'Bests anilTriumphs 
 
 4» 
 
 FLORENCE GOFF 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2014 
 
 https://archive.org/details/teststriumphs01goff 
 
REV. J. A. HODGES 
 " He died as he lived, trusting in God. 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 BEING A SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF REV. 
 J. A. HODGES, COUPLED WITH SOME OF 
 THE LORD'S DEALINGS WITH H. H. GOFF 
 AND WIFE, EVANGELISTS OF THE CAPE 
 FEAR CONFERENCE OF THE FREE-WILL 
 BAPTIST CHURCH 
 
 By FLORENCE GOFF 
 
 Home Address: 
 FALCON, NORTH CAROLINA 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This sketch has been written, after much 
 prayer, for the glory of God, hoping it will 
 help those who read it and encourage them 
 in their pilgrimage from earth to heaven. 
 
 May the blessings of God be upon this lit- 
 tle booklet, and may its readers meet the au- 
 thor in the glory world, where congregations 
 never break up and Sabbaths have no end; 
 where sickness and sorrow, pain and death, 
 will be felt and feared no more. 
 
 Florence Goff. 
 
LIFE OF REV. J. A. HODGES 
 
 HIS EARLY LIFE. 
 
 The subject of this sketch was born in North Carolina, Johns- 
 ton county, on the first day of October, 1845. He was born of 
 pious parents, of Scotch descent. This being their tenth baby, 
 they gave him the name of his father, John Andrew, the last part 
 being to distinguish the two names. He was a thrifty baby, was 
 a pet for the family, and as his mother died when he was only 
 four years old, his sisters took the place of mother for the now 
 motherless baby boy. He seemed to be a favorite for the neigh- 
 bors, and was petted until he was nearly grown. Andrew, as he was 
 called, had to have the best at the table, and was especially fa- 
 vored on all occasions by the other nine brothers and sisters. His 
 sisters wove his clothes on an oldtime loom, and his occupation 
 until quite a boy was to play around the kitchen, wheel and 
 loom, and another favorite place was in the orchard playing with 
 his younger sister, or bringing choice fruit to his father in sum- 
 mer or autumn, as he loved his father more than had his mother 
 lived. 
 
 I cannot say how long the baby wore dresses, but from the 
 best I can learn he was about six years old before he had his 
 first pants. He was carried around the large farm and across 
 the big swamp to the other plantations in the arms of his elder 
 brothers and sisters. I have heard him say that his sisters picked 
 the bones out of his fish until he was large enough to do good 
 farm work. I do not know his age at this period, but at eighteen 
 he weighed two hundred pounds. His father was wealthy, and 
 the children did not know what it was to want for food. Of 
 course in those days they but little advantages to what children 
 have now. The schoolhouse he attended was in a very remote 
 corner of the woods, built of rough logs. His first school book 
 wasn't a nice primer or pretty ABC book with nice pictures 
 and striking illustrations, but simply an old blue-back speller, 
 as it was called. This hard old speller lasted quite a while; few 
 were able to master it in those days. However, this big fat boy 
 
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 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 learned to spell fairly well; he then took up some other studies, 
 in which he made fair progess* could read, write and keep his 
 accounts, although boys in those days had hard times acquiring 
 knowledge. 
 
 They had few games, and knew but little of the vice and 
 crime boys of today are exposed to. Brandy was made by the 
 farmers and drunk at their will, but John Hodges, my grand- 
 father, was a model of morality, and did not touch it, hence his 
 moral influence taught my father, Andrew, against strong drink, 
 therefore he was never under its influence in his life; and I have 
 never heard of his cursing^ Strange to say, his father was not 
 a Christian, but would force his children to read the Bible. His 
 strict rule, with the other fully as binding, was to ask a blessing 
 at the table, which did not at all times set well with this pet 
 boy; but when his father commanded, he knew nothing but to 
 obey. Sometimes he would play sick, or put up some pitiful ex- 
 cuse to shun his turn to give thanks when company was present. 
 The boys had to say grace, as they called it, by turns, one at 
 breakfast, one at dinner, and so on until the four boys had 
 learned it perfectly, and their home Bible reading came a verse 
 around until each had read. 
 
 Once at a conference, or association, one of grandfather's old 
 friends came and brought his boy, a few years my father's se- 
 nior. The two boys were out playing or chatting, when the vis- 
 iting boy inquired of his new friend where his mother was. This 
 unexpected question put a very grave look on the motherless 
 lad, and he sadly replied, " She's dead." He then asked, "Was 
 your mother a member of the church? " " No, sir," was the 
 reply. " Well, don't the Bible say you can't go to heaven with- 
 out belonging to the church? " This question impressed him 
 very much. He answered, " I don't know so much about that." 
 The boys separated, but this impression never left my father. 
 
 There was only one church for miles. My grandfather gave 
 the land for this to the Primitive Baptists; the deed gave other 
 denominations liberty to preach in the house. The Primitives 
 do not believe in revivals, have no Sunday schools, and think 
 that shouting is caused by weak minds, and things of that kind. 
 They preach that if God predestines you to go to heaven, you will 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 7 
 
 go; if to hell, you will go; pray and cry to God ever so much, 
 you will miss heaven if you are not one of the elect. "What is 
 to be, will be," is their great theory. They are strict, good peo- 
 ple, though, as a sect. This kind of preaching once in a while 
 was all my father heard until he was about nine years old, when 
 Revs. James Turnage and Wm. Harris began to preach at this 
 same Primitive Baptist church, Bethsaida by name. These 
 preachers were old-fashioned revivalists. They preached with 
 power, and had not preached long here before there began a re- 
 vival in which scores of souls were converted and organized 
 into a church. They called themselves the Free-Will Baptists. 
 They believed in free salvation, baptism by immersion, free com- 
 munion, and washing of the saints' feet in connection with the 
 Lord's Supper. (St. John, 13th chaDter.) 
 
 In a few years Revs. Turnage and Harris had organized 
 several small churches. They decided to organize these churches 
 into a conference, and to do this they had to go to South Caro- 
 lina for the proper credentials and instructions. By this time 
 several more preachers had joined their number, and Turnage 
 and one of the others went on horseback to South Carolina. The 
 trip was long and wearisome, but they went and returned and 
 organized the Cape Fear Conference. It was then a very small 
 affair of only a few small churches. It has stood nearly fifty 
 years now, and has fifty-one churches and nearly three thousand 
 communicants. This, with its thirty-four ordained ministers, 
 tells that God was with those faithful men in their little organi- 
 zation fifty years ago. Rev. Turnage labored on faithfully at 
 Bethsaida until it was a church of quite a number of members. 
 My father s elder brothers and some of his sisters joined the 
 church. 
 
 This kind of thing this youngest boy did not like. As he grew 
 older, in spite of his moral training, his heart grew hard, and 
 he said he fairly hated his sisters for a long time after one joined 
 the church; said had he only had the power he would have 
 stamped religion out of existence. He had an idea his father was 
 going to join the church too. His plan to prevent this horrible 
 act, in his opinion, was to sit close to his father with his arm 
 locked in his. He said if his father had attempted to join the 
 
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 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 church, he would have had a time with him, as he was about 
 twelve years old and very strong. He kept all this hatred of God 
 and the church wrapped up in his head, and went on in this way, 
 feeling at times sad about death and the judgment, and the dark, 
 cold grave was a horrid thing for him to think about. Grand- 
 father was a regular attendant at church, and seemed to enjoy the 
 meetings, but was still unsaved. About this time Rev. Turnage 
 married my father's sister, Sarah. She had been converted in 
 some of the above named meetings, and now became the wife of 
 the preacher. For several years Rev. Turnage taught school at 
 Bethsaida, and my father was one of the adult students. Tur- 
 nage was a faithful teacher as well as preacher. He would teach, 
 farm and preach, and has walked twenty miles to his appoint- 
 ment in summer. His faithfulness to his calling at length brought 
 this stubborn young man under the deepest kind of conviction, 
 and his sisters discovered he had been very sad during this meet- 
 ing Rev. Turnage was holding at Bethsaida. His conviction grew 
 deeper and deeper, his heart melted now in spite of his hatred to 
 God and the church, for this was his besetting sin. He cried to 
 God for pardon. 
 
 HIS CONVERSION. 
 
 The Lord so convicted him that he did not get to the altar, but 
 just cried aloud to God away back in the crowd, wept and con- 
 fessed his sins, gave up his whole life of sin and his stubborn 
 will. Jesus rolled the burden away and gave him a new heart, 
 washed his sins away, and he came up the aisle praising God in 
 the old time way, clapping his hands and shouting at the top of 
 his voice. His eyes fell on his father, now seventy years old, still 
 very moral, but without salvation. The silver locks on the old 
 man's head told this young convert that his father must soon go 
 before God, and he felt he needed what God had so graciously 
 given him. He fell at his feet and poured his heart out to God 
 for his father. The old man was deeply touched by the first 
 prayer of his baby boy, now a young man of twenty-eight years. 
 They all went home from church, but how different they felt! 
 The old man had a heavy heart, touched by the scene at the 
 church; the young man so happy at being saved, and feeling 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 9 
 
 sure his father soon would be. The young convert felt that his 
 sisters had been praying for him all these years since their con- 
 version. He felt that he must tell those at home the good news 
 of his salvation as soon as he reached home, but alas! when he 
 got there he found his old chum, Dr. Rowland, there. The doc- 
 tor at this time was a firm believer in predestination. At the 
 sight of this well-read, intelligent doctor, the devil made him 
 postpone telling of his conversion. I have often heard him say 
 that he regretted missing this great opportunity of obeying God. 
 He said had he only done the Spirit's bidding that day, his own 
 soul would have been so blessed and the doctor might have been 
 converted then. The revival went on. Souls were saved from 
 day to day, until at the close there were quite a number to be 
 baptized and received into the church. 
 
 HIS CONVERTED LIFE. 
 
 After my father's conversion he lived a very consistent, strict, 
 devoted life, prayed much, and the Bible was his favorite book. 
 He spent much of his time alone with God. His closet in sum- 
 mer was under an old peach tree, where he resorted to prayer 
 in the late evenings while picking up fruit for the barnyard of 
 hogs that were waiting for their supper. They often grew quite 
 impatient, as they must wait till this good young man had his 
 evening prayer. He often talked to God so long and got so happy 
 he would forget everything but God. For a long, long time, 
 nothing upset or interfered with this Spirit-filled Christian, but 
 at length his trials came. However, during these years his long- 
 ings for his father's conversion increased. He would often get 
 so happy during a sermon or altar service that he could hold his 
 seat no longer. He was up the aisle shouting a-d exhorting the 
 people to come to Jesus and be saved. His voice was loud and 
 clear, and he could sing up to a nightingale. He was tall, and 
 robust in appearance. His voice, with the power of heaven in it, 
 seemed to strike sinners like electricity from the sky. His prayers, 
 tears and exhortations have brought many sinners to the altar, 
 confessing their sins and being saved. He often found himself 
 at his father's feet pleading with God to save him. 
 
10 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 The prayers of the old man's children at last were answered, 
 and he was happily converted, joined the church and was bap- 
 tized. The morning he was baptized, they sang that inspiring 
 old hymn: " Will the waters be chilly when I am called to die? " 
 After he was baptized, he said he could go on his way rejoicing, 
 went home and set up a family altar. The children were so 
 happy now, the last one of their family were Christians. The girls 
 by this time were all married except one. Two of the children, 
 both grown, had been laid to rest beside their mother. One was 
 a young man in the bloom of life, who died suddenly, almost with- 
 out warning. He went to mill one morning, ate a hearty dinner, 
 and died that night about 9 o'clock. He left a young wife. The 
 other was a girl, taken away in the bloom of life. These two 
 deaths were great shocks to the family and neighbors, as both 
 were well respected and highly esteemed by their many friends 
 and relatives. 
 
 Seven years after my father's conversion, he was married to 
 Miss Laura Dixon, a beautiful young woman of twenty-five years 
 of age, an earnest Christian, a great lover of music, and a good 
 worker in the church and Sunday school work. My father, 
 being the youngest child, inherited the homestead, and was to 
 care for his father and sister, who was a devoted Christian and 
 great lover of the Bible. She was afflicted bodily with cancer 
 for years.- All was done that doctors could do to cure her, but 
 with little avail. Grandfather was old, grew weaker and feebler, 
 disease set in on his bowels that took him away in about two 
 years after my father's marriage, and five days after his death, 
 Aunt Harriet passed away; both died in November, 1881. They 
 were both conscious of their death, and were ready to go. My 
 mother was so attentive to them during their long and painful 
 illness, she gained the love and respect of the family and neigh- 
 bors that has never been forgotten. A year previous to this, 
 Mr. and Mrs. Hodges had a little girl born to them, on December 
 29, 1880, one snowy Tuesday night. To her they gave the name 
 of Florence. This baby has no recollection of her grandpa or aunt 
 just referred to, for she could not walk when they died. The 
 home was now left with only three inmates. Grandfather gave 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 II 
 
 father more than any of the other children. He was left with 
 plenty of this world's goods. 
 
 In a year or two after grandfather died, Rev. James Turnage 
 passed away and went to his reward. Before his death he told 
 my father and his brothers to bury him in about two hundred 
 yards of Bethsaida, the church he had organized, but the house 
 was held and preached in by the Primitive Baptists. He said to 
 put him in the rough woods in a place he recollected, and build 
 them a church close by his grave. They carried out their beloved 
 leader and brother-in-law's request. They at once set to work 
 about their church. George Hodges, pa's brother, gave the land; 
 his other brother, B. H. Hodges, and he gave a hundred dollars 
 each, and others what they would. They soon had a large house; 
 and the Cape Fear Conference soon erected a monument at Rev. 
 Turnage 's head that cost about a hundred dollars. 
 
 The church now was given the name of Hodges Chapel, and 
 my father elected as one of the deacons of the church. He ex- 
 horted, prayed in public and did a great deal of real gospel 
 preaching, many times being called on to assist his pastor in 
 communion services, and offered splendid explanations on the 
 Lord's Supper. His shouting and exhorting caused people to 
 become serious about their salvation; some came to the altar and 
 confessed their sins, while others became much frightened and 
 took to the woods or for home. Some went over benches and out 
 at windows. His shouting impressed the children that heard it 
 so they never forgot it. He weighed two hundred and eighty 
 pounds, was six feet and two inches high, and could be heard 
 praying a mile, and there was magnetic, heavenly sweetness in 
 his voice that could get more real melody out of old hymns than 
 any other I ever heard. It would make sinners tremble to hear 
 him sing. He used to point hard-hearted boys in the face after 
 long pleading with them to kneel for prayer, and sing a little 
 song — the words were as follows: "Oh, poor sinner, you can't 
 stand the fire at the great day," and " poor scoffer," and some 
 boys have told me they could hardly bear it. They said the cold 
 shivers would run over them, and they felt so strange while he 
 sang over them. That song was his last warning; when he had 
 prayed, cried and pleaded with them to come to the altar and 
 
12 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 they seemed stubborn, he would then sing his little song, and 
 it was very few but felt strange if they did not so express them- 
 selves. 
 
 My mother was a Methodist when she was married. Her 
 church was some miles away. She at length decided and remarked 
 to father as they rode home from her church, in the language of 
 Ruth and Xaomi: 
 
 " Whither thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest, I will 
 lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. 
 Where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried. The 
 Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee 
 and me." 
 
 She got a letter from her church and joined the Free-Will 
 Baptists at Hodges Chapel with her husband. They lived very 
 happily together all their life; she stood by him, sharing his 
 sorrows, as well as his joys. They were both very sincere Chris- 
 tians all of their justified life. 
 
 Once I remember, in August 26, 1886, there came an awful 
 earthquake that shook this country. Houses rocked, dishes rattled, 
 and bricks fell off the chimneys. There was a dreadful roaring 
 that came before the shaking that frightened the people almost 
 out of their wits. Proud, hard-hearted, highminded people that 
 ignored God and religion, at this fearful shock fell on their 
 faces and screamed and cried to God for mercy. They thought 
 that judgment was upon them, and that they in a short time 
 would be before the bar of justice. My father and mother being 
 praying people, the neighbors fled to them for prayers. The 
 room was soon full of half-dressed women, men and children 
 and young people, begging Mr. Hodges and wife to pray for 
 them. Two of the most wicked men in the neighborhood woke 
 me up praying. They were kneeling at the head of my bed 
 praying to God to save them. I was a tot of only six summers, 
 but I knew that something strange had taken place. Father and 
 mother were both walking the floor praying and clapping their 
 hands, then kneeling first by one and then by another, imploring 
 God's mercies on each. Some of the crowd expected the earth 
 to open and swallow the whole thing in. Everyone was terror- 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 13 
 
 stricken, as they didn't know what another hour would bring 
 forth. 
 
 The night was spent in an awful dread that something worse 
 was coming. Next morning my father sent messengers for miles 
 to proclaim a fast and prayer day, and to meet him at the church, 
 that he wanted to warn the people once more. They were only 
 too glad to obey, and next morning the people poured in from 
 all around. They needed no teasing to come to the altar, and 
 needed no seat. It was, " Give way, let the folks come." They 
 fell on their faces, and such confessing, such screaming and cry- 
 ing. Oh, how willing they were for a Christian to pray for them. 
 The revival continued for several days. Father sent for the pas- 
 tor of the church, and scores of souls were saved, and I think 
 there were at least fifty additions to the church from that earth- 
 quake revival. Family altars were established, and some of them 
 have never gone down. A general spirit of religion seemed to 
 pervade the whole country around. 
 
 Years went by, and other children were born into my father's 
 home. He was fond of his children, and they fully as fond of 
 him. I remember well how my brother and I used to sit on 
 father's lap and he would teach us verses of Scripture and quote 
 hymns until we learned them; taught us our letters, and our first 
 songs were sung along with him and my mother. I learned to 
 spell before I started to school. My first day at school was De- 
 cember 30, 1886. My father took me in his arms, carried me 
 over the branch to a neighbor's house to go to school with his 
 children. Before we got there I asked father to let me walk, 
 as I was ashamed for the children to see him carrying me in his 
 arms, large as I was. He carried me up to the teacher and gave 
 him some special charges about his little girl, and left me. I was 
 very timid, and felt so sad as I saw father walk away and leave 
 me among so many strangers, but they were all very kind to me, 
 and I soon learned to love my teacher and loved to go to school. 
 Young as I was, my father's and mother's prayers and hymns, 
 their shouts and religious teachings, had a fast hold on me. Their 
 prayers affected me more than anyone's. My heart would ache, 
 and the tears would flow unbidden down my little face as father 
 would pray at night at home and ask God to bless his children 
 
14 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 for His glory. I would retire and often weep for a long time after 
 I lay down. I regarded religion as being the most sacred thing 
 in all this world. My mother and father used to sing some of 
 the sweetest old hymns in the world. They would melt my heart, 
 and I would hide my face and cry, often pretending that I had 
 got hurt in some way — convicted then, although when between 
 four and five years old I felt that I ought to be a Christian. All 
 these years my father was going through an awful struggle. The 
 Lord wanted him to preach, and he wanted to excuse himself by 
 being a Sunday school superintendent, conducting prayer meet- 
 ing, and such work as that. The Bible was his companion, which 
 he read for mother and the children until we got sleepy, then read 
 for hours to himself. In summer he did most of his reading at 
 noon, for he worked so hard and was so tired he could not read 
 much at night. He had lots of hired men, and those that lived 
 on his land, and among them all I am sure none would say any 
 other than that Mr. Hodges was a good man. He was good to 
 the poor, and the weary traveler and homesick tramp never failed 
 to get food and lodging at this godly man's home. Preachers of 
 all denominations were welcome alike. Peddlers and tired agents 
 were all fed and treated kindly; inquiry was made as to their 
 salvation, and father would always implore God's blessings on 
 those present, and many hearts were made glad around our fam- 
 ily altar. When I was about eight years old, a young lady was 
 taken with consumption not far from home, and sent for father 
 to go to talk and pray with her about her soul. I think she tes- 
 tified to being saved before she died; anyhow her people sent for 
 father to preach her funeral. He had never tried such a thnig, 
 was not ordained, nor even licensed, but he preached her funeral 
 to a grief-stricken crowd with the power of God on him. 
 
 During these years my father was often a juror in the Su- 
 perior Court, and sometimes in the Federal Court. Once I re- 
 member he was juror in a criminal case. The client, who was 
 an intelligent man about my father's age, was indicted for burn- 
 ing a house. It was an awful affair. They were trying the poor 
 fellow for his life. He had heard the evidence, and the jury was 
 tied. Six said he was guilty, and six declared he was not. My 
 father was one of the latter. They stayed up all night. 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 15 
 
 Father called them to their knees to ask God if the man was 
 guilty. God told him he was not. Then he said, " Gentlemen, 
 I am here to release that man." But some of the others were pro- 
 fane men, and one remarked he was willing to do the fellow either 
 way, he wanted to go home. Father said, " I will never agree 
 that he is guilty." The man was a stranger to my father, but 
 he had asked the Lord about it, and he was sure he was innocent. 
 They let him go, and he was overjoyed at the verdict. About 
 twelve years after this, he appeared in one of our meetings, • took 
 me by the hand and began to cry, and with trembling lips began 
 to tell his story. He said, "Yonder stands the man that saved 
 my life," pointing to my father. " Had it not been for him, 
 that gang of rich men that hated me would have had me hung. 
 For this I love your father better than any man on earth. I 
 would crawl to his home to do him a favor." 
 
 While father was superintendent of our Sunday school, there 
 appeared in the school a lad of perhaps fourteen summers. He 
 was enrolled, and was the brightest boy in school. He recited 
 better lessons than any other. Even the grown people did not 
 know their lessons nearly so well as did this boy. Father took 
 special care to instruct him, and told his father that his son was 
 sure to make his mark in the world. He was a poor boy, and 
 had but few advantages, but it was not long before he had a 
 good place as public school teacher, and was soon reading law, 
 and became one of the prominent lawyers of our State. He told 
 me on the train some years ago that to my father was due the 
 praise for his being what he was, as he started him in a Sunday 
 school. 
 
 At the age of eleven, the Lord forgave my sins. The day I 
 was converted, the Lord was also dealing with my father. There 
 was a revival going on at our church. I had been going to school. 
 That morning my mother told me I must stop school and attend 
 the meeting. I insisted on her letting me go to school, but she 
 would not. Then I begged to stay at home and cut fruit. This 
 she positively refused me, saying plainly, "You must go to that 
 meeting." She said that a girl friend of mine was a seeker the 
 day before, and that it was time for me to be a Christian. I 
 longed for religion, but dreaded that bitter cup of repentance; 
 
16 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 felt like I could not bear to see church — convicted before going. 
 That morning father was in the woods praying. He had been 
 appointed the day before to conduct the prayer meeting that 
 morning. He told the Lord while praying that if He would con- 
 vert some one that morning under his talk, he would excuse him- 
 self no longer, but would go before the council and be ordained 
 and take up the full work of the ministry. 
 
