One fall I went to the camp-meeting at Carthage, Mo. At this meeting I met
some of my old friends from Maries County, Missouri, and other places, some
of whom I had not met for more than twenty years. One of them was a brother
whom I first met near Rolla, Mo. Seeing him reminded me of an incident that
occurred in connection with his mother-in-law, old Sister Bell, at the time
I was holding meetings in that part of the country. She was a large woman.
One winter she slipped on the ice and came near breaking her back. The
accident occurred in the middle of the week, and until the following Sunday
morning she was paralyzed.
The meeting that Sunday was at the Bell home. We found her lying helpless.
As we talked to her about her healing, she seemed anxious to be healed. She
was a good, pure saint, and lived close to the Lord. In the prayer before
preaching we were especially burdened for her and prayed earnestly that God
would heal her. God encouraged our hearts. After preaching we again talked
to her a little while and quoted some of the promises. I told her how God
had heard and answered prayer for my healing; I had had an attack of some
disease a day or two before, and God had wonderfully delivered me from it.
As we talked, her faith seemed to grow by bounds and leaps. We asked her if
she was willing to die. She said she was; and again, if she was willing to
live if the Lord wanted her to, and again she answered yes. Then we asked
her if she believed the Lord would heal her. She said she did. Her husband
and oldest daughter were standing by, expecting her to die any minute. Her
mother, who was a skeptic, was also present. She wanted me to persuade her
daughter to take medicine. I replied that I would talk to her daughter, but
did not tell her what I would say.
When I found out that the sister's faith was strong in God, I did what I
could to encourage her to trust God for immediate healing. All at once,
while we were talking, she said, "The Lord heals me." Her husband, fearing
that the death-struggle was coming on, went to hold her in bed. I told him
to let her go--that this was of God and that he would take care of her. She
bounded out of bed and went running through the house, saying that God had
healed her and that a sluice of praise was going through her soul. Her
son-in-law was not present, so I hastened over to his house to tell him the
good news. "Do you know what came to me first?" said he. "No," I answered.
"Well, it came to me that she was lying in bed all this time to have a
chance to show off on Sunday, but I know she isn't a hypocrite, and
therefore it isn't that way. But I am glad I wasn't there, for fear I
should have had to believe." When I met this brother at Carthage, Missouri,
he was not, I am sorry to say, as strong in the faith as was his privilege.
He had made great improvement, however. How cruel is unbelief! It makes God
a liar and causes one to believe the devil.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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