Chapter III: Part 3

A short while after this I was thinking that I would like to go to Arlington, South Dakota, now called Badger, before I died. I had raised up that congregation and they were very kind and dear to me. So I dropped Brother Gesselbeck a card asking him to meet me at Estaline on a certain date. Estaline was thirteen miles from Brother Gesselbeck's home. I arrived at Estaline about 6 a.m., but there was no Brother Gesselbeck there! I walked to a restaurant across the street and asked if any one knew Brother Gesselbeck. Yes, they knew him and why was I inquiring? I then told them my plight, that I was expecting him to be there to meet me. "Well," the man said, "Mr. Gesselbeck is an honest man and if he had gotten your card he would have been here, but yesterday was Washington's birthday, a holiday, and he will not get your card until after five o'clock this evening!"

Well, here I was in a bad predicament--no money to go back home, no telephone out there and so ill that I could not walk over a block or two at one time. I was wearing my heavy winter clothes beside a heavy dog-skin fur coat. I left my grip at the restaurant and, walking across the street, found a long pole and started out on a thirteen mile hike. I would walk a little and then sit down, and even lie down a while and rest in the snow, and wept and prayed.

It was about five-thirty in the afternoon when I reached Brother Geselbeck's pasture. It had taken me over eleven hour to walk the thirteen miles. I was praying and weeping when I saw Brother Geselbeck coming from his mail box with my card. He looked up and saw me, then lifting his hand with the card in it, shook his head as if to say, "Poor Brother Susag!" In order to prove to him that I was not dead yet, I threw away my pole and jumped as high as I could and when I came down I was perfectly healed and the swelling was all gone! I had thought that this would be my last trip to Brother Geselbeck's, but I have made many since then.

* * * * *

Once I was holding a meeting in North Dakota about ten miles in the country north of Denbeg. The morning after the meeting closed, I woke up and lay awake a while, then fell asleep again and I had a dream. I dreamed that I saw Brother and Sister Gaulke driving on the highway south of Grand Forks. Suddenly I saw the car go up in the air amidst a cloud of dust. Some folks came and took Sister Gaulke out of the wreck and laid her on a blanket, then a big black blanket came up between me and Brother Gaulke and the wreck. When I awakened it was just fifteen minutes past seven. It made such a vivid impression on me that I said to the family with whom I was staying, "I will not leave here until the mail carrier comes; I expect a telegram." I then told them my dream. They went with me to the mail box a mile from the farm, and when the mail carrier came, he had brought me a message from Mrs. Johnston telling what had happened at exactly the hour I was having my dream, and asking me to come at once, so instead of going to my next appointment I went at once to Grand Forks. On my arrival at the hospital when Sister Gaulke saw me, she said, "Of all the angels in heaven, how did you get here?" Sister Gaulke recovered but her husband lingered a few days and then went home to glory.

* * * * *

I had a dream one time while I was in Europe about my second son who was working in a store in Superior, Wisconsin. I saw him go to a music store and buy a special instrument. I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep again, so got up and wrote to him, telling him that it was all right that he bought the instrument, for I knew he was interested in music, but I asked him to please not join an ungodly band as it might lead him into temptation and into bad things which would "bring down his daddy's gray hairs with sorrow to the grave."

He wrote back and thanked me for my letter but never mentioned a word about the instrument. A few days later I came home from Europe and he had resigned his position and gotten another one. His grips and trunk were brought to the house. The family were anxious to see what he had in them for he had been gone several years, so when they finally got to the big trunk he lifted his hand and looking at his mother and the rest, said hesitatingly, "I don't know, now...." His mother said, "Clarence, have you got something in your trunk you do not want us to see?" He answered, "Daddy knows." I said to him, "It is all right, Clarence; I am sure you obeyed my admonition." He opened the trunk and there was a new violin! Then he told us that when he was buying the violin he had intended to join an orchestra, but when he got home from the store with his violin there was daddy's letter. This fulfilled the Scripture that "Before they call I will answer and while they are yet speaking I will hear."

* * * * *

Another time before I went to Europe there was a little difference or misunderstanding between two ministers, and some other ministers were called on to help get the misunderstanding out of the way, which we did, and everything was fine. They were good ministers and I loved them dearly. They had both been a blessing to me. A year later I dreamed that the brother mostly to blame got up early one morning and traveled three hundred miles by train to see the other brother, and on seeing him treated him very unmercifully. I dreamed this at two o'clock in the morning and could not sleep any more, so got up and wrote this brother a kind letter telling him of my dream and that the Lord had shown me that he was now greatly to blame. I advised him that if the dream did not fit to destroy the letter and to resist the enemy, and also that I was praying for him. On coming back to America I learned that the dream did fit exactly as to the time, both date and hour, in which his unmerciful action took place.

