His own body from the dead. - John 10:18. As those two natures are united in him, he has of course a double mode of speaking of himself.

“Jesus manifestly claims supreme divinity where he says to Philip, “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father” – John 14:9. Jesus was the human personation of the invisible God. Philip sees the Father only as he sees him in the Son. - John 1:18. In his mediatorial office, being sent, he was inferior to the Father who sent him. - John 14:28. He refers not to his nature but to his office, - ”the Father is greater than I.” In view of Christ’s many claims to be God, he is either God, or not a good man. They who begin by denying Christ’s supreme Deity logically end by assailing his moral integrity. - Mark 10:18. In Mark 13:32, the ignorance does not disprove his Divinity: It may have been a part of his humiliation in His mediatorial office. The union of two whole and perfect natures, divinity and humanity, qualify Jesus Christ to be the mediator. That is, perfectly to represent God to sinful man, and fallen man to God, and to provide, through his shed blood, and the agency of-the Holy Spirit, for a reconciliation between them. - I Tim. 2 :5, - Notes from Binney’s Compend.

Iraneaus, a disciple of Polycarp, who was a disciple of St. John, wrote: “God was to become man, and in Christ he became man. Christ must be God; for if not, the devil would have had a natural claim on him, and he would have been no more exempt from death than the other children of Adam; he must be man if his blood were indeed to redeem us. In the God-man God has drawn man up to himself. The Logos is the voice of God, with which the Father speaks in the revelation to mankind.” Jesus was a “cross” between God and man. God “crossed” himself with humanity. “God was manifest in the flesh.” - I Tim 3:16.

The Editor of the Sunday School Times writes: “John introduces Christ to us as the Word. The Greek word logos, translated ‘word,’ had two meanings. It signified the intelligence or the reason. Our word logic is derived from it in this sense. It also signified speech. Both these meanings are included when John calls Christ the Word. He is the inward Word of God, because He exists from all eternity in the bosom of the Father, as much one with Him as reason is one with the reasoning mind. Nothing is so close to man as his own thought. So nothing is so close to God as His own, eternal Word. It is within Him, it is one with Him, and it is divine, like Him. Christ is also God’s outward Word. He expresses and explains and reveals to the world what God is.”

Alexander Cruden writes in his ”Concordance of the Scriptures”: The eternal Son of God in his divine nature is equal with the Father; but in his human nature subordinate and inferior to the Father. Both natures are united in the person of Christ. The Word, the eternal Son of God, is equal and consubstantial with the Father, being the express image of the Father, as our word, are of our thoughts.” - Heb 1:3.

On Isa. 9:6, Cruden says: “His name shall be called Wonderful, the Mighty God, that is, He is wonderful, he is the mighty God.”

Tertullian wrote, A. D. 200: “There is but one God and no other besides the maker of the world, who produced the universe out of nothing, by his Word sent forth first of all. This by the patriarchs, was always heard in the prophets (I Peter 1:10-12), at last was sent down, from the Spirit and power of God the Father, into the Virgin Mary, was made flesh in her womb, and born of her, lived (appeared) as Jesus Christ, etc.”

Origen, wrote, A. D., 230: “Emptying himself he (Jesus Christ) became man incarnate, while he was yet God and though made man, remained God as he was before.” ‘ the true Son of the true Father.’

Gregorious wrote, A. D. 270: “One Lord (Jesus Christ), the mighty Word, the wisdom which comprehends the constitution of all things, and the power which produces all creation, the true Son of the true Father.”

Fourth Ecumenical Council, A. D. 451: Established Creed of Chalcedon - Christological. The Incarnation: “The God-man is not a mere indwelling of God in man, but an actual and abiding union of the two in one personal life. The Logos assumed, not a human person (else we would have two persons a divine and a human), but human nature which is common to us all; and hence he redeemed, not a particular man but all men as partakers of the same nature.

“Christ is not a double being with two persons. He is person, both divine and human. The divine will ever remain divine, and the human ever human, and yet the two have continually one common life. It is a permanent state, resulting from the incarnation. The two natures constitute but one personal life and yet remain distinct.

“The self-consciousness of Christ is never divided. The divine nature is the seat of self consciousness and pervades and animates the human. The one divine human person of Christ wrought miracles by virtue of his divine nature, and suffered through his human nature. “The superhuman effect and infinite merit must be ascribed to his divinity. His humanity alone made him capable of temptation, suffering, and death. Christ’s human nature had no independent personality of its own besides the divine. The divine nature is the root and basis of his personality.

“His human personality was completed and perfected by being so incorporated with the pre-existent Logos personality as to find in it alone its full self consciousness, and to be permeated and controlled by it in every stage of’ its development. The human nature of Christ did not exist at all before the act of the incarnation. The Son of God was crucified and buried, yet he suffered not in his Godhead, but in weakness of human nature.” So Jesus took on him humanity, not a single human individuality. The human was blended, “crossed,’ with the divine. Jesus was “perfect God and perfect man.” As such he was capable of the fulness of Divine felicity and blessedness, and yet of the sum total of human wretchedness and suffering. He was “made sin for us, who knew no sin.” - II Cor. 5:21.

Weymouth Translation, N. T., foot-note on Matt. 1:21: “The full significance of the name “Jesus” is seen in the original “Yeho-shua,” which means “Jehovah the Savior,” and not merely Savior.”

Scofield Reference Bible, foot notes “Matt. 1:21 “Jesus, Greek form of Hebrew Je-hoshua, meaning Savior. Josh. 1:1: Joshua – Je-hoshua.

“The central theme of the Bible is Christ. It is this manifestation of Jesus Christ, his person as “God manifest in the flesh,” has sacrificial death and his resurrection, which constitute the Gospel. Unto this all preceding Scripture leads, from this all following Scripture proceeds. Man was made in the image and likeness of God. This image is found, chiefly in man’s tri-unity, and in his moral nature. Jehovah is distinctly the redemption name of Deity. Jehovah is the self-existent One who reveals Himself.

“Christ is seen in his person as Son of God, and very God. Those Scriptures which attribute to God bodily parts are metaphorical. Jesus was the Mighty God. Jesus the Logos was the expression or utterance of the Person and thought of Deity in his incarnation. Christ applied to himself the Jehovistic “I Am.” He claimed to be the Adonai (Lord) of the O. T. Eternal life is the life of God revealed in Jesus Christ, who is God.

“The Memorial Name of God: “The primary meaning of the name Jehovah (English - Lord) is “the self-existent One.” Literally (as in Ex. 3:14) He that is who He is, therefore the eternal I Am. But Havah, from whence Jehovah, or Yahwe, is formed, signifies also “to become,” that is to become known, thus, pointing to a continuous and increasing self-revelation. Combining these meanings of Havah we arrive at the meaning of the name Jehovah. He is “the self-existent One who reveals Himself. Jehovah Elohim clearly indicates a special relation of Deity, in His Jehovah character, to man, and all Scripture emphasizes this Jehovah is distinctly the redemption name of Deity. When sin entered and redemption became necessary, it was Jehovah Elohim who sought the erring ones, and clothed them with ‘coats of skins.” The first distinct revelation of Himself by His name Jehovah was in connection with the redemption of the covenant people out of Egypt. Christ Himself affirmed his deity. He applied to Himself the Jehovistic “I Am.”

“The Greek term Logos (Word) means a thought or concept, and the expression or utterance of that thought. Christ is from eternity, but especially in his incarnation, the utterance or expression of the Person and thought of Deity. The “mystery of God” is Christ, as incarnating the fulness of the Godhead. The life is called “eternal” because it was from the eternity which is past unto the eternity which is to come - it is the life of God revealed in Jesus Christ, who is God.

“I Cor. 15:24, 28; “The Son will deliver up the kingdom to “God, even the Father” that “God” (i. e., the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit), “my be all in all.” The eternal throne is that “of God, and of the’ Lamb.” - Rev. 22:1.” - Scofield Ref. Bible.

“The Angel of the Covenant, Jesus Christ, appeared many times in the Old Dispensation, and received worship, as God. “Behold, I send an angel (messenger) before thee … provoke him not . . . . for My Name is in him.” - Ex. 23:20-22. Israel worshipped this angel all the way to the promised land.” - Eusebia. This was evidently the Angel of the covenant, Jesus Christ; according to Adam Clarke and others.

The Syriac Version gives the following curious rendering of John 1:18, “No man hath ever seen God; the only begotten God, he who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” Even the title of this ancient and valuable translation reads as follows: “The New Testament; or, the Book of the Holy Gospel of our Lord and our God, Jesus the Messiah.”

Dr. Philip Schaff writes, on John 20:28: “This is the strongest Apostolic confession of faith in the Lordship and divinity of Christ. “Thomas answered and said unto him (Jesus), “My Lord and my God.” Thomas could not have uttered a profanity unrebuked by the Lord. He was an honest inquirer for the truth, not an unbeliever. He embraced with, joy the proof.

“It was by a true, divine instinct that the early theologians made Christ Himself, in his divine human personality, the center of their creeds.” – Schaff.

Ignatius said: “Be ye deaf, therefore, when any man speaketh to you apart from Jesus Christ.” The doctrine of one God undermines the heathen systems of worship at one stroke. When the heathen ask the name of the christians’ God the missionaries invariably and rightly tell them Jesus. I John 5:20, “This is the true God, and eternal life.” - (Jesus.) “Little children, keep yourselves from idols (false ideas of God).” - 20th Century Trans. - I John 5:21.

Wm. Smith. LL. D., in his ‘Bible Diet., writes as follows: “Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures two chief names are used for the one true divine being - Elohim, commonly translated God in our Version, and Jehovah, translated Lord. Jehovah denotes specifically the one true God, whose people the Jews were, and who made them the guardians of His truth. The name is never applied to a false god, nor to any other being, ‘‘except One, the Angel Jehovah, who is thereby marked as one with God, and who appears again in the New Covenant as “God manifest in the flesh.”.

“The Jews’ abstained from pronouncing this name, for fear of its irreverent use. “The Name”, (Shema), is substituted by the Rabbis for the unutterable word. They also call it “the name of four letters” (J H V H), “the great and terrible name,” “the peculiar name,” “the separate name.” In reading the Scriptures they substituted for it Adonai (Lord). The substitution of the word is most unhappy. The mind has constantly to guard against a confusion with its lower uses. The key to the meaning of the name is unquestionably given in God’s revelation of Himself to Moses by the phrase, “I am that I am,” in connection with the statement that He was now first revealed by His name Jehovah. - Ex. 3:14; 6:3, (John 8:58). Jehovah expresses the essential, eternal, unchangeable Being of Jehovah. It is also a practical revelation of God, in His essential, unchangeable relation to His chosen people, the basis of His covenant. He was about, for the first time, fully to reveal that aspect of His character which the name implied - Jehovah.” The name Jehovah had been known from the beginning. - Gen 2.

Rev. Leon Tucker, prominent Baptist preacher and writer, in his book “Is Jesus Christ Creature or Creator?” writes the following: “Apart from the Scriptures we can know nothing of Jesus Christ. Apart from Jesus Christ we can know nothing of the Scriptures. The Word of God and the Son of God are eternal and inseparable, therefore to the child of God the Scriptures are imperative. The battle continues with ever increasing hate and hostility. The personal attributes of the Son of God are not only little understood, but much misunderstood. The means of the revelation of God is Christ. He is not only the conveyor of that revelation, but is the revelation itself.

“Scripture declares He was in the world from all time, existed before all time, and will be when time is no more. The Eternal Christ is the theme of the Scriptures. It takes a whole Bible to give us a whole Christ. Christ is from Eternity to Eternity in His character. Henry Ward Beecher in writing the Life of Christ said, “How can I finish the Life of Christ? a life which never began, and will never end.” “But thou, Bethlehem-Ephratah ... out of thee shall one come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting (the days of eternity).” - Micah 5:2.

“The Son was in the “bosom of the Father” because never unborn. Jesus Christ came from the “bosom of the Father.” He was God manifest in the flesh, but nevertheless God of all flesh, and before all flesh. He was not manifestation of God in the flesh, but was. “God manifest in the flesh.” He was before all things. - Col. 1:17. Isaiah refers to Him as “Father of Eternity.” - Isa. 9 :6. - Heb. Eternal life is “in the Son.” - I John 5:11, John 17:3. Natural life, spiritual life, and eternal life all come front Him. All the attributes of God are His and He is God.

“He pre-existed as God. - John 1:1. He was predicated as God - Isa. 9:6. He professed to be God. - John 5:18. He was proclaimed God. - I Tim. 3:16. He was promoted as God. - Heb. 1:8, 9. He was petitioned as God. - I Cor. 1:2. His perfections are God’s. - John 5:23, 58; 10:15, 28; 20:28. Matt. 18:20, Heb. 7:26. He created. - Col. 1:15, 17. He is “Providence,” - Heb. 1:3.

“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.” - Heb. 13:8. Human reason has always failed at the Christ. But the fact remains. Divine revelation can never sink to human reason, and human reason can never rise to divine revelation. The Bible says He is a Creator. - Col 1:15-20. The Bible says He is God. He is no less than the Creator of all things, whether they be atoms or angels, persons or planets. The Seraphim at the presence of His glory, covered their faces. - Isa. 6:1-8. John 12:39-41.

“In the beginning God,” (Gen. 1:1), and Christ is the beginning. He is before all time. He is the Alpha of all things. There was some one before there was anything. He was the One. Angels both faithful and fallen know Him if men do not. He is Lord of All. No, Jesus Christ is not a creature, He is the Creator. Whether in Creation or Redemption, Jesus Christ is the Absolute and all perfect expression of God. He is all of God and God is all of Christ. Let us speak out in these days of doubt and declension. The Christology of the Book is better than the philosophy of all books. Christ is “All and in all.” - Leon Tucker.

John Bunyan: “His (Jesus’) attributes, though apart laid down in the Word of God, that we, being weak, might the better conceive of his eternal power and Godhead; yet in him they are without division, one glorious and eternal being. The Godhead is but one, yet in the Godhead there are three. These three are called the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; each of which is really, naturally and eternally God; yet there is but one God. To each the Scripture applieth, and that truly, the whole nature of Deity.

“Adam heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the midst of the garden; which voice John will have to be one of the three, calling that which Moses here saith is the voice, the Word of God: “In the beginning was the Word,” the voice which Adam heard walking in the midst of the garden. This “Word was with God,” - “Word was God.” - John 1:1,2.

“Now the godly in former ages have called these three, in the Godhead, Persons or Subsistences; the which though I condemn not yet choose rather to abide by Scripture phrase. Thou must take heed when thou readest that there is in the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that thou do not imagine about them, according to thine own carnal and foolish fancy, and foolishly imagine about it. You find not one of the prophets propounding an argument to prove it; but asserting it, they let it lie, for faith to take it up and embrace it. The Godhead then, though it can admit of a Trinity, yet it admitteth not of inferiority in that Trinity; if otherwise then there must be less or more, and so either plurality of gods, or something that is not God.”

The infidel Renan “declared: “0, Thou Man of Galilee, Thou hast conquered; and henceforth no man shall be able to distinguish between thee and God. Banner of our contradictions! Thou wilt be the sign around which there will be fought the fiercest battles.” And it is so.

Napoleon, on the Island of St. Helena, in exile, said: “Alexander, Caesar, Charlemange and I have founded great empires; but upon what did these creations depend? Upon force. Jesus has founded his empire upon love, and to this very day millions would die for him. No one else is like Him. Jesus Christ was more than a man. I have inspired multitudes with such devotion that they would have died for me. But to do this it was necessary that I should be visibly present, with the electric influence of my looks, of my words, of my voice. Christ alone has succeeded in so raising the mind of man toward the unseen that it becomes insensible to the barriers of time and space. Across a chasm of 1800 years Jesus Christ makes a demand which is, above all others, difficult to satisfy. He demands it unconditionally, and forthwith his demand is granted. Time, the great destroyer, is powerless to extinguish the sacred flame. This it is which strikes me most.”

