Bro. Drysdale of Grand Forks, who had a stiff knee, was prayed for several times, but got no help. However, in this meeting his limb became so limbered up that he could run up and down the steps like a young man. He got so happy that he forgot his cane and went home without it. On getting home he discovered he had left his cane behind and ran back to the chapel to get it, but when he got hold of his cane, his limb was as bad as ever.
When I was in Minneapolis with Brother E. G. Masters, a lady came to us to be prayed for. She was walking with two canes. She was prayed for and the Lord healed her. And she got around like a young woman. She went home forgetting to take her two canes--and they were beautiful canes! She came back to get them, but when she got hold of them she was just as crippled as ever, and no praying helped her.
One time I was asked by the congregation at Rice Lake, Wisconsin, to come and hold a meeting for them. And I felt that the Lord wanted me to do so. I wrote the pastor there about it four times a year for two years, but he did not want me. However the Lord said, "You go," and I went. On my arrival at Rice Lake, I found the pastor sick in bed.
I said to him, "Well, I"m here now; the Lord told me to come." He told me the chapel was open and that I should go ahead. I started that meeting with eight to twelve school children and two women coming to the services, keeping on for two weeks. Many times the devil said to me, "So you thought the Lord sent you, didn"t you? Now you see!"
The last Sunday night, to cap the climax, the children came around me and said, "Reverend, aren"t you going to close the services?" I asked, "Do you want them to close?" They said they did. I asked them the reason and they said, "We like your preaching so much better than our pastors, but we go to school and we get so tired from coming every night." Then I said to them, "Children, your reason is very good. But what do you think of this proposition: that we announce services for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, and if no more come we will close the meeting and you tell your folks about it?" The children thought it would be fine.
The next night, Monday, two more women came and they came the next night too, and one of them (if not both of them) got saved. But what happened the next two evenings is erased from my memory, but Friday evening when I came to open the door for the service, there were more people than there was room in the chapel to accommodate them. So they stood around on boxes and ladders outside the windows. Fifty-two were at the altar for salvation in the last three weeks--I was there five weeks in all. The last Sat.u.r.day I went to the pastors home and said to him, "I have come to pray for you. You are going to get healed today so you can attend the service tomorrow. But you will have to come early or you will not be able to get into your own pulpit." He broke down and cried and said, "I haven"t a pair of decent trousers to wear to stand before such a big audience." I said, "I have two pairs, thank G.o.d, I will give you one pair." I prayed for him and he was healed.
At a later time Brother Masters and I held another meeting there. One evening a couple came in a little late and sat down in the back seat. This was the first time they had attended the service and they got under conviction, but they got out before we could get to speak to them. They came the next evening and slipped out again before we could get to them.
They did not come any more. We began to inquire around to find out their names and where they lived. Yes, we were informed, he was a real estate agent, and they never go to church anywhere. We went to their home and had a fine visit with them one afternoon for about two hours. They were nice folks. Brother Masters said, "We have not seen you out to the services any more since the second time you were there."
"Well," they said, we are not in the habit of going to any meetings, but we enjoyed the beautiful singing so much the first night that we decided we would go again the next evening. We didn"t want to be late, so I decided to milk our cow after service. After coming home from the service I took my lantern, as we have not any light in the barn and hung it up on a nail on the studding and went to milking. As the milk began to run I heard a noise like a shot and the lantern went out, leaving me in total darkness. When I went to examine what had happened, it appeared that I had been so disturbed in my mind over what I heard at the services that I had made a mistake and had hung the milk pail up instead of the lantern, and when the milk dropped, it fell on the lantern-globe and broke it."
"Well," we said, "you are coming to the services again?" But they answered, "We surely are not. If two services can affect us to such an extent as nearly cause us to lose our minds we will never go back again. We only go to the funeral services of our neighbors."
At one time when I was in Denmark, I was in dire need of a considerable sum of money. I prayed earnestly over the matter and one day as I went to put my hat on my head it seemed to be too small. I took it off and looked on the inside of it to be sure it was mine and in feeling around, on the inside of the sweat band I found the very amount of money I needed.
While still in Denmark, I needed an overcoat. I went to a clothing store and picked out one. There were a few alterations to be made and I was to get it in two or three days, but I had no money and did not know from where any was coming. This was Friday and Sunday evening after service a number of saints went pa.s.sed my door and one sister threw a folded bill on to my table. She said, "Brother Susag, you need an overcoat. Here is a little to help on it." I thanked her and looked at the bill and found it was a hundred crown bill--more than seven crowns over the cost of the overcoat.
