John G.

Lake - Apostle to
Africa
by

Gordon Lindsay

Pentecostal Pioneers Series

No. 17

Published by The Revival Library

www.revival-library.org

email: [email protected]
Copyright
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Contents
Foreword
Personal Memories
Chapter I. Lake's Call to the Healing Ministry
Chapter II. How God Sent John G. Lake to Africa
Chapter III. Historic Revival in South Africa
Chapter IV. Remarkable Events in the Ministry of John G. Lake
Chapter V. Elias Letwaba, the Man Who Carried on the Work
Chapter VI. The Mantle Falls on Letwaba
Chapter VII. The Return to America
 Table of Contents
John G. Lake - Apostle to Africa
Copyright
Contents
Foreword
Some Personal Memories of Dr John G. Lake
Chapter I. Lake’s Call to the Healing Ministry
Chapter II. How God Sent John G. Lake to Africa
Chapter III. Historic Revival in South Africa
Chapter IV. Remarkable Events in the Ministry of John G. Lake
Chapter V. Elias Letwaba, the Man Who Carried on the Work
Chapter VI. The Mantle Falls on Letwaba
Chapter VII. The Return to America
The Revival Library
Foreword
Dr John G Lake – Apostle to Africa

In evaluating the greatness of a missionary’s ministry, what

factors are involved? Is it the length of time of service? If this
were the case, then of course the name John G. Lake must be
ruled out, for he was in Africa only about five years and part of
that time he was away from the continent. But we must
remember that Jesus was the greatest of all missionaries, and
His labours were transcendent of all; yet He was actively
engaged in ministry for only about three years.

There are men who have founded great mission boards that
have been used of God to send out hundreds of missionaries.
Such work, though of great significance to missions is not to
be confused with the actual ministry of the missionary. John G.
Lake was not an organizer; he was not an explorer as
Livingstone; nor did he raise huge sums for missions. But if we
consider the work of the missionary itself, and the degree of
success of the methods employed to get the Gospel quickly to
vast numbers of the unsaved in foreign fields, or if we measure
the power of a missionary’s ministry by its effectiveness to
change the lives of those who come in contact with it, or still
again, if we compare the methods used by the missionary with
those of Paul and the apostles, then the ministry of John G.
Lake must stand favorably with all others as the nearest to
apostolic ideals.
Let us for a moment consider the phenomenon of Lake’s
ministry in South Africa. He went there without funds. Every
mile of the journey was a miracle. Having been a successful
businessman, Dr Lake had the means by which he could have
financed his party for several years, but at the time of his call
he liquidated his estate and arranged for the disposal of his
goods. He depended upon God to supply the money for the
trip, and he and his party upon arriving in Africa were without
visible means of support. There was no organization nor
mission board to back him. From, the natural viewpoint, the
venture was a perfect setup for failure or perhaps disaster.

Dr Lake had made no particular study of the field, did not know
the language of the natives. Yet despite all the handicaps that
ill-omened the success of the mission, the power of the
ministry of Lake and his co-worker Hezmelhalch was such that
within five years the message they brought had penetrated to
the remote areas of South Africa. An apostolic revival broke
out of such power that in a short time hundreds of churches
and missions were established throughout the land. The secret
of the success of these men was of course the fact that they
possessed an apostolic ministry in which signs, wonders, and
miracles were manifested continually.

Yet Satan struck a blow at even so great a ministry. While Lake

was gone on a mission, his wife was struck down in death,
leaving him the sole care of the large family of children. Mrs
Lake’s great faith in God, her keen judgment, and the deep
spiritual tone of her life had made her an ideal helpmate. Her
loss necessitated Dr Lake’s return to the states in the year
1913.

But the Lord had other work for the man of God to do. Back in
America, God gave him another able and consecrated
companion, Miss Florence Switzer, and shortly after their
marriage, they took residence in Spokane, Washington. There
in that city they founded a healing mission that made history.
The enterprise succeeded to the extent that in five years’ time
nearly 100,000 healings were recorded. The effects of Dr Lake’s
ministry as time goes on will no doubt be felt by those of
generations to come, who will be quite unaware of their source.
Some Personal Memories of
Dr John G. Lake
John Graham Lake was born at St. Mary’s, Ontario, Canada, on
March 18, 1870. When yet a small boy, he accompanied his
parents to the United States, settling at Sault Sainte Marie, a
city in northern Michigan. In October, 1891, he was admitted
into the Methodist ministry at Chicago and was appointed to a
church at Peshtigo, Wisconsin. However he finally decided
against going there and went instead into the newspaper
business. In the town of Harvey, Illinois, he founded the
Harvey Citizen. Incidentally that town was named after D. L.
Moody’s brother-in-law.

In February, 1893, he married Miss Jennie Stevens of Newberry,

Michigan. Three years later she was pronounced incurable of
consumption by several well-known physicians who had given
her the best treatment possible. They advised taking her north.
On that advice Lake took her back to Sault Sainte Marie,
Michigan. Two years later on April 28, 1898 she was instantly
healed under the ministry of John Alexander Dowie, a story
which is told later in this book.

While staying in Sault Sainte Marie, Dr Lake opened a real

estate office and took up the business of selling real estate. As
a salesman and contractor he remained there until 1901. During
this time he helped found the Soo Times. In 1904 he moved to
Chicago and bought a seat on the Chicago Board of Trade. At
this time he handled Jim Hill’s Western Canadian land and
made a personal friend of this great railroad man and financier.

The first day Lake opened his office he made $2500 on a real
estate deal, and at the end of one year and nine months he had
$100,000 in the bank, real estate amounting to $90,000 and also
a $30,000 paid up life insurance policy. Representing the
Chicago Board of Trade he met Harriman and Ryan and others
who were celebrated financiers. He was employed by Ryan to
form a trust of three of the nation’s largest insurance
companies. Appointed manager of agencies he was offered by
the company a guarantee of $50,000 a year to continue in this
business. It was at this point, however, that God began to deal
with him in such a way that the course of his life was definitely
altered. For a time he continued his work in the day hours, but
at night he preached and carried on a ministry of healing.

Before we begin the fascinating story of Dr Lake’s call to Africa

and the amazing events which followed, the writer takes the
liberty of relating some personal memories of this most unusual
man. He found Christ as his Saviour in the church of which Dr
Lake was the founder. This was during the latter part of the
year 1924. The career of this remarkable man of God deeply
impressed him, and in no little degree influenced his ministry.

The circumstances under which the writer’s parents came to

attend Dr Lake’s church in Portland, Oregon, had their origin in
Zion City, Illinois, during the days of Dr John Alexander Dowie.
As we have said, at that time John G. Lake was a business
executive engaged in a prosperous insurance enterprise. After
Dowie’s death, the writer’s parents moved from Zion City. At
about this time, Dr Lake also left. In the year 1908, he went to
Africa as a missionary, and our family lost track of his
whereabouts. However, during that time he spent five history-
making years in South Africa, engaged in a ministry which in
some respects rivalled that of the Early Church.

In fact, his work in Africa grew until it attracted world-wide

attention. He was summoned to speak before August
gatherings in which leading ministers of the world were
present. He met and became intimately acquainted with many
of the outstanding figures of his day, and his ministry involved
an activity that brought him into international prominence in
the religious world.

The healing mission at Spokane was really the climaxing work

of his life. His ministry in that city became a demonstration of
the power of God that resulted in over 100,000 healings during
a period of five or six years. Dr Ruthlidge of Washington, D. C.
declared, “Rev. Lake through divine healing has made Spokane
the healthiest city in the world, according to United States
statistics.” In May, 1920, Dr Lake moved to Portland, Oregon,
to found a work of similar character to that of his church in
Spokane. Within a few years the work in Portland became
outstanding of its kind in the state.

The writer’s parents lived near Portland and upon learning that
Dr Lake had established a church in the city attended his
meetings as often as they could. They took their children with
them on occasions; but at that time, we regret to say, the writer
was little interested in religion. However, during a revival held
in that church in December, 1924, he experienced a powerful
conversion to Christ. As a result, he began to attend regularly
the services, which included about every day of the year. The
ministry of Dr Lake, which he had some opportunity to observe
during the early days of his Christian experience, was a
powerful inspiration to him and indeed was to profoundly
effect his future ministry.

It is an understatement to say that the ministry of John G. Lake

was unusual. He possessed the remarkable ability to create
faith in the hearts of his hearers. Ministers who sat under him
soon found that they too had a ministry of faith that resulted in
healings of a most startling character. Since it was impossible
for Dr Lake to minister personally to the great number who
sought his services, he usually had a band of lay ministers and
workers labouring with him to answer calls to which he was
unable to attend.

One of the writer’s first memories of a healing was that of a

woman who was instantly healed as a result of the prayers of
one of Dr Lake’s ministers. The woman was a Mrs Watts, wife
of a prominent officer of a local church. This woman had
become seriously ill, and the physicians decided that her only
hope was an immediate operation. The cost of the proposed
operation was well beyond the family’s financial resources at
the time. However, in desperation the husband went to the
local bank and arranged for a loan to pay for the cost of the
operation. In the meantime the writer’s mother, who had great
faith in divine healing, felt a burden to pray for the family. She
went to the sick woman and encouraged her to believe God for
healing. But her church had taught against divine healing, and
in fact the woman herself had not taken any interest in this
teaching. But as is often the case when desperate illness or
death faces one, he is inclined to alter his views. The lady
consented that prayer should be offered for her healing.
Mother then took the next train to Portland in hope of getting
Dr Lake to come to pray for the woman. However, when she
arrived there he was not available, and as the need was urgent,
mother requested that one of the other ministers go. The good
brother who went did not have much of a knowledge of social
amenities. In fact he was a rather rough-and-ready preacher,
hardly to be distinguished for his ministerial polish. But his
faith in God was strong, and though he had acquired a
brusque, unceremonious manner of dealing with the sick it
produced results even though his mannerisms sometimes
offended people of fastidious tastes.

When mother and this preacher arrived at the home of the sick
woman, and he had opportunity to observe her critical
condition, he lost no time in telling her that the sickness was
the work of the devil. After giving the woman some
instructions, he proceeded to rebuke the affliction with a loud,
booming voice that carried through the whole house. Then,
rather roughly, he told the woman that she was healed and for
her to get out of bed. The lady at first hesitated to do this. But
shortly, afraid to disobey, she did as she was told and arose
from her bed to discover to her great joy that she was made
whole. The pastor of the local church was at that time very
much opposed to this ministry. This miracle was the first step
in convincing him of its reality. Eventually, he became
convinced of its Scriptural foundation and received a notable
healing himself.

Incidentally, the banker who had loaned the money for the
proposed operation was startled indeed a few days afterward
to see the husband come to the bank to return the money. It
was a testimony which caused many in the community to
wonder and take note. Such were the methods used and the
results obtained, that gave the work of John G. Lake the
prominence that it achieved.

At the time of my conversion, we were deeply impressed with

this remarkable ministry that was carried on in Dr Lake’s
church. During one of the first services which we attended, we
observed, in a certain corner reserved for the purpose,
crutches, casts, and various other paraphernalia which had
been discarded by people who once had serious physical
disabilities. It became evident to us that God’s power was
mightily in evidence in this assembly, or else there was being
perpetrated one of the greatest hoaxes that the city of Portland
had ever witnessed. However, after further observation and
upon listening to the testimonies of those who had been
healed, it was impossible for us to be otherwise than convinced
of the reality of the miracles.

One of the first deliverances that we witnessed was the

remarkable healing of L. C. West, a longshoreman on Portland’s
waterfront, who was at that time an elder in the church.
(Incidentally, he supplied us with considerable material for this
volume.) He was a large man who weighed over 200 pounds.
While at work on the dock, a heavy object fell on his foot,
crushing the bones of the ankle. An X-ray taken at the time and
which he brought to the church clearly showed fractures of the
bones. Consequently, he was forced to hobble about on
crutches to get to the meeting.

But faith was high. We well remember the night that Brother
West, after giving an account of the accident, made a public
declaration that he believed the Lord would heal him. We were
greatly interested in this statement, as we knew that nothing
less than a miracle would make it possible for him to walk on
that foot immediately, without the aid of crutches. Yet, less than
a week later, he was in church again, this time without the
crutches or any artificial aid, testifying to the miracle that had
taken place. Such was the atmosphere of faith in the church
founded by John G. Lake.

After the above incident, about a year later the writer and two
other young men felt called to enter the ministry. We drove
directly to San Diego where Dr Lake was at that time
ministering. He had left Portland some months before. He was
kind to us and gave us the use of a tent which we set up in a
neighbouring community. Once a week Dr Lake came out and
preached for us. Though we did not have a large congregation
to present to him, his sermons were thrilling messages of faith
and we looked forward to his weekly visits with great
anticipation.

At the close of our time in that city, the writer came near
experiencing a sudden termination to his evangelistic career.
Laid low with a most critical case of ptomaine poisoning, for
days he hung between life and death. Although we earnestly
looked to God for deliverance, relief did not come. We suffered
excruciating pains from cramps that recurred with great
intensity every few minutes. Neighbours who had taken us into
their home became alarmed over what appeared to be a
worsening condition and they were fearful that we would die
on their hands.

