Fred Edmonds

It is marvelous to be able to tell this wonderful story as someone told it to me. About 45 years ago I was in the Midwest on a large wheat and stock ranch, and I prospered on every hand for a bit. But along with the prosperity I discovered that my wife’s health was failing and then it became worse. She had tuberculosis and cancer, and the doctor told me there was no help for her except for possibly changing climates. I left my business and we traveled to several different states, finally winding up in California. I found out that health resorts were not the answer. My wife begged me to take her back home and let her live the rest of her life at home.

We had three very little girls at that time, so we made our journey back to the ranch again. While there on the ranch, we heard a wonderful story. A neighbor of ours told us about a people in Oregon that had the old-time religion. They prayed for the sick and the sick were healed. She asked me if she could write to these people and ask them to pray for my wife. I gave her my consent, and the letter reached these people at one of their camp meetings and they prayed for her. In a few days God worked a miracle and instantly healed my wife in our home.

I heard a Voice that I had never heard before so convincingly saying, “You ought to be a Christian!”

It took me off my guard. I couldn’t believe it, but God had visited our home. Just think of the great God of Heaven coming down into your home and performing such a miracle! That morning I watched her life and discovered that it was actually true. God had healed her! I didn’t feel worthy of it because my family didn’t even go to church. We had just lived for what we could get out of this world for our own personal benefit; and we were as selfish as we could be. We didn’t care about our neighbors’ happiness; we just wanted the best for ourselves. But God knows how to deal with that kind of people. Oh, the love of God!

One day, a short time after that when I came in from the field, my wife met me at the door. Another miracle had happened in my home.  She looked so different! Her face was lit up with the very presence of God, and she said that God had saved her soul. In the kitchen, she prayed to the God who healed her and He spoke peace to her heart, and now she was not going to live like she had in the past. From that day on, I couldn’t say I had never met a real Christian. I told her that if she wouldn’t bother me with it, I would never lay a straw in her way, but she just continued to live the life and pray for me.

I settled the old account and prayed my way through to victory.

I had tried for twenty-five years to live as she said she was going to live, but my life was a complete failure. I had prospered financially, but I walked the floor at night when I couldn’t rest. One day, God definitely spoke to my heart. I heard a Voice that I had never heard before so convincingly saying, “You ought to be a Christian!” I tried to put it off and make excuses, as I had before, but He spoke to me again. After the third time He spoke to me, I realized it was God, and I had to do something about it.

Finally, one day in a large wheat field, I got off the machinery, and down on my knees. I settled the old account and prayed my way through to victory. It only took a few minutes because I meant every word I said. God took me at my word and spoke peace to my soul.

I sprang to my feet and walked around, hardly able to contain myself because of the wonderful change that God made in my heart and the joy I felt in my soul. There was a song coming out of my heart, “There’s a Deep Settled Peace in my Soul.” That peace came from Heaven.

My whole family is saved today, and I am a happy man.

A short time after that, my little girl became very ill. Before night came, she had had about seven convulsions in less than twenty-four hours. Her body was twisted out of shape and she was the most mangled child I had seen in many a year. One leg had formed a socket in behind the other and she was paralyzed from the hips down. Her hands were all turned out of shape, and her jaws were locked for days. The doctor said her mind would never be right again and I should give her up because she would be a hopeless, helpless cripple.

The same God who saved me was right there to hold me steady. About twenty-seven days later I saw the Lord absolutely untangle that child’s twisted knees. I saw God restore her mind that day, unlock her jaws that shoved her front teeth right out, strike off the paralysis from her hips down, and straighten out her hands right before my very eyes. I saw a mighty miracle that day, and God has been performing them ever since.

After I was saved, I came out to Portland from Kansas—sixteen hundred miles—leaving my business and everything behind, to start out in a city that I knew nothing about and worship with the people who prayed for me and showed me the way. I said, “I am going to bring up my children in just this kind of atmosphere.” I have never been sorry. My whole family is saved today, and I am a happy man.

For these many years I have had this wonderful salvation in my heart and have had the privilege of telling my fellowman as somebody told me, that there is wonderful, wonderful victory in prayer! I appreciate the old-time religion!