# Signs and Wonders God Wrought in the Ministry for Forty Years/Chapter 41

Autobiography of an American healing evangelist
CHAPTER XLI
AT THE STONE CHURCH, CHICAGO, 1913
It was marvelous how God brought all the different Pentecostal missions together. I never permit any doctrinal points; no “isms,” no antagonistic points to be aired or brought up in my meetings; nothing but Christ, and Him crucified, and the Resurrection. They soon understand and get their eyes off one another, and forget their ideas and differences and begin to love one another and soon feel the need of getting deep in God. It was glorious to have so many ministers, evangelists, and workers from everywhere coming like little children to the feet of Jesus to get refilled for better service; the watch word was “Go forward.” We all felt we must get deeper in God, the need of more power from on high; of special qualifications from the Lord, of gifts and wisdom, and discerning of spirits. They became hungry for more of God. Their very flesh cried out for God. We prayed for hundreds of those ministers and workers with the laying on of hands and the power of the Holy Ghost fell on all, many fell and lay at the feet of Jesus, like the prophets and apostles of old, they had visions of Heaven and saw things to come; they believed what the Lord Jesus had said of the Spirit of God: “He shall show you things to come.” (Jno. xvi.) Many received gifts and special calls. The conviction was so deep that scores of believers came out from the audience wanting the laying on of hands and prayer. There were too many. So the Lord showed me if they all would come and stand before the pulpit, He would bless them, I told all hungry souls to: gather around, and give themselves to God for everything and anything: we would stand and sprinkle: the blood of the everlasting covenant, the-Blood of the Lamb on them, and then God would pour out His Spirit and give them blessing and gifts. I asked: several of the most God-filled ministers to stand with me in faith and prayer! Oh, it was wonderful how the cloud of glory and power came down! Many staggered and fell, the power swept all over the house. This was something new, no one had ever seen anything like it: Many were saved and healed. Surely the power of the Lord, was present to heal, save, and give gifts, and ​honored His Word and our faith. The word must be demonstrated. One morning when I entered the church it, was crowded —gallery and all—as it usually was in every service. They were singing, I stood by the pulpit looking over the people, the Lord drew my attention to the first seat to two old people who were cripples; neither could speak English very well. The Lord told me to tell her to get up. She said, “No, I can’t walk.” I commanded her with a strong voice to get up, and walk, the Lord was making her whole. She made an effort to rise, and she found she was healed and began to walk; threw up her arms, and going up the aisle praising God: She had been sick and lame for years. Then I spoke to the old German man, and commanded him to arise and walk in the Name of Jesus, for Christ had made him whole. The power fell on him and he arose and walked out after the old lady, praising and blessing God. He said he had been lame for sixty years, since he was ten years old as a result of an accident. The people began to shout, I looked across the aisle and a young lady had risen, was standing on two crutches. I shouted to her to drop her crutches and walk out, the Lord had made her whole. She left them and walked out in the aisle, crying and praising God. By this time, many people all over the house were crying or laughing. Then a young girl about fifteen, on crutches, walked out from the pew and dropped them and started up the aisle after the rest; they all walked round the church and out in the vestibule till all the people were shouting and praising and giving glory to God. One of the girls said she had gone on crutches for five years; the other one said she had walked on crutches for three years. I write this to show the reader that it is God, and not man, and it is not “by might nor by power” but by the Spirit of God. I never laid hands on these people, and did not know them nor touch one of them, but had faith in God, and obeyed Him. After two years now, a short time ago, while holding a meeting in San Francisco, California, Brother Argue told the large audience of this wonderful display of God’s working in our midst. He said “they were all miracles.” This last message of the soon coming of Jesus MUST be demonstrated. No one present could doubt that the Lord was again visiting His people, and that Pentecost had come again. God help the dear reader to take warning, and
THE DAY OF CHICAGO'S VISITATION THE LAME WALK, THE BLIND SEE, THE DEAF HEAR
Supernatural Power of God Witnessed Daily—July 2-28 1913,
(Copied from “The Latter Rain Evangel.”)
Chicago has just had the mightiest visitation of the supernatural she has ever known. God came down and walked in our midst, fulfilling the word to Israel, “I will bring it health and cure—and reveal unto it abundance of peace and truth.”
Healing streams flowed like rivers, and many are rejoicing in miraculous deliverance of body and in the glory of God filling their souls. The month of July has passed into history with its record of hundreds saved and healed, while the faith of thousands has been quickened many-fold.
As arranged, Mrs. M. B. Woodworth-Etter spent the month of July (2nd to 28th) at the Stone church, Pentecostal scenes as in Apostolic Days were daily enacted; the blind received their sight, the deaf heard, paralytics walked, rheumatics were delivered, broken-down nerves restored and: demons driven out, in all of which the Name of the Lord was magnified.
From the beginning of these special meetings faith was strong and the hearts were open for blessings. The unbroken unity and blessed fellowship that had characterized the revival since March 20th, with continuous showers of blessing, had prepared for the harvest, so there was nothing to do but to take the sickle and reap.”
All Chicago learned of the mighty workings of God in our midst. The daily papers reported some of the meetings, and though they tried to carricature the proceedings and bring to ridicule the sacred things of God, yet even in this garbled form some truth was presented. “He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him,” and since it was admitted that there were healings, the Lord doubtless used these reports to awaken hope in some despairing hearts. Even those who came out of mere curiosity were moved at witnessing the power of God manifested in deliverance to the afflicted.
At first the meetings were advertised by posters at the elevated stations, but after some marked healings occurred this was no longer necessary. People came by carloads on the electric, they ​came in automobiles, wheel chairs, and on foot from all directions. It was a touching spectacle, reminding one of the gospel narrative, “And all the city was gathered together at the door.”
Earnest interest on the part of the workers was not by any means confined to the Stone Church people or those most intimately connected with the work. It was not a Stone Church affair but catholic in its broadness. From all over the city. Pentecostal leaders and workers came and participated with as much interest as though the work was in their own missions.
All who came even from a distance, threw themselves into the work of praying with the sick with much earnestness, showing in a marked way the growing spirit of unity. There was no building up of “My work,” which naturally characterizes individual effort, but on every hand it was evidenced that all were unselfishly working in the interest of Christ’s body, and missions and churches were forgotten in the united effort to get souls to God.
Not only Chicago Pentecostal saints, but God’s children in a radius of hundreds of miles have received: a mighty impetus to faith in this series of meetings; indeed we believe it is no exaggeration to say that the faith of God’s people here has made the most rapid strides of any in modern times—it has gone forward by leaps and bounds. Ministers who came disheartened and discouraged because of failure, found themselves taking a fresh hold and praying for the sick with marked results.
