Testimonies Blog

The Lame Walk, the Blind See, the Deaf Hear Supernatural Power of God Witnessed Daily – July 2-28, 1913

CHICAGO has just had the mightiest visitation of the supernatural she has ever known.
God came down and walked in our midst fulfilling the word to Israel. “I will bring it health and cure . . .  and reveal unto it abundance of peace and truth. “Healing streams flowed like rivers and many are rejoicing in miraculous deliverance of body and in the glory of God filling their souls. The month of July has passed into history with its record of hundreds saved and healed, while the faith of thousands has been quickened many-fold.

As arranged, Mrs. M. B. Woodworth Etter spent the month of July (2nd to 28th) at the
Stone Church. Pentecostal scenes as in Apostolic days were daily enacted; the blind received their sight, the deaf heard, paralytics walked, rheumatics were delivered, broken-down nerves restored and demons driven out, in all of which the name of the Lord was magnified. From the beginning of these special meetings faith was strong and the hearts of the people were open for blessing. The unbroken unity and blessed fellowship that had characterized the revival since March 20th, with continuous showers of blessing, had prepared for the harvest so there was nothing to do but to take the sickle and reap.

All Chicago learned of the mighty workings of God in our midst. The daily papers reported some of the meetings, and though they tried to caricature the proceedings and bring to ridicule the sacred things of God, yet even in this garbled form some truth was presented. “He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him,” and since it was admitted that there were healings, the Lord doubtless used these reports to awaken hope in some despairing hearts. Even those who came out of mere curiosity were moved at witnessing the power of God manifested in deliverance to the afflicted. Well might the on-looker ask, “What means this eager anxious throng?” and as of old it could be said, “Jesus of Nazareth passeth by.” Jesus passed by many times; His healing virtue often flowed, and here and there in the audience and at the altar, souls would touch His garment’s hem
and be made whole.

Not only Chicago Pentecostal saints but God’s children in a radius of hundreds of miles have received a mighty impetus to faith in this series of meetings; indeed we believe it is no exaggeration to say that the faith of God’s people here has made the most rapid strides of any in modern times. It has gone forward by leaps and bounds. Ministers, who came disheartened and discouraged because of failure, found themselves
taking a fresh hold and praying for the sick with marked results.  At the beginning of these special divine-healing meetings Mrs. Etter and several of the brethren strong in faith, united as they prayed with each individual with laying on of hands, but as the number to be prayed for increased it became necessary to divide the force so that a number of the sick could be ministered to at the same time. Finally there came to be five
chairs occupied at once by those who were being prayed for with laying on of hands and it was not Mrs. Etter’s ministry alone that was blessed. God honored the faith of all and people who had their eyes on Him received healing regardless of who prayed for them.

One sick woman who came in mistook one of the sisters for Mrs. Etter and asked her prayers. The sick woman was immediately healed. We hope this will be an encouragement to some sufferers to whom Mrs. Etter cannot minister. Healing flowed all through the church at different hours; not only in meeting but during the day, here and there you would see groups of people praying for the sick and shouts of glory
from the suffering ones told that the lightning from heaven had touched their bodies. When the ministering brethren saw the marvelous way in which healing opened the door to people’s hearts and led them to seek salvation, they felt they had neglected one of the mightiest weapons Jesus had given to His disciples. As one remarked, ministers
have spent their time in explaining what certain passages in the Bible mean instead of
demonstrating to the world that all power has been given to the church.

A man who had received a wonderful experience of salvation said, “I never saw or felt such power in a meeting in all my life. Although I was a sinner I felt the power of God.” It wasn’t so much the preaching that led him to repentance as the manifestation of the power of God. Brother Argue, who has been traveling over the country visiting assemblies and camp meetings and who had been in the first outpouring of the Spirit six years ago, said this was without doubt the mightiest visitation from God of these latter days.

The revival which has lasted for six months and was at its flood through July, was not due to any distinctions in theology or to the setting forth of any particular doctrine or creed, but because we have been getting back to the simplicity of the Gospel, with much prayer. Results have proved that minute setting forth of doctrine and theological distinctions are not only non-essential but their absence is strongly conducive to the
spirituality of the church of God and the success of its work. The absence of all controversy and the beautiful spirit of harmony that characterized these meetings were remarked by all, and at the close Sister Etter said, “Such perfect unity and harmony in meetings I have never known.” Hungry souls that came from a distance were overjoyed because of the spiritual blessing they received; many received the baptism of the Holy Ghost and were more rejoiced over this than in their healing. The power of the Lord was so strongly present that those who had sought the baptism in vain for years were swept into the experience. We heard of one who had been to Los Angeles and traveled all over the country visiting conventions and camp meetings for years, who received the long coveted blessing in these meetings.