* * * * *

While at the Anderson Camp Meeting one year, I dreamed that I saw the ministers of the Church of God within a large enclosure, walls four square, high and very beautiful. I was standing just inside the door, and on the outside of the door stood one of the leading ministers among us. He had gotten into some false doctrine, and he and his wife had built a little shanty just outside the walls near the entrance, where they had twelve to twenty ministers with them. The room was so small that they all had to stand up.

The brother was talking to me trying his best to get me to join his group and accept his doctrine. Then as I looked up the street, to my left as it were, I saw a troop of cavalrymen mounted on white horses and dressed in white uniforms, coming toward me. The troop was so long it seemed almost as though there was no end to it. An officer, who was riding on the side, said to me, "You stay in there with the rest of them and you will be protected." Then they went to the shanty, a little hut made of unpainted lumber, and smashed it up, scattering all the men inside. Then the clock struck two.

At the minister's meeting in the morning I asked if I might tell my dream and, consent being granted, I told my dream. After I had told it, Bro. E. E. Byrum got up and said, "I can interpret the brother's dream: We were dealing with this brother and sister until two o'clock this morning, and we found it to be an ungodly spirit and doctrine. I warn everyone to stay away from it." The couple left us and never came back again.

Brother George W. Green and I once came from Pit, a little town in northern Minnesota. On our way to Grand Forks we stopped at a town by the name of Steiner, the home of the Koglin family. Quite a number of people were in the house when we arrived. Grandma had had several strokes and the family had been looking for my address, as they were expecting she would die and wanted me to come and conduct her funeral services. We asked if we might see her and they told us we could. We went into the bedroom and prayed for her and the Lord healed her. If I remember correctly, she lived for over ten years longer.

* * * * *

At one time I was holding a meeting in a school house near Warren, Minnesota. I was staying with a family named Keutzer, three miles from the school house. In the afternoon previous to the evening service I was praying, and wrestling with the devil. I asked the brother to start at least an hour ahead of time to go to the meeting or else give me a lantern and I would walk over. He asked me why, and I told him that the devil was mad at me and will not let me ride--that when I get in the car, it will stop.

The brother laughed at me and said, "I have a new Oldsmobile car," and they would not let me have a lantern, but when they were ready to go I got the lantern and told them to go on and tell the folks that I would be coming as fast as I could. But the brother said, "Get in the car." I didn't want to, but he took hold of me and almost forced me into the car. I got in and it ran for a rod or two and then stopped. I jumped out of the car, took the lantern and ran. After a while they caught up with me and stopped for me to get in, saying that if I didn't, they would not go. This happened several times. I would get in the car, it would run a rod or two and stop. Finally I ran away from them and walked all the way to the school house and they arrived after I got there. We were so late the people were just getting ready to leave, as it was nearly nine o'clock.

We all went into the school house and went on with the service. We found afterwards why the devil opposed me and did not want me there. There was a bootlegger in the audience, who, when hearing me relate the experience, got to thinking about it, became convicted and got saved. When we were leaving to go home, Brother Keutzer asked me how I was going to get home; was I going to walk? "No," I said, "I am going to ride and we will have no trouble with the car." The devil had lost his hold on that bootlegger and we had no further trouble with the car.

* * * * *

The first time I was called to the Koglin home to hold services was in winter and very cold. The address given me was Thief River Falls, but did not state the number of the rural route, so there was no way for me to get to their place that evening, and I had only enough money to take me to Steiner, which was my destination. I asked at the depot whether I could stay there, but they said "No," because they closed up over night. So I left my grips there and went out to see what I could find, for there was no one in the city that I knew. I saw a light in a chapel and went in, thinking I might get an opportunity to testify, and that someone might invite me home with them. I got a chance to testify all right, but no one invited me to go home with them. I walked around the city and went into a restaurant, sat down and got warmed up. But soon they closed.

I kept walking the streets to keep warm, and after a while a man caught up with me and said, "Well, some one else is out walking in this cold weather, twenty below." I agreed that it was surely cold. He asked me whether I lived there, and I told him that my home was in Paynesville,

Minnesota. Then he said, "What is your name?" I told him, "S. O. Susag," and he then replied, "I used to know a man by that name who was in the grocery business on Franklin and Minnehaha in Minneapolis." He turned to me in the darkness and said, "I am Erickson of the firm of Rudda and Erickson that used to be on Cedar Avenue in Minneapolis."