God honored the faith of all and people who had their eyes on Him received healing regardless of who prayed for them One sick woman who came in mistook one of the sisters for Sister Etter and sked her prayers. The sick woman was immediately healed. We hope this will be an encouragement to some sufferers to whom Mrs. Etter cannot minister.
Healing flowed all through the church at different hours; not only in meeting but during the day, here and there you would see groups of people praying for the sick and shouts of glory from the suffering ones told that the lightning from heaven had touched their bodies.
When the ministering brethren saw the marvelous way in which healing opened the door to people's hearts and led them to seek salvation, they felt they had neglected one of the mightiest weapons Jesus had given to His disciples. As one remarked ​ministers have spent their time in explaining what certain passages in the Bible mean instead of demonstrating to the world that all power has been given to the church.
A man who had received a wonderful experience of salvation said, “I never saw or felt such power in a meeting in all my life. Although I was a sinner I felt the power of God.” It wasn’t the preaching that led him to repentance so much as the manifestation of the power of God.
The revival which lasted for six. months and was at its flood through July, was not due to any distinctions in theology or to the setting forth of any particular doctrine or creed, but because we have been getting back to the simplicity of the gospel, with much prayer.
Results have proved that minute setting forth of doctrine and and theological distinctions are not only non-essential but their absence is strongly conducive to the spirituality of the Church of God, and the success of its work. The absence of all controversy and the beautiful spirit of harmony that characterized these meetings were remarked by all, and at the close Sister Etter said, “Such perfect unity and harmony in meetings I have never known.”
Hungry souls that came from a distance were overjoyed because of the spiritual blessing they received; many received the baptism of the Holy Ghost and were more rejoiced over this than in their healing. The power of the Lord was so strongly present that those who had sought the baptism in vain for years were swept into the experience. We heard of one who had been to Los Angeles and travelled all over the country visiting conventions and camp-meetings for years, who received the long coveted blessing in these meetings.
After the first two weeks the auditorium would not hold the people who came, and we held the overflow meeting nightly in the vestry, which seats 500 people, with Brother Kent White in charge. Those who assisted in the overflow meetings said there were equal blessings down stairs: there were some marked cases of salvation and healing and a large number received the Spirit’s baptism.
There were from 1300 to 1500 people in actual estimate in the building nightly and large numbers turned away. On Sunday we held three double meetings: ​When the Sunday afternoon meetings dismissed at 5 o'clock people were already coming for the evening meetings, and by 5:30 on the evening of July 27th every seat in the main auditorium was filled. “You are a little late,” said an usher to a newcomer at 4:30, “the meeting is just about to close.” “Oh, I am here for the evening meeting” was the reply.
HEALING OF GOITRE
One of the first healings was that of a Mrs. Pickerell, who, while she had believed in healing for the body for many years, had found her faith wanting, and seeing no real miracles being wrought today had become discouraged. Last winter she read Mrs. Etter’s book, The Acts of the Holy Ghost, and new faith sprung up within her, so she was ready for the healing when she came. We give her own words:
“When I came here I had a goitre. It was very large on the inside and it was choking me so I could scarcely swallow food. It also affected my heart so that at times I could not hold anything in my hand and I would have to be helped to a chair. The goitre is all gone on the inside, and almost gone on the outside. I had suffered with this goitre for twenty-nine years.
“While I was lying prostrate under the power of God, He also put a new lining in my bowels. I was made new, set free from everything. Seventeen years ago this trouble began. I had an operation, and the doctors cut out two inches of the inner lining of the intestines and also two inches of the muscles.
“T had not been able to stand on my feet without a support, and suffered constantly. My intestines had the web cut out which fastened them together, and when I would lie down I would have to use a pillow to lay them on, all the time suffering from a constant burning. Last night when I took off the support I had been wearing I could walk around without any suffering.
“There was also a loose bone in my side that slipped out of place through the operations I had, and God put that back.
“Three months ago I saw Sister Etter in a vision, and heard a voice, saying, ‘When she lays hands on you, you will be healed.’ Whenever I got discouraged and felt my faith wane,
SPINAL TROUBLE HEALED
Another remarkable healing during the first week was that of a Mrs. Dolan. She was in bed and was given up to die, had hurt her spine a year ago, and was unable to walk or even stand on her feet. She said:
“They took me out of bed to bring me to these meetings. I cried all the time they were getting me ready. They brought me in a wheel chair, in a baggage car, along side of a corpse, but I didn’t mind that; I was coming to. be healed. I knew when Sister Etter prayed for me I would be healed. I obeyed in everything she told me, and when she laid hands on me and commanded me to rise and walk, I did it in Jesus’ name. I had spinal trouble and also suffered from my stomach; both were healed.”
She was in such suffering that she could not be lifted out of her chair. The helpers had to carry her onto the platform, but after God touched her body in a wonderful way, she walked up and down the aisles, praising the Lord; the people joined with her in glorifying God.
She later testified to the restoration of her voice; said that she had not been able to sing since April 13th, but was now able to sing as well as she had ever done. She stayed during the entire series of meetings, was in attendance regularly and sat through the strain of long meetings without suffering; often testified to the miracles wrought in her body, and demonstrated the fact that she was no longer helpless, by running up and down the aisles, glorifying God.
On Monday morning, July 14th, four people received the touch of God in their bodies while the song service was going on. All four of them walked either on canes or crutches. One woman had gotten hurt from getting off a street car three years ago; the ligaments of her limb had been broken, and when Mrs. Etter said to her, “Arise and walk,” she shook her head, she couldn't.
Then Mrs. Etter said, “In the Name of Jesus you can do it,” and she started off, walking without any assistance. A man, sixty years old, crippled with rheumatism since he was ten years old, walked without his cane. Another, lame for a year, couldn’t walk without her crutches, was able to walk up and down the aisles without assistance; the doctors had not been able to tell ​what was the matter with her, but she could not step on the ground with her foot. Another was a girl with hip disease; walked without crutches and without a limp.
All four of these walked up and down the aisles to the strains of “There is wonderful power in the blood.” The. singing was interspersed with shouts of praising and much rejoicing from the audience. It was a most inspiring sight. We felt like the woman who testified a few nights before, when she said “I came for the purpose of having an uplift in my faith, but when I saw that paralyzed man healed, I said, ‘Lord, I do not need to pray for faith now. I have it.”
A remarkable healing connected with a vision was given by a woman who was healed on July 7th. She said:
“I want to praise God this morning for my healing. I know it was God that healed me. I had never been in a church like this. I was a Christian Scientist for five years and thought I had all there was to be had, but about a year and a half ago, in vision I saw myself in another church than the one I attended. I didn’t know anything about this faith, but I saw Mrs. Etter lay her hands on my stomach in which I had been suffering great distress. I didn’t understand it at the time; I came in here one Sunday evening and heard the pastor say that every promise in the Bible we could have. I wasn’t satisfied and determined I would have every promise in the Bible for my own; so I came again and was saved and received the baptism. Wednesday morning when I saw Mrs. Etter walk on the platform I recognized her as the one I had seen in the vision a year and a half ago. I saw the rain falling, the latter rain, and I know the vision was of God. Today I am perfectly healed.”
