Bible, if you will do the reading." Weak as I was, I could not refuse, and
we would begin, asking God to direct us, stopping to claim each promise,
and asking God to bless the Word to our good, and to help us to remember
all that would be helpful to us. We continued this practise until I was
healed and able to attend the meetings again. I shall never be able to tell
the profit that I derived from this little Bible school.

God himself was our teacher, and through this responsibility he was
preparing me for greater usefulness.

It was during this period of apparent inactivity that God gave me my first
experience of divine healing. At that time I think I was about twenty-five
years of age. I was ignorant that the Lord is as willing and as able to
heal our bodies as he is to save our souls. I was suffering greatly with a
swelling on the inside of my jaw that entirely closed my mouth. The doctor
said he would not dare to lance the swelling as the tendons and arteries
lay so near that such an operation would be dangerous. He prescribed a
poultice, and said that the swelling would probably break in about three
days.

I went home suffering greatly: I felt that I could not endure any more. I
told my two youngest brothers, who knew how to pray and cast their burdens
on the Lord, to call on God earnestly that he would either relieve me of
the suffering or give me grace to bear it. Soon they came to my room: one
said, "I prayed for the Lord either to relieve you or give you grace to
bear the pain," and the other said, "I prayed the Lord to relieve you." In
ten minutes every bit of suffering was gone. A sweet calm settled over my
body; and to my happy surprise, I found that the swelling had broken. It
was soon gone. I suffered no more pain, and next day was able to go to
meeting.