by J. Narver Gortner,

The Pentecostal Evangel, Oct. 25, 1930

Somebody said, "There are some people over here who believe in God." The prayer of faith was offered; God laid His healing hand upon my precious wife, and she was marvelously healed. For fourteen months she had lived almost exclusively on raw eggs and malted milk. When the Lord healed her she began to eat beefsteaks, mashed potatoes and gravy, and everything she wanted. And she has been doing that ever since, and we have not had a doctor in our home, nor a medicine chest.

Among the dear ones who came to see us while my wife was lying at the point of death was a sister who left a little tract. This sister had received the Baptism in the Holy Ghost. Somebody else left a copy of Word andWork. I subscribed for it,a nd for Triumphs of Faith. I read one evening of the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, and just before going to bed I knelt down and said, "Lord, I would like to have this blessed Baptism."

That night I had a dream. I was looking off toward the west and saw a chain of mountains; Icould just see the outline of them. It WAS dark. Morning seemed to dawn. The sun rose, and the rays of the sun fell upon the chain of mountains. The mountains remained just as dark as they had been before the sun rose, but there were two little foothills that shone like gold. I said, "What can that mean?" And the Lord seemed to say, "Those two little foothills represent two people baptized in the Holy Ghost and fire. The rays of the Sun of Righteousness are falling upon the big mountains just as they are falling upon those little foothills, but the mountains are not receiving and reflecting the rays."

When I awoke I was sitting up in the middle of the bed, looking off toward the west. I fell asleep again, and found myself in a large room. The room was about half-filled with rubbish and I seemed to realize it was my duty to clean the rubbish out; so I was throwing it out through the doors and windows, getting rid of it as quickly as possible. Again I woke, and said, "What can this mean?" And the Lord said to me, "Your heart is half filled with rubbish, which will encumber My work. If you want the Spirit of God tocome in and take full possession, you must get rid of the rubbish."

Several years passed by, and I continued to preach theGospel of the grace of God, and to read literature as came into my hands. I was the President of the Coast Side Camp Meeting Association, and in the fall of 1914 we had a camp meeting at Arroyo Grande. I was very tired at the close, and I said to my wife, "I'm going to pack my grip and go to Cazadero, and attend a few of the meetings of the Full Gospel in progress there. I am going to see what these people are preaching and doing anyhow."

I arrived there on Tuesday of the last week of the camp meeting. I think I should be willing to walk a hundred miles in order to be at another camp meeting like that one. Some time ago I learned that Brother Adolph Peterson, of Chicago received his Baptism at that camp meeting, on the very same day on which I received.

It was a marvelous meeting. It seemed that the billows of divine power swept back and forth over the assembly like the billows of the mighty ocean. A short time after I had arrived on the grounds, one of the official members of a large Methodist church in Oakland, knowing that I was a Methodist preacher, called me aside and said, "Do you approve of that? Do you set your sanction on that?"

Pointing to some things that he did not approve of and that I was not quite sure were in the Spirit.

I said, "I am not going to tell you."

He said, "Why not?"

I said, "I know the Lord, and when I came to this camp ground I recognized the presence and power of God in this place. And if there are some things I am not ready to put my sanction upon, I amnot going to criticise or find fault. God is putting up with things that may not be in accordance with His purpose and plan; and He is saving sinners, and baptizing believers in the Holy Ghost, and so I am going to assume the attitude of the man who said that when he ate fish, he always laid the bones to one side. He did nto try to eat the bones; he ate the meat."

Wednesday and Thursday passed by. Friday morning two sisters got into conversation about the Methodist preacher on the camp ground. There was only canvas between them and me. They did not know I was listening and I could not help but hear. One said to the other, "Have you met the Methodist preacher on the camp ground?"

"Yes,"

"Well, what do you think of him?"

"Well, he is quite nice, but he won't receive the Baptism."

"What makes you think so!"

"Why, he has too many ideas in his head."

But thank God, it is possible for God to get past the ideas in a Methodist preacher's head and get down into his heart and fill him with the Holy Ghost.

"A sister came to me and said, "Are you seeking the Baptism?"

I said rather hesitatingly, "No."

"I was going to invite you over to Sister Montgomery's cottage yonder to attend a waiting meeting tomorrow morning," she said, "but if you are not seeking we do not want you tocome. There is no room for mere onlookers."

I just looked at her and did not say anything.

presently another sister came to me and said, "Sister Montgomery has extended you a special invitation to come to the waiting meeting at her cottage tomorrow morning."

I said, "I will be there." I went the next morning. And all the afternoon, with a number of others, I tarried before the Lord. Three received the Baptism in the Holy Ghost beforethe waiting meeting came to a close.

While I was conscious of the Spirit's presence and blessing, I was not baptized in the Spirit. I attended the services under the big redwoods that afternoon and evening,and it was about twelve o'clock when I went to my tent and committed myself to God, and retired for the night. I slept as weetly as a babe until broad daylight. As I awoke I was reminded of a passage of Scripture that I had not thought of in many a long day, "Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him."

I said, "Lord, the angels of God have met me in this place."

God surprised me then and there. He opened the windows of heaven and the glory of God came down and flooded the tent, and my body was convulsed by the power of the Spirit of God, and I was filled with the Holy Ghost.

I said, "I will tell the people what the Lord has done for me." The Devil said, "You had better go a little slow." I opened the Word of God, and the first passage my eyes lighted on was, "I will declare what He has done for my soul." The devil said, "That is very remarkable, but you just happened to see that passage. Listen to me--if you testify here among these people that you have been baptized in the Holy Ghost, you will have to testify to your Methodist congregation when you get home, and it may be that the Methodists will not receive your testimony. You may be put out of the synagogue."

Again I opened the Word of God, and the first passage my eyes lighted on was that in which we are told: Many of the chief rulers believed on Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God."

I said, "That settles it Lord, I will tell these people that I have been baptized in the Holy Ghost."

And so I did. On the afternoon of that marvelous day, the last Sunday of the wonderful camp meeting, I went to Brother Smith Wigglesworth and said, "I have had spinal trouble for several years and been a great sufferer. The Lord has baptized me in the Holy Ghost. I believe He is able to heal me."

He anointed me with oil, laid hands on my head, and prayed for me; and I walked away. And the devil said, "You are in exactly the same condition physically that you were in before you were prayed for."

About half an hour afterward, however, I became conscious of a mysterious power that seemed to be working in my spine. The Lord seemed to be massaging it. And that continued for hours. A few mornings later, when I got up to a room in a hotel in the city of San Francisco, I tried to find a sore spot somewhere on my back, but I could not find one anywhere. The Lord had made me over physically. I went home walking on air. The first man I met at the station was a superannuated Methodist preacher. I told him what the Lord had done for me. He looked at me in utter amazement and disgust, and said, "I hope it will last." Praise God, it has lasted! When the Spirit of God comes, He comes to abide forever.--Taken from the pentecostal Evangel, Oct. 23, 1930