Some one has written of Napoleon: “Moved alternately by admiration, jealousy, and remorse at Jesus Christ, Napoleon unhesitatingly and in all sincerity denominated him “the man-God.” He marveled at the power of the symbol of the Cross to change mens’ lives. The thing that aroused his jealousy, admiration and remorse, was the fact that while he had led the world’s greatest armies to the slaughter and miserably failed either to retain a kingdom or the adherence of his followers, Jesus Christ had given his own life and secured an eternal kingdom, and the lasting admiration and fidelity of a world of true believers. Napoleon began by desiring to be a god. He ended by being hated and execrated by all.”

Editor E. N. Bell wrote as follows on Isa. 9:6: “Jesus was and is the Everlasting Father in the sense that he is the father of eternity, but not the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The idea is that Jesus existed before all time, though in the flesh he appeared in time; also that he originated or created all things. Isa. 9:6 does not discuss or refer to the Father in the N. T. sense. He is the father also of the “new creation,” even as the “first Adam” was of the old.”

Wm. H.’ Bennett, an English writer says: “The Everlasting Father,” Isa. 9:6, “The Father of the Everlasting Age, the One from whom spring the glory and blessedness of God’s new creation.”

Adam Clarke, speaking of the name for Jesus in the O. T., writes: “This is the famous tetragrammaton, or name of four letters, which we write Jehovah. The letters are J H V H. The Jews never pronounce it; and the true pronunciation is utterly unknown. This name the Jews never attempt to pronounce. When they meet with it in the Bible they read Adonai for it. To a man they all declare that no man can pronounce it; and that the true pronunciation has been lost; and that God alone knows its true interpretation and pronunciation.” It is evidently a mouthful for the Jews. It is “Jesus.”

Dr. Chas. H. Spurgeon, the great London preacher, wrote on I Timothy 3:l6: “Was it a man that was manifest in the flesh? Assuredly not, for every man is manifest in the flesh. This could not be called a mystery. Was it an angel? What angel was ever manifest in the flesh? And if it were would it be a mystery for him to be seen of angels? Could it have been the devil? If so, be has been: “received up into glory,” which, let us hope is not the case. Now, if it was neither of these three that was “manifest in the flesh,” then it must have been God.”

Declaration of Evangelical Association of the World: “Christ is supreme in God’s revelation to Man. Christ declared of himself: “He that seeth me seeth the Father also.” He was the brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of his person. Christ revealed the Fatherhood of God, of God, as well as the Saviorhood of man. There is no higher revelation of God than we have in Jesus Christ. “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself,” and the historical and experimental fact is a unique, and an unmatched revelation of God in the creation and redemption of man, the correct interpretation of God’s eternal purpose with man. Christ is the supreme revealer of God in human redemption.

Wyckliffe: “Our faith will not fail for it is founded on Jesus alone, our Master and our God. The mediator must needs be a man; but every man, being indebted to God for everything that he is able to do this man must needs have infinite merit, and be at the same time God.”

Jacob Boehme, A. D. 1624. “The way to oneness is to sink into the knowledge of the great and holy name of God, Jehovah or Jesus, as the living Word, that gives life to all things. In the only beloved Son, God is revealed.”

Hannah Whitall Smith: “The God who created us is the God who saves us. Not another God, for there is none beside Him, but the very God, our Creator himself. Some are apt to think of our Creator and our Savior as two Gods, with interests which are not identical. But we are told as plainly as words can tell it, that the Creator is also the Savior, and there is none beside.”

Chas. G. Finney, the Great Revivalist: “Only the Holy Ghost can reveal Christ as God so that the believing soul will be fast established in this truth and the fact become a sanctifying power in the heart.”

Pastor Paul, of Berlin, in a Book recently written, declares: “The Antichrist is about to set himself up as a man-God, and in keeping with this assumption his chief attack will be to overthrow the fact that Jesus Christ is God.” Antichrist will set himself forth in the temple of God as God. “He that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God, so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God.” - II Thessalonians 2:4. Then let us set Jesus Christ forth in our temple as the true God. Anti-christ is “against Christ.” “This is the true God, and eternal life,” - Jesus, - I John5:20. “Little children, keep yourselves from idols (false ideas of God).” - 1 John 5:21, - 20th Century Trans. Antichrist is subtly and surely paving the way for the complete denial of the Deity of Christ. It will become harder and more unpopular continually to preach this truth. God grant that our sympathies may be found on the right side, that we may not be found finally aiding the Antichrist. Any tendency or spirit to deny the full claims of Jesus Christ is necessarily antichrist, and in line with the Apostasy. The spirit of Antichrist rises up against and opposes the revelation of Jesus Christ, as God. It is a persecuting spirit, the “Mother Harlot” spirit. Just’ in the measure that men reject and oppose this full revelation of Christ they still possess the spirit of Antichrist, inherited through the “fall,” enmity with God;

Testimony of Suzuki Yasukei, a Japanese convert in Japan: “I am a man of 78 years of age and getting very old. I have been a member of Japanese old Buddhist temple for over 60 years, and I have learned many Korans, and I can pray like priests for the dead people and instruct others how they can go to a place where people live on water lily flowers all the time. That is what we call “Gokuraku,” a place of easy retirement. I thought it was the true way and no other way to go to that fine place, so I worshipped Buddha every morning, beating drum and burning incense, repeating the same each year without knowing peace in my heart. I thought, I can go to that place in this way. But this year in May I heard that a Christian tent meeting was going on at Kitagata Yochien waki, where people were finding real joy and peace through Yaso (Jesus Christ). I went to the tent, and found the true God and Savior. Although I wasted my whole life, thank God he has saved me even now before I die. He has become my personal Redeemer.

“A few days ago I saw a wonderful dream or vision. It was so real to me I will tell you all about it. I awakened early: and was meditating on God when I saw something with my eyes. As I looked up I saw a beautiful country and many people shouting hallelujah, as I heard in the mission, and I wanted to go there so much. Then at this time two priests ‘-came in to talk to me from the sidewalk and asked me. “Do you forsake us? Where are you going now? Come on with us to the temple.”But I said to them, You are dirty, wicked deceitful priests. You misled me, you fooled me, you cheated me; get out of my way. I hollered out like, that. Again Yaso (Jesus) appeared in a cloud, and took me on that same cloud to that beautiful, country which I had seen a few moments before. Oh, it was so beautiful! I never saw such a beautiful place since I was born. Jesus himself said to me, “You were honest, so I will give you a key to the treasure house of this country.” At this time I really found out the true God and Savior, Jesus Christ. I heard many people say, Kami (God), Yaso (Jesus), Miseire (Holy Spirit); I thought they were all different gods. But God is united with Yaso (Jesus) on the throne of God.” - From “The Toyo No Koe,” Japan. This old Japanese saint’s photo was printed with the article.

Sadhu Sundar Singh: “Sadhu Sundar Singh is known as the St. Paul of India. His life and experience have been apparently parallel to those of Apostolic days. He has visited the Orient, the Isle of Ceylon, European countries and, also the U. S. In a book written by a well known writer, the following is what Sundar Singh has to say on the subject of’ the Trinity: “At one time I was a good deal perplexed about the doctrine of the Trinity. I had thought of three separate persons, sitting as it were on three thrones, but it was all made plain to me in a vision. I entered into an ecstasy into the third heaven. I was told, it was the same to which St. Paul was caught up. And there I saw Christ in a glorious body sitting on a throne. Whenever I go there it is the same. Christ is always in the center, a figure ineffable and indescribable, His face shining like the Sun, but in no way dazzling, and so sweet that without any difficulty I can gaze at it – always smiling a glorious, loving smile.

“The first time I entered heaven I looked around and I asked; “But where is God?” And they told me, “God is not to be seen here any more than on earth, for God is Infinite. But there is Christ, He is God. He is the image of the invisible God, and it is only in Him that we can see God, in Heaven as on earth.” And streaming out from Christ I saw, as it were, waves shining and peace giving, and going through and among the saints and angels, and everywhere bringing refreshment, just as in hot weather water refreshes trees; and this I understood to be the Holy Spirit.”

Some one has beautifully and truly written the following: “The central theme of the Word of God is Jesus Christ. In Genesis He is the Creator, in Exodus He is the Passover Lamb, in Leviticus He is the Offering, in Numbers He is represented in type, in Deuteronomy He fills the reviews, in Joshua He is the Captain of the Lord’s Host, in Judges He is the Righteous Judge, in Ruth He is the Husband, in Samuel He is the Prophet of the prophets, in Kings and Chronicles He is the King of kings and Lord of lords, in Ezra He is the Restorer of His people, in Nehemiah He is the Protector of His people, in Esther He is the Preserver of His people, in Job He is the Redeemer that liveth, in Psalms He is the Shepherd King-Messiah, in Proverbs He is the Wise Man, in Ecclesiastes He is the only One under the sun in whom there is no vanity, in Songs of Solomon He is the Bridegroom-Lover. The major and minor or the pre-exilic, exilic, and post-exilic prophets especially portray in minute and comprehensive detail the exact events that cluster around the two advents of Christ. In Matthew He is the King-Messiah, in Mark He is the Servant-Messiah, in Luke He, is the Man-Messiah, and in John He is the God-Messiah. The historic, epistolary and apocalyptic letters all reveal the one personage. - Jesus Christ.”

Chapter 3

J. Merle D’Aubigne, author of “History of the Reformation,” wrote in the middle of the 19th century: “What is Jesus Christ if He be not God in history? Is not this great truth, that God has appeared in human nature, in reality the keystone of the arch? History records a birth of God, and yet God has no part in history. Jesus Christ is the true God of man’s history. God appeared among men, and as man, to save that which was lost. In Jesus of Nazareth dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”

Martin Luther declared: “Christ is the one, sole, and true God (1 John 5:20). When you have Him for your God, you have no other gods.” He also declared, “Thy repentance and thy works may deceive thee, but Christ, thy God, wilt not deceive thee.” To Pope Leo, Luther wrote, “Christ who is God and man. Christ who has never sinned, and whose holiness is immaculate. Christ the Almighty and Everlasting.”

Melancthon, Luther’s co-laborer, “quoted often Homer, Plato, Cicero, Pliny and others, for he was a great scholar, but Christ ever remained his Master and his God.” - D’Aubigne.

Zwingle declared: “Christ, who is very God, and very man. Since it was the eternal God who died for us, his passion is therefore an eternal sacrifice. - Acts 20:28. Proceeding from the Father, he (Christ) is God, and consequently present in every place. According to his human nature, he was absent from heaven while be was upon the earth, and quitted the earth when he ascended into heaven; but, according to his divine nature, he remained in heaven when he came down thence (the Logos), and did not abandon the earth, when he returned thither.”

Staupitz, the spiritual father of Luther, said: “We cannot understand God outside of Jesus Christ. In Him, the Lord has said, you will find what I am, and what I require. Nowhere else, neither in heaven nor in earth, will you discover it.”

Dr. Albert Eby, Wilshire Presby. Church Pastor, writes: “The only perfect man in all history or experience was God Himself, manifest in the flesh. He is also revealed as the indwelling Holy Spirit.”

Wm. Conant, in his Magazine, “Salvation,” some years ago wrote the following: “It is the grand theological error of separating the Father and the Son, as two in this sacrifice (the atonement), in the suffering of it and the love in it, that has perverted the doctrine to an impossibility for the moral mind, and has been answerable for the defection of millions of souls from the Gospel of Christ. An intelligent Scriptural correction of this error in the theology of the church must be the means of arresting the present already stupendous apostasy.”

Wm. H. Bennett, a well known English writer, in his book, “The Person of the Lord Jesus Christ,” has written as follows: “The Lord Jesus Christ was when on earth, and is now in heaven, absolutely, both God and man. He is truly God. He is truly man. From His incarnation and birth He was, He is, and He ever will be both God and man.

“In Isa. 6, we read that the prophet saw. One seated upon a throne, high and lifted up, before Whom seraphim covered themselves. That this was the very One who afterwards trod the earth in humiliation, is declared by the Apostle John. - John 12:41, Isa. 7:14; 9:6. “Jehovah our Righteousness.” - Jer. 23:6. “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” - John.1:1. The beginning of which John speaks is a beginning that is beginningless, not the beginning of creation (Gen. 1:1). The “Word was.” Essential being was His. “Before Abraham was I Am.” - John 8:58. He is revelation of God. - John 1:18.

“The Lord Jesus is spoken of chiefly as the Son of God, But this expression denotes nothing less than oneness, with the Father, and possession of all the attributes of Godhead.” I and the Father are one.”. -_John 10:30, - Greek. “The Jews. answered him “For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.” - John 10:33. They had understood that he applied to himself that title by which Jehovah was revealed to Moses - (Ex. 3). “Before Abraham was I am” - John 8:58. The Jews understood his meaning. – John 1:36 (He was the Logos, the Word that “was God.” - John 1:1, “equal with God.” John 5:18, Phil. 2:6.)

“St. Paul is declaring that in the Son there dwells all the fullness of absolute Godhead, they were no mere rays of Divine glory which gilded Him, lighting up His Person for a season and with a splendor not His own, but He was, and is, absolute and perfect God.” The Son of God is the exact and full expression of what God is, which He could not be if He were not Himself God.

“In Rev. 1, Christ is associated with the eternal God as the equal source of grace and peace; in Rev. 5, He is equally with Him who sits on the throne, the object of universal worship; in Rev. 22, He is seen as sharing with God the throne of the new creation. In Rev. 22:13, He describes Himself by the words which in Rev. 1:8 are the utterance of the Lord God. “I am the Alpha and the Omega.” While in that same verse, as well as in Rev. 1:17, He declares Himself to be “the First and the Last.” This prerogative is three times claimed for the Lord Jehovah, in Isa. 41:4; 44:6; 48:12, and in like manner three times in Revelation, 1:17; 2:8; 22:13. It is the expression of absolute Godhead, “I am the First and the Last, and beside Me there is no god” (Isa. 44:6). He is from eternity to eternity, so that there is no room for any other.

“Godhead in all its fulness, and manhood in all its perfectness, are united in the Christ of God. He appeared to Ezekiel by the river Chebar with “the likeness as the appearance of a man” (Ezek. 1:1,26), as He had previously manifested Himself to Moses in the bush, and to Isaiah in the temple. But when He came into the world to dwell for a season, He took on “flesh.” Phil 2:541, - ”made himself of no reputation” is what is meant by “emptying himself.” He had not and could not empty Himself of His Godhead. He became what He before was not; but He had not ceased to be what He was. He divested Himself of all outward expressions of Divine glory. He abased Himself.

“In all revelations of God it was by the Son that He revealed Himself. - John 1:18. Gen. 18:1:2, - one of these was the Lord. Gen. 16:7; 32:24, Ex. 3:2, Joshua 5:15. These were all appearances of the Angel of Jehovah (Jesus Christ), in a form suitable to the occasion. It is true that Daniel had a glorious vision of “one like unto the Son of Man” (‘a son of man.’ - R. V.), receiving the kingdom from “The Ancient of Days,” but he is careful to tell us that it was a dream and visions of his head upon his bed.” – Dan. 7:13, 14.

“Heb. 1:2, He is declared to be the Son, but in v. 8, He is addressed as God. Heb. 1:10 (Ps. 102:25), He is addressed as Jehovah. Bishop Beveridge says, “If Jesus were God only, and not man, He could not suffer anything whereby to satisfy Divine justice; if man only and not God, He could not satisfy even though He suffered. If man only, His satisfaction could not be sufficient for God; if God only, it would not be suitable for man. And therefore to be capable of suffering for man, and able to satisfy God, Himself must be both God and man.” He was “the Man that is My fellow.” - Zech. 13:7. (John 10:30.)