Then Dr and Mrs Lake kindly accepted us into their home. At

that time, death did not seem far off. Others believed that we
would not linger more than a few hours; and indeed from the
natural appearances, they were not without reason in their
anticipations. Dr Lake prayed, and although deliverance did
not immediately appear, he had calm confidence that the
answer had come. Mrs Lake brought us some of the
typewritten sermons of her husband, and we read these as a
drowning man grasps at a straw. (These have been published
under the name of THE JOHN G. LAKE SERMONS on
DOMINION OVER DEMONS, DISEASE, AND DEATH.)
Suddenly, faith from heaven sprang into our heart, and we
arose from what many thought was a deathbed, instantly
healed. It is understandable, therefore, that the ministry of John
G. Lake has meant a great deal to us.

At that time, Dr Lake entertained hopes for the raising up of a

chain of healing missions, on the order of his churches at
Spokane and Portland. But though he had not reached
advanced age, he had lived with an intensity as few men have.
A decline in the strength and vitality which characterized his
early ministry was apparent. It seemed he was unable to match
the physical strength that was required to execute his spiritual
vision. He went to Houston, Texas, and after having initial
success in the founding of a church there, was called away by
a message of a serious accident that almost took the life of his
eldest son. He never returned to Houston.

For a time, he ministered in various churches in California. We

were with him in a tent meeting at Fresno during the month of
October, 1927. Later he returned to Portland, where he was
pastor for a time. Afterwards, he went back to Spokane where
he pastored until his death in September, 1935.

During October, 1932, we visited with Dr Lake for the last time.
On a Sunday afternoon, while we were there, he preached a
message which seemed to carry much of the old-time vigour
and forcefulness. It was the last message that we were ever to
hear him preach.

During the week we were in Spokane, each day Dr Lake would

spend an hour or two talking to us and relating some of the
great experiences he had in Africa. As Dr Lake reminisced, it
seemed to us that we were listening to an apostle of the Early
Church who had walked and talked with Jesus and was
recalling dramatic incidents out of the past. We listened
breathlessly as he narrated instance after instance of amazing
supernatural occurrences that had happened during his years
of missionary work in South Africa. If we had had the foresight
to take down all the notes of those wonderful hours, it would
be possible to present a story which, perhaps, has had no
parallel in the history of missions since the days of the Early
Church. However, from here and there we have gathered
fragmentary records of this great ministry and we believe that
we are able to present something that will hold the interest of
the reader. Perchance it may stir his heart and encourage him to
launch out into new realms of faith and walk the paths reserved
for those who are bold enough to believe the full witness of
their God.

Of Dr Lake’s death, Mrs Lake wrote: “On Labour Day, 1935, we

attended a Sunday School picnic, and he came home very tired,
and after a hot supper lay down to rest. A lady was speaking
for us at the church, so I prevailed upon him to stay home, and
I would go to church instead. When I arrived home I found that
he had had a stroke while I was gone. He lingered on for two
weeks being unconscious much of the time, until September 16,
1935, when he died.” ,

In bringing these introductory remarks to a close, we add the

brief testimony of Rev. B. S. Hebden, who spoke at the
memorial service concerning the life and ministry of Dr John G.
Lake. It is a beautiful tribute to the unique power of this man of
God:

“Mr Lake was a strong, rugged character of loving and winning

personality, and he has left his mark indelibly upon the world of
gospel truth.

“Dr Lake came to Spokane. He found us in sin. He found us in

sickness. He found us in poverty of spirit. He found us in
despair, but he revealed to us such a Christ as we had never
dreamed of knowing this side of heaven. We thought victory
was over there, but Dr Lake revealed to us that victory was
here, a present and possible reality. We regarded death almost
as a friend, but Dr Lake came and revealed to us the Christ, all
glorious and all powerful, that is triumphant, compassionate,
and lovely and our night was turned into day; and despair was
turned into laughter. A light shone in the darkness and we, who
found Christ at last as He really is, only had words as the
words of Thomas who said, ‘My Lord and my God.’

“How I thank God Brother Lake came to Spokane! How I thank

Him that I ever contacted that man, unique, powerful! I will
never forget the day in the Hutton Block when I was sick with
chronic complaints, and I heard that message of Christ, that His
arms were under me, and I kept it and the message kept me and,
instead of my being, long and long ago, gone and forgotten I
am here rejoicing and thanking our brother, Dr Lake, who
brought that message to me. Friends, he should still speak in
me, not by the pen but by the Spirit that is in me, by the light
that is in me, by the regeneration of Jesus Christ that is in me.
Let us, friends, not go and squander it by hiding it in a napkin,
but let us keep it by giving it out.”
Chapter I. Lake’s Call to the
Healing Ministry
His Own Story

No one could understand the tremendous hold that the

revelation of Jesus as a present day Healer took on my life, and
what it meant to me, unless they understood my environment.

I was one of sixteen children. Our parents were strong,

vigorous, healthy people. My mother died at the age of
seventy-five, and at the present time my father still lives and is
seventy-seven.

Before my knowledge and experience of the Lord as our Healer

we buried eight members of the family. A strange train of
sickness, resulting in death, had followed the family, and for
thirty-two years some member of the family was an invalid. The
home was never without the shadow of sickness during all this
long period. When I think back over my boyhood and young
manhood there comes to my mind remembrances like a
nightmare of sickness, doctors, nurses, hospitals, hearses,
funerals, graveyards and tombstones, a sorrowing household,
a broken-hearted mother and grief-stricken father, struggling to
forget the sorrows of the past, in order to assist the living
members of the family, who needed their love and care.
At the time Christ was revealed to us as our Healer, my brother,
who had been an invalid for twenty-two years, and upon whom
father had spent a fortune for unavailing medical assistance,
was dying. He bled incessantly from his kidneys, and was kept
alive through assimilation of bloodcreating foods almost as
fast as it flowed from his person. I’ve never know any other
man to suffer so extremely and so long as he did.

A sister, thirty-four years of age, was then dying with five

cancers in her left breast, having been operated on five times at
Harper’s Hospital, Detroit, Michigan by Dr Karstens, a German
surgeon of repute, and turned away to die. There was a large
core cancer, and after the operations four other heads
developed - five in all.

Another sister lay dying of an issue of blood. Gradually, day

by day, her lifeblood flowed away until she was in the very
throes of death.

I had married and established my own home. Very soon after

our marriage, the same train of conditions that had followed my
father’s family appeared in mine. My wife became an invalid
from heart disease and tuberculosis. She would lose her heart
action and lapse into unconsciousness. Sometimes I would
find her lying unconscious on the floor, having been suddenly
stricken, sometimes in her bed. Stronger and stronger
stimulants became necessary in order to revive the action of
the heart, until finally we were using nitroglycerin tablets in a
final heroic effort to stimulate heart action. After these heart
spells she would remain in a semi-paralytic condition for weeks,
the result of over-stimulation the physicians said.

But in the midst of the deepest darkness, when baffled

physicians stood back and acknowledged their inability to
help, when the cloud of darkness and death was again
hovering over the family, suddenly the light of God broke
through into our soul, through the message of one godly
minister great enough and true enough to God to proclaim the
whole truth of God.

We took our brother, who was dying, to John Alexander

Dowie’s Healing Home in Chicago. Prayer was offered for him,
with the laying on of hands, and he received an instant healing.
He arose from his dying cot and walked four miles, returned to
his home, and took a partnership in our father’s business, a
well man.

Great joy and marvellous hope sprang up in our hearts. A real

manifestation of the healing power of God was before us.
Quickly we arranged to take our sister with the five cancers to
the same Healing Home, carrying her on a stretcher. She was
taken into the healing meeting. Within her soul she said,
“Others may be healed because they are good. I have not been
a true Christian like others. They may be healed because of
their goodness, but I fear healing is not for me.” It seemed more
than her soul could grasp.

After listening from her cot to the preaching and teaching of

the Word of God on healing through Jesus Christ, hope sprang
up in her soul. She was prayed for and hands laid on her. As
the prayer of faith arose to God, the power of God descended
upon her, thrilling her being. Her pain instantly vanished. The
swelling disappeared gradually. The large core cancer turned
black, and in a few days fell out. The smaller ones disappeared.
The mutilated breast began to regrow and became a perfect
breast again.

How our hearts thrilled! Words cannot tell this story. A new
faith sprang up within us. If God could heal our dying brother
and our dying sister, and cause cancers to disappear, He could
heal anything or anybody.

The Healing of the Sister at Death’s Door

The sister who had the issue of blood and I had been chums
from our childhood. She was a little older than I. The vision of
Christ the Healer had just been opened to my soul. My mother
called me one night and said, “John, if you want to see your
sister alive, you must come at once.” When I arrived, my
mother said, “You are too late, she is gone.” I stepped to her
bedside and laid my hand on her forehead; it was cold and
white. I slipped my hand down over her heart, and the heart
had ceased to beat. I picked up a small mirror and held it over
her mouth, but there was no discoloration. The breath was
gone. I stood there stunned. Her husband knelt at the foot of
the bed weeping. Her baby was asleep in the crib at the
opposite side of the room. My old father and mother knelt
sobbing at the side of the bed. They had seen eight of their
children die; she was apparently the ninth. My soul was in a
storm. As I looked at this sister I said, “O God, this is not your
will. I cannot accept it! It is the work of the devil and darkness.
It is the devil who has the power of death.”

I discovered this strange fact, that there are times when one’s
spirit lays hold on the spirit of another. Somehow I just felt my
spirit lay hold of the spirit of that sister. And I prayed, “Dear
Lord, she cannot go.” I walked up and down the room for some
time. My spirit was crying out for somebody with faith in God
that I could call upon to help me. That was twenty-five years
ago when the individual who trusted God for healing was
almost an insane man in the eyes of the church and the world.
Bless God, it is different now. That is the advantage of having
people who trust God and walk out on God’s lines to come
together, stay together, and form a nucleus in society which
has some force for God.

As I walked up and down in my sister’s room, I could think of

but one man who had faith on this line. That was John
Alexander Dowie, six hundred miles away. I went to the phone,
called Western Union and told them I wanted to get a telegram
through to Dr Dowie with an answer back as quickly as
possible. I sent this wire:

“My sister has apparently died, but my spirit will not let her go.
I believe if you will pray, God will heal her.”

I received this answer back:

“Hold on to God. I am praying. She will live.”

I have asked a thousand times, “What would it have meant if

instead of that telegram of faith, I had received one from a
weakling preacher who might have said, ‘I am afraid you are on
the wrong track,’ or ‘Brother you are excited,’ or The days of
miracles are past’?”

It was the strength of his faith that came over the wire that
caused the lightnings of my soul to begin to flash, and while I
stood at the telephone and listened, the very lightnings of God
began to flash in my spirit. I prayed, “This thing is of hell; it
cannot be; it will not be. In the Name of Jesus Christ, I abolish
this death and sickness, and she shall live.” And as I finished
praying, I turned my eyes toward the bed, and I saw her eyelids
blink. But I was so wrought up I said, “Maybe I am deceiving
myself.” So I stood a little while at the telephone, the lightnings
of God still flashing through my soul. Presently I observed her
husband get up and tiptoe to her head, and I knew that he had
seen it. I said, “What is it Peter?” He replied, “I thought I saw
her eyelids move.” And just then they moved again. Five days
later she came to father’s home and sat down with us to
Christmas dinner, the first time in their life when the Lake family
was all well.

The Healing of his Invalid Wife

My wife, who had been slowly dying for years, and suffering
untold agonies, was the last of the four to receive God’s
healing touch. But, oh ere God’s power came upon her I
realized as I never had before the character of consecration
God was asking and that a Christian should give to God. Day
by day, death silently stole over her, until the final hours had
come. A brother minister was present. He stood by her bedside,
then returning to me with tears in his eyes, said, “Come and
walk.” And together we strolled out into the moonlight. He said
to me, “Brother Lake, be reconciled to the will of God,” meaning
by that as most all ministers do, “Be reconciled to let your wife
die.” I thought of my babies. I thought of her whom I loved as
my own soul, and a flame burned in my heart. I felt as if God
had been insulted by such a suggestion. Yet, I had many
things to learn.

In the midst of my soul storm I returned to my home, picked up

my Bible from the mantelpiece, threw it on the table. And if ever
God caused a man’s Bible to open to a message that his soul
needed, surely He did then for me. The book opened at the
tenth chapter of Acts, and my eyes fell on the thirty-eighth
verse, which read: “Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and
power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were
oppressed of the DEVIL; for God was with him.”

Like a flash from the blue these words pierced by heart.

“Oppressed of the devil!” Then God was not the author of
sickness, and the people whom Jesus healed had not been
made sick by God! Hastily taking a reference to another portion
of the Word, I read again from the words of Jesus in Luke 13:16,
“Ought not this woman . . . whom SATAN HATH BOUND, lo,
these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond?” Once again
Jesus attributed sickness to the devil. What a faith sprang up
in my heart, and what a flame of intelligence concerning the
Word of God and the ministry of Jesus went over my soul. I
saw as never before why Jesus healed the sick. He was doing
the will of His Father, and in doing His Father’s will was
destroying the works of the devil. (Heb. 2:14.)

In my soul I said, “This work of the devil, this destruction of

my wife’s life, in the name of Jesus Christ shall cease, for Christ
died and Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.”