It turned out that he was a good friend of years ago, so he soon found out why I was there. He asked me whether I had a hotel room yet. I told him, no, that I was just looking around. Nevertheless, he offered me money to pay for a room at the hotel. I refused it, but he insisted, saying, "If our spare room was empty I would have taken you to my home, but we have friends from North Dakota visiting us today, but you come to our home for breakfast in the morning before you take the train." He never knew what a blessing he was to me in the hour of my great need.

* * * * *

SPEAKING IN TONGUES

At the State Camp meeting at Wilmar, Minnesota, I was asked to preach in Scandinavian as there were some sixty elderly Scandivanian people who did not understand the English language. I agreed to do so. As soon as I had begun to preach the whole camp came in to listen. When the service was over people asked why Brother Susag did not preach in Scandinavian in the afternoon. Brother Ring told them that he had done so. However, they insisted that I had spoken in English, since the whole camp, they said, had come in and heard me preach in English. The fact is: I had spoken in Scandinavian and the Lord interpreted it to them in English.

* * * * *

THE FUR COAT

At one time I was in great need of a fur coat, for the winters are very cold in the northern states and Canada. So I set my heart on having a fur-lined coat listed in the Sears Roebuck catalogue for $57.25. I asked the Lord if I could have it and He answered, "Yes."

Shortly after this matter had been decided, a brother came to me and said, "You need a fur coat and here are ten dollars to start toward it." Others wrote sending money specifying that it was for a fur coat until I had $36.50. Then a whole year passed and nothing came. The following November I went to Rice Lake, Wisconsin to hold a meeting for Bro. E. G. Ahrendt. It was very cold and there was lots of snow. On my arrival Brother Ahrendt said to me, "Haven't you got a fur coat, Brother Susag?" I answered, "Yes." He said, "Why don't you wear it this cold weather?" I answered, "I have it by faith--have had it for a year and a half and have $36.50 laid by for it that was given me towards buying a coat, but the price is $57.25." Then Bro. Ahrendt went upstairs and was gone for a long time. When he came down again, he said, "Brother Susag, before you leave here you are going to have a fur coat." I said, "Is that faith or presumption?" To which he replied, "If it isn't faith, I have never had faith." I said, "Praise the Lord; good for you and good for me."

When the meeting was over Brother Ahrendt said, "Did you get the fur coat?" I told him, "No." He then asked me where I was going tomorrow night from here, and I told him that I was going ten miles out in the country to a little meeting house for a service. He said, "I'll go with you."

After the service that night Brother Ahrendt again asked, "Did you get your fur coat?" I said, "No." Upon, which he inquired where I was going that evening. I told him that a family had invited me to their home and had offered to take me to another railroad over which I would be able to reach home sooner. Brother Ahrendt declared that he was going with me until he saw my last foot safe in the train, "and," he said, "if you haven't got the fur coat by then I'll not know what to think of myself or my faith." (By way of explanation would say here, that the offerings I received went for my general expenses; the money for my fur coat was to come from other sources. The Lord had promised me the fur coat.)

That night I had a dream. I woke up about three o'clock in the morning, and as I stirred a little, Brother Ahrendt whispered, "Are you awake?" I told him I was. "Did you have a dream?" he asked. I answered, "Yes, a woman came to me and gave me four bills!" "The fur coat! the fur coat!" he excitedly said. We got so happy that we couldn't sleep any more and we shouted, "Glory to God!" We made so much noise that we disturbed the folks down stairs, and when we went down they said, "What is the matter with you brethren making so much noise?" We told them we were so happy that we could not help ourselves.

After a while the sister asked me to come out into the kitchen. She gave me a chair and I sat down. She at once began to unburden her mind and said, "Did you understand when I spoke to you at the campmeeting at St. Paul Park three or four years ago that I was intending to give you some money for your trip to Europe?" I answered, "Yes, I thought so." "But" she said, "you said you had the fare." "Yes," I answered, "I had it by faith." Then in surprise, she asked, "But didn't you have the money in your possession? Weren't you then already on your way to Europe?"

"I was on my way to Europe," I answered, "but did not have all my fare--only by faith."

