The next day we heard that he was poorly and the Board of Health had ordered that no one shake hands with him as his case was not yet diagnosed. We continued to visit him, instructing him and praying with him. On one of these occasions on leaving him we both made a good mistake. We broke down and wept. Morris speaking to me in English said, "I love this man's soul like my own father's and wouldn't lay a straw in the way of his getting saved; I would like to shake his hand, but may not." "As far as I am concerned," I said, "I wouldn't be afraid to take his hand in both mine, but for the sake of the public we cannot do it; but he is a man of understanding, we will go and explain to him and I'm sure it will be all right." Later, as we were leaving, he said, "Be sure to come back soon."
The next day I was called out to an Island and Brother Morris went over alone to see him. He was up and apparently pretty well and he said to Morris, "Young man, you had better speak English. I understand your English better than I do your Norwegian." Now you can see that the mistake the day before was a good one. That day he got gloriously saved and the next day he was up and around happy and praising the Lord, at two o'clock in the afternoon he lay down to rest and went home to glory. On account of his salvation we were asked to speak to the students at the mission college.
Here at Stavanger a good congregation was raised up and Brother Mortensen became pastor, he was a tailor by trade and also was the owner of a fine clothing store. They got the chapel the revival was held in, in 1911, in 1922. I went through and they expected me to remain for a three weeks meeting to preach on Church of God doctrine. I was supposed to be there on Sunday, but did not arrive until Monday. They had advertised for three services for Sunday, and between fifteen hundred and two thousand were present for each service. I was unable to remain for the three weeks meeting as I was traveling through on a special mission for the Missionary Board and the boat left the next morning. Speaking of the truth, this would have been the greatest opportunity that Norway will have for years to come and perhaps ever.
Brother Mortensen said, "O how sad—this all happened because of a crooked preacher that Brother Susag had to take back to America." Brother Mortensen raised up a number of congregations on the West coast, and in 1937 the old chapel at Stavanger was razed and a new and larger chapel was erected in its place.
* * * * *
Some years ago my wife had a sore on her left cheek. Dr. Morgan examined it and pronounced it cancer. She was prayed for and the third day after there was no sign of cancer.
A little later a growth started on her right side just above the hip. It grew until it was twenty-two inches long, sixteen inches by the body and fourteen inches around at the end of it. It finally developed into cancer. She was prayed for often but seemingly was not helped, the odor from it was horrible. We went to the Anderson Camp meeting. On the day especially set apart for the healing of the sick, and seats at that particular meeting were so arranged that for each sick person there were three preachers to pray for him or her. My wife came up and sat down on the chair next to the one where I was offering prayer, and after prayer had been offered for her, I heard one of the ministers say to her, "Sister Susag, do you believe the Lord heals you?" She answered, "By faith I am healed." And the minister said, "Yes, by faith, is right." From that time the cancer began to fall to pieces.
On the way home I asked her what it was that gave her the faith for healing. She said, "I don't know; when I went onto the platform I wanted Brother and Sister Byrutn to pray for me, and could have gotten on their chair, but there came a young lady who looked as though she might be in the last stages of tuberculosis, to such an extent was she affected that she had to be supported by a sister, one on each side of her when she attempted to walk, and I saw she was in greater need than I was, and, too, she was a young woman. I was willing for anyone to pray for me, and if I were healed or not it would be all right." I replied, "that is where you gained the victory."
This happened in the latter part of June and around the first of October there was nothing left but a red spot about the size of a dollar to show where the cancer had been. Just before we went to Anderson, a neighbor lady wanted to see the cancer and the sight of it made her so sick she was in bed for two days. And through it all my wife never once complained.
* * * * *
On the last evening of a meeting I was holding in Whittier, California, a man came to me telling me of a sick lady who wanted me to come and pray for her. I consented to do so but told the man I must go quickly as a brother was coming very soon to take me to Los Angeles. On arriving at the bedside of the sick woman I asked her what her trouble was. She told me she had a cancer on her left breast and side, and that having to lie on the one side all the time she became very sick and sore. I prayed the prayer of faith for her and left immediately.
One year later I received a letter from her. She wrote, "It is just a year ago tonight since I sent for you to come and pray for me. As you prayed for me it was as though an electric shock went through me and after you left I turned over on my left side and went to sleep and slept all night and in the morning when I woke up I was perfectly healed. I have waited a year before writing, to see whether any symptoms returned, but none ever did."
In one of my meetings while I was pastor at Grand Forks I felt impressed to speak to a young man, Tom Perkins, a World War I veteran. I went down into the audience to speak to him, and told him he ought to seek the Lord that night as something was going to happen. He said, "Do you think so?" I said, "No, I don't think so, I know so." But he said, "Not tonight." That was Sunday, and on Wednesday afternoon as I was going down DeMeres Avenue he came out of a clothing store with a friend of his, I said, "How do you do" to him and passed on in front of him, but as I was passing him the Lord said to me, "Go back and speak to Tom." I at once turned back to him and said, "Tom, listen to me; you ought to seek the Lord. Let us go back in the store and settle it with the Lord." But he said, "No." I said, "It is very important." He said as before, "Do you think so?" And again I answered, "I don't think so, I know so." He took it very nicely but refused to make any move toward seeking the Lord. Two days later, the following Friday, he went to Minneapolis and on Sunday afternoon he was crushed to death between two street cars. Would it not be well for people to heed the warnings of God's servants and His Spirit?
