"FIGHT the good fight of faith!” “Resist the devil!” To do this, we decided to invade Satan's own territory!
(EVER HEARD of a woman evangelist attempting a revival in a boxing arena? To just such a place did God lead us in San Diego, California, in 1921. In memory we picture it; the elevated boxing ring in the center; fenced in by ropes through which we had to climb several times each night. The audience on all four sides, who came to witness the novel sight of the gospel being preached from the boxing ring, and to see the devil “take the count” in many a sinner's life.
For many months earnest believers had been praying for a revival which they felt was needed in the beautiful city of San Diego, and they were eager to assist in whatever way possible to bring it about.
The night before the revival, Manager Jack Kearns invited us to speak to a packed house of howling fight fans during intermission. Curious eyes watched as we made our way through the smoke-laden air and climbed into the ring. As we stood beneath the great glaring light and tried to peer out into the semi-darkness, we were trembling nervously and repeating to ourselves, “Oh, Lord help us!"" But we were comforted to notice that the manager, who had introduced famous fighters from all over the world, was more nervous than we, and was shaking from head to foot and forgot to remove his hat when introducing us.
ae we spoke, and extended an invitation to the coming revival, the very audacity and courage of the thing which we had
+ 167 done in meeting the devil on his own ground commanded the admiration of the people and they clapped and cheered at every interval. Thete was one disconcerting moment when we told them of their need of a Saviour and requested them to bring to meeting the next night "the worst sinner in San Diego.” Several hands pointed and voices cried out
“That's him over there, Sister!” or “There he is, over yonder!” as they picked out certain citizens whose notorious lives and reputations were well known, With a laugh and a last invi tation to “be there tomorrow night,” we left to the accompaniment of more cheers and clapping. What a relief it was to breathe the pure fresh air once again, as we drove to the sister's home where we were staying.
The next day, the scene at the arena was changed—even the building seemed different—the happy songs and “Hallelujah’s” made it echo as busy hands mopped, dusted and decorated, Palm branches and pepper tree leaves transformed pillar, post and wall, giving the place a cool forest look. The canvas covering of the arena proper was scrubbed until white, and calla lilies, car. nations, ora: blossoms and ferns beautified the entire surundings. The shade lamp advertising restaurants and diamonds was removed, and a new one advertising Jesus replaced it; a grand piano was lifted to the square; and almost before we new it, the clock hands announced that it was time for the meeting to begin.
For the first night's text God gave us the words, “And when Christ was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it.” There and then the altars began to fill with penitents. Soon the arena, accommodating from 2500 to 3000 was filled to capacity twice daily and the hundred-foot altar was filled to overflow ing also, twice each day, For five weeks the revival swept on and out, higher and wider and greater, until the whole city was shaken to its depths by interest in the power of Christ.
h crowds were turned away from the doors that there was a continuous clamor for reserved seats. A system of reserving at least half of the building and admitting by ticket those who were not able to get in before, seemed to be the only solu tion. The employees of the large department stores appealed through the store managers for tickets, and came in groups on different nights; marines, sailors, soldiers and young people were also admitted in this way, Another night was designated as Church Members’ Night—the Methodists in one section, the Baptists in another, and so on,
Sinners were saved by the hundreds; believers received the baptism of the Holy Ghost in numbers. But with the sick it was a different proposition. Pray for them as often as we could and see as many healed as laid upon the promises in real faith believing until we were exhausted, we only seemed to touch the outer fringe of that great multitude clamoring for prayer! Patiently yet with dauntless persistence, cripples, paralytics, people in wheel chairs and others would stay on and on till the whole audience had gone, and waylay us to ask prayer. However, the great bulk of afflicted could only be reached by general prayer. It seemed that as soon as one was healed, he would run and tell nine others and would bring them too. No wonder that in certain instances where Christ healed the sick He commanded them to tell no man of it!
How did Jesus manage to pray for so many when He was on earth? How did the apostles manage with their crowds? Then, the thought rent its way like an illuminating flash through our tired minds—Jesus didn’t attempt to pray for the 5,000 in a building like this: He went out in the fields and deserts, and they brought the sick and laid them down at His feet and He healed them. Then, too, there was Peter (Acts 5:15) who walked by the sick laid in the streets and his shadow touched them and they were healed. No doubt it was because there was no building large enough that the sick were brought into the streets and fields,
Thus it was that we decided to ask permission to use San Diego's Balboa Park for a mammoth outdoor Divine Healing service. The Park Commissioner called a hasty Board meeting; and not only was the beautiful park placed at our disposal for two days, but the magnificent Organ Pavilion as well, with seats for many thousands, standing room for a thousand more, and a platform before a mighty outdoor pipe organ. Besides this, all the U. S. Marines and soldiers that should be needed to assist the Chief of Police and his men with the automobiles, ambulances, pedestrians and the sick, were offered!