After the first two weeks the auditorium would not hold the people who came, and we held an overflow meeting nightly its the vestry, which seats five hundred people, with Brother Kent White in charge. Those who assisted in the overflow meetings said there was equal blessing downstairs: there were some marked cases of salvation and healing and a large number received the Spirit’s baptism. There were from thirteen hundred to fifteen hundred people in actual estimate in the building nightly and large numbers turned away. On Sunday we held three double meetings. When the Sunday afternoon meetings dismissed at five o’clock people were already coming to the evening meetings, and by 5:30 on the evening of July 27th every seat in the main auditorium was filled. “You are a little late,” said an usher to a new comer at 4:30, “the meeting is just about to close.” “Oh, I am here for the evening meeting,” was the reply.

HEALING OF GOITER
One of the first healings was that of a Mrs. Pickerell, Kenosha, Wisconsin who, while she had believed in healing for the body for many years had found her faith waning, and seeing no real miracles being wrought today had become discouraged. Last winter she read Mrs. Etter’s book, “The Acts of the Holy Ghost,” and new faith sprung up within her, so she was ready for healing when she came. We give her testimony in her own words:  “When I came here I had a goiter. It was very large on the inside and it was choking me so I could scarcely swallow food. It also affected my heart so that at times I could not hold anything in my hands and I would have to he helped to a chair. The goiter is all gone on the inside and almost gone on the outside. I had suffered with this goiter for twenty-nine years. While I was lying prostrated under the power of God, He
also put a new lining in my bowels I was made new, set free from everything. Seventeen years ago this trouble began. I had an operation, and the doctors cut out two inches of the inner lining of the intestines and also two inches of the muscles. I had not been able to stand on my feet without a support, and suffered constantly. My intestines had the web cut out which fastened them together, and when I would lie down I would have to use a pillow to lay them on, all the time suffering from a constant burning. Last night when I took off the support I had been wearing I could walk around the room without any suffering. There was also a loose bone in my side that slipped out of place through the operations I had, and God put that back. Three months ago I saw Sister Etter in a
vision, and heard a voice saying, ‘When she lays hands on you, you will he healed.’ Whenever I got discouraged and felt my faith wane, I would get out her book and read it, and my faith would rise.”

SPINAL TROUBLE HEALED
Another remarkable healing during the first week was that of a Mrs. Dolan from Zion City, Illinois. She was in bed and was given up to die. She had hurt her spine a year ago, and was unable to walk or even stand on her feet. She said:  “They took me out of bed to bring me to these meetings. I cried all the time they were getting me ready.  They brought me in a wheel chair in the baggage car along side of a corpse, but I didn’t mind that because I was coming to he healed. I knew when Sister Etter prayed for me I would be healed. I obeyed in everything she told me, and when she laid hands on me and commanded me to rise and walk, I did it in Jesus’ Name. I had spinal trouble and also
suffered from my stomach: both were healed.”  She was in such suffering that she could
not he lifted out of her chair. The helpers had to carry her chair on to the platform, but after God touched her body in a miraculous way, she walked up and down the aisles, praising the Lord, the people joining with her in glorifying God. She later testified to the restoration of her voice and said that she had not been able to sing since April I3th, but now was able to sing as well as she ever had done. She stayed during the entire series of
meetings, was in attendance regularly and sat through the strain of long meetings without suffering.  She often testified to the miracle wrought in her body, and demonstrated the fact that she was no longer helpless, by running tip and down the aisles, glorifying God.

A PARALYTIC HEALED
One of the most wonderful healings was that of a paralytic. A man was carried in all bent together.  He could not stand upright because his head inclined upon his breast and his knees were bent. He had been paralyzed for eight years. No case seemed more obstinate to the onlooker, and while there are no cases too hard for God, yet humanly speaking, one’s heart failed at the sight of his condition. His bones seemed to be ossified,
and at first there was no response, no faith looked out from his eyes; but as those around him sounded the praises of God and got him to open his mouth —his jaw had been locked like his joints—even though the shout was an inarticulate groan there was engendered in his heart a tiny spark of faith. Sister Etter commanded the paralytic spirit to depart, and as she prayed the resurrection life of Jesus began to come into his
body and he began to move his limbs, When he became able to stand on his feet the people shouted; then he began to walk to and fro on the platform, first with the aid of the brethren, then alone, and when the meeting closed he started down the aisle and down the steps almost on a run, and when he got out to the street he ran for half a block, praising the Lord. The shouts of the people could not be restrained. They crowded the
sidewalk and waved their hats shouting “Hurrah for Jesus!”