The deeper our sense of the true glory and fulness of our Lord, the deeper will be our confidence in Him, and the truer will be our confidence in Him, and the truer will be our reverence in speaking of Him.” – W. H. Bennett.

Dr. A. C. Dixon, speaking of Sir Oliver Lodge said “But I want to know, does this man believe in Jesus Christ as the eternal God, who made the world and the ether; and the atoms, and everything else that was made. And does he bow his knee and worship Him? If he does not, he is on the other side - against God.

“You don’t need anybody if you will just take “Jesus only.” And what we need is not to consult with spirits, but trust the Holy Spirit of God, looking up into the face of Jesus and worship Him, and love Him, and serve Him, and “Jesus only” will make us triumphant over sin, and sorrow, and death, and hell. Jesus only is what we need.” - Christian Alliance Weekly.

Editor Stanley Frodsham: “Every Bible student knows that since no man hath seen God (the Father) at any time, that the Lord Jehovah who manifested Himself to prophet and patriarch so often in olden times, was none other than the only begotten Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is the one, according to John, who has declared or made the Father known (John 1:18).

Pastor Harry Morse writes: “Today I see a Christ that is high over all, with all power in heaven and earth, Matt. 28:18; and with a name that is above every name. – Phil. 2:9. People are trying to strip our Lord of His divinity, and also one is about to come in his own name.” - John 5:43. This being will be the Antichrist. - I John 2:18.”

God calls Himself Israel’s Savior, - ”For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. - Isa. 43:3. “I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no savior.” - Isa. 43:11. “A just God and a savior; there is none beside me.” - Isa. 45:21. “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.” - I Tim. 2:3. “According to the commandment of God our Savior.” - Titus 1:3. “That they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.” – Titus 2:10. “Looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” - Titus 2:13 R. V. “But when the kindness of God our Savior.” – Titus 3:4. “To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and greatness, might and authority, both now, and to all ages.” - Jude 25 (Greek).

Shepherd: Compare Isa. 40:10, 11, with John. 10:11, I Peter 5:4. Rock: “II Sam. 22:47, Ps. 62:2; 78:35. “They drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ.” - I Cor. 10:4. Some think the children of Israel got their water continually from this Rock in the desert. King: “And the Lord shall be king over all the earth; in that day shall the Lord be one, and his name one.” - Zech. 14:9. “Until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ; which in its own times he shall show who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords.” - I Tim. 6:14, 15, R. V. “And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.” - Rev. 19:16. The I AM: “Ex. 3:14; 6:3, John 8:58. The First and Last: Isa. 41:4; 43:10, 44:6; 48:12, Rev. 1:17; 22:13.”

Pastor D. W Kerr: “There are some things of which the written word of God speaks, which are, and always will be, too deep and high for us to understand. He has not told us how He can be a Father without beginning, nor how He can. Have a Son without beginning; nor how there can be a Holy Ghost without beginning. In other words, the Bible does not tell us how there can be a Father, a Son, and a Holy Ghost, who always was, is now, and ever shall be, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. The Veil is the flesh of Christ. - Heb. 10:20, It in the “Word made flesh.” On the one side, God. On the other side man, the God-man.”

Justin Martyr, beheaded at Rome, A. D., 167, wrote: That ye might also know God, who came from above and became man among men. And who is again to return, when they who pierced Him shall see and bewail Him.”

Clemens Alexandrinus, a friend of Iraneaus (who suffered martyrdom A. D., 202), says: “Believe, O man, in Him who is both man and God; believe, O man, in Him who suffered death, and yet is adored as the living God.”

Thomas Chatterton, an English poet, wrote: “A humble form the Godhead wore, the pains of poverty He bore, to gaudy pomp unknown. Tho’ in a human walk He trod, still was the Man Almighty God, in glory all His own.”

Thomas B. Macauly, English historian, writes: “It was before Deity embodied in human form, walking among men, that the prejudices of the synagogue and the doubts of the academy, the faces of the victors and the swords of thirsty legions were humbled in the dust.”

Frances B. Willard, American Temperance reformer, said in her last words: “I am safe with Him. I have always believed in Christ. He is the incarnate God.”

Chas. H. Spurgeon wrote: “In heaven, in earth, in hell, all knees bend before Him, and every tongue confesses that He (Christ) is God.”

“Be a valiant soldier, routing every sin. Sing His praise, sing His praise. Christ the great Jehovah, will be sure to win. Sing His praise, sing His praise.” - I. O. Brown.

“Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, save in the death of Christ, my God. All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.” - Isaac Watts.

Dictionary of Apostolic Church, by Jas. Hastings, D. D.: “The revelation of the Son is the revelation of the, Father. - 1 John 1:2. “Neither doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him.” - Matt. 11:27. The Holy Ghost is in one breath called by St. Paul the “Spirit of God,” and “the Spirit of Christ.” - Rom. 8:9, Titus 3:4-6, Eph. 4:4. “I am in the Father, and the Father in me.” - John 14:10.”

People who imagine they could view God’s unveiled presence and live do not know God. - Deut. 4:12-16. It is said by those who work among them that both Jews and Moslems believe that christians worship three gods (are idolators). Would it not be better to preach to them “God manifest in the flesh,” in the person of Jesus Christ?

“The voice of one that crieth, Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God.” - Isa. 40:3, 9; “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ye ready the way of the Lord. Make His paths straight.” - Matt. 3:3.

Ancient Jacobite copies of the N. T. read: “For God himself, in his grace, tasted death for all men.” - Heb. 2:9. “To feed the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.” - Acts 20:28.

A certain writer has added the following on the subject of the Godhead: “God’s one great being is a spiritual Being, and not angelic nor human, but He is just like Himself, and nothing can be compared with Him - Isa. 4:13, 18, 25. “Seven spirits of God” are the complete spiritual essence or subsistence of that one great Spiritual Being, just like the seven churches make a perfect spiritual body of Christ. These seven spirits of God are attributed to Jesus Christ (Rev. 1:4; 3:1; 4:5). “This proves our Lord to be the very God of the ”seven spirits” in his Deity. God has “one face.” - Rev. 22:4, II Cor. 4:6.”

“Christ is Jehovah of Glory.” - Ps. 24:7, 10; I Cor. 2:8;, J5: 21. Jehovah our Righteousness. - Jer. 23:5, 6, I Cor. 1:30. Jehovah’s Fellow and Equal. - Zech. 13:7, Phil. 2:6. Jehovah a Stone of Stumbling. - Isa. 8:13, 14, I Peter 2:8. Jehovah as the Mighty God. - Ps. 50:1, Isa. 9:6, Rev. 1:8. Jehovah as the true God. – “The Lord is the true God, and an everlasting king (king of eternity)” – Jer. 10:10, 1 John 5:20. Jehovah as Creator. Isa. 40:28, John 3:3, Col. 1:16. Jehovah raises Himself from the dead: John 2:19-2; 10:13. Jehovah is Eternal: Isa. 9:6, Micah 5:2, John 1:1, Col. 1:17. Jehovah as Husband: Isa: 54:5; 62:5, Eph. 5:25-32, Rev.21:2, 9.

Jesus Christ is the Jehovah-God of the O. T. Scholars have agreed in giving to the Son of God, Jesus Christ, our Lord the following names, titles, and character: “God. - John 1:1, Matt. 1:23, Isa.. 40:3. God whose throne is forever and ever. - Heb. 1:8. The Mighty God. - Isa. 9:6. The Everlasting God. - Isa. 40:28. The true God. - I John 5:20. My Lord and God. - John 20:28: God my Savior. - Luke 1:47. God over all. - Rom. 9:5. The God of the whole earth. - Isa; 54:5. God manifest in the flesh. - I Tim. 3:16. Our God and Savior. - II Peter 1:1. Our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Titus 2:13, R. V.

“Where Jesus is called Jehovah: “Isa. 4:3, 10; 6:3, John 12:41, Zech. 14:5, Hosea 12:4, 5, Gen. 32:24, Ps. 24:8, Jer. 23:6. Other Scriptures applied to Christ: Rev. 1:8, Col. 1:16, Heb. 1:3, etc. All these Scriptures have been applied to Jesus Christ by the best scholars and translators we have in the land, outside the Pentecostal Movement.

Another writer pens the following: Christ is God. To deny that Christ is God robs him of all his glory. He is both God and man. It is this veil, or mystery, that has hidden Jehovah from His people, the Jews. - John 1:11, II Cor. 3:14-18. God is veiled in Jesus Christ. “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord.” - Deut. 6:4. The personal, visible form of God was Jesus Christ, and today the Christ with us and in us is “that Spirit” (the Holy Spirit) - II Cor. 3:17. “And it shall be said in that day Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him and he will save us, this is the Lord (Jehovah); we have waited for him; we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” - Isa. 25:6-9.

The Jews declared that they knew God the Father. But Jesus alone can reveal the Father. The Mohammedans claim to know God the Father. But they look upon Jesus’ sacrificial death with unspeakable hatred. Jesus Christ is the Mighty God. “He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.” - Rev. 21:7, Isa. 9:6. It is the “veil of flesh” assumed by the Mighty God that causes men to stumble. - II Cor. 5:16.

A Missionary in India, M. F. Clemenger, recently wrote a brother in Orebro, Sweden: “One comes in touch with individuals who tell us that they believe on Jesus and know that they are saved. Others tell ‘us that they believe that Jesus is the true and living God. Some tell us that they do not know who the living God is; he may be Allah, or Jesus, or some one else. We tell them, “Jesus is the true and living God. He alone has given his life for you.” One asked, “If I accept Jesus, am I not to take the name of any other gods?” We told him, “Jesus is the only true God, and he will not give his glory to another.” Some say, “The Mohammedans say that Allah is God, you say that Jesus Christ is God, and we say others. How are we to know who is God?” (Did not the missionary do right in telling them that Jesus Christ was God?)

Still another writer adds: “In Ex. 3:13, 14, we read that Moses asked God His name, and God, speaking from the burning bush answered, “I AM THAT I AM. Thus shalt thou say unto the Children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” Our Lord Jesus Christ is the I AM. - John 8:58. No wonder Jews wanted to stone him. They understood him to claim that name for himself. They did not realize that the same I AM who spoke to Moses out of the burning bush, and descended before Moses in the cloud (Ex. 34:5), proclaiming his name, was standing in their midst in the form of a man. There was a terrible splendor about that name that inspired awe and fear. The Jews in times past, as the orthodox Jews do still, reverence that name so much that they do not dare to pronounce it, but substitute in its place “Adonai.” Moses admonished the Children of Israel to fear this glorious and fearful name. - Deut. 28:58, Ex. 23:21.

“John 4:26, - ”I am, who am speaking unto thee.” John 6:20, - “I am; fear not.” John 8:28, - “then shall ye know that I am.” John 18:5, - “Jesus says to them, I am.” John 8:24, 28, - “If ye believe not that I am, ye will die in your sins.” “Then ye shall know that I am.” These are the literal Greek renderings of the above passages. “I am, the bread of life.” “I am, the light of the world.” I am, the door.” I am, the good shepherd.” I am, he resurrection and the life.” “I am, the Alpha and the Omega, which is, and which was, and which is to come.” “I am, the bright and morning star.” - John 6:35, 9:5; 10:7, 11, 15:1, Rev. 1:8; 22:16, In fact, He is everything we need. – Col. 2:9, 10.

Pentecostal Herald: As God made the “first Adam” the father of all living, He made Christ the “second Adam,” to all who come to him for eternal life. The first Adam’s children all die. But the second Adams children are children of an Eternal Father. Christ is an “Everlasting Father” - Isa. 9:6.

Dr. Joseph G. Kennedy, in “Pentecostal Herald”: “Did not Jesus Christ do for man in the New Dispensation what Jehovah did for them in the Old? We cannot escape the conclusion that Jehovah and Jesus Christ are one and the same person. The disciples in their writings ascribed the Jehovah attributes to Jesus Christ.

“Eternal Existence: Gen. 21:33, Rev. 1:18. Creation: Gen. 2:4, John 1:1-3. Omniscience: Ps. 139:1-4, John 2:24, 25. Unchangeableness: Mal. 3:6, Rev. 13:8. Universal Triumph: Ps. 92:9, I Cor. 15:25. Universal Dominion: Zech. 14:9, Rev. 11:15. Universal Supremacy: Ps. 89:6-9, Phil. 2:9. Universal Worship: Ps. 22:27, Phil. 2:10.

“Savior: Isa. 43:11, Luke 19:10. Life: Deut. 30:20, John 1:4. Light: Ps. 27:1; John 9:5. Truth: Ps 31:5; John 14:6. Forgiver of Sins: Ps. 103:2, 3, Luke 7:47-50, Matt. 9:2-6: Lord of Sabbath: Ex. 20:10, Matt. 12:8. Judge of World: Ps. 98:9, John 5:22, Matt. 16:27. Received Worship: Ps. 99:5, John 9:38, Matt. 28:9, 17, Rev. 5:6-14.

“When Jehovah was revealing the particulars concerning the Messiah which was to come, He must of necessity speak of Him in the third person, though it was Himself that was to be incarnated into human nature, for this indeed was to be a new creation as a God-man, mediator, and sacrifice for sin. Men were saved in O. T. times, as in our day, by faith in God through the Mediator between God and man, knowing little or nothing perhaps of the real meaning of the atonement, yet trusting in the Mediator.” - Pentecostal Herald.

Missionary R. E. Bass, writes from China: “It would be no mystery if we knew there were simply three separate persons operating in unity and with one thought (in the Godhead). Jesus Christ is the image of “the invisible God.” - Col. 1 ;15, I Tim. 1:17; We need to believe and honor Jesus Christ today for what He really is, “the Mighty God,” “the true God,” “the only wise God.” “The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel” - Rev. 22:6, I Peter 1:11. “I, Jesus, have sent mine angel.” - Rev,.22:16. “To sum up all things in Christ.” - Eph. 1:10, R. V. “In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” - Col. 2:9. We are to look for the true God and the Father nowhere else but in Jesus Christ. So after all it was God (manifest in the flesh) who laid down His life for us. “Which things angels desire to look into.” - I Peter 1:12. (A mystery they cannot understand. The incarnation of Deity.)

Elder D. Vervalin, in Pentecostal Herald: There is but one Holy Spirit; not one Holy Spirit in the Father, another Holy Spirit in the Holy Spirit, and another Holy Spirit in the Son. There is one body and one Spirit. - Eph. 4:4. In Rom. 8:9, the Spirit of God that dwells in us is called the Spirit of Christ.

“There is one God in his trinity. God is a name for Him in his trinity. Father is the name for God as to His essential character: the One who is always unseen and who causes all action and plans all things.

“The Holy Spirit is the name for God as the worker, or doer; the one who acts and performs. There is not a verb in the Bible referring to God’s action, but is asserting such action as the Holy Spirit action.

“The special name given to the Holy Spirit to designate the action of giving birth is the “Spirit of Christ.” To those who have been born again and have the Spirit of Christ, God gives this same Holy Spirit to personally operate man by filling man’s spirit and body with the Holy Spirit, direct personal action of man, for purpose of service, first and primarily to God in worship, and secondarily the service toward men.

Jesus never said He would send us another Spirit, but another Advocate. John 14:16 and I John 2:1.

“The Son is the name of God when He manifests Himself to any of His creatures, taking a form that will enable His creatures to comprehend him. Everything made and brought to sight is by the Son. “All things were made by Him.” - John 1:3, Col. 1:16-17, Heb. 1:2, etc.

