AN EXPERIENCE WITH TWELVE MINISTERS ON THE TRAIN
At one time while on the train in North Dakota, I sat down in the company of twelve ministers, representing that many denominations. While listening to them I decided that this was the time for a little fellow to keep his mouth shut. One young minister appeared to be the leader in the discussion standing with his Greek Testament in his hand. Finally he turned to me and said, "Are you a minister too?" I told him I was. "What denomination do you belong to?" I told him Church of God. "Well," he said, "If you belong to the Church of God, you have a horn in our side." I had met three of them once and they surely horned me. I said, "Yes, I've got a horn and I pity the minister that hasn't got one." (The horn represents power in scripture). "But," I said, "I use that on only one preacher." "Who is that," he said. "The devil." "Well," he said, "If you have one you have not showed it to us because you have kept still." Then turning, he pointed to each of the ministers individually asking each one what visible church of God he belonged to, and each answered, naming their own denomination. Then he said, "I belong to the visible Church of God Congregational." I spoke up then and said, "I belong to the visible Church of God." Then he slapped his hand on the arm of the seat and said, "You've got me, Brother." Then I said, "You see me, don't you?" "Yes," he said. "I see you, shake hands." Then he asked me how far I was going, saying that he would like to have a talk with me.
I told him I was going to Bismark, to which he said, "It is too bad that I change at the next station."
That ended the conversation. They seemed to have no more to say.
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EXPERIENCE WITH TWELVE OTHER PREACHERS
When I was holding a meeting in a certain state, some of the church said there had been a couple of preachers holding services across the street from the Church of God chapel, and some of the saints had attended their meetings and became confused. They wanted me to preach against it. I said, "I cannot do that. The Word of God says, 'Thou shalt not judge a strange servant.' But I will pray the Lord to help me to meet them to get acquainted with their teaching." I did pray earnestly that I might meet them. Later I came to a town where I had to stay all night. I found twelve preachers there who were trying to start a new spiritual mushroom or work, and of the twelve preachers, two of them were the association preachers who had been holding the meetings across from our chapel in the town previously spoken of. I went to their service that evening and sat and prayed earnestly that if God was displeased with this new work they were trying to start, that the minister who was going to speak that night would have the hardest time preaching that he ever had in his life.
A minister arose to preach. His preaching was Biblical, but he had a hard time, while the other ministers kept on praying, "Lord, give the brother the anointing." He worked and perspired until all of a sudden he sat down. The ministers huddled together and talked and prayed and finally sent one of their number out into the audience to talk with the people. He finally wound up at me. He asked me a number of questions, whether I was saved and sanctified, and then left. But the ministers seemed to be dissatisfied, and sent another minister to me to investigate. At last he said, "I suppose the sermon tonight scared you." I said, "No, that was a good sermon and I have been preaching that way for over thirty eight years. That is the way the apostles preached."
"Well," he said, "We didn't know there was anyone preaching like that." Then I said, "But he had a hard time." "Yes," he answered, "He said he had the hardest time he had ever had in his life, and he has preached from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and had never met anything like that he said." "Yes, and he was preaching against me." He replied, "Yes, and it was you that made it hard for him." Then I said, "I prayed earnestly that the Lord would make it hard for him, if the Lord was dissatisfied with his association."
The association must have died because I never heard of it again. It turned out that the two ministers at that place were the two which held the meeting previously spoken of.