The pastor of the Scandinavian Free church at Brookings, South Dakota, one time sent for me to come to pray for a sister who was a member of his congregation and had been sick in bed for some six months. I preached there several times and then announced that I was going to pray for the sick sister at three o'clock the next day, and asked all those who had faith to be present and those who did not have faith to stay away, preachers and all. Only one person was there—an elderly Baptist sister from Huron-Sister Shall. The prayer of faith was offered and Sister Johnson was healed and was present at the service that evening.
One Sunday morning wife and I with two sisters drove to Westlake for the forenoon service which was held in the home of Brother and Sister Hans Myhre. After service wife came to me and said that Sister Myhre wanted us to stay for lunch. But I said, "No, we cannot stay for lunch, the Lord wants us to go home right away." On hearing this, Sister Myhre came to me and said, "You have got to stay for lunch." I answered, "Sister, we can't stay for the Lord told me to go home." She said, "And then the sisters will not get anything to eat either. Why do you have to go?" I said, "I don't know, only that the Lord says, go home." "Brother Susag, you are stubborn," the sister insisted.
We drove home. Wife went upstairs to change her dress, ready to get lunch. I sat on a chair meditating on what had taken place. I said to myself, "Are you stubborn? Why did you come home?" Just then the telephone rang. I answered and a voice said, "Is this Rev. Susag?" "Yes," I said. "Hold the line, long distance calling you," he informed me. After a short pause a voice said, "This is Anna Anderson of Brookings, S. D. Do you remember promising Grandma H., when you were pastor here, that you would officiate at her funeral? She died this morning and is to be buried on Tuesday. Can you come?" I told her I would come. As I turned from the telephone wife came into the room and I said to her, "Now I know why I had to come home so quickly, for if they had not gotten in touch with me now, I couldn't reach there in time for the funeral." She said, "Sometimes you are a little queer, but I have committed you to the Lord and things always come out all right."
* * * * *
When Brother August Christofersen of Norway Lake, Minnesota, was down with double pneumonia I was sent for to come and pray for him. I went and prayed for him and the Lord raised him up. I stayed for three days, went home and in three or four days received a phone call to come back. I asked whether he was sick. They answered, "No, but he wants to see you." I was able to get a ride almost to his place, and walked the rest of the way. On nearing his home I turned in to a grove I had to pass and kneeled down to pray for the brother. The Lord said to me, "You do not need to pray for him now; he is home with me." On coming toward the house his brother came out to meet me, and I said to him, "So Brother August is home with the Lord!" He said, "How did you know?" I said, "The Lord told me over in the grove."
* * * * *
While I was in Denmark I was invited to come to a certain town with which I was entirely unacquainted. Finally when I found time to go I went without writing to announce my coming. On arriving in the city I found I had forgotten both the name and address of my friends. I walked back and forth on the depot platform, racking my brain, as it were, to come across the needed address, but I just could not remember it. A man spoke to me and said, "You seem to be in deep meditation, or in trouble of some kind." I said, "I surely am." To which he replied, "Sometimes we get into such a fix; do you suppose I could be of any help to you?" But I answered, "I don't suppose you can." However, I told him my trouble. He laughed and said, "Surely you are in bad fix; can't you think of anything?" "The only thing I can think of," I said, "is that they are the parents of Mrs. Anna Nelson of Kaas, Denmark." "Well," he said, "you haven't struck it so bad after all—I am her father!"
When I was pastor in Grand Forks we had in the congregation a mother in Israel, a German sister who could not speak English. One Sunday evening the Lord had blessed in a spiritual way. Mother Calm said to Brother Shave, "I can preach Bro. Susag's sermon in German now." (I had preached in English.) Bro. Shave said, "You can't do it." But she said, "I can." At that, Brother Shave raised his voice and said, "Everybody wait a little while." And, sure enough, Sister Calm preached my sermon, the Germans said, "almost to a word."
* * * * *
At the St. Paul Camp meeting one time, Sister Aamot came to me telling me she had lost a five dollar bill, over which she was feeling very badly. Her husband was not saved. She wanted me to pray that the Lord would help her find it. She told me she thought she had lost it on her way coming from the Old People's Home to the tabernacle. It had been blowing pretty hard that day and she had the bill in her handkerchief.
I went out into the timber to pray, and how the wind did blow! After I had been earnestly praying that the Lord would help me to find the bill for her and was getting up from my knees, on looking down into the leaves, lo, there, between my knees, was the five dollar bill! And the sister had no difficulty in proving that it was her five dollar bill.
* * * * *
While still in Denmark, one time Brother Morris Johnson and I were holding a meeting on a farm. As we saw a large, fine looking man coming toward the meeting place, Morris said, "Let's go behind the barn and pray God Almighty to convict and save that man this afternoon." And the Lord honored our faith and really saved the man that afternoon.
* * * * *
I was holding a meeting in Albert Lee, Minnesota and from there was intending to go to Greenwood, Wisconsin. I looked at my time-table to find out what the railroad fare would be and I figured it to be thirteen dollars, so asked the Lord to give me thirteen dollars that evening. At the close of the service someone put some money in my pocket and I began to thank the Lord for thirteen dollars. The devil said, "You haven't got thirteen dollars in your pocket," but I said I had. He said, "Just feel in your pocket and you will find there is hardly anything there, or take it out and count it and you will see." I told him that I would neither feel in my pocket nor count the money for him, and that I had thirteen dollars.
When I got to my room I knelt down and thanked the Lord for thirteen dollars, and then took the money out of my pocket and counted it and found I had $13.05. On buying my ticket the next day it cost $13.05! I had made a mistake in my figuring, but the Lord knew the exact fare.