Once when I was in Grand Forks holding a meeting, my oldest son wrote me that a man to whom I owed $27.50 needed $20.00 and that if I could pay the twenty he would give $7.50. Between the forenoon service and that of the afternoon, I stayed in the church to pray and just before the next service was to begin a number of people came in and stood beside the stove warming themselves. An elderly woman from South Dakota put out her hand to me and said, "Praise the Lord, Brother Susag," and putting a crumpled bill into my hand, said, "This is for you." I thanked her and went behind the pulpit and thanked the Lord for twenty dollars and when I looked at it, it was twenty dollars.
The next day, between morning and afternoon services, I took a walk and on my way I pa.s.sed a fruit stand. As I looked into the window of it I saw some delicious red apples, and Oh, how I wished I had three of them. I went back three times and looked at them, but I had no money. I went back to the chapel and the same old sister that had given me the twenty dollars the day before, handed me a little paper bag and in it, to my happy surprise, were three of those delicious apples that I had wanted.
One time when I was in Denmark, I wanted to go from Hjoremg to Lokk.u.m. I did not have the money for my carfare but stood up against a pillar in the station praying the Lord to send it. As it was getting near train time it looked as though it were not coming when suddenly a lady whom I knew--she was not saved--came into the depot and crossed right over to me and handed me a five crown bill. This lady had heard me often tell of the Lord hearing prayer, but she did not believe that it was all true. I took it hastily, ran for the ticket window, purchased my ticket and was just in time to catch the train. When I came back, this lady came to the services and when I saw her I asked her whether I had thanked her for the bill she had given me at the depot. She said, "No, you didn"t have time. When I came in to the depot and saw you standing there, something said to me, "He"s praying for carfare; go, give him five crowns," and when I gave it to you I saw tears in your eyes and when I got home I knelt down and asked the Lord to save me and He did." Then she said, "You were praying for carfare, weren"t you?" I a.s.sured her I surely was. "G.o.d moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform."
At the first Camp meeting we held, I went to the bank and borrowed ten dollars to divide among the ministers, and one day the Lord said to me, "Give Elihu Key five dollars."
I couldn"t understand so went to wife and told her about it; she said, "If the Lord told you to give Brother Key five dollars, you had better give it to him; he must be needing it badly." So the next day I crumpled a five dollar bill up and stuck it in his hand. He said, "Thank you," and into the brush he went--and I went after him, crawling on my hands and knees so he would not see me--quite close up to him. He fell on his knees, crying and thanking the Lord for the five dollars and for the man who gave it to him and asking the Lord to bless him a hundred-fold according to His word. Then down the hill he ran to the Post Office and sent it to his family. This I learned later from his brother. The family was in great need.
On one occasion a payment of $245.00 had to be made on the contracts on our home--to save the contract from lapsing. I did not have the money. I tried every possible way to borrow it from different banks, and failing that, I tried to get it from some of the brethren. The last one I approached surely capped the climax. He a.s.sured me that he had the money and could loan it to me, but he said that he might just as well throw the money on the manure pile, for, he said, "You can never pay for the place anyhow, and the quicker you leave it the better."
I went home, and after praying for three days the Lord said the name "Torp"
to me. The only one I knew of that name was a banker in Willmer, our county seat, whom I had met once--he hardly knew me nor I him. Anyway, I went to him and told him my trouble, to which he responded by saying that he could not loan me any money; that I was out of the district for him to loan on chattel mortgages; that I would either have to get it at Paynesville, At.w.a.ter or New London. I told him that I had already applied at those places but could not obtain the loan. Then Mr. Torp asked me what security I was able to give, to which I replied that the security I had would not be worth fifty dollars, but that I had a strong back and two strong arms and a good will and that we would like to stay on the hill a little longer if it were at all possible. He said, "Such things will go a long way." He sat there silent for a minute or two, then he said, "I"ll think the matter over and you come back after dinner." A lump got into my throat so that I could not even say, "Thank you."
I walked down into the railroad yards, found a place between two box cars and prayed for nearly an hour and a half-back and forth I went praying that the Lord would "speak to the dear man and make his heart tender toward this poor man and his family." I went back to the bank and the good man met me.