 He read about the prodigal boy, and preached about an 
 hour. At the conclusion of his exhortation he called for peni- 
 tents, and I think at least fifteen went to the altar. All through 
 the sermon I was so convicted I could hardly hold my head up. 
 The tears flowed freely, and my heart felt like it was breaking. 
 I was a prodigal myself, away from God and in sin. I prayed 
 and wept sorely. Had an intermission, returned to the house, 
 and the pastor preached. He saw the congregation was melted, 
 and he seemed anxious to see the people get to God; he preached 
 maybe ten or fifteen minutes, then came down from the pulpit 
 and called for penitents. About forty came, and the scene that 
 followed is indescribable. The seekers screamed, prayed, wrung 
 their hands, and cried to God as loud as they could. I wept 
 until tears could have been wrung from my handkerchief. 
 
 Father and mother were both praying aloud for me, and five 
 grown people were so overpowered with God's Spirit that their 
 hands were drawn so close together that strong men could not 
 open them. Some were walking the floor praising God as loud 
 as they could. Some were lying down, prostrated by the mighty 
 power of God. Father never again doubted his call to the min- 
 istry, as I know I was converted under his morning talk. The re- 
 vival went on, but that day was the most wonderful time I ever 
 witnessed until holiness was preached five years later. My con- 
 version was very clear. I know the very place, and how I felt 
 seems so fresh and sweet. The trees and flowers seemed to smile 
 on me, and I loved everybody in the world. I thought my moth- 
 er's face outshone anyone's I had ever seen. Oh, my heart was 
 so happy, so light, so free! 
 
 This was in July. 1892. Father was ordained the winter fol- 
 lowing. The summer before his ordination he was called on to 
 baptize a candidate. He was only a deacon, but our church 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 17 
 
 discipline allows our deacons to baptize in case of necessity, 
 feeling sure that Philip was not ordained when he baptized the 
 eunuch. (Acts 8:27.) But in the winter of 1893, he with an- 
 other young preacher went before the council. They did not ask 
 father a single question; said he had already given them perfect 
 satisfaction. They asked the other preacher, Rev. R. C. Jack- 
 son, how he would prove to an infidel there was a God. He 
 answered that, then they knelt, and the council laid hands on 
 them and prayed, gave them their credentials, and they were 
 given churches. They set to work in the pastoral care of churches, 
 and in summer did revival work together. They had some 
 real revivals together, in which scores of souls were converted. 
 Nothing afforded me more pleasure than to go with my father 
 to his appointments, and to every conference and convention. 
 He warned his members against lukewarmness. He always 
 preached a high standard of religion; believed people ought to 
 live where they could testify, or " tell their experience " is what 
 he called it then. He thought converted folks should pray in 
 public, talk for Jesus, and be near enough to God to praise Him. 
 He was a teetotaler, straight; and preached against dram-drink- 
 ing, pride of all kinds, and would surely turn a member out for 
 cursing or dancing. I believe he was as free from pride as any- 
 one; always dressed very plain; never wore a tie since his wed- 
 ding day. 
 
 He believed in the Bible standard of dress, for comfort and 
 not for show. He would exhort his members to higher living, 
 family altars, and would try so hard to get men and women to 
 talk for Jesus in meetings, but never did he get them at it much 
 until he was sanctified. 
 
 The subject of Christian perfection was talked among our 
 preachers some, but only one ever preached it along then; that 
 was Rev. Wm. Byrd. He stood to it we could be made perfect 
 in love in this life. Father with all the other preachers thought 
 we must sin a little, but that we had an Advocate with the Father, 
 Jesus Christ. In the winter of 1894, Dr. Rowland, the same doc- 
 tor referred to in the beginning of this sketch, who had been 
 living in Bladen county, practising, had moved back to Benson 
 and began his practice among his old friends. He and his wife 
 
IS 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 came to spend the night at our house. The doctor seemed so dif- 
 ferent, changed, his conversation was so different now. He said 
 he had met a sanctified preacher in Bladen county and that he 
 shouted, cried, laughed, jumped, and said, " Hallelujah to God, 
 praise the Lord, glory to Jesus,*' all the time and that he was 
 the happiest man he ever saw; said Crumpler, "the sanctified 
 preacher/' had knocked every bit of the predestination out of 
 him. He had been to the altar in Crumpler s meeting seeking 
 salvation. He said that this fellow preached that the blood 
 cleanseth from all sin and it was our privilege to live so close 
 to the Lord we would not have time nor want to sin — couldn't 
 sin for praising God. The doctor told us to be sure and go hear 
 Crumpler if he ever came near us. We did not have the faintest 
 idea of ever hearing him, but the doctor's talk of the sanctified 
 folks and the preacher, the great meeting he had attended, and 
 the marked change in the doctor himself, put us to thinking on 
 the subject of heart purity. 
 
 The summer following, Rev. R. C. Jackson and my father 
 held two meetings together. Father preached at Lee's school 
 house, and Brother Jackson at Pleasant Grove, only about three 
 miles apart. They arranged to preach at Pleasant Grove in the 
 morning and at father's appointment in the evening; they had 
 good meetings at both places; they closed and baptized in the 
 same pond together. Father would immerse one candidate and 
 Jackson one until all was done, then they went back to the school 
 house and organized a church with about twenty members. The 
 next summer, 1895, they had a meeting at this same Lee's 
 school house, which resulted in the conversion of four people 
 over sixty years old. It was striking to see these old, gray- 
 headed people baptized that cold September morning! I never 
 will forget the scene; the water was cold. It was a river in a 
 shady place and one of the coldest September mornings I ever 
 remember. The candidates were chilly, and one man was so 
 chilled or excited that he ran down the river and dipped him- 
 self several times, like I have seen geese do. A girl tied her 
 handkerchief across her mouth and tied it to the back of her 
 head in a tight knot to prevent strangling, and when she arose 
 from the water with the headgear about to smother her, it was ex- 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 19 
 
 citing to see her frantic efforts to release herself. I can almost 
 see the crowd now, the candidates and father in the river. One 
 of the old men that was baptized that day died suddenly in three 
 weeks. Father received him into the church, baptized him, ad- 
 ministered the sacrament to him, washed his feet and preached 
 his funeral all in three weeks. 
 
 This was in the summer and fall of 1895. In May, 1896, that 
 sanctified man, A. B. Crumpler, came to Dunn, N. C, in seven 
 miles of our home, and pitched a tent and began a meeting. 
 News went out all over the country that there was a sanctified 
 meeting and band of workers at Dunn. Some said the preacher 
 had powder and scattered on the folks and that they fell like 
 dead men and lay for hours. They fell, it was true, but it was 
 by the mighty powef of God. Oh! that Dunn meeting; never 
 will be forgotten. Never was one like it before, nor hasn't 
 been since in this country. Brother Crumpler brought several 
 workers with him, men and women filled with the Holy Ghost. 
 They could sing, shout, preach, or pray — the whole band, girls 
 and boys, men and women. They soon had the town and sur- 
 rounding country in a stir. Brother Crumpler could be heard 
 preaching on a still night fully two miles, and the Lord was 
 on him so the people could not stand it. They screamed and 
 prayed all over town, all up and down the road and all around 
 the whole country. I think there were said to be at least three 
 hundred professions, twelve of which made preachers. I will 
 never praise God enough for Brother Crumpler. Oh! thank the 
 dear Lord for ever sending him to Dunn to bring the glad news 
 that we can be free from inbred sin, and filled with the Holy 
 Ghost. Glory to God! 
 
 The influence of that meeting will never die. My father 
 went one time. We had heard so much scandal about the meet- 
 ing till father thought he would prove it, so he went under the 
 tent, stopped away back, but said -he felt the power of God 
 under .that old canvas, said had he gone close up he would have 
 been the man to have hollered. The preacher's subject was 
 shouting. He went from one side of the Bible to the other 
 proving it was a duty, privilege and even a real command to 
 clap your hands and praise God. Father came home and said: 
 
20 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 " There's something in that meeting.'' Nearly all the preachers 
 in our conference got into the experience of full salvation that 
 year, in that meeting or through its influence. Oh, how the 
 doctrine spread! Two of our preachers fought the doctrine and 
 refused to seek the blessing, and said hard things about some of 
 the holiness people. They were turned out of the conference, 
 and one of them since this has been reclaimed and is in sympathy 
 with the doctrine and helps support it and loves the cause; but 
 the other — sad to say — is in sin today, or was the last I heard 
 from him. It is awful to fight against God. 
 
 HIS SANCTIFICATION. 
 
 My father came home from the Dunn meeting and was taken 
 with the most malignant case of inflammatory rheumatism I ever 
 saw. He lay for nine weeks, and suffered the most excruciating 
 pain. He could not sleep more than two hours in twenty-four. 
 He thought he was going to die, and examined his past life as 
 none other but a dying man can. He was willing to meet God 
 on the doctrine he had preached, the example he had set before 
 the people, and all that; but said he was not fully resigned to 
 God's will. He had prayed, " Thy will be done,'' hundreds of 
 times, but said from the heart he was not willing to see his wife 
 or children die, had God seen proper to take them, and say, " Thy 
 will, O God, and not mine." 
 
 But while here in this torture of pain, his hands so drawn 
 with the disease that he couldn't feed himself, his feet so stiff 
 and swollen he was almost helpless for weeks, he consecrated 
 his whole life, wife, children, houses, land, and everything he 
 had, all he was or ever expected to be or have, to God, and gave 
 up. The blessing came. It was on Sunday evening, and he wept 
 so and did so strangely to us we thought he was going to die; 
 and he did die to the world and its applause, to public sentiment 
 and men's opinions. He lay there, sang and praised God, and 
 was so happy. While he was still ill, some of his friends that 
 had been sanctified in the Dunn meeting in May came to see 
 him. They talked of their spiritual uplift, and told of many 
 others that had been pardoned or cleansed during the meeting. 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 21 
 
 He seemed so strengthened by Christians' prayers and songs, 
 and would get so happy, and still be suffering so much. During 
 his sickness the two eldest boys disobeyed him and ran away to 
 a pond bathing. They were too small to go by themselves or to 
 be trying to swim without an older person to look after them. 
 Father was far too sick to whip them, so he called them to the 
 bed and gave them a very serious talk, had them kneel close to 
 him by the bed, and I never heard such a prayer as he prayed 
 for those disobedient boys. They were heartbroken over their 
 disobedience, and did not require punishment any more soon. 
 They wept much worse than had he whipped them. 
 
 About this time it was announced that the sanctified folks 
 were coming to our house on July 8, 1896, Wednesday night, to 
 have a prayer meeting. It was pretty well known, and that night 
 the people poured in from every direction until the place was full 
 of people. The meeting was conducted by a young man that had 
 been sanctified only a few weeks. Several other sanctified peo- 
 ple came. They had a testimony meeting. Father lay and wit- 
 nessed for Jesus, and they called on me to speak, but I had never 
 been in one of these meetings, and a timid girl of only fifteen. I 
 had been converted. This I simply acknowledged and kept my 
 seat, waiting to see the result of a sanctified meeting. Only a 
 few spoke beside the sanctified ones. The young man in charge 
 of the meeting preached in might and power. The people wept, 
 an altar call was made, and almost all those present were peni- 
 tents. I felt I needed something in my life and heart I did not 
 have. My heart ached, and the long-pent-up tears now flowed 
 freely. I longed to be happy like those sanctified ones. Most 
 of the penitents were praying aloud for God to bless them, and 
 soon I went to praying aloud for a clean heart. I did not get 
 the blessing that night, and don't think anyone else did, but all 
 seemed convicted and longing for God to forgive or sanctify 
 them. The next day I prayed all day. That night the same 
 crowd with a number of others, were to hold prayer meeting at 
 a neighbor s house about three miles from home. My brother 
 and I went, and it was a sight to see the people. By dark they 
 began coming for miles around, and I believe there were a hun- 
 dred or over at a cottage prayer meeting on Thursday night. It 
 
22 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 was work time, and farmers were very busy trying to get through 
 crops, but everybody seemed to be anxious to get to these meet- 
 ings. 
 
 This one was conducted as I have never seen one before nor 
 since. They had a testimony meeting, and when all got through, 
 one brother preached about an hour at the fireplace. He stopped, 
 and another put in at the hall door, facing the first speaker and 
 a room full in front of him. People in the porch and hall — the 
 place filled up. My, my, they were there! The last preacher 
 having ended his sermon, an altar service began that lasted for 
 four hours. I don't remember who else went to the altar, got 
 blessed, who prayed, nor much else but the struggle of my own 
 poor heart. As soon as the call for seekers was made I rushed 
 to the altar and covered my face, wept and prayed awhile. My 
 heart got heavier and heavier, and I felt like I would almost die. 
 I began to pray as. loud as I could. Several others were con- 
 fessing out as well as myself, and some of the sanctified ones 
 were praying for us and telling us how to get the blessing. I 
 consecrated my all, gave up my pride, myself, my worldly as- 
 sociates and all to Jesus; told Him to use me from that moment 
 for Himself. I have never been more hungry for food nor 
 more thirsty for water than I was for full salvation that night, 
 jesus said if we hunger and thirst after righteousness we shall be 
 filled, and He did so sweetly fill my soul that night. The bless- 
 ing came. Oh, it came over my soul like a wave, and changed 
 all my darkness to light, and I was so happy I could not keep 
 still. I cannot tell what I did, and have never heard anyone say, 
 and I surely don't know. I lost myself and found Jesus. I 
 praised the Lord awhile, then I found one of my friends down 
 sobbing. She seemed to be in great agony of soul as I knelt beside 
 her and offered my first audible prayer for another. 
 
 The next morning when I got home, my mother asked me if 1 
 got sanctified at the prayer meeting that night. I very solemnly 
 replied that I received something I had never had before. Mother 
 was not sanctified, and did not know just what to think of the 
 holiness people, but never said a word against it. She thought 
 she had it, but was shown differently later on. On entering my 
 father's room that morning he asked me the same question my 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 23 
 
 mother had. I answered him in the same manner. He further 
 inquired if I shouted. I told him I did not know what I did. 
 
 Father remarked to mother that he would try me, and if I 
 was sanctified I would pray at family services at home. She told 
 him she was confident that I would. So he asked me if I would 
 pray every third night. I told him I would do the best I could. 
 The children soon found out that I was sanctified, and concluded 
 they would try me. I was sitting at the table, head bowed for- 
 ward, leaning on the table praying, but not audibly, when my lit- 
 tle brother about nine years old pelted me in the back, and he 
 struck me pretty hard. I had usually been flogging them for 
 similar offences, but now I felt no anger at all in my heart, and 
 did not say a word to him. A minute passed and the astonished 
 boy felt quite disappointed at not getting a beating. He walked 
 off and said, " She's sure got it, or I would have got a whipping." 
 
 Things that worried me and got me all wrong after my con- 
 version, now did not trouble me at all. I read my Bible every 
 day and prayed much; as father used to say, my breath was sea- 
 soned with prayer. I was so happy all the time. I would look 
 towards heaven many times a day and say, " Bless the Lord, O 
 my soul, and forget not all His benefits." 
 
 I received a letter from a lady friend of mine a few days be- 
 fore I was sanctified, inviting father and me to their meeting, 
 father to aid in the revival and I to have a good time visiting 
 around and going to church. But before the meeting came I 
 got the blessing of heart purity. Father was still on the bed, 
 unable to walk, so he could not go. One of my cousins was pas- 
 tor of this church. It was about twelve miles from home, and I 
 went with him, not to have a good time visiting friends, but to 
 win souls for Jesus — a mission I had never dreamed of before. 
 The morning came for me to start, and I had a large valise, 
 packed it up and took it in hand, bade the family goodby, and 
 was soon out of sight up the road. I was met by the preacher 
 at the village, one mile away, ready to take me to the meeting. 
 My mother said she felt very strange as she saw her fifteen-year 
 old daughter walk in that morning to " try and get folks saved." 
 The meeting was not a great sucess — only one conversion that 
 I remember, but my prayers and testimonies stirred the people 
 
24 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 up and put them to reading their Bibles. I found no little oppo- 
 sition at the start. The preacher himself did not believe in the 
 doctrine, but said I was called to preach, and would ask me to 
 talk and pray and help in the meeting. The more persecution 
 I got, the happier I felt; nothing hindered me, for I held fast 
 to God. My opposers would tell that I had lost my mind, and 
 reported once that I was in the asylum; but none of these things 
 moved me. 
 
 I stayed at this meeting a few days and came back home, and 
 I had not been home long before mother had something to tell 
 me. She said one night that week, after family prayer, she sat 
 down to rub father's hands, for they were still drawn and stiff. 
 She said God began to reveal her heart to her. She began to 
 cry and throw up her hands, and commenced praying in a very 
 agonizing tone, and she quoted James 1:27, "Pure religion and 
 undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the father- 
 less and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted 
 from the world." She had been a praying, shouting Christian 
 for years. No one doubted her piety that knew her, but she said 
 there was one spot on her garment. A year or two previous to 
 this a neighbor of ours had a gang of little pigs that rooted up 
 around the kitchen door, and were quite a nuisance. She ran 
 them out time and again until at last she picked up a piece of 
 an old yard broom and brushed at one and broke him down. He 
 went off dragging by his fore feet. Mother was very sorry for 
 it, and said she was willing to pay for the pig, but was perfectly 
 ashamed for anyone to know she did such a thing. The pig 
 was not worth fifty cents. It went on, and the pig had not 
 troubled her until that night, and she said it rose like a black 
 mountain before her. It was the spot in her garment. "A crip- 
 pled pig " — and she said she would die before day if she could 
 not see the owner and confess it. Father was sick, brother and 
 I were gone, and there was no one to send but my little sister 
 and her schoolmate, who was spending the night there. The 
 children were safe in bed, and the night was dark and rainy. It 
 was nearly half a mile up the road to the man's house, and one 
 had to go by the graveyard. But these scared children must go, 
 for it would never do to let mother die for lack of seeing that 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 25 
 
 man. So they went, and the man came, much puzzled to know 
 the trouble. He came in, and she poured the whole story out to 
 him and begged his forgiveness, which he was only too glad to 
 grant. He said he cared nothing at all about the pig. The con- 
 fession and consecration was complete, and the blessing came 
 and mother was happy. Father said he never heard such a vivid 
 description of heaven in his life, for she rejoiced all night. 
 
 Father was taken worse before day, and came near dying, but 
 nothing molested this newly sanctified soul. Father soon began 
 to recover from this attack, and was soon so he could walk around 
 a little. How good it did seem to see him out again. He was 
 taken in May, and now it was the last of July. Our meeting at 
 Hodges Chapel began the fourth Sunday night in July. Father 
 was full of the Holy Ghost and faith, and had given up his to- 
 bacco, after being an habitual slave to its use for thirty years. 
 We all three had been sanctified, and were so glad our meeting 
 was coming on. 
 
 We were expecting great things from God, and were not dis- 
 appointed, though our preacher at this time fought the doctrine 
 with all his power. He came to the meeting, and preached in a 
 very sour, fighting, bitter way. Nobody seemed built up; no one 
 saved; and we sanctified folks poured' it on him and prayed for 
 his sanctification, but he abused us. He said I made him feel like 
 he was not fit to preach. The sanctified folks soon made it too hot 
 for him, and he got mad and left the meeting, saying that we had 
 taken it away from him; but God was there. 
 
 Father could only stand on his feet to preach a very short 
 time, from ten to twenty minutes; but the power of God was on 
 him. The time was spent in warning sinners of their danger and 
 telling believers of their great privilege in Jesus; that the Lord 
 could sanctify us wholly and preserve us blameless until His 
 coming. Glory to God. (1 Thes. 5:23.) It took only a few 
 words to melt the crowd; for his pitiful looks and Holy Ghost 
 pleadings burned in people's hearts. They came to the altar by 
 scores, until it was full, then knelt or fell in the aisle, scream- 
 ing and pleading with God for their salvation. Some would fall 
 and lie prostrate for' hours. I have seen a dozen fall in one ser- 
 vice; some would be cold and look like dead men; strong men 
 
26 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 and boys, as well as women and girls. Some would see visions, 
 while others were prostrate and under conviction, and still others 
 would fall, some in the yard, some on benches and a large number 
 on the floor. All the way you could discover life at all in some 
 was by their pulse and heart. It was a sight to behold, and folks 
 came for miles just to see what was going on. Such reports as the 
 enemy of souls did circulate! I have seen them cry and pray 
 until victory came, and then laugh for an hour without stopping. 
 This holy laugh was what our pastor despised so bad, and now 
 he confessed that he wanted it. A large number joined the church, 
 and there were about seventy professions in this meeting. 
 
 This unsanctified pastor came again at his next appointment 
 and gave the whole thing a black eye. Oh, he belabored us; but 
 we sang, shouted, and prayed for him to get the blessing. Thank 
 God, our prayers were at last answered in a meeting father and 
 I were holding some time after this. The preacher came to the 
 altar after the blessing he had abused so much, and the Lord did 
 pour His power upon him, and made him laugh himself nearly 
 down. He laughed until he was so weak father told him to stop. 
 He knew he could not; but he laughed right on, and seemingly 
 it pleased the Lord to give it to him this way because he hated 
 it so bad. We were so glad, for he had a good influence, and 
 did lots of good, leading many people into the experience after 
 this. The first year of our sanctified life was one of great victory. 
 
 Father was pastor of a church in Cumberland county, over 
 Cape Fear River. In September, 1896, we began a meeting at 
 this place. Father was still very feeble, and went on crutches, 
 and could not stand but a short time to preach. There were a 
 few holiness people there that had been sanctified in May at 
 Dunn. We began to preach, testify, sing and shout, pray in 
 every home we entered, talk salvation to everybody we met, and 
 in a day or two the whole neighborhood was aroused. They 
 came from all directions. The church was very large, but there 
 were so many people we had to preach out doors part of the time. 
 Reverends Byrd and R. C. Jackson came before the meeting 
 closed, and rendered valuable service. Some became so convicted 
 they prayed all night long. They lay in trances, some on the 
 floor until nearly daybreak, their whole bodies perfectly rigid. 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 27 
 
 I have seen from five to fifteen prostrate at one time in this 
 meeting. Some had visions of heaven and saw their loved ones 
 there. And it was all classes — well-bred, high to- ed college boys 
 and hard-working people all got blessed alike. The meeting 
 lasted sixteen days, and before its close one of the deacons got 
 convicted, spent a sleepless night, arose before day, went where 
 father was stopping, and confessed that he had lived in the 
 church forty years without religion. He said he never had been 
 converted, and had stilled liquor, and he a deacon of the church! 
 He was in awful agony. He prayed, and father prayed for him 
 till the victory came. It was about sunrise when the burden 
 was rolled away. He came to the church that day, and he was 
 so happy. He confessed his life, and preached a real sermon, tell- 
 ing how he had suffered under conviction, and how wonderfully 
 the Lord had blessed him. He had a good influence, and lived 
 a saintly life for six years, and died telling those around him he 
 was going to be with Jesus. This meeting closed with seventy- 
 five professions, some of whom are still on the way to glory. 
 
