Books: Personal Experiences of S. O. Susag

S >> S. O. Susag >> Personal Experiences of S. O. Susag

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13

The eBooks was produced by Joel Erickson ,
Charles Franks , and
Juliet Sutherland

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES

of

S. O. SUSAG

By S. O. SUSAG

Minneapolis, Minnesota [Illustration: (S. O. Susag, his wife and children,
taken about 1898)]

FOREWORD

This book of a few of my experiences is written to show how the pioneer
ministers worked, and how the Lord worked with them through his Holy
Spirit. One outstanding fact in those days, when even though their training
was limited, was their burning passion for souls shown in labors, fasting
and prayer, and a heaven-born conviction and zeal for the truth. The Holy
Spirit had revealed to them an unshaken faith in the Word of God; a faith
that would not waver in the most trying and, to man, surprisingly
unreasonable cases. My prayers are that this book will bring faith and
encouragement to many a soul who is seeking God for help when all other
help has failed.

I should not have waited so long before doing this writing, for because of
that waiting the incidents are not written in the order which they should
have been, and so many have been forgotten. Since many have indicated an
interest in my experiences, may this book as it goes forth in Jesus' name
bring honor and glory to God.

--The Author Year 1948

PUBLISHER'S PREFACE

Ever since this book was first published for the author, S. O. Susag, by
the Standard Printing Company, Guthrie, Oklahoma, in the year of 1948, it
has been in steady demand. These many testimonies of outstanding answers to
prayer have been an inspiration of faith to many people, and they will
continue to be an encouragement to every earnest and honest seeker for an
increase of faith in God's precious promises. "Jesus Christ the same
yesterday, and to day, and for ever." Hebrews 13:8.

In contemplation of printing this fourth edition, the undersigned publisher
contacted S. O. Susag's daughter, Mrs. Art Rustand (Goldie Susag), and
requested further information about her late father. In February, 1976, she
relayed the following notes of interest to the reader:

"My father was born in Steinkjer, Norway, on March 28, 1862. He came from
Norway to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and was in the store business for a
while. In 1892, they moved to Paynesville, Minnesota, where they engaged in
farming. After they moved to the farm he was converted, and in the year of
1895 he received his call from God to the ministry of the Word. He traveled
as a missionary to the Scandinavian countries for many years. He also
served as pastor in Grand Forks, N. D., and as an evangelist for years. In
fact, at the time of his death, which was in Culbertson, Montana, when he
was 90 years of age, he was traveling around holding services. His death
was attributed to his age. He was up and around until three days prior to
his passing. At the time of his death he made his home with his second wife
in Medicine Lake, Montana. He died on July 8, 1952, and was buried beside
his first wife (my mother) at the Church of God Cemetery near Wendell,
Minnesota."

--Lawrence D. Pruitt Guthrie, Oklahoma, March 8, 1976

"And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them
in paths that they have not known; I will make darkness light before them,
and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them and not
forsake them." (Isa. 42:16). This Scripture seems to fit into my life's
experiences.

I was born in Norway. My parents were Lutherans. When I was two years of
age an incident occurred which I have never forgotten. It was this: My
Grandmother on my mother's side--a very godly woman--used to visit us at
least once a month.

On the occasion to which I refer, as she was about to leave us, Grandmother
said to my mother, "Ellen, I would like to speak to you 'under four eyes'
(that is to say, privately). Does the child understand anything that is
said?" Her reply was, "No, he doesn't understand." Then Grandmother
proceeded to say, "I have been wondering what would be the best way to pass
out of this world without being a trouble to anyone, and the Lord has shown
me that someday I shall lie down as usual to go to sleep and wake up in
glory and this may be the last time that I shall see you; so now, my
daughter, I feel constrained to urge you to seek the Lord." Again she said,
"I am sure the Lord has shown me that I shall go that way." Four years
later she went to glory just that way.

My parents had not given their hearts to God, yet they taught us to live
right. The only religious services we ever attended were those held once a
month in a country chapel. Other Sundays we would sing together in our home
and father would read a sermon to us out of a book.

We would then repeat the Lord's prayer and sing another song.