She then told me that she had been sick for about two years. She said, "I have been prayed for often, and have received some help, yet I gradually got worse. Finally," she said, "I got desperate about it and said to the Lord, 'What's the matter with me anyway; I cannot get well and I cannot die?' Then the Lord said, 'Do you know the Brother you intended to give some money before he went to Europe?' I said, 'Yes, in a way, but he's back now.' The Lord said, 'That does not make any difference; how much was it?' 'Fifteen dollars,' was my answer. 'That's right,' the Lord said, 'but there is ten dollars interest on that now.' 'I'll give it to him the first time I see him,' I said. Then I was prayed for and healed at once." Having said this, she handed me the money, "Here it is," and it was four bills! I took it and commenced to shout the glory of God. In came Bro. Ahrendt and I held up the four bills for him to see. He shouted, "The fur coat, the fur coat!" Then I related my experience to her of my praying for a fur coat and said to her, "If you had given me the money when I came back from Europe I would not have had to suffer cold for about a winter and a half." The sister was healed and blessed, and I was kept warm for many a day inside that fur coat.

* * * * *

A number of years ago I was called to go to Wales, North Dakota, to hold a meeting at Brother Paul Garber's home, which was a Great Northern box car. The weather was very cold, the temperature being twenty degrees below zero. After the first evening service a woman came to me and said, "I am the sheriff's wife and I want you to come home with me. I cannot allow you to stay here." I went with her and the next day we got the Methodist church in which to hold our services.

More than half the people who attended the services were Catholics. On the last evening as I was going out of the church, the butcher of the town shook hands with me, putting three silver dollars in my hand and said, "You come back soon."

I surely had a fine stay with the sheriff and his wife, and the day I was leaving the sheriff was at the depot with a delegation representing the business men of the town saying to me, "We wish you would come back soon." I said to them, "What's your reason for wanting me to come back soon, since the butcher was the only business man of the city who came out to my meeting?" "When you come back," they said, "we will all come to your services, because many people have come and paid up their old bills and made good their outlawed notes since you have been here." I am sorry that I never had the opportunity of going back there again.

A number of the saints at Wales moved to Grand Forks, N. Dakota, and were a great blessing and an asset to that congregation. Later on, sixty-three adults and children moved to Benton Harbor, Michigan, and I understand that an English and a German congregation was started at that place through their efforts.

* * * * *

One time Brother Renbeck and I went to Bro. Bahr's to pray for Willie, a son of theirs, who had the scarlet fever, and after we had prayed I felt that I should stay a little longer. I lay down on the lounge and fell asleep. All of a sudden Sister Bahr called and said, "I believe Willie is dying," and when I laid my hands on him he was so hot that the heat seemed to go right through my whole body. I kept on rebuking the sickness and the devil, but it didn't seem to help any.

I prayed, "Lord, heal this boy to Thy glory. If no other way, I am willing to take this sickness upon myself, just so you get the glory of healing the boy." In a few minutes he was sound asleep, perfectly healed! But I felt as though I was sore all over my body. When I went out into the cold winter weather the cold would smart what seemed to be sores on my face, and when I got to the chapel to preach I felt ashamed to get up before the audience because I thought the folks would see the sores on my face, although I knew it was an imposition of the devil. When I got into the pulpit I told the people how I felt, and asked them to pray, and immediately the feeling left me. I learned the lesson not to be willing to take a devil's sickness in order to get people healed.

* * * * *

In 1942 as I was coming from the West coast to Wolf Point, Montana, I took the bus thirty-eight miles from there where another road turns off to go to my son's place, a mile and a half off the highway. It had snowed quite a bit and was somewhat stormy, but I thought I could make it. However, I had not walked far until I had to throw my grips into the ditch and tried to go on, but the snow was so deep I could not make it walking. My only way was to lie down in the road and roll. I kept that up quite a while, and when I got tired I would just lie and rest. After I had gotten a quarter of a mile I was so worn out that it seemed as though there was no hope for me. I rolled over to a fence post and stood up and tied myself to it, thinking that if I did freeze to death folks would be able to find my body. After I had been standing quite a while praying, I felt as though I was getting my strength again, so I loosened myself from the fence post and started to roll again and then tried to walk on my knees, but that would not do. The snow was too loose--I went down. Toward evening I had reached the highest spot from which I could be seen from my son's house. He was coming from the barn and happened to see me, and then quickly came to meet me and very soon led me safely to his home. So the Lord had mercy on me once more.

* * * * *

One time I received a telegram from Brother Fortner of Brookings, S. Dakota asking me to come at once. I arrived there late in the evening and found that their son, Clarence, was seriously ill at the hospital in Huron, eighty-three miles from Brookings. The folks thought we had better wait until the following morning to go. Brother and Sister Fortner, another son, and the pastor all went with me in my car.

