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