* * * * *
During the meeting at Greenwood I went out inviting folks to the services. One day I came to a farm house where the man of the house was ill in bed with tuberculosis of the spine. I told him that I was a minister and also, that I believed in Divine healing. When he heard this, he said, "You are the very man the Lord has sent to me that I may be healed." I said, "I do not know about that; however, I will pray for you. I am impressed of the Lord not to anoint you. I will be back on Friday afternoon, and in the meantime will pray the Lord to show me what to do." With this arrangement the sick man was satisfied. It was now dusk, and on reaching my room in the house where I stayed, I knelt down beside a chair to pray for him. As I did so, a cow and three sheep stood right before me. I did this four times, and as soon as I would get on my knees here were the cow and three sheep between me and God, so to speak. So I gave up trying for that time, but the next day at ten o'clock I went in to pray for him again in broad daylight. But as I did so, the cow and the sheep were there before me.
On the appointed Friday I went to see him again. He inquired at once what the Lord had made known to me about him. I told him the Lord had shown me something but that I did not understand what it meant. He was anxious to hear what it was, and I related the vision I had had. He said, "I perceive that the Lord has sent you to be a help to me," and continuing, went on to say, "We used to live in Iowa on a good sized farm and we were well-to-do financially. I was very much interested in spiritual work, even to printing and sending out a number of tracts. But it seemed that my poor soul was clinging to the worldly thing too much. I was troubled about it, off and on. However, your vision means that if I only had a cow and three sheep—which we have—if my soul is clinging to them I can never enter heaven." "Surely," he said, "the Lord has sent you to help me. Please pray that I get right with God; that is the main thing." The dear man bitterly repented and became very happy. The third day following this event he went home to glory.
* * * * *
I had promised that after this meeting I would go to hold a meeting at Dallas, Wisconsin, but the Lord impressed me to go home. Knowing no reason for going home, I bought my ticket only to a certain station where I would have to change if I went to Dallas, thinking that maybe my feelings would change before I got there. But there was no change in my feelings when we got there, so I bought a ticket to St. Paul and from there got a ticket to Hawick, Minnesota, which is just three miles from my home.
On the street in Hawick, I met a young brother who exclaimed when he saw me, "Oh, so you got our postal card?" I replied, "I did not get any postal card." Then he said, "But you got the telegram?" I told him I had not received any telegram either. "Well, then," said he, "how did you happen to come home?" I told him that the Lord wanted me to come home, and then asked him what the trouble was. He told me that my wife was very sick, near to dying. Then he very kindly said he would take me out home. On arriving home wife said, "I knew you were coming; I asked the Lord to send you." She was suffering from an internal malady from which the nurse had told her she could not recover, and so made up her mind that she was going to die.
Right at this time we received a letter from Brothers Nelson and Niles requesting me to come and hold a tent meeting for them in San Antonio and that I should bring my tent with me to hold the meeting in. Of course, I felt I could not go and wrote them to that effect. Meanwhile, wife had persuaded me that she was going to die, and being in poor circumstances, I said to her, "You will not hold it against me, if when you die, I sell out and take a homestead and so get out of debt, will you?" And her reply was, "When I am dead you can do what you please."
Just about that time we got a letter from the Brothers Nelson and Niles telling us they had been praying and the Lord had showed them that Sister Susag was not going to die. On hearing this, wife said, "The good brethren do not know any better; I am going to die." (And I was thinking so, too, as she was getting no help.) More and more I was thinking about the homestead; but wife told me I had better go to Texas. It seemed almost impossible to get anyone to come and stay with her and the children, yet she would say, "We will get along some way and you had better go or else souls will be lost. If I should pass away before you get back you know where I am going and if you keep true to the Lord we will meet in glory."
But I did not feel as though I could go and leave her that way. A couple of nights after I had had this conversation with her I had a dream. I saw a little table standing beside my bed on which was a kerosene lamp. The light was just about to go out. It would light up a little and then go down till it looked as though it was just ready to quit burning. I saw Jesus standing on the other side of the table with a sad look on his face, pointing to the lamp and saying, "Your lamp is about to go out." And I awoke from my dream and jumped out of bed, ran into the next room and said to my wife, "On Tuesday morning, I leave for Texas whether you are living or dying." To which she replied, "Praise the Lord for your decision."
The Lord miraculously sent a good sister to our home from Washington. She arrived the morning I was leaving for Texas. When she discovered the circumstances, and that wife was sick, she said, "Now I know why the Lord sent me here, and I'm here to stay until Sister Susag is well."
So I went to San Antonio. This was in the year 1902. At one place where I had to change trains on the way, I took my grip and walked out on the platform toward the train I was to take. There I stood and did not get on the train, and the train pulled out without me. I walked back to the depot, and the agent asked me whether I had intended to take that train and why I did not get on it. I simply told him I didn't know why. "Well," he said, "you fool, you will now have to wait four hours and take a slow train." (I understood a little later why I was held back from boarding that train. Only forty-five miles out it became derailed and some forty passengers were seriously injured and, if my memory is correct, some were killed.)
When the tent meeting was over at San Antonio, Bro. Nelson left with me and we were expecting to stop over in Hamilton and Kingston, Mo. to hold some services. As we came closer to the first place Bro. Nelson said, "Here the saints are well-to-do people." So, I thought, if they are well-to-do we will not need to spend our time asking God for our car fare, for they well know that preachers need car fare. The congregation rented a room for us about a couple of blocks from the depot and we ate our meals in the different homes.
After the meeting had closed and we had gone to our room at eleven p. m., Brother Nelson asked me whether I had received money for our car fare. I told him I had not; that I thought he had received it all, since he had been there before. But he hadn't received any. We then decided we had better see whether we had enough money to take us to the next place. Brother Nelson had enough for his fare and eight cents over; I was lacking two dollars. We were to leave on the four-thirty train in the morning, and now we had to pray the Lord to get us the two dollars!
