Agnes Clasper

When I was only thirteen years old I went to work in a dynamite factory back in Scotland where I faced death every day. It was very dangerous work, and I saw many people killed in an instant of time—no warning and no time to call on God for mercy. I was just a little girl in Sunday school when I was taught that we must be born again or we could not see the kingdom of God.

I knew I was a lost sinner. God showed me that if I should meet death like many others did in that factory, Hell would be my portion. Such conviction rested on my heart that I was afraid to work, especially when thunder and lightning came. I would tremble and pray to God and ask Him to spare my life.

He permitted me to work with a girl who had just found Jesus. She told me the wonderful things God had done for her. I went with her one night to a little church where they were holding revival meetings. I just bowed my head and said, “Jesus, I will trust You with my soul. I am guilty, lost and helpless but Thou canst make me whole.” That very moment Jesus rolled away the burden of sin and planted something in my heart that no one could take out. He took away that awful fear and torment, and I knew then that sudden death would mean sudden glory to my soul.

Later God put a desire in my heart to come to Portland, Oregon. My little girl had tuberculosis in the glands of her body and had been given up by the doctors to die. As a 3-month-old baby, she was vaccinated and her blood was poisoned. We spent a fortune to try to get healing for our little one. Climates failed, medicine failed, nine physicians in Scotland had failed, and two of the best specialists in this city failed to heal her. Many times when I was on my way to the doctor’s office, I would look up into the heavens and say, “Jesus, I know if You were on earth You would heal my child.”

It was wonderful to feel the mighty power of God surging through and through my soul.

When I spoke of coming to America my people said I would bury my child at sea. I told my husband, “I will live and die a disappointed woman, unless you take me to America.” God brought us over seven thousand miles to this place. My husband came first to prepare a home for the children and me. Later we crossed the waters during a tempestuous storm that threatened the lives of all on board, but God took good care of us and we landed safely. I had a sister in Toronto, Canada, and we stopped to visit her. She pled with me to live beside her. I said, “There is something that tells me to go to Portland, Oregon. If I don’t like it, I will come back.”

We tried the best specialist in Portland after we arrived to try to find healing for our child. He treated her with serum every week to try to kill the germs in her blood, but he failed to heal her. Then God led me to the door of the little saint of God and when I told her about my little one, she said, “If you had only known to have brought her down to the Apostolic Faith mission on Burnside Street, our saints would have prayed and God would have healed your child.” I came down to see these people, and as I sat in the back of the hall, God whispered in my soul, “These are the people you have prayed so long for.” They told me, “There is power in the Blood of Jesus to heal all manner of diseases.” That was all I needed to hear. I heard the Shepherd’s voice. I promised God I would never give our child another drop of medicine, and that I would trust in the healing power of the Blood of Christ. From that moment she began to improve and God completely healed her body. That has been many years ago and she is a strong, well woman today, a mother and grandmother, and has never had a trace of that disease from that day to this.

I had never heard of sanctification before, but when I heard it, something in my heart said, “Lord, surely that is what I have hungered for.” He sanctified me one morning in my own home. One night at the Ordinance service He poured out the baptism of the Holy Ghost upon me. It was wonderful to feel the mighty power of God surging through and through my soul.

My husband fought against the truth of this Gospel, but one Sunday morning he came to church to hear and see for himself. He had been a church member for eighteen years – a deacon, a Sunday school teacher, and president of the Christian Endeavor. But one sermon showed him that he was a sinner and needed salvation. Jesus saved him, sanctified him, and baptized him with the Holy Ghost. He is now telling the marvelous story of Jesus and His love to others and how God saved him and delivered him from the tobacco habit and from an awful temper that ruled him and made our home miserable. Jesus brought Heaven into our home. He brought many of my people into His Gospel and saved them. I have everything to praise God for.