On Monday morning, July I4th, four people received the touch of God in their bodies while the song service was going on. All four of them walked either on canes or crutches. One woman had gotten hurt in getting off a street car three years ago; the ligaments in her limb had been broken, and when Mrs. Etter said to her, “Arise and walk,” she shook her head, she couldn’t Then Mrs. Etter said, “In the Name of Jesus you can do it,” and she started off, walking without any assistance. A man, sixty years old, crippled with rheumatism since he was ten years old, walked without his cane. Another woman, who had been lame for a year and couldn’t walk without her crutches, was
able to walk up and down the aisle unassisted; the doctors had not been able to tell what was the matter with her, but she could not step on the ground with her foot. Another was a girl with hip disease.  She walked without crutches and without a limp. All four of these walked up and down the aisles to the strains of “There’s wonderful power
in the blood.” The singing was interspersed with shouts of praises and much rejoicing from the audience. It was a most inspiring sight. We felt like the woman who testified a few nights Before when she said, “I came for the purpose of having an uplift in my faith, but when I saw that paralyzed man healed I said, `Lord, I do not need to pray for faith now. I have it.’ ”

A remarkable healing was connected with a vision as told by a woman who was healed on July 7th. She said:  “I want to praise God this morning for my healing. I know it was God that healed me. I had never been in a church like this. I was a Christian Scientist for five years and thought I had all there was to be had, but about a year and a half ago, in vision I saw myself in another church than the one I attended. I didn’t know anything about this faith, but I saw Mrs. Etter lay her hands on my stomach in which I had been suffering great distress. I didn’t understand it at the time; I came in here one Sunday evening and heard the pastor say that every promise in the Bible we could have. I wasn’t satisfied and determined I would have every promise in the Bible for my own; so I came again and was saved and received the baptism. Wednesday morning, when I saw Mrs. Etter walk on the platform I recognized her as the one I had seen in the vision a year and a half ago. I saw the rain falling, the latter rain, and I know the vision was of God.
Today I am perfectly healed.”

Friday, July 25th, was a red-letter day for healing. The power was present in greater measure than on any other day and the five chairs on the platform were continually filled with sick, suffering and sinful souls seeking healing and salvation. From one end of the platform to the other the healing power flowed and shouts of glory filled the house. The crowd was so large it was almost impossible to control it, so eager were
the people to see and hear.

That evening at 6:30, an hour before the meeting began, the auditorium upstairs was filled, even to the gallery and platform, and at 7:30 the vestry below was crowded. Two services were held that evening, as on many other occasions. The ushers said as many had been turned away from the building, as there were people inside. The hearts of the ushers almost failed them as they were compelled to refuse admittance to many who
were sick and had traveled long distances, but for whom there was no room. They were not simply curiosity seekers but hungry in heart and afflicted in body. Many had spent all their living on doctors and were “nothing bettered but rather grew worse.” The reports of the healings had flown on the wings of the wind, and hope sprang up in hearts that had long since given up in despair. A street meeting was held from the overflow of the two meetings, but the crowd was too disappointed to be satisfied. Oh the sick and suffering multitudes! How often in these days have we thought of the Bible scenes when they pressed and thronged Jesus if they might perchance touch Him and He healed.

As we looked on the faces marred by suffering and the crooked, twisted bodies and limbs and realized that many were in a far worse condition of soul, we thought of how the great tender heart of Him who had compassion on the multitudes must he yearning today over the millions of earth, the disease-smitten, and the sin-marred, the great, burdened masses filled with sorrow and despair!

TWO NOTABLE HEALINGS
The rapidity with which faith grew and the great advance taken along this line can he shown by the following incident.  We had announced from the beginning there would be no meetings on Saturday; on account of the three heavy services on Sunday we felt the ministers needed the rest, but on Saturday night, July 26th, there was a little impromptu meeting, simply because the people came. On this particular evening, a woman came, not knowing there would be no public meeting. She walked with a cane, and as she got off the car at 37th and Indiana Avenue, a German woman seeing she was crippled, said to her, “Where are you going?” She said, “I am going to the Stone Church to be healed.” The German said, “There will not be any meeting tonight, but if you
come in we will pray for you.” Scarcely had she entered the door when the Lord met her, and as a few earnest ones gathered around and prayed she was healed. She had been afflicted for five years with rheumatism and a growth on her hip, and was not able to bend her knees. She received complete deliverance, knelt down and thanked the Lord, and ran back and forth without cane or any support. She had been to the Christian Scientists for a year but they hadn’t been able to help her. After her healing she said she was going home and throw away all her Christian Science literature.