As for me, I was not acquainted in the city and did not know where to go to raise a penny. We prayed until two o'clock, then I said to Brother Nelson, "We do not need to pray any longer; the Lord says He will attend to it." We went to bed for about an hour and a half. We went to the depot and Brother Nelson bought his ticket, then I ordered mine and put what money I had in the window of the ticket office. While the agent was counting the money, a man came running very fast into the waiting room and stuck his left hand right in front of my nose through the ticket window and left two dollars there, then turned and went out so fast that I had no chance to thank him. Brother Nelson looked at the man, and then asked me whether I knew him, but I had never seen him before, nor had Brother Nelson. The lesson I learned from this incident was that it is better to depend upon the Lord than on well-to-do saints.
* * * * *
On arriving home I told wife of the incident. She at once asked me whether I was sure it was a man who brought the two dollars. I said, "To me he looked like an angel, and he would have looked so to you if you had been in a like fix."
* * * * *
Once, when home for two or three days I was suffering pain in the region of my heart. At every beat it would seem to say, "Kelly, Kelly, Kelly." (Kelly was a place in North Dakota, about 260 miles from home. There were a few saints in the community who might be needing help). I was very sick and I told my wife how badly I was feeling. She said, "Perhaps the Lord wants you to go to Kelly." The next day the pain was still bothering me, so I sat down and wrote to O. O. Holman and said, "I am sick; if the pain in my heart does not soon stop I will be at your station Sunday at ten o'clock." This was in the month of August, the busy season for farmers. The pain did not stop, so I started out. When I had gone about one hundred miles from home the pain left me.
Having to change trains at Grand Forks and there being no train for Kelly until the next morning, I decided to go and stay over night with Brother C. H. Tubbs. At the parsonage I met Brother Newell, a minister, Brother Shave and Brother Niles, deacons of the congregation there, and a sister who was visiting.
They all exclaimed in surprise at seeing me appear at that time of the year and wanted to know the reason for my being there. I really felt sheepish about telling them. Kelly was only fifteen miles from Grand Forks and they had not heard of there being any serious trouble there.
After I had told them how I happened to be going to Kelly, Brother Tubbs turned to his wife and said, "Mary, you preach tomorrow; I want to go along with Bro. Susag and see what is going on." His wife said, "Charles, I am going along, too." Then to Bro. Newell he said, "You take the morning service tomorrow," but he also declined as he, too, wanted to go with us. And Bro. Shave made the same reply; he wanted to go to Kelly. But when Bro. Niles was asked to preach at the morning service, he kindly consented to take charge. In the morning I started out for Kelly with three ministers, one deacon and one sister accompanying me.
I am generally quite talkative, but I did not do much talking those fifteen miles, wondering what the people would think if, when getting there, we should find nothing unusual the matter. When the train stopped at the station I waited for all the folks to get off first. As I looked out of the window I saw Brother Holman standing on the platform weeping, looking at the people as they got off the train. Then I came. I went to him and asked him why he was weeping. He said, "We have been praying the Lord to send you to us and today I started for the station, confident that I would either meet you in person or that I would get a letter," and taking the letter from his pocket and holding it up, said, "and here I have both!" Then he told me that his wife was very ill, possibly dying, and that they had been praying the Lord to send me to them.
It was three miles out to their home in the country and Bro. Holman had only a one-seated buggy, so the two sisters drove and we preachers walked.
The good Lord heard prayer and healed Sister Holman. Also, an old lady of ninety years of age was baptized at this time.
* * * * *
On another occasion I was asked to come to Grand Forks to hold a revival meeting. On my arrival there I found that the pastor was having trouble with his eyes so that he had to stay at home in a dark room. Services started Friday night and it seemed that the whole congregation had become cooled off. This was made clear to me, so I preached three sermons—one on Friday night and two on Saturday. But it looked as though the condition grew worse instead of better as a result of my preaching.
Saturday night I had a dream. I dreamed that the Lord had sent me there to gather the sheep back that had wandered into a man's field and were tramping the grain down. Then I picked up one stone and threw it at them to try to get them back. I picked up another stone, and then threw the third one. They seemed now to be frightened worse than ever. This discouraged me and I said to the Lord, "What shall I do?" He said, "Speak gently to them."
Then I went into the field myself and called "Sheep! Sheep!" to them, and they began to gather together and it wasn't long before I had a nice bunch of sheep up on the highway. I asked the Lord why it was I couldn't get them together without my going into the field myself, for I preached His word to them. "Yes," He said, "you preached My Word to them, but it was the way you preached it." So Sunday I made my confession to the congregation and weeping, asked their forgiveness, and every one was brought back to the Lord, and a few sinners who were in the audience were also saved.
Through the week of services thirty-eight persons came from different states and Canada for healing—and there were some very serious cases. The night before the day we had set apart for the praying for the sick, I prayed from eleven o'clock that night until four o'clock in the morning in a dark room. When I got up from my knees the Lord stood before me and made it clear to me that He was going to heal every one of those who had been prayed for.
After all were healed and it was time for the services to close, a little nine year old girl came and sat on the altar bench. I went to her and said, "What do you want, Sophie?" In reply she said that she had seen how the Lord had healed the eyes of Sister Hobert and that now she wanted the Lord to heal her and set her eyes straight. (Her eyes were badly crossed).
