Around the World in 88 Years -E Book - Arthur Burt

Nobody could ignore the revival. They could laugh at it or persecuteit, but they couldn’t ignore it. Even drunks in the pubs makingjokes about “Give me oil in my lamp…” were moved.There were silly rumors flying about, too. People were saying,“Have you heard? Stephen Jeffries went into the park, put hishands on the statue of Sir Thomas Lipton, and it rose up andwalked!” A story circulated that a man with a withered arm hadcome to the meetings, and God had healed him. Later that night,the man went to celebrate back in the pub where he mocked andlaughed, and his hand and arm withered again. These were thethings they were saying.The same thing happened in Sunderland as had happened before— we couldn’t get in. My father appealed to the usher, “Look!We don’t live in Sunderland and have come a long way. Can’tyou do anything for us?”The usher said, “There is a little room where people are sittingwho are so badly crippled that they can’t stand. If you want togo in there and wait, maybe Stephen Jeffries will come to prayfor you before the night meeting.”As we waited in this room with a dozen others, we sat listeningto the singing inside the auditorium, the voices thundering, “HisBlood can make the foulest clean; His Blood avails for me.” Ittremendously moved me, even though I didn’t understand anythingthat was happening.Finally, after a long wait, the door opened, and a simple grayhairedman in his mid-fifties entered the room. He stood by thetable and said, “I want you to understand, that the first thing youneed, more important than your body, is your need for salvation.Whatever your need is for your body, your greatest need isthat your soul might be saved.” He preached the Gospel for aboutfive minutes. Then, he went over to a young woman in her twentieswho stood opposite me, and he laid his hands upon her.“I can see! I can see!” she screamed, clapping her hands and jumpingup and down.My heart pounded, bump, bump, bump! This was the first time inmy life that I met God. Amazed, I realized: “God is real! God isreal!” Up to that moment I had doubted His existence.9