Myrtle Morgan

My childhood was very unhappy. My folks didn’t go to church or talk about religion. I didn’t know there was a God until I was about ten years old, and I didn’t know everyone would die some day until I was almost twelve years old. One day, after I had displeased my mother, she turned from her work and told me there is a God who keeps books, and that I was nearing the age of accountability and would have to meet Him at the judgment bar after death and give an account of the life I lived here on earth. I asked her many questions she couldn’t answer. Then I begged and persuaded my folks to let me attend church and Sunday school.

God set up a standard of Christian living in my heart, and I tried for four years to live up to it, but I could not. I was born with a sinful nature I couldn’t control.

Oh, the faithfulness of God! He permitted a born-again Christian minister to come to our schoolhouse and preach a sermon that thrilled my soul. I heard that I could repent and God would forgive my sins and give me power to live a Christian life. I prayed for about three weeks. I prayed at church and I prayed at home. I believed if religion were real I would know when the change of heart took place, and I did: one afternoon, standing by the old water pump, my heart was changed instantly; joy unspeakable filled my soul. Oh, the thrill of knowing God is so real!

After that it was just as natural to live a Christian life as it had been to live sinfully, and under condemnation every day. Under provocation I still struggled with the carnal nature. Then I was told that sanctification would destroy the adamic nature everyone is born with. I began to seek for that. I read everything I could find on that subject. I talked with people who said they were sanctified.

One afternoon, standing by the old water pump, my heart was changed instantly.

Months went by and one day as I was working at my sewing machine I was softly singing, “Rock of Ages.” As I sang, “Be of sin the double cure,” God revealed the second application of the Blood of Jesus, which sanctifies the human heart. As I believed, He washed my heart. Oh the joy! I bowed my head on my arms and praised the great God of Heaven who had again revealed Himself to me.

Later I came to Portland seeking for the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Again I didn’t want anyone to influence me. If it was real, God, and God alone would be responsible for my receiving it, and as I prayed alone in my home God began to bless my soul. Tears were flowing freely and my heart was overflowing with the love of God, when all at once I realized I was praying in a language I didn’t know, and had never spoken before. It is real; don’t ever doubt that.

Being the oldest of eight children, in 1919 I decided it was time for me to step out of that four-room house and live my own life. I didn’t have an education and the only work I could get was taking care of a baby and helping with the housework. It wasn’t long until I decided I wanted my own home with a Christian companion.

My aunt was sick in a hospital about 100 miles away, and I asked for a week off and went to see her. The night before I left I read the story of Abraham sending Eliezer to select a bride for Isaac, and how he asked for a sign so he would know the woman God had chosen. I said, “Lord, You are the same God today, and if it is Your will for me to marry, you let me meet the man on this trip.”

I met three young men, but none of them appealed to me. I was sure they were not Christians. I started home a day early, a little disappointed. I decided when I changed trains I would spend the night in a hotel and rest another day.

Tears were flowing freely and my heart was overflowing with the love of God. . .

The next day I boarded the train and saw several young men from my hometown. They were returning from World War I, and they were a happy crowd. I remembered my prayer and looked them over. I knew most of them, and there wasn’t anyone interested in a Christian life that I knew.

Again I prayed in my heart and said, “Lord, I haven’t met anyone You would approve of. If You want me to live alone there is only one thing I want, and that is to go to Portland where I can be with the people who publish the Apostolic Faith paper, for they are the only ones I know of that teach Christianity as I believe it.

I heard the conductor call out, “All aboard,” then “Hold it,” and I saw another soldier boy coming. A minute later the train began to move. I looked towards the door and saw a soldier come in. He was a man I had met before he went into the army. The Lord said, “He is the man.” I stood; I felt I was in the presence of the Lord.

He came in and greeted many people he knew; he spoke to me and then went back up front and took a seat. I knew he was a church member and attended every church around the country—a hungry soul. I never doubted God, although it was six weeks before I saw him again. He asked me for a date.

Boys were being entertained all over the country with parties and dances. We didn’t care to attend them so we went to church and Sunday school together and spent Sunday afternoons visiting and driving along the country roads. Winter passed and I left in April to visit the church in Portland, intending to be away for two or three weeks but became so interested in the Gospel there that I stayed until the last of August.

My friend was faithful to write, and although he hadn’t proposed to me, I was sure he would. He met me at the depot and took me to my folks’ home. On the way he said he wanted me to set a date for our wedding. He said he had prayed about it and wasn’t going to take no for an answer. On October 10, 1920, we were married. In July of 1922 we went to Portland to the camp meeting. After a few meetings he was convinced that all I had told him was real. He went to the altar and was saved. A few weeks later, alone at home, he sought the Lord and was sanctified. One night on the job, working alone, he took time to pray and God baptized him with the Holy Ghost.

We moved to Portland in 1927. We raised three children and had the same trials and problems all parents have, but always praying and receiving from God. We have never had a problem or a difference of opinion that we have had to take to a counselor; we have prayed until God revealed His will, and then submitted to Him.

On October 10, 1970, we celebrated our Golden wedding anniversary. We look back over 50 years of happiness, and wish we could tell all young people they have the same God of all yesterdays to lead and guide them, and we pray they too will be willing to let Him lead them.

Like the psalmist David, we can say, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever” (Psalms 23:6).