This same evening a woman came on a crutch she had been using for three years. When she saw what God had done for another, her faith reached out for healing and she received perfect deliverance from sciatic nerve trouble. She ran up and down the aisles praising God, perfectly delivered; she then went with a crowd to a street meeting leaving her crutch behind her. Eyewitnesses said it was one of the most perfect healings they had ever seen. That which brought most joy to the little crowd of humble folk present, was the fact that these two notable healings took place, not in the big meeting in which Mrs. Etter and a dozen ministers officiated, but with jest a few of God’s earnest children. It only goes to prove how easy it is to receive spiritual and physical blessing when the tide is at the flood. There were a number of healings in the audience and around the altar, without the laying on of hands. A woman suffering from neuralgia said she felt the neuralgia, which she had had for several years, going out while sitting in the seat,
meditating on the Lord. Often the workers at the altar, seeing the sick had faith to be healed, prayed for them without taking them to the platform, and they were healed.

A woman suffering from rheumatism and open veins said she had not been able to bend her knees for seventeen years. God healed her and she knelt before the audience amid much rejoicing.  Another who had been an invalid for fourteen years testified that the Lord had perfectly healed her body. She said, “I was so sick that life was a burden and many times I wished I would die during the night so I would not wake up in my
misery. Now I am glad God saved my life. I had heart trouble, liver trouble, and a floating kidney. My nerves were so exhausted I went into hysterics. I was dead to the world many a time, but I praise God I can stand before this people today and say that He healed me.” Her husband, who had been an infidel, was saved through witnessing the mighty works of God. He said, “I used to curse Jesus for years, but I don’t do it
any more.” Speaking of his wife’s healing, he said, “My wife said, ‘My kidney is loose. I am going down there to have it put in place.’ It was on the side like a big lump. The sister, asked Jesus Christ to put that kidney back into place, and she said she could feel it move back just as though somebody pushed it.” This man first heard of the work through a little tract handed him by a brother workman. When he read it he said to his
wife. “You go down there and get healed.” She did, and they both got saved.

HEALING OF DEAFNESS, DEAF AND DUMB, ETC
A father came from Oklahoma bringing with him two afflicted children; one never had the use of his limbs and never could talk, and the other, a girl twenty-two years of age, was born deaf and dumb,The deaf spirit was cast out, the power of Cod came down upon her, and she shouted and wept alternately. She was so overjoyed at being able to
hear that she walked up and down the platform for half an hour, weeping and praising God. When her father saw that she could hear, he wept for joy. When she was filled with the power of Cod she told in her simple way, partly with signs with which she had been accustomed to speak, how Jesus died for us, went down into the grave, arose, went to
heaven, and opened her deaf ears. As we met her after that, at subsequent meetings and in the corridors, her face beamed. God not only opened her ears, but also brought a wondrous salvation to her soul. She laughed and cried when she heard the music and the singing for the first time. A few days later she called her father’s attention to the fact that with both ears she heard the piano that was being played in the flat above. She could repeat words after you quite plainly, but her ears will have to become accustomed to sound, and she will have to he taught to speak just as a baby learns to talk. The little boy also received some blessing, and for the first time his life was able to raise his arms. A boy, nine years of age who had been born deaf, received perfect healing one Sunday
morning. A lady meeting him the next night stood behind him and said in a low voice, “God is love;” at once he repeated the words after her. When he received his hearing he danced up and down for joy, and the tears streamed down his face. A man brought his wife four hundred miles to the meetings; she had been partially deaf for thirteen years. He said they could now sit in a room and hold an ordinary conversation, and she had no difficulty in hearing him, something she had not been able to do for years. Brother Bosworth has been used quite a little in the opening deaf ears. One day someone called his attention to a deaf and dumb boy waiting for prayer. He immediately went over to him, commanded the deaf spirit to depart, and immediately he could hear well. About fifteen minutes later his mother came along, and not knowing what had happened handed the boy a piece of paper on which was written, “I am deaf,” to give to Mrs. Etter. Mr. Bosworth told her, her boy wasn’t deaf, and when the boy himself told her he could hear, she shouted for joy. He repeated words uttered behind him.  A woman received her hearing while listening to the sermon. She felt she did want to hear the sermon, and while sitting in the audience, with her heart uplifted to God, suddenly her ears were opened and she heard the entire service. She came out of the meeting with a
shining face, saying, “I heard the sermon perfectly.” A boy when three years of age went totally deaf from strong medicine. He was overlooked when they were praying for the afflicted, and when Mr. Bosworth met him, he commanded him to hear in Jesus’ name, and he immediately heard in both ears, though not perfectly for the first time he heard the music. An old lady over eighty years of age was greatly disappointed at not being prayed with for her deafness. Brother Bosworth said he had faith for her hearing, but she shook her head. She wanted Mrs. Etter to pray for her. He took her in a little side room, rebuked the deafness, and she could hear an ordinary conversation in both ears. She jumped up and down for joy. He met her afterwards telling her friends all about it. He met an old man, eighty-one years of age, with an ear-trumpet who could hear a little in his right ear, hut the other had been stone deaf for nineteen years. Mr. Bosworth commanded his ears to be opened; he was instantly healed so he could hear a low voice with either ear. A mother brought her daughter from Danville Illinois, who was stone deaf in one ear for three years. Some years ago she had typhoid fever and it settled in her ear. When she went to a physician he told her that the trouble was in the mastoid bone, that there were three complications any one of which was dangerous. She had been to the hospital and had a growth taken out of her ear, but got no relief. The doctor said she could not live unless she was operated on and the infection taken away, for if it went to the brain it would be instant death, and even with the operation there was only one chance in a hundred of her recovering. He said her eardrum was destroyed. He closed up her good ear to keep her from hearing, then used an ear trumpet in the deaf ear and shouted so he could be heard a half block away, but she couldn’t hear. She told the physician she was coming to Chicago to he healed, and he told her she could travel the world over and not get her hearing restored. God opened her ear instantly, and she heard in the ear where the drum had been destroyed. The mother was healed of heart trouble. She said the doctor called it angina pectoralis; that if anyone had an attack of that they had better be ready to go at any moment. The morning she was healed she had such an attack, they thought she was dead; a lump came into her throat so that she could hardly get her breath, and nearly choked. The mother also said that three years ago she was healed of blindness when three doctors had given her up. She could not see to read at all, and went to a little mission in Danville where they prayed for her, so that she can now read the smallest print without glasses.