We decided on 9:30 a.m., as an hour when prayer should be

offered for her recovery, and again I telephoned and
telegraphed friends to join me in prayer at that hour. At 9:30, I
knelt at her dying bed and called on the living God. The power
of God came upon her, thrilling her from head to foot. Her
paralysis was gone, her heart became normal, her cough
ceased, her breathing was regular, her temperature was normal.
The power of God was flowing through her person, seemingly
like the blood flows through the veins. As I prayed I heard a
sound from her lips. Not the sound of weakness as formerly,
but now a strong, clear voice, and she cried out, “Praise God, I
am healed!” With that, she caught the bed-clothing, threw them
back from her, and in a moment was out on the floor.

What a day! Shall I ever forget it, when the power of God
thrilled our souls, and the joy of God possessed our hearts at
her recovery?

The news spread throughout the city and the state, and the
nation. The newspapers discussed it. Our home became a
center of inquiry. People travelled for great distances to see her
and to talk with her. She was flooded with letters of inquiry.

A great new light had dawned in our soul. Our church had
diligently taught us that the days of miracles were past.
Believing thus, eight members of the family had been permitted
to die. But now, with the light of truth flashing in our hearts, we
saw that such teaching was a lie, no doubt invented by the
devil, and diligently heralded as truth by the church, thus
robbing mankind of his rightful inheritance through the blood
of Jesus.

Others came to our home. They said, “Since God has healed
you, surely He will heal us. Pray for us.” We were forced into it.
God answered, and many were healed. Many years have
passed since then, but no day has gone by in which God has
not answered prayer. People have been healed, not by ones
and twos, nor by hundreds, or even thousands, but by tens of
thousands. For I have devoted my life, day and night, to this
ministry.
Chapter II. How God Sent
John G. Lake to Africa
Eight years passed after God revealed Jesus the Healer to me.

I had been practicing the ministry of healing. During that eight

years every answer to prayer, every miraculous touch of God,
every response of my own soul to the Spirit had created within
me a more intense longing for an intimacy and a consciousness
of God, like I felt the disciples of Jesus and the primitive church
had possessed.

He Receives Special Anointing of the Spirit

Shortly after my entrance into the ministry of healing, while

attending a service where the necessity for the Baptism of the
Spirit was presented, as I knelt in prayer and reconsecration to
God, an anointing of the Spirit came upon me. Waves of Holy
Glory passed through my being, and I was lifted into a new
realm of God’s presence and power. After this, answers to
prayer were frequent and miracles of healing occurred from time
to time. I felt myself on the borderland of a great spiritual realm,
but was unable to enter in fully, so my nature was not satisfied
with the attainment.

Finally I was led to set aside certain hours of the day that I
dedicated to God, as times of meditation and prayer. Thus a
number of months passed, until one morning as I knelt praying
the Spirit of the Lord spoke within my spirit, and said, “Be
patient until autumn.” My heart rejoiced in this encouragement
and I continued my practice of meditation and prayer as
formerly. It became easy for me to detach myself from the
course of life, so that while my hands and mind were engaged
in the common affairs of every day, my spirit maintained its
attitude of communion with God.

At this time in addition to my work as minister of the Gospel, I

was engaged as a manager of agents for a life insurance
company. During the period of which I speak, I preached
practically every night. After the services I was in the habit of
joining a circle of friends who like myself were determined to
pray through into God where we could receive the Baptism of
the Holy Ghost, as we believed the early disciples had received
it. I said, “God, if you will baptize me in the Holy Spirit, and
give me the power of God, nothing shall be permitted to stand
between me and a hundred-fold obedience.”

How I Received the Baptism of the Holy Ghost

I prayed for the Baptism of the Holy Ghost for nine months,
and if a man ever prayed honestly and sincerely in the faith, I
did. Finally one day I was ready to throw up my hands and
quit. I said, “Lord, it may be for others, but it is not for me. You
just cannot give it to me.” I did not blame God.

One night a gentleman by the name of Pierce said, “Mr Lake, I

have been wishing for a long time you would come over and
we would spend a night in prayer together. We have been
praying for the Baptism for a whole year and there is not one of
us baptized yet. Brother, I do not believe that you are either, so
we can pray for one another.” I was so hungry to pray, so I
went with all the intentions of praying for the rest, but I had
not been praying five minutes until the light of God began to
shine around me. I found myself in a center of an arc of light
ten feet in diameter — the whitest light in all the universe. So
white! O how it spoke of purity. The remembrance of that
whiteness, that wonderful whiteness, has been the ideal that
has stood before my soul, of the purity of the nature of God
ever since.

A Voice Spoke Out of the Vision of Light

Then a Voice began to talk to me out of that light. There was no

form. And the Voice began to remind me of this incident and
that incident of disobedience to my parents, from a child; of my
obstinacy, and dozens of instances when God brought me up
to the line of absolutely putting my body, soul and spirit upon
the altar forever. I had my body upon the altar for ten years,
and I had been a minister of the Gospel. But when the Lord
comes, He opens to the soul the depths that have never been
touched in your life. Do you know that after I was baptized in
the Holy Ghost, things opened up in the depths of my nature
that had remained untouched in all my life, and that which was
shadowy, distant, and hazy became real. God got up close and
let His light shine into me.

Shortly after this experience, one afternoon a brother minister

called and invited me to accompany him to visit a lady who was
sick. Arriving at the home we found the lady in a wheel chair.
All her joints were set with inflammatory rheumatism. She had
been in the condition for ten years.

While my friend was conversing with her, preparing her to be

prayed with that she might be healed, I sat in a deep chair on
the opposite side of a large room. My soul was crying out to
God in a yearning too deep for words, when suddenly it
seemed to me that I had passed under a shower of warm
tropical rain, which was not falling upon me but through me.
My spirit and soul and body under this influence soothed into
such a deep still calm as I had never known. My brain, which
had always been so active, became perfectly still. An awe of
the presence of God settled over me. I knew it was God.

Some moments passed; I do not know how many. The Spirit

said, “I have heard your prayers, I have seen your tears. You
are now baptized in the Holy Spirit.” Then currents of power
began to rush through my being from the crown of my head to
the soles of my feet. The shocks of power increased in rapidity
and voltage. As these currents of power would pass through
me, they seemed to come upon my head, rush through my
body and through my feet into the floor. The power was so
great that my body began to vibrate intensely so that I believe
if I had not been sitting in such a deep low chair I might have
fallen upon the floor.

At that moment I observed my friend was motioning me to

come and join him in prayer for the woman who was sick. In
this absorption he had not noticed that anything had taken
place in me. I arose to go to him, but I found my body trembling
so violently that I had difficulty in walking across the room,
and especially in controlling the trembling of my hands and
arms. I knew that it would not be wise to thus lay my hands
upon the sick woman as I was likely to jar her. It occurred to me
that all that was necessary was to touch the tips of my fingers
on the top of the patient’s head and then the vibrations would
not jar her. This I did. At once the currents of holy power
passed through my being, and I knew that it likewise passed
through the one that was sick. She did not speak, but
apparently was amazed at the effect in her body.

My friend who had been talking to her in his great earnestness

had been kneeling as he talked to her. He arose saying, “Let us
pray that the Lord will now heal you.” As he did so he took her
by the hand. At the instant their hands touched, a flash of
dynamic power went through my person and through the sick
woman, and as my friend held her hand the shock of power
went through her hand into him. The rush of power into his
person was so great that it caused him to fall on the floor. He
looked up at me with joy and surprise and springing to his feet
said, “Praise the Lord, John, Jesus has baptized you in the
Holy Ghost!”

Then he took the crippled hand that had been set for so many
years. The clenched hands opened, and the joints began to
work, first the fingers, then the hand and the wrist, then the
elbow and shoulder.

These were the outward manifestations. But Oh! who could

describe the thrills of joy inexpressible that were passing
through my spirit? Who could comprehend the peace and
presence of God that thrilled my soul? Even at this late date,
the awe of that hour rests upon my soul. My experience has
truly been as Jesus said that He shall be within you “a well of
water, springing up into everlasting life.” That never-ceasing
fountain has flowed through my spirit, soul and body day and
night, bringing salvation and healing and the Baptism of the
Spirit in the power of God to multitudes.

The Result of the Holy Spirit Baptism

Shortly after my Baptism in the Holy Spirit, a working of the

Spirit commenced in me, that seemed to have for its purpose
the revelation of the nature of Jesus Christ to me and in me.
Through this tuition and remoulding of the Spirit a great
tenderness for mankind was to awaken in my soul. I saw
mankind through new eyes. They seemed to me as wandering
sheep, having strayed far, in the midst of confusion, groping
and wandering hither and thither. They had no definite aim and
did not seem to understand what the difficulty was or how to
return to God.

The desire to proclaim the message of Christ, and demonstrate

His power to save and bless, grew in my soul until my life was
swayed by this overwhelming passion.
 The Call Versus Business Interests

However, my heart was divided. I could not follow successfully

the ordinary pursuits of life and business. When a man came
into my office, though I knew that twenty or thirty minutes of
concentration on the business in hand would possibly net me
thousands of dollars, I could not discuss business with him.
By a new power of discernment I could see his soul,
understand his inner life and motives. I recognized him as one
of the wandering sheep, and longed in an overwhelming desire
to help him get to God for salvation and to find himself.

I determined to discuss the matter with the president of my

company. I frankly told him the condition of soul in which I
found myself and its cause. He kindly replied, “You have
worked hard, Lake. You need a change. Take a vacation for
three months, and if you want to preach, preach. But at the end
of three months $50,000.00 a year will look like a lot of money to
you, and you will have little desire to sacrifice it for the dreams
of religious possibilities.”

I thanked him, accepted an invitation to join a brother in

evangelistic work, and left the office, never to return.

During the three months, I preached every day to large

congregations, saw a multitude of people saved from their sins
and healed of their diseases, and hundreds of them baptized in
the Holy Ghost. At the end of three months, I said to God, “I
am through forever with everything in life but the proclamation
and demonstration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
I disposed of my estate and distributed my funds in a manner I
believed to be in the best interests of the Kingdom of God, and
made myself wholly dependent upon God for the support of
myself and my family, and abandoned myself to the preaching
of Jesus.

The Call to Africa

While ministering in a city in Northern Illinois, the chore boy at

the hotel where we were stopping was inquiring for someone to
assist him in sawing down a large tree. I volunteered to assist
him, and while in the act of sawing down the tree, the Spirit of
the Lord spoke within my spirit clear and distinctly, “Go to
Indianapolis. Prepare for winter campaign. Get a large hall. In
the Spring you will go to Africa.”

I went to Indianapolis. The Lord directed me in a marvellous

way, so that in a few days I had secured a large hall and was
conducting services as He directed. About this time the
following incident took place, which has had so much to do
with the success of my ministry ever since.

He Receives Power to Cast Out Demons

One morning when I came down to breakfast I found my

appetite had disappeared. I could not eat. I went about my
work as usual. At dinner I had no desire to eat, and no more in
the evening. This went on till the third day, but toward the
evening of the third day an overwhelming desire to pray took
possession of me. I wanted only to be alone to pray. Prayer
flowed from my soul like a stream. I could not cease praying.
As soon as it was possible to get a place of seclusion I would
kneel to pour out my heart to God for hours. Whatever I was
doing, that stream of prayer continued flowing from my soul.

On the night of the sixth day of this fast that the Lord had laid
on me, while in the act of washing my hands, the Spirit said to
me once again, “Go and pray.” I turned around and knelt by my
bedside. As I knelt praying, the Spirit said, “How long have
you been praying to cast out demons?” and I replied, “Lord a
long time.” And the Spirit said, “From henceforth thou shalt
cast out demons.” I arose and praised God.

The Case of the Demon-Possessed Man

The following night at the close of the service a gentleman

came to me, and pointing to a large red-letter motto on the wall,
which read, “In my name shall they cast out devils,” he asked,
“Do you believe that?” I replied, “I do.” He said, “Do not
answer hastily, for I have gone around the land seeking for a
minister who would tell me he believed that. Many said that
they did, but when I questioned them I found they wanted to
qualify the statement.” I said, “Brother, so far as I know my
soul, I believe it with all my heart.”

Then he continued, “I will tell you why I asked. Two and one-
half years ago my brother who was a manager of a large
elevator became violently insane. He was committed to the
asylum and is there today. Somehow he became possessed of
an evil spirit. Physicians who have examined him declare that
every function of his body and brain are apparently normal,
and they cannot account for his insanity.” I replied, “Brother,
bring him on.”

On Sunday in the midst of the service, the man came, attended

by the brother, the mother, and an attendant of the institution.

I stopped preaching, selected a half dozen persons who I knew

were people who had faith in God to join me in prayer for his
deliverance. I stepped from the platform, laid my hands on his
head, and in the Name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
commanded the devil that possessed him to come out of him.
The Spirit of God went through my being like a flash of
lightning. I knew in my soul that the evil spirit was cast out,
and was not surprised when in a moment the man raised his
head and spoke intelligently to me. A few days later he was
discharged from the institution, returned home a healed man
and resumed his former position as manager of a grain elevator.

Thus God verified His word to me, and from that day to this,
the power of God has remained upon my soul, and I have seen
hundreds of insane people delivered and healed.

