The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. NationNation, Carry Amelia
History
The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation
Nation, Carry Amelia
Nation, Carry Amelia, 1846-1911; Social reformers -- United States -- Biography; Temperance -- United States
THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY GHOST.--REJECTED AS A BIBLE TEACHER IN
METHODIST AND EPISCOPALIAN CHURCHES.--TAUGHT IN HOTEL DINING-ROOM.--
VISION, WARNING AND BLESSING.--ENTERTAINING ANGELS.--THE JEWS.--
PRAYER FOR RAIN AND ANSWER.--GOD'S JUDGEMENTS ON THE WICKED.--
MOVED TO KANSAS.--DEATH OF MOTHER GLOYD.--SERMON OF A CATHOLIC
PRIEST.
In this chapter I will tell of God's leading. I say of my life, "This
is the Lord's doings and marvelous in our eyes." A Methodist conference
was held in Richmond, Texas, about the year 1884. I attended. The
minister read the sixty-second chapter of Isaiah. From the time he began
reading I was marvelously affected. Paul said it was not "lawful" or possible
to utter some things. There was a halo around the minister. I was
wrapt in ecstacy. My first impression was that an angel was talking and
that the house was ascending to heaven. I felt my natural heart expanding
to an enormous size. I looked to see what impression was made on
the people in the audience. I saw one man nodding. I was surprised, for
no one seemed at all astonished or delighted.
At the close of the meeting I tried to find out the meaning. No one
felt as I did. I went to a saintly woman, Mrs. Ruth Todd, and asked her
about the sermon. She had felt nothing remarkable. I had never been
taught that anyone but the Apostles in Jesus' time got the gift of the Holy
Ghost, or I would have understood this wonderful state. I then and there
openly consecrated myself to God, telling my friends that "from henceforth
all my time, means and efforts should be given to God." (Mr. Nation
in his petition for divorce said that up to this year I had been a good wife.)
I was often considered crazy, on the subject of religion. When I spoke
to people I would ask them, "if they loved God;" I could not refrain from
this; the servant in the kitchen, the guest, the merchant, the market man;
I felt impelled by divine love for the souls of men.
God had given me an intense love for souls, and one was as precious
as another to me. I now see what the enlarging of my heart meant. Once
an old colored man brought in the kitchen some eggs to sell. I said:
"Uncle, do you love God?" He turned to my cook Fannie and said:
"Hear dat". Fannie said: "Oh! Mrs. Nation knows the Lord." Uncle
said: "Thank God one white woman got ligen," clapped his hands and
praised God. It used to be and is now the sweetest music to have anyone
praise God. I am at church often, when I long to hear a loud shout of
praise go up to the giver of every good and perfect gift. It is torture to
attend the cold, dead service of most of the churches.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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