 In October following, father and I began a meeting in Harnett 
 county at a «choolhouse. There were not any holiness people at 
 all around there, and few Christians at all; most of the people 
 were backslidden that ever had been converted; not one would 
 pray in public or testify. Only a few invited us home with them 
 at first; some were afraid of us, some were afraid to take our 
 hands or come near us; afraid we had powders to put on them 
 and put them in trances. Oh, how the devil will delude people! 
 But they would come in throngs to the meeting. Father preached 
 and we sang, testified and exhorted, from Sunday night until 
 Tuesday night, with no visible results. Tuesday night at the 
 close of the sermon, there came a man to the altar. He looked 
 to be about fifty years old, an honest, plain old farmer. This 
 seemed to affect the people, for the man was so broken up and 
 wept so pitifully they all knew he was deeply convicted. Then 
 a warm revival tide began to rise that night. It rose higher and 
 higher until Friday night. I never saw such a time in my life. 
 A school teacher arose at the close of the sermon that night 
 and asked permission to speak, which was readily granted. He 
 began to cry, his whole frame trembling with emotion. He said, 
 
28 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 "All I have ever taught here, I am now ready to pray for; come, 
 let me pray for all of you." He had been teaching there for 
 years, and some of his old scholars were men and women with 
 families. They began to scream and cry as if something awful 
 had happened; they ran over each other getting to the altar, 
 and for fully two hours people wrung their hands and confessed to 
 God. I cannot give any idea how many received pardon or 
 cleansing that memorable Friday night. In one family well re- 
 membered, there were three brothers, all grown young men, and 
 the oldest married. This eldest boy was among the number at 
 the altar on Friday night. He was deeply touched, went home 
 and slept but little. Next morning about day he gave up his 
 struggles and trusted Jesus. The Holy Ghost came upon him, 
 and he wept, laughed, and did many things strange to his fam- 
 ily. His wife did not understand him. He had been a devoted 
 church member for years, and was a college-bred, high-toned 
 young man. His brother thought he was ruined, and told his 
 mother that his brother had surely gone crazy: that he hid 
 acted foolishly and strangely since Friday night, and as for him, 
 he was done with that mess at the schoolhouse, and was not going 
 there any more. He was also a church member, and was very 
 intelligent, had a good position as a school teacher, and was some- 
 what diseased with egotism. But he concluded he wanted to be 
 sure about this doctrine. He found his Bible after a long search, 
 took an ax, and went off as if to cut wood. He took the Bible 
 in his hand, and thus began to pray: " Lord, if there is such an 
 experience as sanctification, let my Bible open to a chapter that 
 will make it plain to me. v The Bible opened at Hebrews, 10th 
 chapter, which is full of sanctification. He shut the Bible after 
 reading that chapter, and said, " Lord, I believe it, and righi 
 now I want it." He wrestled alone with God until the blessing 
 came, and then went shouting, jumping and clapping his hands 
 to the house. His mother said, "What's the matter? Have you 
 cut your foot? " He shouted almost all day. I never saw a 
 happier young man in my life. He went back to the " mess " at 
 the schoolhouse, as he called it, with a message for church mem- 
 bers and holiness fighters. His youngest brother started to a 
 corn shucking, and got so convicted he fell in a fence jamb and lay 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 29 
 
 there until he made the surrender. Jesus did the cleansing. He 
 got up and went on praising God. 
 
 One wicked fellow got converted in the field pulling corn, 
 came to the meeting that night, began to tell how God had saved 
 him. He said, " Everybody that I have led in the ballroom or 
 called figures for you to dance, come here and lei me pray tor 
 you." The scene that followed is indescribable; old and young 
 came weeping for him to pray for them. Another young fellow 
 was converted while on the way to meeting, and was heard shout- 
 ing half a mile while the people were gathering there. They lav 
 in trances at this place, some nearly all day, and others almost 
 all night. Their shouts and testimonies were heartrending. One 
 wicked drunkard, an awful man, was happily saved, and is still 
 on the heavenly road. He shouted all over the crowd with hands 
 uplifted, saying, " Glory! Glory! Jesus has saved a poor 
 drunkard like me." This meeting closed after fifteen days of 
 wonderful victory. 
 
 During this meeting father laid aside his crutches, but was 
 still very feeble, for the disease had left his limbs very stiff and 
 swollen, and his left hand was perfectly rigid. Father organized 
 a church at this place with twenty-four members. They soon 
 built a nice church. Some have backslidden, some have died, 
 but there are still some of God's true ones around this place. 
 
 The next summer, 1897, an evangelist came to our little town 
 and pitched a tent and began to preach full salvation. My 
 mother at this time was at the point of death. The doctor asked 
 this preacher to go with him and see my mother, saying, u She's 
 going to die. and you may be of some comfort to her." The 
 preacher came with the doctor, and they talked of God's power 
 to heal, and prayed with her, and she began to recover. My 
 father's hand was still rigid. Dr. Rowland and the preacher 
 together got father and mother fully persuaded to be anointed 
 according to James 5:14. Mother got able to ride slowly over 
 to the tent, where she was given a comfortable chair, as she was 
 very feeble. Father had bought the olive oil, and told the drug- 
 gist when it struck his head in obedience to God's Word his 
 hand would be healed and his legs and other limbs restored to 
 
30 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 their normal condition. The druggist laughed, as if he doubted 
 this would be the case. 
 
 That night the meeting opened up and the people shouted 
 so the preacher did not try to preach. He asked all that wanted 
 to be anointed for healing to come forward. Father and mother 
 both went and knelt, with eleven others. By the time the oil was 
 applied father's hand went together. Closed it, yes, closed it — 
 for the first time in thirteen months! His limbs were made flex- 
 ible, and he began to jump. He found the druggist in the 
 crowd, and showed him his hand. He was an astonished man, 
 as he had examined it only a short time before. It had been 
 swollen and stiff since that dreadful attack of rheumatism over a 
 year previous. Three doctors said had it been forced together 
 it would have broken the bone in pieces. Mother was also won- 
 derfully healed. She leaped and praised God; found the doctor 
 and told him that he did all he could for her, but failed to cure 
 her, but Jesus had done it. Glory! Glory! It was a real mir- 
 acle: I saw it and know it is true. They went home and rejoiced 
 all night. 
 
 From that night, July 24, 1897, they never took another drop 
 of medicine. Father had scarcely been able to do any man- 
 ual labor since his illness above named, and never fully recovered 
 until that night. He walked on crutches for three months, and 
 after he laid them aside he was so easy to stumble, a small stick 
 or cornstalk would nearly throw him down. After he was healed, 
 he would plow all day, and said he felt as good as he did at 
 eighteen years of age. Mother went on with her housework, even 
 washed, and she had not been able to draw water for some time. 
 She seemed like a new woman. Father used to send for the doc- 
 tor if one of us was a little sick; so excited over the least sick- 
 ness in his family. But after this wonderful healing, he looked 
 to Jesus only tor his body. After this he was sent for to pray 
 with and anoint the sick for miles, and witnessed many real cases 
 of healing. 
 
 On July 4, 1S99, I was married to a young evangelist, H. H. 
 Goff. We traveled and held meetings about a year, then came 
 home and built on land my father gave us. My husband and 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 31 
 
 father held meetings and anointed the sick together. Many peo- 
 ple were saved and sanctified wholly during these meetings. 
 
 In November, 1899, father was taken with a dreadful case of 
 typhoid fever, but held on to God. We obeyed James 5th. but 
 he seemed to get no better. If typhoid fever was to be healed 
 at once, people would say it was not typhoid, or they would not 
 have gotten well so quick. But after a long and wearisome spell 
 of several weeks of hot fever, which was pronounced to be ty- 
 phoid by a good physician, then the people began to say, " Well, 
 there must be something to it, or he would die; does not take a 
 thing, but prays, shouts, preaches, and is the happiest sick man 
 I ever saw." It was a benediction to enter his room: the power 
 - of God was there. He fully recovered after much prayer and 
 simple faith in Jesus. ' In June, 1900, my husband and I went to 
 New Bern and held a glorious meeting, and on to Wilmington, 
 and held one that lasted about three weeks. It was a great vic- 
 tory. Then we came to Duplin county, and preached out there 
 in the country ten days with good results. At this place I was 
 taken with the fever, and came home and took my bed July 
 26th, and lay unconscious for three weeks. I, my husband and 
 father fasted three days for my healing, and I was anointed, but 
 got no better, and had nine awful hemorrhages. Mother sat by 
 me until her strength failed her. They all prayed; I prayed, 
 preached, talked, shouted, and sang of heaven, gave directions 
 for my funeral — told who should preach it, and all about it. 
 Lots of hardhearted ones that came to see me were touched. I 
 recovered, to the astonishment of my friends, and in about two 
 years after this my mother had the same fever. She trusted Jesus 
 and got well. Mother and brother were both down at a time in 
 the same room. Brother took seventeen different kinds of medi- 
 cine. Mother took none. Both got up about the same time. 
 Three of us had typhoid fever and recovered without drugs of 
 any kind. 
 
 Father still pastored churches all these years, and held re- 
 vivals in the summer and fall season, and had some grand old- 
 fashioned meetings. He was a special lover of music, and bought 
 different instruments for us children, and we all played together. 
 He so much enjoyed singing with the rest of the family, and to 
 
32 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 have the children play the organ, violin and guitar. He had 
 some favorite hymns, and he had them played, while he would 
 sing and clap his hands. Oh, how we miss that voice that used 
 to add so much to our church and home music! But he sings no 
 more sweet anthems of praise here, but is singing now in that 
 blissful home in heaven. 
 
 HIS DEATH. 
 
 In the fall of 1903 father began to have the most peculiar 
 chills I ever saw. When one would come on him, he was taken 
 with death-like pains all over his body. He could be heard pray- 
 ing for a hundred yards, and we could not warm him until the 
 fever came. We would go to God for him, and he would be up 
 in a little while, then in a few day^ another chill would come 
 on him, and he looked like he would die. He sent for the elders 
 of the church, and they came and anointed him, the chills 
 stopped, and we thought he was doing well, but he soon began 
 to turn yellow all over, and got so sick he could not keep any- 
 thing on his stomach. He kept getting sicker and weaker, but 
 kept up. He walked over the farm to our house on Thursday, 
 to his brother's on Friday, and died Monday. Saturday morn- 
 ing he was so sick. Had not eaten anything scarcely for two 
 months. He had fallen off until he did not look like himself, 
 and was in so much pain he told mother to send for his pastor, 
 a Holy Ghost man, Brother H. W. Jernigan, who came with sev- 
 eral others of his Christian friends, among whom was a woman 
 he had anointed and seen miraculously healed so many times. 
 When she entered the room and took father's hand, he began to 
 cry, and told her he was so happy. He said, " There has been a 
 wave of salvation over me all day, and I have seen Jesus on the 
 cross.'' The preacher came in, and he burst into a new flood of 
 tears. We all prayed for his healing. He prayed, and we arose 
 from prayer. Then he said, " I am better, and in no pain at all. 
 Now let's thank God for easing me. Florence, you lead the 
 prayer.'' We all knelt, and I prayed, and. father sat on the floor 
 and sang two songs: " I'm Kneeling at the Mercy Seat, Where 
 Jesus Heals Me Now,"' and " I Will Trust in the Lord Until I 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 33 
 
 Die." No one else could sing in the room but he; all were flood- 
 ed with tears. I thought his voice was sweeter and had more 
 heaven in it than I ever heard in it before. We had no thought 
 the end was so near. He looked so pitiful ; the disease had done its 
 deadly work. God saw His trusting child had suffered enough 
 pain and persecution, hard toil, preaching, praying and warning 
 sinners, and had fasted enough long hot days for his children; 
 had spent enough nights of prayer; and Jesus was coming after 
 him, to give him rest, peace and joy forever. Saturday night 
 was spent in agony, so much pain, for the trouble was gallstones. 
 Physicians say they cause the most excruciating pain man ever 
 suffered. 
 
 Sunday the church was called to fast and pray for him. He 
 was so patient; not a murmur, not a complaint against God. He 
 said, " If I have done all I can for lost souls, the Lord wants me 
 and I am ready to go." He did not pray to be restored to 
 health, for himself or his family, but only for God's glory; he 
 wanted God's will to be done in him. He said, " I will trust 
 Him though He slay me." 
 
 There were four of his children nearly grown, out of Christ, 
 three of them having once professed to love the Lord, and wan- 
 dered off away from Jesus. This gave my father so much trouble 
 to see them so careless about their souls, and he would pray and 
 cry, fast and try to get them saved. They would go to the altar 
 and weep a little, and go away not saved. They had done this 
 for several years. The Lord had warned them in many ways, 
 and at last laid their sainted father across their path. 
 
 On Sunday evening I had been fasting and praying for the 
 Lord to heal father, and took the Bible and began to search for 
 God's promises to heal, when something as plain as an audible 
 voice said, " If those children will give up their sins I will heal 
 him; if not, I am going to take him." Sunday night he was taken 
 worse, and looked like he would go into convulsions. He prayed 
 the Lord to ease him or take his breath. We all prayed, and 
 I told him what had been revealed to me, and mother said 
 she had felt the same impression. Father said, " Call the 
 children in and preach it to them, Florence." I called them, 
 and they came and knelt around his bed and sobbed for 
 
34 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 some time. Dr. Rowland was there, and he read and exhorted 
 the children, and prayed for them and father, but they would not 
 confess their sins. Father's breath was so short he could not 
 speak but a few words at a time. He said, " Oh, how I wish I 
 could talk to my children!" Everyone present seemed to be bur- 
 dened with grief, and all the Christians prayed. It was the sad- 
 dest night I ever spent. I sat by him all night. He was thirsty; 
 the cold sweat gathered on his forehead. He seemed a little 
 easier Monday morning, but never slept more than a little doze 
 of maybe ten minutes, then awoke with another dreadful pain. We 
 all watched the hours as they passed away. Each told us that 
 the time was almost out. Monday evening, about 2 o'clock, Nov. 
 23, 1903, he calmly passed away. I thought sure he had got easy 
 and was going to sleep, and could not tell when his last breath was 
 gone. Death was a sweet relief. Truly he fell asleep in the arms of 
 Jesus. He left a heartbroken wife, who had done all loving hands 
 could do for twenty-four years for his pleasure and comfort, and 
 never was a cross word spoken between them. 
 
 Telegrams were sent to relatives and distant friends, and prep- 
 arations were made to lay the temple of the Holy Ghost, his body, 
 to rest. The funeral was preached by Rev. H. W. Jernigan, using 
 as a text Rev. 14:13, " Blessed are the dead which die in the 
 Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest 
 from their labors, and their works do follow them.'' The funeral 
 was preached to the largest crowd I ever saw at a burying; women 
 and children stood in the aisle, and lots out of doors, all through 
 the sermon. An altar call was made, and quite a number bowed 
 for prayer, among whom were four of his unsaved children. Kind 
 friends laid the body to rest in the church yard, to await the com- 
 ing of Jesus. 
 
 My mother then settled the estate, and the same Sunday 
 school boy referred to previously, who at that time had become 
 one of the best lawyers in the State, was her attorney. He was fix- 
 ing up some letters for her one day, and she offered him the post- 
 age. Tears rose in his eyes: he looked straight into mother's and 
 said, " No. I would be the last one to charge you a cent. People 
 that have done as much for me as you and your husband." All that 
 good friends could do in sympathy and prayer was done for our 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 3 5 
 
 comfort. The union meeting of which father was moderator 
 rendered sympathy through a committee, in The Holiness Ad- 
 vocate, all of which we appreciate. 
 
 "A precious one from us is gone 
 
 A voice we loved is stilled; 
 A place is vacant in our home, 
 
 That never can be filled. 
 God in His wisdom has recalled 
 
 The boon His love had given; 
 And though the body moulders here, 
 
 The soul is safe in heaven. 
 
 "Father's gone, but not forgotten, 
 
 Never shall his memory fade; 
 Sweetest thoughts shall ever linger 
 
 'Round the grave where he is laid. 
 It was hard to part with father; 
 
 Oh, so hard to see him die! 
 But then we will try to meet him 
 
 In that heavenly home by and by." 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 After the life of my father was published, the same lawyer 
 referred to as being in father's Sunday school class read the book. 
 He at that time was a famous statesman, but never forgot his fa- 
 vorite old friend, my father. Here is a letter he sent me after 
 reading the book. This noble-hearted young statesman met his 
 death suddenly by a freight car passing over his body, February 
 20, 1909. 
 
 MR. STEWART'S LETTER. 
 
 September 2, 1905. 
 
 Mrs. Florence Goff, 
 Benson, N. C. 
 
 Dear Florence: I have with a great deal of interest just 
 completed the reading of the book which you have written about 
 your father's work. In ail of my readings and researches I have 
 
36 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 found nothing which I have read more eagerly and with more 
 profound interest, especially so, on account of the sincere love 
 and admiration which I had for the man, and again for the reason 
 that it was written by you. Many times I found use for my hand- 
 kerchief. I could again see his consecrated expression and hear 
 him in his zeal as he pleaded for the young men, and the family 
 and neighbors he loved so well. I have thought for several 
 months, that at some time I would suggest to you the very thing 
 which you have done. I know of no man within my knowledge, 
 whose life and whose teaching have had a more salutary effect on 
 the youth. 
 
 So long as I live I shall always gratefully remember the kind- 
 ness and interest which he exhibited for me in my young man- 
 hood, and solicitude for me in my maturer years, although I am 
 just thirty years old now. In 1900, when the people of this 
 county wanted me to go to the Legislature, before I would agree 
 to make the fight for nomination, I went to his house to see 
 him and obtain counsel from him. I found him north of the 
 home, I think, plowing. I went to the place, and while we were 
 there, the eclipse of the sun came with its luster and georgeous- 
 ness on that bright May morning, and the conversation then 
 between us has still remained fragrant in my mind. We stood 
 and watched the eclipse coming on, and as I recollect now, he 
 started to his home; but then the conversation drifted to the dis- 
 cussion of the powers of God and the infinitessimal insignificance 
 of us beings. We there, near the fence, had a prayer, the last, I 
 think, I ever heard him make. He went away, after advising me 
 to accept this nomination, and after a little discussion between 
 us to break up the liquor holes then in our community. Of course 
 you know the result, and how when the Legislature met I made 
 the effort; and how the crowd tried to overawe me, and how they 
 undertook to browbeat me; and during this time, I received a 
 letter from him, in which he said he had been praying for me, 
 and that God had assured him that I would do the best for the 
 people in our community, and especially for the young men, his 
 sons and my brothers and neighbors. I passed the bill, and 
 after my return from Raleigh, the first time I met him, he made 
 me feel better than I had felt in the whole two months while 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 37 
 
 there, by taking my hand and telling me that all the Christian 
 people and right-thinking men were with me, and success would 
 crown the efforts of one who tried to do the right. Thank God, 
 we have about gotten the evil where the good people can control 
 it, and we will continue to go further until the thing is com- 
 pletely stamped out. I should never have gone to the Legisla- 
 ture if he had advised me against it, for I had made up my mind 
 to take his advice about the matter before I went to see him. I 
 would to God that my own children had the tutelage of such a 
 man. You are eminently correct when you say that the tempta- 
 tion is much stronger and the chances for wrecking the lives of 
 the young men and women are greater than ever before. This 
 is a commercial and dollar-chasing age, and I fear that even the 
 parents are too neglectful of their children, not in pride and dress- 
 ing, but in heart-training. 
 
 We in our home have two little children, both of whom have 
 sprung up like two little flowers, and it is needless for me to say 
 that my life so far as the business affairs go is based on these 
 children. I know that I cannot with my limited opportunities 
 and advantages accomplish much in this life; but I hope to bless 
 others through them; but alas! how soon they may be overtaken. 
 Therefore, I say, that we are going too far away from the old 
 landmarks in these cities and towns. But I am going too far 
 from what I intended to say. He stood by me as a father, and 
 more like a guardian angel during my young boyhood, and shaped 
 my life, gave encouragement, emulation and enthusiasm which 
 enabled me to undergo the hardships and privations of poverty 
 and adversity without a murmur, and to strive to accomplish 
 something for myself and my people. I shall always treasure 
 his memory until that hour when I myself shall go down into 
 the tongueless silence of a dreamless death. One thing which I 
 desire that you, your mother and the brothers and sisters always 
 feel, and that is, you have a friend in me. I have written these 
 few lines hurriedly, and late at night. It now lacks only two 
 minutes of twelve, and I am tired and must stop. 
 
 My kindest regards to you, Brother Goff and the family. 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 W. A. Stewart. 
 
SOME OF THE LORDS DEALINGS 
 WITH US. 
 
 Since I wrote the first part of this booklet, God has blessed us 
 in a wonderful way. Father died November 23, 1903. The 17th 
 of January, 1904, our first boy was born. This was the fourth 
 child in five years' time. We had been in debt ever since we 
 built near my father's. That summer my husband heard Dr. 
 Watson preach at the Falcon Camp Meeting, on paying God His 
 tenth. In the face of about eight hundred dollars debt, God laid 
 it on my husband to begin an account with God and pay God 
 what he owed Him, and trust God to help us pay our debts to 
 man. My husband cleared land, preached most of the time, 
 except when he would close a meeting and come home for a 
 rest, but, my friends, his rest was clearing land. We burned 
 logs until eleven o'clock at ^ight. I stayed home most of the 
 time, worked hard, lived cheap, kept begging God to help us out 
 of debt. It became such a burden until I decided we could eat 
 our biscuits very well without any lard in them, and that would 
 save a little. We had borrowed a little cow. She gave us plenty 
 of milk, and about two ounces of butter per day. This butter 
 and our biscuit was our breakfast. A big pot of cabbage and 
 Irish potatoes cooked with an inch of bacon, corn bread and 
 buttermilk, was our dinner and supper. We were healthy, hearty, 
 and happy as larks. I felt like I had the biggest office in the 
 world, to be the wife of a preacher that was living a clean life, 
 preaching a full gospel, and winning men to God by dozens. Oh, 
 glory, I think so yet! How happy I would be to get a letter 
 from my husband that read like this: 
 
 " Oh, glory! The fire is falling over here in the meeting. 
 Twenty-five at the altar last night. One poor drunkard saved, 
 his home made happy that was once miserable. Old quarrels 
 have been settled; men that have not spoken for years embrace 
 each other, begging pardon, and weep like children. I cannot 
 tell when the meeting will close. Pray that God will use me much, 
 
40 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 that He will have His way. God bless you and the children. A 
 
 kiss for each of you. 
 
 " Your 
 
 Henry." 
 
 Oh, I say to myself, I am staying by the stuff, praying for 
 him; how happy I feel! 
 
 I was so glad to do hard work, relieve him of every burden I 
 could; wear old clothes, old hats, and thought they were good 
 enough ; was happy as a sunbeam. I felt in some way God would 
 get us out of debt. We owed Bro. Daly, of Kinston, about forty 
 dollars. My husband and Brother Crumpler were down there 
 holding a meeting in a church near Brother Daly's old home. 
 One morning husband started to write to me. Brother Daly 
 handed him his note and said, " Send that to your wife; tell her 
 to make that payable to Rowland Daly Goff." So that paid 
 a debt and named the first boy. We thanked God and took cour- 
 age. We scattered the children among our relatives in the sum- 
 mer and held some wonderful meetings. Hundreds were saved; 
 some backslid, it is true, but thank God, some stand true yet, 
 and several have been welcomed into glory, left bright testi- 
 monies that they were going there. 
 
 We owe much gratitude to both our mothers, several of our 
 neighbors, especially Sister Martha Stewart, and my aunt, Ell 
 Wheeler, for keeping our children and teaching them as if they 
 had been their own. When the crowning day comes, these pre- 
 cious women will surely be rewarded for helping us win souls. 
 It took a good bit of thinking to pack Irene and Rowland for 
 one place, Myrtle and Bliss to separate places, and then arrange 
 our grips with baby's things, books, tracts and so on, but God 
 helped me. The greater the task to get off was, it seemed the 
 bigger the victory ahead. 
 