Money Comes to Provide Passage to Africa

One day during the following February my preaching partner

said to me, “John, how much will it cost to take our party to
Johannesburg, South Africa?” I replied, “Two thousand
dollars.” He said, “If we are going to Africa in the Spring, it is
time you and I were praying for the money.” I said, “I have
been praying for the money ever since New Year. I have not
heard from the Lord or anyone else concerning it.” He added,
“Never mind, let’s pray again.” A few days later he returned
from the post office and threw out upon the table four $500
drafts saying, “John, there is the answer. Jesus has sent it. We
are going to Africa.”

We left Indianapolis on the first day of April 1908, my wife and

I and seven children and four others. We had our tickets to
Africa but no money for personal expenses en route except
$1.50. (At this point in the narrative Dr Lake relates several
remarkable providences of God which supplied their expenses
en route.)

Through my knowledge of the immigration laws of South

Africa, I knew that before we would be permitted to land, I must
show the immigration inspector that I was possessor of at least
$125.00. We prayed earnestly over this matter, and about the
time we reached the equator a rest came into my soul
concerning it. I could pray no more.

About eight or ten days later we arrived in Cape Town harbour,

and our ship anchored. The immigration inspector came on
board and the passengers lined up at the purser’s office to
present their money and receive their tickets to land. My wife
asked, “What are you going to do?” I said, “I am going to line
up with the rest. We have obeyed God thus far. It is now up to
the Lord. If they send us back we cannot help it.”

As I stood in line awaiting my turn, a fellow passenger touched

me on the shoulder and indicated to me to step out of line, and
come over to the ship’s rail to speak with him. He asked some
questions, and then drew from his pocket a traveller’s check-
book, and handed me two money orders aggregating $200.00. I
stepped back into line, presented my orders to the inspector
and received our tickets to land.

God Provides Them a Home in Africa

Johannesburg is one thousand miles inland from Cape Town.

Throughout the voyage and on the train we earnestly prayed
about the subject of a home. We were faith missionaries. We
had neither a board nor friends behind us to furnish money. We
were dependent on God. Many times during the trip to
Johannesburg we bowed our heads and reminded God that
when we arrived there, we should need a home. God blessed
and wondrously answered our prayer.

Upon our arrival at Johannesburg I observed a little woman

bustling up. She said, “You are an American missionary
party?” The reply was, “Yes.” Addressing me she said, “How
many are there in your family?” I answered, “My wife, myself
and seven children.” “O,” she said, “you are the family. The
Lord has sent me to meet you, and I want to give you a home.”

That same afternoon we were living in a furnished cottage in

the suburbs, the property of our beloved benefactor, Mrs C. L.
Goodenough, of Johannesburg, who remains to this day our
beloved friend and fellow worker in the Lord.
Chapter III. Historic Revival
in South Africa
(The story of the epic revival in South Africa would fill many
volumes if it could be fully told. We have to pick up the thread
of the story from different sources. We are deeply indebted to
W. F. Burton who has kindly given us permission to use this
material from his book When God Makes a Pastor.)

In April 1908, a party of Spirit-filled men and women called of

God set out from Indianapolis, to carry the full gospel to South
Africa.

Though seventeen started, a number of them stayed in

England, on the way out and only Mr and Mrs Lake, with their
children, Mr and Mrs Hezmelhalch, Mr Lehman and a Miss
Sackett arrived in Johannesburg, at the commencement of the
work. A number of other workers followed later.

Tom Hezmelhalch had been a preacher in the American

Holiness Church and had joined Lake in a successful
evangelistic campaign in Zion City just prior to their sailing.

John Lake had been an elder in the Zion Apostolic Church

when Dowie was at the height of his power. He was a man of
strong, forceful personality, who would have made his way to
the fore in any situation. On leaving America, he left behind
him a successful business, arranging for his brother to settle
his affairs. Also Hezmelhalch had had land in California, but
sold it in order to leave for Africa unencumbered.

Lehman was the only one of the party who had previously
visited Africa. He had been preaching to the natives for five
years and was able to speak in Zulu.

There was absolutely no organization behind these men. A

friend gave them two thousand dollars at the last moment, but
it did not go very far with a party of seventeen, though they
were able to secure tickets all the way from Indianapolis to
Johannesburg for the ridiculously small sum of twenty-five
pounds each.

Lake had known Overseer Bryant, of the Zion Apostolic

Church in South Africa, and this elder had urged his flock to
seek a deeper experience in God, and to pray to be baptized in
the Holy Ghost. He had thus to some extent prepared the way
for revival that followed. Bryant, however, had been recalled by
Dowie and had actually passed this first party on the high
seas.

From the very start it was as though a spiritual cyclone had

struck Doornfontein. Before many weeks, scores were saved
and filled with the Holy Spirit, and hundreds were healed.

A little boy of four years old had been given up by four

doctors. The poor little fellow had a hopeless curvature of the
spine, but within two weeks of his being prayed for, he was
absolutely healed.
One man of desperately bad character, a spiritualist, came
under conviction of sin and found his way into the hall. Soon
he heard an audible voice telling him, “Go and ask Lake to pray
for you.” Leaping over the prostrate natives about him, he
went forward and said, “Man of God, God says you must pray
for me.” Lake and Hezmelhalch placed their hands on him, and
in a minute he was saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, and
praising God in new tongues.

Among others who had entered the hall was the governess of
Johannesburg’s chief Jewish Rabbi, and she was amazed to
hear this ex-spiritualist extolling the Lord in pure Hebrew.

His brother, a stationmaster, was believed to be a man of

irreproachable character; and he too became hungry. However,
though he prayed and pleaded with God for blessing, nothing
happened. He became desperate and began to realize that he
must make a clean breast of much secret sin in his life.

At last in a meeting which lasted till four in the morning, the

stationmaster drew from his pockets a watch and handful of
money, placing these on one side, and within a few minutes he
was filled with the Holy Spirit. Those present recognized the
German language. Afterwards it transpired that the money he
had set aside was some of which he had taken from natives, by
charging them more than was just for their tickets, while the
watch had fallen out of somebody’s suitcase; and instead of
returning it, he had kept it. Since the stolen property could not
be returned to its owners, it was handed to the evangelists for
their work.

A feature of the work was the demonstrations of answered

prayer. A woman had been deserted by her husband, a
prominent retired government official. She had no idea where
he was, but asked for prayer that God would bring him back
and save him from drink. This man was away in another part of
the country but at the very time prayer was offered, he was
smitten with such conviction that in three days he was home;
and better still he was delivered from drink and saved by the
power of God.

In this way, prayer offered in Johannesburg was answered

away in the Free State of Natal, so that the news spread like
wildfire and people came seeking God from distant parts of the
country.

Many were so hungry that though the meetings ended late,

they would accompany the preachers to their homes to talk and
ask more about the things of God. Often the day broke and still
they were teaching, answering questions and praying for the
sick. In the daytime it was even better. One would find people
on the tramcars and in the streets, with their Bibles, talking
about these wonderful miracles and showing each other the
scriptural foundation for such works.

At times the crush was so great, and the sick needing prayer
were so many that Mrs Lake had no time to prepare the food.
Indeed they had to arrange to usher the people in at the front
door, pray for them as they went through the house, and then
show them out at the back to make room for more.

Among the earliest homes to open for meetings and to help the
work and workers were those of the families of Vander Byl and
Stuart. These people had been connected with the Christian
Catholic Apostolic Church in Zion and were hungry for God’s
best at any price. When the little hall at Doornfontein became
hopelessly small, fifteen simultaneous cottage meetings were
arranged in different parts of the town with a big central
“powerhouse” prayer meeting at the Schuman home.

All this was settled, however, and as they ministered together,

it was wonderful to see the perfect understanding which each
had of the other. Often if Lake were preaching, Hezmelhalch
would step forward, and say, “Wait a bit, John, and let me
explain that point.”

Then, a few minutes later, Lake would call, “Now, hold on a

while, Brother Tom, while I clinch that point.”

In this way frequently each would speak five or six times in the
course of a meeting, and nobody could tell actually where the
one message ended and the other began. It was all one ministry
in the Spirit.

At this time much of the Rand mine labour was done by

Chinamen. Now it happened that a big Chinaman, whom
nobody seemed to know by any other name than that of John,
had come all the way from China, entirely trusting God to
supply his needs that he might evangelize among his fellow-
countrymen in the mines. He was a fine, intelligent man, and
spoke English well, while he was much respected for his
integrity and evident sincerity of purpose.

The missionary John Ingham brought John along to the

meetings to see and hear for himself. There was much that was
new and amazing to the Chinaman, and his mind was in a
quandary as to whether this was really of God or not. Thus he
lifted his heart to God to show him very clearly and
unmistakably whether it was His work.

A moment later a little girl stood before him, and said, “This
work is of God.” Moreover she said this in perfect Chinese.
This was a threefold miracle. It was miraculous that she should
have been led directly to him. It was equally amazing that she
should have answered the very question that was in his heart.
Moreover it was more wonderful still that she should address
him perfectly in a language she had never learned.

So impressed was John the Chinaman with this that he asked

God to fill him too with the Holy Spirit, and after receiving the
Comforter, he went back to carry the good news to his own
people in China.

The demonstrations of healing at this time, stirred not only

Johannesburg, but the country at large. The sick would come
up on to the platform on one side, weak and suffering, and
would go off the other side shouting, “God has healed me,” at
the same time leaving their crutches and trusses behind, while
the crowd cheered and shouted with joy.
Almost all the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church in
Johannesburg came into this great blessing, though those at
Pretoria held aloof. However the brothers were now asked to
hold meetings in the Zion Church in Bree Street. It was a
commodious building, holding some six hundred.

Soon the revival tide was rising at Bree Street. Not a meeting
passed without the demonstration of the Spirit’s power. A deaf
and dumb child brought from Potschefstroom was healed as
the people looked on. He declared later that he saw Jesus come
and touch his ears and tongue. For a time he was quite
bewildered at the noise he heard around him for the first time in
his life.

Once after an inspired address almost the whole congregation

moved forward to the penitent form, when a big man fell near
the front in an epileptic seizure. Like a flash Lake was off the
platform, and at his side, rebuking the demon in the name of
Jesus, and then he quietly returned to the platform, but the
work was done. The fit was cut short, and the man never had
another.

God was at work mightily, but so was the devil. At times

pandemonium reigned, and while the people were being saved
and blessed in the front of the hall, godless opposers were
shrieking and jeering at the back.

One night two men brought bulldogs to the back of the hall, to
create a panic, but instead of the dogs interfering with the
people they went at each other. This so enraged their owners
that they too rushed at each other, and eventually withdrew
without having done anything but harm each other.

Another night a woman struggled up to the platform on

crutches and told Lake that she had been to Johannesburg’s
best doctors, but was none the better. She was now under
treatment from a hypnotist.

“Where is the man now?” asked Lake.

“He is there in the front,” she answered.

Lake stepped to the front of the platform, and thundered, “You

hypnotic devil, come out of him,” and then later, “and never
enter into him anymore.”

The man made good his escape as soon as possible, and the
woman stepped off the platform, perfectly healed.

Next day the man was back, pleading, “Lake, I will give you a
big sum of money if you will give me back my power to
hypnotize.”

Lake told him, “Man, I didn’t take it away. God took it from you.
Thank Him that you are rid of it. You will never hypnotize
another man as long as you live, so go and earn an honest
living.”

Few people understood the meaning of living by faith, and as

there were no collections, the preachers and their families often
went hungry. They were so big-hearted that they would pick
up drunken men off the streets, and take them home, clean
them up, and get them saved.

One drug addict had several sons all of whom came into the
light. They prayed for him, but he did not get deliverance. Then
Lake said that he would like all the sons to spend the night
with him, in prayer and fasting for their father’s deliverance,
and before morning the accursed craving for drugs had left him
forever, and he was a saved man.

This man had a farm in the Northern Transvaal, and it was thus
that the news of this great revival reached that part of the
country.

Many people from other denominations came to be healed and

to be filled with the Holy Spirit, carrying the testimony back to
their churches.

On one occasion two young women came to the back of the

hall to scoff and create a disturbance. Suddenly one was struck
down as by an unseen hand, and fell to the floor, apparently
dead. Whereupon her sister went to call Lake, saying, “Man of
God, we have sinned, but forgive us and restore my sister.”

Lake prayed for her. She was raised up at once, and both the
young women were soundly converted.

So mightily did the power of God rest upon the preachers at

this time that even as Lake shook hands with the people, on
entering the hall, they would fall to the ground, under the
Spirit’s unction.

On one occasion a brother came asking for prayer on behalf of

his sister, who was in a lunatic asylum in England. Later it was
proved, that at the very moment they prayed in the Bree Street
Hall, the woman was instantly and completely delivered from
insanity in England.

Of course the opposers of the truth credited all this to

hypnotism, though we have already seen how opposed, Lake’s
attitude was to the hypnotist.

However, an enraged mob entered the back of the hall one

night, with pick handles and other weapons, saying what they
were going to “do for that hypnotist.”

The preachers continued their service as though there were

nothing wrong, and at the end Lake walked quietly and
lovingly up to the men who were waiting to brain him, holding
out his hand, and saying, “God bless you.” He walked through
the midst of them, and not a soul could lift his hand to do him
harm.

The whole revival at this time was so intensely dramatic that it

would be difficult to describe the thousands who were saved
and the amazing healings which took place by scores.