HEALING OF BLINDNESS, PARTIAL BLINDNESS

A colored woman who had been blind for six years came up for prayer. Soon we heard her scream out, “Oh, I see! I see! I see all your faces! Oh praise the Lord!” Immediately the audience were on their feet, rising in honor to Him who had touched those sightless eyes. She often came back after that and testified to daily improvement in her eyes. She said, a few days later, “When I went to the chair for prayer I could not see anybody. I
tried to see Mrs. Etter but I couldn’t. My right eye was entirely blind and I hadn’t been able to see much out of my left eye. I can see all over the church this morning. I made up my mind not to go out of this church until I was healed, and I told God so.” Later she said, she could see to read and write her own letters. A woman who was partially blind in one eye testified to healing. For  ten or twelve years her eyesight had been partially destroyed, caused by a baby scratching the eyeball. She had it examined by doctors and they said she would go completely blind in time. She was also healed of spinal trouble from which she had suffered for twenty years.

RUPTURE HEALED

Mrs. Lloyd Reeves of Zion City, Illinois was as healed of a double hernia she had suffered from for eight years. A man said, “The Lord healed me last night of a rupture of twenty–three years’ standing.” A minister, who said he was in a backslidden condition, came for healing of a rupture. He asked Mrs. Etter if he should take off his truss, and she said, “Not until the Lord tells you to.” The next day, while sitting in the church he felt a peculiar sensation in the region of the rupture and realized it was healing. He immediately took off his truss, and afterwards testified to being perfectly healed. On July 24th a Roman Catholic man came and sat down in the chair where the brethren
were praying for the sick.  He said he wanted to he saved. In the evening he came hack and was healed of a rupture.