On returning to the city some eight months later, I was invited to take supper with Brother and Sister Amondson, Sophie's parents. They had a number of children who came around me, and I wanted to know where the little girl was whose eyes were crossed and for whom I prayed several months before. A little girl spoke up and said, "Don't you know me? I am Sophie." I then asked her to tell me about her healing.
She told me that she was prayed for on that Friday night, and the following Monday she was starting out to school without her glasses and her mother, who was not saved, seeing her without her glasses, said, "Sophie, don't forget to wear your glasses!" Sophie answered, "Mother, I was prayed for at the revival meeting Friday night and I do not need my glasses." Her mother said, "Nonsense, come and get your glasses." But Sophie ran away to school!
That forenoon the teacher asked Sophie to read, and when she got up she said, "Sophie, haven't you your glasses with you?" (She knew Sophie had not been able to read without her glasses.) Sophie answered, lifting her hand, "Teacher, I was prayed for at the revival meeting Friday night and I do not need my glasses!" and her eyes were straight!
A number of years later I met Sophie with her little girl. She was a lovely looking woman and was happily married.
* * * * *
I was baptizing a number of people in the North Sea, outside of Lokken, Denmark, among whom was Sister Swenborg, from Tiste, whose eyes were so crossed that she could not help herself at all without wearing her glasses. A big crowd was there, mocking and throwing sand at the saints. I had just baptized Sister Swenborg, and as she was coming out of the sea I heard a shout going up from the saints. They told me that as the sister was coming out of the water with lifted hands and looking up to heaven praising God, a halo of glory was shining around her head—and her eyes were straightened and she was a changed woman from that time. The mob stopped their mocking on seeing this demonstration.
After the service the next Sunday at Tiste, Sister Swenborg made the request that everybody meet her the next Tuesday afternoon at two-thirty o'clock at the boat landing as she had something of interest to tell them.
A big crowd gathered on Tuesday afternoon, and the sister climbed up on a large box holding her glasses in her hand and said to the people, "You all know me and my parents who live about six miles east of town. Before I was big enough to wear glasses it was necessary either for me to have someone lead me or to pull me in a little wagon or sleigh. I was saved recently in a meeting held by Bro. Morris C. Johnson and last week I went to Lokken and was baptized, and as I came out of the water my eyes were straightened. Here are my glasses," she said, holding them up and telling what they had cost, "Here they go! I don't need them anymore!" and into the sea they went. Then, opening her hand bag she took out a needle and said, "This is the finest needle on the market," and took thread and threaded it before the eyes of the astonished crowd.
* * * * *
For a number of years I had suffered with appendicitis and during a meeting I was holding in company with Bro. Carl Arbeiter at Plum Coolie, Canada, I had a severe attack which lasted two days and two nights. The third night I was so tired and worn out that I went to sleep in spite of the pain. I woke up hearing myself say, "Don't stick that knife into me." The appendix was swollen to about the size of a small hen's egg, and I felt it was going to burst. There was no time to get anyone to come and pray so I laid my own hands on my body and said, "Lord God Almighty, if you do not help me now I am gone." It burst, making a noise like the shot from a small shotgun. I then turned over to my other side and went to sleep at once and have never experienced any bad effects nor had any attacks since. In relating this experience to three doctors later, two of them laughed and made fun of me, but the third one said, "Hold on, hold on; this man has never lied to me yet." He said it could have burst into the intestines, the poison passing out the natural way. And if not, the Lord God could take care of him!
* * * * *
Once I had a stroke. Half the left side of my body down to my knees was affected. I could not sit up, neither could I lie down. I stood on my knees beside the sofa for two weeks. I was prayed for several times but was not healed. And I was to start a revival meeting at Hereford, Minn. the Thursday of the second week that I was sick.
Sister Hedricks came over often and prayed for me. When on the second Friday she came and I was no better, she asked me whether I had sent to Anderson and to the Scandinavian Publishing Company at St. Paul Park to have them pray for me. On telling her I had not done so and explaining to her that I had no faith for my own healing, I said, "I could pray for your healing if you were sick, but I have no faith for myself, and I have always preached that when folks were saved they should have faith to pray for their own healing, so I do not want to bother the folks to pray for me." "Well," she said, "aren't you humble enough to tell them that you have no faith for yourself?" I answered, "All right, you pray for me and I will think it over." The next day I asked wife to write to these two places, and when she had written and sealed the two letters I was instantly healed! Wife sent the letters.
After getting healed I decided to go to the revival meeting at Hereford, but there was no train going there until Monday and it was in the month of November and very cold. And it was at the time when the automobile first came into use. One family in the congregation at Hereford had a Ford furnished with a top and side curtains, another family had a Buick (called a gentleman's car), and it had no top nor even a windshield on it.
I found out later that the owning of these cars had caused some little friction in the congregation. In fact, some had said that nobody could have one of those machines and still be a Christian. But they had decided to leave the matter until the time Brother Susag should come and he would help them out.
When we were leaving my home to drive to town to take the train for there, it was really cold. I said to my wife, "Let's go back in the house and ask the Lord to send a man to meet me at Elbow Lake, with a car having a top on it and side curtains"—for I was still very weak. On arriving at Elbow Lake I went to the post office and wrote a card home—I would have had to change trains there if no one had come to meet me—and as I came out of the post office I saw a man across the street—walking in the direction I was going. He looked at me and I looked at him, wondering, then he came running across the street and exclaimed, "Now I know why I came to town today! I am here to drive you to the meeting. I had left my car in town to have a little work done on it, not intending to use it until after the meeting."
Then he went on to say, "We live six miles from town, and this morning as I was working around the barn the Lord said to me, 'You go to town and get your car.' My wife said, 'John, leave that car alone; don't go to town.' But I told her that the Lord said, 'You go and get the car.' And I came as fast as I could get here."
