Part 21

He came and went through the entire camp meeting without receiving the faith he needed to get saved and healed, but he remained another day and I had time to more thoroughly instruct him. He did get saved and was perfectly healed.

A DOCTOR'S DAUGHTER HEALED

I was asked at one time to come to a certain city to preach for a certain denomination for a couple of weeks, which I did. On coming I found that I was to stay with a certain doctor who had a daughter five years old. One afternoon she was sitting talking with me and I found her almost as smart as a high school girl. Toward evening I said to her, "Honey, you are sick." She shrugged her shoulders and said, "I'll be all right in the morning." But she became seriously ill that evening, insomuch that the next day her father sent for another doctor, a nurse and a lady to help. About three o'clock the third morning the doctor came up into my room and made a confession which he needed not to have made. Then he said, "I've come to my wit's end; I know of no help for the child. But would you please pray for her? But pray right away, as she may pass away any time." I began to pray right away. I put on my clothes and ran down stairs, praying all the while. When I got down stairs everything was quiet, and when the doctor met me, he said, "Less than three minutes after you commenced to pray my daughter went to sleep, and I believe when she wakes up she will be well." She slept until four in the afternoon. When she awakened, she said, "I want to get up and dress." The doctor said, "No, honey, you can't do that; you have been awful sick. You will have to stay in bed and be quiet until you get stronger." She said, "Where is Brother Susag?" He said, "Do you want to see him?" She said, yes, so they called me and I said, "Praise the Lord, honey." She said, "Can't I dress?" "Sure, you can dress," I said, and so they dressed her. Then she said, "Now I want to get up and run." Again the doctor said, "You can't do that." She said, "Brother Susag, can't I run?" I said, "Sure, you can run," and out of the bed she went, but she stumbled against the wall, and the doctor went to catch her. She said, "Don't touch me. If I need help, Brother Susag can help me." Then through the house she ran with the father, mother and nurse after her. I was standing in the middle of the room praising God. Finally she stopped and faced her father and said, "Can't I run, daddy?" He said, "Sure you can, honey."

Her father came and put his arms around my neck weeping and said, "You saved the life of my child." I answered, "No, I didn't." He said, "Who did then?" I said, "You made a humble confession and asked one of the Lord's servants to pray, and the Lord honored your faith and healed her." "Yes," he said, "but if you hadn't been here she would have been dead now."

A humble confession is a sure stepping stone to faith.

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HEALED OF PARALYSIS

Not long ago the Lord said to me. "You go to such and such a church tonight," which I did. After service was over, a man who had been paralyzed from his waist down for a long time, asked me to pray for him. The prayer of faith was offered and he was instantly healed. To corroborate the above, will say that later I met a minister of another denomination who knew the case and he said that this man had retained his healing.

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DELIVERED FROM A SINKING SHIP

I wish to rewrite an incident given in Brother E. E. Byrum's book, "Startling Incidents and Experiences in the Christian Life." As it was given to him verbally, and I did not see the manuscript to correct it after it was written. But on reading the article in his book, I discovered that he had forgotten some of the facts. I am rewriting it here, praying that it may prove a blessing.

For the glory of God I desire to relate some incidents connected with my trips to Scandinavia in the years 1904-05. While I was engaged in evangelistic work in North Dakota in the fall of 1904, the brethren in New York City wrote me about making them a visit. After praying earnestly for the Lord to make known his will in the matter, I decided to go, and felt that if I went to New York I also ought to make a trip across the Atlantic to Norway to see my parents and relatives whom I had not seen for twenty-four years.