 During those years, I think it was in the early spring of 1904, 
 my husband was preaching near Wilson Mills, Johnston county. 
 He was called upon to pray for old Uncle Telfer Jones, a colored 
 man that had not walked a step in several years. God healed 
 him. He arose, walked the house that day, and to Smithfield, 
 four miles, the next day. I think it was three or more years he 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 41 
 
 had been bound by Satan, as Jesus said; and he too was loosed 
 on the Sabbath day. Many other cases of healing we witnessed 
 before Pentecost. I remember another case in Cartaret county. 
 An old woman had been shut in two years, I think it was. Hus- 
 band prayed for her, she arose and walked to her neighbor's 
 house in a short time. 
 
 During the month of July, 1905, we were invited by Brother 
 Blaylock, the pastor of New Hope church, Johnston county, to 
 assist him in a meeting. We went. In our congregation were 
 two men we owed fifty dollars each; had owed it two years or 
 more, I think. We just could not pay it. How bad we felt to 
 try to hold a meeting in the face of this, but we knew we had 
 worked hard and economized, and felt before God we had tried 
 and could not. Husband went and told the men (they were 
 twin brothers, Cousins Ben and Ranee Allen) that he was sorry 
 he could not pay the debt when due. They bore with him until 
 he could pay the debt. They were Christians, and bore with him 
 long. The Lord worked in a wonderful way. All of both their 
 children that were old enough, that were at that time unsaved, 
 were converted and joined the church; some of them were sanc- 
 tified. At the close of the meeting Bro. Ranee gave us twenty- 
 five dollars of the debt, and Cousin Ben twenty. We spent 
 Christmas with them. Cousin Ranee gave us the other twenty- 
 five, interest and all, with a fine fat pig. Cousin Ben gave us a 
 sack of meat, I have forgotten how much — a lot in my eyes 
 then, I can tell you — and waited about two or three more years 
 for the balance of the money, and never did charge any interest. 
 We surely did thank God, and named a second son for them, Ben- 
 jamin Ransom. 
 
 That Christmas I shall never forget. We helped eat five 
 Christmas turkeys at different homes; had some good services 
 at the Sanders' schoolhouse. My husband preached in tents, 
 brush arbors, schoolhouses, on street corners, in churches; any- 
 where God led and the place was open. He stood for the truth 
 of Bible holiness in hard places. Among a furious mob once, I 
 remember. A boy came to the shelter we were preaching under 
 in Moore county and informed us that a mob of sawmill darkeys 
 were soon to be on us to run us from the meeting. They came 
 
4: 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 near enough so we understood them as they raved out, " Shoot 
 him again," and fired eleven times, but never came any nearer. 
 My husband preached the boldest I almost ever heard him. He 
 assured the people that God was there, and that He was the 
 God that dried up the hand of the wicked king that rose up 
 against God's prophet. I think the mob thought it had a bad 
 crowd to scare, and they hushed up. We went on unmolested. 
 God gave us a good service that night. 
 
 Once in Johnston county, Pleasant Grove township, a mob 
 came in the church to club him. Ordered the lamps put out. 
 God stood by, and no one was hurt. I saw a wicked man collar 
 him with an open knife in his hand, and threaten his life. To 
 be a true preacher of the truth means to get ready to die by it. 
 
 My husband always insisted on me leading all the services 
 I felt led to during a meeting. One meeting our Rowland was 
 about eight months old, sick all the time, cried day and night. 
 When husband preached, I walked the church yard with the 
 baby. When I had the service he had to walk with the baby, but 
 the Lord blessed us, and we had a blessed time. Oh, how God 
 has provided for us! Clothes, shoes, quilts, groceries and every- 
 thing, we have just trusted God and it has come. 
 
 Once when Ransom was six weeks old, I was at home with 
 the five acres of farm and the children. One day I was wash- 
 ing, and received my mail. The letter was from my husband, tell- 
 ing me to send the children this way and that way, bring the 
 baby with me and be there in about forty-eight hours, a distance 
 of about a hundred miles. But with the aid of mother, brothers 
 and sisters, I made the trip, and arrived at the appointed time. 
 But alas! when I offered my check for my baggage, it was not 
 there. Oh, my, what shall I do? Left among the baggage at 
 Benson, and I at Ivanhoe; a baby and myself to dress. I was 
 met at the station by Sister Mamie Henry (now in glory), and 
 she said, " Sister Goff, I am so glad your baggage was left." I 
 was astonished at her. She said, " Well, God wants you to have 
 some more clothes, and you will get them; but if you had your 
 baggage you would not get them." It proved to be true.. The 
 baby's need was amply supplied, and mine also. We kept the 
 baby out in June under a large oak shelter, built of bushes in 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 43 
 
 front of it. He fattened on his first evangelistic tour, and seems 
 to like it yet. 
 
 The meeting at Kelly's will never be forgotten by those who 
 attended it. Many were saved and sanctified and several healed. 
 One thing I saw there I have never seen just like that anywhere. 
 On Sabbath morning, at the close of the meeting, as service 
 began, a cloud came up, and a heavy rain seemed to be over us. 
 My husband called for prayer. He asked God to drive the cloud 
 away, so the people would not get wet. He got up and preached, 
 the cloud split over us, and in a little way from us it rained so 
 some of the people had to stop, and missed the morning service. 
 God did it; that's all. 
 
 A few years before this meeting, Bros. Page and Avant held 
 the first holiness meeting down there. Mamie and Ed Henry 
 and their old colored woman were all saved and sanctified. Bro. 
 Ed soon accepted a position with a firm down in Georgia. They 
 moved down there. While they were down there, Aunt Mary 
 Jane Hayes, the old colored woman mentioned above, was still 
 on their farm in Bladen county, took consumption, was very 
 low, and without food. One night as Brother and Sister Henry 
 knelt to pray in their Georgia home, Sister Mamie began to 
 shout, " Yes, Lord, Mary Jane Hayes shall have bread! " Ed 
 said, " What, wife, are you losing your mind? " She said, " No; 
 I saw Mary Jane on her knees begging God for bread." They 
 wrote John Kelly to take her some bread. He went over and 
 found her lying there on an old straw bed, and bed sores on her 
 where the slats in the bed were. He said, " How are you, Aunt 
 Mary? " " I am almost dead, but I am happy." He said, " Have 
 you any bread? " She replied, " None except what you see 
 cooking, but God will send me some." He read the letter to her. 
 She shouted so he could scarcely read it. What I see in this is 
 if Jesus is in our hearts we can be happy on a poor bed and with 
 little food ; and another thing I see, we have to pray so long some- 
 times for money or clothes, when maybe God tells five or ten, 
 maybe more, people to supply our needs before any obey. No 
 doubt many of God's people around the old darkey had been 
 gently reminded by God of her need, but no one near would 
 listen, so God listened to her cry for bread until He said, " She 
 
44 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 shall have it, if I have to alarm My child five hundred miles away 
 to send her bread." She got the bread. After that, she soon died 
 a triumphant death and soared away to glory. 
 
 We held meetings all that summer ; helped pastors in churches 
 most all the time. God never failed to give a revival. The year 
 of 1906, my husband began to talk about moving to Falcon, 
 where we could send the children to a holiness school. In March 
 we were going to take a three months' tour for Jesus. Our little 
 ones were scattered, Irene with Aunt Ell; Rowland with his 
 Grandmother Goff, sixty miles from home; Myrtle, Bliss and 
 baby were to go with us. Our first meeting was to be at Bethel 
 Holiness School. Brother G. F. Taylor at that time was prin- 
 cipal of the school. The Spirit worked; so did the devil. It 
 looked like Sister Taylor and her Baby, Havens, would die. We 
 prayed some nights a good part of the night. Victory came at 
 last. They were healed. The meeting was real good. I never 
 have enjoyed a trip better. The meeting and commencement were 
 all held together. The commencement helped the meeting. It 
 was on Bible lines. Had a good sermon that day by Brother A. 
 B. Crumpler. Hymns were sung, pieces on the second coming 
 of Jesus, tribulation, and so on, were recited by the students. It 
 was all over and we went to Magnolia. Sister Alice Cook came 
 and carried Myrtle home with her and kept her until we held 
 meeting at Magnolia and Beulahville. When they were over, 
 Bliss went to Brother Cook's and we took Myrtle with us. The 
 meeting at Magnolia was real good; many were blessed. Sister 
 Murphy, of Bethel, was a good woman. She was burdened for 
 her people at Beulahaville, and she got us and Brother G. F. 
 Taylor off down there. Sent her daughter Lessie to play and 
 Maggie Bryan to help sing. We drove fifteen miles down there; 
 found a good large crowd gathered in an old dilapidated Pres- 
 byterian church. Holiness in its fulness had only once been 
 preached there. The people were Presbyterians and no-hellites. 
 W T e were more readily received than we expected to be. A well- 
 to-do farmer, the man that owned the church house, gave us a 
 welcome in his home, treated us very nice. Stopped his hired 
 men and let them go to church at eleven o'clock; carried his 
 organ into the church.' Conviction got on the people. God began 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 45 
 
 to work. Several were saved; some reclaimed; but at the end 
 of a week the clever man that had treated us so nice took a notion 
 that the meeting must close; forbade his wife or children going 
 any more. We were still in his home. We took meals off in the 
 daytime, but he told us to come back every night until that Mon- 
 day night. Brother Taylor and husband stayed in the woods 
 most all the evening praying. They did not come back for 
 supper. They got the news that he wanted the meeting stopped. 
 My husband said he would carry it on if he slept in the church 
 and boarded at the store. He said God said go on, and he would. 
 We left the house that night. None of the family said to come 
 back; none went with us. Service over, everybody left, and no 
 one said, " Go with me," so we just stayed in the church, prayed, 
 shouted and sang all night. It was one of those cold nights in 
 April when feather beds and warm blankets are just comfortable. 
 Bliss and my baby Ranee were asleep on a bench, covered with 
 their father's overcoat. He carried the heater in the house, 
 picked up pine knots and made a fire. There were about twelve 
 or fifteen lights out of the windows. I pinned my baby's garments 
 over the cold, broken windows, and we stayed all night. The peo- 
 ple were disturbed, they said, by dogs barking, all night. The 
 folks somehow found it out. The man's wife we had been stop- 
 ping with came after us about sunrise. She said if she had known 
 it, she would not have slept a bit all night. We had plenty of 
 invitations after that. We closed out there with good victory 
 in our souls, feeling at least we had given them the truth. 
 
 Brother Murphy sent after us. We came to his home, and 
 spent Monday there. I ate some strawberries, and was taken 
 with appendicitis. We prayed and I claimed the victory. We 
 left for Wilmington next day. That day I suffered ail day. Hus- 
 band went to his appointment. I stayed at Uncle D. M. Beards- 
 ley's. At about eleven o'clock I was taken with death-like pangs. 
 Oh, what I endured from then until four o'clock in the morning 
 will never be known! The pain was greater than my faith. 
 I gave way after so much pain until it had taken my strength so it 
 took two to raise me up. I longed to die. I would far rather 
 have died than been carried to the hospital. But I could not die 
 or get better, it seemed; just suffering death. I consented for 
 
It 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 a doctor. He came and pronounced it acute appendicitis. Said 
 to telegraph my people that something must be done or I would 
 be dead in twelve hours. I was carried away so near dead that 
 I did not kiss my little girl or baby goodby. I gave my husband 
 orders as to my funeral, on the ambulance going to the hospital. 
 He was crying. I had no tears — I was past crying. I feared 
 no evil. I did not care if I did die, I was in such agony. I was 
 operated on with no fear. I told the doctor I did not fear the 
 operation or death. He said, " That's good." I stayed there 
 thirty-one days. My baby was just a year old, and spent his 
 first birthday in James Walker Hospital, Wilmington, N. C. He 
 too was very sick. The doctors gave him over to us; said to take 
 the child to the country for fresh air and country milk. This 
 was the first medicine we had ever given any of our children. 
 This was the fifth child. I had not tasted drugs for seven years. 
 Oh, what a blow to our faith! But God was so good to us. When 
 I could not have faith for my healing, God paid my hospital 
 bill, every cent. I bought a good sewing machine — not a costly 
 one. We paid eighteen dollars for it; paid a girl to keep house 
 for me until I could have faith for healing. I have often won- 
 dered why the doctor did not request a note or recommendation. 
 He did not ask if we were good or bad, rich or poor; just carried 
 me over. We received one hundred and forty-eight dollars while 
 I was there. It came in through the mail from friends of God 
 and holiness at different places where we had been. When enough 
 had come, the money stopped coming. That year Brother C. L. 
 Cook gave us sixty dollars. We were soon out of debt, and for 
 about three years trusted God; lived on what He gave us; did 
 not go in debt for a spool of thread. Oh, what freedom! I felt 
 like flying, almost. That old dead, heavy weight was gone. Debt 
 — how it hurts a preacher to carry a burden for souls and a load 
 of debt. We were out of debt until we built at Falcon. We 
 needed a good-sized house for our family, and we remembered 
 camp meeting came once a year. We have hundreds of friends. 
 How I do love to have them come and share with us what God 
 gives us. 
 
 The first year that we were here, a preacher that does not live 
 near here said, " Brother Goff, how are you going to do at camp 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 47 
 
 meeting?'' He answered, "Take all that come to my house; 
 eat what God gives us, and let God pay the bills." The preacher 
 said, " They will break you up." Husband said, " Well, that 
 won't take much. I trust God. I am not afraid." 
 
 That year our neighbors in front of us and some others fell 
 in debt, charging sixty cents per day for board. We came out a 
 little over, enough to buy groceries for several days after camp 
 meeting was over. We gave away over four hundred meals, blessed 
 several poor ones, and made many glad. We rejoiced, God fed 
 us, and we had a good time. One year we had sixty-two in our 
 house. God fed us all, and we had some left. Now, sister, you 
 wonder how so many sleep in a six-room house. Well, just let 
 me tell you. We have camp meeting beds; that means a pile of 
 wheat straw, all over half a room sometimes, and fill it full of 
 women and children. Another room the same way, full of men 
 and boys. Some lose their clothes, it is true, but they are holi- 
 ness folks you know, and they never quarrel about it. Sometimes 
 it is very difficult to get a cook. One year I prayed for a cook, 
 I mean a colored woman, so I could go to camp meeting. I did 
 not tell the Lord a black woman, I just said, "A cook, Lord, I 
 must have." He sent me about forty nice Holy Ghost cooks. 
 Everyone almost wanted to help. How the Lord does bless. 
 
 I remember once I got to shouting and spilled the peas I was 
 preparing for dinner; and again six women were dancing and 
 talking in tongues in the cookroom, and we burned a piece or 
 two of fish a little. Again it was hard to get the crowd to supper 
 while fourteen were leaping, dancing and talking in tongues on 
 the back porch and in the hall. Some were so happy they could 
 not eat. Bro. N. J. Page came in. He had just received the 
 Holy Ghost, and was jumping up about two feet high, shouting 
 at the top of his voice, " Bloodwashed! " Who could eat supper? 
 Again, several were healed, and one night two little girls received 
 the Holy Ghost here in the hall, while grown folks were having 
 a big time at the tabernacle. You say, " Well, I do wonder how 
 God feeds all those people." Well, I will tell you just how. 
 
 One summer the Lord told some good folks we would need' 
 some chickens for the camp meeting, and they just shipped us 
 thirty-five nice broilers. The Lord told others to give, some 
 
4S 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 money, some vegetables, and so on, until everything came in 
 that we needed. Praise God. Well, I must tell you something 
 of the years we were out of debt. 
 
 I think during the first of 1906 we paid, or God helped us, out 
 of debt. I was operated on May 2, 1906. Came home June 7th. 
 I was a bedridden invalid until the Falcon Camp Meeting. This 
 was the last of August. I came to camp meeting, the trip of fif- 
 teen miles, by rail. A buggy ride to and from the stations al- 
 most seemed like it would kill me. Next morning was Sunday. 
 Oh, what pain I was in! Every nerve seemed unstrung, every 
 limb ached. I was in a torture with pain. I tried three times 
 to dress myself. I lay down twice while trying to dress; the sec- 
 ond time gave way to sobbing. My grief was too much. How 
 well and strong I was until this awful affliction came! Now a 
 poor invalid. Doctors had failed to cure me. The doctor told 
 me to be careful how I used a knife and fork, and not to lift a 
 plate of bread. The thought of being an invalid broke my heart. 
 So many times that summer I saw my baby fall from the bed or 
 out of doors; had to look at him lie and cry until some one could 
 come and pick him up. As soon as we got him out of the hospital 
 we carried him to Uncle D. M. Beardsley's in Wilmington. Bro. 
 G. F. Taylor and wife were visiting in the city at that time. We 
 got him to come over and anoint the baby and pray for him. He 
 got well pretty soon. I guess the doctors thought fresh air and 
 country milk cured him, but we say the Lord did it. 
 
 I started to tell you about dressing to go to the Sunday morn- 
 ing service, where God touched my body in a wonderful way. I 
 dressed, the third effort, dragged along in pain from head to foot 
 every step of the way from camp No. 17 to the tabernacle, where 
 the meeting was held. I arose, told my story, sobbing, and asked 
 for prayer; told them I would be obliged to go home without re- 
 lief, and to go home might kill me, as coming had made me so 
 much worse. I will never forget the volume of prayer that arose 
 from that vast throng that Sabbath morning. The prayer was 
 answered. I felt in my body that I was healed. Glory! I could 
 walk as fast as anybody I walked with after that. I went up- 
 stairs when I pleased the next day. The day I was healed I could 
 scarcely drag in at the camp door. I went home, took all my 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 49 
 
 work, let my housekeeper go free, did my washing, scrubbing, and 
 everything; made up my first bed September 6th, after coming 
 home from camp meeting. God help me to give Thee the praise! 
 God had done in one day what the doctors had tried to do for 
 months and failed. We then began our evangelistic work to- 
 gether. My husband had been compelled to nurse me a great 
 deal of the summer. He preached almost every night while I 
 was in the hospital; would fast and pray, walk three and four 
 miles through the city to see me every day, and take the round to 
 his appointment at night. He helped do the preaching at the 
 camp meeting that year, and held a meeting at Leland. I think 
 it was all he got to attend until September. My health was good 
 all the fall. We had some good meetings. While we were at 
 Brother Cook's, in November, I discovered that there was some- 
 thing wrong with my side that had been operated on. It pained 
 me, and I found a large knot or hernia had formed. Then I began 
 to go down. I became a physical wreck again, seeing death, as 
 I thought, slowly approaching. I did not fear death, but to see 
 so much need; so many calls for mamma from my five little 
 ones, and I was not able to come up the steps with a quart of 
 water in a bucket. The doctor was called. He examined me 
 December 27th and told me my doom. He looked very grave 
 as he said, " Madam, you have something that will trouble you 
 all your life, unless you go back to the hospital and have another 
 operation performed." I decided I had had enough of doctors' 
 knives; I would take Jesus or die. 
 
 In a few days Brother Cash well began the first Pentecostal 
 meeting in this part of the country. He had been to Los An- 
 geles, California, and received the Holy Ghost. Came back, re- 
 quested every holiness preacher in the convention and every child 
 of God interested to attend this meeting. I thought I had received 
 the Holy Ghost when I was sanctified, as my husband, my father 
 and all others preached that I heard. I thought we were getting 
 on fine; had been having good meetings; everywhere almost God 
 blessed us. We had taken offerings and supported a missionary 
 in China that year. We paid the tenth; had got out of debt. 
 All was all right except my body at this time, I thought. I would 
 get so burdened over sinners at times it seemed like I would die. 
 
^0 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 I have had such a burden I could not walk, and when I gained 
 my strength so I could walk, the tears ran in my eyes so I could 
 not see my way. I had been prostrate under the power of God 
 for hours; had seen visions; been in trances; had my hands so 
 drawn by the power of God until a strong man could not open 
 them. I had borne some awful persecutions and could rejoice in 
 them. My husband had been saved in a wonderful way. At the 
 age of twenty-two God showed him his condition by the death of 
 his fourteen-year-old sister. His conversion was wonderful. His 
 zeal for God's cause caused him to work hard all day and walk 
 several miles to prayer meeting at night. Thirty days after his 
 conversion he was wonderfully sanctified and soon went to 
 preaching. His burden for souls was so great at times, he would 
 meet old friends on the road and cry over them; pray in the road 
 for their salvation; soon his worldly sisters, mother and poor 
 wicked father were saved. The home of a drinking, cursing man 
 changed into a home of shouting and praying. Oh, what God 
 can do! He borrowed a Bible or money to buy one, and soon 
 was having great revivals; sometimes -numbers would be prostrate 
 on the floor in a service. He was very ignorant at that time; had 
 only been to school ten months, but God blessed him; he stuck 
 to his Bible till he wore two good ones out; they are marked all 
 over and literally worn out. They are kept now as sacred 
 souvenirs, to remind us of bygone days and the blessings of the 
 Lord on us. 
 
 We both thought we had all the Pentecost Brother Cashwell 
 had after going to Los Angeles; but one trip to the meeting 
 changed his mind. He said, " Something has surely struck Bro. 
 Cashwell; he spoke a few words in tongues." He wanted to go 
 back, but was on a land trade at Falcon and came off down here 
 to buy a lot or to see about building, and was going back by 
 Dunn to the meeting. 
 