He took me to the service. Bro. E. G. Masters was preaching, and when he had finished speaking he asked me to come to the pulpit and tell how the Lord had healed me and how it was that I managed to get to the service. I related the whole story, telling how I had prayed for someone to meet me who had a. car having a top to it and side curtains to keep out the cold. I then added that I was so glad the Lord had lots of cars; that as for me, I never expected to have a car of my own for I did not think that I would ever be able to afford anything like that. That settled the car difficulty in the congregation—and I was entirely ignorant of the fact of there having been any trouble! Today I am using my ninth car.
That meeting was a real success. Brother Masters, for a number of evenings, had offered a brand new eighteen dollar Bible to any preacher, professor, presiding elder or bishop that could come into the pulpit and prove that we were not preaching the Bible. He gave them five minutes to come to the front. One family belonging to a certain denomination sent for their bishop and he came. After the service was over and the family had taken the bishop to their home, they asked him why he did not get up and prove that we were not preaching the truth so as to get the Bible. The good man answered, "After those two men were finished speaking there was nothing to say. They preached the Bible." Brother Masters spoke on the "White Horse of Calvary" and used the blackboard to illustrate his meaning.
* * * * *
Brother Peter Peterson of Hoboken, New Jersey and I held some meetings together up in a newly settled district of northern Minnesota. Our offering for two weeks services was one round fifty-cent piece.
While there we had a call to go to the insane asylum, at Fergus Falls, Minnesota to pray for a Brother Weegan who had lost his mind. After entering the institution we were locked in the cell with him and on bended knees with our hands uplifted toward heaven, we began to pray and all of a sudden he was restored to his right mind. We knocked on the door to have the attendant came and let us out. As we were going out of the door Brother Weegan pushed his head between us and the attendant and said to the man, "You might just as well let me out, too, for I am as rational as these two preachers now, and I will not hurt you any more."
Then I asked the attendant whether there was a man in the place by the name of John Lukesen of Irving, Minnesota, and he told me there was such a man there. I told him we had ten minutes to spare and asked him whether we could go in and see him without first having to go to the superintendent's office for permission. The man lifted his hands and said, "You can see anyone in this institution since this one man has received help from you."
He then proceeded to give us information about the one we wanted to see. He said, "When Mr. Lukesen first came here we had to have him in a padded cell and he got so bad that we had to tie him to his cot and now he is like a wild cat and nothing but skin and bones; he won't be long for this world."
When he opened the door to the cell, there I saw my neighbor lying on his cot and he surely did look like a wild cat, as the man had said! The compassion of the Lord Jesus came upon me and I lifted my hands toward heaven and called aloud to him, "John Lukesen, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom I serve, makes you well!" And he was well! Shortly after this, he was sent home.
We planned to go from there to Hereford, Minnesota. At Evansville where we had to change trains, we inquired of the station agent when the train for Hereford would be leaving. We were informed that there would be no train leaving for that place before Thursday at three o'clock. We were told that only two trains a week went from there to Hereford and this was Tuesday—a long time to wait!
Brother Peterson said, "Let us go out and pray." After we had prayed we returned to the depot and asked the agent when the train for Hereford would be leaving. He answered gruffly, "I told you Thursday afternoon at three o'clock." "All right," said Brother Peterson, "Let us go out and pray." After praying we went back the second time and asked the agent the same question; and this time he was really gruff. And he surely informed us that there would be no train leaving before Thursday afternoon at three o'clock. Again, Brother Peterson said, "All right, let us go out and pray."
We went out once more into the grove to pray and Brother Peterson did the praying: "Lord, the President can get a special pullman train any time he wants it and he is only the president of the United States; and here are we, Brother Susag and I, Thy ambassadors. We are not asking Thee for a pullman car—we will be satisfied with an old caboose—the distance is only 30 miles; so Lord, won't you please talk to the agent?" We both said AMEN.
On returning to the agent for the third time, Brother Peterson said to him, "When will that train be ready for Hereford?" In a very mild tone he replied, "I have been thinking about it and I will shove a few box cars and a caboose together and send you fellows out." And we both said, "Thank you, sir." And so the Lord answered prayer and sent us home on a special train!
When wife and I got saved, my brothers and families and wives quit writing to us, and in four years we seldom heard from them. One evening a letter came from my sister-in-law telling us that my brother had lost his reason and had been sent to the insane asylum at St. Peter, Minnesota, and asking me to come at once. Not having any money on hand to go with, I went to a near neighbor and showed him the letter and asked him if he would loan me fifteen dollars so that I could go to Minneapolis and also to St. Peter. He told me that he would do that even if I were not able to pay him back. The next day I went to Minneapolis to my sister-in-law and her five children. Jerome, the oldest boy, seven years of age, said, "Uncle, are you going to bring Daddy home?" I said, "Son, I cannot bring your Daddy home, but Jesus Christ whom I serve will bring him home."
My sister-in-law related how it all happened. She went for her pastor and my brother-in-law, a professor in the Lutheran college. When they came Jerome said to them, "Won't you pray like Uncle Swen does?" They had evidently talked about our praying even though they did not write to us. After they had gone his wife had to let my brother out-doors and he ran four blocks without a thread of clothing on—until a policeman captured him.
I went to St. Peter, and Dr. Tumbleson, the president of the institution, refused to let me see my brother. I told him that I must see him; that as a minister of the gospel I had a right to go where a doctor could go. But he still refused and called in two other doctors who said to me, "Your brother is not only insane but is seriously ill and we do not expect him to leave this institution alive." To which I replied, "Then so much the more do I have to see him; and if you continue to refuse to let me see him you will have two Susags in this institution, for I will stay until you grant me the right to see my brother." Finally relenting, they sent for a man to take me to see my poor brother.