Friday, July 25th, was a red letter day for healing.
The ushers said, as many had been turned away from the building as there were people inside. The hearts of the ushers almost failed them as they were compelled to refuse admittance to many who were sick and had travelled long distances, but for whom there was no room. They were not simply curiosity seekers but hungry in heart and afflicted in body. Many had spent ​all their living on doctors and were “nothing bettered but rather grew worse.” The reports of the healings had flown on the wings of the wind, and hope sprang up in hearts that had long since given up in despair. A street meeting was held from the overflow of the two meetings, but the crowd was too disappointed to be satisfied.
Oh, the sick and suffering multitudes! How often in these days have we thought of the Bible scenes when they pressed and thronged Jesus if they might perchance touch Him and be healed. As we looked on the faces marred by suffering and the crooked, twisted bodies and limbs and realized that many were in afar worse condition of soul, we thought of how the great tender heart of Him who had compassion on the multitudes must be yearning today over the millions of earth—the disease-smitten and the sin-marred—the great, burdened masses filled with sorrow and despair!
A NOTABLE HEALING
The rapidity with which faith grew and the great advance taken along this line can be shown by the following incident:
We had announced from the beginning there would be no meetings on Saturday; on account of the three heavy services on Sunday we felt the ministers needed the rest, but on Saturday night, July 26th, there was a little impromptu meeting, simply because the people came. On this particular evening, a woman came, not knowing there would be no public meeting. She walked with a cane, and as she got off the car at 37th St. and Indiana Avenue, a German woman seeing she was crippled, said to her, “Where are you going?” She said, “I am going to the Stone Church to be healed.” The German said, “There will not be any meeting tonight, but if you come in we will pray for you.” Scarcely had she entered the door when the Lord met her, and as a few earnest ones gathered around and prayed, she was healed. She had been afflicted for five years with rheumatism and a growth on her hip, and was not able to bend her knees. She received complete deliverance, knelt down and thanked the Lord, and ran back and forth without cane or any support. She had been to the Christian Scientists for a year but they hadn’t been able to help her. After her healing she said she was going home and would throw away all her Christian Science literature. ​There were a number of healings in the audience and around the altar, without the laying on of hands.
A woman suffering from neuralgia said she felt the neuralgia which she had had for several years, going out while sitting in the seat, meditating on the Lord.
Often the workers at the altar, seeing the sick had faith to be healed, prayed for them without taking them to the platform, and they were healed.
Another who had been an invalid for fourteen years testified that the Lord had perfectly healed her body. She said:
“T was so sick that life was a burden and many times I wished I would die during the night so I would not wake up in my misery. Now I am glad God saved my life. I had heart trouble, liver trouble, and a floating kidney. My nerves were so exhausted I went into hysterics. I was dead to the world many a time, but I praise God I can stand before this people today and say that He healed me.”
Her husband, who had been an infidel, was saved through witnessing the mighty works of God. He said, “I used to curse Jesus for years, but I don’t do it any more.”
Speaking of his wife’s healing, he said, “My wife said, ‘My kidney is loose. I am going down there to have it put in place.’ It was on the side like a big lump. The sister asked Jesus Christ to put that kidney back into place, and she said she could feel it move back just as though somebody pushed it.” This man first heard of the work through a little tract handed him by a brother workman. When he read it he said to his wife. “You go down there and get healed.” She did, and they both got saved.
HEALINGS OF DEAFNESS, DEAF AND DUMB, ETC.
A father came from Oklahoma bringing with him two afflicted children; one never had the use of his limbs and never could talk, and the other, a girl twenty-two years of age, was born deaf and dumb. The deaf spirit was cast out, the power of God came down upon her, and she shouted and wept alternately. She was so overjoyed at being able to hear that she walked up and down the platform for half an hour, weeping and praising God. ​When her father saw that she could hear, he wept for joy. When she was filled with the power of God she told, in her simple way, partly with signs with which she had been accustomed to speak, how Jesus died for us, went down into the grave, arose, went to heaven, and opened her deaf ears. As we met her after that, at subsequent meetings and in the corridors, her face beamed. God not only opened her ears but brought a wondrous salvation to her soul. She laughed and cried when she heard the music and the singing for the first time.
A few days later she called her father’s attention to the fact that with both ears she heard the piano that was being played in the flat above. She could repeat words after you quite plainly, but her ears will have to become accustomed to sound, and she will have to be taught to speak just as a baby learns to talk.
The little boy also received some blessing, and for the first time in his life was able to raise his arms.
A deaf boy nine years of age, so born, received perfect healing one Sunday morning. A lady meeting him the next night stood behind him and said in a low voice, “God is love;” at once he repeated the words after her. When he received his hearing he danced up and down for joy, and the tears streamed down his face.
A man brought his wife four hundred miles to the meetings; she had been partially deaf for thirteen years. He said they could now sit in a room and hold an ordinary conversation, and she had no difficulty in hearing him, something she had not been able to do for years.
A woman received her hearing while listening to the sermon. She felt she did want to hear the sermon, and while sitting in the audience, with her heart uplifted to God, suddenly her ears were opened and she heard the entire service. She came out of the meeting with a shining face, saying, “I heard the sermon perfectly.” ​A mother brought her daughter from Danville, Illinois; who was stone deaf in one ear for three years. Some years ago she had typhoid fever, and it settled in her ear. When she went to a physician he told her the trouble was in the mastoid bone, that there were three complications, any one of which was dangerous. She had been to the hospital and had a growth taken out of her ear, but got no relief. The doctor said she could not live unless she was operated on and the pus taken away, for if it went to the brain it would be instant death; even with the operation there was only one chance in a hundred of her recovering. He said her ear drum was destroyed. He closed up her good ear to keep her from hearing, then used an ear trumpet in the deaf ear and shouted so he could be heard a half block away, but she couldn't hear. She told the physician she was coming to Chicago to be healed, and he told her she could travel the world over and not get her hearing restored. God opened her ear instantly, and she heard in the ear where the drum had been destroyed.
The mother was healed of heart trouble. She said the doctor called it angina pectoralis; that if anyone had an attack of that they had better be ready to go at any moment. The morning she was healed she had such a bad attack, they thought she was dead; a lump came into her throat so that she could hardly get her breath, and nearly choked.
The mother also said that three years ago she was healed of blindness when three doctors had given her up. She could not see to read at all, and went to a little mission in Danville where they prayed for her, so that she can now read the smallest print without glasses.