 At Christmas Brother Blaylock was at our home. We were 
 talking about the meeting that was to be held at Dunn. I said I 
 had all the tongues I needed. Brother Blaylock looked at me 
 and said, " Mind what you say." I would have given a great deal 
 if I had not said it. I said, " Well, I want all the Holy Ghost I 
 can get, and if I was to hear you speaking in tongues it would 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 51 
 
 make me feel strange." While husband was gone to Falcon I re- 
 ceived a card from Brother Blaylock stating that Brothers Sellers, 
 Willie Strickland, R. B. Jackson and Brother Blaylock had all 
 received their Pentecost and spoke in tongues and said: " Come, 
 Brother Goff, at once, bring Sister Goff and get the Holy Ghost." 
 About the same day I received a letter from my husband saying: 
 " No time to buy land, but this is the time for us to get the Holy 
 Ghost." I went to the house crying, so I could not see to sew. 
 I longed to go. How could I? Husband was down there every 
 day. I hoped he would get his baptism and come home, so I 
 could go too. My mother said if I could go to that meeting I 
 would be healed. I looked for my husband until Saturday morn- 
 ing. He had driven over with Brother Blaylock's horse and 
 buggy after me. We all ran out to meet him. The children 
 began in a chorus: " Papa, papa, have you got the tongues? " 
 " No," was his sad reply, " but I want it worse than anything 
 in all the world." He put his arms around me, began to cry, and 
 said, " Honey, I see the holiness people as I never saw them be- 
 fore. They are the foolish virgins without the oil." I cried, too. 
 He said, " I have brought the buggy to take you too. Get ready; 
 your mother said she would keep all the children." On the way, 
 He looked up and sighed, " Oh, I hope Jesus will not come until 
 I get the Holy Ghost." I said: " Why, my dear, I never heard 
 you say before you did not want to see Jesus to come any time." 
 He said, " I almost get the Holy Ghost every time I seek, and the 
 time I almost receive it someone goes to speaking in tongues, 
 and it attracts my attention and I miss the blessing." I had 
 never heard any one speak in tongues, but I made up my mind 
 that I would be healed and get the Holy Ghost that day, let them 
 do as they may. When we reached the place I heard Sister Mc- 
 Laughlin (now in heaven) praying, " O God, do give Bro. Goff 
 the Holy Ghost." As I went down the aisle they arose from 
 prayer. She threw her arms around me and cried, " Sister Goff, 
 the blessed Holy Ghost has come. He's come! Sit down! " 
 Then she began to sing a heavenly song in other tongues, a new 
 sound to me. About that time Bro. Mcintosh arose and began 
 talking in tongues. O! how I cried! I felt like God was speak- 
 ing. I was as one standing before God, it seemed to me. I fell 
 
52 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 on my face at the altar by my husband and began to beg God to 
 heal and baptize me with the Spirit. What could be the matter? 
 I only had to go to the altar once to be converted; once to be 
 sanctified. What was wrong? My heart was clean. I was under 
 the blood. My consecration was complete, I was sure. " Why, 
 Lord, how is it? " I was trying to have my way. I was praying, 
 " Lord, let me arise and interpret what the others said." I did 
 not care to speak myself. I thought any of the nine gifts would 
 do as well as to speak in tongues, but I arose disappointed. The 
 meeting was opened for testimony. I was the first, I think, to 
 make my request. I told of how my faith had failed me the 
 year before. How after much suffering God healed me, and that 
 the old troubles had come back, and I was there to be healed and 
 get the H'oly Ghost. Brother Cashwell said, " Come to the 
 altar." I went. Four or five saints came, laid hands on me, the 
 Holy Ghost struck me; my hands began to draw; my jaws be- 
 came stiff ; the power went all over me. The saliva flew four feet 
 from me; my tongue became first stiff; they said, " Praise God." 
 I tried to; my tongue just flew. I arose knowing I was healed 
 and baptized with the Holy Ghost. I had not been a day for 
 a time without a body supporter, and had not slept on my left 
 side in months without terrible pain. That evening we went to 
 Brother Cashwell 's to a prayer meeting. Sister Cashwell re- 
 ceived her Pentecost that evening. The power of the Holy Ghost 
 came on me and I sang in tongues. Oh, the glory! My husband 
 thought he received his Pentecost about two minutes before I 
 did. He was blessed and shook under the power, but did not 
 get satisfied. He claimed he had the Comforter when he arose 
 shouting so, but afterwards said he did not get Him and went 
 down again. His trouble was all those sermons he had preached, 
 saying we were baptized with the Holy Ghost when we were 
 sanctified, and Dr. Watson and A. B. Crumpler were his big 
 trouble. He loved them; had thought them his spiritual instruc- 
 tors; had preached with them, but said he knew they would not 
 accept this doctrine, and they stood on each side of him for days. 
 " No camp-meeting with these men if I get this." He was 
 tempted to denounce the whole thing as of the devil and go on 
 with Crumpler as he had been at. " But there's my wife, she is 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 53 
 
 healed; laid off her supporter, a well woman; here I am, I have 
 tried to get it and cannot. I will quit," but he could not. God 
 had hold of him; he kept seeking; others going through every- 
 day — preacher after preacher, until thirty preachers, I think, 
 had received. He gave up his old sermons, big preachers, camp- 
 meetings, and got willing to stay at home and let me go, if God 
 said so. 
 
 On January 17th he really received the Holy Ghost. The 
 power was so great that he shook the whole house ; a large three- 
 story prize house or tobacco storage house; his lips flew; made a 
 noise like a shivering owl; this was so humiliating, for he desired 
 to speak nice like Brother Mcintosh, but the Lord killed him 
 out to that, and now he speaks, sings almost any time at services 
 or at home here and often as he walks along the Spirit speaks 
 as He will. One thing I want to warn you of, dear reader, don't 
 doubt God. Take the manifestation the Lord gives you. Praise 
 Him every moment for it. He will bless you more. Husband 
 was really baptized and then doubted; it made him bed sick, 
 and he took a fever, and says he would have died or gone crazy 
 had he not accepted what God gave him. I saw something was 
 wrong; he came home from Dunn gloomy looking, complained 
 with a heavy aching in his chest; went to bed. Would not tell 
 me a thing of his trouble about doubting his experience, but I 
 felt it was the devil after him. I got him up and insisted on his 
 going back to Dunn. Brother Cashwell told him to walk the 
 floor and praise God in the presence of that great multitude; 
 he did. The same power struck him with the same manifestation. 
 He was glad to take it that time. I never cared about a pretty 
 language. I wanted the inward satisfaction I knew the Spirit 
 brought. I got both. Glory! I just kept at my job to pray 
 and praise God. Only a few days ago a poor sufferer, now hap- 
 py, healed, baptized with the Spirit. I felt so satisfied. We at 
 once started a meeting at home, Hodges' Chapel, that ran four 
 weeks; it snowed a big snow, sleeted, hailed, rained, but the meet- 
 ing ran, the people came, many were blessed; it began to spread. 
 Brother Cook came to Dunn as soon as he could after getting 
 my husband's card to come. Received his Pentecost, went home, 
 and in a few weeks thirty down there had received. 
 
54 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 Our meeting closed at Hodges Chapel. Husband went to 
 Plain View Free Will Baptist church to begin a meeting and 
 the church was closed against him. He could have demanded 
 the key, as he was an ordained preacher of that church, but 
 Brother John Weeks had a large house close by. He said, " Bro- 
 ther Goff, you can preach here." So he did. The Lord soon 
 opened the church, and such a revival as followed! The meetings 
 closed; he was engaged in a wonderful revival at Northeast Free 
 Will Baptist church, where only a few weeks before the Holy 
 Ghost fell on a young man at prayer meeting that had never 
 heard Pentecost preached at all. He began to speak in tongues, 
 and it resulted in over thirty receiving the Holy Ghost before a 
 preacher had been down there to preach it at all. The power 
 was falling when my husband received a telegram to come home 
 at once, I was about to die. He came home, buried a little boy 
 who only lived a few hours. We had named him for Brother 
 Cook. Little Causus was a fine little fellow, but only lived a few 
 hours. I was taken with the kidney colic and had five attacks, 
 one after another, from March until September. The prayer of 
 faith was prayed; while in a meeting at New Hope a stone 
 passed; a sharp, three-cornered one as large as a bean, but very 
 rugged and sharp. I never would have known it but for the noise 
 when it fell, no pain accompained it; just like the Lord. My 
 health then was right good. I did my work. We sold out and 
 moved to Falcon, January 10, 1908. On February 5th, twins 
 were born. The boy we named John Hodges; tiie girl for our 
 dear friend, Sister Cook, that had gone to heaven a few months 
 before, little Alice. She was the sweetest baby it seemed to me 
 I ever saw, because she was little and weak, I reckon. The 
 babies were doing well, but I thought they were too small for 
 their age. I went to feeding them; they both took sick and June 
 13th, little Alice died. I built many air castles, how pretty my 
 babies would be by camp meeting; how they crumbled. One 
 was in heaven; the other a little skeleton almost. During baby's 
 sickness there were four men working on this house; their dinner 
 to get by twelve; two sick babies and a hundred other things to 
 do; but every day about ten o'clock the power would fall on me 
 and I would shout, talk in tongues and have a glory all day. 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 55 
 
 We prayed and seemed to get victory several times; she would 
 get better; then worse. Brother Luther Davis was painting our 
 house. He was such a comfort, by his presence, prayers and 
 words of encouragement; he would nurse sick babies, pray and 
 paint. It was^ on Saturday morning we told God to heal her 01 
 take her; before we had begged Him to spare her; twice when 
 I believed she was dying and we prayed she got better at once, 
 but Brother Luther told us how sick his brother was when a 
 baby and they prayed God to spare him anyhow. He is grown 
 now and has told them many times he was sorry they prayed 
 for him, for if he had died then, he would have gone to heaven, 
 but now he would be lost. We said, " Yes, Lord, your way, 
 not ours." She was living when we arose from prayer. Having 
 to care for the babies and also having indigestion brought me 
 from two hundred and twenty-four pounds to one hundred and 
 thirty-five in six months. I got so I could not eat bread of any 
 kind; milk, water or anything would put me in awful pain. If 
 I fasted I suffered. If I ate it was worse. I went off to help 
 in a meeting near Kinston, was anointed, God healed me; I 
 have never had it up to this writing. Glory. That was in 1908. 
 
 At the camp meeting the Falcon work needed several hundred 
 dollars for indebtedness. I cried. I longed to pay it off and set 
 it free. I was poor. What could I do? I arose and told the 
 people to pray God to give me strength. I would wash out fif- 
 teen dollars per year. I began. I could hardly pump a bucket 
 of water. I would wash and pray and shout. I had to sit down 
 to wash for two washings. In a few weeks I was well — got well 
 washing for God. Glory! 
 
 Our meetings were good that year. Many were blessed. I 
 remember one case of healing. Among many I saw that year I 
 want to mention one case. We were near Princeton, Johnston 
 • county, holding a meeting. Sister Mitchell sent for several of 
 the band to accompany us over to pray for her. We went and 
 found she had been quite sick with fever. A doctor was attend- 
 ing her for a week; she had high fever then. W r e prayed, and 
 she arose, shouting, dancing and talking in tongues. Her daugh- 
 ter-in-law got sanctified and began to shout, and in ten minutes 
 had the Holy Ghost. While the shouting was still going on, the 
 
56 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 doctor walked in. I took the Bible and sat down — got ready 
 for anything — but the doctor was a firm believer in prayer, 
 and rejoiced with us. He did not come to his patient any more. 
 She made soap, and washed, and rode six miles to meeting the 
 next week. She never lay in bed another moment from that 
 sickness. 
 
 I saw Fanny Hough healed of consumption a while before 
 this. Her voice was gone; she talked in a whisper, coughed 
 dreadfully, appetite failed; was very weak. The saints gath- 
 ered around her and began to pray. She whispered to me and 
 said, " Pray on. I will be healed." She came off the bed, danced 
 over the floor. Some tried to catch her, she was so weak, but she 
 did not fall. She called for food and ate before we left. We 
 went off in a meeting. When we got home she was picking two 
 hundred pounds of cotton a day, and at this writing is still liv- 
 ing. She had been expecting to die any time. 
 
 In April, 1909, I was well as usual, started to hit with the ax 
 to kill a chicken for dinner, when a severe pain struck me at 
 my right kidney. It soon made me sick and gave me a fever. I 
 felt like my breath would be taken. I called in the saints; they 
 held on to God for an hour before I was relieved. At last I saw 
 I must believe or die. I arose, put my foot on the floor in Jesus' 
 name; it felt as if I would die, but I walked and pleaded the 
 bloody stripes of Jesus. The pain left, so I finished dinner, 
 praised God all the evening, and was all right until I lay down 
 that night. It struck me again. I could not turn any way, nor 
 get up, and was just in a torture. I sent for the saints again. 
 They prayed and I was relieved, so I got up, but the pain was 
 too much to sleep. I decided I would read and pray all night. 
 I took my Bible. It fell open in my hand to Psalm 127:2: "It 
 is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of 
 sorrows, for so He giveth sleep to His beloved." I said, " This 
 is for me. In the name of Jesus I will go to sleep," and I did. 
 The devil left. Try that on him if you cannot sleep. 
 
 My husband was healed of bronchitis and catarrh, after los- 
 ing twenty-two pounds in two weeks; had to almost sit up at 
 night; coughed so he could not rest. 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 57 
 
 Our children have been healed of fits, diphtheria, croup, pneu- 
 monia, fevers, thrash and whooping cough, instantly. One had 
 appendicitis; and in April, 1909, my baby was asleep, and one 
 of the little girls put a little ring on his finger, as she thought. 
 It was the top of a very sharp glass bottle neck. The finger was 
 purple and badly swollen in a few moments. His screams soon 
 sent me to take him up, and oh, that little hand! What should I 
 do? No chance to slip it off; it would cut the finger to the bone. 
 In fact it could not be done, it was so sharp. I sent for Bro. 
 M. H. Alexander. He said, " The child is suffering; we must 
 break it off." We did the best we could. It cut the finger dread- 
 fully, and the little fellow almost bled to death. We prayed; he 
 got weaker; I used a remedy that was said to stop blood, but it 
 did no good at all. I sent in haste for Brothers J. H. King and 
 G. F. Taylor. They were eating dinner, and finished the meal 
 before they came, not knowing how dangerous it was to wait. 
 This sorely tried me. They came and prayed; the blood stopped 
 at once. I set the baby down, and went out to my washing — 
 not praising God for healing — no, but pondering in my heart 
 whether the preachers cared if my baby died; thinking of the 
 times, day or midnight, all over the place I had gone at a mo- 
 ment's call to pray for the sick. As these thoughts were in my 
 mind, Myrtle called me, " Come, mamma! the baby's bleeding 
 to death." My bad thoughts turned to trouble; then I saw my 
 mistake; sent for the same men in great haste. The baby had 
 almost fainted; was wet in blood by that time. As soon as they 
 got in, I confessed my thoughts; they prayed, the blood stopped 
 instantly; baby was pale for several days, but soon was all right. 
 Mind what you think, dear reader. That time I spent the eve- 
 ning in praising God for saving my baby's life. 
 
 One time Bliss woke up gasping for breath, with croup. Her 
 father arose, got the oil and anointed her. She got so she could 
 speak, and said, " Papa, I was almost gone, wasn't I? " Hun- 
 dreds of times God has delivered us. My children expect God 
 to heal them; they ask for prayer and beg to send for the saints 
 as soon as they get sick. I have known them to healed praying 
 for one another. 
 
58 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 I have witnessed some wonderful cases of deliverance here. 
 Once one of our band fell crazy; in an instant the saints began to 
 fast and pray, and deliverance came in forty-eight hours. • 
 
 A baby had fever, meningitis and pneumonia; was given up 
 on Friday to die. The doctor left; told Mrs. Randall no more 
 could be done; the child would die, he thought, that night. The 
 saints were called; prayed all night and a good part of the day 
 Saturday, and much of Sunday. The child was soon well, and 
 could walk and talk as well as ever. Some said his brain would 
 be affected, some that he would never walk; but God did a com- 
 plete work, and he was made well. 
 
 Brother George Wiggins, a schoolboy here, was reported in 
 a dying condition one Sunday evening. Brother Culbreth left 
 Sunday school with several others and went to his room. He was 
 unconscious. His eyes seemed to be set in death. Disease and 
 the work of the devil was rebuked in Jesus' name. The boy re- 
 gained consciousness in about half an hour. They prayed on until 
 he arose, dressed, and came down stairs. One boy said, " Well, 
 he has been raised from the dead — that's all." 
 
 The same Brother Wiggins was taken later with appendicitis. 
 The doctor told him he must have an operation, but he went to 
 Jesus. He was so sick his people came to take him to the hos- 
 pital. When they got there the Lord had healed him. He did 
 not go. 
 
 One Saturday evening in October, I think it was 1909, Bro. 
 Talton came in haste and said, " Sister Goff, my little girl has 
 drunk box lye, and is suffering awful; come at once." I closed 
 the doors; as I shut the hall door the Lord seemed to say, " If 
 they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them." When I 
 went in, the child was vomiting; her lips were swollen almost if 
 not quite an inch thick. Brother Talton was crying, and said, 
 among the groans of the saints and cries of the family, " O Lord! 
 you know how her little stomach is being eaten by this poison." 
 God made me say, " No, she's being healed by God's mighty 
 power." Some said, " She will never swallow and digest her food 
 again if she lives." I never could pray for her with victory again. 
 Every time I would start, God would say, " Praise Me for heal- 
 ing; it's done." In a few days I saw the child, and she was eat- 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 59 
 
 ing, and was as fine a child as you ever saw. Just a miracle, 
 that's all. 
 
 Again, a boy ran here at dark and said, " Sister Culbreth is 
 dying." I ran as fast as I could, praying all the way, " O God 
 rebuke death! Spare that mother of the Falcon camp meeting 
 and holiness school!" As many read this know, Brother Cul- 
 breth and wife have prayed out a camp meeting, orphanage, 
 holiness school, and have prayed many families here to help 
 run this work of God. When I reached the room she looked 
 almost like a dead woman; the room was full of saints crying 
 to God. Her children were weeping with breaking hearts. I got 
 the witness in five minutes with many others that in heaven the 
 work was done and began in the Spirit to sing it. She opened 
 her eyes, began to praise God. The power struck her and she 
 began to speak as the Spirit gave utterance. When Brother 
 Culbreth got home she was healed, and went to Sunday school 
 next day. 
 
 Many things we have seen here. Children healed instantly 
 of fever. Two of Brother Lee's boys were taken. Fred had 
 been sick three days. They called the saints; the fever left as 
 it did Peter's mother-in-law. He was well. For the first three 
 years we lived here, a band of over a hundred; only two deaths 
 occurred among us. They were babies. Contagious diseases 
 have been driven from us. We have been blessed, O! so wonder- 
 fully! God be glorified! O! Praise Him! 
 
 In fifteen or twenty minutes you can call for prayer for a 
 sick one and have a number of Holy Ghost people who believe 
 God is alive, and that His ear is open to our cry. Thank God 
 for Falcon. Lord, keep us clean and humble. We will outshine 
 the sun by and by. 
 
 Since I asked the readers of my father's life to join me in 
 prayer for the salvation of my brothers, I can tell you I was 
 made glad indeed in the month of January, 1909, to see them 
 all wonderfully saved and all sanctified except one. The Lord 
 gave us a most blessed revival at Hodges 1 Chapel. That winter 
 there I saw demons cast out as in Jesus' time, and those who 
 were possessed with them fell on the floor and wallowed and 
 foamed at the mouth just as the Bible gives cases when the devil 
 
60 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 was rebuked by the Holy Ghost. One boy arose and jumped 
 to be sure three feet, and tried to climb a post in the church. 
 His brother fell on the floor, and said screaming that he was 
 devil possessed. They were cast out and he was delivered. Con- 
 fessions were made of many things. One boy threw six dollars 
 at different ones in the church and was set free. How he shouted! 
 It was heaven to me. 
 
 My youngest sister said she was converted at the head of 
 father's coffin. He said they would come in if it was at his fu- 
 neral or when the grass grew on his grave. His prayers are liv- 
 ing and being answered in my life today. I have often thought 
 one reason why people have carried me and my children, and 
 given to us so, was because father used to run a free wagon from 
 year to year to church and Sunday school; fed the poor from 
 his barn and smokehouse; never was one turned away. He be- 
 lieved and lived the old Book. The Bible says the iniquities of 
 the fathers will be visited upon the children, and I know it also 
 says, " I have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed 
 begging bread," and I believed that. Glory! 
 
 Once when the twins were a week old, and I in bed, Row- 
 land's last pair of everyday pants gave out. I saw the colored 
 woman trying to mend them. I said, " Lord, send these children 
 some readymade clothes." The prayer was not answered as soon 
 as I thought it would be; but I waited patiently on the Lord, and 
 He brought it to pass. Glory! A neighbor came over with five 
 pairs of pants and two knickerbocker suits. I thought that was 
 good, but in a few days I received a card from Brother Daly, 
 of Kinston, saying, " Call at the express office for a box of 
 clothes Eliza felt God wanted her to make for the children." 
 They were there, prepaid, sixty-two pieces, just to fit, for the 
 twins, ghis, boys, papa and me. Glory! I cried, laughed, shout- 
 ed, and just called in my neighbors to help me rejoice. Once be- 
 fore she had sent me twenty-two readymade pieces. Those peo- 
 ple too will share the glory at the crowning day, with hundreds 
 of others that have helped us to spread holiness over the Caro- 
 linas. 
 
 I used to want my husband to be a far-reaching, from Can- 
 ada to Cuba, from Maine to California, preacher, but God showed 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 61 
 
 me that would not do, years before Pentecost. I got willing for 
 him to live and die in these four counties if God said so. Our 
 work up till 1910 or 1911 was wholly in North and South Car- 
 olina, except one trip when God led husband to a few places in 
 Georgia. 
 
 The Lord sent Sister Julia Hough one May to keep house 
 for us. She was a fine missionary, and we had fine meetings in 
 South Carolina. God gave revivals at every place. The meet- 
 ing at Lake City was not so good, but several were blessed. One 
 wonderful case of salvation. Out in the country, two miles from 
 Lake City, God gave wonderful victory; about sixty, I think, 
 were saved, reclaimed, or baptized with the Spirit. We tried to 
 close the meeting, but forty were at the altar screaming, " Lord, 
 save me! " One would get through, and for about a minute from 
 twelve to fifteen would shout, then go down and pray another 
 one through, then shout. For four hours that altar service ran. 
 No preacher could have preached there that night without re- 
 sisting God's Spirit, and I doubt if that had stopped it. We 
 carried the meeting on another week, and left twenty-five or 
 more seeking God. The farmers had gone to meeting then, some 
 of them, five weeks in May and June, and it rainy too; it meant 
 a victory, though. We left the church one night, and I started 
 to retire; we heard somebody west of the house about a half a 
 mile, praying at the top of their voice; went in the room, and east 
 of the house about a quarter of a mile I heard another praying, 
 " O God, do give him the Holy Ghost! " I felt good, went to 
 sleep, and let God work. I had done all I felt like the Lord 
 wanted me to do, that night. 
 
 God gave us a good meeting at Clinton, S. C, and at Long 
 E ranch too. At Clinton the Methodist and Baptist preachers 
 helped in the meetings. The Baptist preacher let us in the large, 
 fashionable church to baptize some candidates, and was very 
 kind to us. They were a clever people anyway. 
 
 Sister Hough stayed with us until October. I went for God 
 all summer. How He did bless! Never failed to give us souls 
 any place. When she was called home, I had to take mamma's 
 place again. I love home as well as you do, mothers, but I told 
 God to sanctify me and I would follow Him. God did, and I 
 
62 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 have done the best I knew since I was fifteen years old. I went 
 with father until I married, and then father, Henry and I went 
 together a good deal. I would rather win souls than dig for 
 gold, or be queen, or any such thing. But when the way is 
 closed to go, I am just as happy at home, washing for school- 
 boys, scrubbing, hoeing cotton, pulling corn, or anything, Lord. 
 I am having a good time. 
 
 The convention that was to consolidate the two churches, 
 held in January. 1911, was preceded by a revival held in the tab- 
 ernacle by Brother A. G. Canada. I was delighted at the thought 
 of a meeting. I planned to go, but the day it was to begin the 
 next, I arose early, going to work hard and get ready for the 
 meeting. In a few moments I was taken with a trouble that often 
 kills mothers. For months my health had ben perfect, rarely an 
 ache or pain; was on top; had the victory over disease, and sin, 
 and was happy. My condition became alarming, and the devil 
 said, " You will be dead in a few minutes.'' I said, " Thank 
 God. I am ready, but I will trust God and not be afraid/' My 
 husband and another preacher soon came in the house. I told 
 them to pray, and in ten minutes relief came, without enough 
 pain to mention. The neighbors said, "Lie still; don't stir." 
 God said, " I have healed you; arise in My strength," and I did. 
 It frightened some. I went to meeting, went to cooking. God 
 gave me my strength at the church. While I was dancing some 
 of the women trembled for me. It was God. He can do any- 
 thing. I was told not to stir for a week; to lie still. I did not do 
 so for a day; went to work second day; to church, where God's 
 honor dwelleth, the fourth day. There He gave me my strength. 
 I cooked for from twelve to sixteen during convention, and was 
 as well as I ever was. The second week I washed 178 pieces, 
 fixed three meals, went to prayer meeting that night feeling good. 
 Glory! All the doctors in the world could not have given me 
 my health. God did. Oh, glory! I will love Him, I will praise 
 Him till life is over. Then I hope to meet you, dear reader, 
 in glory. 
 