Lake’s name was on everyone’s lips. One day he was passing a

crowd that stood about a fallen horse. The poor animal had
been struck by the shaft of a passing cart, and was bleeding to
death. Someone saw Lake and shouted, “Why doesn’t this
man do something for it?”

Lake took this as a challenge, and stepping up to the horse,

removed his hat, and signalled the crowd for silence. Then
kneeling, he placed his hand over the spot from which the
blood was pouring, and simply said, “In the mighty name of the
Lord Jesus Christ.”

After this he quietly made his way through the crowd, and was
gone, but a moment later the bleeding stopped and the horse
stood on its feet.

One of the many who flocked to Bree Street to investigate was

a keen member of the Johannesburg Criminal Investigation
Department, as smart a body of men as one could meet.

This man was well acquainted with the “crooks” and criminals
of the town, and to his amazement he saw the worst of them
coming night after night. Here was a wife-beater, there a buyer
of stolen gold. Diamond smugglers, and illicit liquor runners,
burglars, touts for the houses of ill fame, harlots, and “drunks”
- they flocked to the penitent forms and became new creatures
in Christ Jesus.

“Hello! Charlie, they tell me you are going to the mad folk.”

The man addressed was struggling along the street on

crutches. As a boy he had been struck on the head by a stone
from a catapult. Later his hand had been caught in a machine,
cutting the tendons of the wrist, and finally his foot and leg
had been irreparably damaged under the fall of a heavy pulley.
His wife had struggled to keep the home together for him and
for the baby girl. Often his ears and nose would run with
offensive pus. The hand hung loose and helpless and after
months in a hospital the Johannesburg doctors had discharged
him as incurable. The poor man had contemplated suicide, for it
seemed as though he was useless and a drag upon his noble
wife.

Day after day she worked to keep their wee home intact, and
now at last a new hope had dawned as they heard of healing
for everyone who would come to Jesus.

“Yes!” answered Charlie. “I’m going to the mad people, and

what’s more I believe that I shall soon walk and work again.”

That night his wife went to bed, tired out, while Charlie went to
the meeting. As the invitation was given, a great faith rose in
his heart, and he limped forward to the platform. They anointed
him, and a moment later the power of God went through his
being like a flame, and he found that he was healed. The crowd
cheered, and Charlie went running and jumping home to tell his
wife.

She was awakened by someone vaulting backwards and

forwards across the table. She went cold with fear, thinking that
a drunken native must have found his way into the house.
Opening her door very cautiously, she peered through the
chink into the dining room, and to her amazement she saw her
husband, who a couple of hours before had left the house on
crutches, now healed and delirious with delight and shouting
glory to Jesus.

The crutches had been left behind. He had no further need for
them, and the next day the man who had jeered at Charlie for
“going to the mad people,” saw him walking boldly down the
street, on a perfectly sound pair of legs, while shortly
afterwards his head and hand were also healed by the Lord.

It is strange to realize that during this time with thousands

being saved and healed, the little missionary party was often in
the direst need. It is true that some faithful souls would
occasionally leave a basket of food at the door, or help with
clothing for the big Lake family. Yet on the whole the people
did not think of the supplies, believing that Lake must be
supported by some society overseas.

Then one day a lady was led to call Mrs Lake aside and to put
ten shillings into her hand, apologizing that it was so small a
sum.

“Small!” remarked Mrs Lake, “why even a tickey (a threepenny

bit) would be welcome.” They had not a penny in the house.

A few months later Mrs Lake died. The splendid woman had
literally given her life for the work. Again and again that noble
pair had put their hands into their pockets, and given their last
half crown to some poor soul whom they considered more
needy, or less able to trust God than they.

People were saved thousands of pounds in doctors’ fees, and

even better; they were restored in health and limb, in a way
which meant more to them than priceless gold; yet few ever
thought of giving the preachers a helping hand.

Meetings were held successively in a Hebrew school, a picture

house, and a motor training college, all of which meant the
paying of heavy rents, so that those outside the little band
thought that the preachers must have large resources or they
could not maintain such places. All the while greater and more
dramatic miracles were seen.

A man named Swanepoel was working down in one of the Rand

gold mines, when a blasting cartridge discharged prematurely,
knocking him backwards and bursting his eye. He was carried
to the hospital where the doctors declared that the remains of
the eye must be removed at once.

However, Swanepoel had heard of the remarkable answers to

prayer in Lake’s meetings and asked if he might be taken to
John Lake before he decided to have the eye removed. He was
warned that a delay might not only involve the eye, but might
even mean his death. However he was taken to Lake in an
agony of suffering. Lake helped him out of the cab, and took
him for prayer into a room where a few Christians were
gathered. The bandage was removed, and as prayer was
offered, one of those present looked curiously into the face of
the suffering man. To his amazement he saw the scattered
fragments of the eye gradually draw together as by an unseen
hand, and by the time “Amen” was uttered, the eye was once
more perfect and the pain gone!

Swanepoel at once returned to the hospital and showed the

doctors a perfect pair of eyes.

On one occasion they were called to the bedside of a dying

girl, Miss Maggie Truter. By the time they reached her, life was
practically extinct. However, the workers gave themselves to
prayer. For some hours nothing happened. Some of the
Christians present were overcome by unbelief and left, even
telling Lake that it was useless and heartless to continue to
raise false hopes in the relatives. Life had gone. The body was
stiff and cold. They must own up that they had failed.

Nevertheless, Lake’s soul was filled with a mighty faith, and a

conviction that the deliverance of this girl would be for the
glory of the Lord Jesus and the vindication of His Word. Thus
he prayed on, till those stood looking on declared that they
saw pallor give way to freshness and warmth. Presently the
body stirred. Maggie Truter sat up, and to the time of the
writing of this report some twenty-five years later, she is still
living, a miraculous testimony to the power of the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ.

Let it be fairly stated, however, that soul healing was always

given the preference to the healing of the body. The taking
away of nature’s infirmities was always held as subsidiary to
the taking away of sin. Old debts were paid, restitution was
made for past wrong, and those who had been “living on the
booze” began to live respectable lives through faith in the Lord
Jesus.
Chapter IV. Remarkable
Events in the Ministry of
John G. Lake
In the beginning of 1909, Dr Lake met Bishop Furze, the Bishop
of the Church of England for Africa. He arranged a series of
meetings for Church of England ministers to receive from the
evangelist teaching along the lines of divine healing. These
meetings were largely attended by ministers of this church,
who came from all over the land to be present. They resulted in
the establishment of the Emanuel Society for the practice of
divine healing by the ministry of the Church of England in
Africa. Dr Lake tells about the results of these meetings:

The Challenge at Lourdes, France

The meetings of this society resulted in the sending of a

committee from England, of Church of England ministers to
examine and report upon my work. I later accompanied that
committee to England and conducted similar meetings in
London for the Church of England ministers. These meetings
were under the direction of Bishop Ingram, Bishop of London.

The conference authorized a committee to visit all the

institutions of repute along healing lines in Europe both
psychic and spiritual. In company with this committee I visited
healing institutions in London. We then went to Lourdes,
France. There we visited a Catholic institution where they heal
by the waters of Lourdes and where they maintained a board of
200 physicians, whose business it was to examine all
candidates and report upon them.

At Lourdes we also visited the greatest hypnotic institution for

healing in the world. This institution sent its representatives to
demonstrate their method before the Catholic Board of 200
physicians, and hearing of our committee, invited us to come
before this body and give demonstrations along our lines. I
agreed to take part, if I were given the final demonstration. The
committee selected five candidates, people pronounced
absolutely incurable. The hypnotists tried their several
methods without success. I then had the five candidates
placed in chairs in a row upon the platform in view of this large
audience of physicians and scientists. I prayed over each one
of them separately, at the same time laying my hands upon
them. Three were instantly healed, a fourth recovered in a few
days, and one died.

I returned to the United States for six months, holding

evangelistic services in Chicago, Portland, Oakland, and Los
Angeles, for the purpose of collecting a party of missionaries
to take back with me to South Africa. I obtained eight men but
needed $3,000 for their expenses. I had not a cent nor any in
sight. While in Portland I went alone to my room and prayed
for this money and received an immediate assurance that my
prayer would be answered. Four days later on the night I
closed my meetings in Portland, I found at my hotel a letter
from George B Studd of Los Angeles, California. I quote: “My
dear Lake, There has been a windfall in your favour today. A
person who does not wish to be known gave me a draft of
$3,000 saying, ‘God wants me to give this to Lake of South
Africa. Am sending you, enclosed, therefore, a draft for $3,005,
the $5 being my personal contribution.”

I returned to South Africa with my missionary party in January

1910. We went via London, England, and I preached in the
church of Dr F B Meyer. I visited Campbell Morgan and was
invited to speak for his weekly classes as my dates prevented
my filling his pulpit upon any Sunday.

In 1910 the African fever ravaged the Waterburg and Zuit-

kansberg districts. In less than a month, one-quarter of the
black and white population died. All agencies of every
character were called into action to do their best to overcome
this epidemic. I went down there with assistants; four of these
died. One of my nurses was sent home in a dying condition
and recovered, but I never had a touch of the disease.

I never have had any kind of disease, though I have waited on

and even buried people who have had the Bubonic plague —
people for whom the officials offered as high as $1000 for
women to nurse them. I did it without any remuneration
whatever.

After studying the epidemic situation in South Africa I came to

the conclusion that a special message was necessary. I went
100 miles to a telegraph station and spent $40 on a telegram to
Louis Botha, Premier of Transvaal, outlining the situation. The
next day I received a telegram from him saying, “100 ox-wagons
with their attendants on the road with orders to follow your
instructions.” (Each of these wagons were drawn by 16 oxen.)

On my return to Johannesburg, I was invited by Botha to visit

Pretoria. While there, the Transvaal Parliament passed
resolutions recognizing my services.

When the South African States joined together in a Union

similar to those of Canada, Botha became National Premier by
appointment by the King of England, who instructed him to
organize a Cabinet and call elections for a Parliament. At his
request, I outlined a native policy and submitted it to the
Government. On receipt of this I was invited to come to Cape
Town and address the Parliament on this issue. I did so —
something remarkable for an American in a foreign country. I
framed the policy in harmony with our American policy
involving the Indian tribes, having as an example the mistakes
of the United States and other nations in regard to their
handling of the native nations. This policy, as outlined by me,
was practically adopted by the Boer party in toto.

The Request from Queen Wilhelmina of Holland

Queen Wilhelmina of Holland entered the state of motherhood

six times but was never able to carry the child to maturity. All
the science of Europe could not bring the child to birth. There
was a dear lady in our congregation in South Africa who had
formerly been a nurse to Queen Wilhelmina. Her son was
marvellously healed when dying of African fever, after he had
been unconscious for six weeks.

Being a friend of the queen’s, she wrote the story of her son’s
healing, and after some correspondence we received a written
request that we pray God that she might be a real mother. I
brought her letter before the congregation one Sunday night,
and the congregation went down to prayer. And before I arose
from my knees, I turned around and said, “All right mother, you
write and tell the queen God has heard our prayer; she will bear
a child.” Less than a year later the child was born, the present
Queen Juliana of Holland. Kings and queens are only men and
women. They need the redemption of Jesus and are a mighty
poor article without it.

The Miracle Ministry of William T. Dugan

One Sunday afternoon a tall Englishman walked into my church

in Johannesburg, South Africa. He had a top of red hair that
made him as conspicuous as a lion. He walked up the aisle and
took a seat quite near the front. My old preaching partner was
endeavouring to explain the mighty power of the living Christ
as best he could, and this man sat listening. Presently he arose,
saying, “Sir, if the things you are talking about are all right, I am
your candidate.”

He added, “I used to be a Christian, but I came to Africa and

lived the usual African life and the result is that for three years
I have been unable to do anything and my physicians say I am
incurable. Tell me what to do!”
My old partner asked, “John, what shall we do?” I replied, “Call
him up; we shall pray for him right now.” We stepped off the
platform, put our hands on William T Dugan, and instantly - as
a flash of lightning blasting a tree or rock - the power of God
went through the man’s being, and the Lord Jesus Christ made
him well.

A few days afterward he came to my house in the middle of the

day and said, “Lake, I want you to show me how to get a clean
heart.” I took the Word of God and went through it with him to
show him the mighty, cleansing, sanctifying power of the living
God in a man’s heart. Before he left he knelt by a chair and
consecrated his life to God.

Three months passed. One day he called and said, “I have a

call from God.” I knew it was. There was no mistaking it. The
wonder of it was in his soul. He went down into the country
where a great epidemic of fever raged. Some weeks afterward I
began to receive word that people were being healed.
Hundreds of them! Thousands of them! One day I concluded I
would go down and join in the same work a couple of hundred
miles from where he was. Somehow the news travelled to him
where I was, and he came there.

The next afternoon we called at the home of a man who said his
wife was sick with diabetes. We prayed for the wife and several
other persons who were present. Then a man stepped out into
the kitchen and asked, “Would you pray for a woman like
this?” When I looked at her I saw she had club feet. The right
foot was on an angle of 45 degrees and the left at right angles.

Dugan replied, “Yes. Pray for anybody.” He said to her, “Sit

down,” and taking the club foot in his hands he said, “In the
name of Jesus Christ become natural.” And I want to tell you
that man is in the glory presence of God today and I am going
to stand there with him some day. Before I had a chance to take
a second breath that foot commenced to move, and the next
instant that foot was straight!