Clarence had been saved but had gotten away from the Lord. On our trip from Brookings, on the highway we drove eighty miles an hour and the pastor said, "Brother Susag, you do not need to go so fast." I thought that I would slacken down but the car was still going eighty miles; the pastor called again, "Brother Susag, you need not go so fast." I said nothing but felt rather sad that I was hurting the pastor's feelings, but still I was going eighty. Finally the pastor spoke sternly, "Brother Susag, you don't need to go that fast." I felt sad, but said nothing, yet in spite of myself and the pastor, I was still going eighty miles an hour.

On arriving at the hospital the young man said, "I have gotten back to the Lord and this morning at three o'clock He said to me that at nine o'clock Brother Susag would be here to take you home." He had the clock standing on the chair and it was just nine o'clock when we arrived! The pastor walked out. (This occurred before the laws governing speed went into effect, but law or no law, the Lord wanted me there at nine o'clock.)

* * * * *

GETTING IN TROUBLE FOR OBEYING THE WORD OF GOD

A brother minister got the idea in his mind that wife and I were covetous, but we did not at the time realize to what extent it had affected him. Previous to his leaving the state he brought the matter before the body of ministers so as to have them deal with us. The ministers told him that they had not seen any indication of coveteousness in Brother and Sister Susag, and then asked him what proof he had for thinking so. He answered, "They do not give enough." (Our custom was never to tell anyone what we gave, because the Bible says, "Let not your left hand know what your right hand doeth.")

We were called before the Ministerial Assembly and the matter was taken up. The brethren said that they had not seen any indication of coveteousness in us and all the brother had against us was that we hadn't been giving enough, and, said they, "After thinking it over, neither did we know what you were giving." To which I replied, "If I'm coveteous, I'm the one that ought to know it, so won't you brethren, please help me out?" This is what they suggested: "You tell us how much you give and then we can compare." I answered, "If I tell you how much I give, won't it be fair for you folks to tell how much you give?" Whereupon the chairman replied, "Yes, that will be fair; I know you cannot give as much as me since my income is larger; but you and Bro. A---- should give about the same amount." So they all told what they had given for the year. I then added the amounts and found the total, and getting my grip, took out of it receipts for what wife and I had given and asked the brethren to add them up. Then I requested them to add up what the seven ministers had given and, to the great surprise of all of us, they found that wife and I had given $22.50 more than all seven ministers together. This was one of the "all things" in my life.

* * * * *

When I was the evangelist at a certain State Camp meeting, a lady, who had only been to our services that morning, got saved at that Sunday morning service, and having to leave the meeting right away, wanted to be baptized before going. Three sisters came to me in protest, and said, "You are not going to baptize that woman with all those rings on, are you?" I answered, "Please leave that sister and her rings alone." To which they replied, "If you baptize that woman with all those rings, we will never have confidence in you again." I answered, "I'm very sorry, but let's pray about it; you go over in the timber in that direction and I will go over in this direction in the timber and pray and prepare for the baptizing."

As the woman, who was to be baptized, stepped into the water, she exclaimed, "Oh!" as if something was hurting her, then stripping the rings off her fingers she threw them into the sand, never more to put them back on her fingers.

In response to an urgent call to come to St. Paul Park I forthwith prepared to go, although not knowing the reason I was summoned. When ready to start, at the request of my wife, I consented to take along a rag carpet which she had made for the Old People's Home out there. I put the carpet into a sack and checked it to St. Paul, rechecking it from there to St. Paul Park. The baggage man asked me whether I had a trunk or a grip. I informed him I had a sack. In answer to his inquiry as to what was in it, I told him, "Clothing." While riding on the next train the devil said to me, "You're a pretty nice preacher; you lied to the baggage man; instead of telling him clothing was in the sack you should have said it was cloth or rag carpet." "Well," I said, "I can make that right on my return trip." On my arrival at the Park I found that Brother Krutz had lost his mind. When I met him he did not know me. I went to praying and tried to talk to him and after a while he knew me. He said, "Brother Susag, Brother Susag, you are pure gold, pure gold." Then looking at me intently, pointing his finger at my heart, he said, "What do I see, a tiny spot?" No--doubt the enemy wanted to hinder me in praying for him. The incident bothered me a little bit, so I went out into the woods and the Lord showed me that it was just an imposition of the devil to bother me. Brother Krutz was prayed for and the Lord healed him and the next Sunday he preached.

* * * * *

PRAYING FOR EGGS AND KEROSENE

Brother Ahrendt and I were holding some meetings in the locality between Bertha and Hewitt, Minnesota. We were staying in a log house--just the two of us. We ran out of kerosene, and were also out of money. Brother A---- took the can and started to walk to Hewitt--a distance of six or seven miles--in the snow, hoping to meet some brethren who would ask him why he was carrying that can--but he met no one. He went to the post office, got the mail and concluded that he would have to go back without the kerosene; however, on opening one of the letters a dime dropped out. He immediately went to the store, bought the kerosene and returned home.