One afternoon, when I was two and a half years old, a number of we children
were invited to a neighbor's for lunch and play. As we passed the pantry
window on our way in, we saw a number of dishes filled with nice red
berries. One youngster suggested that we help ourselves to the berries, and
this we did. After a few mouthfuls I began to scream and ran home. Mother,
hearing my screams, rushed out to meet me and, picking me up in her arms,
asked me where I was hurt. I couldn't tell her but kept screaming. Finally
mother began to chide and shaking me, said, "Tell me where you are hurt."
Still I could not speak, then mother fell upon her knees and cried, "Lord,
my child is dying in my arms and I cannot find what is the matter with
him." I was then able to speak and tell her the cause of my trouble.
Putting my hand over my heart I said that I was having pain there and not
in my stomach. Mother questioned me as to whether the lady had given us the
berries, and I told her, "No," that we had helped ourselves to them. She
said, "I will tell you how to get rid of your pain: Go and tell the lady
what you have done and giving her your hand ask her to forgive you, and I
am sure the pain will leave you." Mother went with me and when I confessed
to the lady she took me up in her arms and wept with me. After confessing
the pain all disappeared.

* * * * *

When I was about eleven years of age it seemed that a voice was continually
speaking to me and saying, "You ought to be a better boy; I want you for a
preacher." I did not understand at the time that it was the Holy Ghost
speaking to me. Mother often wept over me and said, "Child, O child, what
shall I do with you! You make me more trouble than all the other eight
children put together."

At the age of fifteen I was confirmed and at the following preaching
service I was supposed to participate in taking the Lord's supper (as was
the custom of the church). Before that service I went out into the woods to
pray. I asked the Lord to forgive me for partaking of the Lord's supper,
for to refrain from taking it would bring disgrace upon my family.

From that time on, the Lord continued to talk to me, saying, "You ought to
be a better young man." It seemed as though I could not be better at home
in Norway so I determined to sail for America.

I had been in America about a year and a half when I met a distant relative
who was thought to be lost in this country, because his family had not
heard from him for two or three years. He invited me to go into a saloon
with him and have a glass of beer. We went in, and also played several
games of pool.

In the meantime I took off my coat and hung it on the back of a chair. In
the inside pocket of my coat I had my billfold containing about one hundred
dollars, all the money I had, and also my valuable papers. When I went to
reach for my money my billfold was gone. The saloon keeper seemed to know
what had taken place and handed me five dollars. I had no work as there was
none to be found. It was the custom in those days for the saloons to give a
free lunch with a glass of beer. I went at noon every day and bought a
glass of beer so I could have the free lunch that went with it. I lived
that way for about two months.

During the late winter I got a job at night work, which consisted of
pushing loads of stone in a wheelbarrow for the building of the Stone Arch
Bridge over the St. Anthony Falls on the Mississippi River for the Great
Northern Railway Company. The planks upon which we had to walk became very
slippery and on one trip the man ahead of me slipped back in the wheel of
my wheelbarrow upon which I had a large stone. The force of his fall threw
both stone and wheelbarrow into the river. The man behind me, seeing what
was happening, flung himself face down over his wheelbarrow, and in the
dark, grabbed me as I was going over the plank into the river. He caught me
by one of my arms and held me until help came and I was pulled out. I was
hanging from his hands about fifty to seventy-five feet above the river.

After that experience I could not make myself walk those planks anymore, so
I was again out of work and so terribly discouraged. A few nights later I
walked onto the Tenth Avenue bridge intending to jump off into the river to
end it all. As I took hold of the railing someone from behind me called out
and said, "When you jump, your troubles will begin." I looked, to see the
man who had spoken but there was no one on the bridge. The way he spoke had
sent a chill through me. It was after eleven o'clock at night and I seemed
to realize that it was the Lord who had spoken to me.

After sometime in America I found that I was still the the same young man
as before in Norway. It seemed that I was unable to do better. Thinking to
improve matters, I decided to go to school and study for the ministry.
After two semesters in the college certain things happened which turned me
into an infidel. I quit school, went into business and got married. Soon
after I contracted tuberculosis of the lungs, and the doctor said there was
no help for me, as both my lungs were like soup. During the depression of
1892 I lost all I had. In my sinful condition I called on God and He healed
me.

