At one time I went to Hereford, Minnesota to preach for Brother George Green while he went on a trip to Iowa. At the Sunday morning service I learned that Elder Larson had met with an automobile accident the night before, breaking his left arm in two places and had been taken to the hospital at Barrett. His father phoned me that he would call for me and take me with him to the hospital.
On our arrival there, we found three doctors on the spot ready to amputate the arm--they were to take it off between the shoulder and the elbow. But I protested, saying, "That arm is not going to be amputated; those bones have to be set; for if you take the arm off you can never put it back again."
But the doctors objected, "That is all we can do." I replied, "If Doctor Phelon of Paynesville had been at home I would have called for him to come and he would have fixed those bones in a jiffy." They replied, "We know him and he is no better than we are."
They turned to the father and said, "Are you going to listen to us or to this old foggy preacher?" "Well," he answered, "The old minister knows something too." At this, two of the doctors picked up their instruments and left. The one remaining said to me, "What are you going to do?" I said, "I am going to Hereford to preach tonight, after which I"ll come back and take the young man with me on the train to Minneapolis." "But," he said, "gangrene may set in." I told him that I would pray G.o.d Almighty to keep that away. Then he asked me whether I was going alone with the boy, and I told him I was. He said that I was a brave man, but I answered, "No, it is not that I am brave, but that young man would give anything to have his two arms." Then the doctor said, "How would it be if I were to go with you?" I told him that it would be fine. When we were on the train he asked me where I was going to take the young man when we got to Minneapolis. I told him I hadn"t thought of that, but in a city of 500,000 people there must be a doctor capable of setting bones. If not, I said, "I"ll do it myself." "All right," replied the doctor, "We"ll take him to the Fairview Hospital; I know a doctor there who is good at setting bones. His name is Seversen."
And this we decided to do.
It was early when we arrived in the city, so we first had breakfast, after which I was introduced to Dr. Seversen. I said to him, "So you are the doctor who is going to set the bones in that arm?" But he said, "It can"t be done; the arm will have to be amputated." I said, "That suggestion has been made to me before, and that arm is not going to come off." While we were talking several other doctors had come in--some thirteen or fourteen in all. They said. "We will show you the Xray pictures"--hoping to convince me that I was wrong. But I answered, "Xray pictures or no Xray pictures, that arm is not going to be amputated." However, they protested and argued that gangrene would set in--if it had not already done so. I said, "I will ask G.o.d Almighty to not let that happen." Then turning to the doctors, I said, "Shame on you doctors; if you cannot do it, I can, only I have no license...." And to Dr. Seversen I said, "Will you do it? Tell me quick, for if you will not, I will take him away from here." The doctor replied, "I will."
I said to Dr. Seversen, "I would like to go along with you to see whether you know how to do it." Eight doctors were also present. While the doctor was drilling a hole in the protruding bone, red blood spurted out of it, and I said, "Praise the Lord!" One of the doctors standing by said, "How do you know fhat that looks good?" I made no reply, but looked at him with a grin.
During his stay in the hospital I visited the young man from time to time.
One day I asked the doctor how he was getting along with Elder, and he answered, "Getting along good only the sore doesn"t quit running as rapidly as I would like to have it." Then I ventured, "Have you looked at his back?" He asked, "Tuberculosis of the spine?" I replied, "You had better look."
The next time I was there he said, "There is no tuberculosis about him now; he is well, when did he have it?" Then I told him that five years previous to this time, when a lad of fourteen, he was sick and I prayed for him and the Lord healed him. (Dr. Seversen did a good job on that young man"s arm and the Lord did the finishing.) Mr. Larson has a good strong arm today and is employed in a service station in Elbow Lake, Minnesota.
Two years later I visited Dr. Seversen. When he saw me, he stuck both arms up and said, "Here comes the man with the iron nerve." I answered him, "No, here comes the man with a little good common sense and faith in G.o.d Almighty." "Yes," he said, "common sense, but I thought it could not be done, when it was in such a mess and had been broken so long." I answered him, "Yes, but a good arm is better than an iron hook on it." He said, "Indeed, but I did not think it could be done." (I have nothing against doctors, but the Lord can do what men cannot do.)