 In the spring of 1911 we had a meeting near the home of Bro. 
 Merritt Whittenton, about three miles from Dunn, N. C. A few 
 days before this meeting began, one of our boys was taken with 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 03 
 
 pneumonia. For four nights we were compelled to sit up with 
 him, as he was seriously ill. On the night before we were to leave 
 to begin the meeting, we, with several friends, prayed if it was 
 Gods will for us to begin it, to heal the boy, and we would go. 
 
 The next morning he arose, feeling well. He dressed and 
 walked around as usual, except that he was pale and weak. My 
 husband prepared to go, but I decided that I had better stay at 
 home until he was stronger. About 10 o'clock Myrtle ran home 
 from school and said, " Mamma, why don't you get ready and 
 go? You told God you would go if He would heal Ranee. If 
 you don't get ready and go, he will be sick again." I hurried off 
 in about thirty minutes. We put up the tent and began. One 
 poor drunkard was saved, gave a bright testimony, and within 
 three weeks was dead. He was baptized by my husband, took 
 communion, washed feet, and in two weeks was taken sick and 
 died, leaving good hopes. The last night of the meeting he took 
 me by the hand and said, " It was your prayers that reached my 
 heart." These words have been a tonic to my faith. Many 
 times when I have been discouraged, I think of Rob Ryals being 
 in heaven, and he said it was my prayers brought him to Jesus. 
 
 In this same meeting Albert Butler was saved, and John Rich 
 Jernigan was called to preach. They have 'been preaching a full 
 gospel ever since. 
 
 Before this meeting closed, Myrtle took typhoid fever and had 
 two hemorrhages. Sister Annie Register and my sister Dora 
 were with her. They had nursed Myrtle with the best of care. 
 The saints had prayed, but she had net eaten anything for seven 
 days except one spoonful of chicken broth, and some orange juice. 
 Ice was all she wanted. Two persons were required to keep her 
 on the bed, she was in such a restless condition. We came home 
 and prayed for her. Husband went back to the meeting, but I 
 stayed, as I thought she was too sick for me to leave. On Tues- 
 day afternoon, about four o'clock, she arose and said, " I am 
 healed." She had had the hemorrhages that morning, so I said 
 to her, " You must eat something." She ate a bowfulful of chicken 
 soup with bread, like someone famished. She then wanted to go 
 to Sister Taylor's for some strawberries, which Sister Taylor had 
 promised to give her when she got well. Myrtle said she was 
 
64 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 well, but Sister Dora siad, " Don't you dare let her go. She will 
 die on the way." I said, " I will not pray for healing and then 
 get scared when it comes." She went, and got a quart of straw- 
 berries and ate them. That night she went with me to the prayer 
 meeting, and the next day she and I left for the tent meeting. 
 She was well from that day and hour. When we got to God- 
 win, where we boarded the train for Dunn, Mr. Dean, a mer- 
 chant, asked me if that was the child they had got so much ice 
 for from him. I said it was. He said, " I declare, that is a mir- 
 acle." He seemed pleased very much over her healing, even 
 though he was a Primitive Baptist. 
 
 In the spring of this same year, the smallpox broke out in 
 Falcon. Lattie Culbreth took this disease, and was carried to 
 the home of Mr. Jesse Starling, about one mile from here, where 
 there were four cases. Brother J. A. Culbreth went every day to 
 look after them until they were well. It had been a great while 
 since the others had been well, and we thought that Brother Cul- 
 breth would not have the smallpox, but he was taken sick, and 
 had a very high fever. We went to pray for him, and nearly a 
 hundred people went to see him before he was broken out. The 
 saints met every morning and prayed for God to rebuke the dis- 
 ease, and He did. O'nly five had the smallpox in the village. 
 
 We were holding a meeting in Lake City, S. C, in the spring 
 or in June of 191 1. It was so dry that the cotton would not come 
 up. We called a fast day to pray for rain. My husband testi- 
 fied that it would rain before night, but the wind was high and 
 there was no sign of rain. He fell on his knees at four o'clock 
 and told God he wanted rain. It thundered before he got up 
 from prayer, and before he could pull a carriage under the shel- 
 ter, he was wet. We went to church that night through mud and 
 water, instead of the cloud of dust that had been for weeks. 
 
 We went from Matthews' Tabernacle, near Lake City, S. C, 
 to Vox., S. C, and had a good meeting at this place. 
 
 In the winter of 1913, my husband spent two months away 
 from home. He preached in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and 
 Missouri. While he was away from home, a lady from Scotland 
 Co., N. C, came for me to go down there to pray for a sick 
 woman, and also to have some services. I got Sister Annie Reg- 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 65 
 
 ister to keep house while I was away. I took Sister Georgiana 
 Stewart and went. We had meeting in a private home at first, 
 but it was unable to accommodate the people. I went to Wright's 
 Chapel Free-Will Baptist church for services, where several were 
 saved. I had a very good meeting at this place. 
 
 The Methodists invited me to their church, which at that 
 time was without a permanent pastor. Here I saw the power of 
 God manifested in an extraordinary way. Strong men lay on 
 the floor and screamed and cried until late hours in the night. 
 The whole community was affected, and many were saved, sancti- 
 fied and baptized with the Holy Ghost. One farmer walked 
 twelve miles to attend this meeting, and of course he was blessed. 
 As soon as my husband arrived at home, he went down to this 
 place by urgent request of the people, and many turned unto 
 the Lord. 
 
 In a few months we returned to this place and found that 
 the conference had sent a pastor to this people, and the following 
 notice was tacked on the door of the church : 
 
 " No Admittance to Pentecostal People." 
 
 We had service in the Free-Will Baptist Church, and since 
 then we have held a tent meeting down there, but have never 
 been allowed in the Methodist church since. 
 
 Our second girl, Bliss, learned to play an instrument at ten 
 years of age, did her papa's laundry and mending, and was his 
 organist during vacation. Sometimes I could go with him, but 
 most of the time home duties kept me. 
 
 On December 24, 1913, my father-in-law fell dead in the 
 woods. He had his gun and dogs with him. His bird dog stayed 
 by him for twenty-two hours, till a searching party of over a 
 hundred men found his body. The men had searched all night, 
 and found him about two o'clock on Christmas Day. It was a 
 sad Christmas for us. He was saved under my husband's min- 
 istry after he began to preach in 1896. He had been a slave to 
 tobacco and a bad drunkard, but never touched whiskey, tobacco 
 or coffee after he was saved. He hated whiskey as bad as did 
 Sam Jones; he told people of the sums of money he had spent, 
 of the narrow escapes he had from death, and of the suffering 
 
66 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 he had caused his family. A house was blown down on him by 
 a storm about a year before he died. This came very near 
 killing him. The doctor offered whiskey to him, as he was so 
 near dead when they cleared the wreckage of the house from 
 his body. He refused to take the whiskey and told the doctor 
 that he would die sober, and he did. He was a successful farmer, 
 and if he had been saved twenty years before there is no doubt 
 but what he would have become a rich man, but while in sin he 
 wasted his earnings in fights and law-suits. He always pitied the 
 poor and homeless. He took four old folks to his home and kept 
 them. He was as kind to them as he was to his own family. He 
 was very fond of his grandchildren, and to go to grandpa's was 
 their delight. He lost thousands of dollars by signing notes 
 with people and then having them to pay. He took ten bales of 
 cotton from his family to pay one note for a man that never 
 tried to pay him back. He helped the same man time and time 
 again till the man died. After he died the farm was sold for 
 division, and his widow and youngest son came to live with us. 
 
 In 1914 the Mexican uprising set in. My brother-in-law, 
 Billie, enlisted in the army and went to the border as a guard. 
 He took cold, which developed into pneumonia. They brought 
 him to Goldsboro, N. C, to the Spicer Sanatorium. He lingered 
 on for six weeks, and the disease went into tuberculosis. He had 
 smoked cigarettes until his lungs were too weak to withstand 
 this attack. His mother watched him night and day. He prayed 
 and begged God to save him. He told my husband that there 
 was nothing between him and God. He warned the soldiers that 
 visited him to stop smoking. He was singing, " O Lord, Send the 
 Power Just Now." The singing stopped; the singer was gone. 
 A young man, just at the age of twenty-one and in the bloom of 
 life, had departed from this life. He told his mother to tell the 
 boys not to smoke; the smoking of cigarettes had killed him. 
 On June 11, 1917, he died. He was buried with high military 
 honors in the old family graveyard, with his father. 
 
 My husband and Bliss were in a meeting at Robersonville, N. 
 C. At this place the pastor of the " Campbellite " or Disciple 
 Church went for him through the pulpit and the press, and kept 
 every one away that he could. My husband replied to the article 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 67 
 
 of this preacher in the paper, and then the preacher " shut up." 
 As a rule the girls of a town treat our girls very nice, but in this 
 town Bliss did not meet a girl except in the home of a Mr. Moore r 
 where they were entertained. 
 
 In June, 1925, my husband went to Winston-Salem, N. C, to* 
 hold a tent meeting; one in West Winston and one in East or 
 South Winston. He had a wonderful meeting. At the last named 
 place a very strange thing happened. One night while my hus- 
 band was preaching a sermon on " The Judgment," a well 
 dressed, pretty girl threw up her hands and began to scream. 
 She ran over seats, over folks and fell prostrate at the altar. 
 She began crying just as if she saw hell. She prayed for quite 
 a while and seemed to be saved. She and her husband were 
 separated; her parents had her children in the country, and her 
 husband was in Cincinnati, Ohio. She began to pray' for God 
 to bring him to that meeting. On Sunday night, as the meeting 
 was closing, I saw her go to a well dressed young man who was 
 standing at the back of the tent. He came to the altar and 
 prayed and cried for some time. Soon they left the tent together, 
 but there was some trouble that was never settled. In a few 
 days after we got home a friend from Winston-Salem sent me a 
 clipping from a paper which gave an account of the suicide com- 
 mitted by this young woman. This young woman reached her 
 death by throwing herself in front of a street car as it was going 
 down grade. 
 
 In the fall of 1915 my husband held meetings in Florida, at 
 Bristol and Tallahassee. He had a public debate with a preacher 
 that belonged to the M. E. Church. They debated in the court 
 house on the subject of " Pentecost." My husband had a terrible 
 case of sore eyes, and debated blind-folded, but he won in the 
 debate, although suffering in agony with his eyes. He had a 
 new experience at Bristol. Judge Owens, a Pentecostal man, 
 was trying the case of a boy, eighteen years old, who had stolen 
 a watch and was carrying a pistol. He had no lawyers to plead 
 his case, was motherless, a long way from home, and he looked 
 so young and pitiful. This sight touched my husband's heart. 
 He arose and asked permission to speak, and soon he had the 
 court room in tears. He called them all to prayer, and the boy 
 
68 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 got off for almost nothing. His father couldn't thank husband 
 enough, and the boy was glad, too. 
 
 In the fall of 1916 husband was engaged in meetings in 
 Florida. On this trip he held the Camp Meeting at Wetumpka. 
 While he was away our four-year-old son, Henry Hood, took 
 pneumonia and spinal meningitis. He had twenty fits in fifteen 
 hours. The saints were called; they prayed all night and until 
 two o'clock the next day. Brother Culbreth asked God to give 
 power to some one in the room to rebuke this awful disease that 
 we all seemed powerless over. In a minute the power struck 
 Sister Mattie E. Virden; she ran to the boy, began to rub him 
 under the power of God; and he was having a fit at this time. 
 He opened his eyes, smiled, and called for water. Sister Virden 
 said, " He will never have another fit." He jias never had a fit 
 since. He was helpless and had a fever for sixty days; pus 
 gathered in his side ; he was crooked and deformed, and he looked 
 like a corpse walking around. He was unable to turn over in 
 bed. One morning at our breakfast table husband was praying 
 for him, husband said, " I'll never look at him crooked any more. 
 He is straight in the name of Jesus." He was soon well. He is 
 now ten years old, and we have to buy fourteen-year-old size 
 of clothes for him. Two doctors in Dunn told me that he was 
 one out of a thousand that ever got well; most all of these were 
 deformed in some way, and even their mind was affected. 
 
 Brother A. E. Robinson's child was healed after having 
 nineteen fits, and is now a bright, healthy boy. 
 
 In the early spring of 1915, I think, a Sister Woolard, of 
 South Creek, N. C, wrote my husband to go down there and 
 hold a meeting in a Free-Will Baptist Church. The membership 
 of this church had gone down and they had no pastor. The 
 community was thickly settled, almost a village. Husband went; 
 walked down the road and made his own appointment. Several 
 came for the first service, and in a few days they began to seek 
 the Lord and many found Jesus. Since then two churches have 
 been organized as a result of that meeting, and Brothers Canada, 
 Mayo and J. D. Messick, Jr., have been called to preach. Young 
 Brother Messick has been in school since his conversion. Six 
 years ago he came to Falcon and entered school here in the eighth 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 69 
 
 grade. He finished High School, caught one term of school here, 
 went to Elon College and graduated this year (1922). Young 
 Messick is a fine musician, has a well trained voice, is a good 
 preacher and school teacher. 
 
 One thing of interest that occured at Organ, or South Creek, 
 is given below. A well-to-do man let husband preach in a hall 
 over his store, and in a few months he gave husband about a 
 hundred dollars. One day Mr. Martin said to husband; " Mr. 
 Goff, it pays me to let you preach here. Folks that have been 
 saved in your meeting have brought back so much stuff that they 
 stole from me. A logging outfit that cost me one hundred and 
 fifty dollars has been returned, besides lots of other things." 
 
 On January 8, 1916, while husband was holding meetings in 
 Florida, our old fatherly friend, Doctor Rowland, died. He 
 had nursed me at the birth of my children, put nine stitches in 
 my arm where a dog bit me, nursed me after I came from the 
 hospital, and brought husband home from the depot every time he 
 found him with no way to get home, for eight years. He had us 
 at his home for weeks at a time when we held meetings in Benson, 
 N. C. He gave us money, and never charged us a cent for the 
 many things he did for us. His health failed several years be- 
 fore he died, and for much of his time he was unable to practise 
 at all. He went from one hospital to another until everything 
 was gone. He lost his home where he sheltered so many of God's 
 people, peddlers, tramps and the poor of all kinds; he treated 
 all of these people kindly. He was the finest Hebrew and Greek 
 scholar I ever saw; had the greatest pity for the poor and ignor- 
 ant. He much preferred hearing a preacher, who probably could 
 not read his text correctly and had the power of God with him, 
 than to hear a D. D. who had the letter and no power. 
 
 Dr. Rowland was the first man I ever saw with a copy of a 
 holiness paper. He was the first man I ever heard talk about 
 holiness and divine healing. He said he wished everybody would 
 trust the Lord for the healing of their bodies, even if he had 
 to grub for a living. Very often he prayed for his patients, 
 carried my husband and other holiness preachers to pray for 
 many of his patients. Once after we moved to Falcon, he phoned 
 to me to come to Benson and pray for one of his patients that 
 
70 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 was given up to die with pellagra. I went and prayed for the 
 man. Doctor told the man how sick he had seen me and how 
 God raised me up in answer to prayer. The sick man recovered, 
 and was working for his living the last I heard of him. That 
 has been thirteen years ago. When I received the message that 
 doctor was dead I had just enough cash for my carfare to Benson, 
 and back. I made ready and started to go and met Myrtle com- 
 ing with the mail. In the mail was a letter, with five dollars 
 enclosed, from Dr. Tuton, of Bristol, Florida. The money was 
 a New Year's gift to me. At once I resolved to place it on Dr. 
 Rowland's funeral expenses. After Brother Charlie Johnson 
 was through preaching the funeral sermon, I asked for a few 
 words. I told the people how hard it would be for this widow 
 and two small children to pay these expenses. I laid my $5.00 
 on the casket and called for a song. While they sang, enough 
 cash was put on that casket to pay for the lot, to pay the grave- 
 digger, to pay for the casket and get a headstone to mark his 
 resting place. I spent the night after the funeral with Brother 
 Oscar Johnson. He arose early on Monday morning and went 
 down town. When he came back he said, " The men down town 
 have sent $6.00 they want you to have." It has been over six 
 years since Dr. Rowland died, but I miss him yet at the Camp 
 Meeting. He was always here as long as he was able to attend. 
 The last time he came it looked as if he would die. I miss him 
 as I get on and off the train at Benson. He helped me on and off 
 that train for years, and was never too busy to help people. He 
 did not regard his time, money or life if any one was suffering. 
 Day and night he sat over sufferring people till his strength 
 failed. He died just as he said "Amen " to Sister Wilson's prayer. 
 
 For three or four years in succession, in the month of October, 
 husband held meetings in Little Rock, S. C, at the invitation of 
 our dear friend, Bro. W. T. Huggins. He was a leader in the 
 Baptist church there, but he loved holiness, and sought it. He 
 sent his daughter here to school. When she was leaving he told 
 her goodbye and said, " I hope you will get the experience of 
 holiness." She did in a revival held here during the term of 
 school she was here. One day she was summoned home to the 
 bedside of her father. In a few days he went to his reward. He 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 71 
 
 died on October IS, 1918. He fed the poor and was kind to all. 
 About twenty years ago he was married and took his wife to a 
 rented home on a borrowed buggy. When he died he left his 
 widow one hundred thousand dollars, which he made by hard 
 labor and good management. He would entertain all the workers 
 we carried as long as we would stay. Although he had over 
 four hundred acres of cotton to look after, he had time to take 
 us on his car anywhere we wanted to go, and bring us home, 
 most a hundred miles. He gave us anywhere from ten to fifty 
 dollars each meeting. His influence was great. We closed one 
 meeting in the Baptist church with fifty at the altar. My hus- 
 band paid a man fifteen dollars to take him and Myrtle to the 
 funeral of Brother Huggins. 
 
 The fall of 1918 will be long remembered as the time of the 
 great epidemic of influenza, which swept away more than the 
 war had killed. We had a hundred cases here in Falcon during 
 October, and forty more cases in December. The people prayed, 
 and only two called for a doctor. We only had two deaths: Bro- 
 ther Griffin and Mr. Bud Johnson's child died. Five of our chil- 
 dren had it. Eunice had three fits with it, but we had prayer 
 for her and the next day she was up begging for butter and 
 biscuit. There were so many sick ones and so many calls for 
 prayer that I would go to one place and husband would go to 
 another. Professor A. C. Holland and John Messick came very 
 near dying. I went to the dormitory one day to see the sick folks, 
 and I heard someone crying and groaning in a very distressing 
 way. I asked who it was, and was told that it was Pierce Brooks, 
 a boy that had lived with us for almost five years. I went up 
 at once and found him crazy with pain. I saw that if he didn't 
 get relief he would go into fits, so I sent for my husband and his 
 mother. Before his mother came, the Lord had touched him. He 
 got up and went downstairs to cut some wood. Brother Bob 
 Lee's wife was healed instantly, also. Many were afraid to go 
 and pray for the sick in different places, but we had only a few 
 faint-hearted ones here. I didn't ask myself if I would have it or 
 not; I thought if I died, I would die at my post of duty. I would 
 not allow my neighbors to suffer when I could help them. In one 
 family of ten near Dunn all died but three. In another family 
 
72 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 there were six that died. What an awful distressing time! Doc- 
 tors were sick, and some died; nurses could not be had half 
 enough, and people died in many places from neglect. 
 
 After many struggles to keep our children in school, our three 
 oldest children finished high school here in 1918. That same 
 summer Myrtle went to Greenville, N. C, to the Teachers Train- 
 ing School. On one Saturday night, in a parlor full of teachers, 
 someone asked her to explain her leligious belief. She enter- 
 tained them for about an hour, giving them Scripture and logic 
 for her belief in Pentecost. That winter Myrtle taught near 
 Wallace, N. C, and Bliss taught near W r ade. Irene and Rowland 
 went to Elon College, N. C. Pierce Brooks went to Asbury 
 College at Wilmore, Kentucky. On his way home he stopped at 
 Elon to see them. When he came home he told us how Rowland 
 was holding up to the college boys the things he believed. Though 
 he was backslidden, the Lord kept him from having pneumonia, 
 when they wanted to force him to have a doctor. Irene debated 
 so with one of the professors on the Sunday school class till he 
 decided that the days of miracles were not past. He decided 
 she would do to debate with the Junior Class the next year in the 
 Junior-Senior Debate. In the debate she helped to win over the 
 Seniors. 
 
 Myrtle took typhoid fever in August, 1919. She trusted 
 God, but came near dying. She had five awful hemorrhages of 
 the bowels, with from one pint to half-gallon of clear blood in 
 each. One day Brother Lewis Jernigan and Wilbur Godwin came 
 in and prayed for her. They commanded her to get out of bed 
 in Jesus' name. She arose, began to shout and speak in tongues. 
 She went to the post office, and in a few days was able to go to 
 Dillon, S. C, to sing in her papa's meeting. She was healed 
 instantly after being in bed for thirty days. Brother Lewis 
 Jernigan's daughter was also healed of typhoid fever that same 
 summer. 
 
 Husband held three tent meetings in Nash County, N. C. 
 In October, during our first meeting there, we came home from 
 service with Brother Joe Dickens one night. We were stopping 
 with him. About two o'clock that night Brother Joe knocked 
 at our door and said: " Brother Goff, get up! I never saw the 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 73 
 
 clouds look so queer. It looks like the whole element is on fire." 
 My husband went out and came back in the room. He said, 
 "A terrible storm is coming up. I'm going to the tent." It was 
 two miles to the tent, and much of it through the woods. I 
 begged him not to go, but Brother Joe took the lantern and away 
 they went. The storm began to rage; the rain fell hard, and a 
 strong wind was blowing. They walked, as it was very danger- 
 ous to have a team out. Bro. Joe came home the next day about 
 ten o'clock. The storm was then taking up big trees by the roots. 
 It was so bad that neither Sister Dickens nor I dared to try to get 
 to the kitchen; no one was hungry. The house trembled and 
 shook. It raised up off blocks all day like it was going. Brother 
 Joe came by one of his neighbors', and they had all left their 
 house and had taken refuge in the barn, so he and his family 
 decided to do the same thing. I refused to leave the house, 
 for I felt that God could take care of me as good in the house 
 as in the barn. I prayed through and committed tent, husband, 
 children, own life and all to God. I sang that sweet old hymn, 
 " Jesus, Lover of My Soul." Yet it looked as if the house was 
 going, over and over again, but I felt a secure feeling all by 
 myself. I lay down and went to sleep, and about four o'clock 
 that afternoon the storm ceased. Brother Joe and family came 
 out of the barn, and husband came, but he had been drenched 
 in the rain. The road was full of big pine trees, but the tent was 
 safe and not a tree fell near it. 
 