HEALING OF PARTIAL BLINDNESS
A colored woman who had been blind for six years came up for prayer. Soon we heard her scream out, “Oh, I see! I see! I see all your faces! Oh praise the Lord!” Immediately the audience were on their feet, rising in honor to Him who had touched those sightless eyes. She. often came back after that and testified to daily improvement in her eyes. She said, a few days later, “When I went to the chair for prayer I could not see anybody. I tried to see Mrs. Etter, but couldn’t. My right eye was entirely blind and I hadn’t been able to see much out of the left ​eye. I can see all over the church this morning. I made up my mind not to go out of this church until I was healed, and I told God so.” Later she said, she could see to read and write her own letters.
RUPTURES HEALED
Mrs. Floyd Reeves was healed of a double hernia she had suffered from for eight years.
A man said, “The Lord healed me last night of a rupture of twenty-three years’ standing.”
A minister who said he was in a backslidden condition, came for healing of a rupture. He asked Mrs. Etter if he should take off his truss, and she said, “Not until the Lord tells you to.” The next day, while sitting in the church, he felt a peculiar sensation in the region of the rupture and realized it was healing. He immediately took off his truss, and afterwards testified to being perfectly healed.
On July 24th, a Roman Catholic came and sat down in the chair where the brethren were praying for the sick, and said he wanted to be saved. In the evening he came back and was healed of a rupture.
MISCELLANEOUS HEALINGS
One of our Stone Church people has been conducting a little Bible class in a Methodist church on the outskirts of the city and those to whom she has been ministering have gotten hungry for more of God in their lives, so they have been coming up to the special meetings with the result that five have received the baptism in the Holy Spirit and several have been healed. One woman said to another, “A man up there says there is a bunch of grapes for each one of us. I am going up to get my bunch.” She came and received the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
A woman testified several times to a healing of cancer on the breast. She said her breast was so sore it could not be touched without pain, and she was frightened when Mrs. Etter slapped the place where the cancer had been, but found it didn’t hurt her a particle. The Lord had taken away all the pain and she believes she is healed. ​‘ Another woman gave this remarkable testimony a week after she was healed:
“T want to praise the Lord for healing me a week ago Friday. I had a tumor in my head, kidney trouble, dropsy, indigestion, and a stroke of paralysis that drew my face to one side. I had everything imaginable and couldn’t walk a block without somebody helping me. I had been in this condition since the twentieth of September. I was healed at once, and now can walk anywhere and as fast as anybody.
A lady brought a little Jewish girl whose leg was four inches short from hip-disease. Some of the brethren prayed for her and her limb was lengthened so her feet measured even.
Mr. Keyes of Zion City, Illinois, said, “I praise God a week ago last Monday morning I was healed of rheumatism I had for eight years and of catarrh which I had for three years. When Sister Etter and one of the brethren prayed for me, the power of God fell, and it was done. It only took about three minutes of their. time.”
Mr. H. W. Judd, also of Zion City, said, “For sixteen years I have been trusting the Lord as my Healer. Two years ago my little girl had the earache and while we prayed for her we didn’t seem to get an answer; so I took a little piece of cotton, dipped it in some hot olive oil and put it in her ear to quiet her and she lost her hearing in that ear. It displeased the Lord. I brought her here today and Sister Etter laid hands on her in the name of Jesus, and I say to the glory of God that little child has her hearing. I tested it this afternoon on the street car. I talked quietly to her and she said she could hear me
A young woman who had been suffering from stomach trouble so severe it had affected her nerves, and she had to walk the floor, came for healing. She had been treated by specialists, and had gone to New York for medical treatment but failed to receive help. She had been able to eat only clear soups and bread and tea, but after prayer she went home hungry. She ate a sandwich as soon as she reached home, and that night sat down and ate a boiled dinner, which she said contained all the ​vegetables in the market, and went to bed and slept soundly all night. She waked up in the morning feeling as fresh as a babe. The resurrection life of Jesus had made her a new creature.
The following testimonies are some of the grateful words that fell from the lips of those who had been blessed:
“I praise God for what my poor eyes have seen and my poor soul has felt; for the healing of my body and my eyes, and for baptizing me in His Holy Spirit. I came over two hundred miles for this blessing.”
“T had a complication of diseases. I was in a hospital seven weeks and operated upon. The doctors told my father I never would get well, but I came here and Jesus healed me.”
“I praise God for healing me at home. I was sick and I did just as Sister Etter told us to do, clapped my hands and praised the Lord, and He healed me.”
The crowd was so great, and when the altar call was given there was such a rush, we had to have some system or it would have been impossible to keep the people within bounds. They pressed forward with tears in their eyes to get to the platform for prayer, some almost in despair for fear they would not be prayed with. We made rules, but they were often broken by the people in their desperate earnestness. A colored woman gave this characteristic testimony:
“T have reason to praise God. He saved me, soul and body. I was given up to die because of heart trouble. I could hardly get my breath. I thank God he led me right here. There was a crowd at the altar praying, but I made my way right through and walked up on the rostrum without being asked. I did not know it was against the rules, but Jesus had me by the hand. Glory to God, I am a living witness to His power to heal! After my healing I went downstairs where the seekers for the baptism are and I said, ‘I don’t want that thing called tongues.’ But God held me over hell and I sought Him and He filled me. I have been an old-time Methodist.”
Some amusing incidents occurred, but we were made to feel over and over that the Gospel of healing touches hearts as nothing else does; no amount of reasoning or preaching theories, or denouncing people’s sins, convinces the world that God lives and ​moves on earth today as does the fact that the blind see, the deaf hear and the paralyzed walk. A woman came to one of the ushers and asked, “Will this healing continue all the time?” He said, “Yes,” he thought it would. Then she said, “I have just been healed of three ruptures that I have had for eight years and I am going to be one of your regular customers.”
Some men passed two girls walking on the street and one man remarked to the other, “Those girls go to the ‘Glory of God’ church.” When the Lord delivers a body that has been racked with agony for ten and twenty years who would not shout His praises? And if we did not praise God with them the very stones would cry out. Men go to a political rally and cheer and clap their hands, making a noise that is positively deafening, and baseball enthusiasts shout over their champion until they are hoarse and no one is disturbed over it; rather, the world encourages hilarity on the part of its devotees. Have not the children of the Lord a right to shout and sing when their King comes into their midst? Let none think it strange that we greet the King of Glory with applause when He condescends to walk among us breaking chains and setting captives free, loosing those whom Satan has bound for many years!
For the most part there was deep reverence on the part of the spectators; even the curious were respectful, but occasionally there was a skeptical one in the crowd. A young man came into the meeting one night and during the prayer service, mocked and made light of the scene before him. Going home that night he was struck by an automobile about two blocks from the church and was seriously hurt—leg broken. He sent word to us to pray for him!