One time Brother and Sister George Larson"s three sons were stricken at the same time with infantile paralysis. Herman was 21 and the twins 18 years. A specialist was called and he brought two doctors with him. He p.r.o.nounced the cases as very serious, especially Norman who was stricken in the head, and they did not think there was any hope for him. They said it would be a good thing if he would die, for if he lived, he would be crazy. They sent for me. Sister Larson was then pastor of a congregation in Hereford, Minn.
They had been praying and we prayed again, and the Lord finished the job and healed all three. Often people say, "It was not so serious and may not have been what they said it was," but this time the devil got fooled. The young man had been going to the University of Minnesota where they had been tapping some blood from them for medical science purposes to use to heal others stricken in the same manner; so medical science acknowledge they had the real thing.
At one of the camp meetings at Hereford, Ole Torgesen got very much under conviction and went home to repair a thrashing machine engine. It did not want to start and he got angry and swore at it. Starting suddenly, the fly wheel struck his left hand and breaking a number of bones. He went to the doctor and had the bones set and the hand taped and the arm strapped to his body. Then he came back to the meeting and wanted to be saved. He repented, and the Lord accepted him. While he was still on his knees he looked up and said, "I hear you men believe in divine healing, and I want to be prayed for that the Lord will heal my hand." So Brother C. H. Tubbs and myself prayed the prayer of faith and he began to unloose his arm and take off the bandage. While he was doing so, the saints were shouting the praises of G.o.d. Others told him not to take the bandage off and got angry as he continued removing them. Finally he took off the cotton and cleaned off the iodine and the taping. After doing so, he lifted his arm slowly to move his fingers. Finally he put his hand up and moved his fingers freely, and his hand was healed to the glory of G.o.d. Next day we had baptismal services and I asked him if he wanted to be baptized. He said he did, but thought his wife would be saved, too, so wished that both could be baptized together. I said, "All right."
Next day in the morning service she got saved. She was the daughter of a lay minister of a certain denomination who did not believe in baptism by immersion. She asked me if they could be baptized right away. I told her that just as soon as the service was over we would go immediately to the pool. She did not want her parents to know what she was doing, so we kept it quiet, but when we started for the pool, the prairie seemed to be alive with people on horse back and in all kinds of rigs, coming from all directions.
They were blowing horns and making music on circle saws. So when we got to the pool, the banks were covered with people more than in the baptismal service before. While we were singing, I heard the sister say to her husband, "There they come!" It was her father and mother. They came over to them and I said, "Don"t say a word to them." The preacher went after them in a great way. Finally the daughter put her arms around his neck, and said, "Daddy, don"t go at it this way, please. We are saved now and want to obey the commandments of the Lord." "All right," he said, "You are old enough to know what you are doing." "But this man..." running at me and shaking his fist in my face, and I thought I surely would get a good licking when I said nothing and did not move. He cooled down, and said, "This is a poor man. We better take up a collection for him," and walked away. While I was baptizing the two and a Methodist minister"s son, stones and sticks flew in plenty around me but none hit me.
One evening three young men cut the rope of the tent and were caught. When they learned they could get seven years in State prison, and we did not prosecute them--that ended all the disturbance at that place.
At one time I was holding a revival meeting at Plum Coulee, Canada. One evening there was conviction upon a number of people. I was just going to close my sermon and make the altar call, and the devil said, "Now you swear." It shocked me so, I had to stop for a minute and conviction ceased.
Then I had to start preaching again. The devil once more said, "Now you swear." I rebuked him and went ahead and made the altar call, and those under conviction came forward and received help.