One evening Brother Ahrendt said to me, "Brother Susag, I'm hungry for some eggs; let's pray the Lord to send us some eggs." I replied, "How can we expect to get eggs out here? I haven't seen any chickens around here, nor in the bush where I have been." "Well," he said, "the Lord can bring them from somewhere." That evening on our returning from service we found something setting on the table covered with a newspaper. Brother Ahrendt lifted the paper and found a tiny basket with five eggs in it! I said, "You get three of them; you prayed and had faith while I only said, amen."

* * * * *

THE READING ON THE SIGN POST CHANGED(?)

One day Bro. Ahrendt was out advertising the meeting. His last call was at a schoolhouse, and from there he wanted to go to Bertha intending to take a short cut through the brush to the highway. On coming to the highway, he saw a signpost pointing in the direction he was going, which read, "One mile to Hewitt." "Well," he thought, "what won't boys do changing the road signs?" He walked on a few steps and saw a little town not far away, then he realized that he had been going north while he thought he was going south. The boys had not done any harm. He was mistaken in his sense of direction.

One year Brother H. A. Sherwood was the evangelist at the Minnesota State Camp meeting which was held at Saint Cloud. A large, roomy church building was used for the services. The heat was record-breaking that year, and on one of the hottest afternoons when Brother Sherwood was expecting to preach as usual, the heat was so intense that he was physically unequal to the occasion, and so it came about that at Brother Sherwood's urgent request, Brother Allison F. Barnard (who, with Mrs. Barnard, was attending the meeting) consented to preach in his stead that afternoon.

As Bro. Barnard came into the pulpit the Holy Spirit came upon him and upon the whole congregation in such a way and in such measure as I had never seen in any service. The heat in the chapel moderated at once, but outside it was as hot as ever. It was as though the dear man was "out of the body" and there was no trouble at the altar of prayer for seeking souls to receive their heart's desire. They prayed through! So, again, the Scripture was fulfilled, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts."

* * * * *

Speaking of Brother Sherwood, I loved that big little man in the Lord. On one occasion he was the campmeeting evangelist at Morden, Manitoba, Canada. The Lord used him mightily and when the meeting was over it was arranged that wife and I should take him with us in our car to Grand Forks, North Dakota. It started to rain and did really pour down. The first forty-five miles the roads were nothing but black gumbo, and we used eight gallons of gas driving that forty-five miles.

Brother Sherwood sat in the back seat, praying all the time that we would not get stuck in the mud nor slide down into the ditch, and when we reached the gravel road in North Dakota he said, "Brother Susag, will you stop awhile so we can have a thanksgiving meeting right here, that the Lord has heard prayer and protected our lives!" And that is what we did. Brother Sherwood then said, "Bro. Susag, will you accept an admonition from a younger man than yourself?" I answered, "Any time, Brother." And he said, "This is the second worst automobile ride I ever had in all my life. Will you promise me never again to start out driving when the road is as bad as this?" My reply was: "Hello! Hello! Hello! Who is this? Brother Sherwood? What do you want? Your wife sick? What, dying? Yes, I'm starting out right away; I'm coming as fast as I can." Whereupon Brother Sherwood reached out his hand and said, "Brother Susag, forgive me; how quick a man can be to ask a promise of a man without thinking!"

* * * * *

Once I was called to attend a meeting north of St. Cloud, Minnesota. There were about thirteen ministers there. It was among a people who were called, "The Free." Some three of their leading brethren had heard the Truth, and they were the ones who had sent for me to come. The ministers and the majority of the people were opposed to our teachings. When the offering was divided among the ministry, those three brethren, who were on the board, gave me $38.00.

But after I had taken the money I could not keep it on my person. I tried my best, but even when in my overcoat pocket the money burned me, so I gave it back to the brethren. A brother was going to drive me to the nearest railroad station, and when I had taken my seat in the buggy ready to go to town, these three brethren came and gave me fifteen dollars, saying, "We have given much more in the offering than that," and they felt that the fifteen dollars would not burn me. So I took the money and thanked them for it and we went on our way to town. As I put the money in my pocket it still burned me. I had to take it out again and lay it on the bottom of the buggy. I told the driver to take it back and return it to the brethren. He said, "They will not know what to do with it now that the meeting is ended." I told him of a young minister who was sick and in need--to take the money to him. I was needing the money badly, even the $38.00, as I was without money to pay my way home.