Then he took up the other foot saying, “In the name of Jesus
Christ become natural.” Beloved, it was not the voice of the
man, nor the confidence of his soul, but the mighty divine life
of Jesus Christ that flashed through him and melted that foot
into softness and caused it instantly to become normal by the
power of God.

We have not even begun to touch the fringes of the knowledge

of the power of God. However, I want to encourage your
hearts. I am glad we can say what perhaps has never been said
in the Christian world from the days of the apostles to the
present time, that since the opening of this work in Spokane,
about sixteen months ago, ten thousand people have been
healed by the power of God.

Von Shield was a book agent in South Africa. He began to

attend our meetings, and one day when I was not present he
came forward out of the audience and knelt at the altar and
sought God for a conscious knowledge of salvation, and bless
God, he received it.
Some days after that when I was present and teaching at an
afternoon service, he raised up in his seat and said, “Lake do
you suppose that if God gave me the baptism of the Holy Spirit
it would satisfy the burning yearning that is in my soul for
God?” I replied, “My son, I don’t know that it would, but I
think it would go a long piece on the way.”

So without more ado he came forward, knelt and looking up

said to me, “Lay your hands on my head and pray.” And as I
did the Spirit of God descended in an unusual manner. He was
baptized in the Holy Ghost very wonderfully indeed and
became a transformed man. From that hour that man was a
living personification of the power of God. All my life I have
never found one through whom such majestic intense flashes
of power would come at intervals as through that soul.

Presently he disappeared. His father came to me, saying, “I am

troubled about Harry. He took a Bible and went off into the
mountains almost three weeks ago. I am afraid he is going
insane.” I answered, “Brother, do not worry yourself. One of
these days he will come down in the power and glory of God.” I
knew what was in that fellow’s heart.

One day he returned under such an anointing of the Spirit as I

have never before witnessed on any life. Not long after that he
came to me and said, “Brother Lake, did you know this was in
the Bible?” And he proceeded to read to me that familiar verse
in the 16th chapter of Mark: “These signs shall follow them
that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils.” Looking
up into my face with great earnestness, he said, “My! I wish I
knew somebody that had a devil!”

An Amazing Case of Deliverance

I believe God had planned that situation, for I was reminded

that in my mail a couple of days before had come a request for
an insane son. The mother wrote, “As far as I can tell my son
has a devil,” and her request was that we might come and pray
that the devil might be cast out. He said, “Why this is only a
couple or three blocks from where I live. I am going to find this
fellow and then I am coming back for you.”

I said to myself, “Here is a newborn soul, whose vision enters

into the real realm of God-power.” I realized that my own spirit
had not touched the degree of faith that was in that soul and I
said to myself, “I do not want to say a word or do a thing that
will discourage that soul in the least.”

Presently he came back and said, “Brother Lake, come on.” We

went and found a boy who had been mad from his birth; he
was like a wild animal. He would not wear clothes and would
smash himself or anybody else with anything that was given
him. He couldn’t even have a dish from which to eat. But in the
center of the enclosure where he was they had a large stone
hollowed out and they would put his food in that and let him
eat it just like an animal.

We tried to catch him, but he was wild as a lion. He would jump

right over my head. Finally his father said, “You will not catch
him out there.” I had been somewhat of an athlete in my youth
and I said to Von Shield, “You get on one side and if he comes
to your side you will take care of him, and if he comes to my
side I will take care of him.”

Now beloved, this all sounds strange I know, but I’ll never
forget that afternoon as long as I live. As I looked across to
that young man I could see the lightning flash of faith, and I
knew that if he got his hands on that man the devil would come
out.

Presently he landed on my side of the bed, and in an instant

Von Shield sprang over the bed, laid his hands on his head and
commanded the devil to come out. In two minutes that man was
absolutely transformed, and was a sane man, the first moment
of sanity he ever knew.

The Strange Challenge of Von Shield

One more incident in the man’s life that will help you to realize
what God had done for him. The Boer people were a pioneer
people. They did not have the advantages of good schools.
About the only educated person in a community was the
Dutch predicant. He was a real aristocrat with all the authority
that the priests of Ireland exercised over the people there. One
day Von Shield was conducting a service with a couple of
hundred people present. The predicant was there. He arose as
he was teaching and told the people that they were being
misled, and that these things Von Shield was talking about were
only calculated for the days of the apostles.
If Von Shield had been an ordinary young man he would have
been somewhat nonplussed, but presently he said, “I will tell
you how we will settle this thing. There is Miss LeRoux whom
we all know. She is stone blind in one eye, and has been for
four years. I will ask her to come here and I will lay hands upon
her and ask the Lord Jesus to make her well,” picking up his
Dutch Bible, he said to her, “And when He heals you, you will
read that chapter,” designating the chapter she was to read.

God Almighty met the fellow’s faith; the woman’s eye opened
right then, and she stood before that congregation and
covering the good eye, read with the eye that had been blind,
the entire chapter.
Chapter V. Elias Letwaba, the
Man Who Carried on the
Work
Dr Lake returned to America in 1913 following the death of his
wife, but who was to carry on this great work? God was in fact
preparing a man, a humble man by the name of Elias Letwaba.
The Lake story would be incomplete if we did not relate how
God raised up this man to carry on the work, and of the Patmos
Bible School he founded that has sent out many thousands of
trained workers to evangelize Africa.

Elias Letwaba was about fourteen years of age when he was

given three books by a white man who had employed him
briefly as an oxen lead boy. One of the books was a dog-eared
copy of the New Testament. His heart warmed as he read the
story of the God of love. When he reached the age of fourteen
he was scheduled to be initiated into the tribal puberty rites.
These rites involved much pain. He did not shrink from that,
but he felt that the vicious knowledge imparted to the boys
during their initiation was wrong. When he refused to go
through with it, he was looked upon as a pariah.

While some sympathized with him and would have liked to hear
more about the story of Jesus, all of them feared evil spells
from the witch doctors who wanted no part of Christianity.
One day a terrible flood struck that part of the country.
Letwaba was standing near the river’s edge, when an old man
tried to cross the stream at a certain commonly used ford. But
the ford had been washed out, and the old man was swept into
the river. Letwaba dived in to rescue the old man and
succeeded in dragging him out. When consciousness returned
to the man, trembling with weakness and emotion he said,
“Thank you son. God certainly sent you to rescue me.”

Letwaba at that moment knew that God had called him to

rescue many souls. For five years he studied the Word of God
zealously, and at the same time mastered several languages.

Then at the age of nineteen he started out with his little brother
of fourteen. It wasn’t difficult for them to follow Christ’s
instructions that He gave to the Seventy to “carry neither
purse, nor scrip, nor shoes,” for they never had worn shoes,
nor had they ever had more than a few pennies at a time. When
he went to the first village to preach, the witch doctor expelled
him. In the days which followed he suffered persecutions. He
was beaten, stoned, and several times narrowly escaped death
from savage animals.

Leaving the village, he went down to the river, sat on a stone

and watched some bull alligators locked in a roaring battle.
Suddenly he heard a group of angry men led by a scowling,
powerfully built long-armed warrior coming toward him. The
man looked at him for a moment and then said, “The witch
doctor has sent me to kill you. Get to your feet.”
“You will not kill me,” Letwaba said.

“You must die,” said the warrior. “Our gods the crocodiles
await your coming with hungry bellies.”

“Those are not gods,” Letwaba said. “My God is good and all
powerful. He will not permit you to slay me, for He has a work
for me to do.”

With that the huge servant of the witch doctor leaped at

Letwaba, who had dropped to his knees in prayer. The big man
missed and unable to check his rush, stumbled headlong over
the kneeling man and fell into the river. The crocodiles ceased
their struggle and moved toward him. Letwaba quickly waded
into the river and taking hold of the warrior’s foot pulled him
out just as the alligators came chomping with their empty jaws.

The servant whose name was Rhino said, “Your God knocked
me into the river. Why did you save me from the crocodiles?”

“Because God loves you,” was the answer. The warrior quite
subdued asked Letwaba to teach him about God. And for two
weeks he stayed near the village explaining the New Testament
to him.

For years Letwaba traveled the trails of the forest visiting

hundreds of villages and kraals. Barefoot and penniless he
climbed the mountains, forded the rushing streams, invaded
the forest jungles to carry the message of the love of God. In
some places he was received with joy; in other places he was
stoned and driven away. He had thousands of converts but
was unsatisfied. Somehow he felt he lacked the power he
needed. After working weeks with converts in their new way of
life, he would return to the village to find that many had
reverted to the ways of the jungle. This gave him a feeling of
guilt. He felt that somehow he was leaving something vital out
of his teaching.

Letwaba Meets Dr Lake

It was about this time that Letwaba came in contact with Dr

Lake and his partner Tom Hezmelhalch. In the very first meeting
a mighty faith began to rise in the young man’s breast. He said
to himself, “At last I am to find that for which I have longed.”

But he was hardly prepared for what he was to see. He had

never dared to hope to witness such demonstrations of divine
power. There was a love, a heavenliness, an all-embracing
tenderness to which Letwaba had been a stranger. He had been
accompanied to the meetings by friends, and to one of these,
on the way, he confided his great yearnings of heart as follows:
“John Muruani, if I do not get what I want now, I shall die. My
soul simply cries out for a real victory over sin. I am tired of
seeing ministers drinking and smoking, while at the same time
preaching the gospel. Better that we leave religion rather than
continue preaching while at the same time living a powerless,
sinful life. I don’t want theory. I want reality. I want God.”

And the seeker found what he wanted. Lake put his arm about
the black man’s neck and kissed him, calling him “My brother,”
while many of the unconverted white men in the hall booed and
hissed at him, shouting, “Bah! Fancy kissing a black man! He
may be your brother but he’s not mine,” and similar
expressions of disapproval and contempt.

Lake turned on the crowd like a flash, and shouted, “My

friends, God has made of one blood all nations of men!’ (Acts
17:26). If you don’t want to acknowledge them as your
brothers, then you’ll have the mortification of going away into
eternal woe, while you see many of these black folk going to
eternal bliss. ‘Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and
ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him’!” (I
John 3:15).

Then holding out his hand to Letwaba once more, he said,

“Brother, I’m glad to welcome you into our midst.”

The furore and hissing increased, and many shouted, “Put out
the black devils. Kick them into the street.”

However Lake, with his hand still upon Letwaba’s shoulder,

said quite calmly, “If you turn out these men, then you must
turn me out, too, for I will stand by my black brethren.”

Letwaba was accustomed to insult and reproach. Indeed every

black man in South Africa had been made to feel it more or less.
But such love, such uncompromising conviction and speech
from a white preacher were absolutely new to him; and it won
his heart, while at the same time it subdued the gainsayers until
they sank into a sullen silence.
In the course of the meeting Letwaba noticed the liberty of the
Spirit. It is true that the leaders kept a quiet, firm hold of
proceedings, but anyone who was moved by the Spirit had the
opportunity to speak, testify, give messages in tongues or
prophesy.

God confirmed His Word with new signs and wonders in every
meeting. Thus a young man, under the power of the Spirit and
with eyes closed and arms uplifted, rose from his seat and went
to stand over a complete stranger, a man with stiff, upstanding,
red hair. He prayed over him, and said, “Man! God is calling
you for His service.”

The stranger got up, evidently in a towering rage, and stamped

out of the meeting. The young man cried, “God bring him back,
and help him to obey Thee.”

Shortly afterwards this man returned, was saved and filled with
the Holy Spirit.

A lady came up to Lake and said, “I long for God, but I cannot
stand the life I am living at present. My husband is a drunken
profligate. I shall have to leave him.”

Lake replied, “Madam! You cannot show me any scriptural

sanction for leaving your husband. Rather let us pray for him.”
They knelt and prayed, and as they pleaded with God the
power of the Spirit fell upon this poor heartbroken woman, and
she found herself praising God in tongues, while the sisters
who surrounded her and prayed with her soon felt in their
souls the assurance that God was answering prayer for the
drunken husband.

The woman went home, and to her sorrow found her husband
still drunken, quarrelsome and noisy. She sank onto her bed in
grief and fell asleep. Later on awakening, to her amazement she
saw her husband kneeling beside the bed, crying to God for
mercy and salvation. To the end of his days that man’s
conversion proved real, and he was one of the most humble
and most used workers of the band during the days that
followed.

Letwaba had never seen such amazing conversions, such

mighty miracles, such uncompromising teaching for holiness
and against sin. He could not help feeling, “These people are
living what they preach. They not only talk about it, but they
have the experience of it.”

Thus he went to Lake’s private house for further

enlightenment. There he made a full breast of all his past life:
his failures, his longings, his powerlessness, while Lake
showed him the way of deliverance through taking one’s part
in the death and resurrection of Christ and through a daily
putting to death of the deeds of the flesh. Letwaba longed to
hear more of all this. It was as water to one who had been
slowly dying of thirst.

Brothers Lake and Hezmelhalch were about to leave for

Bleomfontein, and so Letwaba joined the party. There, on
February 9th 1909, he was filled with the Holy Spirit and praised
and magnified God in new tongues, just as the saints have
done from the earliest days of the Christian Church. He was
simply overcome by the power of God till his whole being was
aflame, and he realized that at last the longing of his heart was
satisfied.