In preparation for the services, the city was called to fasting and prayer. Previous to the 10:30 starting time, we arrived at the Organ Pavilion. Special streetcars were unloading hundreds of persons, while every street, court and square was filled with automobiles and those on foot. As we proceeded slowly toward the platform in our car, the road ahead was constantly blocked by pedestrians pushing wheel chairs and carrying stretchers, Photographers and newspaper reporters hovered around the outskirts of the great sea of humanity (estimated by Police and Park Commissioners to range throughout the day between ten and thirty thousand).
We were told that upward of 700 autos had parked nearby the night before and the people had slept in them, in order to be on hand next morning for the meeting.
The fine group of ministers who were assisting in the revival were present on the great platform, as well as the choir and orchestra composed of musicians and singers from various churches.
Following prayer and an inspired song service, it was requested that James R. Flood, of the U. $. Navy, who had been so miraculously healed two weeks previous, give his testimony. In a strong, cleat voice he related how, while serving with the armed forces in 1918, in France, he had suffered from an attack of chlorine gas; of how his mouth, throat and lungs had been so badly burned as to make him hemorrhage at the slightest provocation; of how X-rays revealed his right lung to be shriveling up; and of how, after fifteen months of lying in hospitals under treatment, he was finally discharged as being beyond any further medical aid.
He said that thirteen months later he was transferred by the Navy from the Great Lakes Training School, where he was lecturing on aviation and navigation instruments, to the West Coast and to San Diego. Having heard of the wonderful things the Lord was doing in the Dreamland Boxing Arena revival meetings, he attended the Saturday night service, two weeks before, He was of Christian parentage and had accepted Christ as his Saviour; and he believed that it was God's will to heal him. As he sat, coughing blood into his handkerchief, an usher invited him to come forward for prayer. He concluded his stirring testimony by telling how, after prayer, he felt the withered tissue in his chest begin to tingle and the cool air to rush into his side. His right chest began to rise and fall with regular breathing, as it had not done for years. He knew that complete healing was his.
Faith mounted as the audience heard of this wonderful miracle; and the people were in a receptive mood for the short sermon on “The Double Cure"—salvation for the soul and
_ healing for the body.
Space would not permit the recounting of all those who were healed during the two all-day services in Balboa Park; but perhaps a few of the most outstanding can be mentioned briefly.
A young lady came, who, three months before, had been struck and dragged by an automobile, and who had lain in a hospital in San Diego with her limb fractured in four places. The bone refused to knit. Infection set in and, in spite of four previous operations, the limb was doomed to be amputated. ‘The amputation was scheduled for Friday; she came to the healing services on Tuesday, against doctor's orders, believing that Jesus would restore her limb so that an operation would be unnecessary. As she removed the blanket, we saw the gaping, angry hole which ran through the discolored limb. Yet, even as we prayed, the blackness began to disappear. “Oh! the pain is all gone!” she cried, and began to press and tap the leg with her fingers. She returned to the meeting the next day, saying that, upon examination, the doctors told her the abscesses were draining nicely, the bones were knitting together, and there would be no need for an amputation!
A dear old lady, suffering from cancer, dropsy and rheumatism was healed instantly. As we prayed, she declared she could feel the power of God stream through her entire body. Two weeks later she testified before a thousand people that not only had the cancer melted away, but the dropsy and rheumatism, too, had disappeared!
An aged soldier who had fought in the Civil War was prayed for and his ear-drums, which had been punctured by the bursting of a shell, were healed. He leaped and danced and shouted like a small boy! For two weeks afterwards he attended the meetings, testifying again and again to the fact that he could hear every song and sermon from beginning to end.
Two sisters who had never heard or spoken a word in their lives came. We prayed: “Oh, thou deaf and dumb spirit in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you to come out of her!” Instantly a light broke over the face of the girl for whom we were praying, and she pointed to her ears. We bade her speak the name of Jesus and to say “Praise the Lord”, Her deaf mute sister stood by, wide-eyed with joy and wonder; and then, trembling from head to foot with expectation, she allowed us to anoint her with oil and pray the prayer of faith. Instant! she received the same experience as her sister. Delightedly they began to praise the Lord, in broken phrases, all the while pointing to their ears and mouths like little children!
