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ON AUGUST 29, 1899, Miss Wing began work as the General Secretary of the Lend-a-Hand Club of Daven­port. This club had been organized by public-spirited citi­zens as a recreation and social center for the benefit of the working women of the city. Its motto, composed by Edward Everett Hale, well expresses its objectives: To look up and not down; To look forward and not back; To look out and not in And lend a hand. After entering upon her new duties in this club, Miss Wing suffered with “high fever, chills, and night sweats for several days” but “was instantly healed one night in answer to prayer.” Thus again the devil contested another forward move by Miss Wing — regular, daily employment in a place where she could be of special blessing. And again the Lord miraculously gave deliverance. “A busy and responsible position,” the work connected with it was very heavy at times, “calling for considerable evening work in addition to that of the day’s duties.” To better herself Miss Wing undertook the study of shorthand and regularly attended a class for that purpose throughout the winter and spring of 1899-1900, with the result that she became unusually proficient in this skill. All the while she was thus employed and studying she gave “all the time possible to God’s work” as the conductor of the meetings and leader of the Gathering in Davenport. Most truly could she say of this time that she “had hardly a moment’s leisure.” The dawn of the Twentieth Century found Miss Wing on a brief visit in Chicago. Leaving Davenport December 29, she had arrived in plenty of time to enjoy to the full the special program provided by Dr. Dowie there for this occa­sion. From six-thirty on Sunday morning, December 31st, until seven o’clock on Monday morning, New Year’s Day, 1900, for “twenty-four and a half hours, there were continu­ous, enthusiastic services,” conducted with but the briefest of intermissions. The main service, of course, was the “all night with God,” attended by over three thousand which ushered in the new century. Then it was, not long after “the bells of the city rang in the new year,” that Dr. Dowie unveiled a map showing the site of Zion City. “A city of God and--for God,” built on God’s plan, it was to be a place where people could live in an absolutely Christian environment completely free from all the evil influences of the world. Ideally located about forty miles north of Chicago, between the cities of Waukegan, Illinois, and Kenosha, Wisconsin, the site con­sisted of 6,500 acres of beautiful farm land directly on Lake Michigan! “For a moment the thousands were silent as they gazed. Then a thunder of applause burst forth, which re-echoed again and again” as “the great advantages of the situation were” pointed out. After an intermission at two in the morning, the congrega­tion reassembled for a lengthy season of prayer. “What a wonderful scene was that!” In serried ranks, tier upon tier, up to the highest place in the gallery, the thousands knelt, and in those solemn hours of the early dawn of the New Year, joined their hearts in common petition to God.” Shortly before the meeting closed H. Worthington Judd, the man who had actually selected the site and engineered its purchase, sang in his rich tenor voice, “Go Forward, O Zion,” followed by “the grand old doxology… from the still fresh and vigorous voices of the undiminished audience.” Thus was inaugurated the city where Martha Wing would live for almost thirty years! On January 3, 1900, Martha Wing returned to Davenport. Throughout the months ahead the Lord blessed her efforts which were not confined to Davenport but extended to its sister cities, Moline and Rock Island, Illinois, directly across the Mississippi River. In August a number, including Martha Wing’s sister, Nettie, were baptized. Miss Wing’s zealous witnessing to the truth of God could not but attract the attention of the officers and members of the Lend-a-Hand Club. A few of these objected to her active association with a church which proclaimed truths such as divine healing and began to be anxious lest she spread these doctrines among the girls who took advantage of the noon-rest attractions furnished by the club. Conse­quently she resigned her position as General Secretary, effective August 31, 1900. Looking back over the period from the time of her heal­ing a year and a half before till November, 1900, Miss Wing wrote a friend, “I have kept in excellent health through­out. . . . A few times during the last year Satan has attempted to bring upon me his old power. I thank God that the healings have been clear and distinct, and usually instantaneous.ⁿ Note: In addition to the instances already cited, there is the following deliverance which Miss Wing related on another occasion: “Before I knew anything about Divine Healing, I had a very severe felon. We have had several of them in our family and we know they are very serious; so I got at it in good time and put a lemon on it and had only one week’s pain. After I learned of Divine Healing, I had another, and the Devil said, ‘Suppose you should not get healed? How much better it would be to put a lemon on that and avoid the possibility of being laid up with your hand.’ “I looked at my felon; it was aching up into my shoulder by that time. I turned right around and said to the Devil, ‘If I lose my thumb, I won’t put a lemon on it. So, there!’ And immediately the pain went out of my thumb. I went to bed and forgot all about it. In the morning that felon had come to a head. I came home that night with a perfectly healed thumb. It had broken, the core had come out, and there was not even a scar left.” “This year has been the happiest of my life. It has had its mistakes, and I am sorry to say, its sins, which looking back upon them seem inexcusable . . . but thank God, [I have learned] not to leave unrepented of what I would once have called little sins, to become a barrier between myself and God. “There are many things to learn all the way. Needed lessons come daily, but I am no longer unwilling to learn. Divine Healing has proved such a ‘Beautiful Gate’ to the fuller knowledge of God and His love. It is the entrance into heights and depths of His love such as some of us never dreamed of.” When the time came for Miss Wing to seek another secular position, she prayed that she would be definitely led to just the right