In the latter part of November it was made very clear to me by the Holy Spirit that I should go, and about the middle of December I left my home for New York City. On the 24th of December my wife took so seriously ill that she was not expected to live. She had faith that the Lord would raise her up, but the children were much distressed, fearing that their mother was going to die, and knowing that their father was on his way to a foreign land, not intending to return for several months. They begged to have a telegram sent to me asking me to return. Finally about two o'clock in the night, when she was getting very low, and the children would not be comforted in any other way, she consented to have a telegram sent to the missionary home in New York City. Knowing as she did that it was God's will for me to go to Norway and knowing also that if I returned so soon, I could not go if she should recover, she prayed earnestly that the Lord would hinder me from getting the telegram, which he did. God heard her prayer and also healed her. After stopping with the church in New York for sometime, I went to Boston, and thence on the 20th of January, 1905 sailed on the Steamship Saxonia of the Cunard line for Liverpool, England. Everything went well--the Atlantic was the smoothest I had ever seen it. I wondered how it could be otherwise, inasmuch as my family and many people of God were sending up earnest prayers for my safe journey. My journey from Liverpool to Hull was by railroad, but at the latter place, I embarked on the S. S. Tasso of the Wilson Line bound for Tronheim, Norway. Getting into the North Sea we had a very rough voyage. We were to make our first stop at Stavanger, but the weather was so stormy as we neared the coast that evening that we did not dare to sail in the dark. Consequently we anchored out in the North Sea for the night. While the ship tossed up and down and back and forth through the night, I dreamed the ship was going on dry land. I could hear the screeching as it went on the rocks and chills went down my back. Then the scene changed. In my dream I seemed to be on land standing looking at the ship going, and wondering why it did not tip over. I looked close and on the right hand side of the ship was a large stone, almost as high as the ship, scraping against its side. On the left side was a small stone steadying it as it moved along. Finally it moved out into deep water and turned to the left, and in a little while we landed at our destination, Tronheim. In the morning I told my dream at the breakfast table and said, "We may have an accident before we get through." The people laughed and said, "Do preachers believe in dreams?" I said, "Yes, when they come true." They thought there was no danger, for the reason the ship was so large. "Well," I said, "it is very stormy weather and the sea is full of rocks along the coast and we do not know what may happen." That day we landed safely in Stavanger, and then went to our next stop, Bergen. Leaving there we encountered the roughest sailing I had ever experienced. Four ships started out at the same time from the dock, and only one was able to anchor at the next stop, Aalesund, so we had to anchor out in the ocean. The next morning we were able to land at the dock. Thence we went to Christiansund, which was our last stop before our final destination. It was a good harbor, and were ready to leave there at 8 p.m., but as the storm was still raging out in the sea, the captain decided to remain in the harbor until twelve o'clock. Then we should land at our destination at eight o'clock in the morning. At twelve o'clock we left the harbor. The storm was still raging and a heavy snow was falling. At 1:15 a.m. I felt a shock and heard the same screeching noise that I had heard in my dream and knew at once what had happened. Immediately the stewart came running into the stateroom calling, "Everybody up! take nothing along. We are sinking!"

Quicker than I can tell you the seven men with me in the stateroom were up and dressing, putting on all the clothes they could. Up the stairs they went, throwing away their tobacco and pipes, and leaving behind their whisky bottles, some empty and some partly empty. I got up, dressed, took my Bible and read a little. Then I knelt down and had prayer. The stewart came down and said, "Aren't you in a hurry? We are sinking!" I said, "No, he that believeth shall make no haste." He looked at me and went on the deck. The snow storm was whistling wildly through the tackling of the ship, and the seamen were working with all their might to lower the life boats. Others were running to and fro. Some women were crying aloud and others were praying while the water was pouring into the sides of the ship. The pumps were working to their full capacity, throwing out the water. It was indeed a sad sight. As a seaman was running by, I asked him to direct me to the pilot. He looked at me and said in a harsh voice, "What do you want with the pilot?" and went his way. A little further on I met another seaman, and asked him the same question. He said, "The pilots are both over there with the captain," pointing to three men who were standing a short distance away.

I walked over to where they were standing, conversing with one another. I saluted them and said to the captain. "Could you spare me a minute or two?" "If it is important, I can," he replied. "I think it is," I said. "Speak on then," he said.

I then asked him who the pilot of the boat was, and one pointed to himself and another man. Then I said to the head pilot, "We are off the rock now, are we not?" "Yes," he answered. "Did you turn to the left when you turned off the rock," I asked. "Yes," he replied. "If that is the case we need not go into the life boats," I replied, "as this boat is going to land in Tronhein, without loss of life."

The captain looked at me and said, "What do you know about navigation, man?" pointing to the water that was being pumped out of the ship; "we are sinking." "I know nothing about navigation," I replied. "Explain yourself," he said. Then I told my dream, and when I had finished speaking, I saw the tears running down the weather-beaten cheeks of the pilots. Then the captain said, "What kind of a man are you?" I answered, "An ordinary minister." Then the pilot said to the captain, "We had better listen to this man. He may be more right than we, because as long as this ship can hold up, we are safe, but if we go into the boats in this fearful weather and dark night, we shall soon be dashed to pieces against the rocks."

Then the pilot said to me, "Our ship sticks 28 feet in the water and the rock we struck was only twelve feet under the water, so you see it is a great miracle that our ship is not in two, and one end on each side of the rock. Had that happened, no one would have known what became of us, for we are now in 53 fathoms of water." Orders were then given not to lower the life boats.