All day long the procession never stopped, except for the teen minutes we took for lunch—a few sandwiches hurriedly eaten in a room beside the great organ. From 10:30 in the morning until the sun sank in the west we prayed for the endless stream of sick and afflicted ones; and then in the evening spoke to the young people of the city, under the auspices of the United Christian Endeavorers
The following day the procession began again, and by its close we had completely poured out our strength like water upon the ground. We felt, while walking to the car, as if we were on the deck of a heaving vessel; but happy in the knowledge that our best efforts had been put forth and it as a result thousands were in harmony with the Infinite by the touch of the Master Organist upon their shattered and broken lives. * At the conclusion of the San Diego revival, calls came from San Jose, Calif.; Dallas, Texas, and St. Louis, Mo., for us to conduct needed revivals in those cities. Time and space would not permit the telling of all the mighty manifestations of God’s power in the midst, as we answered the urgent requests—of how, day after day, afternoon and evening, the altars were continuously filled with sinners and backsliders; of how, in St. Louis, we were forced to move the meetings from the Moolah Temple, seating 3,000, to the Coliseum, seating 12,000; of the many healings, including that of a thirteen-year-old girl, blind eight years; a lame young man, and an aged lady whose deaf cars were instantly opened.
The municipal auditorium in Denver, Colorado, was opened to us for one of the greatest campaigns with which God blessed our ministry, Built in two parts, the theatre end, and the convention hall and dance floor end which were separated by a huge stage and and a removable asbestos curtain, the building could be made into one large auditorium accommodating 15,000 people.
For the Sunday morning opening service, the theatre end was used; but so many thousands were turned away that at night it ‘was necessary to open the convention hall to the eager throngs who begged to hear, even if they could not see, the proceedings. Monday morning a corps of men were put to work and both buildings were converted into one. Then the real crowds began to come! The entire building became too small for the larger services, and again thousands were turned away.
The eagerness and the hunger of these people to hear the preaching of the gospel and to receive the blessed touch of the Master for body and soul cannot be put into words, Some were so afraid they would not get in to the services the next day that after the evening meeting they would climb to the attic, or creep beneath the gallery seats, taking a little lunch with them, intent on hiding there till the morning meeting. On several occasions, after we had gone home, women were found who had locked themselves in the ladies’ rest rooms where they had dragged heavy boxes and barricaded the doors determined to spend the night in the basement so as to be in the building in the morning.
The enormous altar calls of this campaign were the most mighty visitations of God's convicting and saving power I have ever known or dreamed.
Without exaggeration, at times when the altar call was given for sinners and backsliders, it seemed as though one-half of the congregation arose to its feet. The aisles, stairs and passage-ways became so blocked and congested that it would take minutes for even the most skilled band of police and workers to get them untangled and placed in the seats cleared to accommodate them and act as an altar.
It became necessary to give two separate altar calls—one for men, another for women. If there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repents, what a jubilee there must have been over those thousands of fine men and women who night after night filled the large platform and choir space, the altars and then overflowed into row after row of front seats
Rich and poor came together, the high and low, in this revival. Bankers, lawyers, reporters, policemen, firemen, men rom all walks of life, from the Mayor and Governor and their wives, a Superior Court Judge, attorneys, and officers of high anding in the U. S. Army, on down to those from the gambling alls of Hop Alley and Chinatown. Many gave their hearts to God and immediately turned around to help others find Him too.
Not only was this a mighty revival in the healing of the sin‘oul, but also in the healing of the body. Spe were a
| sections were arranged for the sick and invalids who le to walk and sit up. Other sections for the bedridden and those in wheel-chairs. At stretcher service there were as many as one hundred and fifty beds. One door, called “the wagon door,” was kept specially for the blind, the crippled and bed-ridden. Special railings were erected to protect them from the pressing throng.
A man who had suffered three strokes of paralysis on one side of the body and had been unable to clothe himself for months, was prayed for.
“Brother, have y now?” we asked him "T have!”
faith to believe that Jesus heals you
“Then in the name of Jesus, this side is restored to life and strength—lift up your arm!" Up went the arm. “Now lift the limb!” He lifted that, moving it freely backward and forward.
s epping high, and swinging his arm like a ail, the delight
Iked to and fro across the platform, seemingly obed man w livious to the audience, who were clapping and shouting till the building resounded. Opening and closing his fingers to test the flexibility of his muscles, he walked across the platform to a spot where stood a solidly built Sunday School chair, Picking it up with the once paralyzed hand, he lifted the chair high above his head with perfect ease. Then, leaving his cane and his helpers he ran down the steps of the platform and up again for sheer delight in being once more able to climb the stairs, then away down the aisles, shaking hands with old friends, and answering the questions of reporters who were looking on with amazement.
