The next morning he got up and went home. I was sent to Europe on a special mission the next day by the Missionary Board and the church. After returning in January, one Monday morning I went to the Northern State Bank on business and on opening the door into the bank, who should I meet, but this professor. My hands went up and I said, "Glory to God! Here is the man the Lord kept out of the grave last August." Up went his hands, and he said, "Bless God. God Almighty did something for me."
I regret that I have not kept a record through the years. The only record I have is for the first eleven months I was pastor in Brookings and White, South Dakota. I preached 272 sermons, made 178 pastoral visits, wrote 202 letters, traveled almost fifteen thousand miles during that time, and in my fifty years ministry, have had a stated salary only about six years. In my first ten to fifteen years, I preached (at intervals) as many as six sermons a day, three in Norwegian and three in English. In all I have preached something over 17,000 sermons, and have traveled over one million miles. I have crossed the Atlantic Ocean seventeen times one way, and preached a good many times on fifteen of those voyages.
Returning to America in the late fall of 1939, many people asked me who I thought was to blame for the war. They named a number of the leading rulers of the warring nations, and then they added, "The devil." I said, "None of them are to blame for the war." "Who then?" they asked. "Backslidden, professing Christians," I said. Then they asked if I thought America would get into it, and I answered, "Most assuredly." However the majority of them said no, and they also said that our American boys would never leave American soil to fight. I told them that our boys would not only go to Europe to fight, but to almost all the Islands of the sea. Then they asked how long I thought the war was going to last, and I told them "1949." A goodly number laughed me to scorn. Not long ago, I received a letter from my oldest son who said, "I have been checking up on you dad and everything that you said would happen, has come true up to the present date." The actual fighting is over, but thousands of our men are in foreign lands, and no peace. If the Lord does not get an opportunity to perform a miracle, another war will start before any real peace.
I have not built any chapels large or small, but I have started about fifty or more congregations in this country (America) and in Europe. Also I have raised quite a sum of money to build chapels and to help ministers and missionaries in need. I have raised thousands for church and missionary work in general, seventy per cent has come from the brethren of Norwegian descent, fifteen percent from the Danish descent, ten percent from those of German descent, three percent from the Swedish, and two percent from Americans. The percent here mentioned is for the work in Scandinavian countries only.
* * * * *
While holding a meeting in Bowbells, North Dakota, after a few days three families quit coming and I went out to the farm to see them. When I arrived at the first farm, the other two families were there visiting. After conversing a while, I asked them why they had not been out to the services of late. Finally the man who was the head of the house said, "We did not like it when you said the preacher could not forgive sins." I answered, "If you have wronged the preacher, and ask him his forgiveness he can forgive you, but there are some sins that even the Lord cannot forgive. For instance, if you owe ten dollars to your neighbor over the hill, and you are not willing to pay him, you can keep on praying as long as you live, and the Lord could not forgive you if you are not willing to settle with him. Of course, if you didn't know where he was and couldn't find him, the Lord would forgive you all right." The man answered, "We will come to the services," they said, and some of them got saved. Unbeknown to me, he had owed his neighbor ten dollars for four years and was unwilling to pay, but after he became willing he got saved and paid his debt.
* * * * *
One man got saved in a meeting in South Dakota, and the Lord reminded him of twelve ears of corn which he had taken from his neighbor's field to feed his own oxen. As he went by on his way to town, he said, "Yes, I'll attend to that tonight." So after dark he filled a bushel basket with corn and took it over and emptied it into the man's hog pen, feeling good that he had done his duty. The next morning after worship, the Lord spoke to him and said, "I suppose today you will go over and settle for the twelve ears of corn." "Why I took that over last night," he protested, "But you took that over to the hogs, and they were already fed." So he went over and confessed to the man. We can see by this that it was not the corn the Lord was so interested in as his humble confession.
GOD WORKS IN VARIOUS WAYS FOR THE PROTECTION AND DELIVERANCE OF HIS CHILDREN
A certain brother who was a farmer needed a threshing machine badly, and an agent visited him to see if he could make the deal. They were agreed on prices and terms, but when they talked over the time of delivery, the agent acknowledged he could not get it to him in time for fall threshing, so the deal fell through. Another agent, hearing of it decided he would go and see the farmer. This time the deal went through, with the promise that the machinery would be delivered in time.