MISCELLANEOUS HEALINGS

One of our Stone Church people has been conducting a little Bible-class in a Methodist
Church on the outskirts of the city and those to whom she has been ministering have gotten hungry for more of God in their lives, so they have been coming up to the special meetings with the result that five have received the baptism in the Holy Spirit and several have been healed. One woman said to another, “A man up there says there is a bunch of grapes for each one of us. I am going up to get my bunch.” She came and received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. A man from this same church had a running sore on his foot from which he had been suffering two years. The doctors had said his foot would have to be amputated: it had been hurt twice in the iron mills and it was killing him. When he first came for prayer he said, “I feel I ought to get right with God first.” So he went down stairs where they were holding a prayer service and got a wonderful salvation. He said, “If I never get my foot healed, one thing I know, I have salvation.” He came the next day and his foot was healed. The swelling went down at once, and a few days later he said it was almost entirely well. He had his vacation and came early in the morning and stayed until ten o’clock at night, and has been seeking the baptism in the Holy Spirit. They had a little revival in their neighborhood in
the spring, and told him he was saved, but he said he knew he wasn’t. Now he knows he is a saved man.
One of the ladies from the neighborhood was healed of poisoning from ivy, and another of stomach and kidney trouble through the prayer of the Bible-class teacher. A woman testified several times to a healing of cancer on the breast. She said her breast was so sore it could not be touched without pain, and she was frightened when Mrs. Etter slapped the place where the cancer had been, ‘but found it didn’t hurt her a particle. The lord had taken away all the pain and she believes she is healed. Another woman gave this remarkable testimony a week after she was healed: “I want to praise the Lord for healing me a week ago Friday. I had a tumor in my head, kidney trouble, dropsy, indigestion, and a stroke of paralysis that drew my face to one side. I had everything imaginable and couldn’t walk a block without somebody helping me. I had been in this condition since the twentieth of September. I was healed at once, and now can walk anywhere and as fast as anybody. A number of goiters were healed, some partially, and others entirely. One woman from Indiana said her goiter went down two inches after prayer. She was also healed of Bright’s disease and heart trouble caused by the goiter, but what she most rejoiced in was the deep spiritual touch she received from God. She received the baptism in the Holy Ghost and went home, her soul filled with glory. A woman came on crutches she had used for five or six years. She had been a sufferer for ten years, had tried many doctors, and gone to Hot Springs for healing, but got no help. She came once and could not get in; the second time she came at 4:30 (meetings began at 7:30) and she went home healed. A lady brought a little Jewish girl whose leg was four inches short from hip-disease. Some of the brethren prayed for her and her limb was lengthened so her feet measured even. Brother Bosworth prayed for a Mrs. Drake, of Zion City, and she was healed of deafness of twelve years’ standing. Mr. Keyes of Zion City, Illinois, said “I praise God a week ago last Monday morning I was healed of rheumatism that I had for  eight years and catarrh, which I had for three years. When Sister Etter and one of the brethren prayed for me, the power of God fell, and it was done. It only took about three minutes of their time.”

Mr. H.W.  ‘Judd, also of Zion City, said, “For sixteen years I have been trusting the Lord as my Healer. Two years ago my little girl had the earache and while we prayed for her we didn’t seem to get an answer; so I took a little piece of cotton, dipped it in some hot olive oil and put it in her ear to quiet her and she lost her hearing in that ear. It displeased the Lord. I brought her here today and Sister Etter laid hands on her in
the name of Jesus, and I say to the glory of God that little child has her hearing. I tested it this afternoon on the streetcar. I talked quietly to her and she said she could hear me.”
On Thursday afternoon a woman was brought in a wheel chair, paralyzed in lower limbs
for two and a half years. There was no meeting in the afternoon and she was filled with
disappointment that she could not see Mrs. Etter, but the brethren prayed for her, and she got out of her chair and walked around. She walked upstairs to the evening meeting, sat during the entire service, and walked home. A young woman, who had been suffering from stomach trouble so severe it had affected her nerves and she had to walk the floor, came for healing. She had been treated by specialists, and had gone to New York for medical treatment but failed to receive help. She had been able to eat only clear soups and bread and tea, but after prayer she went home hungry. She ate a sandwich as soon as she reached home, and that night sat down and ate a boiled dinner, which she
said contained all the vegetables in the market, and went to bed and slept soundly all night. She woke up in the morning feeling as fresh as a babe. The resurrection life of Jesus had made her a new creature.

The people did not fail to glorify God. When a notable healing was wrought, the entire
audience participated in the joy that came into the heart of the afflicted one, and when Sister Etter would ask the question, “Haven’t we a wonderful Savior?” Their hearts would be almost too full to reply. The following testimonies are some of the grateful words that fell from the lips of those who had been blessed:

I praise G o d   for what my poor eyes have seen and my poor soul has felt; for the healing of my body and my eyes, and for baptizing me in His Holy Spirit. I came over two hundred miles for this blessing.”

“I had a complication of diseases. I was in a hospital seven weeks and operated upon. The doctors told my father I never would get well, but I came here and Jesus healed tie.”
“I was sick since last November was poisoned and lost forty pounds. I got some help through prayer but wasn’t fully healed. I felt I was to come to Chicago. I had a weak heart, weak eyes, and weak knees. I was a nervous wreck. I praise God today I am healed.”