On and on they came for prayer: the woman so twisted with rheumatism that her feet were drawn completely over her shoulders; the tiny children drawn double with the same disease, their little twisted hands looking like bird's claws; the
. woman eaten alive with a cruel cancer; the man covered from head to foot with some fearsome disease, till his skin resembled the scales of a fish—one by one they received the anointing touch and uttered the prayer of faith with us, and one by one they rejoiced as the healing power of Christ flowed through their bodies making them every whit whole.
Describing one of the services, Albert W. Stone, a newsPaper reporter, wrote:
“Reporters, as a class, are reputed to be ‘hard-boiled’. They see life in so many of its phases they become calloused to its heart throbs and thrills. It took Mrs. McPherson to demonstrate that even a reporter's emotions can be touched. Cots, stretchers, adjustable invalid chairs, beds were lined up in solid windrows. On every side was the audience—12,000 strong—filling to capacity the main floor, balconies and galleries, Palmer Christian sat at the immense console. Back of the chair loomed the great organ, ready to peal forth harmony.
“We are going to sing for these poor people in these cots this morning,’ Mrs. McPherson announced, She consulted a card in her hand. ‘Here is a little woman, an invalid for thirty years, who hasn't been to church in all that time. She has asked us to sing for her Pass Me Not, Oh Gentle Saviour."
"Mr. Christians fingers touched the keys, and the old song leaped forth under the magic of his genius. The audience, as one person, joined in. The tremendous volume of melody, gathering strength from every quarter, rolled down upon the men, women and children in the cots. Even the quavering voices of the guests joined in. Some of them sang with closed eyes, hands clasped on their breasts.
“The song ended. Mrs. McPherson's eyes were wet. She leaned over and spoke to a worker at her side. ‘See that girl reporter down there? She is crying like a baby.’
“She was. So were her companions at the press table, fourteen of them. One man, a journalistic political war horse who had covered every Democratic and Republican convention in Colorado in the last twenty years—many of in the same auditorium—touched another reporter on the shoulder
Never saw
His hand was trembling and his eyes were sufi anything like it,’ he said. ‘Never.’
The healing session was one of the most imr was literally a ‘revival of bodies’ for many of the victims, Per son after persor he:
rose from their cots and declared themselves es were lifted heavenward.
led as their hands and fac * Leaving the snow-capped peaks of the Colorado ranges behind, we turned our faces and thoughts toward sunny California. The Bay City of Oakland had extended an invitation to conduct a two-week revival campaign in its midst.
Little did we realize that this was to be a turning point in k the laying of the foundation stones for what was to become the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel!
Instead of having to work up an interest and pray down a revival spirit, as in many previous campaigns, the praying and preparation for the Oakland revival had all been done in advance of our arrival! A committee meeting, organized months before, began with three in attendance. When we arrived, the number had increased to six hundred persons willing and ready to serve in any capacity, About $3,000 had been pledged, given, and expended to cover one-half of the expenses lever during our ministry prior to that time had we ever met a more kindly, enthusiastic people. Never had we been treated with more consideration and confid
‘An automobile agency loaned to us for the entire campaign 1 beautiful roadster; a laundry insisted on doing our clothes freely; churches opened their doors for special prayer meetings; many ministers closed all evening services that they and their people might attend the meetings and pray with seekers at the altars; the newspapers conta daily columns and photographs, every word of which was constructive, loyal to the cause of Christ, and written by a staff reporter; and the our min} and m nce.
Oakland Tribune radio station invited us to speak to listening thousands.
The tent in which the services were to be held was well filled even on the first night, and the power of God came streaming down, Scores crowded the altar, seeking salvation.
From two to five meetings were held daily, including preaching services, special children’s meetings, tarrying services and so on. Daily altar calls saw, without exception, the seven long altar benches crowded with penitents seeking Christ.
The Sunday meetings, of which there were three, found the tent filled to capacity and multitudes standing. (The Oakland Tribune estimated the closing Sunday night audience at 25,000.) This was our sixth campaign in Northern California in less than a year, and we had gained the confidence of the people and many warm-hearted friends.