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CHAPTER SIX One evening when I came home from working on the railroad, the Lord spoke to me to go pray for Earn. I did not know where Earn lived, so I told the Lord I would ask Bob the next morning Bob said that Earn was in the hospital and no one could go in to see him. That night I was impressed again to go pray with Earn. I said, "Lord, he is in the hospital and they won't let me in to see him." I was only a babe in Christ. The urge continued and I prayed, but not in the place where I should have. The next morning I still had the call, "Go pray with Earn." Again, I said, "Lord, they won't let anyone in to see him." I did not know then that a minister could go in when others could not. That urge to go pray with Earn continued for three days and a half. Earn's brother would tell me each day, "They won't let you in." All day Sunday I felt very sad. In the evening I was preparing to go to church when my aunt came and said, "Pearl, Earn is at Bob's and they need help." I hurriedly got ready, told my wife to go to the Friend's Church and tell them that I would not be there that night to preach. I ran eight blocks to Bob's home. When I arrived, Earn was dying. I asked those in the room if he had gotten right with God. They said, "Not as far as we know about." They asked Earn if he knew me. In his dying gasps he said, "Yes." Bob said, "Who is it?" Earn replied, "Pearl." He had not seen me since I was twelve years old. "Earn, have you gotten right with God?" I asked. He said, "Last Wednesday evening I began to pray for the Lord to send someone to help me. I prayed all day Thursday and Friday and Saturday, but He wouldn't answer me." I seemed to be shot through with darts. I said, "Yes, Earn, the Lord did answer your prayer. God told me to come pray with you, but I was told I could not get in to see you. Do you want me to pray for you?" In his dying gasps, he said, "No, give me the promises." I gave him the promises of God as fast as I could, and never prayed harder from my heart. Earn turned his face and, with a weak smile, looked into the great beyond and said, "It is finished." He never drew another breath; he had gone out to meet God. I went into the other room and told his folk that he was gone. I asked Bob if I could use the front room; I wanted to pray. I told the Lord how sorry I was, and that if Earn was lost, I ought to be. I also told Him that if He would forgive me, and if he would ever lay another soul on my heart, I would do whatever He said, no matter what others said. I meant it then and do to this day. We must obey God at any cost. It is He who has called us as His servants. He is our Master; and does not the Word teach us that we ought to obey God rather than man, and that obedience is better than sacrifice? I quit work on the railroad to go to school and had gone to school only fifteen days when I took very sick. I had preached that night to a full mission on Matthew 18:3, "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." I went home with a severe earache. After sitting up all night, heating pads to put to my ear, I went to see the doctor. He examined me and said, "Man, you should be in bed. Your temperature is 103 degrees. You have scarlet fever, a mastoid, and bronchial pneumonia. I went home, but my ear hurt so badly that I sat by the stove and put hot packs to it. That was the eleventh of November. I kept getting worse. Wife called the doctor that evening. My temperature had gone up to 105 degrees and for five days we did not know of it being less, but often above that. On the sixth night, I told my wife to go to bed, and that if I needed her, I would call her. But I got worse and could not call. About 4:00 a.m. she wakened and came to my bed, and said, "Is there anything you want?" I asked for a drink and said, "I am awful sick. You had better call the doctor." The night before there had been two doctors to see me. On consultation, she called the one we had been having. He had been called to the hospital and could not come. She then called the other man. He said, "All that can be done is being done," and he could not come. Wife came back and told me. I said, "Call Mother and Dr. Abbott. He will come if he thinks I will die before he gets here." She left to call. My oldest son was standing near. I wanted to speak to him, but could not. I wrote, "Preach my funeral from Matthew 18:3, Brother Lemon (a Friends' preacher)." Just then old Satan, the accuser, appeared, and said, "Now, where is the God you love? If He loved you, why is He letting you suffer life this? When you served me, you were not sick. You didn't know your strength then." I wanted to hit him, but he stayed too far from my bed. Then he stretched himself along the ceiling, face down, just over me. I said, "I know you are the prince of the air, and it was not the Lord that made Job sick, but you. I love the Lord and I know right now that the blood of Jesus covers every sin and cleanses me from all sin," and he was gone. I tell you, friend, you had better have the blood applied and be sure, for in a time like that you will need an unmistakable testimony and the blood of Jesus. It seemed that my bed began to swing. I felt I was going; all consciousness of this world was gone. I cannot tell you what it was, only this -- I seemed to leave the body and travel in spirit. It was not long until I could see the moon beneath me, then the sun, then a bright whiteness ahead of me. I saw a shining highway and I was on it. I saw the City, the gate of pearl, which swung open a little before I arrived. I got a glimpse of the inside. The pure gold streets gave a yellow glistening in the pure white and the dearness of the heavens. Angels met me. Four of them had a Bible. They came two on one side, two on the other, and read portions of the 33rd of Ezekiel. When they had finished, they went into the city, and I came back to earth. As I landed in our yard, I looked through the glass in the door. I felt as if I were slipping into a sack. I opened my eyes. Mother said, "How are you?" Again I could not speak. In a few moments I opened my eyes again. Mother stroked my forehead and said, "How are you?" I said, "I will soon be all right." The doctor looked at his watch and said, "It is now 11:30. If he is alive at noon, come to the office and get something to deaden that pain in his ear." I said, "I will be here. You just as well to go now." I was warned that if I saw sin and failed to warn the people and they died in their sins, their blood would be required at my hands. And many a preacher will go to the judgment with the blood of people on his hands because he failed to warn them. In these days of compromise and worldliness, the blame lays with the preachers. When I was able to get up, I was deaf in one ear, had severe leakage of the heart, and was a diabetic. The doctor told me I would never be able to hear out of that ear again. I went home from his office after the examination. That night I knelt by the side of my bed, all alone, and told the Lord what the doctor had said about my hearing. I do not know why I did not tell Him about it all, instead of just about the ear. I told Him that I was going to be out preaching for Him and that if I were deaf in one ear, and someone should speak to me from that side and I would not hear them, it might offend some. "Now, Lord, for your cause and Jesus' sake, please give me a new ear drum." I went to bed, went so sound asleep that I didn't turn over all night. When I wakened the next morning I could hear my watch ticking. I have perfect hearing in that ear.

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