He could declare, as could the first apostolic band in Acts 2:16,

“This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel.” It was
not some poor man-made counterfeit, some miserable
ecclesiastical makeshift, but the Holy Spirit of God Himself had
come to take up His abode in His human temple.

Letwaba had received power from on high: that power without

which every pastor and minister is cold and inefficient,
whatever his theological training or mental ability may be. God
has never yet given any substitute for the power of the Holy
Ghost.

One thing struck Letwaba very forcibly: There was never any
rigid programme in the meetings, but God was always doing
some new and marvellous thing. At times a town hall would be
hired. At other places religious bigotry closed every public
building to this party of Spirit-filled saints, and they had to
hold their services in private houses, but everywhere they
showed love for hate, good for evil.

Sometimes an amazing prophecy would be fulfilled before the

eyes of the people. At other times the new tongues given and
interpreted would be recognized by someone present.
Frequently those converted became earnest workers. Baptismal
services were large and frequent. The very fact that so many
churches spoke and argued against the work merely served as
an advertisement.

One night when Tom Hezmelhalch was preaching in English in

the home of Mr and Mrs Stuart, at Krugersdorp, a Zulu
servant, who did not understand English, yet came under
conviction of sin, was soundly converted. He had understood
everything that was preached, it being revealed to him by the
Holy Spirit just as though it had been preached in his own
language. That night at ten o’clock he came back to the house
saying, “God told me to come back for more prayer.”

Before long this Zulu servant fell under the power of the Spirit,
and left the house praising the Lord in new tongues.

From that time onward Mr and Mrs Stuart declare that he was a
splendid servant: always willing and keen to obey. His work
was done conscientiously, and one could rest assured that
anything he undertook would be accomplished to the very best
of his ability, not for money’s sake but because it was done for
Christ. Moreover, when this servant had any spare time he
would go out preaching the gospel to his fellows, and praying
for the sick, so that very many were brought to Christ through
his testimony.

It was by such remarkable and unexpected means that God

opened fresh doors for the Lake party, and as Letwaba
watched, he saw at last the difference between working on
mere man-planned lines and being led by the Holy Spirit.
Chapter VI. The Mantle Falls
on Letwaba
Letwaba now realized a new victory in his life that he had never
experienced before. His heart was filled with joy. His first
convert was his own father who had been seeking further light.
He too received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. From then on
Letwaba began to preach with great power and unction.
Naturally this drew upon him a storm of persecution. He was
stoned, beaten, kicked, shouted down, and insulted. Yet he
would get up again, and go his way preaching and telling the
good news of what God had done for him and could do for
others. He manifested such love to his persecutors that often
their railings and curses turned to wonderment, and many times
to a saving knowledge of Christ.

Letwaba prevailed upon the American missionaries to go

northward with him with plans for the evangelization of
Northern Transvaal. Unfortunately the missionaries were not
acclimated to the severe hardships and unhealthful conditions
of the interior and found it physically impossible to continue.
They were forced to return South before their mission could be
completed. Letwaba was broken-hearted over this; his hopes
and anticipations had risen so high in the visit of the
missionaries. Now they had come and gone, and he was left to
struggle on alone. Yet although he knew it not, God was
preparing him to do this very work, and he was to be the
shepherd to these countrymen of his, scattered over the remote
reaches of Northern Transvaal.

Since those upon whom Letwaba had set such hopes had left
forever from the Transvaal field, he looked to God as to what
should be done next. Gradually the Lord showed him that he
was the very one that was to carry this message of deliverance
to his countrymen. Thus it came about that Letwaba began his
ministry in Northern Transvaal. He was to walk many hundreds
of weary miles, along dusty roads, and twisting paths, and
through tangled thorn-tree scrub, preaching the message of
deliverance. It wasn’t easy going, and sometimes the natives
were hostile. At other times large crowds gathered to hear him.
But it was his ministry of miracles that really opened the doors
to him.

In one native village he found the people almost in a panic.

Rain had not fallen in a long time, draught had ruined the
crops, and the spectre of famine stalked the land. The witch
doctors began to talk about making horrible sacrifices to the
rain-god. They spoke defiantly of the white man’s God and his
inability to bring rain. Into this desperate situation Letwaba
walked. Letwaba called upon those who would listen to him, to
repent, that they might have reasonable and Scriptural grounds
to rest their faith. Then he had a mighty inspiration. As he
preached, the power of a great anointing came upon him.
Words came clearly and rapidly and the people listened
spellbound. Then Letwaba told them, “Do you not know that
whatever believers bind on earth is bound in heaven, and what
we loose on earth is loosed in heaven? Do you know that we
have authority to ask what we will, and it shall be granted in
the name of Jesus? I declare to you people, by the Word of the
Lord, that by this time tomorrow you shall have the rain that
you need. Your fields and your cattle shall be saved, and you
shall know that God still lives to answer the prayers of those
who believe in Him.”

It was a challenge that Elijah the prophet might have made. The
people gathered off in groups to discuss what Letwaba had
said. Some scoffed and sneered. Others said, “We shall wait to
see if his words are true.”

It had been easy for Letwaba to give forth the message when
the anointing was upon him, but in the afternoon when the
people had dispersed, a great trembling took hold of him.
Above him the sky was brass. Not a cloud was in the sky. The
sun beat down with a pitiless heat, while about him cattle stood
disconsolately trying to grub up roots where grass had been.
Awful thoughts took hold of Letwaba. “What if on the morrow,
rain should not come? What would the witch doctors say
then? What would the people think? What of those who had
hung on to his words with a desperate hope?” He would be
considered a false prophet making sport at their expense.
These thoughts rushed like a torrent through Letwaba’s brain.

The preacher went up into the mountains to be alone with God.

It was night and the stars came out. It looked as if his entire
ministry were at stake on the issue of events of the morrow. It
was Letwaba’s Gethsemane. On through the night he pleaded
with God. “Not for the sake of my reputation, Lord but lest the
heathen should belittle Thy name and spurn Thy Word.”
Morning came and with it the breaking of a cloudless day, but
the answer was at hand.

With startling suddenness clouds massed up, and by the time

that Letwaba returned to the village he was drenched to the
skin. It will not require any imagination on the reader’s part to
realize that with the breaking of the drought the hearts of the
people were opened now to the Gospel that Letwaba preached.
Lake had known nights of prayer in wrestling against the
powers of darkness. Letwaba too had learned the lesson of
prevailing prayer which gives men power with God and then
power with men.

Once Lake was called to the bedside of a boy that was dying of
a broken neck, the result of an accident. Lake took Letwaba
along with him and together they pleaded for the healing of the
native lad. Night came and the answer did not come. Brother
Lake said, “His neck is gone, his spine is broken.” Letwaba
answered, “It doesn’t matter what is broken. God will answer if
we trust Him.” At this time Dr Lake left to go to the place where
they were being entertained.

About three o’clock in the morning Letwaba entered, and Lake

asked, “How is the boy?” Letwaba answered, “Praise God,
prayer is answered, and Jesus’ name is vindicated. The lad is
strong and well.”
The time came when John Lake and Tom Hezmelhalch left
Africa to return to America, but the seeds planted continued to
grow. Other native workers as Letwaba carried the message
from one end of the land to the other. The greatest handicap
was their lack of knowledge of the Word, which often resulted
in their being carried off into unbalanced teaching and
fanaticism. This was illustrated in the case of Edward Lyons, in
Basutoland.

Lyons was saved and had a wonderful experience of the

Baptism of the Holy Ghost. He was able to gather crowds to
hear him of five and six thousand. Sometimes he would preach
all day, then he would pray for the sick. Thousands were
miraculously made whole. At times he would pray all night,
until he would have to say, “Friends, I can pray no more, but
Jesus has said, ‘The works that I do shall he do also; and
greater works than these shall he do.’ Do you not see that there
is no limit to what can be done in Jesus’ name? Thus I sit on
this stone in Jesus’ name, and after doing so, go off to sleep.
But I am leaving my helpers to direct the sick to the stone, that
there may be no panic or crushing of each other. Come quietly,
in line, and sit on the stone on which I have sat, and you shall
get healed in Jesus’ name.” All through the night the long
queue of sick would move past the stone, and as each sat upon
it, he, or she would leap up with shouts of praise to God for
healing.

Unfortunately in the absence of spiritually mature teachers,

Lyons got into error and gave fanciful and absurd prophecies
which soon resulted in his being discredited, Exaltation of self
had taken the place of Christ and the result was shame and
confusion.

The Mantle Falls on Letwaba

Letwaba saw this, and felt that there was a great need that the
native preachers should be taught the Word. Thus came the
idea of building a Bible School. With no funds nor hope of
outside aid, he nevertheless believed that God would enable
him to accomplish his vision in this respect. The most fanatical
absurdities were liable to occur unless the ministers could be
taught the Word.

Indeed African religious history is filled with cases of mass

reversion or backsliding. One such example is the French
Cameroons where Africa’s earliest missionaries converted the
entire population, established churches and tribal
congregations. Yet today witchcraft is more pervasive than it
ever was. This is understandable to one who knows the
primitive African mind. There is a simplicity about them; they
are very impressionable to forces whether evil or good. To
them there is only one cure to the infinitude of epidemics,
disasters and famines that plague the African tribesmen —
counter spells by the witch doctors.

In view of these things, what was Letwaba to do? What could

strip from the lives of these men their fear of evil spells, their
superstitions, their dread of arousing the enmity of the witch
doctors and cleanse them of the jungle heart? The ministry of
John G Lake had given him the clue. The answer was found in
Matthew 10:1.

“And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he

gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and
to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.”

Letwaba went through the New Testament and jotted down all
the Scriptures on healing. He went to some white ministers for
further help, but one said, “True, Letwaba, Jesus healed the
sick when He was on earth, but when He died, the days of
miracles passed with Him.” Another said, “I think God might
still heal the sick if one had sufficient faith, but who in these
days has such faith?”

However, Letwaba had seen the miraculous in the Lake

meetings. He gave himself to prayer. All night he looked to
God, and when the morning light came they saw him still
kneeling, his face alight with great happiness. “God has
spoken,” he said. And he handed his friend a note on which he
had written, ‘Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and
forever” (Heb. 13:8). “For I am the Lord, I change not” (Mal.
3:6).

Now more than ever Letwaba felt the need to preach the
Gospel. He read those words, “Go ye into all the world, and
preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15), but one
thing troubled him. Winning souls was one thing, but keeping
them true to God was another. He had seen so much
backsliding that his heart reached out for the answer. While he
was praying about this, his eyes lit upon II Tim. 2:2. With an
almost overpowering sense of awe he read:

“And the things that thou hast heard of me among many

witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be
able to teach others also.”

Suddenly he realized that God was talking to him. God was

saying, “You must start a Bible School, O Letwaba,” but where
would he get the money to build a school? He was sure that
God would help him, but first he felt he must develop the
ministry of healing that God had revealed to him. He said, “I
must go on a journey, for I am filled with fire to tell the people
that God is the Healer of the body as well as the soul.”

Those were two marvellous years. Barefoot and hatless he

wandered far to the mountain tribes, to the fever-ridden natives
of Rhodesia, to the disease-plagued Basutos, and other tribes.
He spoke to the poor and to the great chieftains. Praying for
the sick opened the hearts of the people to his message of
salvation. It was a marvellous story. More than ten thousand
sick were permanently healed and over a hundred thousand
souls were led to Christ.

To those people Letwaba promised a Bible School. He felt he

must train teachers who would be able to explain the Bible
intelligently and properly direct young men so that they would
not fall into the fanatical absurdities that so often occurred
among primitive people.
The matter of the Bible School had been the object of constant
prayer during those two years. He knew he would need land
and timber and food for the students, for few of the students
and their families had any money at all. After his return to
Potgietersrus, he gave himself to a night of prayer. Then he
went to the town council and they promptly gave him enough
land for his project. He announced a dedication service for the
land, and people came from great distances. Among them he
noted many members of mobs who had beaten him years
before, and his voice was momentarily choked by tears.

Following his prayer a farmer came up and gave him all the
timber that he would need. Two natives stepped up who had
experience in sawing and said, “We will saw your timber
without pay, except sufficient corn meal for our porridge.” In
fact people everywhere promised to help. So it was within a
year two dormitories were built, one for men and one for
women. A small farm was given him, and the food problem was
chiefly solved.

Today many thousands of graduates from the Patmos Bible

School are teaching and preaching the Gospel throughout
Africa. Every graduate is deeply spiritual and chosen for his
love of God and mankind. The study of the Bible is
emphasized, and when the students go forth, they go armed
with the Gospel of Truth. And so Letwaba as no other man
carried on the great work started by John G. Lake in Africa. It is
still going on today.
Chapter VII. The Return to
America
When John G. Lake departed Africa after five years of ministry,
he left behind 125 white congregations and 500 native ones.
Although he possessed a strong constitution, the strain of the
work plus the responsibility of caring for a large family made it
necessary for him to return to America.

Late in the year of 1913 he was married to Miss Florence

Switzer. In the summer of 1914 while walking on the street he
met his old friend James Hill, the railroad magnate.

“Where are you going?’ asked Hill.

“I really don’t know,” I said. “I am wandering around trying to

gather health, and preaching as I go.”

“Come to my office,” continued Mr Hill. Upon arriving there, he

turned to his clerk and said, “Make out passes for Mr Lake and
his wife, good over all our lines.” Then turning to me, he
added, “And when they run out, send for more.”