“I had stomach trouble. I felt the heavens opened this morning and praise Him for His
wonderful healing power. He has healed me many times in my own home.”

“I praise God for healing me at home. I was sick and I did just as Sister Etter told us to do, clapped my hands and praised the Lord, and He healed me.”

“I praise God for healing me of deafness in one ear, kidney and heart trouble I had since I was a child.”

“God healed me last night of stomach troubleI had for thirty years. I had never asked the Lord to heal it before, but I did last night and He has done it.”

“I praise the Lord this morning because I had faith like the woman who said, ‘If I can but touch the hem of His garment l shall be healed.’ I believed Jesus Christ through Sister Etter would heal me. For five years I have been expecting to go blind. This morning, thank God, I have my healing. I was just like a little child. I could read the signs along the street this morning, which I couldn’t do before. I believed as they told me, God would heal me in my seat, and He did.”

“I praise the Lord He sent me to Chicago. I had kidney trouble for over three years, and suffered so I had to cry out with pain. I went to the altar and was prayed for by Brother Clarke and Brother Cunningham, and the Lord took away the pain. I never knew the sense of smell in my life, but glory to Jesus, it is becoming more acute every day.” The crowd was so great, and when the altar call was given there was such a rush, we had to
have some system or it would have been impossible to keep the people within bounds.

They pressed forward with tears in their eyes to get to the platform for prayer, some almost in despair for fear they would not be prayed with. We made rules but the people often broke them in their desperate earnestness. A colored woman gave this characteristic testimony: “ I  have reason to praise God. He saved me – soul and body. I was given up to die because of heart trouble.  I could hardly get my breath. Thank God He led me right here. There was a crowd at the altar praying, but I made my way
right through and walked up on the rostrum without being asked. I did not know it was against the rules, but Jesus had me by the hand. Glory to God, I am a living witness to His power to heal! After my healing I went downstairs where the seekers for the baptism are and said, ‘I don’t want that thing called tongues.’ But God held me over hell and I sought Him and He filled me. I have been an old-time Methodist.”

One sister testified for another. “I brought in a woman that had been sick for fourteen years with spinal trouble. Last Tuesday I brought her here and she was healed. I have called her up twice on the phone and she says she is well. She is sleeping in the daytime, which she never could do. I brought another woman in a wheel chair Friday who had been sick for nine months. She had been in bed and in a chair. I went to see her before I came to meeting tonight and as soon as she saw me she said, “Glory to God, I am healed!”

Another said, ” I  feel led to testify for my aunt at Rogers Park. She was brought her last Friday in an automobile and the Lord instantly healed her. She walked out and went to the restaurant and got her dinner. She is perfectly healed.

Some amusing incidents occurred, but we were made to feel over and over that the Gospel of healing touches hearts as nothing else does; no amount of reasoning or preaching theories, of denouncing people’s sins, convinces the world that God lives and moves on earth today as does the fact that the blind see, the deaf hear and the paralyzed walk. A woman came to one of the ushers and asked, “Will this healing continue all the time?” He answered that he thought it would. Then she said, “I have just been healed of three ruptures that I have had for eight years and am going to be one of your regular customers.”

Some men passed two girls walking on the street and one man remarked to the other “Those girls go to the ‘Glory of God’ church. When the Lord delivers a body that has beer racked with agony for ten and twenty years who would not shout His praises? And if we did not praise God with them the very stones would cry out. Men go to a political rally and cheer and clap their hands, making a noise that is positively deafening, and
baseball enthusiasts shout over their champion until they are hoarse and no one is disturbed over it; rather, the world encourages hilarity on the part of its devotees. Have not the children of the Lord a right to shout and sing when their King comes into their midst? Let none think it strange that we greet the King of Glory with applause when He condescends to walk among us breaking chains and setting captives free, loosing those
whom Satan has bound for many years!

For the most part there was deep reverence on the part of the spectators; even the curious were respectful, but occasionally there was a skeptical one in the crowd. A young man cameinto the meeting one night and during the prayer service, mocked and made light of the scene before him. Going home that night he was struck by an automobile about two blocks from the church and was seriously hurt, his leg was
broken. He sent word to us to pray for him. Mrs. Etter closed her ministry Sunday night, July 27th, but the meetings have continued with much blessing. All day Monday the people came together in little groups for prayer, and streams of healing flowed. On Monday night, as the brethren prayed, the power of God was present to heal. One old colored woman when the shock from heaven’s battery struck her, jumped up and exclaimed, “Oh, praise the Lord! I didn’t expect it! I didn’t expect it!” and ran down the aisle praising the Lord.

