W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest
W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest
W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest
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country, and the people came from a distance, as well as near by, many were unable to get away except as<br />
carried by friends in vehicles, which was very seldom done, because the land was rough and had no turnpikes,<br />
and the people nearly all came on horses or walking.<br />
After this wonderful Pentecostal power descended, the meeting became like Heaven, in the fact that there<br />
“congregations ne'er break up, and Sabbaths have no end.” The workers had to divide up the time among<br />
themselves, and some of them stayed there with the seekers who had lost the power of locomotion. It was really<br />
a marvelous return of the old-time power, which not only characterized the apostolic age but early Methodism.<br />
The old Methodists called it “having the power,” I. e., the power of God to such an extent as utterly to supersede<br />
human power.<br />
I may observe, with reference to the discouraged young pastor, that before the revival was over, it seemed as<br />
though his members would pull him all to pieces, for the pure love of God which had fallen in showers and<br />
filled their souls. Though, by the intervention of the enemy, they had gotten out of harmony so that the desire to<br />
separate was mutual, under the wonderful baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire, they all received such a copious<br />
Benjamin's mess of sweet, perfect love, that he changed his mind, not only remaining with them till the close of<br />
the year, but, pursuant to their request, was returned and stayed with them the full pastoral limit of four years,<br />
and would have remained longer if the Lord had permitted. As that was my native church, Soule Chapel, Pulaski<br />
County, Ky., I can never forget that meeting which gave me a precious souvenir of the old-time power, which<br />
my ancestors had enjoyed at that place, when first thither they came, felled the trees, built their cabins and<br />
erected an altar to the God of their fathers, whom they had worshipped beyond the Atlantic.<br />
In my ministry I have often seen that knock down power. In this meeting while preaching to the house packed<br />
and jammed, doors and windows full, and many who could not reach any position of convenient audience taking<br />
chances out in the yard, while thus preaching, I have seen them fall under the power of the convicting Spirit till<br />
they blockaded the aisles, and actually this wonderful, supernatural, slaying power was so prevalent as to knock<br />
those standing in the doors, so paralyzing them that they could not get away, thus blockading the doors and the<br />
aisles. People were found out of doors, prostrate on the ground and utterly unable to stand on their feet, so<br />
wonderful was the slaying power of the Holy Ghost in the atmosphere of the holy place..<br />
The Lord has used my humble instrumentality to preach sanctification from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mexican<br />
border. I saw these extraordinary phenomena in all parts of Texas, and especially at Waco Campmeeting. There,<br />
in the early years of its history, so many would lose the power of locomotion that we found it necessary so to<br />
organize the workers as to keep some on the ground- all the time. I found it necessary to have my lodging at<br />
least half a mile from the tabernacle, as at all hours of the night the vociferous shouts of newborn souls was<br />
likely to awaken me. During the three months He let me preach in dear India, I frequently saw this same<br />
wonderful slaying power among the natives. On Winding up a meeting, it was no surprise to see some of our<br />
seekers utterly incompetent to go away. In Sister Ramabal's great work, where she has eighteen hundred people<br />
identified with her educational institutions, nearly all the time I was there I could hear them praying and<br />
shouting all night after I had preached to them. At the same time there were many-among them prostrate under<br />
the power, and unable to stand or to walk.<br />
You readily see the Divinity and the utility of these phenomena; in order that God may demonstrate before the<br />
popular eye the infinite superiority of <strong>His</strong> power to that of man. It is exceedingly gratifying thus to witness<br />
God's signal mercy to the poor heathen, thus gloriously contra-distinguishing Himself from the pagan gods,<br />
who, to an ocular and an auricular demonstration, are utterly powerless. The present year will be forever<br />
remembered in great heathen India for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It is really epochal as India's Pentecost.<br />
This ought to prove a grand inspiration to all friends of the missionaries, who enjoy the glorious privilege of<br />
living in delightful America and using the money which God gives them, by proxy, to preach to the poor<br />
heathens. No one can travel among them and witness the power and presence of God working so mightily and<br />
mercifully in their hearts and not realize in the profoundest depths of his soul the consolatory fact of God's<br />
superabounding love to these poor children of pagan darkness.<br />
In 1800 and 1801 the campmeetings at Cane Ridge, Ky., were wonderfully characterized by these physical<br />
phenomena. They began with an ordinary bush arbor, as was customary in that day. The power descended on