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CHAPTER ELEVEN After moving to town, I was kept busy in the Lord's work. Having finished the year of pastoring for the Friends Church, God opened the door for full-time evangelism, and led me from meeting to meeting. He led me to Dallas City, Illinois. Sister Bassett was pastor. We started the meeting on Thursday night. By Sunday night there had been 51 seekers and a great visitation of the power of God. On Monday night, as I was giving the altar call, I saw a large crowd of men gathering in front of the church. I had a feeling that all was not well. I knelt at the altar and prayed, "Oh, Lord, what does that crowd of men mean?" The Spirit said, "It is a mob coming for you." I said, "Lord, what have I done?" The Spirit assured me that I had preached the Word. I said, "Then, I am ready to die in defense of it." Just then, with my eyes closed, a large shining angel appeared before my vision. He held a drawn sword. He said to me, "Fear them not. Lo, I am with thee even to the end." How he inspired me with boldness! I leaped to my feet. By this time those men had opened the door and had filled the aisles and the front of the church. There were eleven seekers at the altar. I leaped out on the altar and said, "You set of cowards, I dare you to touch me. God will smite you if you do. I dare you." I could see revolvers, clubs, and knives. One man with a piece of furnace grate had it drawn back to hit me on the head, but he could not strike. God put a great fear on that mob. A radiance of light seemed to encircle me. It was my guardian angel, I do believe. The men on the outside began to run. Some fell and others trampled on them. Those inside the church began to crowd to get out; some were so smitten by the power of God that their strength left them. One man grabbed around a tree to keep from falling. His strength gave way; he fell backward and lay on the walk. The people of the church wanted to escort me home. I said, "No, I do not want a one of you to walk with me." They warned me of the danger of going alone. I said, "I am not afraid, and I shall walk alone." My protection was not in man, but in God. That same night Brother Armstrong of Fort Madison, Iowa, said to his wife, "I feel a great burden for Brother Poe. Let us pray." He said that while praying for God to protect me, and with his eyes closed, he saw three angels walking and heard one say, "You go on your errand for the Lord, and I will go help Pearl." Oh, beloved friends, did not He say that His angels were ministering spirits? Did not an angel help Hezekiah slay an army? Does not the Word teach us that the angels of the Lord encamp round about those that fear Him? I faced that mob each night for four weeks. One night I went home with some folk from an adjoining town. The mob found it out. The following night as we were going to meeting, they were out along the road -- a hundred or more of them. The young woman who was driving the car was frightened, and said, "Oh, what shall we do?" I told her to drive slowly and keep going. The young woman's mother was a crippled woman; she remained very calm. I was sitting in the back seat of the old model T Ford. I unsnapped the side curtains and as we passed the mob, I stuck my head out in plain sight and said, "Come on to the church. I will be preaching in a little while." No one attempted to take hold of the car. On Saturday night, a week before the meeting closed, I had a heavy burden. I prayed a long while at the church, went home, and prayed with the family where I was staying. I was asking the Lord to give us twenty souls on Sunday. I went to my room, prayed a long time, went to bed, and was praying again when the Lord spoke, "If you want to talk to Me, get out of bed and get on your knees." I obeyed, and the Lord said, "Ask largely." I said, "Lord, give me twenty souls." He said, "That is easy; ask largely." I said, "Give me all over that that you see fit." I am ashamed that I did not ask for hundreds instead of twenty that morning. I was asked to preach in Sunday school. More than twenty came to the altar. We prayed and several claimed victory, but there were three or four left at the altar. I said, "You at the altar, stay until you get victory." I began the next sermon, and before I was through, people began coming to the altar. Some walked over the benches to get there. Again, over a score came. We prayed until time to start the next service at 2:00 p.m. The altar was again filled in that service. God had spoken to me, "This day thou shalt not eat nor drink before Me while people are still praying at the altar." We had testimony meeting, and by the time all had prayed through around the altar, it was time to begin the night service. We closed with a full altar of seekers. It was a great day to all who were there. Just before going to Dallas City, I was in a meeting in Denmark, Iowa. One day a lady came to the place where I was staying to get me to go pray for a sick child. I asked