He invited me into his office, and when we were seated he said, "I have thought the matter over and I am going to loan you the money; now what security have you to offer?" I said, "I have a bay colt, a couple of calves, an old wagon I paid seven dollars for, and some other little trinkets." "Well," he said, "the colt as it grows will increase in price--good horses at that time were only worth about fifty dollars--and the calves also will increase in value. How long a time do you want?" I told him I thought eight months. Then he told me that their charge for such loans was 12%, but that he would let me have it for 8%.
Three weeks before the note came due I went to see him. My purpose in going was in regard to the loan. "Well," he said, "it is not due yet; we have not sent you a notice." I told him that I was wanting to know whether he would extend the time on the note. He asked me whether I had anything at all to pay on it. I told him I had only $50.00 and the interest. To which he replied, "That"s fine." It took me two years instead of eight months to pay off the loan; but I was always on hand ahead of time to get the extension.
When I made the last payment he gave me one dollar.
I went to see this banker some years later, and I asked him what it was that had made him so kind to me. Tears came into his eyes, but he did not answer--and my eyes were moist as well. He turned and from a drawer took out a small tract in which was an account of his boyhood life and experiences. His father died when he was eleven years old. He took a job as ship boy on board a ship and went through untold hardships to help support his mother and his six brothers and sisters. When he was about seventeen he came to America and located in Wisconsin.
When the Civil War was on a certain rich man came to him with an offer of several hundred dollars if he would act as subst.i.tute for his son in the army--which offer, however, he refused. Some time later he became acquainted with a family in which were seven children who were very good to him. One day word came that the father, who was a soldier, was killed in action and that the oldest boy was to be taken to fill his father"s place.
Whereupon young Torp stepped up to the boy and said, "You go home and take care of your mother and the family and I will go in your place--free of charge." The Lord was good to him and protected him; very soon he was promoted to the rank of an officer--and so the booklet continued, telling of his life"s experiences.
These two incidents remind me, by way of contrast, of the story of another banker and of the way he dealt with a poor man who was in debt to him. When not prepared to meet the payments on his note the poor man would ask for an extension of time. Finally the banker became impatient and refused to grant any further time extension. The poor man begged for mercy--that he would allow him more time. "All right," said the banker, "I have a gla.s.s eye; it is such a good one that people cannot tell which one it is; if you can tell which one, I will extend the loan." Looking carefully at the eyes the man said, "It is the left one." "Yes," said the other, "how could you tell?"
The man said, "I could tell that eye was more sympathetic than the good one." It is said of Jesus that he "learned obedience through the things that he suffered"--and so with us, we learn how to have sympathy according to how we suffer.
My first experience of being healed of cancer of the stomach was while I was in Grand Forks in 1922 after that Doctor Weatherstein had examined me and said there was nothing that could be done for me. I was taken to the Werstlein"s home where I was staying, and Brother Shave, Sister Gaulke and Sister Johnstone were sent for. They came, and when they saw me as I lay on the lounge, they fell on their knees weeping and calling on G.o.d. All at once they arose, and with Sister Werstlein, laid their hands on me and rebuked the devil and the cancer, and I was instantly healed!
In the fall of 1936 I had a number of calls to go to the West Coast, but I did not feel that I could leave unless wife had someone to stay with her.
However, she insisted that I should go, saying she was able to take care of herself, but I hesitated about going so far away and applied for a job as an automobile adjuster paying $50 a week and commission. I had everything signed up on Friday, and I was to go to work the following Tuesday. On Sunday the cancer returned again for the third time--the blood running from me and I was very sick. Wife said--not in an unkind way--"Good enough for you." I said, "I know what you are going to say." "Yes," she went on, "but I will check up on you. Do you remember what Brother Dorrity said to you when you were ordained? "This is not for a day, nor for a week, nor for a month or a year, but for your lifetime," and you are not dead yet!" To which I replied, suffering and weeping, "All right, you come and pray for me." She came and prayed and I was instantly healed. Needless to say, I did not take the job.
This took place the Sunday before Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving day we were to go by invitation to Willmar to dinner and in the evening we were to attend service and I was to preach. That was the last automobile trip my wife ever took with me.