As I entered the cell in which he was confined my brother did not know me. He was walking around the room more like an animal than like a man. I knelt down in the middle of the floor and prayed. After a while he came and put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Swen, how does it come that you are here?" I said, "I have come to help you, Mike." "Thank you, I am glad you have come; something got into my head and I lost my mind. How is my family?" I told him they were all well and had sent their greetings to him. Then the man who had brought me in took hold of me and ordered me out.
But I was satisfied. This was the 22nd of March and I fasted from one meal every day for seventeen days and some days I would touch neither water nor food telling the Lord I had promised Mike's wife and his children that I was going to bring the husband and daddy home; and, "Jesus, I will give you no rest until you do so."
On the eighth of April during morning worship the Spirit of the Lord revealed to me that the Lord had heard our prayer and that my brother was perfectly well! I jumped up from my knees and ran around the house shouting the glory of God. Wife thought, "Here is another crazy Susag," but Brother Enos Key, of Red Key, Indiana (who had come to hold a meeting) was with us and he said, "Praise God, Brother Susag has the victory!" And three days later I received a letter from Doctor Tumbleson giving us the good news that on the eighth day of April the nurse went to take food to my brother and found him perfectly well in mind and body. And that he was doing bookkeeping for the institution and could come home any time only for the customary red tape it would take a few days before he could come. In a short time he was home and well.
* * * * *
On one occasion when I was holding a meeting at the fishing town of Sookden, Denmark, a great storm arose. As is the custom in fishing towns, boats put out to sea at high tide for better fishing conditions; forty-two had gone from here about two o'clock in the night. Toward morning the storm broke and on into the forenoon it became very fierce. Some of the older people were telling of a similar storm they remembered of some forty years before when thirty-eight boats went out and such a storm blew up. If I remember correctly, not one boat returned.
In those days there were no motor boats. They were all sailboats, generally three men to a boat. This time, however, they had gasoline motors on the boats and from twelve o'clock until three o'clock one boat after the other returned, some of them full of water, barely getting to shore. Forturnately the wind was blowing toward the shore or they might not have made a safe landing.
I was staying at the home of Brother Morton Petersen. He and his crew had not returned as yet. It seemed that most of the population of the town was standing on the hills looking for his return. I heard someone say to his wife, "Marie, do you expect Morton to return?" She answered, "He has been out so many times and has come back, and I expect him back this time." He generally went farther out than any of the fishermen because the farther out the fish were supposed to be larger and better.
We stood out there for two hours or more. About five o'clock someone said, "I see a dark spot out there." A little later someone else shouted, "I see a spot, too!" And then we began to see the spot more and more often, and at last they came safely to land—and not a bucket of water in the boat.
On our way home I asked Brother Petersen how he had gotten along. He said,"When we realized the storm was on hand we packed up our fishing lines andI ordered my partner to take care of the motor and I myself took charge ofthe rudder. My partner was a saved man but we had a boy who was not saved.I ordered him to be ready to dip out the water if any got in the boat."
I asked him whether they did much talking during that terrible storm and he said, "No, I was praying all the time that we might reach land safely, because the young man with us was not saved and he was the sole support of his widowed mother, his father and one or two brothers having gone down somewhere in the North Sea not so long ago. We were getting along very well—for the Lord helped me steer the boat right—but the worst that we had to meet was just before we landed—there were three sandbars we had to cross. If the waves struck us just right we would get over, but if not, we would get stuck in the sandbars, and there would be no help for us. When we came to the first one a big wave carried us safely over the sandbar. I said 'Thank God, we are over the first one;' and so it was with the other two; and each time I said, 'Thank God for taking us over, and too, for not letting the water get into our boat.'"
A week later I embarked on the steamer Olaf Barger, sailing from Fredriksen, Denmark, to Sweden. As I was going on board the boat the Captain came to me and asked whether I could spare him a few minutes before we landed in Sweden, as he wished to have a talk with me. When we got so far that we could begin to see the rocky coast of Sweden he came to me and began his narrative. He said, pointing ahead, "You see that three-mast schooner standing upon that rock?" I said, "Yes, I see it." "You remember the awful storm we had a week ago today. We were just coming out from Gottenburg to return to Denmark—an hour's sailing—and the schooner called for help but we were unable to even help ourselves so that we could not possibly help them. They were blown upon the rocks, but the people were saved." Then he pointed to the left to two big rocks, and continued, "And right there was a small steamer in trouble. They, too, called for help but we could not give it and they went down.
"We now saw that it would be impossible for us to reach Denmark and were fortunate in managing to turn the ship's course back toward Gottenburg. I tied myself to the bridge with an inch rope. Down into the waves we went and I said to myself, 'We have seen the sun for the last time.' But we came up and went down again many, many times. Then I did something I had never in all my life done before—I am sixty-five years old—I prayed the Lord to save my ship and all that were sailing with me. Along in the afternoon I found myself calling on God for salvation of my soul, and the Lord did save me and finally brought my ship, and those sailing with me, safely into the harbor at nine o'clock that evening, it having taken us nine hours to do one hour's sailing.
"Knowing that you were a minister of the gospel I wanted to tell you the story that you might perhaps tell it to others."
How longsuffering and merciful is the Son of God toward the children of men that when they repent and turn to Him, HE FORGIVES THEM.
