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.
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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.
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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."