 Husband held three meetings near Four Oaks, N. C, and 
 three or four about twelve miles from here on the highway to 
 Fayetteville, «N. C, at a place called Mary's Garden. In one of 
 these meetings two men made friends that hadn't spoken to each 
 other in twenty years. Husband's tent was up at this place 
 when the influenza struck this part of the country. The health 
 officers closed all public gatherings, and in three weeks seven- 
 teen had been buried in a country graveyard near there. 
 
 A preacher will have no trouble in getting folks to preach to 
 on the streets, on Saturday afternoon especially, in Four Oaks, 
 Benson, Dunn, and Fayetteville, N. C, and Dillon, S. C; but 
 just try Lumberton, N. C, and Lake City, S. C. The saints and 
 lots of colored folks and farmers will listen, but the city folks and 
 
74 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 ladies at Lumberton and Lake City seem to think it a disgrace to 
 listen to the gospel on the streets. It is so different in the North. 
 We spent the winter of 1921-1922 in the North. The people 
 will stand on ice and listen attentively as long as a preacher can 
 stand. They did when it was below zero; even ladies and their 
 children would be among the crowd. 
 
 In 1918 and 1919 my husband pastored Collier's Chapel 
 Free-Will Baptist Church. One Brother Hare took sick and was 
 sent to the sanatorium for consumptives. He came home to die. 
 The saints prayed for him and he was saved. He wanted to 
 be immersed; my husband and another man took him into the 
 water, and lots of people expected him to die in the water; to the 
 surprise of many he began to mend. I saw him a year after that 
 when he came in the church. I didn't know him, he had gained 
 so much in flesh; he had gained about twenty pounds in weight. 
 In the same year Brother Jesse James had a child that had 
 whooping cough and pneumonia, and on top of that took the flu. 
 The child came very near dying, but was healed in answer to 
 prayer. Sister R. H. Allen was healed of gallstones. She had 
 one that passed in answer to prayer ; it is as large as three quarter 
 dollars placed on top of each other. 
 
 Since our marriage husband has preached some very sad fu- 
 nerals. In the month of August, 1899, Jim Tiner shot his 
 mother and sister. We were in Johnston County, N. C, near the 
 Tiner home, having services in the Johnson Union church. This 
 boy was showing another boy some part of the gun that needed 
 to be fixed, when it discharged in his hand. The main load took 
 effect in his mother's bowels, and ten shot went into his sister's 
 thigh and hand. His mother lived seven days; the boy fasted 
 till she died. We visited her, and she left good hope of heaven. 
 Husband preached her funeral. 
 
 On July 25, 1903, the six-year-old child of our neighbor, Ab 
 Strickland, was killed instantly by a pile of twelve-inch planks 
 falling on her. The planks were piled on top of each other four 
 feet high. Husband preached her funeral. 
 
 On July 27, 1904, Sue Hodges was burned to death in trying 
 to make the fire in a stove burn. Sue took a can of oil, poured 
 over the fire, which bursted the can in her hand. She died that 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 75 
 
 night. It was a sad sight to look upon. She was fifteen years 
 old. Husband preached her funeral. She left home well on the 
 Sunday before, and was going to spend a few days helping her 
 sister can fruit. She was brought back home in a beautiful white 
 casket. About twenty young people sat around her cold and 
 lifeless form that night. About four days before that, she was 
 in that same room entertaining them. How soon we can die! 
 
 On February 12, 1909, Jasper Young's father left home to 
 go to mill. He was thrown from the cart and was instantly 
 killed. Husband preached his funeral. This awful tragedy 
 might have helped in bringing Jasper to Jesus. He is now a holi- 
 ness preacher. 
 
 In March, 1907, husband was holding a meeting at Plain 
 View church, in Sampson county, N. C. The power fell on Bro- 
 ther Macon Cavenaugh. He prophesied that some one in the 
 church would be dead before the meeting closed. A young man 
 by the name of Hare turned to Miss Bessie Keen and said, " Do 
 you reckon that's me? " He went home and took his bed with 
 a cold. No one thought him seriously ill. On the closing Sunday 
 morning he called his mother and said his feet were cold. Before 
 something could be warmed to be placed at his feet he was dead. 
 This was a great shock to the community. His mother received 
 the Holy Ghost on Monday night after. Husband preached his 
 funeral. 
 
 I think it was in 1912 that Joel Rhodes, now a missionary in 
 Africa, went to Vox, S. C, with my husband. He helped in a 
 meeting, and husband went back with " Jody " at Christmas and 
 married him to Miss Venia Baxley, a sweet, Holy- Ghost-filled 
 girl. Sister Annie Register was married at our home to Rev 
 A. B. Kanipe in May, 1913. Their marriage was almost like 
 that of Isaac and Rebecca. They were introduced to each other 
 by a preacher, corresponded about a year, and married in four 
 days after they met. Their labor in the vineyard of the Lord 
 has been greatly blessed. If folks would only let God select 
 their lifetime companions, much heartache, much sorrow and all 
 the divorces would be avoided. So many young Christians go 
 down in the matrimonial tide. If you make a mistake in mating 
 for life, you'd better be dead. Many kill themselves or their com- 
 
76 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 panions. Oh, if people would only seek God first, and then get 
 His will, and do it! It's forbidden in God's Word for a Christian 
 and an unbeliever to be yoked up. Oh, the girl says, " John, or 
 Will, is a nice boy. He likes to see me shout, believes in holi- 
 ness/' Yes, I even knew one to take up the collection for a holi- 
 ness preacher to win his sister that sang for him. After their 
 marriage he went to selling whiskey, and never goes to a holiness 
 church, and hasn't been for years. What became of this happy, 
 shouting, singing evangelist? She got worldly, moved into a 
 city, goes to a formal church once in a while, when she feels good. 
 Her husband stays on the streets or at home. I saw another 
 sinner man take his wife out of meeting one night, and he quar- 
 relled with her all night. He said that she loved the holiness 
 preachers better than she did him. He kept her in terror of 
 her life for fifteen years. At last he doctored a sick horse that 
 went mad in a few days and scared him. He sent for the holi- 
 ness folks, and was saved. For years she was not allowed to in- 
 vite a holiness person to her home. He objected to her getting 
 a letter from her father. He said it made her more crazy over 
 holiness. This was in Moore County, N. C. 
 
 In Johnston County, N. C, a woman got sanctified, and her 
 husband told her if she went to the tent again he would leave her. 
 She quit attending, and after that he beat her most to death. 
 She has never been to a holiness meeting since as I have ever 
 heard of, and she never won this fellow to Jesus. 
 
 In Duplin County, N. C, I saw a brute of a man drag his 
 wife from the altar as if he were dragging a hog. When he got 
 her out of church he laid her on the ground. She got saved on 
 the yard where he laid her. If he had been saved he would have 
 been glad, but the devil was in him and he was mad. 
 
 I heard a boy, that once had good religion and married a 
 sinner, say, k ' I have plenty of this world's goods, but I am un- 
 happy. My wife does not care for the church or Sunday school. '' 
 How can two walk together except they be agreed? You might 
 as well hitch up a goat and a sheep together. The poor sheep 
 would fare badly, and quite likely lose its life. Human infatua- 
 tion is not true love. A well-dressed young man meets a pretty 
 little " butterfly " girl and loves her at sight, marries in three or 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 77 
 
 four weeks, and they part in a year. Hell will be filled with 
 such cases. I'm so glad I gave my heart to Jesus when I was 
 eleven years old. I was sanctified at fifteen, prayed more over 
 a lifetime companion than anything to that time. God made 
 me a worker for Jesus and gave me a preacher. My father was 
 a preacher. I've decided they are the best folks in the world, 
 if the world does hate them. The Bible says, " How beautiful 
 are the feet of them who carry the gospel of peace." Our chil- 
 dren may forget God for a while, but one thing they can't forget 
 is the Bible reading and the family altar. The Bible we have 
 taught them, the godly examples we have set before them, wiU 
 follow them all their lives wherever they go. I never tell my chil- 
 dren ghost tales and stories of hobgoblins. It makes children afraid 
 at night. If I call one of mine at dead of night and say, " I am 
 sick and want you to go and get some one to pray for me," they 
 go. I've taught them that God will take care of them in the night 
 as well as in the day. 
 
 In June of 1916 we went to Reelsboro, N. C, to hold a meet- 
 ing in a little Holiness church, with a few of as good people as I 
 ever saw, and I will say they had as much opposition as I ever 
 saw. The young people were very hard-hearted and wicked. Oh, 
 how they do mock, and make fun as you preach to them. My 
 husband told them of their sin and what was their doom. Twelve 
 young men had waylaid and beaten a boy, and as a result, he was 
 in bed for some time. A few weeks before we were there, part 
 of the same clan made a plot to kill my husband, or to beat him. 
 There was a man that seemed to be our friend who heard the 
 plot, and one evening came in haste to notify us not to go to 
 church. He said Mr. Goff would be shot out of the pulpit that 
 night. The man was much alarmed, and said they were desper- 
 ate fellows. He nor his folks would not go, and he said we had. 
 better not go. Husband refused to take any supper, but went 
 to the woods to pray. When he came to the house he said he was. 
 going if they did kill him. We got the service going, when about, 
 six or eight men in dirty overalls came in and took their seats. 
 Pretty soon one got mad, shook his head and said out loud, " God 
 Almighty." He left the church, his gang following, all in a great 
 rage. They beat around the church, talking out loud, and after 
 
78 
 
 TESTS AK0 TjRIUMPHS 
 
 meeting, as we were going out, one yelled ow£ r "There's your 
 man! " No one laid hold, and four or five clever young fdlows 
 from Missouri, who loved holiness, went with us about hadif a 
 mile. I expected to be fired on every step for a mile, but no one 
 fired. We walked to our stopping place. We had very good' 
 order after that. 
 
 When we came home, Sister Julia Salmon told nre she verily 
 believed it was the same night that when she went to pray, some- 
 thing said, " Brother Goff. Pray for him. He is in danger." She 
 felt this for several minutes. She could do nothing but beg God 
 to take care of him, and He did. That was one night I decided 
 to die a martyr's death. These boys evidently planned and came 
 for mischief. The man that brought us the word advised us to 
 .get the sheriff, but we trusted in God, and He delivered 1 us from 
 harm. Husband's life was threatened at Lake City, S. C, in 
 Johnston county, N. C, and in several other places, b^rt so far, 
 harm has been kept away from him. I've taken his arm twice, 
 expecting him to be shot very step. I meant to die by him or 
 -with him if any attack was made. It means something to die in 
 the battlefield, and we may have to yet. People don't want to 
 be told of their sins. 
 
 In the summer of 1919, my mother's health failed and she 
 took heart dropsy. She had shingles, which went inside of her, 
 then she took blood poison. She suffered great pain for months. 
 She had trusted God since 1896 for her body. Many miracles of 
 healing she had experienced, and in her death sickness she was 
 relieved numbers of times in answer to prayer. In fact, she called 
 her sleep " prayer naps." Instead of morphine she called for 
 prayer, and would get relief and sleep. The blood poisoning set 
 in on Sunday evening and by Monday the small spot, about the 
 size of a dime, on her leg had gone to her hip. Brothers J. A. 
 and J. Elwin Wright, from Rumney, New Hampshire, were in 
 Falcon holding a meeting. They went with me to pray for her. 
 The nurse met me at the door and told me she was almost gone. 
 I said, " We must pray." We went in and prayed; in two days 
 the blood poison had almost entirely disappeared, and she could 
 sleep soundly. 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 79 
 
 Sister Dora wrote me and told me to bring the same men to 
 pray again, for she believed mother would get well. We went, 
 she praised God and waved her hand till she was so weak that 
 she just moved her fingers. She gave every one around her a 
 charge to live right and to meet her in heaven. She said to all 
 from the beginning of her sickness that it was her homegoing 
 time. She would tell us to pray for her to rest, but she had to go. 
 She told the deacon of the church to take care of the church, when 
 she thought she was dying, several days before she died. She 
 laughed and praised God like she was in a revival. There were 
 nine Pentecostal preachers at her funeral. We gave each one an 
 opportunity to speak. About fifteen spoke of their love for her. 
 One woman said she had known ma all her life; that she sang 
 in the church choir and taught a Sunday school class since she 
 was fourteen years old. One preacher said she taught him, then 
 his children, and now he had some grandchildren. She had taught 
 at Hodges Chapel for forty years. One preacher said he had 
 been her pastor for eleven years, and she was never absent, ex- 
 when she was in her death sickness. Another pastor said that 
 when he served the church for six years, she was never absent. 
 He said when his sermon failed to move sinners, ma's exhortations 
 and prayers never failed to move them. I never knew her late at 
 church in my life. When we were small, we lived a mile from the 
 church. Ma arose at 3:00 A. M. on Sunday and cooked enough 
 to feed us all, and anywhere from one to twenty others. We 
 always had company on Sunday. She dressed us all and was 
 at Sunday school by nine o'clock every Sunday. The last 
 summer before her death she was so weak she would start an hour 
 or two before time and get there in time to sweep the church and 
 lie down and rest till meeting began. Many testified to her help 
 in sickness and trouble. Her words seemed a tonic to a broken 
 heart. She seemed to know just what to say to comfort everyone 
 Blessed old soul! How she is missed! On Sunday morning, 
 November 30, 1919, she calmly fell asleep to wake no more. 
 During her sickness hundreds visited her. When so many fresh 
 flowers and nice things to eat were sent by friends for miles 
 around she said, " Well, I didn't know people loved me so.' r 
 There were people from seven towns at her funeral. One poor 
 
80 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 drunkard came weeping, and said she was the best woman he 
 ever saw. Her holy life had its effect on hundreds of people. 
 She loved music, was a good singer and sang in the choir as long 
 as she could get there. 
 
 In 1920 husband and the girls were in several meetings. The 
 influenza spread so in the fall and winter of 1918 and 1919 that 
 their revival work was much hindered. He held a meeting in 
 Rocky Mount, and one at Snow Hill, N. C, that bade fair to be a 
 real revival. The altar was full of seekers, and people came for 
 miles through the rain on dark, cold nights. The courthouse 
 would hardly hold the people towards the last of the meeting. 
 The " flu " broke out again, and the health officers had churches 
 and schools closed. We came out to Fort Run Free-Will Baptist 
 church and held a meeting among our old neighbors and rela- 
 tives. On the last night of this meeting husband was much 
 .burdened. He told the people that someone there in that church 
 .never would hear him preach again. Among the seekers was 
 his oldest brother, who used to be' saved and was an active 
 member at Fort Run, but Satan led him off. He got to drinking, 
 and was shot on April 10, 1920. He was taken to Spicer's Sana- 
 torium at Goldsboro, N. C. We received this sad news on April 
 12. My husband had driven from Dillon, S. C, on a Ford, and 
 was tired down. On the morning of April 13 he left for Golds- 
 boro. He found his brother very sick. He prayed for him day 
 and night, and on April 15 he told my husband that the Lord had 
 saved him. He lay and praised God and he prayed till he died, 
 on the 16th. This was a great blow to the family and many 
 friends of this man. 
 
 This world is so full of trouble! Five of my relatives have 
 met untimely deaths in one year; five of my cousins, all strong 
 young men. In January, 1919, two Smith boys were 'shot to 
 death and both buried in the same grave. In four weeks from 
 then Willis Pleasant 's throat was cut while he was in the Navy. 
 April 4, 1920, Wilbur Lucas was playing with a pistol and shot 
 himself. A year later a brother of the Smith boys was shot for 
 deserting the Army. He, too, lies by his brothers, all sons of one 
 poor broken-hearted mother. 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 81 
 
 In the winter of 1917, I fell on the ice and dislocated my 
 left kidney. I suffered all that winter with spells like kidney 
 colic. The saints would come and pray and I'd get relief, only 
 to have another spell in a few days. I kept having these spells 
 until a terrible abscess formed back of my kidney. I took my 
 bed in September, 1920, the first day I had lain in bed in twelve 
 years. I kept getting worse, and sent for the saints. They would 
 pray and I would get victory in my soul and praise God. I would 
 be so happy, and feel better while they prayed and sang, but be- 
 fore they we're out of the house my sufferings were so intense I 
 wished I could die. For fifteen days and nights I lay there, till I 
 was so sick I did not know when people came. My husband was 
 in Lake View, S. C, in a meeting. Myrtle came, got a doctor, 
 and he said the hospital was the only relief. My side was full of 
 pus and it must come out. I was carried to the Cumberland 
 General Hospital, at Fayetteville, N. C. They operated on me 
 October 5, 1920, and cut a place six inches long, just below my 
 ribs, nearly to my spine. They said they had never had such a 
 case before. I lay there, drenched in bad smelling pus for S3 
 days. They did all they could for me. I lay awake for five 
 weeks, only while under the influence of medicine to make me 
 sleep; suffered agony no tongue can tell. My husband and 
 Brother Percy Maxwell came for me on November 21, with a 
 mattress in the bottom of a seven-passenger car, with a feather 
 bed on top. Four men put me in the car. I came home to live 
 or die. The nurses said I was coming home to die. 
 
 The annual convention of the North Carolina Conference 
 of the Pentecostal Holiness Church began in a few days. Some 
 gathered in my room and prayecl till I was greatly helped. I 
 could raise my head up by myself at the close of the Convention. 
 My friends were so nice to me when I was in the hospital, and 
 also after I came home. My table was kept full of flowers and 
 fruit. I lay there and wrote over a hundred letters and cards, 
 read the New Testament through in two weeks in the hospital, be- 
 sides lots of other things. Sister Hood, of Dunn, N. C, sent me 
 lots of good reading matter. My friends brought me lots of good 
 things to eat, and gave me stationery, stamps and money. Well, 
 lots of the gifts brought tears to my eyes. One little girl had 
 
82 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 nothing else to send, so she picked an envelope full of hickory 
 nuts and sent to me. It made me feel she loved me, and I knew 
 it was her very best gift. Another little girl made up money 
 among the other little girls and brought me a nice pair of hose 
 for Christmas. Another one brought me her first narcissus 
 bloom. It told its love story from the vase that held it in front 
 of my bed till at last it faded and died, but it had filled its mis- 
 sion. 
 
 Christmas Day, 1920, found me in bed suffering intensely. 
 I read fourteen chapters in Job that day. Then I decided I'd 
 had no losses, no trouble and but little afflction, compared with 
 Job. The many gifts from my friends, and the nice trays of 
 food that came to me during the holidays helped me lots. I'd 
 read so much of the suffering in Armenia, caused by the war, 
 I wanted to help and couldn't, but Brother Culbreth sent them 
 enough to feed one child a year in my name and sent me a card 
 with these words on it, which gave me comfort: 
 
 CHRISTMAS 1920. 
 
 Dear Sister Goff, 
 
 A gift for you, which you cannot see, 
 
 Because it's gone so far away. 
 It's value now to another will be 
 
 But greater reward to you some day. 
 In His Name, 
 
 J. A. Culbreth. 
 
 When you are bedridden so long as to have such suffering as 
 I had, you will learn that a friend that shares my sorrow makes it 
 a " moiety," but they swell our joy and make it double. 
 
 " No friend like an old friend, 
 
 Who shares our mourning days; 
 No greeting like their welcome — 
 
 No homage like their praise." 
 
 My friends came from my old home, Clayton, Durham, and 
 Kinston, N. C. Well, from all around they came. They prayed, 
 sang and preached for me. 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 83 
 
 In January, while I still lay flat of my back, Brother Jesse 
 James began a revival here that ran without a break for nine 
 weeks. One hundred and four received the Holy Ghost. I could 
 hear the shouts of the new redeemed ones and cries of the seekers. 
 The children were the first to get blessed. Four little girls got 
 saved while at prayer in a camp one afternoon. From that their 
 afternoon prayer meeting grew till the whole school was in it; the 
 girls at the small tabernacle and the boys in the school-house. 
 For days many tarried before God, without their supper, till the 
 town and whole community felt it. People from other towns 
 who read of the revival began to come. One lady from Savannah, 
 Georgia, came and stayed five days. She heard only two sermons. 
 No one could preach when the power fell in such outbursts. You 
 could not hear the singing of the choir. It was a hum-drum 
 sound. 
 
 On March 6th four men carried me on a cot to the auditorium. 
 I thought I could surely count those that shouted, but I failed. 
 I could count blackbirds as well. Men of 75 down to children of 
 five leaping and praising God. We had two very triumphant 
 deaths while this meeting was in progress. On January 14th, 
 the wife of Pierce Brooks died; on February 17th Sister Ed 
 Jolley died. While Sister Jolley was dying, Mary Butler, a 
 fourteen-year-old girl, was praying in the young people's prayer 
 meeting. She was lying on the floor in a trance and began to 
 say, " I see Sister Jolley. She's in heaven, skipping on the 
 Golden Streets with Pierce's wife." In ten minutes the news 
 came that Sister Jolley was dead. At this time I was worse than 
 I had been since I came home. The doctor told my husband 
 I might possibly live till April. He also told me that a thousand 
 doctors could not cure me. My sufferings were so intense, so 
 that I despaired of life, but when I woke up on February 18th, 
 the abscess had run something awful; I was easy, and on Feb- 
 ruary 20th I received a letter from Brother A. G. Doner, of 
 Peterboro, Ontario, Canada, that read as follows: 
 
 Peterboro, Ont., Feb. 17, 1921. 
 Dear Sister-Elect in Christ Jesus: 
 
 Last night at 2:30 I was sweetly awakened by the fieavenly 
 Watcher for my hour of intercession, and you were the first one 
 
84 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 to rise before me. I was so glad to share this midnight hour 
 agonizing for you, and others, as the dear Holy Spirit made 
 known the need. Today, I have been led to write a few lines 
 to you. I will be glad to hear if you needed help at the exact 
 time indicated. We have sympathized with you in your pro- 
 longed season of testing, but oh! the gold the Master sees in you 
 to subject you to the fiery crucible so long! (See Job 23:10 and 
 Phil. 1:29.) We are told what it costs us to pass the toll gates 
 this way. " When He hath tried us, we shall come forth as 
 gold." He knows how hot the furnace is, and just when to re- 
 move His gold. 
 
 There are cooling fountains up there for the thirsty, 
 
 There's a cordial up there for the faint; 
 There are crowns filled with stars, 
 
 Prepared for each conquering saint. 
 
 Now be of good cheer and extend our warmest greetings to all 
 your family and saints at Falcon. May your loved ones all 
 listen to God and run into the fold before the awful storm 
 breaks. 
 
 Cordially yours till He comes, 
 
 A. G. Doner. 
 
 I was better before I received this letter, and began to take 
 new hold on life. On the 8th of March, after I had gone to 
 church on the cot, I took worse again. I was suffering such 
 intense pain I felt I could not endure it. My husband saw 
 I was suffering, and he fell on his knees and began to pray. 
 While he was praying two little girls came in. They saw I was 
 worse, and they went to the tabernacle, where the prayer meet- 
 ing was going on. They told the others, and just as quickly as 
 they could come, seventeen girls were around my bed, crying 
 to God in such an earnest, beseeching way till God heard and 
 answered. I was easy in less time than it has taken to tell this. 
 I slept till ten o'clock that night. The next day I got a letter 
 from Si6ter F. L. Bramblett, of McCormick, S. C. It read as 
 follows : 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 85 
 
 Dear Sister Goif: 
 
 You have been very forcibly laid upon our hearts for the 
 past few days, and I feel so impressed this morning to write you 
 a few lines of encouragement. God stands ready to bring you 
 relief. I feel God wants to bring you up off that bed of affliction. 
 Let's get hold of God with renewed efforts and trust Him for 
 your healing. He is abundantly able, and is a God that changeth 
 not. Reach up! Grasp! Hold on with a faith that takes no 
 denial, and you will come forth as gold! He can heal you. 
 Glory! Leave the symptoms with Him and expect deliverance. 
 We shall hold on to God for your healing. Never be dis- 
 couraged! In Him all things are possible. Catch the thought, 
 believe God! May God bless and heal you. 
 