Mrs. Etter closed her ministry Sunday night, July 27th, but the meetings have continued with much blessing. All day Monday the people came together in little groups for prayer, and streams of healing flowed. On Monday night, as, the brethren prayed, the power of God was present to heal. One old colored woman when the shock from heaven’s battery struck her, jumped up and exclaimed, “Oh, praise the Lord! I didn’t expect it! I didn’t expect it!” and ran down the aisle praising the Lord. ​When the sick came seeking deliverance, if they obeyed instructions and praised the Lord, even though they did not feel like it, they generally received blessing. Mrs. Etter always called on the sick ones prayed for to raise their hands and praise the Lord, and when they did, with heart and soul open to God, He met them. Brother Kinne gave some valuable instruction to people seeking healing, which we believe will be helpful to others who are suffering:
“Tt is not only that you should get your mouth open to praise the Lord; He wants your whole being set free to praise Him. These mouths belong to Him and so do these bodies. He wants to heal them and glorify Himself in you. The first thing is to get your soul and body full of the glory of God. The more you praise the Lord the more the resurrection life of Jesus comes in. It is not your old strength that comes back, it is the resurrection life of Jesus flowing into your body. The old strength has not time to come back. It is the same resurrection life that came into Lazarus when he rose from the tomb. When in your homes, in place of giving way to temptations of doubt and discouragement walk through your rooms and praise the Lord, and every step you take will cause your faith to grow and the glory of God increase within you.”
Sister Etter emphasized the fact that the sick should first of all get a touch from God in their souls. She inspired them to look up and believe for a real shock from the skies to go through them, and often said unless the Lord met them in spirit, nothing would be accomplished. She endeavored to get the sick to get hold of God for themselves by an actual faith and contact with Him, that they might indeed touch Him and be made whole.
HINDRANCES TO HEALING
While there are many people who are prayed with who are not healed, we know that it is God’s will to heal because Jesus on the cross “took our infirmities and bare our diseases” People must be willing to meet God’s conditions. We know unbelief stops God. Covenant breakers and those who have drawn back and refused-to walk in the light, may find God withholding healing until these evils are corrected. Then there are those who, like Job, find their healing delayed. They are ​conscious God’s hand is on them and a great transforming work is going on in them, perfecting patience, endurance and victory that glorifies God in the fire. In delay their faith may “wax strong,” their obedience be made full and a triumphant testimony to healing soon be given them. God Has many such witnesses.
There were many striking and wonderful miracles of healing, but there were other cases in which the healing was but partially realized, and we are constrained to believe that in both classes there are some who did not retain their healing; but this does not disprove that a supernatural work was wrought in many at the time they were prayed for. Some failed to return for teaching and, as Christ. tells in His parable of the sower, such “withered away because they had no root in themselves.” When a soul comes to God for salvation and then goes back among his worldly associates, he is in great danger of losing his precious inheritance in Christ. “The cares of the world choke the word and he becometh unfruitful.” It is the same with healing. Even though there has been a mighty inflow of the resurrection life of Jesus, if the person is resting in his feelings for the validity of his healing, he goes under at the first breath of testing. Those who are not deeply grounded in the Word and are surrounded by worldly and unbelieving associates are in grave danger of backsliding from any experience they may have in God, whether salvation, healing or the baptism. It is especially incumbent on those who have just been healed to surround themselves with spiritual influences and mingle with those who are strong in faith.
We could fill the paper with testimonies of healings that have stood the test of years, but our present purpose is to show what God is doing in our midst today, for the encouragement of those who have need of healing and help. We cannot refrain, however, from giving a short testimony from our beloved Brother Graves, whose miraculous healing has stood the test of twenty years:
“When I think of those long twenty years of epilepsy that I passed through, listening to the teaching that the day of miracles was past, it doesn’t seem possible that I stand before you today, for I never expected to be well again. I had over three hundred attacks; I have fallen under horses’ feet and through scaffolding, and yet I lived to be fifty-seven years old yesterday. ​"With all the quarts and gallons of medicine I took, there came a time when I put them all away; when Jesus said to the spirit of epilepsy, 'Come out of him and enter no more into him.' This blessed teaching we are having today is the teaching that brought me deliverance. 'Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever!' I thank God for the dear brother that held that up before me day after day, and day after day, until it was made real in my life. My healing has stood these twenty years. What are we going to do with the teaching that the day of miracles is past in the face of such testimonies?"
"Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins by His blood; and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen."
Anna C. Reiff.
Reports of this work were published in England. (A. E. S.)
NEGLECT NOT THE GIFT THAT IS IN THEE
Instructions to Ministers and Christian Workers
Mrs. M. B. Woodworth-Etter in the Stone Church, July 17, 1913. (Copied from "The Latter Rain Evangel.")
NOTE.—One of the most deeply solemn meetings, was that in which seventy elders, evangelists and helpers had hands laid on them that they might receive a fresh anointing of the Spirit and have more power in their ministry. A holy hush fell on all and the slaying power of the Lord was strongly manifested. One after another they were prostrated under the power until the large platform looked like a battlefield.
Then came a cry from those who worked in hospitals and visited the sick, that they might have more power to bring blessings to the suffering, and Sister Etter and several of the brethren prayed for nearly fifty. Again, as other ministers and workers came in at the close of the month's meetings, there was another service of this nature on Sunday, July 27th, in which fifty more were prayed for. All present were deeply affected by seeing the mighty power of God resting upon His workers. The faces of many were wet with tears as they looked upon the scene. ​On July 17th, before giving a talk to the ministers and Christian workers, Sister Etter made a few introductory remarks, in which she said she was not sending them out with license to preach, but that she did believe in many there were gifts lying dormant and that she thought part of her mission was to stir up the gifts in her brethren. She said: "I have no authority to send you out. My prayer is that God will give you authority." We can be of the same mind and same Spirit though separate a thousand miles. God has wonderfully blessed me by imparting gifts, and many have received the baptism when I laid hands on them. You are going out with a courage you never had before.. We don't want to be a hissing and a byword. We don't want to run ahead of the Lord or lag behind. Let us get deep in the Spirit, so the power will come on us this morning."
Brother Argue spoke of the fresh anointing that had come to many at the Los Angeles Camp-meeting through a similar service, and also emphasized the fact that these ministers who were about to be prayed for by the laying on of hands were not being sent out by Sister Etter or to claim any authority from her or the Stone Church, but that they might go away from this service with more power, a new courage and a stronger faith. He spoke of the great need of wisdom; that some had not exercised wisdom, and had gone out claiming authority from certain missions, because hands had been laid on them at that place.
