* * * * *

At one of the camp meetings at St. Paul Park as I was coming back from the baptismal service that we had in the river, I saw a young lady across the street walking with crutches, one limb seemingly, just hanging helpless. I felt sorry for her and went across the street and spoke to her. I asked her if she had been hurt or had had an accident.

She did not answer me at all. I said, "Do not be afraid of me. I am a minister; I am sorry for you and am anxious to know what your trouble is." Then she said, "I have tuberculosis of the leg, there are seven holes in it. I am just out of the Sanitarium at Saint Paul. They tell me that they can do nothing for me." I said, "Too bad, I am sorry for you." Then I asked her if she were a Christian; she broke down and wept. "Indeed, too bad," I said, "A young lady in that condition and yet not a Christian." Then I said, looking toward the camp grounds, "Do you see that tent over there? We are holding services in it and if you will come to the service tonight and get saved, God will heal you." She then left me and I went over to the tent.

She came to the service that night and when the altar call was given she went forward to seek salvation. When the altar service was over she was still there on her knees. Brother C. H. Tubbs had been instructing her and he said to her, "You can go and sit down now." But she pointed at me and said, "That man said that if I got saved that I could get healed too." Brother Tubbs said "alright" and went over to her with his oil vial and let a drop fall on her forehead. She dropped her crutches and ran down the aisles before we could pray, but the strength of her limb did not seem to hold out. So she came back to the altar and prayer was offered, but she was unable to use her limb.

Her mother was there. They lived in St. Paul and as it was some little distance to the station and the time was drawing near for the departure of the train, the mother said to her, "Take your crutches and let us go." But she answered, "Mother, I'll never touch those crutches anymore." "But if you can not walk, what are you going to do?"

Two young ladies helped her to the station and her mother carried the crutches. Two months after the camp meeting I went to Saint Paul Park and I met this same young lady, Sister Davis, as she came walking along as spry as any young lady. I said to her, "When did you get your healing and start walking?" She answered, "When we got to Saint Paul I got up and walked home and was well!"

* * * * *

Brother Emil Krutz and I were called to pray for Grandma Dahl who was ill with double pneumonia. There were eight saints in the room and I heard one ask another, "How old is Grandma?" The reply was, "Seventy-seven years old," to which someone answered, "If I were that old I would not care to get well."

We anointed and prayed for the sick woman but she showed no signs of life or of getting any help. Brother Krutz looked at me and said, "The Lord heard prayer." We went into another room and closed the door, Brother Krutz said to me, "You go in there and send the folks out." We went back into the room and asked visitors to kindly step out of the room; then locking the door we again offered prayer. When we took our hands off this time the sister sat up in bed and said, "Call my daughter, Mrs. Umden, and tell her to bring me something to eat, I am so hungry." She was perfectly well and lived several years longer.

* * * * *

For a year or more I was having pain in my liver. I was prayed for a number of times but did not even get relief and my body kept swelling up until I could hardly wear my clothes. The Ministry advised me to go to a specialist and find out what the trouble was and said then if I were healed God would get more glory out of it, so I went to the specialist.

The doctor said that it was not cancer, but worse still, it was enlargement of the spleen. He then said, "Dear man, there is no remedy for your trouble; I can only make a harness that you can wear suspended from your shoulders to help support your stomach, which will be some relief."

When I got home I told wife what the doctor had said and that I had made my last trip in the ministry. She looked at me and said, "No, you are not going to die." "Well," I replied, "I have been in this world fifty-six years and that is a long time, so if the Lord sees fit to take me I will be satisfied." She went out of the room and when she returned I saw she was crying and lifting her right hand' she said, "You are not going to die." "How do you know," I asked? "The saints will not give you up," she answered.

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:

"We belong to the Christian Church; formerly there were two hundred members of us or more, but two years ago a 'Tongues speaker,' an ex-Baptist minister, came to this city and as he seemed to be earnest and sincere we were sorry he was not getting a single opportunity to speak, so decided to give him the privilege to speak once in our chapel, and that was once too often! At the meeting, I [Bro. Johnson] was sitting on the platform with him, and Brother Jornsen, who weighed two hundred and sixty pounds, was standing in the aisle holding on to the back of a chair on which a man was sitting, as the chapel was packed. After the preacher had spoken ten or fifteen mintues seven women were lying on the floor in a trance.

