Part 19

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.

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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.

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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."

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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, Saturday 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 Saturday, 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.

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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 passenger train can come through." I did not wait, but walked home--a distance of twenty miles.

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