In the same year we were living on our little farm. On December the first, as I was going to town, wife made out a little list of things she wanted me to buy, but in spite of the list I forgot two of the items I was to get--and they were never purchased for they were never needed. On Monday the 8th I said to her, "Perhaps I had better go to town and get those two articles," but she said, "Never mind, we will wait until someone else goes in."
Being clerk of the district school board and her brother the chairman, when he came over, they talked over some business matters and other affairs that evening. The next morning she got up early. I saw a light in her room and I asked her whether she was getting up. She said she was; so I thought I had better go down and stir up the fire. When she came down she said, "If you want a job you can get breakfast ready." I answered, "Okay, what do you want to eat?" She said, "A gla.s.s of milk, a slice of toast and a soft cooked egg." Then she said, "I suppose you want oatmeal!" I said, "Sure."
After breakfast we had our morning worship and then she went to read and write. After I had washed the dishes I said, "I am going to town to get those two articles." To which she replied, "It is up to you. No hurry about it." I went out to the garage to get the car and found I had a flat tire, so I went back into the house and said, "It is cold out there and there is a flat tire." She said, "Never mind."
About eleven o"clock she put her hands up to her ears and said, "I have such pain around my ears." Then she went over to the sofa and lay down, but the pain grew worse. I went to her and knelt down; we prayed and she was instantly made well.
At noon I fixed a little lunch, after which I said, "Now I will go and fix the tire and go to town." She laughed and said, "So now you are going to be a man again."
I jacked up the car but could not turn any of the bolts on the wheel. I walked to the neighbor"s and borrowed a coal chisel but still I could not move a bolt even with the hammer and chisel. All at once I heard a rattle as though someone was dying. It startled me. I threw down the hammer and chisel, and ran for the house like a wild man, jerking open one door after another, and slamming them as I went. When I opened the last one, there I saw wife sitting in the rocker reading, and she laughed. I raised my hands and said to her, "You are not dead yet!" She answered, "I should say not! I was wondering what kind of a cowboy had come rattling through the house!"
Then I told her that I could not get the wheel off. After a few minutes she said, "Uncle Carl [her brother] said to me, "Martha, why don"t you take a rest? You are always so busy and you don"t have to keep going like that,"
so now I am going up stairs to take a rest. You come with me and carry my Bible and a few other things." So I went with her. After I had tucked her in bed I asked her if she was resting comfortably now. She said, "Yes," and looking up at me with a smile, she said, as though she was about to tell me a secret, "And now..."--and she was dead! I raised my hands and said, "O Mama, you are not leaving me, are you?" But there she lay smiling.
I called the doctor and in a few minutes the house was full of people. The first one to come was Sister Hansen. She said, "Brother Susag, Sister Susag is not dead--she lies there smiling!" But she was gone. She had been praying for about two years that she might go that way, and her prayer was answered. (I got a neighbor young man to come and see what he could do with the car. He had no trouble in turning the bolts and was able to fix it very easily.) The feeling I had that I could not leave my wife to go to the West Coast to hold meetings proved to have been quite in order.
On one of my trips I had to change trains at Grand Forks, and having a little time to spare I walked down a certain street of the city and met Brother John Sonden who was standing outside of a doctor"s office. He was surprised to see me, but I explained that I was just pa.s.sing through in making my train connections. He said he was waiting for his son, Brent, who was up in the office consulting the doctor about his health. He wished so much that I could talk to the boy. At his request I went and met him as he was coming out of the consulting room.
He informed me that the doctor had told him he had heart trouble, but as he did not know what kind, he wanted him to go to the hospital for a week when he thought he would be able to locate the ailment. After hearing what he had to say, I said to him, "I"ll tell you what your trouble is and how you feel when you are sitting on the gang plow, plowing: You feel you are going to fall off in front of the plow and get killed and that makes you nervous and sick." He said, "Yes sir, that is exactly how I feel." I then said to him, "I can tell you the cure for it: Go home, and falling on your knees, confess your sins to G.o.d and call on Him. for salvation. I will be agreed in prayer and I guarantee you will be well--and now, goodbye, Brent, I must run to catch my train."
A year later when driving past his farm with Brother Holman, I saw a man out in the field and asked Brother Holman whether that was Brent Sonden. He said it was, and out of the car I got and ran over to him in the field saying, "Praise the Lord, Brent--did you follow the advice I gave you a year ago?" He answered, "Yes, and I have never had that feeling again since the Lord saved me."