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went to Christ, the living Personal
Word of God who instructed me
through the written Word of God,
the Holy Bible" (cf. Gal. 1: 11 - 17).
After the first six months' inten–
sive almost night and day study of
the Bible, my conversion and bap–
tism occurred in the spring of 1927-
but not the cessation of instruction
th e living Christ was imparting
through His written Word. That has
continued a ll through the 50 years
since.
My fami ly and
T
were living then
in Portland, Oregon. As 1927 wore
on, intensive Bible study continued.
T
·
was rapidly beginning to
grow,
as
Peter said Ch ristia ns must , " in
grace, and in
the knowledge
of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ"
( 11
Peter 3: 18). Upon ba ptism,
1
had received the Holy Spi rit of the
living God . My mind had under–
gone a renewing.
1
was
thrilled
at
this new ability to
understand
God's
revealed knowledge. Still,
1
was hav–
ing to leam a step a t a time- a doc–
trine at a time. Tbe bardest part was
having to uNiearn inherited false
teachings.
Mrs. Armstrong Stricken
In early August 1927, my wife sud–
denly was attacked by a series of
physical illnesses. First, she was bit–
ten on the left leg by a dog. Then
immediately she was driven to bed
with tonsillitis. She got up too soon
and was stricken with a violent re–
laps e. Meanwhile she had con–
tracted blood poisoning from a rose ·
thorn on the index finger of her
right band.
Tbe next two or three days her
sister and
1
took tums night and day
soaking her right band in almost
blistering hot Epsom salts water,
covering her wrist and forearm with
hot towels, holding her right arm
constantly high. The backset from
tonsillitis developed into quinsy.
Her throat became swollen shut.
Her jaws became locked . Of course
we had called a doctor. For three
days and three nights she was not
only unable to swallow food or
water, but worse, she was unable to
sleep a single moment. She was
nearing exhaustion. The red line of
blood poisoning, despite our efforts,
The
PLAIN TRUTH August-September 1977
was streaking up her right arm. l t
had reached her shoulder on the
way to her heart. The doctor told
me privately she could not last an–
other 24 hours.
The third sleepless, foodless and
waterless day was a sweltering hot
day in early August. Late that
morning a neighbor lady stopped in
to see my wife.
" Mr. Armstrong," she asked,
"would you object if
1
ask a man
and his wife to come and anoint and
pray for Mrs. Armstrong's healing?"
That sounded a bit fanatical to
me. Too embarrassed to obj ect,
however, 1 said hesitantly, "Well,
1
suppose
no~ ."
In two hours she re–
turned, saying they would come at
about seven tha t evening.
But
1
began to have misgivings.
What if these people were Holy
Rollers or wild, shouting fanatics?
What would our neighbors say?
1
went to the ne ighbor lady and told
her
1
believed we'd better not have
them come after all. Sbe was nice.
She would start immediately and
tell them not to come. I learned then
she would have to walk over a mile
each way to contact them.
It
was
now the heat of the day, the hottest
day ofthe year.
"01},
I'm sorry," I said.
"1
didn't
realize you had to walk so far. But
J
was afraid these people might yell
and wail and shout , and cause a
neighborhood disturbance."
"Oh, they are very quiet people,"
she assured me. I backed down.
"Well, Jet them come, then,"
1
con–
cluded .
The Meaning of Falth
They proved to be simple and plain
people, not highly educated, yet of
good natural intelligence.
"This is all ra ther new to me," I
began, as soon as they were seated
a t my wife's bedside. "Would you
mind ifl ask a few questions?"
He welcomed the questions. He
had a Bible in his hands. One by
one he answered every question by
reading his answer from the Bible.
1
recognized every passage he read,
but had not put them togethe r this
.way before. Now
1
saw them for the
first time as teachings, admonitions,
explanations, and, most important,
PROMISES!
l
began to understand–
and
believe!
And
1
knew well my
wife did a lso.
I knelt with them beside her bed.
The man anointed my wife from a
vial of
oil
he carried. Then he ut–
tered a quiet, but deeply earnest,
positive, believing prayer such as
1
had never heard before. He actually
dared to talk directly to God, quot–
ing wha t God had said in the Bible,
quoting God's conditions
and prom–
ises,
and applying those promises to
my wife, saying in boldness and
confidence that he was claiming and
holding God to those promises.
Never had we hea rd a prayer like
that! We knew God in His Word
had promised. We believed God.
Mrs. Armstrong and 1 both KNEW
she was healed-as this man had
claimed-from the top of her head
to the bottom of her feet.
As they rose to leave, the woman
la id a hand on Mrs. A.rmstrong's
shoulder and said quiet ly, "You' ll
sleep
tonight."
1
thanked them
gratefully.
As they left , Mrs. Armstrong
asked me to bring her a robe. With–
out a word, she rose, and arm in
arm we walked silently out to the
sidewalk and back.
My wife went immediately to
sleep, and didn ' t waken until J I the
next morning. She arose a nd
dressed as if nothing had happened.
She was
complete/y healed- OF
EVERYTHING! We had learned a new
lesson in FAITH! And that experi–
ence has resulted in countless thou–
sands of others learning that lesson!
We had Jearned that
we can re/y on
God's word!
God's FAITHFl!LNESS is
perfect.
A New Subject to Study
That a we-ins p iring experi e nce
brought befare me for study a to–
tally new subject- HEALING, and its
accompanying subjects of FAITHand
PRAYER.
T here was one real disappoint–
ment in this whole experience wi th
my wife's healing.
1
felt extreme ly
grateful to the man and wife who
had brought this experience to us.
1
had learned a rather shocking truth
in the Bible: The resurrection of
(Continued on page 39)
3