W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest

N. B. Our noble brother, E. A. Fergerson, my Gospel son, continued to run his engine a number of years after
God had made him a flaming evangelist.
While preaching in Augusta, Ga., amid a glorious revival in Wesley Chapel, a noted railroad conductor was
working most efficiently in the after meetings, leading souls to the Savior. Several years subsequently, while I
was preaching in Columbia, S. C., I found him in the pastorate of the Gospel Tabernacle, built by our sainted
Brother Oliver, and the signal blessings of God upon his work. He told me that when I was with him in that
Georgia meeting, I looked him in the face and said, “Brother, do you not know that God wants you to conduct a
Gospel train?” He said God spoke to him at that time, answering my question in the affirmative. Consequently
he resigned his conductorship and turned preacher.
Let these cursory references remind every reader to make our millions of railroad people in all the earth a
special subject of prayer; that they who carry us on our peregrinations to preach the everlasting Gospel may
themselves receive the message, board the Gospel train constantly running from the city of Destruction up the
royal railway to the New Jerusalem, and live with us in the end of the blessed, when this stormy life is forever
hushed amid the immutable realms of eternity. I make it a rule every time I buy a ticket to get in a word of
straight Gospel truth to the agent, and on every occasion when delivering it to the conductor, despite all the
expedition to dispense to him the message of life. The saints are mistaken in the prevalent impression that these
hurried and worried railroad men would not appreciate our words of Gospel grace, crowded in amid the pressing
expedition of their official business. I have long, followed the habit of speaking to all the people with whom I
come in contact in the interest of their souls. I can testify that in forty-nine cases out of fifty, these railroad
officers receive my words of Gospel grace love appreciatively and, generally, respectfully thank me for my
interest in their souls and assure me of their attitude for my prayers in their behalf. Always keep your heart in
touch with God when you approach people in the interest of their souls, and you will be surprised at the grateful
appreciation they will manifest to you.
While a circuit rider, overtaking a man walking along the turnpike with some lightning conductors on his
shoulder, I constrained him to hand them to me and let my horse carry his burden. The end I had in view was an
opportunity to preach the Gospel to him. Of course he would stay with me while I carried his goods. Therefore
as he walked by my side, I preached to him the living Word with all my heart, exhorting him to flee the wrath to
come. Several months subsequently, he met me in another part of the country, full of joy and gratitude; and
reminded me of my former kindness in carrying his burden and preaching to him the Gospel meanwhile, (as I
had forgotten him), testifying that my little message brought him down on his knees before God, where he
prayed night and day, till the glorious, heavenly Dayspring flooded his soul. He had joined the Presbyterian
Church and was happy in God, working for Him and pressing on toward the bright upper world.
Reader, do reckon yourself henceforth simply God's mouthpiece, always administering the message of life to
souls you meet in your pilgrimage. Oh, that you may, by the blessed induement of the Holy Ghost, be able to
say like the Hebrew prophet, “God hath made my mouth a sharp sword.” The Word of the Lord is the sharpest
sword that has ever flashed beneath the skin, Heb.
4:12. When all the swords that have ever glittered on earthly battlefields have failed, the Gospel sword with the
bright New Jerusalem blade, sharper than the lightning, has no trouble to cut its way through. Then, oh,
Christian soldier, be sure that you never go out without it, lest the enemy slay you.
At Farmington, Mo., immediately after the glorious revival at Piedmont, the Lord gave us a most extraordinary
victory, one hundred and sixty-six bright con versions, eighty-one sanctifications, and all of the orthodox
churches in the city gloriously revived, with hundreds happily reclaimed from a backslidden State. The meeting
was in midwinter, and the snow was knee deep, and though it lasted more than three weeks, there was no
moderation of the weather. We opened with very few as the people dreaded the cold, but after the power
descended from Heaven, it seemed that they utterly lost sight of the wintry storms, which swept in blizzards.
They said that the whole country throughout a radius of twenty miles was drawn into the revival. I made it a rule
to stand out in the middle of the house, so that my voice would be clearly audible and the more forcible to all of
the crowd. I am satisfied that twice as many people as the seats could accommodate squeezed into the house;
even standing room was at a high premium. In the awful jam and cram, all courtesies were forgotten, and each