“Man himself is made in the image of God and is in his trinity; spirit, soul, body. Man does not have three spirits in himself, one in his spirit, one in his soul, and one in his body, but has one spirit only.

“So is God in whose image we are made. The Father is not the Son, nor is the Holy Spirit the Son - though the three are one; even as man’s spirit is not his body nor his soul his body, though the three: spirit, soul, and body make one man.

“The water that gushes out into a living spring may have come from a greater reservoir and may run for a long way through an underground channel, but it is not a different water from that in the reservoir or in the channel.

“The water in the ever unseen reservoir is the Father. The water ever in action and running in the channel is the Holy Spirit. The water coming in view in the spring to refresh the weary is the Son: It is JESUS, the Water of Life.”

J. Munro Gibson, M. A.; D. D., in his book “Christianity according to Christ,” published m London, England, 1888: “The Fullness of God in Christ,” –

“The name of God is that by which He has made Himself known to us, specially in the course of revelation; above all, the two great names of “Jehovah” in the Old Testament and “Jesus” in the New.

As to the name of “Jesus,” while the sweetness has never been crushed out of it, as it has out of the rich and precious Old Testament name yet it has not been so closely identified with the Divine Being as it ought to have been. In their zeal for personal distinctions in the Holy Trinity, theologians have been too often tempted to forget such passages as these - “No man cometh unto the Father but by Me,” “I and my Father are One,” “I am the Truth.” etc.; and so they have attempted to unfold a knowledge of God apart from His Son Christ Jesus; that is to say, a knowledge of God apart from that Name by which He has made Himself known to us.

“Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.” Consider, then, that in order to meet this reasonable appeal (for, if He be our Father, why should He not show Himself to us?) it is necessary that there should be some visible form; and if some visible form, it needs little consideration to decide which it is likely to be. “He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father.”

The Man Christ Jesus is the face of God to us. By looking at Him we become acquainted with our Father in heaven; not otherwise; “No man cometh unto the Father but by Me.”

Here, in the face of Jesus Christ, is “the knowledge of the glory of. God.” There is no other possible facility for knowing God. Even at the best and fullest our knowledge will remain but partial and inadequate. It will be far from absolute knowledge.

So the whole knowledge of the Father is provided in Christ. We are “complete in Him.” From all this it follows that those who would know God must seek Him in Christ.

First, it is not the absolute essence of Deity that we are to seek; it is His face, what of Him is turned to us, so that we can see and recognize Him. Hence the prominence given to “the Name of God.”

The word “Trinity” does not occur in Scripture, nor is there anything to be found there corresponding to those complicated formulas by which (notably in the so-called Athanasian Creed) theologians have tried to define the relations of Father, Son and Holy Ghost. If theologians had only followed the Scriptures in this respect, how many bitter controversies might have been spared, and how many needless difficulties and perplexities would have been avoided.

“I am the Life,” says the Lord Jesus, claiming thus the special prerogative of the Holy Spirit. What Christian minister has not again and again been consulted by good people, who were in some perplexity as to which of the Three Persons of the Trinity they should address themselves to. Some have, even been afraid they might pray too much to one Person and thus create jealousy between them.

“There is no knowledge of the Spirit apart from the knowledge of Christ. In fact, so complete is the identification that the Lord speaks of the Spirit’s coming as His own. - John 14.

The presence of Jesus was to be withdrawn in one sense, but restored in another: it was to be withdrawn in an inferior degree, to be restored in a far better way;. it was to be withdrawn after the flesh and restored in the Spirit; it was to be withdrawn as a human presence and restored as a Divine presence; it was to be withdrawn as a local presence, and restored as omnipresence; it was to be withdrawn as an occasional and temporary presence, and restored as a perpetually abiding presence; all of which is implied in the transition from the preposition with to the preposition in.

“No man can say Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit.” We must find a point of vital contact with the Spirit of God, and this is found only in His Son Jesus Christ.

Again and again Jesus speaks of the coming of the Spirit as equivalent to His own coming again to continue the work that He had begun on earth. It was His Spirit that He was speaking of. He ascended to His Father and ours, and His Spirit came to guide the disciples into all truth.

The Bible is not responsible for the formula so generally used of “Three in and One, and One in Three.” While God may be said to be Three as well as One, it is certainly never meant that He is or can be Three and One in the same sense.

The Father is presented to our thoughts as God invisible, inaccessible; the Son, as God manifest; the Spirit, as God working. Though the Word is eternal, the Incarnate Word had, a beginning; and though the Spirit is eternal, the indwelling Spirit dates from Pentecost. The Eternal Spirit came as the Spirit of the Son. The Incarnation prepared the way for the Indwelling; the Indwelling crowned the Incarnation by rendering it practically universal and perpetual.

The Incarnate Word and the Indwelling Spirit have almost lost their connection among Christians. “The Comforter,” “the Paraclete,” is always understood of the Spirit; and it seems rarely to suggest itself to the minds of Christians that the Lord “Jesus” has equal claim to the title.

He who came before as the Spirit of God is now come as the Spirit of the Lord Jesus. His coming is, to all intents and purposes, the coming of the Lord Jesus Himself.” “I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you.” “God manifested in the flesh,” was “justified in the Spirit.” The “only begotten Son,” by His atoning death took away the sin of the world, and gave His Holy Spirit.

“At that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.” - John 14:20. The Saints of old did not have this knowledge. Nor did the disciples of Christ reach it in the days of His flesh. They had as yet no experience of being in Him, and He in them.

The Father, Son and Holy Ghost are all in Jesus Christ. “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” Father, Son and Holy Ghost are all here, each found in Him, so that our thoughts are not to leave Christ when they pass to the Father or to the Holy Spirit. Christ is all - in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

Now this is manifestly the way in which we are intended to realize to ourselves the truth about God as Father, as Son, as Holy Spirit - not by wandering away into the infinite, but sitting at the feet of Jesus and looking up into His face.

The reason why some get into difficulty and perplexity is their perverse determination - notwithstanding all the directions and cautions the Master has given - to seek a separate knowledge of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They wish to know God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They wish to Know God the Father, and in order to find Him, they look away from Christ, instead of at Him. They gaze into the infinite unknown instead of looking at the face of Jesus. And when they think of the Spirit, again they must have this as a separate region of theological lore.

So again they look away from the face of Jesus to find somewhere else God the Holy Spirit. If they would have what they are vainly seeking, they would have three Gods instead of one, as practically many Christians have, for they actually have great difficulty sometimes as to which of the three to go to.

It is very easy to show how utterly needless all this perplexity is, and how thoroughly unscriptural are all these notions out of which it grows. There is only one Person, to whom any one can go, and, that Person is Christ. We should go to Him always, under all circumstances, with our prayers, with our tears, with our longings, with our doubts, with our difficulties, with our troubles, with our innumerable wants.

When we say “Our Father,” we must look to Christ, for He plainly tells us that we cannot reach the Father but by Him. Christ Himself says, as plainly as tongue can express it, that it’s impossible to know the Father apart from Him. “No man, cometh unto the Father but by Me.” And when even after that plain statement the still puzzled disciple says, “Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us,” what can the Master do but repeat the same truth in still more emphatic terms, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” Do you not know Me yet? Who can suppose that Philip retained his perplexity after so clear an answer? Why should any one be perplexed now?

Christ is the only way, and those who turn away from Him set their faces to the outer darkness. The same considerations apply to those who perplex and confuse themselves by trying to have a knowledge of the Spirit apart from their knowledge of Christ. Our Savior claims, Himself to be the Life, as well as the Truth.

He speaks of the giving of “another Comforter,” but, when He comes He will not speak of Himself, but “He shall take of the things of Mine and show it unto you”. So complete is their identification that the Lord speaks of His coming as His own coming: “I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you.” “At that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.”

“I am in the Father” - there is the doctrine of the Father. “Ye in Me” - there is the doctrine of the Son. “I in you” - there is the doctrine of the Spirit. If we think of the Father, there is Christ – “I am in the Father, and the Father in Me.” If we think of the Son, union to Christ is the practical thought - “ye in Me.” If we think of the Holy Spirit, the practical thought is Christ in us – “I in you.”

It comes to this, that practically Christ is all in all. “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” It is “I am” all the way through. The divine name is all in Christ. “Hear, O Israel ! The Lord our God is one Lord.” The unsearchable God has made Himself known to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But all that there is for us in the Father - all that there is for us in the Son - all that there is for us in the Holy Spirit – is manifest in Christ.

He is all and in all. All praise and glory to Christ the Son - the only Revealer of the Father - the only Fountain of the Spirit. Let our prayers always be to Him, whether we are looking at the Father as revealed in Him, or whether we are looking at Him, as the source whence flow the streams of the Spirit’s life.

Whether we are thinking of the invisible God quite out of our reach, or the invisible Spirit proceeding from Him and entering into us, the eye of faith is ever directed to Him who is for us the face of God. “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Light shining out of darkness suggests the Father; shining in our hearts suggests the Spirit; shining reflected from the face of Jesus Christ - there is the Son. There is only one face to look at - only one direction for the eye to take. All is simple as when one speaks to a friend.” – J. Munro Gibson.

Mrs. J. Penn-Lewis: “Now for a moment pass on to Acts 2, and read it in the light of John 14:20; for, as we have seen, it is the Lord’s foreshadowing of what would occur to the disciples inwardly when the Holy Ghost came down, and filled the house where they were sitting. The disciples knew as the Spirit of God came, that Christ was God in very truth, that the Man they had seen go up into heaven had reached the unseen Father, and was, as He had said, “In the Father” - one with Him. Very God of very God.”

Carl M. Nichelsen, in Pentecostal Evangel”: “God allows no man to become ‘familiar’ with Him. Some are daring enough to attempt to put God under their mental microscope in order to determine the make-up of His character, and, measure the mighty Jehovah by their intellectual tape lines, and other human standards. At the very sight of the Almighty, the breath of man would instantly leave him. God must be known some other way, by revelation to man’s inner consciousness. Although God has outwardly manifested Himself at times, His Deity was always veiled. Even in the case of the outer manifestation of God, through Jesus Christ, to Saul on the way to Damascus, the sight blinded him and struck him to the ground.”

Sunday School Times, July 30, 1921: “Look unto me and be ye saved.” - Isa. 45:18-24. Compare v. 22, with John 1:29. The Jehovah of the Old Covenant is the Jesus of the New. The two are one. The Jews’ Jehovah is the world’s Savior.”

Some one has written the following facts on the Memorial Name: “Elohim in its first occurrence connects it, with creation, and gives it its essential meaning as the Creator. Elohim is God, the living God, the power of creation. (John 1:3, Col. 1:15-17, Rev. 3:14; 4:11.) He first assumes a creature form, though spiritual in nature (Gen. 12:7; 32:24-30, Isa. 6:1-5), afterwards the human form, for the purpose of redeeming mankind. (John 1:14, Heb. 2:9, 14, 16, 17, Phil. 2:7, Rom. 8:3.) That Elohim, in His creature form spiritually, who appeared to the patriarchs and prophets, is the same who appeared in a human form 1900 years ago to Israel, can be clearly seen by the following Scriptures: Gen. 17:1-3, Ex. 6:2, 3, with John 8;56-58, Isa. 6:1-8, with John 12:41-45.

“Jehovah: “While Elohim is God as the Creator of all things, Jehovah is the same God in covenant relation to those whom He has created, Jehovah means the Eternal, the Immutable One; He who was, and is, and is to come. - Gen. 21:33. He is especially, therefore, the God of Israel; and the God of those who are redeemed, and are thus now “in Christ.”

“The Jehovah Titles: “Jehovah-Jireh. - Gen. 22:14. Jehova-Ropheka. - Ex. 15:26. Jehovah-Nissi. - Ex. 17:15. Jehovah-Mekaddishkem - Ex. 31:13. Jehovah-Shalom - Judges 6:24, Jehovah-Zabaoth. - I Sam’l 1:3, etc. Jehovah-Zidkenu. – Jer. 23:6. Jehovah-Shammah. - Ezek. 48:25. Jehovah Elyon. - Ps. 7:17. Jehovah-Roi. - Ps. 23:1. Jah is Jehovah in a special sense and relation. Jehovah as having become our salvation - Ps 68:4, (Ex 15:2).

“Which of these names and titles, with their meanings, do we not find incorporated in the Name of Jesus, The Psalmist declared, “Thou East magnified thy Word above all thy name.” - Ps. 138:2. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh.” John 1:1,14. “His name shall be called Jesus.” - Matt. 1:21-23. And He has been given “a name which is above every name” - Eph. 1:21-23, Phil. 2:9.

“When Jacob wrestled with the angel he sought to obtain the secret name, but was prohibited. - Gen. 32:29. When Moses sought to obtain the secret name, all that he received from the angel in the burning bush was, “I am that I am.” - Ex. 3:14. The Children of Israel were led by the Angel of the Lord, and Jehovah said, “Beware of him; for my name is in him.” - Ex. 23:21. To Manoah, the Jehovah Angel replied, “Why askest thou after my name, seeing it is secret (Wonderful).” - Judges 13:8. The prophet Isaiah declared, “His name shall be called Wonderful” - Isa. 9:6. From these Scriptures it can be clearly seen that Jehovah had a name to be revealed which was to be above all His names. - Matt. 1:20, 21.

“When the Angel appeared to the Virgin in Nazareth, it was there that he finished his journey over the hills of time and deposited that “secret name” in the bosom of her who was “highly favored” of God. - Matt. 1:20; 21, Luke 1:26-31, “His name shall be called JESUS.” All the titles that Jehovah ever bore are comprehended in this one name, JESUS. The name of “Jesus” bears in it all that God’s other names ever bore. All the attributes of God, as revealed by His names, are found in Jesus. - Rev. 1:8, Ex. 6:3. “For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in Him.” - Col. 2:9, 10, John 1:1-14. In the Book of Acts the whole battle raged around “the Name.” “and hast not denied my name.” – Rev. 3:8.

“God is one. None apart from Him, none equal with Him; none beside Him; none formed after Him; none like Him, and none with Him. Jesus Christ is the manifestation of that one God in the flesh.”

Sunday School Times, “Thou art not yet 50 years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Before Abraham was I am.” - John 8:57, 58. Jesus was claiming that He existed in the eternity of the past. He was claiming for Himself one of the O. T. titles of Jehovah. It was as though He had said that it was Himself that was spoken of by Moses in Ex. 3:14. “I Am” describes Jehovah as the ever existent One, “who was, and is, and is to come.” (“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” - Heb. 13:8.) Jesus was He. “He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” - Col. 1:17.

Another writer has said: “They (most christians) do not have the full apostolic vision of Jesus Christ as Lord or Jehovah. “All” the fullness of the Godhead is in Jesus Christ. - Col. 2:9. Don’t be afraid the Father and the Holy Ghost will be left out. “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” - John 14:7-10; 10:30, 38; 12:44, 45; 17:10. “He that confesseth the Son hath the Father also.” - I John 2:23, 24, R. V.; 4:15.

“It is unreasonable when magnifying Jesus as Lord to stop and mystify the readers on the Greek mysteries about the Trinity. Few after years of study know much more about it than when they began. I never knew of any one being saved by a study of the Trinity, but exalting Jesus Christ as the mighty Lord, able to save to the uttermost, will do it.

“No man can come to God except through Christ, and he that has the Christ or Son, “hath the Father also.” They are inseparable. You can’t get Christ without getting the Father also, even if you want to. God gives Himself only in the Son. Also whoever gets Christ in His fulness gets the Holy Ghost also. “In that day (Pentecost) ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” - John 14:20, 23.