When the sick came seeking deliverance, if they obeyed instructions and praised the Lord even though they did not feel like it, they generally received blessing. Mrs. Etter always called on the sick ones prayed for to raise their hands and praise the Lord, and when they did, with heart and soul open to God, He met them. Brother Kinne gave some valuable instruction to people seeking healing, which we believe will be helpful to others who are suffering: “It is not only that you should get your mouth open to praise the Lord; He wants your whole being set free to praise Him. These mouths belong to Him and so do these bodies. He wants to heal them and glorify Himself in you. The first
thing is to get your soul and body full of the glory of God. The more you praise to Lord the more the resurrection life of Jesus conies in. It is not your old strength that comes back; it is the resurrection life of Jesus flowing into your body. The old strength has not time to come back. It is the same resurrection life that came into Lazarus when he rose from the tomb. When in your homes, in place of giving way to temptations of doubt and discouragement walk through your rooms and praise the Lord and every step you take will cause your faith to grow and the glory of God increase within you.”

Sister Etter emphasized the fact that the sick should first of all get a touch from God in
their souls. She inspired them to look up and believe for a real shock from the skies to go
through them, and often said unless the Lord met them in spirit, nothing would be accomplished. She endeavored to get the sick to get hold of God for themselves by an actual faith and contact with Him, that they might indeed touch Him and be made whole. While there are many people who are prayed with who are not healed, we know that it is God’s will to heal because Jesus on the cross “took our infirmities and bare our diseases.’ People must be willing to meet God’s conditions.  We know unbelief stops God. Covenant breakers and those who have drawn back and refused to walk in the light, may find God withholding healing until these evils are corrected. ‘Then there are those who, like Job, find their healing delayed. They are conscious God’s hand is on them and a great transforming work is going on in them, perfecting patience, endurance and victory that glorifies God in the fire. In delay their faith may “wax strong,” their obedience be made full and a triumphant testimony to healing soon be given them. God has many such witnesses.

There were many striking and wonderful miracles of healing, but there were other cases is which the healing was but partially realized, and we are constrained to believe that in both classes there are some who did not retain their healing hut this does not disprove that a supernatural work was wrought in many at the time they were prayed for. Some failed to return for teaching and, as Christ tells in His parable of the sower, such
“withered away because they had no root in themselves.” When a soul comes to God for
salvation and then goes back among his worldly associates, he is in great danger of losing his precious inheritance in Christ. “The cares of the world choke the word and he becometh unfruitful.” It is the same with healing given though time has been a mighty inflow of the resurrection life of Jesus, if the person is resting in his feelings for the validity of his healing, he goes under at the first breath of testing. Those who are not deeply grounded in the Word and are surrounded by worldly and unbelieving associates are in grave danger of backsliding from any experience they may have in God, whether salvation, healing or the baptism. It is especially incumbent on those who have just been healed to surround themselves with spiritual influences and mingle with those who are strong in faith. We could fill the paper with testimonies of healings that have stood the test of years, but our present purpose is to show what God is doing in our midst today, for the encouragement of those who have need of healing and help. We cannot refrain, however, from giving a short testimony from our beloved Brother Graves, whose miraculous healing has stood the test of twenty years:
“When I think of those long twenty years of epilepsy that I passed through, listening to the teaching that the day of miracles was past, it doesn’t seem possible that I stand before you today, for I never expected to be well again. I had over three hundred attacks; I have fallen under horses’ feet and through scaffolding, and yet I lived to be fifty-seven years old yesterday.  With all the quarts and gallons of medicine l took, there came a time when I put them all away; when Jesus said to the spirit of epilepsy, ‘Come out of him and enter no more into him.’ This blessed teaching we are having today is the
teaching that brought me deliverance. ‘Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever!’ I thank God for the clear brother that held that up before me day after day, and day after day until it was made real in my life. My healing has stood these twenty years. What are we going to do with the teaching that the day of miracles is past in the face of such testimonies?” All praise is due our wonder-working God for the greatness of His power, His outstretched arm has given us this glorious visitation! It’s marvelous light has dispelled the darkness in many souls and with the mighty breath of His Holy Spirit He has destroyed disease and driven back the powers of death. “Unto Him that loved
us, and washed us from our sins by His blood; and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

Excerpt from 1913 “Latter Rain Evangel” magazine.  Article by Anna C. Reiff.