* * * * *
One time when I arrived home from one of my evangelistic tours I found that my two young sons who were twins, eleven years of age, had been cutting hay. It was all raked and rowed up ready for hauling, and they were rejoicing that I had come as they were counting on me to help them haul and stack the hay. They said, "Dad, tomorrow you will have to help us." I said, "All right, we will have to get up early to get it done as I am leaving the following day to start another meeting."
The next morning we started out. We had to drive eighty rods south on the road, then we turned another eighty rods east to the hay meadow. Just as I began to pitch the hay up in the rack the boys exclaimed, "Dad, it's raining." "Yes," I said, and stuck my pitchfork in the ground, threw my hat beside it and said, "Let's pray." I said to the Lord, "This hay is yours; this farm is yours and I am your servant. This hay must be hauled today as I leave tomorrow to minister unto the people, so please, at least keep the rain off the hay meadow and off the road where we have to drive. Amen."
I went to pitching hay again; it was just pouring down all around us as far as we could see across the fence and west of the road. The only spots where it did not rain was where we were working and on the road we were driving. It rained all day, and it did not just rain—it poured! We hauled hay all day, until a little after six o'clock I slid off the stack in the yard and then the rain just poured down. I said to the boys, "The Lord surely heard prayer." They said, "Yes, He did," and we thanked the Lord.
After I had left the next day, our neighbor came over and seeing the stack asked the boys when they stacked that hay. They told him, "Yesterday, Daddy was home." (There was a distance of about twenty rods between his house and ours). He said, "That is impossible. I took a rest all day for the rain just poured down and I could not do anything." He thought it must have been the day before that we hauled and stacked the hay. But the boys told him that "Daddy prayed and it did not rain on our hay meadow, nor on the road where we were driving." This man was greatly astonished at hearing this.
* * * * *
One afternoon, about three o'clock, the renters on our place came running in great excitement into wife's room and said, "Mrs. Susag, a cyclone is coming." She went out with them and it was dark. There was a wood pile about three or four rods south of our houses and parts of our neighbors buildings south of us were blowing through our pasture and wood from the wood pile began to go up in the air. Wife lifted her hands toward heaven facing the storm and cried, "Lord God, don't let that storm strike our dwelling." The cyclone turned right square to the east several rods and then turned square again to the north-east of the buildings. When it got beyond our buildings it turned west and when it got just in line with the direction from which it came, it turned north again, rooting up big trees and damaging the neighbor's buildings; but not a thing on our premises was disturbed.
The spout of the cyclone dug a ditch several feet deep in some places. Once more God's Word was verified: "Call and I will answer."
* * * * *
At a meeting we were holding, Brother Tubbs, Brother Enos Key and myself was asked to fast and pray for a man weighing from 250 to 260 pounds and calling himself a saint!
We fasted, accordingly, and went after service Sunday noon to pray for him. We were still fasting, but he sat up to the table and ate a big chicken dinner and when he had finished eating he said, "Now you can pray for me." Bro. Tubbs said, "No, we are not going to pray for you. We have been fasting for you, and still haven't eaten, and you have sat up to the table and eaten as much as we three preachers, together, could eat. Goodbye!" And out we went.
* * * * *
At a meeting in Chicago there was a woman possessed with devils, and wanted to be delivered. Seven ministers, four men and three sisters, were working with her for over an hour but without apparent success. We tried to lay our hands on her but the devils in her would kick our hands away. Big knots came out on her body, on her shoulders and neck the size of a good sized apple. Then we ministers withdrew for a consultation among ourselves—to see whether the hindering cause in casting these devils out, lay in us, among ourselves—to be assured of complete unity and agreement in our midst: And we found that there was perfect unity. That being the case, we said, "We must have the victory, the evil spirits must go." We went back to the woman and worked, prayed and rebuked the enemy for nearly three hours, all to no avail.
Then one brother said, "There must be someone in the chapel sympathizing with her." We began a search looking everywhere to find where the trouble was and behind some folding doors in the prayer room we found a man. Brother Knight said to him, "What are you doing here?" He said, "Can't I stay here?" But he was told to leave forthwith and he went. We then locked the doors of the chapel and in a few minutes the woman was delivered.
She was obliged to go home as her husband went to work at four o'clock in the morning, but he came back the next day and was gloriously saved.
Another case of demon possession happened in Grand Forks. During a meeting we were holding there, a man came to the service who formerly had taken his stand with the church, coming out of a certain denomination, but before long he returned to it again. When he came to the meeting we were holding he was possessed. In one of the services Brother Krutz and I attempted to lay hands on him: He was kneeling at the altar with his back to the pulpit and he was taken up bodily and thrown upon the rostrum against the wall behind the pulpit. I ran after him and the devil said to me, "Now, it will go with you as it did with the seven sons of Sceva." I rebuked the devil and when I got to the man he turned over on his back and slid, head first, off the rostrum toward the seats, knocking his head against the seats until it seemed as though his skull would surely be broken.
I called for help. Eight brothers came and held him so that he would not get hurt. We laid hands on him and commanded the evil spirits to come out of him but they did not come. Then I asked them, "What is your name?" The answer was, "Salvation Army devil." Then in the name of the Lord Jesus we commanded the Salvation Army devil to come out of him. And when they went out it was with such a horrible scream that many women jumped up on their seats in fright and the man's shirt was torn and blood was running from his mouth and he fell on the floor as though he were dead. We let him lie there a little while, then, laying our hands on him, prayed and he came to. This man repented, made his confession and was saved.
* * * * *
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 Saturday 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 God, 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 passed 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 passed 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 Lokkum. 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 assured her I surely was. "God 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 assured 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, Atwater 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 substitute 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 glass 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.
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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 God. 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.