Elsie Dorr

I praise God for this wonderful Gospel. And I praise Him for the power in the Blood of Jesus to save. I tried Spiritualism, Socialism, Christian Science, Mental Science, Theosophy, and New Thought—anything to find a way out of sin, but instead of taking me out, these things took me deeper and deeper into sin.

I was a Spiritualist for thirty years and a Socialist for twenty. I was so far away from God that I no longer believed in God. Then in 1911 some Apostolic Faith people came to my hometown in Tumwater, Washington, to hold tent meetings. I went with the intention of converting the preachers to Spiritualism; I thought I knew more about the hereafter than they did.

During the meeting I heard that we could live without sin, and that we could know we were saved. I had never heard this before. In Spiritualism we believed we could live in all kinds of sin and then progress out of it into a higher sphere after death.

When I tried to talk to the ministers after the meeting, they asked me to get down on my knees and let them pray for me. Until that night, I had not felt any condemnation on my heart, but when I got on my knees, the Lord showed me where I was spiritually. Suddenly, I was hanging right over the bottomless pit of blackness with my whole weight on my fingertips. As I started to slip, I heard a Voice say, “Which will you take: this or Jesus?” I said, “I will take Jesus.” Then I confessed my sins saying, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” In a moment of time God washed away all my sins. He lifted me out of that pit and planted my feet on the solid Rock, Christ Jesus. When I got up, I knew a change had taken place.

I knew I was saved, and oh how I praised the Lord all the rest of the night. In the morning, everything looked new; the sun shone brighter and the leaves were greener. It was wonderful. Gone was the dancing, the card playing, the jewelry, the lodges, and the sinful books.

My Spiritualist friends laughed and sneered, but I did not care. Salvation was what I had been longing for ever since I could remember. I had sought refuge in spiritualism, but found no peace or comfort there, and no answers to prayer. Now I take refuge in the Blood of Jesus. Whenever I am sick, I turn to God, and He has never failed me.

I praise God for the sanctifying power in the Blood. He sanctified me with the second, definite work of grace, and it surely was definite. I thank God, too, for the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire that gives me power to tell the Story of Jesus. I surely recommend this Gospel.