place. Naturally she thought she would have to search through the advertisements in the local paper for a likely job. However, as soon as she picked up the paper, the Lord immediately directed her attention to one of the ads and showed her that that was the place where she was to apply for work — the Tri-City Electric Company. An aggressive, prosperous firm with offices in both Daven­port and Mohine, this company was the only electrical con­tractor serving these cities and Rock Island. Upon applica­tion she was accepted at once as secretary to the manager of the Davenport store, Mr. S. C. Wheelock. The wages, although low, were not unusual according to the standards of the day — four dollars a week! Certain that the Lord had led her to this place, she accepted this meager salary even if it created a real problem for her. To pay the Lord the tithe of her income had become her practice, but it was impossible to pay both her tithes and board out of such a sum. Under no circumstances, however, would she rob God, no matter what personal privation she might suffer because of it. And according to His challenge He forthwith proved Himself to His faithful, obedient child. Impressed by the intelligence, industry, and efficiency of his new secre­tary, Mr. Wheelock raised her salary at the end of her first week of employment, her first payday, so that she was easily able to pay her tithes and to meet her obligations. As Miss Wing worked at Tri-City Electric day after day, week after week, Mr. Wheelock was impressed not only by the efficiency with which she did her work but by the obvious fact that God was in her life. God’s Spirit now began to draw him unto Christ, and in time he joined the gathering of which his secretary was the leader. His sister, who kept house for him and his motherless children, was also converted, became an ardent Christian and one of Miss Wing’s personal friends. For the infant congregation to have among its members a rather prominent businessman of the city, and for Miss Wing to have an employer who was in full sympathy with the work of the Lord was indeed a signal act of God. The result was that Mr. Wheelock allowed her to leave her work at the office to pray for any sick calls demanding immediate attention. One day a most urgent call came for her to pray for one of the most faithful members of their band who had become dangerously ill. At the time it came, she was already away on some other errand for the Lord, but upon her return to the office she found the memorandum and forthwith left to minister to this woman who lived across the Mississippi River. When at length she arrived at the house, she was met at the door by the woman’s skeptical son. Curtly he told Miss Wing that there was no need for her, as his mother was dead, and forthwith began to close the door in her face. Then she asked if she might at least be permitted to look at the form of her friend. Reluctantly he admitted her. Neighbors who believed the woman to be dead had already prepared the body, home fashion, for the burial. As Miss Wing looked on her friend, she placed her hand on her head and, to the amazement of all, at that moment she opened her eyes, smiled, and arose. Miss Wing’s success as a Christian worker could not go long unnoticed but soon attracted the attention of Dr. Dowie, so that he suggested she be ordained. Accordingly she was set apart for the ministry of the gospel in Chicago on May 24, 1901, together with a large number of other candidates. Among these was another young woman whom Miss Wing knew then perhaps only by name, but who, some years later, was to become one of her closest friends and co­workers — Lydia Leggett, who afterwards married George A. Mitchell. Upon her return to Davenport Miss Wing entered upon a period of zealous activity for the Lord. Early in the summer she organized her flock for more systematic house-to-house visitation work in Davenport, Rock Island, and Mohine. This work she and the group faithfully continued throughout the summer months even though they “found the majority of the people indifferent and unresponsive.” In addition to this canvassing Miss Wing conducted street meetings which, however, “brought little or no results.” Nothing daunted or discouraged, Miss Wing sought for effective ways of winning souls. The most fruitful method she found was personal witnessing to individuals supple­mented by a copy of the Leaves of Healing with its stirring, faith-inspiring sermons and its testimonies to God’s power to save and to heal. The testimony of those healed as a result of Miss Wing’s ministry was also very effective. In June she was called to pray for a German woman who had suffered a stroke of paralysis. The next day she “so far recovered as to be able to sit upon the porch. Her mind and reason, which had been gone, were fully restored. The next Sunday she walked fourteen blocks and home again.” The same woman was also healed of rheumatism and heart disease in answer to the prayer of faith. Another case of healing was of a man who had suffered from catarrh since childhood and had spent hundreds of dollars seeking healing. Miss Wing invited him to attend the meetings. “I was too sick to come,” he later testified, “but God enabled me to come in answer to prayer. I was very sick after I got there. We knelt in prayer and I arose still sick. Yet, praise God, the disease all vanished before I left the meeting. I threw away all my medicine and have laid aside my spectacles. I lean upon the precious promises of God. He has made me well.” Another outstanding miracle was the salvation and heal­ing of a woman eighty-one years of age who for forty years had been an infidel. Having lost her faith in God she had thrown her Bible into the fire. Then in her old age, some­body sent her the Leaves of Healing which she found so fascinating that she could not stop reading it, with the result that her faith in God came back and the Bible became a new book. Later she was healed of some trouble on her foot for which she had been operated repeatedly. Evidently it was a growth which would return after being removed. The sister of Miss Wing’s employer testified that the Lord so touched her eyes that she had been “enabled to lay aside glasses entirely.” Thus the Lord, by His own appointed means, confirmed His Word with signs following and added to the number of the gathering.

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