As we crossed the railway track coming into the town near the depot, I asked the man to let me off. As I was walking up to the station a man, whom I did not know, came along beside me and pressed a five dollar bill into my hand, and that was enough to take me home! A number of people took their stand for the truth in that meeting.

* * * * *

THE LORD STILL HEARS PRAYER

At a Ministers' Meeting at Tulare, California, in 1945, while the noon lunch was being served, I was sitting in the chapel with my head bowed on the chair in front of me, praying for a certain amount of money, not expecting any money at that meeting. Soon I felt the confidence that the Lord had heard prayer and dismissed the matter from my mind. A few minutes later a man came and sat down beside me and said, "Say, how do you get your expenses; do you get a salary for traveling around this way?" I answered, "No, I have no salary; I pay my expenses as the Lord puts it into the hearts of the brethren to give to me." "Well," he said, "the Lord told me to come over and give you this."

And he handed me the very amount I had been asking the Lord for!

* * * * *

Brother Renbeck and I were holding a meeting out near Kellys, North Dakota. After the service one afternoon I saw Brother Renbeck sitting in a corner of the room weeping. I went over to him and asked him what was the trouble. He said, "I am weeping because there were not more sinners in the meeting to get saved, for if there had been more there, more would have been saved." To which I replied, "Keep on weeping."

* * * * *

MY FIRST EXPERIENCE IN DEALING WITH DEVIL POSSESSION

Another time we were holding meetings near and in Fosston, Minnesota. It was said of us that "those preachers are of the devil." One evening a man came to the meeting who had blood poisoning in one of his knees. In getting to the meeting he used a long pole to help support himself. He wanted to see those preachers who were "of the devil." When he arrived the room was full and there being no chair for him to sit on, I gave him mine. When we knelt down to pray I laid my hands on his knee and asked the Lord to heal him and he was healed instantly.

A few nights later a man came to the service who was possessed with devils. He was frothing at the mouth and acting like a madman. As I took hold of him and laid my hands on him we almost wrestled. I commanded the devils to come out of him, and I told the Lord I would never let Him go until He delivered the man, and he was finally delivered by the Spirit of the Lord. Although it was winter time I was as wet as though I had been dipped in the river. While the struggle was going on all the people ran out of the room. But the man was fully delivered and then he was saved.

* * * * *

In another of our meetings a sister got saved and received light on baptism. She had a little baby girl and her husband wanted to have the child sprinkled, as that was his faith. The mother was to carry the baby forward to receive this rite, but she objected and said, "No, I cannot do that; but if you care to, you may do so, for she is as much yours as she is mine." But the husband would not consent to do that. Well, she didn't know what to do and went to Brother and Sister Anton Nelson for advice. Brother Nelson said, "Let us ask the Lord about it." After they had prayed about it, Brother Nelson said to the sister, "You go and carry the baby and we will come along and pray for you and it will all come out all right."

At the Sunday service that the baby was to receive this rite, there were seven children in all being subjected to this ceremony. The minister came to this sister and said, "What is the name of the child?" The sister answered, "Anna Marie." Then the minister said, "Anna Marie, do you forsake the devil and all his works? Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and will you upon this faith be baptized?" (The mother was supposed to answer, "Yes.") The sister answered nothing. So he read his ritual once more and again no response. So after asking the question the third time, he said, "Anna Marie, don't you answer?" At this, the father of the child called out from the audience, and stamping his feet, said, "Come on, wife, that's enough!"

You will remember reading at the beginning of this book I told of how my mother, when I was a child, used to say to me, "Child, O child! You are more trouble to me than all the other eight children put together!" And yet, after I had been away in America for twenty-four years, when I went back home, the very first day my mother had me sit facing her not more than about four feet away and I listened to her telling me stories about the most wonderful boy I had ever heard of. After about two hours of this pleasant entertainment I smiled and said to her, "I have recollections of a mother who used to weep over this same boy and say, 'O child, what shall I do with you, you are more trouble to me than all the other eight children together.'" "O Ja," she said, "but you were the best boy anyhow." I am fairly good in arithmetic, but that is a problem I have not solved yet.

* * * * *

PREACHING ON WORLDLINESS

While conducting a revival meeting at Grand Forks, North Dakota, I preached one afternoon on the subject of worldliness. An attorney and his wife from Langdon, North Dakota were staying in the city to attend the meeting. After hearing this sermon the wife would not attend the services any more. At the close of the Sunday afternoon service, two days later, the attorney came to me and said, "The Holy Spirit was in the meeting this afternoon, wasn't He?" I replied that He was, and he continued, "Every sinner present was saved and something happened to me that I never remember having experienced before. I cried like a child!"