 Yours in Christian love, 
 
 (Mrs.) F. L. Bramblett. 
 
 This was the last bad spell I had. The 6th of March a 
 comoany of my relatives and old friends came to see me. • Among 
 the crowd was Cousin John Strickland. He said a preacher told 
 him a few days before if he expected to see me alive he had 
 better come. He said he got on his knees and asked God about 
 it. He said, "God said, ' She will live.' " They had prayer 
 meeting and my soul was blessed in a wonderful way. In a day 
 or two I went to church in a wheel chair. In a week I was on 
 crutches. 
 
 As every Southern reader knows, the crash in prices came in 
 the fall of 1920. Cotton that cost us 20 to 30 cents per pound 
 to produce sold for 9 to 10 cents a pound. Many farmers lost 
 their homes. We lost heavily and it looked like everything was 
 going. My husband was shut in home for six months, expecting 
 me to die, and expenses were heavy. Irene and Rowland were 
 at Elon College. We could not meet the bill. Rowland came 
 home, but Irene prayed and begged God till the way was open 
 for her to finish her sophomore year. Before Christmas she 
 wrote to her papa for a Sunday dress. She said she was the 
 only sophomore honored to sing in the college choir, and the 
 only one that had to wear a middy suit everyday and on Sunday 
 .too. He wrote her that he could not get the black satin she 
 
So 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 wanted, so she prayed for a dress. In October, while I was so 
 sick, Pauline Blaylock died. She was a senior at the State Nor- 
 mal at Greensboro, N. C. Her mother came to see me and asked 
 me if Irene could wear Pauline's clothes. I told her I thought 
 so, and the next day she came with a large suit case packed with 
 nice clothes. With tears in her eyes, she said, " If my child could 
 not live to finish, I want to help the child of someone else." The 
 first piece I saw was a real nice black satin dress. It was just 
 what Irene had prayed for. This was her junior year, and in some 
 way or other the way opened up for her to go back and her needs 
 were supplied for almost another year. 
 
 In April, instead of going to the graveyard, I got on a car 
 and went to Brother Blaylock's, and spent a week while my hus- 
 band preached in his home. They were so nice to me, and took 
 me to my sister's home in Dunn. I heard Dr. G. D. Watson a 
 week, then went to South Creek on a hundred-mile trip. Had to 
 change three times. My husband stayed three weeks. The 
 revival was at such white heat I stayed another week, sitting in 
 a rocking chair on an air cushion and pillows. On the day my 
 husband left, two men were sanctified, a woman saved, and a 
 girl got the Holy Ghost. He had to come home to attend to 
 some business, but he came back on Staurday, and closed the 
 meeting on Sunday night with great victory. 
 
 We stopped at Chocowinity and had three services. We saw 
 some of our old friends. 
 
 We went to Faro and had a meeting in the new church. The 
 ride of seventy miles there on a Ford made me sick. I was in 
 bed at Brother Joe West's for three days, but I was cared for 
 as tenderly as if I had been in my own home. . 
 
 We went from Faro to Greenville, N. C, for a meeting. 
 Brother A. H. Butler and son, James, and Bliss helped us there. 
 The saints in Greenville are a good, big-hearted set of people. 
 They were very nice to us. I ate more barbecue there than at 
 any place I have ever been. We spent our wedding anniversary 
 there. Bro. Heber Baker gave us a splendid wedding supper. 
 We had been married 22 years on July 4, 1921; have had 14 
 children born in our home, and have been in evangelistic meetings 
 some every year. God has fed and clothed us; we have come 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 87 
 
 through deep waters; through heated furnaces and then out 
 into green pastures. Glory! 
 
 When I was taken sick my baby was seven weeks old. Myr- 
 tle had married, Irene was at Elon College, and this left Bliss 
 with the care of the baby, the family and the house. The baby 
 was cross, sick, cried, gave Bliss lots of trouble, but she stood the 
 storm like a brave soldier, and nursed me and kept things going 
 till the neighbors wondered how a girl could do so much. 
 
 We went to Stantonsburg, N. C, and held a meeting in July, 
 1921, and then went to Aulander Camp Meeting. We got home 
 just before our Camp Meeting, and found a 48-room Camping 
 House, which had been built in just a few days. This was full 
 of campers the first year. The Camp Meeting was a great help 
 to me. The people fasted the first day for my deliverance, 
 as I was still on crutches. I laid them aside in Jesus' name and 
 have been going in His name ever since. 
 
 We had a meeting at Plain View Free-Will Baptist church, 
 in Sampson County, N. C. We had a good meeting. John 
 Messick helped us the first week. He was praying for funds 
 to go back to Elon College and finish, as it was his last year. 
 The Lord opened the way for him. He, too, has prayed his 
 way through. He has stood the tests of college life without 
 playing ball. 
 
 We held a second meeting in Stantonsburg at the urgent 
 request of the people. From Stantonsburg went to Kinston, 
 N. C, where we had preached twenty years before. We had a 
 good meeting; spent some pleasant days with our friends that 
 had stood by us twenty years ago. 
 
 In November we went to Columbia, S. C. Here we had 
 a most glorious revival. The church wouldn't hold the people. 
 We stayed there three weeks. Our next meeting was at Owen's 
 Grove Free-Will Baptist church, in Sampson County. We stayed 
 there a week and had a good meeting started, when we had to 
 close as Christmas was so near. We were getting ready for a tour 
 in the North. 
 
 We started for Conneaut, Ohio, on December 29, 1921, and 
 arrived there December 31. The first service was grand and the 
 altar full of seekers. Among the number was the pastor's son, 
 
88 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 that had been quite a prodigal. Much prayer had gone to God 
 for him. He was saved and gave up his cigarettes that night. 
 He kept on seeking and received the Holy Ghost in the third 
 service, and such an untiring worker he was! He prayed over 
 seekers all night, or until two or three o'clock in the morning. 
 God gave us a great time. Our home was in the Franklin Faith 
 Home. Several years ago, Sister Franklin said God kept saying 
 to her, "A Home for the Homeless." They have a nice thirteen- 
 room house; she opened by faith in God, her doors to the home- 
 less, and she has cared for many needy ones since. When I 
 was there, there was one blind, one most helpless with cancer, 
 and several others that could not wait on themselves. I shall 
 remember a long time how Sister Franklin would go from one 
 to another, stroke their forehead, kiss them and pray God to bless 
 and help them. Old Sister Norton would go to praising God and 
 talking in tongues, and forget how tired of the bed she was. The 
 dear old soul went to heaven in a few days after we left Conneaut. 
 She was sleeping when she passed out. Sister Franklin is a 
 woman of rare zeal and faith. Brother Franklin and their 
 daughter, Ruth, are true co-workers. They pray an hour every 
 morning. Here, God gave me an extra touch. My side drained 
 less there than at any time since my operation. I do not know 
 where you would go for help if you couldn't get help in that 
 atmosphere of prayer and praise. From Conneaut we went to 
 Cleveland, Ohio, to visit my aunt, the only one I have living. 
 I had not seen her in twenty-five years. She has been a shut-in 
 for six years. It was a treat to see her on this side of heaven, 
 a thing I had never dreamed of when she moved out there. 
 
 We went to Greenville, Pa., and held meeting for Sister 
 Plummer. She has a good band of saints there. Her husband 
 got sanctified and several received the Holy Ghost. 
 
 We went from Greenville to Buffalo, N. Y., to have meetings 
 in Brother R. E. Erdman's Mission. Brother Erdman is the man 
 who invited us and planned all this tour for us. He has a strong 
 band and a well fixed mission. He has bought a four-story 
 brick building, that cost fifty thousand dollars to build, for 
 fifteen thousand dollars. They and two other families live in 
 the mission and have a large assembly room, well fixed. The 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 89 
 
 people believe in the whole Bible. Brother Erdman has had a 
 nice mission in Buffalo over twenty years. Ten received the 
 Holy Ghost while we were there. The people were very kind 
 to us in every way. We were invited to many homes to meals 
 that would have done honor to a king. Brother Erdman and 
 his noble wife were like a real father and mother to us. He took 
 us to Niagara Falls and over into Canada. 
 
 We came to Pittsburg, Pa., from Buffalo to have meetings for 
 Brother Frank and Will Casley. These brothers had charge of 
 thirteen missions in and around Pittsburg. Our first stop was in 
 Brother Frank Casley's home. There were four returned mis- 
 sionaries and quite a number of preachers and Christian workers 
 who came in from other towns around. The Casley Brothers 
 have been running these missions twenty years. They have 
 sent over two hundred missionaries, including the native workers 
 they have supported, to the foreign field. They have sent over 
 ten thousand dollars a year to missions. Brother Frank has 
 been to the South Sea Islands, India and China. His wife and 
 Brother Will's wife play, sing, preach and are real helpmeets in 
 the Lord's work. Their homes are free boarding places for 
 God's people from all over the world. God richly supplies their 
 needs. They believe in the Holy Ghost having right of way, 
 even if it tears up the biggest man-planned sermon ever preached. 
 They have a revival spirit going all the time. They are mighty 
 men of faith and prevailing prayer. One night when we were 
 having service in Turtle Creek, near Brother Frank and Will's 
 home, they called two trained singers to the platform for a 
 special song. The man threw up his hand and began to speak 
 in tongues. He sat, or fell flat on the floor. The organist began 
 to shout. The lady singer caught the flame and it caught over 
 the mission till everyone seemed to be feeling the power. I guess 
 they shouted twenty minutes before they got still enough to sing 
 the special song. There were three Catholics saved; two received 
 the Holy Ghost at Buffalo. One spoke in the Norwegian lan- 
 guage, as two brothers from Norway were there and gave out 
 what they said. One Catholic was saved at Turtle Creek. 
 
 I came home from Turtle Creek. Husband stayed and held 
 meetings at Vandergrift and McKeesport, then went to Toronto, 
 
90 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 Canada. He had good meetings at all these places. One thing 
 of peculiar interest, we didn't have to rebuke a person for bad 
 behavior. They go to meeting in snow or sleet, in rain or storm; 
 they are there, and they will stay up and pray for seekers all 
 night if they see any hopes of their going through. 
 
 I came home and stayed a week, then I received a letter 
 from Sister Lucy Bundy to go and have some prayer meetings 
 with her, as she had been shut in all winter. She lives in Ben- 
 nettsville, S. C. I went, and she seemed greatly blessed. I had 
 meetings in her home from Thursday till Saturday night. Bro- 
 ther Cannon invited me over to the mission where he was pas- 
 tor. I went, had a house full, and found so many hungry hearts 
 that I wanted to stay, but got a message that my married daugh- 
 ter, Myrtle, had pneumonia. Bliss had gone to nurse her, and 
 I came home on Monday, but promised to go back as soon as 
 Myrtle got able for Bliss to leave her. In about ten days I went 
 back, and in the first service in the mission twenty-three came 
 to the altar. Fifteen arose from there praising God, and testified 
 to being saved. I stayed there ten days. The mission was so 
 crowded that people had to press their way to the altar, but many 
 came up shouting. I went out to Bolton's Chapel and had one 
 service. I spent the night with my dear old friends, the Bolton 
 family. It had been ten years since I was there. A nice church 
 had been built, and there was a nice band of saints. Since then 
 our old friend, Brother Bolton, is gone to his reward. His wife 
 is very feeble, her sight almost gone. She can't see to read her 
 Bible, and her hearing is bad, but her heart is awake. She loves 
 God's people and holiness as good as ever. 
 
 I spent one night in McColl, S. C, where I had a good ser- 
 vice. I saw many we learned to love years ago. 
 
 Husband came home from Toronto on April 19, 1922. Had 
 been gone since December 29th. He then waited a short time 
 for his new tent, and went to a meeting in Clayton, N. C, on 
 May 1st. 
 
 Thus I have told you a few of our tests and triumphs during 
 eleven years. I have looked death in the face; my husband has 
 been almost killed, once by a mule, and again by an overturned 
 car. He was pinned under the steering wheel of the car, and 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 91 
 
 crushed almost to death while I lay at death's door in the hos- 
 pital. We have had shadows and sunshine; suffering and losses 
 too numerous to mention. Yet, the cloud has never hung too low 
 nor looked so black but that it had a silver lining. " Weeping 
 may endureth for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." 
 
 REPENTANCE. 
 
 SERMON BY H. H. GOFF. 
 
 Text: "And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but 
 now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." Acts 17 : 30. 
 
 SOME INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
 
 The Apostle Paul is the hero of the whole narrative. He was 
 on his second missionary journey, and was waiting for some of 
 his colleagues in the city of Athens, the capital of Attica, and 
 the chief seat of Grecian learning and civilization during the gol- 
 den period of the history of Greece. 
 
 Athens is said to have derived its name from the prominence 
 given to the worship of the goddess of Athena, Minerva, by its 
 king, Erechtheus, and the apostle tells us in verse 16 of the 
 same chapter that our text is in, that his spirit was stirred in him 
 when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry (or, to the devil), 
 and this started him to preaching against their sins, and of course 
 they would not stand for that, therefore he was taken and brought 
 
92 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 before the highest judge and court of Athens, the Bible says, 
 because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. 
 
 Paul told them that they ought not to think that the God- 
 head was gold, silver, or like it, but cries out in the language of 
 the text and says, " The times of this ignorance God winked at 
 (or, looked over), but now commandeth all men everywhere io 
 repent." 
 
 Tradition says that Athens had so many idols until they them- 
 selves were so dissatisfied that they decided in a council meeting 
 to take a lamb in the midst of their idols and stab a knife in its 
 heart, and turn it loose to die, and whichever idol it fell at, would 
 have the supremacy over all the rest; but the lamb died out in 
 the open, hence the idol with the inscription, " To the Unknown 
 God," The above is what the apostle calls ignorance, and says 
 God winked at, or excused it, but now He commandeth repent- 
 ance. 
 
 We draw the following conclusions from this text: 
 
 1. Repentance is a command, so that no one can treat the 
 subject lightly without breaking one of God : s commandments, 
 hence its importance. 
 
 2. All people are included, so no one has an excuse. The 
 doctrine that some men can repent and others cannot, is false 
 so far as God's provision goes. It is true that people can reject 
 God's Word and message till I believe they cross the dead line, 
 but it is not God's fault. Oh, I am so glad that God made it 
 possible that all men everywhere can obey this text and find sal- 
 vation. 
 
 Now the question naturally arises: What is repentance? In 
 order to answer it correctly, let us consider what it is not. 
 
 First, it is not reformation, although one cannot repent with- 
 out reforming his life. 
 
 Second, it is not church joining, though I believe that when 
 people are saved they should join the church. 
 
 Third, it is not water baptism, and yet, according to the 
 Bible, water baptism is all right. 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 9.3 
 
 Fourth, it is not taking the Lord's Supper, nor communion, 
 nor foot-washing, and yet all of these have their place in the 
 church and for believers. 
 
 Fifth, it is not paying your money to the ministry nor for 
 missions, nor for the support of the church in general, and yet I 
 cannot see how one can be a Bible Christian without doing this. 
 
 Now let us consider what repentance is. 
 
 First, it is conviction for sin. In Acts 2:37 we read, "Now 
 when they heard this (what was it they heard? Peter preach- 
 ing about the crucified Christ, in verse 36), they were pricked in 
 their heart." The word " pricked " signifies stung, or having se- 
 vere pain, and that is what the Holy Ghost causes in convicting 
 sinners. It is no pleasant thing. King David's experience in 
 Psalm 116:3 describes the condition of a sinner under convic- 
 tion: " The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of 
 hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow." Hence 
 Paul's words in 2 Cor. 7:10, " For godly sorrow worketh repent- 
 ance." There is surely sorrow and weeping when real Holy Ghost 
 conviction comes on a person. 
 
 Second, it is a confession of sin. 1 John 1: 9 reads: " If we 
 confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." 
 It is very essential indeed that folks confess their sins, if repent- 
 ance is effective in the lives of those who profess to have repented. 
 It is impossible for anyone to repent according to the Bible stand- 
 ard and not confess his sins. Hence we read in Prov. 28:13: 
 " He that covereth his sins (or refuses to confess them) shall not 
 prosper (be forgiven), but whoso confesseth and forsaketh shall 
 have mercy (or be forgiven)." 
 
 I was conducting a meeting several years ago near Wilming- 
 ton, N. C, and a young man began to go to the altar and seek 
 God, but couldn't get through. I gave a message on confess- 
 ing out, and this man soon found his trouble, and went and con- 
 fessed to an old colored man that he had defrauded him out of 
 a dollar in a settlement of some business between them. It is 
 needless to say that he found salvation, for I tell you God came 
 upon him in a wonderful way. I saw him last summer (1923), 
 and he was still on the way. Glory to God forever! 
 
94 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 Third, it is a forsaking of sin. We read in Isaiah 55:7: " Let 
 
 the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his 
 thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have 
 mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will abundantly par- 
 don." Hallelujah to the Lamb forever and ever! 
 
 Fourth, it is, or includes, restitution; for we read in Luke, 
 19th chapter, of Zaccheus (which means pure), a tax collector 
 near Jericho, who, being short of stature, climbed up into a syc- 
 amore tree in order to obtain a glimpse of Jesus as He passed 
 by that place. He was a Jew, as may be inferred from his name, 
 and from the fact that the Savior speaks of him expressly as a 
 son of Abraham. The term which designates his office — the 
 chief among the publicans — is unusual, but 'describes him, no 
 doubt, as the superintendent of customs or tribute in the district 
 of Jericho, where he lived. The office must have been a lucrative 
 one in such a region, and it is not strange that Zaccheus is men- 
 tioned by the evangelist as a rich man. But nevertheless, he 
 wanted to see Jesus, and when anyone has such a desire, they will 
 see Him, even if they have to climb a tree to do so; and further- 
 more, they will do what this man did in order to get salvation. 
 
 First, he was willing to help feed the poor; second, he was 
 willing to restore anything he had taken wrongfully. We read in 
 Luke 19:8: "And Zaccheus stood and said unto the Lord, Behold, 
 Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken 
 anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him four- 
 fold." 
 
 The same man mentioned is this message as going to an old 
 colored man and confessing to cheating or defrauding him out of 
 a dollar, went a step farther and restored the old negro his dollar, 
 and salvation came to this man and his house as it did to Zac- 
 cheus and his house. 
 
 I shall never forget how this young man came back to ser- 
 vice after he had made this restitution, with such. a shout, and a 
 shine on his face, and how it brought conviction on the people, 
 and an old-fashioned revival followed as the result of such re- 
 pentance, viz., conviction for sin and confession of sin or sins, 
 forsaking of sins, and restitution of everything that God requires 
 of a person. 
 
TESTS AND TRIUMPHS 
 
 95 
 
 A TESTIMONY. 
 
 I praise God that I did repent just as I have tried to explain 
 above. Oh, how my poor heart did ache under Holy Ghost con- 
 viction, and then such a struggle as the Spirit bade me confess 
 out. When willing to do this, then the task seemed harder when 
 I was bid to forsake and turn away from my sins; but a climax 
 was reached when God said, " You must restore some things." 
 
 I will here relate two or three incidents in this connection, 
 one under the head of confession. A man and I had had some 
 trouble which resulted in a fight, in which the man took advan- 
 tage of me, being in his brother-in-law's house, and I pledged 
 myself to get even with him if it cost my life, but oh, when this 
 load of conviction got hold of me sure enough, I said, " Yes, Lord, 
 I will go to this man and confess to him all," and I did, glory to 
 God, ana the results were so fruitful till after that I sat in his 
 barber chair and let the man shave me; so you see, reader, the 
 enmity was gone from us both, hallelujah! 
 
 Also I confessed to my father and mother. Oh, how sweet it 
 is when you really obey the Spirit. And last, but not least, I had 
 to make some restitutions. I used to drink strong drink, and 
 about seven months before I was converted I bought half a gallon 
 of whiskey and got on a terrible drunk, and it came so near kill- 
 ing me I decided I wouldn't pay the saloon-keeper for it, for I 
 had purchased it on a credit. But God showed me that I must 
 not only confess this wrong, but must pay the man for it, which 
 was seventy-five cents. I tell you, it took all the strength mor- 
 ally I had, but I met it like a man. This man lived in our county 
 seat. I had no idea then that I would ever be a preacher, but 
 five years after my conversion I was led by the Spirit to go to my 
 old home town to conduct a meeting, and one of the first men I 
 met after I got in town was this saloon-keeper, but thank God, I 
 could look him in the face and remember that I had put in prac- 
 tice first what I was to preach in his town, and God gave me a 
 wonderful revival there. 
 
 Glory, glory, glory for oldtime repentance! 
 
9o 
 
 TESTS AND TRIUMPHS. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 In June, 1922, our daughter Bliss was married to Allie Cooper, 
 and they received presents from seven States and Canada. 
 
 On April 8th I received a telegram that our Myrtle was ill. 
 Husband was in Bennettsville, S. C, in a meeting. I went to her 
 alone. She was unconscious, and never spoke to me; had sixteen 
 convulsions in twelve hours, and passed away, leaving a boy 21 
 months old and a day-old baby. Bro. A. E. Robinson conducted 
 her funeral in the M. E. church at Eureka, and she was laid to 
 rest in the cemetery there. This was the third time Irene had to 
 come home to a funeral in the four years she spent in college — 
 my mother, her Uncle Joe Goff, and now her sister. 
 
 While in Buffalo, N. Y., we met a nurse named Eleanor Barn- 
 hart. Bro. Erdman told me she gave much to God's cause, and I 
 found this to be true. On leaving there, she gave us $300. We 
 had been praying for money to buy a tent. She kept sending me 
 money till July, 1922, when our baby was born, and we named 
 it for her. She afterward sent baby and me almost a hundred 
 dollars, clothes for the baby, and other things. 
 
 In September, when Irene started back to Elon to finish her 
 course, she didn't have a cent. She borrowed $100 from Sister 
 Barnhart. At Christmas she wrote to ask me what kind of clothes 
 Irene needed. I wrote her she was willing to wear old clothes; if 
 she could help her, to lend her some more money, for she would 
 have to stop unless she could borrow more. Miss Barnhart sent 
 her the note Irene had given her, for Christmas, mailed $200 more 
 and later S3 00 more, so she was able to receive her diploma in 
 May, 1923. All this was in answer to prayer. 
 
 Jan. 6. 1924, our dear old friend, R. H. Allen, died. Husband 
 was with him when he died, and preached his funeral. 
 
 I have been tested about money to get out this book, but God 
 used Bros. W. S. Foxworth, H. W. Jernigan and S. D. Page to 
 help us get it out. by lending us money, for which we thank God. 
 
 Well, Camp Meeting begins today, August 7, 1921. God has 
 called several of our number home since last Camp. Let's be 
 ready when our call comes. I want to meet you in the Golden 
 City Florence Goff. 
 
The Standard Primery