Then I said to the captain, "Is this the Tasso, that used to sail on Norway 24 years ago?" He replied, "No, that lays on the bottom of the sea six miles from here. What about it?" I said, "I embarked on that ship at Tronheim the 27th day of April on a Sunday afternoon at four o'clock, of the year 1881, with 384 other young people who were sailing for England, on our way to America. At nine o'clock we got into an awful snowstorm and just lay drifting until one fifteen a.m., exactly the same time of night as we struck the rock this time. We went on the rock and turned over on the side just outside of the Agness lighthouse." Then the captain said, "What kind of a man are you?" "Just an ordinary minister," I answered. The captain then told me his father was captain of that ship at that time. (It might be interesting to the reader to know that we lay on our side until almost six fifteen in the morning when the ship straightened up as the tide arose. Then they cut the anchor chain and we backed up and went our way.) Needless to say, that night was one of the greatest prayer meetings ever held.

While I was speaking with the Captain, the first mate had come, a fine tall Englishman. "Will you kindly go with me to the front end of the ship and see if we can see any lights? We are lost. We don't know where we are." I answered, "I know nothing about navigation sir." He said, "Please go with me." I did, and coming out there, I saw three lights, and he could not see any. He said, "Keep your eyes on them, and I'll run for the captain." They both came running and the captain could not see the lights either. Turning to me he said, "You must be mistaken." "No sir,"

I replied, "I can see them now." He then asked me the color of the lights. After I had given him a description of them, he saw them himself and explained, "They are steamers. Where are we? We are lost!" He called out in agony.

We lay there until six fifteen in the morning. When we turned around to the right between the rocks, they knew where to go. The pumps were in full operation, but our ship was tipping backward more and more as if it were going to stand on one end. We landed in Tronheim in the afternoon with our handsatchels and our lives, and as soon as the pumps stopped, the ship filled with water and sank in the harbor.

I saw an account of the wreck in two Norwegian papers after the ship had been raised and placed on dry dock. The paper stated that the cargo was a total loss and the ship was about thirty eight thousand dollars. That nearly every plate from midship to stern was torn loose, just as I had seen in my dream and the paper said they could not understand why the ship had not sunk before, as one plate hole was enough to sink the ship. My wife wrote me later and said, "I know why the ship did not sink. I and many others were praying that God would keep that ship on top of the waves, because he had one of his little ones on the ship." The Lord verified his promises by hearing the prayers of his people to protect me and bring me safely to my destination. The blessings of salvation never seemed more real to me than at that time, as I was enabled to be calm and quiet through all the perils, having the sweet assurance that the mighty arm of God was upholding me and protecting not only me, but those who were traveling with me. He hears and answers prayers. Those who trust and believe in him he often saves from death and destruction.

HOMEWARD BOUND

My return trip was just as eventful as my trip to Norway. For some time I had been praying earnestly for the Lord to direct me in getting the right ship across the ocean, as I was to sail during the stormy season of Spring. On the twentieth of March, 1905, I left the home of my parents in Norway, with the intention of sailing the next morning. I was to sail on an English boat bound for Hull, England, in order to reach the fastest boat on the Cunard Line bound from Liverpool to New York, as I thought that would be the best vessel to take. Soon after leaving my fathers home, I stopped at a little seaport called Levanger to visit a relative of mine for a few hours, expecting to leave on the evening train, but my relative persuaded me to stay and take the early morning train. He said I would have ample time to reach my boat in Tronhiem, but when my train entered the station the next morning, the ship upon which I had intended sailing was just leaving the harbor.

I did not understand what this meant, but remembered the scripture which said that "All things work together for good to those that love the Lord." Had my plans for reaching the fast steamer from Liverpool to New York carried and had the ship sailed on schedule, I should have been in New York in ten days, but now I had to make the best of the situation, so I decided to embark on the S. S. United States of the Scandinavian-American Line from Oslo which was due in New York just one week later than the other ship, and if run on schedule generally arrived in New York nine days after leaving Oslo.

We sailed from Oslo on time, but after being out at sea for a day, we found to our surprise and dissatisfaction of many of the passengers that instead of going direct to New York, we had to go to the Azores to pick up some passengers from another ship of the same line, as a shaft of that ship had been broken in a storm on the Atlantic Ocean, and the ship had been towed to some Island. This made a very long round-about voyage.

With the exception of two or three days of storm, the weather was good, but the waves rolled exceedingly high every day. By this we knew that farther north in the ocean, a terrible storm was raging.