MAN FEAR
I was called at one time to Grand Forks to help in a meeting. Coming there, I saw two or three large, tall ministers whom I had never seen before. I was scared to preach before them, so when we had prayer that evening, I prayed the Lord to deliver me from man fear. The committee asked me to speak that evening and the Lord blessed and gave me victory. Next day one of those good ministers came to me and said, "I want to talk to you. I was so blessed before you came, but since you came, I was afraid of you and my blessing all left. I wonder if you can help me?" "I can," I said. "When I came last night, upon seeing you and Brother H., I got so scared I wished I was not here, so I prayed and it left me and then the devil jumped on you."
This made me think of a Swedish song which says in part:
"Menisko frygtens didlige snaror har bringat Mangen en man paafald."
Which means in English:
"The fear of man the deadly snares Has brought many a man to fall."
In a case like this it may not mean so much, but in many cases good ministers have failed to preach the truth because of the fear of man. What a disaster for themselves and for hundreds of souls!
One Sunday morning I spoke in a chapel for a brother pastor. When the service was over he came to me and in a very tired tone, he said, "Did you mean me this morning?" I answered, "Dear Brother, I surely did not mean you." He said, "Well," and walked away still tired. I did not go for lunch but remained in the chapel and wept and prayed that I might not be a trial to my dear brethren. I said, "I will not go into the pulpit again until you give me more wisdom," but when the afternoon meeting time came, no one else had a message, and I had to go into the pulpit again. The Lord blessed in a wonderful way, and a number of souls got saved. After the service the good pastor came to me and said, "Will you forgive me? You did not mean me this morning."
HOW THE LORD LEADS
Once on my way to Platte, South Dakota, I got lost. I was driving slowly trying to think of where I had gotten off my route--when suddenly a man in a field on a tractor waved me to stop. He climbed over the fence, and here it was Brother Walter Ratzlaf. He said, "How come you are here?" I answered, "I"m lost." "Turn around," he answered, "and we will drive down to the house."
Going to the house, there was a young lady I had known in North Dakota. He introduced her to me as his wife. The last time I had seen them, they were in North Dakota. Both of them were now members of the committee for the young people"s convention of North Dakota, which was to convene the following Friday, Sat.u.r.day and Sunday. George W. Green of Bertha, Minnesota was to have been the guest speaker, but they had just gotten a telegram from him saying that he could not be there. Brother Ratzlaf said, "The Lord must have sent you here. Could you be our guest speaker?" I answered, "Yes, if you want me. I am on my way home, and Brother Green was expecting to meet me at my place, and I was planning on taking him from my home on to the convention." Again, I could see how the Lord directed many times, unbeknowns to me.
A lady brought her sister who was in the last stages of tuberculosis to the camp meeting at Saint Paul Park, Minn. Wife and I prayed for the sick woman and she was instantly healed. So they insisted that I go to their place and hold them a meeting. I was very busy, so it was sometime before I could go.
Finally they wrote asking how much I wanted to hold the meeting. I wrote that my carfare round trip was to be $26.50, and I thought I ought to have that much. They answered that they would give me that much, and that much more. I went and started the meeting on Friday evening. The folks I was to stay with lived six miles in the country and we secured the Methodist Church in town for the services. We had two services on Sat.u.r.day, three on Sunday, two Monday and two Tuesday. Tuesday night they left me in the church. I had coal enough to keep me warm. As I had no money to go to the hotel, the next morning I walked out to their place in the loose snow, arriving about dinner time. I had dinner and that evening they took me to the meeting and left me again. I have no recollection of how I got away from there. It seems to me a family in town, who knew some of my relatives, kept me for a day or two. My carfare, which I still have coming from them as well as the rest, is the only meeting I had held in 52 years on which I had set a price. A brother belonging to another denomination who often attended the services and who was an agent for the Furges Kalls Woolen Mills, Minnesota, whom I met some years later, asked me, "Did you ever get any money from that meeting?" I replied, "I have it all coming," so he gave me five dollars and a pair of seven dollar trousers. That experience was one of the "all things." This was the only time I ever set any price on my ministry.