Every one was committed to God and made to feel his responsibility to God. Many other valuable instructions were given fitting the hour, but lack of space forbids us recording them further. We give below the address given by Mrs. Etter. All felt the hush of the presence of the Lord, and it was a time of real solemnity to many hearts.
"And this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached unto all the world for a witness, and then shall the end come." (Matt. xxiv.14.)
"The Holy Ghost said, separate me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work where unto I have called them." They had been called and were working, but now they were to be set apart in a special way. The Holy Ghost has to call you, and qualify you. Jesus Christ has to send you forth.
"And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. So they being sent forth by the ​Holy Ghost, departed.” Has God sent you? The Holy Ghost. has to qualify you. Our laying on of hands would do no good unless the Holy Ghost comes in to work mightily. The Holy, Ghost said, “Separate.” These men had been called and chosen; chosen for the special work to. which they had already been called.
Now in the tenth chapter of Luke we read that the Lord appointed the seventy and sent them forth two and two before His face. He said, “Behold, I send you forth as lambs”—let us remain lambs, and not become wolves to bite and snatch and tear and antagonize everybody. “Behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves”—but remember the wolves won’t devour you. “Carry neither purse nor scrip.” Don’t be overanxious about anything.
Verse 19: “Behold, I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”
Then He tell them not to rejoice because they had power over the spirits but rather rejoice that they are children of God. Don’t be puffed up by the miracles, don’t get your eyes on them, but keep your eyes on Jesus. You are not saved by miracles. You are saved and kept by the power of God. The miracles are the work of the Holy Ghost. You will get a reward for the works of the Holy Ghost that are wrought through you; they are going to make your crown, but they will never save you.
If a hundred thousand were healed through my prayers a day I could not pin my salvation to that. We are not saved by works, but through faith in Jesus, through living, constant faith and prayer. We are kept by the power of God. The works are thrown in and there will be a great reward for them; our crown will be the brighter.
LIKE DAYS OF OLD
Now in Moses’ day the work was great as it is now and the time came when the force of workers had to be enlarged. The Lord told Moses to select seventy men of good report, elders of the people, and bring them together to the tent of meeting that he might take of the Spirit that was upon Moses and put it upon them. ​He said that they should be used in the same way as Moses; and so it was, the Spirit that rested on Moses came upon the seventy and they all began to prophesy. Then they were sent out to work. When the Spirit of God comes on you, you are not going to sit around idle and do nothing. And the Spirit fell upon two men who had stayed in the camp. They had not been brought into the tent by Moses, yet the Spirit fell upon them.
That made some feel jealous and you will find the same spirit today—jealousy of those who are being blessed. Are you jealous for the cause or jealous for yourself? It wasn’t for God’s glory that Joshua asked Moses to forbid the prophesying of these men.
Thank God for Moses’ answer, “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets.” You must have the Spirit resting upon you if you are to do anything for God, either at home or abroad. You are not fit for work unless you have Him, and those who serve at home must have Him the same as those who go to China or Africa.
God is not calling everyone to the foreign field, but God is calling everyone in some way. Many make the mistake of going out whom God has not called, and many spend all their time running around to camp-meetings. Let us make every place a tent of meeting with the Lord and the Spirit may fall on us as on Eldad and Medad, who were not called to the tent of meeting.
And if you are not called to the foreign field, get to work in the place in which God does call you to labor. If you cannot get victory for God you are not called. The hardest place God sends you to is just the place where he is going to give the greatest victory. But if you have not the Spirit and power of the Holy Ghost to energize you, you will be stranded.
God expects us to be qualified by the Spirit resting upon us even more in these last days than in the time of Moses. The seventy that Christ sent out had power, and how much more should we have power now that Christ is glorified? So we are expected to do all these great things set forth in the last chapter of Mark. Now in the 24th chapter of Matthew it says this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached to all nations as a witness and then shall the end come. Friends, you and I cannot go out and preach as we used to do. Many sermons that God wonderfully blessed in the past I cannot preach now. I used to preach hell fire, so you could nearly see the fire, and it took effect then, but the call today is for a different ministry. ​It is not so much in the might of preaching but in the demonstration of the Spirit. Sinners are more hard-hearted than they used to be. You can preach hell until they see the blaze and yet they will stand and look you calmly in the face; but let them see the mighty power of God manifested and they are convicted. The disciples came to Jesus privately and asked Him what should be the sign of His coming and of the end of the world and He answered these questions. The same questions are being asked today: “How will people know when He is coming back again? And then what will be the sign of the end when the tribulation is over?”
Now, we are given signs that we may know Jesus is coming soon. He goes on to tell many things that will happen by which we may know. He says this Gospel must be preached all over the world as a witness and then shall the end come. This is our business, to sound the midnight cry, to herald the King.
It is our mission to blow the trumpet in Zion among the saints for the day of the Lord is at hand. It is near, even at the door. Jesus says in the same chapter, “Now from the fig tree learn her parable; when the branch putteth forth its leaves ye know that the summer is nigh; even so ye also, when ye see all these things know that He is nigh, even at the doors.”
He had just been saying that the Lord would send forth His angels with a great sound of the trumpet to gather together the elect from the four winds. These are not actual angels but God’s servants. The Greek word translated angel means messenger. You see the herald is going forth giving this last message of the kingdom, having power in the Holy Ghost, “Signs and Wonders” following; then know that the coming of the Lord is near at hand.
The Lord has given me a special mission to bring about a spirit of unity and love and God is raising up people in every land who are reaching out after more of God and saying, “Come and help us. We want the spirit of love. We want the ‘signs and wonders.’”
The Lord showed me last night as I lay awake the most of the night, to gather together the ministers as far as I could, that we might see eye to eye, preach the same Gospel and have the same signs following. The word is going forth and the multitude is going to take it up and publish it everywhere—this Gospel of the kingdom, our last commission. So you see the ​saints going out to give this last message, telling the people that Jesus is coming soon.
Our Lord told us, as it was in the days of Noah so shall it be in our day. While the great mass of people are busy with the affairs of this life a little band like Noah and his family are preparing to be hidden away in Christ. from the disaster that will come upon the world. And we are told in the “time of the end” the book of Daniel will be read and understood.
Daniel had called upon God to show him the future and he was given a vision of great things taking place; but the Lord said, “It is not for this people, Daniel. It is for the people you ask about in the ‘time of the end.’ Seal up the book; they won’t know anything about it now.”
The book of Daniel is for our time and God is now opening His word. The light of heaven is shining upon us; God is unveiling it to us. He is giving us light on these things as never before. He says positively, “They that be wise shall understand.” We are going to know before Jesus comes. Nearly everyone that is carried away in a vision gets the message, “Jesus is coming soon. Tell the people to be ready.”