I asked him why his wife had quit coming to the meeting. In reply he asked, "Has Sister Hansen told you anything about us and our home?" I said, "Yes, you once gave a minister twenty-two-hundred pieces of money, they were all pennies. You did a good thing. This is all Sister Hansen ever told me about you folks. I have heard nothing whatever about you."

He referred to the sermon on worldliness and said, "In your talk, you practically, set a price on everything we have in the home, such as curtains, carpets, furniture and the range; and you illustrated it this way: 'Supposing a person could buy a suitable range for $42.50 but seeing another, just the same kind only with nickel-plated trimmings, for $82.00 and he would choose the latter, wouldn't that be called the pride of the eye?' And that is just the kind of range we have! and my wife could not see it that way." She thought that Sister Hansen had told me and did not get that out of her mind and was finally lost, the husband said.

I was preaching under the leading of the Holy Spirit and in what I said I had no one in mind in using that illustration, but was simply trying to show that such money could be used to better purpose and that sometimes when folks yielded to the temptation to take the finer appearing article they might be going beyond their means.

* * * * *

One Sunday morning when I was pastor in Grand Forks and had just gotten through preaching a man came rushing up to the pulpit and said in a rough voice, "Who told you all about me?" I put out my hand and said, "My name is Susag, what is your name?" He answered, "You stood before this audience this morning and told them everything I have ever done!" I answered, "Dear man, I don't know you, nor have I ever heard of you, what is your name?" He looked around, then turned and out he ran! I never saw the man again.

Some years ago when in Norway, Morris Johnson and I held a meeting on a large farm in Roleg in Numedahl. A large crowd was out at the first service. We knelt down to pray and while we were praying I heard a great commotion and when we rose from our knees we found that two thirds of the people were gone. The foreman of the King's highway was in the audience and he had said when he came out there, that those preachers were too fanatical and if he had had his gun along and had shot them, he would have done the Lord a good favor. However, I do not think that in his heart he meant as bad as it sounded, for some time later he invited us to his home and treated us with much courtesy and kindness. A number were saved and baptized and quite a nice little congregation was raised up at that place.

* * * * *

While we were at Sanes, Norway, Brother Morris Johnson was very sick and one evening when we arrived at our stopping place he rolled onto the bed with his clothes on, exhausted. He had been bleeding from the lungs and was so weak that I could hardly get him home. We wept and prayed and finally I said to him, "Morris, can't you get out of bed and kneel down with me and pray?" "I might," he said, "but I think the bed is the best place for me." However, he got down and said a few words and then rolled back into bed again. He wasn't able to undress all night and I was afraid to go to sleep for fear that he might leave me most any time during the night.

In the morning he seemed to be somewhat rested and I said to him, "Brother Morris, we must try and get down to Sister Svenson's and get you some meat broth." (Sister S. had a delicatessen store, and Morris hadn't eaten anything for a couple of days) but he said, "I am unable to get down there nor can I eat anything." "But," I said, "You've got to get down there even if I have to carry you there on my back. You'll have to eat or I will be having to bury you somewhere among the rocks in Norway." He got up and I put my arm around him and, as luck would have it the road was down hill. We had to stop and rest several times but we got there and the Lord must have impressed Sister Svenson for she had some broth all ready made, but as she was preparing to serve it the trouble in his lungs began again and he went to the wash room. I fell prostrate on the floor crying to God for help for him. Suddenly I realized I had received faith for him and called to him, "Morris, the bleeding stops, now!" And it did. And from that time on he recovered rapidly. (When I think of that dear brother and the plight he was in, it brings tears to my eyes, even now).

* * * * *

A WONDERFUL MEETING AT STAVANGER

A telephone call came to Sr. Svenson from two ministers at Stavanger requesting the two American evangelists to come to them. We accepted the call and Sr. Svenson's daughter and Bro. Fjield went with us. How the ministers came to locate us at Sr. Svenson's I never knew, as neither of us had ever been at Stavanger. The names of the two ministers calling us were Johnson and Jornsen of the Christian church. We called first at Brother Johnson's where we were warmly welcomed. They told us that they had heard of us and had been earnestly praying for the Lord to send us to them and that they were glad we were there: "You are here in answer to prayer," they said, and then opening a door into another room informed us that there was our bedroom. They showed the dining room, saying, as they did so, "Anytime that you are hungry, come here and eat." To all this kind welcoming my response was, "This really seems to me to be like too much of an open door in face of the fact that you do not know us nor do we know you, perhaps we had better go in and have prayer together and some consultation about the matter. After we had had prayer they related the following: