* * * * *
I would like to relate another miraculous intervention of God during a mighty famine in China. Though the Shreves were cut off from all human help, they still had Divine assistance.
(I quote from her book) There was a time when the Japanese war was very severe. We were bombed for months and months. In the country there was not only war, but famine, too--a terrible situation. Due to the war, we were cut off from the U.S.A. for a time. No letters could go out or come in. Our financial situation was not such that we had hundreds on hand for such emergencies. We lived month by month. Now what would we do? Starve with the rest? Would there be a way through? God was testing us again. You say, "If God is a father, why does He let us go through hard places?" Here's the reason. He wants to prove us. We can prove Him, but He wants to prove us, too.
Now we were helpless, but do you know what God did? A man, Chiang Kai-shek's advisor, living in this city, was going to take a long trip up north. He came to my husband and said, "I want to leave my bank book with you." Now, we didn't have a dollar, but he was a rich man. He said, "Here's my check book, my bank book, and I'm taking you down to the bank and introducing you to the man there, and you're to use all the money you need as long as I'm gone." Whoever thought he had his eye on us? Whoever thought he would remember us on the day he was to walk out of the city? We had not needed his help before. We never entreated help. But God had a man. He wasn't a Christian--he was a sinner man; but he had respect for the gospel. He brought his bank book and handed it to Harry Shreve, and we had what we needed all those months when we were cut off from man, from all America, and from every friend we had. We were not cut off from Heaven. We could still look up. And God came down and supplied every need. Glory to God!
An Eighteen-month-old Scalded
My next door neighbor had given birth to a baby girl, and on this particular day of which I write, she had been discharged from the hospital, and they had called me to come and pick her up to take her home. It was a wet, nasty day but I drove carefully and soon she and her little bundle of joy were safely back home.
As I returned to my house, as usual, I had much work to do, so I picked up where I had left off before being called to go to the hospital. My little eighteen-month old son was playing around the house, and I would check on him from time to time, but I felt secure in the knowledge that there was nothing around that could harm him in any way. And then I heard an awful scream, and rushing toward the sound, I realized the awesome fact that he had climbed into the bath tub and turned the hot water on his sensitive skin. The hot water thermostat was turned up to a very high temperature, so when the hot water struck his tender skin, it just cooked it. First, it hit his stomach, and he turned to get out of the way, and it scalded his back, also. When I saw the fix he was in, I, momentarily, went into a state of shock, but even in that condition, I had enough clearness of thought to call the doctor. The nurse answered and I asked for the doctor, but when he answered, I was unable to tell him why I was calling. The nurse had recognized my voice as we had used the same doctor for many years, and she had told him who was calling. He could hear the baby screaming, he told me later, but couldn't get me to speak up. He said he was contemplating trying to get in touch with my husband to find out the trouble (which my husband didn't know at the time) when I finally got ahold of myself and talked to him. He wanted me to get him to his office as soon as possible. I called my parents who lived a couple of miles from me, and my dad drove me to the doctor's office though he was completely unnerved himself, when he saw the baby.
It must have been an hour from the time he was burned until we got to the doctor's office, and all this time, the baby was screaming constantly. Both of us were in quite a state by the time we got there, as was the baby. The doctor took the little suffering child while the nurse held smelling salts to my nose to try and revive me. Oh, what an ordeal!
The doctor gave little Randy something to relieve the pain and applied a medication to soothe him and then bandaged his burns. We were to take him home and come back in a day or so. (No doubt, in this day, things would have been done differently.)
What a time we had at home! Every time the baby moved, the bandage would rub a burned place and he would cry in the most pitiful manner. This was on a Friday, and all night Friday night, all day Saturday, and Sunday we went through this ordeal. I would sit by the hour and hold him on my lap, trying to keep him still, while the tears would flow down my cheeks as I suffered along with my baby. I could hardly eat or sleep because of the continual agony he endured.
On Sunday afternoon, as I sat in my living room holding my baby, some Christian friends who had heard of the accident came by to see us. They offered to pray for my little boy, and as we went to prayer in his behalf, God touched him instantly and he got off of my lap and started playing. We removed the bandages and by the next day (if my memory serves me right), even the redness was gone. He was healed without a scar or even reddened skin. To God be all the Glory!
Georgia D. McCain
Though My Dad Was Dead I Know God Answered His Prayers
As far as I can remember, God has had His hand on me. I was raised around a good holy church. My dad was a man of God who prayed for hours and would feed on God's Word. He talked to me about the things of God. These things were brought back to my mind after God saved me, and have helped me in my walk with God.
I was thirty-seven years old when God saved me. I remember how God dealt with me a year before I surrendered to Him. Someone must have surely been praying for me, but also I feel God answered my dad's prayers in my behalf though he had been dead for ten years when I got saved.
The Saturday night before I was saved, I was under conviction. I had been taking my children to Sunday school on Sundays and sometimes I would stay for church. This particular Sunday, the church was having a revival with Rev. Marshall Smart. It was September 6, 1981. I was getting ready for Sunday school and conviction was on me. As I closed the door of my house on the way to church, I felt God tell me that I would be different when I came back home. I felt impressed that I was either going to be saved or God was not going to speak to me again. I had always asked the Lord that, if I ever got saved, that He would have the preacher to preach on anything but hell, and not to let anyone invite me to the altar. That morning Brother Smart preached on Heaven and invited every sinner there but me to come to the altar. But I was doing business with God while still at my seat. I was settling it that I was going all the way with the Lord. I was not going to be up and down and in and out, but was going all the way.
I believe God saved me right there at my seat, but I went forward anyway and confessed my sins, and God came in a special way to my soul. Also, my children went that morning and were saved. I was sanctified the following Thursday.
My wife was raised in a church that didn't teach salvation. They didn't even know what an altar was for. They thought that, as long as one didn't drink, he was all right. But thank God, my wife got saved in that same revival, and she believes different now. She, too, was sanctified later, and we are still serving the Lord. It has been twelve years (1992) now. Praise His Holy Name!
David Poorman
Pennsylvania
Praying for a Pair of Pants
My husband and I had not been saved very long. Our money was very scarce. We had three little boys and they didn't have many clothes, but we tried to keep one good pair for them to wear to church. But one day, our middle son, Pat, tore his Sunday pants. I tried to fix them but they were beyond repair. I prayed, "Now, Lord, Thou knowest that we want to go to church, but Pat has nothing to wear, and we have no money to buy anything. Will You send him a pair of pants?"
I told no one, not even my husband, of our predicament, but I just continued to pray through the day Friday, when it happened, and on through Saturday. About nine o'clock Saturday night, Mrs. Chester Cooper came to my door. She said, "I have been cleaning out my closet and found these pants that will no longer f
it my boy. Do you suppose they will fit your little boys?"
I answered, "I'm sure they will, I've been praying since yesterday morning for Pat a pair of pants." Without looking at them I felt sure at least one pair would fit Pat. And sure enough, one pair fit him like it had been tailor-made. All Glory to Jesus!
Gertrude Smith
Louisiana
Results of a Thirty-day Fast
The following testimony is from a lady from Pennsylvania. Her daughter and son-in-law, parents of a five-year-old, at that time, were having marital problems due to the fact that a young mother who had left her husband was making a play for her son-in-law. This caused the daughter to be very distraught, naturally, and placed a heavy burden on the mother's heart.
The mother writes, "I felt the Lord wanted me to go on a fast. We'd been in a revival and I started fasting on a Friday. Well, after about three days I took severe pain in my back, hips and legs.
'My habit, when praying in earnest intercession, was to walk back and forth, but the pain got so severe I didn't know what to do, I felt this was surely an attack from the devil so I let him know I wasn't going to quit. After a few days the pain left.
"I didn't know how long the Lord would have me fast. Since He was leading, I would have to have His release before I'd feel clear to break the fast. It was thirty days before I felt clear to eat. I had only drank water that seemed to taste awful, and drank juices during the fast, eating no food at all. But, thank God, prayer was answered and the girl left town. My daughter was so happy that she invited us over for dinner the next day, and though I knew one should break a fast slowly, I went to the table and ate just as if I'd been eating all along. I didn't get sick at all, proving to me beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the fast was from God.
"Things were fine for about two years or so when again my daughter found out her husband was having an affair with another woman. When he was confronted, he left her. Once again, I held on in intercessory prayer for them, knowing I had not fasted thirty days in vain. God gave me a love for him as if he was my own son.
"After awhile my son-in-law started heckling her to sign for legal separation until she came to the place of giving in. My husband and I decided to go talk with him, so we went to his apartment where he was living with another man whose wife had left him and married his friend. As we stood there, I hardly said anything, just wept, but my husband really talked straight to him, My son-in-law didn't say much, just stood there and took it. Later he told us that it made him think. He had felt no one cared.
"Later my daughter and a girl, with whom she worked, went on a short vacation, and while she was gone, my son-in-law moved back home. But, sad to say, he had gotten into serious trouble while away from home and the law caught up with him. Being in this awful predicament made him see that his only hope was in God. He was now ready to talk to the pastor and to pray. Thankfully, God in His rich mercy, forgave him of his wicked life and took him back into the fold. Praise the Lord! He went around making restitutions and straightening things up. Because of all the money involved, they had to sell their lovely new home and move into a small trailer. He barely had his family settled in the tiny trailer when his trial came up and he was convicted and sent to jail. But being a Christian now, he witnessed to the other inmates and read and studied his Bible.
"We tried to help our daughter as much as possible, lending her moral support and keeping her little boy from time to time, and having them over for meals. She had a heavy load, trying to work, ofttimes overtime, to try and pay the bills.
"After awhile, the authorities let our son-in-law out of jail during the day on a work release program, but he would have to spend the nights and week-ends in jail. Then after a year, he was released and on a five-year parole.
"Time has passed and my son-in-law has gained the confidence and respect of the church people and others. He has been asked to give his testimony at different meetings, and was also interviewed for a Christian section in our local weekly paper. People realize he is sincere and genuine. He is presently a Sunday school teacher, an usher, a youth worker and on a church related board. God has wonderfully answered prayer. Praise His Name! I couldn't have a better son-in-law, and their son, now seventeen (March,'89), and around six feet tall is a fine young teenager who really loves his grandmother and often bends down at church to give her a kiss.
"It pays to fast and pray and believe God. Only He could have ever got to my son-in-law's heart and got their home back together and on a solid foundation, helping them to work together in rearing such a fine son. I just feel like saying, Hallelujah to King Jesus! Amen!
Pennsylvania
Sgt. Alvin C. York, Christian Patriot and World War II Hero
Sergeant Alvin Cullum York, the third oldest of eleven children, was born December 13, 1887 in a one-room log cabin near Pall Mall, Tennessee.
Alvin attended school in a small frame building with one room, one teacher and split-peg stools. It was in session only three months of the year, and Alvin was able to attend just long enough to acquire the equal of a second grade education.
Though formal education was "hard to come by" for these mountain folk, it by no means meant that they were without keen intelligence and knowledge of "good clean livin'."
Alvin loved the woods and learned from his father early in life to hunt and to shoot accurately. The stories of his ability in shooting are well-known, and he usually came out first in the "Beeves and Turkey shoots."
At the age of sixteen, Alvin, a six foot, good looking blue-eyed lad, became the head of the family, as his father had died and his two older brothers had married. With the responsibilities so heavy, Alvin sought vainly for release by drifting along with the "wild crowd."
The influence of several people weighed heavily on Alvin's mind as he proceeded to drown his troubles in drink, and to gamble away his hope for a brighter future.
Here he tells about it: "I might say, too, that in my early days I got in bad company and I broke off from my mother's and father's advice and got to drinking and gambling and playing up right smart. I read about Frank and Jesse James. I thought if Frank and Jesse could be crack shots, I could too. I used to gallop my horse around a tree with a revolver and mess up that old tree right smart. And I got tolerably accurate, too. I used to gamble my wages away week after week. I used to stay out late at night. I had a powerful lot of fist fights.--I was bad for five or six years.Then I saw it was no use, that I was missing the better things and I decided to change my life and be a better boy.
"One night, after being very drunk and fighting, I got in after midnight, and found my mother sitting up waiting for me, and I asked her, 'Why don't you lie down?' And she said, 'I can't lie down. I don't know what's going to become of you when you are out drinking and so I wait until you come in.' And then she asked me, 'Alvin, when are you going to be a man like your father and your grandfather?'
"I promised my mother that night I would never drink again; I would never smoke or chew again; I would never gamble again; I would never cuss or fight again. And I have never drunk whiskey. I have never touched cards, I have never smoked or chewed, and I have never fought or rough-housed since that night. When I quit, I quit all. I am a good deal like Paul--the things I once loved, I now hate.
"And then I was saved. My conversion was under the preaching of M. Russell, from Indiana, an evangelist to the mountains. He preached very close. All that was not right he fought."
The next year a gifted and fearless preacher by the name of Rev. W. W. Loveless came to Pall Mall from Ohio. He was a member of the Churches of Christ in Christian Union; a small but growing denomination with headquarters at Circieville, Ohio. The Church that he represented was old-fashioned and placed much emphasis on the doctrine taught by John Wesley. They believed in staying close by the Bible and using it as their "rule of faith and practice.”
At the close of the revival, the Church of Christ in Christian Union was organized, the first in that
part of the country. Alvin York was elected second elder and until his death remained an active member of this church.
A typical testimony of his religious experience would often go as follows: "I abandoned the old life completely and forever, because I jis' kind der realized I was missing the finer things of life; and when you miss the finer things of life, you might jis' as well be a razorback hog grubbing for acorns on the mountain side.--' What theologian ever expressed greater truth than this?
After the U.S. entered the war (World War I), Alvin received a notice to register for the service. Later, he received a card telling him to report to his local board. Here he expresses his feelings concerning the matter: "I knew now I was in. I was bothered a plenty as to whether it was right or wrong. I knew that if it was right, everything would be all right--And I prayed and prayed. I prayed two whole days and a night out on a mountainside. And I received my assurance that it was all right, that I should go and I would come back without a scratch. I received this assurance direct from God. And I have always been led to believe that He always keeps His promise.
"And I told my little mother not to worry, that it was all right, and that I was coming back; and I told my brothers and sisters; and I told Pastor Pile, and I prayed with him; and I told everybody else I discussed it with.
"But it was very hard on my mother, just like it was on all mothers, and she didn't want to see me go--
"And my little mother and Pastor Pile wanted to get me out--
"I never was a conscientious objector. I am not today. I didn't want to go and fight and kill. But I had to answer the call of my country, and I did. And I believed it was right. I have no hatred toward the Germans and I never had."
In November, 1917 Alvin Cullum York was inducted into the army and assigned to the 21st training battalion at Camp Gordon, Georgia.
Being a hardy mountaineer and the best shot in Fentress County, he was a good soldier, enjoyed basic training and found the rigors of army life invigorating. Quickly, he won the favor of his buddies and the respect of his officers, but his conscience still bothered him about "killin."
He never shirked his duty, and his commanding officer, Captain E. C. B. Danforth. Jr. took his case to higher officer. Major George Edward Buxton was a Bible student and in self-defense had searched out for himself passages of God's Word that permitted man to fight for his country. He was impressed with Captain Danforth's story of this good soldier, diligent and obedient, but with religion that wouldn't let him kill. That night, he requested an interview.
Alvin talked with him of his activities in the Church of Christ in Christian Union down in Tennessee and told how "the only creed of the church was the Bible and how he believed the Bible was the inspired Word of God and the final authority of all men." With Bible in hand, Major Buxton explained that there were times when it was a man's obligation to fight in order to protect his rights.
It was at this time he was given a pass and allowed to go home to pray about it. Neither his mother, Pastor Piles, his friends, nor Gracie (his girl friend) could help him, so two days and a night of his leave were spent on the mountainside in prayer. This vigil resulted in peace, "like the waters of the lake when the Master said, 'Peace, be still,' " and kept him so that he could write, even when in France, of his calmness.
In May of 1918, the 82nd Division, of which York was a part, arrived in France and was sent to a training area. Wherever York went, he always carried his Testament and read it. In his words, "I read it in dugouts, in foxholes, and on the front lines. It was my rock to cling to--"
York was made a corporal just before the St. Mihiel drive in September. He wrote about the horrors of war: "Many of the boys were gassed or killed. Well, seeing the boys all shot up, gassed, blown to pieces, and killed lying about us, there is no tongue or human being who can ever tell the feeling of a man during this time. But I never doubted in the thickest of the battle but what God would bring me through safe. I had the assurance before I left home, and I never did doubt it."
The battle that was to become the greatest war feat performed by an individual in the annals of United States history took place on the day of October 8, 1918. On that day Alvin C. York wrote his name indelibly on the honor roll of America's heroes with a Springfield rifle, a pistol, and an unwavering faith that God was with him. Sergeant York was honored with the highest military medals of Allied nations for what he did that day.