God expects us as ambassadors, as teachers, as messengers of His kingdom to blow the trumpet that sounds the alarm to those who are not ready for His coming. He expects us to prove by His word, and by the signs and wonders following our ministry, make it plain that Jesus is coming soon. His ambassadors must stop all-contention, all hair-splitting theories must be dropped; this hobby and that hobby with continual harping on “finished work” or “sanctification” that antagonizes the saints must be put away.
We are going out to lift up Jesus. Not many sinners come in by our preaching red-hot judgment these days. Paul says preaching has to be with demonstration of the Spirit and of power. The Holy Ghost bears witness with signs and miracles; unless these attend our ministry we cannot succeed.
There are scores and hundreds getting saved. They come from all parts of the country to get healed. The ministry of healing brings people more than anything else and if you can lay hands on the sick and they recover, you will not have to preach to empty seats. You “produce the goods” of heaven, and people ​want the goods. Let the word go forth in demonstration and power so people can see what God has for them. There will be no failure in your ministry when they see the power of the Lord present to heal.
The main thing to keep Gris the people is the near coming of Jesus. We are not to set the day—God forbid; but the saints will know as the day draws nigh. We can tell by the. signs that it is near. God expects you to preach as one having. authority. This is a generation that will go up without dying. Christ looked down the age to our day and saw the whole world in unbelief, men fainting and their hearts failing them for fear of the things that were coming upon the earth and Daniel prophesied and said the wicked should grow worse and worse and none of the wicked should Ce but the wise shall understand.
Then the Lord gave Daniel another picture. He saw on the land and on the sea, here an there, messengers blowing trumpets, hailing each other as they pass along. For years back whenever I met a child of God my greeting has been, “Watchman, what of the night?” and from those who have much of the Spirit of God the answer comes, “the morning cometh.” But the night is here, too. We have to preach that.
We know the darkness of hell is spreading over this earth and it will soon be a fearful scene, a regular deluge of blood. We have to sound the alarm and give the message that the King is coming. Some will be accounted worthy to escape all these things and stand before the Son of Man.
There is loving unity here. So far as I can there is not a dissenting voice. There is not much wild fire. God will not permit it and no one dares to chime in: saying, “I am a dove” when he is a raven. No one dares to join us but to magnify God. Those just starting in the life of the Spirit will run off in the flesh more or less, but if they are honest they will recover themselves and fall into their places. There is room for everything in the meeting but the devil. We don’t want to give him a place. I haven’t heard any hobby aired here. Christ finished the work on Calvary, the wonderful plan of salvation, but I do not consider the great work of the baptism was finished until after He ​went to glory, because the Holy Ghost could not be poured forth until after His ascension.
That brings us into the heavenly places and leads us on in the way. There are powers and gifts and greater gifts; we are to go on from glory to glory. God didn’t send us out to ride hobbies, to hold up this term or that term, but hold up Jesus. He didn’t send us out to tear down, churches.
When Christ sent out His workers He said, “If you go to a city don’t go gadding about. Abide in one place and be much in prayer and don’t be worried about the money not coming in, for the laborer is worthy of his hire.” Give yourself wholly to your ministry. If you are in the will of God He will provide for you. And eat such things as are set before you; don’t have some fad about diet. Don’t say, “I don’t eat this,” or “I don’t eat that.” If you don’t eat it, let it alone, but don’t air your opinion about it. The Lord says, “He that receiveth you in my name receiveth me,” and we want to represent Him worthily.
As for forbidding to marry or having spiritual “affinities”— shun such things as you would a deadly viper. But you don’t need to talk about these things. Just hold up Jesus. God doesn’t want you to be personal about these sins. Let Jesus have the preeminence.
The more He is held up, the deeper people get in love with Him the quicker they will drop everything else. So let us hold up Jesus and herald the coming of the King. Show them the great danger of the tribulation. Preach Jesus and hold unto God until the signs follow. There is something wrong unless they do follow. Don’t wait until you have any special gift. Believe you can do it and it will be done. Not only send forth the prayer, but look to God for courage, command the devil to go and you will see victory perched on your banner.
People are affected every day by seeing the wonderful miracles. There are different degrees.in heavenly places; there are the moon and the sun and the stars. The time has come when we have to be something more than the moon. We have to be as the sun. They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament.
Don’t denounce churches. Don’t denounce the Catholics. Catholics won’t come in for fear you will denounce them. I never mention Catholics. I never denounce any particular ​church. We can show the signs of the formalist in a general way, and they see they have been fed on chaff, and they know they are frozen to death and will want to get alive.
Let us hold up Jesus and if-we do that, these antagonistic spirits will get ashamed. They will find themselves lacking. If you blow the trumpet, show the people a supernatural God, and give them the light on what is coming in the Millennial age— that they will be Kings and priests—they will realize that the King is in our midst in power and might and glory. Any one that will call upon God in the right way shall be saved. He is pouring out His Spirit upon the sons and daughters. There is a special ministry for the women in these days. The sign that brought the people together when the 5000 were converted, was healing, and there would have probably been ten thousand if they hadn’t broken up the meeting.
Five thousand as the result of this one man being healed, and for that healing the disciples preached the mighty works of God. So the great revivals all through the New Testament were the result of somebody getting healed. Eneas was eight years afflicted, like the man we prayed for the other day, only this man was probably in a worse condition than Eneas.
He could not bend himself, could not open his mouth, could not even move his eye or his head. Soon he was able to stand on his feet; he had been carried in and while we were singing, he ran down the aisle, and down the stairs without taking hold of the bannister, and down the street. All that saw him glorified God as the people did when Eneas was healed. There are scores who get saved and healed, so you will always have the miraculous, if the signs follow. God is going to draw in such as can be saved, to see the mighty works.
Paul said to Timothy, “Stir up the gift of God which is in thee.” If there is any gift God is showing you you ought to have, you can receive it by the laying on of hands. It is not so much what you say about the baptism and the Holy Spirit, but what they see you have. We can talk until we are hoarse and they won’t be convinced, but the power of God convinces them. Don’t wait for manifestations before you go forth and do something. When you are weakest, then you are strong. Let us go
BE PATIENT: HIS COMING DRAWETH NIGH
PRESENT DAY CONDITIONS PORTRAYED IN PROPHECY
(A. H. Argue, in the Stone Church, July 24, 1913.)
I feel in my innermost soul that God is revealing Himself to me in a deeper sense, ever since my coming to Chicago. God, of a truth, is moving here—moving on the hearts of the people in a very special way. Sister Etter spoke a moment ago about visitations of God in revelations and dreams. He surely is visiting his people in many ways—in dreams, in visions and revelations. While in California, I had a dream of a terrible disaster. I saw people swallowed up one after another in a great flood. Only a few days afterwards I received a newspaper telling of the terrible calamity in Ohio and this dream was forcibly brought to mind. I had felt at the time it was a warning of coming disaster.