“There was a mysterious angel called the angel of the Lord, that went before the camp of Israel which was none other than Christ the Lord - Jehovah in Angelic form. - Ex. 3:2-14; 14:9; 23:20, 21, (Isa. 42:8), Acts 2:36, Phil. 2:9-11, I Cor. 15:47, II Cor. 3:17. So the whole Godhead in all its fulness is in Jesus.

“The apostles started the church out right with the vision of Jesus as “the Lord from heaven.” “God is Spirit.” - John 4:24. “Now the Lord is that Spirit” – II Cor. 3:17.” E. N. B.

“Bishop Hippolytus, born in the latter part of the second century, a disciple of Iraneaus: “Let us believe then, according to the tradition of the apostles, that God the Word came down from Heaven, and entered the holy Virgin Mary. The Father is one whose Word is present with Him, by whom He made all things. Whom also the Father sent forth in later times for the salvation of men. He now coming forth into the world, was manifested as God in a body.

“Thus then, though demonstrated as God, He does not refuse the condition proper to Him as man. He who as God has a sleepless nature, slumbers on a pillow. In agony He sweats blood, and is strengthened by an angel, who Himself strengthens those who believe on Him. He who is inseparable from the Father, cries to the Father and commends to Him His spirit; and bowing His head He gives up the ghost, who said “I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again.” - John 19:18. And because He was not overmastered by death, as being Himself life, He said thus: “I lay it down of myself.” He who raises the dead is wrapped in linen and laid in a sepulchre, and on the third day is raised again by the Father, though Himself the resurrection and the life. For all these things He has finished for us; who for our sakes was made as we are, except sin. This is the God who for our sakes became man; to whom also the Father hath put all things in subjection.

E. N. Bell, in “The Truth about the Godhead”: “It was no use for Philip to ask any other revelation of the Father. The Father is seen by seeing Jesus. He that has seen Jesus has seen all of the Father that the Father intends now to reveal. No true Trinitarian can logically deny the Deity of Jesus as the Son of God. To do so is to make him a mere created being like ourselves. Those who should worship such a created being would be pure idolators. God forbids us worshipping anything less than Himself. We cannot worship Jesus unless He is truly God. The Arians believed that Jesus was a little less than God, yet higher than the noblest angel, and still worshipped Him.

“The Scriptures clearly teach that He is God. - Isa. 9:6, “Mighty God.” Heb. 1:8, “Thy throne, O God is forever and ever.” John 20:28, “My Lord and My God,” - (Rom. 9:5), It is an unspeakable joy to ascribe unto the Son all the attributes of Deity. We need not expect as finite beings to understand fully the mysteries in the Being of the Infinite God. No intelligent Trinitarian believes there are three material or corporeal bodies in the Godhead. Jesus is the only one in the Godhead who has a material and glorified body. The Latin word (persona) from which we get our word person has absolutely nothing in it even suggesting a material body.

“These three persons (of the Godhead) are not three gods. Because they coexist, in one divine essence, in one divine nature, they constitute one God, and His name is one. We have not gods many and lords many, as the heathen. We all believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is truly God. If Jesus is God at all, as we all believe He is of course He is the true God, not a false God. We love and adore Jesus as our Lord and our God. He is the only way to the Father, the way of Life. “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father; but he that acknowledgeth the Son, hath the Father also,” – John 2:23.” - E. N. Bell. Now if this latter statement be true, and it is the Word, then how foolish to talk about denying the Father. We have both the Father and the Son.

Chapter 4

W. Graham Scroggie, in “Sunday School Times,” Col. 1:15-17, - God the Father is eternally hidden and unknowable, - Col. 1:15, Ex. 33:20, Matt. 1l:27, John 1:18; 6:46. I Tim. 1:17; 6:15, 16, - No man by searching can find out God. Direct and immediate knowledge of Him is impossible. He is the “invisible” and, therefore, the unknowable God.

In Christ the invisible God is fully and finally revealed. In Christ God becomes visible and all things else become intelligible. “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” - John 14:9. Heb. 1:3, - The Son is “the effulgence of God’s glory, and the very image of His substance.” He is the manifestation of the divine attributes, and the embodiment of the divine essence. In Him the glory of God is radiated, and His character reflected. He makes visible the “invisible.” The essentially invisible Father has in the Son an eternal organ of self-manifestation. (“God is Spirit.”)

The incarnation of Christ was not the beginning of His “exegesis” of “the invisible God.” That began away back in the remoteness of eternity. Christ is God, without beginning, supreme, and transcendent. This was His own consciousness in incarnate life. There would be no need for God to be revealed if there were no intelligences (creatures) outside of the Godhead to behold Him; and speculatively one may say that, but for such intelligences, Christ would never have become “the image of the invisible God.” - (and become man.)

If Christ be not God He cannot be either Creator or Redeemer. Christ is not merely like God, but is God, and therefore pre-existent and uncreated, absolute in His eternity. - Phil. 2:6. Christ is the originator of all things. “In him were all things created.” - Col. 1:16, 17. All things were created by Christ and for Him. Christ is the controller of all things. “In him all things consist.” Christ is as certainly at work in nature and in history as in His church. Back of both is the divine Thinker, the infinite Wisdom, the almighty Power, who is the Son of God and our Redeemer, in Whom all things have their center of unity, who appoints to everything its place, who determines the relation of things to one another, and who combines all into an ordered whole so that this universe is a cosmos and not a chaos.

Christ is the perfecter of all things. Not only is He the Origin, and the Head, but also the Goal of the whole universe; the creative Cause, the continuous Cause, and the consummating Cause of all things. The world advances towards the fulfilment of its destiny in God through Christ. The time is sure when all things shall be summed up in Him. - Eph. 1:10.

By Christ the Father’s purpose passes into actuality and attains its end. He who is the Agent of creation is also its Aim, the Starting-point is also the Goal, the Alpha is also the Omega, the First is also the Last; that which proceeded from Christ and is sustained by Him also converges toward Him. The Creator and Redeemer is the Perfecter of all things. We should ever endeavor to see in one view the eternal Christ, and the historical Christ, the Creator and the Redeemer, not two persons but one. - Edinburg, Scotland.

Rev. C. H. Pridgeon has written: “The word “person” is inadequate when referring to the Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Augustine, Calvin, and others express their regret at having to use so imperfect and misleading a word; but it was the best known word they had or we have. The words “subsistence” or “hypostasis,” are more accurate, but are too little understood. There are three such subsistences or hypostases in the Godhead and the Three make One. There is but one tree, not three. God the Father is the root, the Hidden God: God the Son is the part of the tree above the ground, He is the Manifest God: and the Holy Spirit is the Life that flows from one into the other and then outward. Again, God the Father may be compared to a great Love-Fire, which eternally begets the Son, who is the Light: and the Holy Spirit is the heat and chemical rays that proceed from both.

“In man desire generates images and thoughts. In God such generations are eternal realities. In His Deity the Son of God is uncreated: in His humanity He was created.

“Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; . . . And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.” - I Cor. 15:24-28; The reign of Christ, as Son of Man and Redeemer, comes to an end when His work of redemption is completed at the end of the ages. Then all things are subject to Him and He hands over all to the Father and He Himself has no more redeeming work to do as Son of Man, but in that capacity becomes subject to the Father. It might be well to notice that although the Son of Man becomes subject to the Father, the Scripture does not say that the Father becomes “all in all,” but “God (becomes) may be all in all,” that is, the whole Godhead becomes “all in all.” Christ as Redeemer and Son of Man becomes subject; but as Son of God He part of the Godhead that becomes all and in all. The Son will hand over the perfected kingdom to the Father, and God (Father, Son, and. Holy Ghost) will be “all in all.”

S. A. Jamison, in “Bridegroom’s Messenger: “In this age of modernistic teaching, especially when Jesus Christ is robbed of His Deity, it is very essential for the christian to have a clear idea of the Trinity. In the Godhead the three persons are the same in substance, of one and the same indivisible essence. This divine essence as a whole exists eternally as Father, and as Son, and as the Holy Ghost. Each person possesses the whole essence. The Son is eternally begotten by the Father. The Son is not from the Father, but in the Father, and the Father in the Son. The Spirit proceedeth from the Father and the Son. Christ has existed from eternity as the coequal Son of the Father, possessing the same self-existent essence with the Father and the Holy Ghost.”

“Some one has said that we should read the Bible only from one standpoint, to know the Lord Jesus Christ; and if one studies the Bible for any other purpose he will not understand it. The Bible begins with Jesus (Gen. 3:15), and ends with Him. In fact it is a revelation of Jesus Christ. The revelation of “God in Christ” - II Cor. 5:19. Christ is not only the central figure of the Bible, but the “First and the Last.” - Rev. 1:8; 22:13, Isa. 41:4; 43:10.

H. L. Hastings, Editor of “The Christian,” once wrote the following: “In those old days, when men whose kingdom was “of this world,” and whose servants were therefore willing to fight, had assumed authority over the flock of God, and had established organizations in which politics was more potent than piety, and where faith, instead of coming by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, was settled by the decisions of councils and the decrees of despots; when men disputed about things they did not understand, and persecuted people who chanced to know more or less than they did, etc.”

From the Encyclopedia Brittanica, on “The Council of Nicae, 325 A. D., we read: “Ecumenical Councils were called and controlled by the State, the Emperor. The expenses were largely paid, the delegates appointed, by the Emperor. Emperor Constantine appointed the time and place for the Council of Nicae, summoned the episcopate, paid part of the expense out of the public purse, nominated the committee in charge of the order of business, used his influence to bring about the adoption of the creed, and punished those who refused to subscribe. This council was no more an organ of ecclesiastical self-government than were the synods of Rome and Arles. It was rather a means whereby the church was ruled by secular power. The final goal of Greek philosophy was only reached when the great thinkers of the early christian church, who had been trained in the schools of Alexandria and Athens, used its modes of thought in their analysis of the christian idea of God. The result was the evolution of the doctrine of the Trinity.”

The fact is the Emperor Constantine only submitted to christian baptism on his death bed. He was afraid of forfeiting salvation before this, on account of his sins, which he had no desire to relinquish.

Some one has reflected as follows on this subject: “Why did not the saints in the second and third centuries cling to the great names of their Lord (in the Word), and find in Him all the mysteries connected with the Godhead? But instead of doing this some began to preach from the philosophy of Rome, Egypt, and Babylon, by which they tried to explain the Godhead. Hence Sabellianism, Arianism, and Athanasianism, the outcome of which was, and is today, a furious battle among God’s people. Oh that we would endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, and at once throw all these isms into the garbage can, clinging to the prophetic and apostolic teaching, magnifying the Father in the person and name of the Son, by the power and the love of the Holy Spirit, seeing and preaching the fullness of the Godhead in the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the Scripture.” And I say, Amen ! ! !

St. Bernard: “When I name Christ Jesus I set before myself a Man meek and lowly of heart, conspicuous by all moral dignity and holiness, and One who is at the same time God Almighty, to heal me by His example, and to strengthen me by His aid.”

St. Chrysostom: “Christ is not valued at all unless He is valued above all. When thou hearest of Christ, do not think Him God only, or man only, but both together.”

The following beautiful poem, author unknown, we give in prose, to economize space: “Our Lord Jesus Christ.” – “Thou art Alpha and Omega, Living Word, of men the Light. Son of God, the Well Beloved, Source of Heaven’s great delight. Everlasting Father, Dayspring, Smitten Rock, Foundation Sure. Thou art laid elect and precious, as the Cornerstone secure.

“Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Israel’s Sceptre rising strong. Branch of David, Root of Jesse, Great Messiah promised long. Son of Man, Jehovah’s Servant, Glory of the Chosen Race. Faithful Witness, Prophet, Shepherd, Thou host Thy law enlarged through Grace.

“Man of Sorrows, Galilean, Nazarene, despised, oppressed. Bread of Life, with body broken, open Door to peace and rest. O Immanuel, the Holy, God, indeed, with us Thou art. Jesus, Savior, great Redeemer, Bleeding Lamb with broken heart.

“First Born from the dead, we hail thee, Resurrection and the Life. Heir of all things, Thou hast conquered, through the grim and awful strife. Thou the Church’s Head, all glorious, art the Lord our Righteousness. Wonderful, we laud, adore Thee, Mighty God, thy name we bless.

“Vine supporting many branches, Lily of the Valley fair. Chiefest One among Ten Thousand, Sharon’s Rose of beauty rare. Altogether Lovely, Bridegroom, Faithful, True, our Advocate. Bishop of our Souls, so tender, evermore our High-Priest great.”

Rev. A. C. Dixon, D. D.: “A child shall be born, a son shall be given, and he shall be called the Wonderful, the Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” - (Isa. 9:6.) The birth Jesus was therefore the incarnation of Deity. When we think of God we are apt to think of Him in human form. God revealed Himself to Joshua and others in human form.

“Jesus was the Son of Man; not a Son of Man. The blood of the whole race was in His veins. There is a universality in the character of Christ which you find in no other man. There is nothing of nationality in Him. There is nothing peculiar to any particular age of the world in Him. His was a heart pulsating with the blood of the human race.

“Jesus taught that He was God. “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” - John 14:9, “He that seeth me seeth Him that sent me.” - John 12:45. His mission was to manifest God in His own person. “God was manifest in the flesh.” - I Tim. 3:16. Jesus taught the impossibility of knowing God the Father except through Himself. “No man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him” - Matt. 11:27. He claims identity of divine nature with the Father. “I and my (the) Father are one.” - John 10:30. He calmly claims attributes which none but God can possess. He declares that He is eternal. “Before Abraham was, I am.” - John 8:58. He claims to be omnipresent as to place and time. “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” - Matt. 18:20. “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” - Matt. 28:20.

“Jesus taught that He was God, and John crowns Him Creator of the universe. - John 1:3. “This is the true God (Christ) and eternal life.” - I John 5:20. Paul’s Christ “who is over all God blessed forever,” (Rom. 9:5), is the true Christ. Jesus Christ was either deceived, madman, a bad man, or God. He was either God or the worst of men. We have just seen that He claimed the attributes of Deity. “Why callest thou me good, there is none good, but one, that is God.” - Mark 10:17, 18. To say that I am good is equal to saying that I am God. All admit that He is good; and if good, He is God. Christ was more than man, and as I see Him standing out distinct from and above all others, I cannot resist the impulse to fall at His feet and say with Thomas, “My Lord and my God.” - A. C. Dixon.

Another writer has said: “It is strange that people would look beyond the Lord Jesus Christ in an attempt to find the unknown God. The fountain proper comes forth from the unseen fountain head, and yet never ceases to be a part of it. The fountain proper is merely the fountain head in action. Therefore Jesus could say, “I and my (the) Father are one.” He could be called at the same time “the Only begotten of the Father,” and the very God Himself. “Emmanu-El.” - Matt. 1:23. Jude 24:25, I John 5:20. Jesus represents the entire person of God. He is all I need.” - (I Cor. 1:30.)

“We should never attempt to explain the mystery of God’s person by mere human wisdom. The Lord Jesus Christ was the complete solution to the mystery of God’s person. “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” Is not our Lord great enough to fill our vision? Is He not sufficiently full of mystery to invite all of our thoughts and meditations to Himself? Let us hail Him as Thomas did, “My Lord and my God.” “Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.” - Heb. 5:11. “Unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” - Eph. 4:13. (We can never be disappointed in Him. - Eph. 1:10; 3:17-19.)

Prof. Frederick S. Jewell, Ph. D.: “Amid whatever changes of arts, letters, institutions and empires, one figure continues supreme in history. It is that of the man John baptized, whom Pilate crucified; who built no capital, led no army, wrote no wrote no volume; who seemed yet to the principal persons of his time to have fitly closed a restless yet an obscure life in ignoble death; but who named Himself, and who now is named in all the written languages of mankind, the Son of God and God Almighty.”

