Alan V. McPherson

I thank God that He redeemed my soul. I was a brokenhearted young man, full of sin and sorrow, reaping what I had sown. No one had ever told me that there was power in the Gospel of Christ to change one’s heart and transform his life; and I had to fight the battle of life in my own strength.

My mother died when I was a small boy, and I thought I could do as I pleased, and that my sins would not find me out. I found that the way of a transgressor was a hard way. I struggled to overcome the habits of sin, but at the age of fourteen I had to leave my grandparents’ home because of those sins.

A young preacher told me that God could save me, and help me to live a clean life every day.

My father was Assistant Adjutant General of the State of Wisconsin, and I fairly lived in the capitol building in Madison, Wisconsin. I went there week after week when only a boy. I attended Sunday school and church all during my young life.

My father later sent me to live in a minister’s home where I could go to a good school; but in a few months my sins found me out, as the Word of God said they would. I had wonderful privileges, good environment and training; but I had to leave his home, too, in disgrace. My old father, when he heard of the life I was living, wished I were dead and out of the way, because of my sinful life. Not even that minister told me Jesus could save my soul and change my life. I struggled for years trying to break off those bad habits. I did not want to end my life or go insane or go behind penitentiary bars.  I wanted to be a man, but the thing was not in me to be a man.

Forty-eight years ago, in Western Canada, a young preacher told me that God could save me, and help me to live a clean life every day. He was a converted circuit rider, and had been saved only a little while, but he had reality. His face just shone as he told it.

All I had to give God was a broken heart and life.

I had been going to church since a small child, but I never heard a story like that. My heart was longing for such victory. I saw my two sisters and aunt get this salvation, and they told me about their victory. They said that Jesus would set me free. He would give me power to live right. He would put something down in my soul that I would know came from God.

I made up my mind that I would prove their God. I began to pray, and I prayed honestly. I began to put my trust in the supernatural power, for all the natural powers I had come in contact with had failed me. I didn’t have much to give up, for sin had robbed me of everything good. All I had to give God was a broken heart and life. I praise God, I made the surrender to Him and promised Him I would serve Him if He would set me free.

“You do not need to pray for me any more, for the work is done.”

I cried to God day and night for about a week, and it looked as though God would never hear me. One night I knelt in my sister’s kitchen and God saved my soul. I was on my knees only a few minutes when God answered, and forgave every sin I had committed. I knew those sins were forgiven. Never has one of them condemned me since.

I stood up and said, “You do not need to pray for me any more, for the work is done.” Jesus broke the fetters and set me free. I couldn’t sleep that night. I was praising God all night. God made me a new creature and helped me live a new life.  I didn’t have to ask anyone if I had found reality. God had saved my soul and put the witness into my heart that I was right with Him. I was amazed, and I marveled at the change which came into my life. He took away all the condemnation and guilt. I had been bound with an awful temper, which sometimes made me act like a fool. But in a moment of time those sinful things were all broken from my life. It was truly a happy day when Jesus washed my sins away. I lay on my bed for hours that evening praising God. I could feel the glory of God surging through my whole being. I knew I was right with God.

Back in the logging camps, I had the privilege of testifying to my associates. They had laughed at me when I would rave because of my awful temper; but they never did that again. The temper was gone. They could hardly understand it—I could hardly understand it myself. The love for the things of the world went out of my heart. The men at first said that it was only excitement, that it would wear off in a few days. But it has not worn off all these years. It is getting better and better as the days go by. God has kept me with peace, joy and victory in my soul. From that day on, God led me. Later, when I was praying, God gave me a burden for a clean heart, and He sanctified me wholly. I knew the very minute He took the root of bitterness out. Never from that day to this did I doubt what God wrought in my soul.  About two and a half years later, in the state of Oklahoma, I found some people who had received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. I knelt one night and the Lord baptized me with the Holy Ghost and fire. Oh, the change He made in my life! I want to honor and glorify God for all He as done for me.‍

In his closing moments of life, this servant of God who had faithfully preached the Gospel for over fifty years, asked his nurse to help him to a sitting position so he could praise the Lord. She said, “Surely I will.” The nurse also wanted to give him some medication to ease his pain, but he spoke up immediately and said, “Listen, I have trusted the Lord for all these years, and I am not about to lean on the arm of flesh now.” She raised him up and put his feet on the floor by the side of his bed, and he lifted his hands toward Heaven, and exclaimed: “Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!” Then he closed his eyes to awaken on Heaven’s golden shore.