the parents if they would put away all sin and forsake all worldliness and repent and serve the Lord. They said they would. I prayed for them and for the child, and she was instantly raised up. After a few days the aunt of the child came for me, saying, "Hurry, Brother Poe; we believe the child is dying." And it did look like it. I said, "What have you done? Have you gone back on the Lord? If so, I cannot pray for the Lord to heal your girl." They began to cry and say, "Do pray for our girl." I said, "If you are not going to raise this girl for God, if you are going to bring her up to serve the devil, it will be better that she die now. What have you done?" The father said, "I went back to my tobacco, and the women to their clubs and lodges." I said, "Then I will not pray for her healing, if you are going to live like that." The man hurried to the door and threw his tobacco away. The women gave up their lodges and clubs and all worldliness, and such seeking one seldom sees. God met with us and the child was instantly healed. The aunt of the girl went home and told her husband what had happened. She said, "I am through with sin. The money you used to give me for lodges and clubs, I will give to the church." The husband had boasted in the fact that he was an unbeliever. He and his wife were pals and loved each other. She had always gone hunting and fishing with him on Sundays, but she told him she could not do that any more. He said, "We have been pals. I will tell you what I will do. If you will go with me one Sunday, you may go to church the next. She said, "Husband, I told the Lord that if He would heal my niece, I would serve Him. He has healed her and I am afraid that if we do not serve Him, we may lose our own daughter." The first Sunday that I was in Dallas City, in came the folk from Denmark -- the so-called unbeliever, his wife, and daughter, and the father, mother, and little girl that had been healed. The father, mother, and aunt were at the altar to be sanctified, and the uncle and his daughter to be saved. It pays to take our stand for God. That woman never could have reached her husband if she had compromised. We saw many cases of healing during the Dallas meeting. To God be all the glory. The last Sunday night of the meeting, while we were at the altar praying with seekers, a man came in, tapped me on the back, and shoved his right hand in front of me. On his hand, in red, were the initials of the Mason lodge, the K. K. K., Odd Fellows lodge and the Moose lodge. He said, "If you are not out of town by tomorrow night, we will kill you." I rose to my feet and announced with a loud voice that there would be meeting on Monday and Tuesday nights, and for as long as the devil's crowd should fight. Then the Holy Ghost inspired me to foretell some happenings to that mob. I said to them, "Before six months have passed by, over a score of you fellows will be in hell, and unless you repent, all of you will go without remedy." The meeting closed Tuesday night. In a few nights one of that crowd died a horrible death, while men held him in bed. A few days later a train hit seven of them in a car and ground them to pieces under the train. A few days later a man was burning brush. In throwing a limb on the big fire, he caught his jacket and was pulled into the fire. One scream and he was gone. On and on until within five months twenty-three of that mob had met death instantly. The rest of the mob crowd learned that I was in a camp meeting in University Park, Iowa. Three men and a car were sent to plead with me to come back to hold another meeting. They said, "Don't let him say 'No.' We want this curse lifted. We want to ask him to forgive us." I went with the men and had meeting that night. The house was packed and many asked forgiveness. I told them that it was to God they should repent, and that I forgave all of them. I was asked to go home with one of the leaders of the mob and I accepted the invitation. The church people were afraid and thought it unwise, but I had protection -- my angel -- and I was not afraid. We had prayer and retired. The next morning, after reading some Scripture and praying with the family, the man said to me, "Brother Poe, you may have my wife and daughter to sing for you in your meeting any time and any place and I will pay their way." I said, "I cannot use your wife and daughter, but I can use you and your wife and daughter." He said, "What a fool I have been. Brother Poe, can you forgive me? I helped to stir up that mob against you because my wife claimed victory in the first of that meeting, and she and the pianist sang specials. I told that mob that you would be having her go with you to sing and it would break up our home." I never had thought of such a thing, but the old devil is a troublemaker. He will tell lies and a lot of people will believe him. Why be an agent for the devil to pack his lies around and peddle them to other people? All you receive for your labor for him is hell. Anyone who carries