Neander: “The God who dwells in a light inaccessible into which the human spirit cannot penetrate must descend to humanity, bringing Himself into the limits of Man’s own finiteness in order to be truly known by him. Not until the incarnate manifestation of Deity through Christ, could the God afar off draw near mankind. For the first time, through this image of the Divine in human nature, was the idea of God enabled to enter in a vital and substantial way, into the thought and consciousness of the human race.

Zachary Eddy, D. D.: Let us not think of Christ as a man created by divine power, and then taken into intimate union with God – not as God and man morally – but as GOD-MAN, the true holy of holies wherein God personally dwells, and will dwell henceforth, even forever. There is the Well-Spring of life for a dead world; there is the light of men, the Son of truth and wisdom; there, is the image of the invisible God, and the brightness of His glory; there, is the Lord God our Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the Savior. Yes, we adore Thee, Son of the Virgin, Son of God. Seeing Thee we see the Father. We worship Thee, in whom God is become man and man is taken into God.

“Messenger of the Kingdom”: “Alpha and Omega are A to Z of the Greek language. Jesus said, “I am Alpha and Omega.” He expressed Himself actually to be the whole written Word. The biggest and greatest revelation of the Eternal God and His mysterious, majestic person is the good old Bible. The God which we find in the sacred pages of the Bible is the true God. Since Jesus is our written and spiritual Bible, and the true God is found in the Bible, then it remains for us to look in the person and name and the sayings of our blessed Lord to find and know and worship the true God. The central theme of the Word of God is “God in Christ Jesus.” Therefore, we see our blessed Alpha and Omega in Genesis, and all the way through to the Book of Revelation.”

“The Pentecostal Evangel”: “The name Lord or Jehovah is pre-eminently God’s redemption name. It is used in Bible passages which specifically refer to the redeeming and saving work that God does for fallen, sinful man. Jehovah God, our Redeemer God, in His marvelous covenant relations with us, is the Eternal Christ, slain from the foundation of the world, whose outpoured life is the grace of God, working omnipotently in our behalf.”

Dr. Wm. L. Pettingill, Pres’t of Phila. Bible School: “All christians will one day be fundamentalists. That day will be when we get to heaven. Only those who believe in Christ as God, in His virgin birth, and in his resurrection – an irreducible minimum of christian faith – will go to heaven. Those who deny this will be lost and go to hell.” This would surely be a bad line-up for Pentecostal people.

Dr. Campbell Morgan says: “When Jesus told the young ruler there was “none good but one - God,” He meant to declare that He Himself was God. - Matt. 19:17.

Rev. Elijah Hedding, in a Sermon preached before the Annual Meth. Conf., at Bath, Maine, in 1822, made the following statements, with a host of ample Scripture reference to prove his assertions. We have only room for the statements. “John 1:1, 2, - Of the word it is here affirmed He is God. Jesus Christ is the Supreme God. Father and Son are one and the same Being. Christ is the true God, and Eternal Life. Christ is God over all. Jesus Christ is the Lord God of the holy Prophets. Jesus is Jehovah. Christ is the One Eternal Supreme Being. Christ is the Immutable Being. Christ Omniscient Being. Christ is the Omnipresent Being. Christ is the Almighty Being. Christ is the proper Object of worship. Christ is the Creator of all things. God and the Word are the same Being.” This was the belief and teaching of Early Methodism.

James Speirs, London, England: “All christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God, the Lamb of God, an Advocate with God, and a Mediator between God and Man. But the higher truths in relation to His Divinity are entirely overlooked. The Sonship of Jesus is admitted. He is regarded as the Lamb of God. But not as God Himself. The confession that Jesus is God is merely verbal; the feeling that He is a being inferior and subordinate is inrooted. The Jehovah God of the O. T. is the Jesus Christ of the N. T. Jesus is God Himself, Creator and Sustainer of the world that came in flesh and dwelt in it a while. Jehovah and Jesus are one.” (Luke 13:34, 35, Ps. 91:14.)

Some one has written: “The apostles saw Jesus as God and manifest in the flesh, as the One by whom and for whom all things were created, and as the new Sinless Head of the whole human race; and they saw aright. In the present awful apostasy the time seems to be right to call for a world-wide and final answer to a challenge like that given by Elijah to the people of Israel on Mt. Camel long ago. That challenge takes this form, “If Jesus Christ be God, follow Him.”

L. T. Townsend: “If John believed that Jesus Christ was united to Deity, in such manner as to be God’s real Personality, he could have expressed himself in no other way so briefly, so directly, so clearly and so well as to say, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” - John 1:1. Rev. 3:1; 15:3; 17:4.

“It must be clear to all that Jesus Christ, in John’s Christology is the God whose glory Isaiah saw in the vision, when it filled the temple and shook its foundations – Isa. 6:1-5, John 12:41. He is Alpha and Omega. – Rev. 22:13. The true God. – I John 5:20.

Jesus in the Scriptures is called God, or by a name implying it, no less than 15 times. Seventy-seven times He is called Lord; ten times are the same things spoken of Him as God; and 52 times He is presented as an object of worship. 15 as possessing eternal life; in 17 as Judge of the world; in 20 as the bestower of rewards; and in 24 as the executor of the punishment of the wicked.

The Jews clearly understood Him to teach that He was God. It was for this claim that they attempted to kill Him. This to them was blasphemy, and it was blasphemy unless He possessed and could wield all the attributes of Jehovah. When we mass all these facts must we not say that Jesus felt beyond a doubt that there was in Him an essential substance which in no respect differs from Deity?”

“The Wonderful Word”: “Jesus Christ is no less than the God-man, and the one in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells. He is the greatest Person in the universe. There is no place high enough, for he fills all things. Human language does not contain words sufficient to tell of His worth. Words utterly break fail and break down in attempt to give Him honor, Who is above all, over all, and in all. Vowels, consonants and dipthongs cannot unite the framing words that speak of His matchless glory. “Christ is the Fact of facts, the Bible’s Theme. He is the God, all Light from Him doth gleam. He is the Man of men, beyond all dream. He is the God of love, all love Divine. He’s All! The Visibility of God.”

“The Incarnation is called “the mystery of godliness.” As the Cherubim bent in reverent perplexity over the Ark of the Covenant, so do we devoutly ponder this fundamental truth. The angels desire to look into it. – I Peter 1:12.

Adam Clarke, on I Cor. 15:27, 28: “He is excepted,” i.e., the Father; who hath put all things under him, the Son. This observation seems to be introduced by the apostle to show, that he does not mean that the Divine Nature shall be subject to the human nature. Christ, as Messiah, and Mediator between God and Man, must be considered inferior to the Father; and his human nature, however dignified in consequence of its union with the Divine Nature, must be inferior to God. The whole of this verse should be read in a parenthesis.

“The Son also himself shall be subject.” Then the administration of the kingdom of grace is finally closed; when there shall be no longer any state of probation; and consequently no longer need a distinction between the kingdom of grace, and the kingdom of glory; then the Son, as being man, shall cease to exercise any distinct dominion; and God be all in all; there remaining no longer any distinction in the persons of the glorious Trinity, as acting any distinct or separate parts in either the kingdom of grace, or the kingdom of glory; and so the one infinite essence shall appear undivided and eternal.” – Clarke.

Bishop Lightfoot, on Phil. 2:6: “The form of God” means the “essential attributes of God.”

Rev. L..W.: Gosnell, Assis. Dean, Moody Bible Inst., quoting B. B. Warfield, says: “The ‘form of God’ is the sum of the characteristics which make the being we call God, specifically God, rather than some other being, - an angel, say, or a man. When our Lord is said to be ‘in the form of God,’ therefore, He is declared, in the most express manner possible to be all that God is, to possess the whole fulness of attributes which make God God.”

Bob Shuler: “As to Christ, He was and is either God, or He was and is a liar, for He said He was God.”

“The Redeemed Hebrew”: “Does not Dr. Isaac Lesser translate Isa. 9:6, as follows, “Counsellor of the Mighty God, of the Everlasting Father,” etc.? Lesser renders it so, but he had an object in so doing. It was his intention to distinctly obliterate the most powerful pre-designation of the coming Messiah. In the first place, Lesser does not believe in the Messiah, and in the second place, it was his wish that no one should apply this passage to a Messiah in whom he himself did not believe. The Yiddish translation, and all English, Greek, and other translations give it that the Messiah was to be “The Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,” etc. Dr. Torrey, in a sermon on “The Deity of Christ,” at The Bible Institute, Los Angeles, some years ago, condemned this translation of Dr. Lesser’s on Isa. 9:6.

“The Friend of Russia: “The titles given to Jehovah in the Word of God clearly set forth who and what He is in Himself, His character, nature and eternal Godhead, and also, what He was to His ancient people the chosen race of Israel. But these titles also have a direct application to Christ. Nothing is more clearly taught in the Word of God, than that the Jehovah of the O. T. is the Christ of the N. T., and the Christ of the N. T. is the Jehovah of the O. T. The: O. T. titles of Jehovah assert and proclaim the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is God.”

Another well known preacher, at one time head of the Christian Missionary Alliance has recently called attention to the fact that Jehovah, the “I Am,” the Logos, the Lord Jesus Christ, was the past, present and future of’ God. Hence all of God. He was the form God took to reveal Himself to man, so we could know Him. This preacher expressed his conviction that this Jehovah-Jesus is the only God we will ever see.

What a contrast are these expressions to that of a recent teacher in our midst who writes as follows: “Our Christianity has become a Jesus religion, and it is no wonder that strange and fantastic creeds have grown out of It.” He declares we are all orphans because of this fact. Possibly forgetting that Jesus Himself said, “I will not leave you “orphans”; I will come unto you.” - John 14:18. “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” – John 14:7-9. “I and the Father are one.” – John 10:30. Some have foolishly asked the question, “Is Jesus then his own Father?”, thinking thus to dispose of these sublime declarations. The whole trouble with our treatment of this subject is the fact that we have tried to reduce the Godhead to human analogy, reasoning humanly of the nature of the Deity of Christ and the relationship of the Godhead.

Millions of the devoted dupes of Rome hail “the man of sin” as “our Lord God the Pope.” Should christians refuse equal homage to our Lord Jesus Christ? The Antichrist will soon set himself forth in the temple “as God.” – I John 5:20. Antichrist is “against Christ.” It is Christ or Antichrist. Which one shall be God? If Christ, then follow Him. One or the other must be God.

Too many christians, like Philip, are still looking for the Father apart from Christ. They are still begging to be shown the Father. “Doest thou not know me, Philip? “He that hath see me hath seen the Father.” – John 14:9. When the Father gave His Son He gave Himself also. We have no Father apart from Jesus. Tradition would have us running up and down stairs in the Ark, trying to find God. But Jesus is the Ark. We are safe in Him. Though there are three stories, there was only one Ark. “That we might know him that is true; and we are in him that is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God, and eternal life.” - I John 5:20. Dr. Torrey, with most capable Bible students, applies this Scripture to Jesus. Jesus is the very unoriginated God. – John 1:1; 20:28, Acts 20:28, Rom. 9:5, Col. 2:9, Phil 2:6, I Tim. 3:16, Titus 2:10, Heb. 1:8.

“Unto a dispensation of the fullness of times, to sum up all things in Christ.” – Eph. 1:10. “Take heed lest there shall be any one that maketh spoil of you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, and not after Christ, for in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in Him.” – Col. 2:8-10. All we can know of the Sun is what reaches our earth. So all we can know of God is what is revealed to us, or reaches us, through and in Jesus Christ.

“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him (Christ).” – Eph. 1:17. “Searching what time or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them (the prophets) did point unto.” – I Peter 1:11. “That they may know the mystery of God, Christ, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden.” – Col. 2:2, 3. “To give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” – II Cor. 4:6.

Chapter 5

For there are three that bear record in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one.” – I John 5:7. (The Spirit, water and the blood “agree in one,” are “to the point.” – Greek – I John 5:8.) “The Lord God hath sent me, and His spirit. Thus saith the Lord, thy redeemer, the Holy one of Israel. - Isa. 48:16, 17. God’s Spirit is not separate from Himself. Some one has said: “God the Father is that manifestation of God who is on the throne of the universe. God the Holy Ghost is that manifestation of the same Spirit everywhere present. Jesus Christ is that manifestation of the same Spirit who takes on a visible appearance.” Man was made in the image of God, spirit, soul, and body.

The theme of the O. T. is one God. “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.” – Deut. 6:4.

Saul was addressing the Jehovah of his fathers, on the way to Damascus. “Who are Thou, Lord?” He did not know that God was “manifest in the flesh.” Hear the Lord’s own testimony and answer: “I am Jesus.” – Acts 9:4, 5. That knocked Saul out. “In that day shall the Lord be one, and His name one.” – Zech. 14-5, 9. To the Jews Jesus said: “Except ye believe that I am, ye shall die in your sins.” – John 8:24. The whole purpose of God in the O. T. was to inculcate the idea of one God. This the Jews, after the Babylonian Captivity, which they suffered for their idolatry, never got away from. The “mystery of godliness,” is the Incarnation. “God in Christ.”

Those who deny that Jesus Christ is God, the absolute Deity, Deity the alone revelation and manifestation of the Father, are in line for the great Apostasy. Antichrist is battering at the walls of the church for a breach in the absolute Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. If God can be known apart from Jesus Christ, or as a separate Person or Being from Jesus Christ, then we are bound to throw down the walls and embrace these anti-christian forces in one universal Fatherhood of God. And there must be two Gods, or Jesus Christ is not God. But Jesus Christ is God. There is no other saving manifestation of God. – Acts 4:12.

Spiritualists, Theosophists, Christian Scientists, etc., claim a knowledge of God outside of Christ. “Ye know neither me nor my Father. If ye knew me ye would know my Father also.” - John 8:19. “Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.” – Matt. 11:27. Jesus is the full and only revelation of God to man.

The more we come to know Jesus in the Spirit the fuller revelation we receive of His Deity. “No man can say Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Ghost.” - I Cor. 12:3. At first we see Him as our Mediator, our Sacrifice and Intercessor. Later we come to realize His absolute Deity, Godhead, oneness with the Father in essential being. Not simply oneness in accord. That is but a human proposition. He is both the Son of God, and God. - Luke 1:35, “ Christ is the visible representation of the invisible God,” - Col. 1:15-19, Weymouth. “For it is in Christ that the fullness of God’s nature dwells embodied, and in Him ye are made complete.” - Col. 2:9, 10, Weymouth. He is the “primal source” of all creatures.” - Col 1:15, Worrell. Eph. 1:10, 17.

Draw a circle. Jesus is both our center and circumference. The simple minded cannot possibly go astray when they make Jesus everything. It is all in Jesus. Does He not satisfy us fully? If so, why seek another God beside Him? Outside of that circle we line up with Christian Scientists, Spiritualists, Theosophists, and every other anti-christian spirit.

Jesus is the first and last letter, the Alpha and Omega, from Genesis to Revelation. - Rev. 1:8, 17. Jesus is Emmanu-El, - Matt. 1:23. God incarnate is the mystery that confounds the false systems of religion. He is “all and in all.” - Eph. 1:23, Col. 3:11, Zech. 14:5-9.

We cannot find God outside of the Word. Jesus is the Word. Matt. 19:17; Mark 2:7-10; 4:41, Luke 5:21; 7:49; 8:25, John 6:64; 10:33; 12:45; 18:6, I Cor. 10:4; 9, Jas. 5:4, 7, II Thess. 1:7-10, Rev. 1:12-17; 22:12, 13, Job 19:25-27, Ps. 50:1-7, Isa. 40:9, 10; 35:4; 59:15-20; 66:15, Dan. 7:13, 14.