PRAYER CHANGES THINGS
Brother Masters and I were holding meeting in Hereford, Minnesota. Brother Masters was doing most of the preaching, and I was exhorting and giving the invitations. One evening after he finished preaching, I dismissed the meeting immediately. As we were going to our room between eleven and twelve, he asked, "Why did you not give the altar call tonight?" Then he added, "You did right, but what was the reason?" I answered, "Too much Masters." He replied, "The Lord help me!" and on his knees he went. He stayed there until between three and four o"clock in the morning. The next night I did not need to give an altar call, for the people flocked to the altar of their own accord.
MY FIRST PREACHING TRIP
I was standing in a wagon driving home from Hawick, Minnesota. The Lord spoke to me and said, "I want you to go to Belgrade next Sunday and preach." I replied, "I do not know what to preach." The Lord answered, "You go and open your mouth wide, and I will fill it." I argued that I did not have the money to go. He answered, "I"ll tend to that."
When I arrived home from Hawick, there was a letter from an old brother about 80 years of age living at Norway Lake, Minn. He said, "The Lord has been telling me that you ought to go to Belgrade and hold them a meeting, and I am sending you the carfare." So I went.
Another time I was holding a meeting north of Belgrade and staying with Brother and Sister Andrew Larson. The night before leaving that locality I dreamed that when I came to Belgrade, I saw a man go into the depot just ahead of me, and as he stepped away from the ticket window he said, "Ha, ha, ha, I may as well go home then, since there is no train until three o"clock this afternoon."
Brother Larson was to take me to the depot early in the morning, and it was cold. When telling them my dream they laughed, and we all laughed. They said, "It can"t be that bad."
It was about six miles to town and riding in an open buggy, I got cold, and when we got within about a quarter mile from town, I said, "You had better let me out here and I will walk and get warmed up." So he did. When I arrived at the depot a man walked in just ahead of me, and when he turned from the window, he said, "Ha, ha, ha, I might just as well go home since there will be no trains until three o"clock this afternoon."
I walked up to the ticket window and said, "How come the train is so late?"
He said, "An old freight train ran off the track and they will have to clean up before the pa.s.senger train can come through." I did not wait, but walked home--a distance of twenty miles.
At one time I held a meeting in what was known as Clark school house, fifteen miles south of Coha.s.set, Minnesota. After the last Sunday morning service, I said, "If there is anyone who will take me to Coha.s.set after service tonight, my heavenly Father will give him a hundred fold in this life, and eternal life in the world to come." So going down to the door after service to shake hands with the folks, there stood a nice-looking young man who had not been out to the services before. He said, "I"ll take you to town tonight." I said, "All right, thank you," and out he went.
After a while Brother Goodell, the elder, came and said, "I"ll take you to town." I said, "You are too late. You lost your pay this time." He said, "Who is going to take you?" I answered, "The young man who stood by the door when I got there." He thought a while, then he said, "Oh, that was Henry Garber; that will never do. He is not saved. He drinks a little, dances, plays cards and likely smokes." Then he added, "I"l take you. The road is bad" (and it surely was). I answered him, "If he is like that he needs the pay." "Well," he said, "He may not come. Aren"t you afraid to go with him?" "No," I said.
He came, and it took us quite a while to get there on account of the road.
We talked farming, dancing, drinking, love and salvation. Getting to town, it was still an hour and a half before the train would arrive. He said, "Wouldn"t it be good to have a little lunch now?" I said, "That would be fine." "Alright," he said, "you order what you want." "Aren"t you going to have some?" I asked; but he said, "no." After lunch he said, "How about a little ice cream now." "Fine," I said.
There were quite a number of young folks in the restaurant and while I was eating he was talking to the young people telling them he had been to two services that day and he added, "They were two of the best sermons I have ever heard in my life." They called out in a chorus, "Henry, Henry, have you sworn off?" Then they asked, "Who preached?" He answered, "Reverend Susag over here."
After I got through eating, he introduced me to all those young people.