W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest

In 1901, while preaching in Fresno, California, I lost my life by the inhalation of illuminating gas escaping in
my room and was found dead the next morning at ten o'clock. As I am not in the habit of taking breakfast, they
did not look for me at the table, but as I did not come downstairs, the lady of the house, feeling a little uneasy, at
ten o'clock went up and rapped at my door, but received no response. Then opening she looked in and saw my
shoes and knew I was there but instantly became affrighted because she could not make me speak. Felicitously I
was enjoying the hospitality of Dr. Meux, a good holiness friend, who also believed in Divine Healing.
Fortunately he was at home, when his good wife ran down the stairway and told him that I was speechless. He
ran up instantly and meeting the gas suspected the trouble and upon examination found that all breathing had
ceased and he had a dead man on his hands. Instantly he resorted to what physicians call artificial respiration,
and after vigorous efforts within a very short time he saw me catch my breath, thus resuming the respiration.
I knew not my whereabouts till forty hours from the time of my retirement had elapsed. He said that without the
mechanical operation, which he brought into availability, I certainly never would have breathed again. I am
satisfied that I was out of my body.
My experience during the time reminds me of Paul in 2 Cor. 12, when at Lystra they stoned him to death, and
God raised him up again to go on and finish his work. He said that he was caught up to the third heaven, (I. e.,
the heaven of saints and angels, the atmosphere being the first heaven and the astronomical spheres the second)
where he saw and heard things impossible to tell, -- not unlawful, as the English Version has it, for there was no
law against telling it. But it was impossible to tell, because we cannot reveal heavenly glories through the
medium of mortal language. The most of our language here is metaphorical and symbolical, in order to reach us
in these material tenements.
Not so in Heaven, where there is no material body but all is spirituality. There the language is all lightning,
without taking time to thunder. I verily believe that I was out of the body, as when I found myself in it and again
in this world, I deeply realized a mysterious alienation from transitory things.
I resorted at once to prayer, asking God to put His hand on me and re-adapt me to the work He still had for me
to do in this world, as I felt that my congeniality for probationary life had been marred.
During the time of my alienation from the body, I heard and saw things which were utterly impossible for me to
tell e. g., music most sweet and delicious, but I could tell nothing about it, and I especially had an unutterable
sweetness in my own soul. I believe I was dead and God used that noble physician to raise me to life again. As a
rule, the resurrections in the Bible took place very quickly after the expiration, the four days in the case of
Lazarus being quite an exception.
God, in His wonderful mercy, has healed my body so frequently that time would fail me to tell you all about it. I
will only give you a few salient, illustrative cases. His healing has been so prompt and speedy, that I have spent
almost no time in my whole life on a sick bed.
Thirty-four years ago, two eminent physicians, graduates of Cincinnati Medical College, gave me up to die of
serious lung trouble, which had developed into congestion of the lungs by the inundation of the blood from the
system, so flooding them as to stop respiration in the air cells, the breathing only continuing in the trachea
bronchia and the larger air tubes. I was in a protracted meeting working hard and was suddenly attacked so
severely that the friends called a physician and he became alarmed and sent for another to assist him in a case
which he regarded as exceedingly critical. All pulsation had ceased in my members. They, assisted by a number
of the brothers and sisters, labored six hours in the vain attempt by external friction and internal stimulants to
stop the congestion, and restore the circulation. Then our family physician coming to me, notified me that I
would be dead in two hours at most, and was liable to die at just any moment. Then both physicians and all the
people quit their efforts to restore the circulation and just waited to see me die; meanwhile the papers reported
that I was dead.
I had been in the sanctified experience four years, but my dear wife had not entered Beulah Land.
Though naturally timid, and having no experience in leading meetings, she at once took command of the crowd
and observed, “These doctors have given my husband up to die, but I am not willing to let him go, and believe
the Lord has much work for him to do yet, so get on your knees all of you and join me in prayer for his healing,