The Nashville Tennessean wrote up the account of the amazing battle in the Argonne, from which we draw from for the following events.
On October 6-7 the 82nd Infantry Division went into the front lines. On the 8th, Company G, 328th Infantry started across No Man's Land toward an objective about three kilometers away. Their advance met with machine gun fire which resulted in heavy casualties. Seventeen men including a sergeant and three corporals were ordered to try to silence the guns. One of the corporals was York. They formed a skirmish line, and as York related later, "burst through the bushes after the Boche. We were upon the Germans before we knew it because the undergrowth was so thick that we could see only a few yards ahead of us."
The Germans were taken by surprise as a major and two officers were seated in Conference, and a score or more of men were lying about at ease. The Americans, though startled, too, began firing at once and some of the Germans leaped to their feet and surrendered. The Americans had just captured the headquarters of the machine gun battalion.
York and some of his companions, as well as the Germans who had surrendered, fell to the ground, as there were suddenly bursts of fire from machine gun pits about thirty yards away. York was the only noncommissioned officer who wasn't hit. Only six men were left under the command which York promptly assumed.
All the survivors except York got behind trees or other shelters, but York "just sat in the mud and used my rifle." His men were given orders to guard the prisoners, while York pumped away at the machine gunners. He was the only American firing.
Bullets hit close by but being so near the Germans who were lying face downward, the enemy couldn't hit him without wounding their own.
York won this battle single-handed. After the lieutenant fell, the German major agreed to surrender to York. York found himself with 132 prisoners, and upon checking, found he had only six of his men left to guard them and take them back to their camp. York took his place at the head of the group, and forced a captured officer to walk on either side of him and one to go in front. This way, if the Germans fired at them, they would kill their own officers. The six privates were placed alongside the prisoners. When they got back, the story of the combat was so extraordinary, that a checkup was made. The checkup revealed that twenty-five Germans were dead, none wounded, and twenty-eight machine guns
knocked out.
I quote here direct from the Nashville Tennessean: "The feat won the highest praise of military leaders, in addition to the many medals. General John J. Pershing called York, 'The greatest civilian soldier of the war.'
"Curiously, it was not until some time after his historic exploit that he was promoted to sergeant and became, for all time to come, 'Sergeant York' although he was commissioned a Major by the U.S. Army in 1942.
"Sergeant York came out of World War I unscratched and returned to a hero's welcome in the United States.
"He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor America's highest decoration for bravery; the Distinguished Service Cross, the Medaille Militaire, Croix de Guerre witt palm the French Legion of Honor; the Croca di Guerra of Italy; the War Medal of Montenegro, and many others."
The diary records: October 8--"So you can see here in this case of mine where God helped me out. I had been living for God and working in the church sometime before I came to the army. So I am a witness to the fact that God did help me out of the battle; for the bushes were shot all around me and I never got a scratch.
"So you can see that God will be with you if you will only trust Him; and I say that He did save me. No
w, He will save you if you will only trust Him."
After the signing of the armistice, Sergeant York was ordered to go with General Lindsey and some other officers back to the site of the battle. He marched them out of the field in the same manner in which he had marched the Germans. The general was described as a natural fighter who could swear just as awfully as he could fight.
Sergeant York tells that after he marched him back to the old lines, the general said, "York, how did you do it?" The answer given was, "Sir, it is not man power. A higher power than man power guided and watched over me and told me what to do." With bowed head the reply solemnly came, "York, you are right."
The simplicity of his faith touched even the skeptics and moved them closer to the realization of God.
Later York returned home to a hero's welcome as a national figure known around the world. But as his son, George, states in "A tribute to my father," he never expressed in any way a feeling of importance, or felt that he had really done anything to bring him world-wide fame and recognition. He would always say, 'I only did my duty to God and my country, and every man should do that.' "
York married the girl he left behind when he went to war, Gracie.Williams, on June 7, 1919. To this union were born five sons and two daughters.
After a long and useful life, Sergeant York went to his reward on September 2, 1964 from the Veteran's Hospital, Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of seventy-six years, eight months and twenty days.
(This account taken from the book, A Christian Patriot, compiled and edited by Rev. R. C. Humble, and published and owned by "The Churches of Christ in Christian Union," Box 30, Circleville, Ohio. Used by permission.)
In Straight Paths Page 18