“The Lord is my shepherd.” - Ps. 23:1. “I am the good shepherd.” – John 10:11. “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.” - Ps. 23:2. “Come unto me . . . I will give you rest.” – Matt. 11:28. “He leadeth me in the paths of righteous.” – Ps. 23:3 (Jer. 23:6). “But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us righteousness.” - I Cor. 1:30.

The power is in Jesus’ name. Study Book of Acts and Epistles on this point. Matt. 10:22, Mark 16:17, Luke 24:47, Acts 4:12; 15:14, etc., Eph. 1:21, Phil, 2:9, 10, Col. 3:17, I Peter 4:14, III John 7, Rev. 3:8, Heb. 13:15, Jas. 2:7 (Lev. 24:11), I Chron. 13:6, Deut. 28:58, Ex. 23:20, 21.

The subject of the Trinity is kaleidoscopic. The “persons” of the Godhead are like a dissolving view. One fades into another in true vision so perfectly and naturally that we cannot separate them. Yet God is not a mere Monad. The idea of God embraces Father, Son and Holy Spirit, a compound Personality. God showed me this figure in spiritual vision, all unsought for. It was repeated several times, at intervals of days, Father, Son and Holy Ghost continually resolved themselves into one, as in a dissolving view. I could not separate them. There was one God, one Substance. Nor could I tell one from the other.

All antichrist religions teach that Jesus was not absolute Deity. We could wish that the formers of the Nicean and Athanasian Creed had preserved the clear and powerful Apostolic vision of “God in Christ” that the early church possessed, instead of substituting “Greek Mysteries.” The church had already fallen, the Roman Emperor Constantine himself calling the Nicean Council, presiding over its deliberations and punishing those daring to reject its decisions. This is a fact of history. He was a shrewd diplomat and politician. It is far better to “let the lid stay on the Ark” (Jesus is the Ark), than to delve into Greek mysteries. – (I Sam’l 6:19, Col. 2:9, 10.) God has gathered Himself up, concentrated Himself, visualized Himself in the person of Christ, that we might be able to approach and to know Him. - I John 5:20.

As men we understand man. We have no understanding of the animal kingdom. They have not our nature. Much less could we understand God except He had taken on Him our nature. God is God. Like Himself only. No other like Him. In the God-man, Jesus Christ, we understand Him. We do not even understand angels. Jesus is the “form” of God. - Phil. 2:6. The “form” is His nature, attributes and character. “God is Spirit.” Jesus is the alone revelation of God. The Father refers us to Jesus. The Holy Ghost shines the light upon Jesus. He takes of the things of Christ and shows them to us. – John 16:12-14. The triune God is incarnate in Jesus. “For Christ is the very incarnation of the invisible God.” - Col. 1:15, 20th Century Trans., Col. 2:9, 10. Jesus reveals the Father. John 14:6-11, 20; 10:30, Matt. 11:27. The Holy Ghost is the Spirit of the Father and the Son. - John 16:14. The Fatherhood, the Sonship, and the Eternal Spirit, are all manifest in Jesus Christ. He is the “eternal life.” He is “the Spirit.” – II Cor. 3:17, 18 (R. V.) There are three eternal distinctions in the Substance of God, but one Substance. The triune God, through the Incarnation, is united in humanity, for the salvation of man. – Heb. 2:16. “God manifest in the’ flesh.” The only revelation of God in the O. T. or the N. T. is Jesus Christ. He is the Theme of the Bible. Jesus is the “Word of God.”

I once thought that Jesus loved the world, but that God hated us. Now I know that “God so loved the world.” - John 3:16. It was God’s love that saved us. As a child I feared my father. He did not seem to love me. But mother was tender, and loved me. She became my mediator with my father when he was angry at me. Just so I thought of the heavenly Father until I got a revelation of the real meaning of John 3:16. I found that God loved me. Jesus is the revelation of that love. They are one in love and sacrifice, offering for our salvation.

“The Son quickeneth whom he will.” John 5:21. “The Father hath give all judgment unto the Son.” – John 5:22. “That all may honor the Son even as they honor the Father.” - John 5,:23 (Greek). “The Father gave to the Son also to have life in himself.” – John 5:26. “I (Jesus) will raise him up at the last day.” – John 6:40, 44, 54. “I have power to lay down my life – and to take it again.” – John 10:18. “I give unto them eternal life.” - John 10:28. I am the resurrection and the life.” – John 11:25, I Cor. 15:45. The Father raises Jesus from the dead. - Rom 6:4. The Spirit raises Jesus from the dead. - Rom 8:11. Jesus raises himself from the dead. - John 10:17, 18.

Father and Son are one in a much deeper sense than mere agreement in action. They are inherently one in essential being. This is a much deeper oneness than that of husband and wife, or of even Christ and the church, which is His “body.” “These three are one.” - I John 5:7, “the only born God.” V. L. “an only begotten God.´- Rotherham. - John 1:17, 18.

The “Word” returns to the “bosom of the Father.” - John 1:18; 16:28. It carries with it the glorified humanity of Jesus Christ, the incarnation “bodily.” He is the “temple of God.” He dwells in the glory, and the glory dwells in Him. - I Tim 6:16. “And the city hath no need of the sun, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamp thereof is the Lamb.” - Rev. 21:23. The Lamb is the lamp that the light of God shines through. The light is softened for our approach in Jesus Christ. He is both the sheep-fold and the Shepherd, the High Priest and the offering. As High Priest He offers Himself. He is both God and the Son of God. How this can all be reason may never explain, but the Word of God declares it. His reward is with Him. – Rev. 22:12. He shall feed His flock like a shepherd. - Isa. 40:9-11, John 10. This is Jesus Christ the Rewarder, and Good Shepherd. It is impossible to exalt Him too highly. The one God is so constituted and contained in the Lord Jesus Christ as to absolutely prohibit any other God. The world must accept Jesus Christ as their God. The world is being rapidly prepared to accept the Antichrist as God. The apostasy of the church is paving the way for this by denying the Deity of Jesus Christ. Which side shall we be found on? “If another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.” - John 5:43.

Thank God we have an unqualified Christ. He is neither qualified as to His Being or His power. He has “all power.” - Matt 28:18. He is “the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End: the First and the Last.” There is none before nor after Him. He is “the Mighty God.” - Isa. 9:6. He is “all and in all.” We may well fear any teaching or people who show a tendency to minimize or deny either the power or Personality of Jesus Christ.”

“Who is the image of the invisible God.” - Col. 1:15. “Now unto the king eternal, incorruptible, invisible.” - I Tim. 1:17; 6:16. “Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.” – Ps. 138:2. Jesus is the Word – “For in Him all the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell.” – Col. 1:19, Scofield. Jesus is “all the fulness,” and “fills all.” – Eph. 1:23, John 1:16. We know Christ “after the flesh” no more.” - II Cor. 5:16. No man knows anything of the “form” or nature, character or attributes of God except in Jesus Christ. Who is it the world is rejecting, and always has rejected? Jesus.

Who is it the world must meet some day in judgment? Jesus. John 5:22, Rom. 14:10.

“That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” – Eph. 2:7. Throughout the countless ages of eternity we shall not be able to fathom fully the lengths and breadths and depths and heights of God in Christ. – Eph. 3:18. Do we need a revelation of God outside of Christ? Then we must seek for another plan of salvation. But we are “complete in Him.” “God is Spirit.” He is Omnipresent, everywhere. We cannot see Spirit. We are creatures, created beings, not as God – Deut. 4:12-16. Jesus is the visible of the invisible. We shall surely not be disappointed in seeing God in Him. Jesus Christ is ‘the plan of salvation.” He is the revelation of the Father, the channel of the Holy Ghost, “God manifest in the flesh,” the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” Those who are expecting to know and see God apart from Jesus Christ stand in grave danger of being disappointed in Him. They do not know Christ fully. “These three are one.” Jesus is the one to fill our vision. He will do it completely. The Holy Ghost reveals not Himself, but Christ. He is the Spirit of the glorified Christ. He is a great light, reflected on Christ. - John 16:14. “I am in the Father and the Father in me.” - John 14:11. “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” – Col. 3:3.

Adam heard God in the “wind of the day” (margin). - Gen 3:8. “The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the voice thereof .” - John 3:8. Jesus was the Word. Job cries, “I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand up at the last upon the earth. In my flesh shall I see God.” - Job 19:25, 26. Jesus Christ is “God our Savior.” - Titus 1:3. Only God can reveal God. - I Cor. 2:11.

God “tabernacled” in Jesus Christ. The Word that “was God,” “tabernacled among us.” - John 1:14. “God created man in His own image.” - Gen 1:27. One image. Peter would have also built three tabernacles. There is one tabernacle, Jesus Christ. See “Jesus only.” John 2:19-21. Jesus was the “express image” of the “invisible God.” – Heb. 1:3, Col. 1:15.

Adam was the father of the race naturally. Jesus became the Father of the race spiritually, the “second Adam.” He is the revelation of the Father. God becomes our Father in Christ. The Sonship reveals the Fatherhood. And we become sons thereby. Deity has no father. Jesus is absolute Deity for Deity is His real Personality. Only His human nature was “begotten” in the womb of Mary. - Luke 1:35, Rotherham. God is spoken of in Heb. 12:9, as “the father of spirits.” Adam got his spirit direct from God. But Jesus’ real Personality was God.

The “life which was with the Father” Was manifested in Jesus Christ. - I John 1:2. He is the “eternal life.” - I John 5:20. He has “life in Himself.” - John 5:26. Through revelation of Jesus Christ.” - Gal. 1:12. “Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus.” - I Cor. 1:30. The treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ.” – Col. 2:3. The mystery of His will is purposed in Christ.” - Eph. 1:19. The “finished work of Calvary” and the “Godhead” question simply resolve themselves into salvation and the manifestation of God in Jesus Christ alone.

The disciples understood God aright. All there is for us of God is found in Jesus. This does not deny the Father. The Book of Acts gives us the position in which they held Jesus, and the power they realized in His name. That was the secret of their ministry and success. They knew Jesus as “the Mighty God,” the fact the Antichrist and the Apostasy deny. All there is for us of God is in that Name - Jesus. The disciples rejoiced to be counted worthy to “suffer dishonor for the Name.” - Acts 5:41, I Peter 4:14, 16.

When we really know Jesus as “the Mighty God” we may also “do exploits.” – Dan. 11:32. We must know God in Christ, through the Eternal Spirit. We must know Jesus as “both Lord and Christ,” and the power in His Name. - Acts 2:36. “He is Lord of all.” - Acts 10:36. “The Lord is the Spirit.” - II Cor. 3:17. In Acts 16:6, 7, R. V., the Holy Ghost and Spirit of Christ are used interchangeably. See Acts 5:3, 4, 9. “the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” - Phil. 1:19. The Word and Person who utters it are not separated. My thought and speech are essentially myself. Jesus was Himself “the beginning and the ending.” – Rev. 1:8, 17. The beginning of all God’s self-revelation is found in Christ. He is both the Alpha and the Omega. “Jehovah” (Jesus) signifies the God that was, is, and will be. “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” - Heb. 13:8.

In His humanity, union with man, Jesus was distinct from and inferior to the Father, and must of necessity speak of Himself as such. Mary would have touched His humanity. He spoke to her as a man. - John 20:17. He was to be revealed to them in His Deity. The disciples had only known Him heretofore as a man. In Mexico the Roman Catholics worship three Gods, in separate, corporeal forms. They have a picture of this idea, which they worship. But if Christ is “all and in all” why do we look for more than all?

In Rev 5, a lamb takes the book. But Jesus is not a literal lamb. This is figurative speech. Dan. 7:1, 13, - This is a vision, not a literal scene. “The worlds were framed by the word of God.” – Heb. 11:3. This Word was Jesus. The Word did all the speaking in the revelation of God. The Word in heaven testifies to the Son on earth. The Word is omnipresent, and eternal. - I John 5:7. The Bible speaks of three in one, but never of one in three. Jesus is “at the right hand of God,” spiritually, the place of power. - Matt. 26:64. He is “in God.” – Col. 3:3. “God is Spirit.” And the Father God is in Christ, “all the fulness of the Godhead,” and we are “complete in Him.” - Col. 2:9, 10. He is all there is of God for us. Do we really know Jesus? He is “all and in all.”

The Jesus returned to His disciples as “another Comforter.” – John 14:16, 18. He was the same Christ, but no longer “in the flesh.” They were to know Him now in a higher sense. Jesus has been with them, but He is to be in them. “In that day ye shall know that I am in my Father and ye in me, and I in you” - John 14:20, 26, 16:12-14. This was on the day of Pentecost when the “other Comforter” came. “Christ in you the hope of glory” – Col. 1:27. He is the Eternal Spirit, the eternal life.” “The Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified.” - John 7:39. Jesus had been with the disciples and was about to leave them. Their hearts were sad. What would they do without Him? They did not want another. Hence His words, “I will not leave you orphans (Greek), I will come unto you,” be a Father to you. - John 14:18. He was going away that He might come closer, be in them, through the Holy Ghost, forever. “And lo I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. - Matt. 28:20. They are to know Jesus “after the flesh” no more. - II Cor. 5:16.

Jesus does not simply represent God. He is God. We do not say that He is the Father. But He is the manifestation and the revelation of the Father to us. The Father is in Him, for us. It is impossible to make too much of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is everything to us, and all we need. The Son of God is the Father’s “fellow,” human form. - Zech. 13:7. The dispensation of the Father is in the Son. He dispenses Himself to us in the Son. Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father.” “He that confesseth the Son hath the Father also.“ - I John 2:23. “He that abideth in the teaching, the same hath both the Father and the Son.” - II John 9. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one cometh unto the Father, but by me.” – John 14:6. “I am the resurrection and the life.” - John 11:25. “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.” - II Cor. 5:19. “Even as God also in Christ forgave you.” - Eph 4:32. “That ye may know the mystery of God, Christ.” – Col. 2:2. “God was manifest in the flesh.” - I Tim. 3:16. No one can have the Son without the Father. And no one can have the Father without the Son.

I have never felt, when preaching that Jesus is God, that the Father was in any sense neglected, denied, or displeased. In fact, I have always felt that He was mightily pleased. I have never been conscious of denying Him. I have often asked Him to help me to exalt Jesus more. I am so weak and unable, either in understanding or example, to do so. But I have never been so blessed in my soul as when doing so. And the Holy Ghost always wonderfully helps me. In fact I had never heard until the last few years, since the Apostasy has set in, that it was possible to exalt Jesus Christ too highly. We did not use to think that way about it.

I confess I am becoming more and more afraid at the possibility of throwing my sympathy on the wrong side, my influence in the wrong direction, against Christ. I cannot afford in any sense or degree to sympathize, take sides with, or aid the Antichrist. I am afraid of the spirit of apostasy. The Pentecostal people stand at the parting of the ways on this question. Will they also help prepare the way for the Antichrist? It is a solemn issue. It is Christ or Antichrist. Are we going to gradually surrender our Lord to the enemy to be crucified, also? We declare in all seriousness many are already doing so.

The spirit of Antichrist (against Christ), the apostasy, is gradually, subtly, but surely, creeping over the Pentecostal people. Of this we have abundant evidence. It is going to become harder and harder to preach the absolute Deity of Christ. This is a terrible thing. Many of our people are already fast becoming Higher Critics, along many lines, denying the Deity of Christ, and the inspiration of the whole Bible. The apostasy has struck the Pentecostal Movement. Have we any reason to believe that we shall be spared this more than others? History repeats itself. We are the same as others, only more privileged. We have more to answer for.

This is not a mere matter of “old issue” or “new issue,” so-called. If we fail to confess and preach the absolute Deity of Christ we are yielding to the Antichrist. No matter how many may have overshot the mark, God has a controversy with His people. Dare we through fear of being “numbered among transgressors” deny our Eternal Lord? The devil is shutting many a mouth through fear today. As the Sun frequently appears oblong at its rising, through refraction of its rays, because of abnormal, unfavorable, atmospheric conditions, so with the present issue. The truth is hindered and distorted by our human misconceptions, wounded in the house of its friends.