We then moved to the farm and one afternoon a young man came to our home
and asked me to attend a service with him that evening. In answer to my
query as to what kind of service it was to be, he informed me that two
women evangelists were conducting the meeting. I replied that I was not in
favor of women preachers but I would go with him as I was not afraid the
women would hurt me. As a matter of fact, it was through these women that I
was partly awakened spiritually, but did not yet give up my infidelity.

One evening I was very tired and sleepy and went to bed at precisely nine
o'clock. I went to sleep at once and had a dream. I dreamed that I had
become a minister of the gospel and that I was traveling all over the
United States and Canada, as well as in a number of European countries.
Hundreds of souls were turning to the Lord in the meetings and many
healings and miracles were performed. It would take a long life to
accomplish all that I saw done in my dream. I awakened and felt so
refreshed and rested, that I thought it was morning and put on the light
but found I had been in bed JUST TEN MINUTES! I did not sleep anymore that
night but spent the time in meditating on my dream which convinced me that
there must be within the human body a positive something that would
continue to live forever and my infidelity vanished.

A few months later (March 12, 1895), the Lord spoke peace to my wife and me
at the same time in our own home, and called us into the ministry. He
brought us out of darkness through three visions and showed us the evil of
all sectarian division. All this was giving us light on the beautiful
Church of God without our having heard any preaching on the subject, nor
did we know anyone who believed as we did.

We commenced preaching at once and our first convert was a lady who was
saved in our home. (Sister Hendricks, now Myhre, who is a minister). Our
first case of healing was when the Lord healed me of blood poisoning in my
left arm, caused from the scratch of a rusty nail. I caught cold in it and
it swelled so fast that when I got into the house I could not get my
clothes off and they had to be cut off with scissors. My wife and a young
brother prayed for me, but I did not get immediate relief. My entire arm
turned blue and yellow and soon my sides began to turn the same way. I had
read in the Bible that the sick were to be anointed with oil. The young
brother anointed me accordingly, and the swelling began to go down
immediately, insomuch that the next morning there was no symptom of any
thing wrong whatever.

* * * * *

The next experience of healing was of the restoring of my hearing to my
right ear. My wife had gone to services and I stayed home to take care of
the children. I had laid down beside them to get them to sleep and had
dropped off to sleep myself, and dreamed that I saw Jesus standing beside
the bed. He said to me, "Do you know John Pederson?" "Yes," I replied, "he
is my neighbor." And Jesus said, "Isn't he a blacksmith and does he not
make sleighs? And," he continued, "if he were to make one for you and you
were to break it, wouldn't he fix it for you?" "Why, certainly," I replied.
"Well," Jesus continued, "I made your ear in the first place and don't you
think I can fix it?" "Yes," I said. Then He stepped up to me and touched my
ear with two fingers and I jumped out of bed and MY HEARING WAS PERFECT! I
shouted glory to God.

* * * * *

The youngest of our twin boys, who was nearly five years of age, was taken
with double pneumonia and suddenly passed away. My mother-in-law prepared
him for burial. As I was preparing to drive to town to get a permit from
the doctor to bury the little one, the Lord said to me as I was on my way
to the barn to get the team, "Why do you not go back and pray again?" I
immediately turned around and went to the little corpse and laying my hands
on him prayed and wept, and after a little while he came to life. He was
not only alive, but also perfectly well. When I knelt down to pray my
family did not dare to speak to me; they thought I had lost my mind.

About three years later our baby daughter, some ten months old, was sick
and I was planning to leave home on Friday expecting to be gone over
Sunday. The little one grew steadily worse and at eleven o'clock on Sunday
night she passed away. There was great consternation in the family. The
oldest boy fainted when his grandmother laid her out. After everything had
quieted down and all had retired, except my wife who remained up, she went
to the little body, held it in her arms as she knelt beside the bed until
she was tired, then, laying the baby on the bed and laying her hands on it,
prayed until life came back into it. When I returned Monday the child was
as well as ever. In both cases grandmother prepared them for burial.