"We took a stand against the spirit that was working and, talk about power! The chapel wall on one side cracked (the evidence of which was still to be seen)." Brother Jornsen said, "I took a stand against it with all my soul but nevertheless my feet went from under me and I was thrown to the floor and my jaws were just jabbering." "This continued eight days and nights until we finally got the victory over it and the preacher took over two hundred of the congregation with him, leaving us but nine persons, we two ministers make the total number eleven. And if you go with us to the service tonight there will be thirteen of us and we will have services, Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and" they added, "you must preach only until nine o'clock, the services start at eight fifteen. Don't let any women testify nor any pentecostals!

"Now," I said, "I will give you our proposition, we will go with you tonight and tomorrow you can advertize in the two city daily papers that two American evangelists are here to hold services every night including Saturday and three services on Sunday, all next week until Friday and then we will see how things go." "That will not do," they said, "No one will come out Saturday night nor Monday or Tuesday nights." "Well," I said, "you can let us have the key and if no one comes Brother Johnson and I can go inside and have prayer. Upon this condition we can stay, and if not, we will take our grips and go."

To which they replied, "You can't go, for the Lord has shown us that you are to hold a meeting for us." The next night there were about two hundred in the congregation and some ten minutes before nine o'clock eight persons started to get ready to leave; I was still speaking, so paused and said, "Just a minute, please: We have just come from Denmark where we preached as long as the Lord would lead, until nine or ten o'clock. Now if you have to go home you are welcome to go, but if it's simply your custom to leave a meeting at a certain time whether or not the service is over, we are going to pray the Lord to break up such a custom." Six of the persons sat down again and two left. Saturday night the chapel was full and Sunday night quite a number were saved. The meeting continued almost four weeks and souls were getting saved right along.

One day we had a baptizing service between two boat houses in the North sea and after I had baptized all the candidates, a fisherman, who owned one of the boat houses, came out and asked me whether I would not baptize him. On my inquiry as to his being saved, he told me this: "I was saved three years ago but have never before met folks with whom I believed the Lord was working, but today as I witnessed this service I was convinced that the Holy Ghost was with you folks." I baptized him and never saw him again. After that we were not allowed to baptize from the shore but had to take the folks out in a boat and baptize them from a rock in the North sea.

Following that incident we were invited to a sea Captain's home, to be there at 9:30, the next morning. The house was the most finely finished house I had even been in. When we arrived in the morning we found it was full of people of the upper class, the men with their silk hats and the women equally distinctive in their dress. Some of the company were saved and some fifteen more were saved that morning.

The lady of the house and her six sisters had a brother who was an old sea captain and was sick. We were told he was an infidel and would have nothing to do with preachers, that if any happened to come into his house he ordered them out. His seven sisters were praying earnestly for him and they felt that we could be a help to him. Their plan was to set a day when they would all go and visit him and if the weather was fine we were to come by and they would be on the porch talking to him. We were to pass along on the other side of the street and when they saw us they were to call "Good morning" and invite us over and introduce us to their brother, he was not to know that we were preachers. The plan was successful and after talking awhile Captain Parsons invited us into the house.

On coming into the room we noticed that the walls were hung with pictures of ships, thirty-eight steamers. He said he had been seaman on each one of them and captain on several. So he took us for a trip around the world.

Finally he came to the last one, a very large ship, but it looked, like a rusty, broken-to-pieces tin can, its masts, smokestacks and bridges had evidently been blown or swept off. We were awed by the sight and said, "This looks bad." "Yes," he said, "that was the trying hour of my life, it was in a typhoon off the coast of Sidney, Australia. This is how it looked when we were towed in." Then I looked at my watch and found we had been talking for two hours and feeling that it was time for us to leave I said to him, "We are two ministers and generally when we make a call, before leaving we sing, read some Scripture and have prayer. Would you grant us that privilege here?" He said, "I see no reason why you should not do so."

We, accordingly, sang, read a Scripture lesson and had prayer, after which we said to our host, "We have certainly had a pleasant visit and enjoyed the trip around the world with you immensely, and now there is one sailing trip left for you to take. For all these other trips no doubt you made suitable preparation. What about this one; are you ready to meet your Maker in peace?" "No," he said, "The Lord doesn't have such bad men as me." But we told him that was just the kind He came to save. He said, "Boys, boys, you don't know what bad men seamen are." We tried to talk to him, but to no avail. So we thanked him and said Goodbye. As we left he said, "Boys, boys, come back soon."

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.

* * * * *

MY WIFE HEALED OF CANCER

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."

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ANSWERS TO PRAYER

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).