God is not only speaking to the hearts of His people in these days, but He is confirming His word by “signs and wonders” in our midst. Those who have charge of the work here could not sit down and map out a plan for God to work by; we could not reproduce this meeting if we should try. But God has graciously heard the prayers that have ascended from His little ones and as they have gathered here, He has come forth in power and is really shaking the city.
He is reaching the world through these meetings and before He is through with this work, I verily believe He will send men and women forth to different quarters of the globe with more faith in God and more filled with the Spirit than ever before, that they may speak His word with authority and “signs and wonders” follow their ministry.
I love to see these precious brethren here working side by side and I feel in my own soul that God is dropping down faith and giving fresh courage, enabling us to go forth in the power of the Spirit and believe for greater things than we have yet seen. I want to read to you 1st Timothy 4:14, “Neglect not the gift that is in thee, that was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery,”—that is, the elders, those who have the ministry. We have read this and reread it, but only as it comes as a revelation from heaven to our own souls does it become a living truth to us. ​This injunction has largely been a dead letter to us, but God is bringing us to the place where it is a living truth. Many of God’s children here have been inspired, the gifts have been stirred up and we are really believing for great things. I am convinced that God is moving us on step by step, and as we deepen in the Spirit these truths will more and more become “living, bright realities” to us and give-us a real hold on God for His mighty power to be manifested.
When I go down stairs where they are praying with seekers and inquire “How many have received the baptism today?” the answer usually is ten, twelve or fifteen, and one brother, who I believe is a real good authority, said there were forty baptisms by the Holy Ghost in three days last week. He says he notices how easily and quickly they come through into the blessed experience because of the mighty power of God which is present. The Spiritual tide is a high tide and it is not as in the past when there has often been a long, hard struggle in prayer to bring people through into the Baptism and that when they got it there wasn’t much of an overflow.
Now they come through filled with the Holy Ghost and speaking freely in tongues. God is dealing with His people in such a way that they will go forward, strengthened and deepened, in greater measure than at any time since the Pentecostal movement came into existence. I believe we are now moving forward to a deeper life in God and will be better equipped for the work than ever before.
This has not been brought about by man but by the Lord Himself who “worketh after the counsel of His own will.” And now that we have had this visitation of God, now that we have heard Him speak in revelations and visions and show Himself in signs and miracles, it behooves us not to limit God. The devil would like to keep us back but we are children of the day and as we draw nigh to God He will increasingly reveal Himself to us. Let us not only talk about these things but do them in the name of the Lord.
S. D. KINNE WRITES:
Several days ago a lady was brought to the platform in a chair. She said she could not bear to be moved into the chair
that others were being prayed for in. After prayer and some ​effort with her which did not appear to be doing much good, Mrs. Etter with authority in the Name of Jesus commanded her to rise and walk. She did so and was soon walking very well. She testifies in the meetings and goes about apparently as supple as others.
An old lady was afflicted with two cancerous or poisonous sores. One of these was nearly the size of a silver dollar, located above the right temple in the edge of the hair. The other on her side near the heart.
Several days after she was prayed for neither of them was sore nor had run a particle, though they often run so badly as to fill several handkerchiefs at a time. The first night she went to bed forgetting to bandage her head as she always did. But there was no blood.
THE BLESSED CLOSE
The attendance was large and increasing. Many Pentecostal ministers and workers were present. At two morning services Mrs. Etter assisted by brethren laid hands on more than one hundred ministers and workers for a deeper enduement and the reception of gifts of the Spirit. These were two of the most powerful services in the series. The imposition of hands was preceded by instructive teaching as to being sound and sensible and avoiding foolish and fanatical extremes and the preaching of hobbies and doctrines that tend to division. They were told to preach Christ and the resurrection. To leave such questions as forbidding to eat meats and abstainence from marriage, alone. If you have faith that you ought not to eat meats, have it to thyself. Marriage is honorable.
Do not be personal and single out this church or that lodge, but hold up Jesus, and people will drop those things which are wrong, for the Spirit will show them. It was asserted we are not yet up to the fullness of the FORMER RAIN, and that when the LATTER RAIN comes it will exceed anything we have seen. This was confirmed by powerful messages of prophetic interpretations. The plaintive notes of the dove were heard as a warning that the storm of wrath and the tribulation is soon to break on this poor, sin-cursed earth. We were warned under the Spirit of prophecy to AWAKE and seek shelter from the storm. I was told that there were many crooked and wrong spirits come to the ​meeting. A brother said to his wife, “They are all here.” But they were silent, chained down by the power of the Spirit. The croak of the frog and chatter of the raven could not join in the heavenly chorus, and the notes of the dove.
In the last service of prayer for ministers and workers, about fifty were prayed for, most of whom were prostrated under the Spirit. Some testified to having been very greatly helped and anointed. One of the best testimonials was the fact that numbers of ministers and workers were praying for the sick of all classes with gracious success. The numbers were far too many for one to pray for. Sometimes nearly 200 were prayed for in one service. After having laid hands on as many as she could at this ministerial service, there were still perhaps one hundred and fifty waiting. She had them stand before the platform, and requested the ministers to join with her, stretching their hands over the people, while she prayed for them altogether.
She then requested some of the brethren to lay hands on the people. Most of those who were touched by the hands fell to the floor. It seemed like taking a sword and cutting them down, the power of God was so mightily upon us.
Every Pentecostal convention has its distinguishing features. The one thing that stood out most prominent in this one was the impartation of gifts, of healings and faith for their exercise. This was accomplished through teaching, practical demonstration, by example, before the whole congregation, through prayer and laying on of hands. They were then put to work praying for the sick on the platform.
As many as four or six groups of workers prayed for as many sick ones at the same time. It is much to be able to do the mighty works by faith, but a still more blessed ministry to succeed in stirring up the gifts in others and arousing them to battle. Many will, we feel sure, go forth from this meeting to cast out demons, heal the sick and work the mighty works of the coming King. There has been for some time a prophecy in the hearts of many of the more spiritual of God’s saints that a greater and mightier revival than the world has yet seen is soon coming. “And this gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached to all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” (Matt. 24:14.)
Seeley D. Kinne.
“LATTER RAIN EVANGEL” EDITORIAL
We are sending this August Evangel into all the world as a witness to the supernatural working of the Holy Spirit in these days. We were eye-witnesses to the events recorded in its pages and much care has been taken to give accurate accounts of healing and other manifestations of Divine Power. The testimonies are given as they fell from the lips of the witnesses. We believe that the record of this great Chicago meeting, the testimonies of healings wrought, will build up and inspire present day faith throughout the world as it never has been done before. Never in any one month’s meetings have we seen such a record and we feel God has been giving an object lesson for His saints throughout the world.
Lydia Piper