A little while after this experience the twins were out in the barn feeding
the horses. Somehow in their actions one boy accidently stuck the tine of
the pitchfork right into the eyeball of the other boy. Wife hearing their
screams, ran out and brought them into the house. She washed the blood from
the injured eye and laid the boy on the bed; then she and the twin brother
laid their hands on him and prayed the prayer of faith. He went to sleep
and slept untill morning, and all that remained on the eyeball was a small
white spot in the center which disappeared after a day or two, and his
sight was not in the least impaired.

* * * * *

A similar case happened at Bruce, South Dakota, while I was pastor at
Brookings and White. The little three year old daughter of Brother and
Sister Hi Tellinghuisen was playing in the yard with an old rusty sewing
machine oil can. She fell on it, the spout striking right into the center
of one eyeball. She was taken at once to a physician who ordered her to be
taken without delay to a specialist to have the eyeball removed. The
parents then called me over the telephone to come at once. When I arrived
and saw the eye, it looked to me like a dried up prune stone. I anointed
the child, but could find no words to utter in prayer. I could only groan,
but the Lord witnessed to the healing. (I think this took place on Saturday
at 11 o'clock a.m. and the next day, Sunday, she was brought to the
services perfectly well.) (At this writing she is teaching school).

* * * * *

On March the 20th, 1904, wife was taken with quick consumption. Her fever
was so high that she was delirious. As long as I remained beside her
praying, she would be rational but as soon as I ceased praying her mind
would wander. Over a week later, on Saturday, Brothers O. T. Ring and Carl
Forsberg came to visit us. We then had agreement in prayer for the healing
of my wife, and from that time on her mind was clear, yet she continued to
go down. A number prayed for her but she grew weaker and weaker, until in
the month of August. When the neighbors would come in to visit her, they
would say to me on leaving, outside of the house, "We are sorry to say it,
but we do not expect to see your wife alive again."

One day she said to me, "We have done everything we know to do except to
send to Brother E. E. Byrum for an anointed handkerchief." I asked, "Do you
want me to send for one?" to which she assented, and I sent for one. We
received it by mail August the 23rd at 1 o'clock. I placed the handkerchief
upon her and kneeling beside her laid my hands on her and prayed. She was
so weak that it seemd as if she would pass away before I could remove my
hands, so I soon said "Amen." She remarked, "This does not look very
encouraging, does it?" I answered, "No, it does not." Then she drew one of
her hands from under the covers and said, "Do you believe that any flesh is
ever coming to these hands?" "Dear," I answered, "I do not know." Then she
said, "I believe that it will happen." I asked, "Why do you believe it?"
She told me that a scripture had come to her while I was praying. She said
that it was the one about Naaman: "His flesh came again like the flesh of a
little child and he was clean." 2 Kings 5:14.

Two hours later she was perfectly well, but weak, of course.

* * * * *

On one occasion I received an urgent call to come to Norway Lake to pray
for Mrs. John Evenson who was ill with tuberculosis. While on my way there
I battled with devils, it seemed as though my buggy was full of devils,
whispering to me and saying, "You are going to be arrested and put in
jail." However, after driving sixteen miles, the Lord assured me that He
was going to raise Sister Everson up, even if she were dead when I got
there.

As I drove into the driveway I saw a number of men by the barn. It was the
Constable and others. Jumping out of the buggy, I proceeded to unhook my
team when Mr. Everson appeared, and said, "The hired man will take the
team; come along with me." We went into the house and into the room where
the sick woman was. Mr. Everson sat down in a chair beside the bed, taking
his watch out, he then took his wife's hand in his to count the pulse. She
was unconscious. I spoke to her two or three times but she did not hear me.
I knelt down and asked the Lord to restore her to consciousness. Then I
arose and spoke to her again. After a bit she opened her eyes and I said,
"Brother Susag is here. What do you want him to do for you?" She replied,
"I want you to anoint me and pray for me." I immediately proceeded to do as
she requested, following which she sat up in bed and asked for something to
eat.

The constable, with others, was waiting outside the house to arrest me if
the woman had died. Mr. Everson went out to them and they asked him how
things were going. He told them that before I prayed for her, her pulse was
124, and when I took my hands off, her pulse was 82--which is normal!