Jesus Christ being robbed of His Deity today. That is the real issue. No matter what others may have done, how they may have abused the truth, through ignorance, etc., will we deny our Lord? It is better to even overexalt Him, if such a thing were possible, through honest ignorance, than to deny Him. God will accept the one, where the heart motive is pure, through misunderstanding, but reject the other. It is not a human issue. Our wrestling is not “with flesh and blood.” “Lord, what shall this man do? What is that to thee; follow thou me.” We shall answer each for himself in the matter.

God will not reveal Himself to “party spirit.” We must be cleansed from this evil also. He cannot reveal Himself to men in carnal conflict. Jesus is again “crucified between two thieves,” between two selfish “party” extremes. Both are robbing Him. We need a fuller, clearer revelation of the Deity of Christ. We must have God’s issue, the balanced truth, without fear or favor, ignorance or prejudice. Extremes can only hope to meet in Christ, in the middle.

Philip Schaff, D. D.; LL. D., has said: “The divisions of Christendom will be overruled at last for a deeper and richer harmony, of which Christ is the key-note. In Him and by Him all problems of theology and history will be solved.

In the best case a human creed is only an approximate and relatively correct exposition of revealed truth, and may be improved by the progressive knowledge of the Church, while the Bible remains perfect and infallible. Any higher view of the authority of Creeds is unprotestant and essentially Romanizing.”

Let us pray God that this may soon be realized. Some one has said, “Believers hate each other more for the things they disagree upon, than they love one another for the things in which they do agree.” This is a sad situation. The reformers in Luther’s and Zwingle’s day, when the Protestants of Germany and Switzerland came together to see if they could come to any possible agreement, and thus be enabled to stand together against their common foe, the terrible Roman hierarchy, were surprised to find how many things they really did agree upon. If we would seek today to see how many things we are agreed upon, rather than to see how many we can disagree upon, and thus separate, scatter and divide our strength and the “body,” we might really be surprised and joyed at our findings.

We confess to a very limited capacity for handling such a profound subject, and crave the charity and leniency of all in their judgment of this contribution. Jesus said of Mary, “She hath done what she could.” - (Mark 14:6-8.) We have given, for the most part, the testimony of others in the matter. We wish to claim authority over no man’s conscience. May the Lord be merciful to us all, further illuminating our minds and understanding in the knowledge of Him. We “know in part” only, at the best. - I Cor. 13:9. In humility let us together seek His face for further grace and favor. And wherein we may have erred may we be forgiven.

“All hail the power of Jesus’ Name, let angels prostrate fall;

Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown Him Lord of all.”

Chapter 6

DOUBTLESS the reader will expect to find something at least in this book on the “Baptismal Formula” question. With Paul, we have never felt that were sent to baptize, but “to preach the Gospel.” We have never personally baptized anyone in our ministry. We believe the vital point is for converts to understand clearly the plan of salvation, and to give a clear witness to the world that they have accepted, taken upon them the name of, and been discipled to, the Lord Jesus Christ. But we will give the arguments on the subject for consideration. Possibly we are in as much danger of becoming formulists as we are of becoming formalists.

In “The Truth about the Godhead,” published by the General Council, Assemblies of God, by E. N. Bell, we read “Those early christians did not hold slavishly to the words in Matt. 28:19, as a fixed law, as they would have done had they understood Jesus to prescribe an unvarying formula, a law. If they (the saints of today) held Matt. 28:19 was all right, but not the only form; if they merely held that other forms were acceptable, and did not purposely and wilfully oppose mention of the Father and the Holy Ghost, then they would be in respectable, scholarly company, for Hastings Dictionary of the Bible says at top of page 241, Vol. I, “That in the Apostolic Age there was no fixed formula is shown not only by the difference between Matthew and Acts, but by the difference between one passage in Acts and others in Acts itself, and also by traces of other differences (variations) in the Epistles.

“The shorter forms (Acts) have been sometimes used in the Pentecostal Movement from the beginning without any opposition to Matt. 28:19, and without having any special doctrinal reason for using the shorter forms. So long as this was the custom no issue was raised. Either way was regarded as acceptable.” – E. N. Bell, for General Council. This we know to be true. Some very prominent leaders, now in the Council, baptized in the name of the Lord “Jesus Christ.”

In the Encyclopedia Brittanica we read: “Name stands for personality in the N. T. The likeness of the baptismal ceremony with Christ’s death and resurrection insured a real union with Him of the believer, according to Paul. The Apostolic age supplied this identification, and the normal mode of baptism during it seems to have been, “Into Christ Jesus, etc.” As a rule the repentant underwent baptism in the name of Christ Jesus, and washed away their sins before hands were laid upon them unto the reception of the Spirit.

“Eusebius Pamphili, in nearly a score of citations, substitutes the words “in My Name,” for the words “baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” The first Gospel (Matt.) thus falls into line with the rest of the N. T.” – Ency. Britt.

We have simply quoted what we find in history. There are many other statements to the same effect, proving conclusively that “baptism in Jesus’ name” was at least extensively practiced in the first centuries of the church. We cannot change Church History.

In the enlarged Nicene Creed, Constantinople Council, A. D., 381, we read “We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins,” (Acts 2:38, Luke24:47).

In the Greek Church Catechism, A. D., 1829, we read “What is required of him that seeks to be baptized? – Ans. - Repentance and faith: for which cause, also before baptism they recite the Creed, “Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” - (Acts 2:38.)

Rev. Geo. Candel, Toledo, Ohio, in 1907 wrote: “Now if any rule of faith and practice could be formulated from these examples (of baptism in Acts) it might be this: that baptism into the name of Jesus should be urged as a fitting fruit of repentance, and as a condition of receiving forgiveness and the gift of the Spirit, to Jews or to other people who have indulged in any special hatred of Jesus or opposition to Him as the divine Savior. Consenting to this requirement, in such a case, would be necessary to a thorough repentance.” (In that case, would not most people need to be baptized that way today, for growing spirit of antichrist is sweeping all ranks, both religious and secular.) The Gentiles at Cornelius’ household were also baptized “in the name of Jesus Christ.” – R. V., Acts 10:48.

Dr. R. A. Torrey, in his book entitled “What the Bible Teaches,” has written as follows: “In a normal state of the church every believer would have the baptism with the Holy Spirit as in the church at Corinth. - I Cor. 12:13. In such a normal state of the church the baptism with the Holy Spirit would be received immediately upon repentance and baptism into the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins – Acts 2:38.” Whatever the writer meant by this it stands thus written.

“Baptized into what name?” This question was asked of the editor of the Sunday School Times by a Sunday School Union Worker. The Sunday School Times has a list of over one hundred thousand subscribers and enters the homes of almost that many members of different churches all over the Union. We give the Editor’s reply: “The name of Jesus carries with it all the power of the triune God, for “in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9). His disciples’ request that He show them the Father brought from Jesus the startlingly definite reply: “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). When John in the Revelation prophesied, ‘They shall see His face; and His name shall be on their foreheads’ (Rev. 22:4), that name and that face revealed God in all His fullness, and doubtless are the name and face of Jesus, when we shall ‘see Him as He is.’

It may well be, therefore, that the disciples in baptizing in the name of Jesus were carrying out the commission of Matt. 28:19. In both cases there is one God and one Name. Some Christians who have felt that the spiritual reality was not in the form of baptism that they received have had the ordinance performed again and received rich blessing through it. Certainly either form is a true baptism if the reality is back of the ceremony. Yet there seems no reason for urging a second ceremony on the ground of this difference in the formula.” - Sunday School Times.

Another writer, not Pentecostal, has said: While the matter is expressed in detail in Matt. 28:19, yet in Jesus “dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in Him. – Col. 2:9, 10. In Jesus was the Father’s name or character, and the fulness of the Spirit. Therefore when the Apostles baptized “into Jesus’ name,” they carried out our Lord’s injunction. - (Matt. 28:19.)

Many have admitted that if it were not for Matt. 28:19, the logical way, in view of the other Scriptures, especially Acts, would be to baptize, “in Jesus’ name.” Salvation is in “no other name.” - Act 4:12, Luke 24:47. We do everything else in Jesus’ name. - Mark 16. “At the mouth of two or three witnesses.” - II Cor. 13:1. This is God’s rule. There are several to the name of Jesus. “Were ye baptized into the name of Paul?” “Were ye baptized into the name of Paul?” – I Cor. 1:13. This would seem to imply that they should be baptized into the name of the one to whom they were disciplined. How else could they confess Christ?

We have given the general arguments used in favor of Acts 2:38, etc. The arguments for Matt. 28:19, are too well known to require repetition. We are honest truth seekers. None but fools would seek to change the Word of God.

In “One hundred Contradictions of the Bible,” a little book extensively circulated among all unbelievers, the seeming discrepancy between Matt.28:19, and Acts 2:38, is cited as a contradiction. What a pity that believers Cannot find the secret of the agreement between these two Scriptures, and thus present solid front to stop the mouths of the infidels and enemies of their common Lord and Master, instead of fighting one another, each with half the truth, thus confirming unbelievers in their infidelity. We shall have to answer to God for this failure. “That they all may be one: that the world may believe.” – John 17:21.

We that God’s Word is not a Chinese Puzzle. There must be an explanation somewhere. And nothing is ever really settled until it is settled right. So far the brethren have been largely fighting one another, each with of the truth against the, or ignoring, if not denying, a part of the truth altogether. This is bad business. We dare not question the inspiration of the inspiration of the whole Word of God.

When the writer was baptized in the Baptist church, 30 years ago, he received the impression that the preacher was baptizing him by the authority (in the name) of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. The commission of Matt. 28:19, was pre-Pentecostal. Jesus at that time had many things to say to them, but they could not bear them yet. - John 16:12, 13. When the Holy Ghost, “the Spirit of truth,” should be come, at Pentecost, He would “guide them into all truth.” One of these truths was certainly “the mystery of godliness,” hidden from the ages, the fulness or Deity in Jesus Christ, our completeness in Him, and salvation in His name. - Acts 4:12. That these truths were not really understood or realized by the disciples before the Holy Ghost was given, I think all will agree. They could not have understood them. “The Spirit was not yet given, for Jesus was not yet glorified.” Jesus could not come in the Spirit until He had left them in the body. They were not yet “born again,” in the N. T. sense of the word. Their experience was dispensational. In N. T. order they seem to have received the new birth and the baptism with the Holy Ghost as but two parts of one normal whole. This was a normal N. T. experience. They believed, were baptized in water, and received the Holy Ghost.

Some have already adopted some such order in the baptismal formula as we have suggested above, but unfortunately, for some reason have placed the cart before the horse in the matter. Matt. 28:19, comes first, the Book of Acts order later, in process of revelation, unfolding and action.

Yet we do not profess to have fully solved the situation. In Matt. 28:19, our Authorized Version reads, “in the name.” The Revised Version gives it, “into the name.” While the Greek renders it, “to the name.” In the Book of Acts we meet with the same difficulty, the Authorized and R. V. versions differing there also. In some cases it is rendered “in,” in other cases “into,” these versions differing on the same passages. In the Greek the prepositions used vary in the different cases, in some places the word being rendered “in,” in other cases “to.” The same Greek word “to,” in Matt. 28:19, is used in two instances in the Book of Acts (8:16; 19:5), to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” In the Syriac Version, one of the oldest and most authentic in existence, the translation is simply “in” in every case. These things being true we should certainly have charity at least with one another.

We understand that in the Pentecostal work in Canada the brethren graciously allow full liberty of conscience in this matter, and still fellowship one another fully. This would seem to be, under the circumstances, the only real sane and christian procedure. If Pentecostal saints cannot have at least this much tolerance in religion we are surely little better than the papists after all. Brethren, let us pray for one another.

Los Angeles. California

March, 1926

Table of Contents

FROM THE EDITOR

1.  AZUSA STREET (How Pentecost Came to Los Angeles)

Dedication:

Chapter 1: Trials And Blessings, Revival Begins

Chapter 2: Pastor Smale Returns From Wales

Chapter 3: The Fire Falls At Azusa

Chapter 4: Eighth And Maple Meetings

Chapter 5: From California To Maine

Chapter 6: A Second Ministry East

Chapter 7: Visit to Hawaii - Volcano Kilauea

Chapter 8: Brother Durham in Los Angeles

Chapter 9: Sparks From the Anvil

Chapter 10: A Plea For Unity

2.  MY STORY - "THE LATTER RAIN"

Introduction

Preface

Chapter 1: My Story

Chapter 2: The Earthquake

Chapter 3: The Earthquake Tract

Chapter 4: The Last Call

Chapter 5: Letter Received from Evan Roberts

Chapter 6: Get the Flame!

Chapter 7: The Time Of Our Visitation

3.  FROM PLOW TO PULPIT (1924)

Chapter 1: Birth, Childhood, Youth

Chapter 2: Conversion, College Days, Mission Work

Chapter 3: Evangelism in Dixie Land

Chapter 4: Hope Mission, Marriage, Pastoral Work

Chapter 5: Mission Work in Colorado

Chapter 6: Mission Work in California

4.  TWO YEARS MISSION WORK IN EUROPE

Chapter 1: OFF FOR EUROPE

Chapter 2: BRITISH ISLES

Chapter 3: FRANCE, NORWAY, SWEDEN

Chapter 4: HOLLAND, GERMANY, SWEDEN, SWITZERLAND

Chapter 5: DENMARK, SWEDEN, FINLAND, RUSSIA

Chapter 6: WAR DECLARED - EARLY DAYS OF WAR

Chapter 7: HOME THROUGH THE WAR ZONE

5.  THE DEITY OF CHRIST

Foreword

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Table of Contents

FROM THE EDITOR

1.  AZUSA STREET (How Pentecost Came to Los Angeles)

Dedication:

Chapter 1: Trials And Blessings, Revival Begins

Chapter 2: Pastor Smale Returns From Wales

Chapter 3: The Fire Falls At Azusa

Chapter 4: Eighth And Maple Meetings

Chapter 5: From California To Maine

Chapter 6: A Second Ministry East

Chapter 7: Visit to Hawaii - Volcano Kilauea

Chapter 8: Brother Durham in Los Angeles

Chapter 9: Sparks From the Anvil

Chapter 10: A Plea For Unity

2.  MY STORY - "THE LATTER RAIN"

Introduction

Preface

Chapter 1: My Story

Chapter 2: The Earthquake

Chapter 3: The Earthquake Tract

Chapter 4: The Last Call

Chapter 5: Letter Received from Evan Roberts

Chapter 6: Get the Flame!

Chapter 7: The Time Of Our Visitation

3.  FROM PLOW TO PULPIT (1924)

Chapter 1: Birth, Childhood, Youth

Chapter 2: Conversion, College Days, Mission Work

Chapter 3: Evangelism in Dixie Land

Chapter 4: Hope Mission, Marriage, Pastoral Work

Chapter 5: Mission Work in Colorado

Chapter 6: Mission Work in California

4.  TWO YEARS MISSION WORK IN EUROPE

Chapter 1: OFF FOR EUROPE

Chapter 2: BRITISH ISLES

Chapter 3: FRANCE, NORWAY, SWEDEN

Chapter 4: HOLLAND, GERMANY, SWEDEN, SWITZERLAND

Chapter 5: DENMARK, SWEDEN, FINLAND, RUSSIA

Chapter 6: WAR DECLARED - EARLY DAYS OF WAR

Chapter 7: HOME THROUGH THE WAR ZONE

5.  THE DEITY OF CHRIST

Foreword

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6