W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest

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