Thirteen years later she was taken sick again. Mr. Everson, not being
saved, called for the doctor they had previously employed. The doctor
refused to come, saying that Mrs. Everson "had lived for thirteen years on
something more than human. I can do nothing for her. If she has faith, she
can live another thirteen years." Then they telephoned me. I drove two
miles in my automobile and was taken seriously ill and had to return home
and go to bed. I was very sick for two days. Mrs. Everson died in the
meantime, and I was well.

On one occasion Brother C.H. Tubbs and myself held a meeting at Bowbells,
N. Dakota and a number of people were saved. We were to have a baptismal
service. It was the month of February and we would have to go three miles
to the nearest lake in which to baptize the candidates. There was no place
there for the changing of clothes and it was slow traveling as we rode in a
lumber wagon. Sister Stolsy, who wanted to be baptized, had been in poor
health for five years and had a baby five weeks old. The Constable, on
hearing of it, came to us and said, "If you put that woman through that
hole in the ice, I'll be there with a warrant for your arrest." So Bro.
Tubbs said, "We better go see Sister Stolsy," which we did. He said,
"Sister, it does not look reasonable for you in your condition to be
baptized." She wept and said, "I have wanted to be baptized for some time
and now that I have the opportunity I am denied the privilege." Then I said
to her, "Sister Stolsy, save your tears for something else. I will baptize
you if I have to spend the remainder of my life behind the bars," and she
was baptized. The constable witnessed the baptizing and saw that when she
came out of the water she looked the very picture of health. Three days
later the constable and his wife were baptized in the self-same place.

* * * * *

I have baptized hundreds of people from Canada to San Antonio, Texas; from
the Atlantic coast to the Pacific, in every month of the year, in the lakes
of Norway, Sweden and Denmark as well as in the North Sea, in all kinds of
weather--once in the Red River at Grand Forks, N. Dakota, in a snow storm
in zero weather, and I have never yet heard of one person having taken cold
from being baptized, but on the other hand, MANY HAVE BEEN HEALED!

It pays to obey the commandments of the Lord. While I was pastor in Grand
Forks, N. D., from December, 1919 to November, 1925, I baptized over two
hundred persons.

* * * * *

Once in company with Thomas Nelson, C.H. Tubbs and my wife, we held a tent
meeting in the country northwest of Colfax, Wisconsin. Several people were
saved and some were healed. This stirred up great opposition so that on a
couple of nights an angry mob was on the spot throwing stones, sticks and
lumber and bottles on the tent, demanding that we come out and they would
cut me to pieces. One night a minister of that community was in the tent,
and as he saw the stones come rolling through the tent, he became badly
frightened and said to me, "This is worse than in a heathen land." "Yes," I
replied, "but are they not your people?" He said, "Yes," and then getting
down on his hands and knees crawled out the back way from under the tent
and escaped to the woods.

The reason for this unseemly tumult was because I had preached that baptism
was by immersion and other truths. The situation was that two grown young
people, the son and daughter of a minister in the community, were among
those who were to be baptized. But the fact that there was no water nearby
in which they could be immersed seemed to give the opposing element great
satisfaction. However, we continued to advertise that there would be
baptismal services on the coming Saturday afternoon. Friday night it rained
heavily and near the tent there was a low place covered with green grass
where the water settled and the water was deep enough in which to baptize
the new converts.

This goes to prove that the Lord's resources are limitless. The next Sunday
night, being the last night of the meeting, after all had left the tent
except Bro. Tubbs and myself, and as I was not making any move towards
leaving the tent Brother Tubbs asked me whether I was not going home. I
answered, "No, those people who threatened to cut me to pieces are coming
back to pull the tent down and I want to be here when they come, but you go
on home; I want to be here alone." But he said, "No, I will not leave you."

It was about a hundred rods or more to the house where we were staying and
there was no other house near by. We put out the lights and sat waiting. A
number of times Bro. Tubbs urged that we go home, declaring that no one
would come, but at almost midnight a plank was thrown on the tent and out
ran Brother Tubbs for home; and then just as I was coming out of the tent a
big plank was thrown on me, striking my right shoulder and also hit my
head. It might have been quite serious but that I was wearing a stiff derby
hat at the time. As it was, I was almost knocked out.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13