The city of Leon is anti-American because it is the headquarters of the Liberal party, which is trying to overthrow the rule of the church of Rome. The United States appointed a president twelve years ago, thus stopping the revolution then in progress. As the president is a church man the Liberal party hasn’t much love for an American.
This was a difficulty which we had before us. Not only were missionaries hated, but we were American missionaries, which was far worse. We looked to the Father for a house in which we might live, and preach the Gospel to these dear people. A man came to us and said we could have a house, so we moved in the following day. It was a poor thing to call a house, being dirty, and infested with scorpions, lizards, and a species of ant which builds a big mud house and eats not only one’s clothes but also the furniture.
We were situated between two saloons and houses of ill-fame, right in the slum district. People danced, drank and caroused all night in these places. It was a pretty good place in which to open fire on the enemy, being right in the midst of his works. When an army advances to fight the enemy it goes to the strongest point.
On one side of our house, which was built of thin lumber, there were cracks in the wall, and we could look through the cracks into the saloon. We remembered the scripture which says we are not to light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candle stick, so all can see; so we would get out our little organ and sing and play, then kneel and pray, and the people would peep through at us. We were told they might throw rocks at us, and burn down the house, and might even kill us, but we were not there to draw back, so we opened fire with the heavy artillery of God’s power in the Holy Ghost.
We had not had, as yet, any public meetings, but had been waiting on the Lord for guidance. One morning there appeared a woman in our doorway, crying out
“Will You Come and Pray for My Baby? It Is Dying!”
We went with her to her home, which was a few doors away. There on the bed lay a little child, seemingly just passing away. A crowd had gathered about the door. When I saw the baby and that crowd there arose a cry to God from the depths of my soul to heal the child, thereby proving His power to the people. The child seemed to pass away, but we called on God to heal it for His glory. The little thing rose up, climbed off the bed, and began playing on the floor.
The mother shouted and gave herself to the Lord then and there. The doctors had given the child medicine to make it die easy, for it had been sick a long time. The mother brought the baby to our house, and sang, and praised the God of Heaven until the people from far and near came to see the child. She afterwards took the child and went all over the city from house to house telling how God had healed it and saved her. Then the people began to come to be prayed for. Often they would come and stay far into the night.