With these passes Dr Lake went to Spokane. After looking

around he decided to set up healing rooms in the city. The
ministry during the next five or six years in that city has rarely
been equalled in the history of the Church. It is estimated that
some 100,000 healings occurred during that time.
In fact the reports of miracles of healing became so numerous
that eventually a Committee from the Better Business Bureau
was chosen to investigate the truthfulness of all the public
announcements appearing in the city papers. For some time
previous the church had been publishing some of the
wonderful testimonies of healing by the power of God that had
taken place in the daily course of the ministry at the Divine
Healing Institute.

The testimonies were so astounding that many complaints had

reached the Better Business Bureau to the effect that the
testimonies must certainly be untrue. The Better Business
Bureau promptly undertook an investigation, and their call at
the Healing Rooms was for that purpose.

In the presence of the committee. Dr Lake called in 18 persons

whose testimonies had appeared in public print. They in turn
gave testimony of their own condition and the wonder of their
healing by the power of God in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ under this ministry. After 18 had been examined, Dr Lake
presented them with names of many healed persons in the city,
desiring them to go personally to these persons and
investigate for themselves whether these things be so.

He then suggested to the committee that on Sunday June 23 at

three o’clock in the afternoon, at their public service, they
would present 100 cases of healed persons for their
investigation and invited them to form a committee composed
of physicians, lawyers, judges, educators and businessmen
who should render a verdict.

In the days lapsing between the interview at the Healing

Rooms and Sunday June 23, the committee continued their
investigation, interviewing persons whose names he had
furnished them. On Friday June 21, before the great Sunday
meeting, Dr Lake received a letter from the committee assuring
him that they had no desire in any way to interfere with the
good which Dr Lake was doing, and gently let themselves
down so that their appearance at the Sunday meeting would
not be necessary. Two members of the committee saw the
pastor privately and said that the committee was astounded.
They said, “We soon found out upon investigation, you did
not tell half of it.”

Although the committee had given notice of their withdrawal

from the investigation, Dr Lake announced that the meeting
would be held as planned and that he would appeal to the
public for a verdict. The meeting took place at the Masonic
Temple before a large audience estimated by the police to
number thousands, hundreds being compelled to stand
throughout the entire service and hundreds were refused
admittance.

Dr Lake gave a brief statement on the reasons for the meeting

and of the desire to glorify God by permitting the city and the
world to know that Jesus had never changed, that prayer was
answerable today as it ever was, and the days of miracles had
not passed, but were forever possible through exercise of faith
in God.

Following this many testimonies were given. We can give only

a few which were typical of many:

Rev. R. Armstrong, a Methodist minister, of N.2819 Columbus

Avenue, healed of sarcoma growing out of the left shoulder
three times as large as a man’s head, was healed in answer to
prayer.

Rev. Thomas B. O’Reilly of 430 Rookery Building, testified to

being healed of seizures so violent that when stricken with
them it required seven policemen to overpower and confine him
in the hospital, of his instantaneous healing and perfect
restoration to health through the prayer of faith.

Baby Agnes Young, N.169 Post Street, healed of extreme

malnutrition; patient at the Deaconess Hospital for nine
months, from the time of birth until her healing. She weighed
six-and-a-half pounds at birth and at the age of nine months,
only four-and-a half pounds. One evening when one of the
ministers from Rev. Lake’s Healing Rooms called to minister to
her, she was found in the dead room; the nurse, believing her
to be dead, had removed her to the dead room. He took the
child in his arms, praying the prayer of faith; God heard and
answered, removed her from the hospital and placed her in the
hands of a Christian woman for nursing. In six weeks she was
perfectly well and strong. The father and mother arose to
corroborate the testimony. They are both members of Dr Lake’s
church.
Mrs Everetts, 1811 Boone Avenue, testified to her healing of
varicose veins. She had suffered from them for 38 years. The
veins were enlarged until they were the size of goose eggs in
spots. Under the right knee there was a sack of blood so large
that the knee was made stiff. She had exhausted every medical
method. After being ministered to at the Healing Rooms for a
short period, she was entirely well and the veins are perfectly
clear.

Mrs Constance Hoag, Puyallup, Washington, broke her knee

cap. A section of the bone protruded through the flesh. She
wrote requesting that the ministers of the Healing Rooms lay
their hands upon a handkerchief in faith and prayer and send it
to her, in accordance with Acts 19:12. This was done. She
applied the handkerchief to the knee and in 15 minutes the pain
had gone, and in an hour the bone had returned to place and
was perfectly healed.

Mrs Walker, Granby Court, was an invalid at the Deaconess

Hospital from internal cancer; after an exploratory operation,
was pronounced incurable by the doctors. She also had a
severe case of neuritis. Her suffering was unspeakable. She
testified to her healing and of her restoration to perfect health,
the cancer having passed from her body in seven sections.
Since then many have been healed through her prayer and
faith.

Mrs John A. Graham, E.369 Hartson, a nurse and hospital

matron, was operated on for fibroid tumour. The generative
organs were removed, and at a later date was operated on a
second time for gallstones. The operation not being a success,
she was eventually left to die. In the throes of death and
unconsciousness, she was healed by the power of God in
answer to prayer of one of the ministers called from the Healing
Rooms. The organs that had been removed in the operation re-
grew in the body and she became a normal woman and a
mother. (Wonderful applause)

Mrs Wolverton was injured in a Great Northern railroad wreck

and was awarded large damages by the court. Physicians
testified her injuries to be such that motherhood was
impossible. After her marriage the physicians’ testimony was
confirmed. She was healed in answer to prayer and gave birth
to a son, and since has given birth to twins.

Mrs Lamphear, 115½ Sprague Avenue, was an invalid for 11

years, suffering from prolapsus of the stomach, bowels and
uterus, also from tuberculosis and rheumatism. Her husband
carried her from place to place in his arms. After 11 years of
terrible suffering, upon the advice of her physicians who were
unable to assist her, she was sent to Soap Lake, Oregon, for
bath treatments. Ordinary baths had no effect on her and the
superintendent testified that they had finally placed her in
super-heated baths, hotter than any in which they had ever
before put a human being. Through this treatment an abnormal
growth was started in the left leg and foot. Her leg became
three inches longer than the other and her foot one inch too
long. A bone as large as an orange grew on the knee. She
received an instant healing of rheumatism. The leg shortened at
the rate of an inch a week, the foot also shortened to its normal
length and the bone growth on the knee totally disappeared.
Her tuberculosis was healed, and she is praising God for His
goodness. Born without the outer lobe on her ear, it also grew
on.

Mrs Carter, of S.714 Sherman Street, wife of Policeman Carter,

was examined by seven physicians who pronounced her to be
suffering from a fibroid tumour, estimated to weigh 15 pounds.
She was ministered to at the Healing Rooms at 4:30 in the
afternoon and at 11 o’clock the next day returned to the
Healing Rooms perfectly healed and wearing her corset, the
enormous tumour having dematerialized.

Mr John Dewitt of Granby Court, testified on behalf of

Frederick Barnard, 32 years of age, who was injured in his
babyhood from a fall from a baby cab, causing curvature of the
spine. As he grew to boyhood and manhood he was never able
to take part in the sports common to boyhood and manhood.
When the Great War came on, he would stand around the
recruiting offices, covetously watching the men who enlisted
for the war. One day he expressed to Mr Dewitt the sorrow of
his soul that he was not able to enlist also. Mr Dewitt told him
of Mr Lake’s Healing Rooms and invited him to come and be
ministered to. The curvature of his spine straightened and his
height increased an inch. He applied for enlistment in the
Canadian army and was accepted by the army physician as first
class and sent abroad.
Now comes one of the most remarkable cases in history. The
Risdon family stand holding their six-year-old son on their
shoulders. This boy was born with a closed head. In
consequence, as he increased in years, the skull was forced
upward like the roof of a house, the forehead and the back of
the head also being forced out in similar manner, giving the
head the appearance of the hull of a yacht upside down. The
pressure on the brain caused the right side to become
paralyzed and the child was dumb. Physicians said that
nothing could be done for him until he was 12 years old, and
then the entire top of the head would have to be removed, the
sides of the skull expanded, and the entire head covered with a
silver plate. Under Divine Healing ministration in answer to
prayer the bones softened, the head expanded, the skull was
reduced to its normal size, the paralysis disappeared, the
dumbness was gone. He spoke like other children and
afterwards attended the public school.

Remarks by Rev. Lake: “I want you to see that in the Spirit of

God there is a science far beyond physical or psychological
science and the man or woman who enters into the spirit
relation with God and exercises His power is most scientific;
that the power of God in this instance was sufficient to soften
the bones of the head, expand the skull and bring the head
down to normal when the child was four-and-a-half years old
— something that no medicine could do and no surgical
operation could accomplish without endangering the life of the
child.”
Mrs Lena Lakey, W. 116 Riverside Avenue, testified of having
suffered with violent insanity. She was a cook at a lumber
camp. She told of the men at the camp endeavouring to
overpower her and tie her in the bed; of her tearing the bed to
pieces and breaking her arms free; of how she struck one man
with the side of the bed, rendering him unconscious. Another
was in the hospital three weeks recovering from injuries. She
escaped into the woods in a drenching rain, eventually falling
exhausted in a copse of trees, where she lay unconscious for
six hours until a searching party found her. She was brought to
Spokane in an auto by six men and was tied with ropes. Before
taking her to the court to be committed to the insane asylum
they decided to take her to the Healing Rooms. Rev. Lake laid
his hands on her in prayer, and the demons were cast out and
she was instantly healed. An abscess in her side from which
she had suffered for 15 years totally disappeared in 24 hours,
and a rheumatic bone deposit between the joints of the fingers
and toes, so extensive that it forced the joint apart, was gone in
48 hours. She was made every whit whole.

Addressing the audience, Mr Lake said: “All persons who

have been healed by the power of God and who desire to add
their testimony to these who have already been given, stand.”
Two hundred and sixty-seven persons arose. While they stood
Mr Lake said: “Gentlemen of the committee and audience, you
see these witnesses; you have heard the testimonies.
Gentlemen of the committee and audience, has this been a fair
presentation?” (Shouts of “Yes, Yes” from all parts of the
house.) “Did God heal these people?” (Cries of “Yes, Yes.”) “Is
divine healing a fact?” (Replies from audience, “It surely is.”)
“Gentlemen of the committee and audience are you entirely
satisfied?” (Replies from the audience, “Indeed we are.”)

The services then closed with the prayer of consecration,

spoken clause by clause by the Rev. Lake and repeated by the
audience.
The Revival Library
The Revival Library is a British-based collection of revival and
Pentecostal source materials. Tony Cauchi, the Librarian, says
‘Our intention is to promote passion and prayer for authentic
revival by making accessible, at affordable prices, biographies,
histories and teachings about great moves of the Spirit across
the centuries.’

The Revival Library has produced over twenty CD’s and

DVD’s which which hold collections of original books,
periodicals and related teaching materials for worldwide
distribution. They include materials on Evangelical Revivals
and more recent Pentecostal and Healing outpourings.

Many of these books can be found on Amazon and many more

will be added in due course. Any of the materials we publish on
Amazon or elsewhere can be easily found by searching for
"Revival Library" (exclude inverted commas) in your ebook
providers website.

Alternatively, we have lots of other materials which are in other

formats such as Word.doc and .pdf, as well as collections of
books and magazines on CD's or DVD's at shop.revival-
library.org or via the main website at www.revival-library.org
The Pentecostal Pioneers Series
This series includes materials by or about Maria Woodworth-
Etter, John Alexander Dowie, Frank Bartleman, The Azusa
Street Revival, Aimee Semple McPherson, John G. Lake, Smith
Wigglesworth, Alexander Boddy, Thomas Ball Barratt, George
and Stephen Jeffreys, and a host of other lesser-known, but
equally courageous and effective pioneers of this great
worldwide movement of God. We plan to include biographies
and teachings that will educate and inspire a new generation of
pioneers in our day.
The Evangelical Revival Series
These are a host of materials from church history, particularly
covering the six major waves of Worldwide Revival that broke
on the shores of this world from the Reformation to the Welsh
Revival. At the moment these materials number over 80 and we
will add more to them as time proceeds. They include
biographies, teachings, methodology, theology, overviews and
everything revival-related.
Voices From The Healing Revival Series
This Revival which occurred in the 1940-50's was the most
powerful and fruitful move of God in the entire history of
Christendom. Despite extreme criticism and controversy
Pentecostalism was revitalised, new evangelistic initiatives
circled the globe and the multifaceted charismatic movement
was brought to birth.

Today the worldwide Pentecostal/charismatic community

numbers over 550 million members and is the fastest growing
branch of the Christian church across the nations.

We pay tribute to the pioneers who paid such a great price to

return the church to its New Testament foundations and who
presented Jesus Christ as the same yesterday, today and
forever!

We have included biographies and teachings by William

Branham, Jack Coe, A. A. Allen, W. V. Grant, Gordon Lindsay
and others.
Healing Classics Series
This latest series gathers together many of the key texts on
Divine Healing that have been produced over the last century,
with the sincere prayer that the truth they proclaim will kindle a
fresh passion and faith-filled prayer for a dynamic healing
revival across the world.