gossip, takes up a reproach or a scandal and peddles it to others, is working for Satan. May God help us to see it. I refuse to be a peddler for Satan. Many a good person's influence is wrecked by lying tongues and Satan's peddlers. Check up and see if what you are peddling pleases the Lord, if it edifies, and if it glorifies Him. If a lot of folk would unload their minds of the devil's trash and abominable works -- yes, I mean professors of religion they could be a blessing for God. Why not live in Philippians 4:8, "Finally brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest what soever things are just whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things." If this had been practiced instead of backbiting, evil surmising, faultfinding, and talebearing, thousands would be Christians today who are now lost. REPUTATION -- Philippians 2:7 One time as I was meditating on this verse, the Lord spoke to me and gave me a vision. He said to me, "You are very much concerned about your reputation, but Jesus made himself of no reputation. Are you willing to lay down your reputation and follow Me?" I spoke aloud, "I am, Lord," and laid it down, in my will, as much as if I had held a book and laid it down with both hands. I walked with Jesus. It was not long until He led me up on a mountain. There he showed me several people who were rolling a large stone. It was getting larger as they rolled it. As mud and other things -- old dead carcasses and filth -- stuck to it, they rolled it upon my reputation. Many gathered all the mud they could to smear on that rock and on my reputation. As they did so, I saw that all their hands were unclean. Jesus said to me, "Only those who have clean hands and a pure heart can enter heaven." I noticed that all those who rolled the stone and smeared with mud, became dwarfs -- very small -- and when they would lift up their hands to Jesus, they would turn the backs of their dirty hands to Him. Then Jesus spoke again and said, "See that beautiful white garment you have on." I said, "Yes, I do." He said, "That is your character since I have forgiven and cleansed you. See, it has no spots on it. They cannot smear that," and oh, how He blessed my soul with such a sense of His holiness! Then He showed me those little folk trying to wash their dirty hands, but, try as they would, their hands were still dirty. One of them went and took of the mud that he had smeared on my reputation and washed in Jesus' blood, and his hands became clean and he became a full-sized person. And the Lord began to use him. Again the Lord spoke to me, "See those many mounds? Those are other people's reputations that have been smeared, and many of the ones they smeared they also killed because the smeared ones became discouraged and gave up. See that large mound in the distance. That is Joseph's reputation in Potipher's house, where he laid it down. But he took courage in the Lord and became great. See that one yonder? A very large one? That is Mine." Jesus said, "where I laid it down and it has been smeared for over 1950 years. Follow Me and I will lead you home." He showed me those smearers and gossipers trying to have a revival, but sinners were not attracted. It was wondered why those people were so small and their hands so dirty, and why only now and then a poor sinner would go by them to Christ. The stone rollers and mud-smearers were always behind some mound they had made over someone's reputation. Those mounds were between them and Christ, and the only way they could possibly get clean and get to heaven would be to move the mounds they had built. May God help me; I humbly ask forgiveness of any that I have spoken against. The Word tells us that we must not take up a reproach against our neighbor. Life is short eternity is just ahead. Prepare to meet thy God. Following the second meeting in Dallas City, I was asked to preach for the Nazarene people at Lomax. On each of the three nights that I was there, the altar was filled. One night there was a woman at one end of the altar and a young man at the other. I heard the woman say, "Lord, I can't give him up." I said, "You had better to say 'Yes.' " I went to the other end of the altar and heard the young man say, "Lord, I can't." I admonished him to say "yes," but he insisted. "I can't." I remarked, "Decisions are being made tonight for eternity. Pay the price at any cost or God will be displeased and someone will go into eternity without having a chance to pray. The woman arose from the altar and went to the young man, and I heard her say, "Sonny I can't say 'Yes' for you to go." I said, "You will be sorry Son. You had better say 'Yes.' " He said, "I can't." I learned later that that young man was called to the mission field and was struggling over it. That winter he died very suddenly without any chance to pray. Folk, what God makes clear to us we had better say "Yes" to. "He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy."

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