Sam Samuels

I want to praise God that I am walking on the King’s glorious highway. For years, I wasn’t sure if there was a God. He was like a myth to me. I never heard of a prayer being answered, and I never met anyone who knew for certain he was going to Heaven. All the people I knew who called themselves Christians seemed to be having a hard luck story. Also, they hoped they were saved and guessed they were saved, but they didn’t know they were saved. I used to feel sorry for anyone who called himself a Christian. Sometimes I wondered if God was real, but then I would say, “Nobody ever came back from the grave to tell me if there is a Heaven or a Hell.”

I am thankful that I had a sister who came into contact with the Apostolic Faith people. In 1911, she was in Portland, Oregon, and heard about a girl who went to the Apostolic Faith on crutches. She was prayed for by the saints, and God healed her. My sister was dying of tuberculosis, and the doctors in Montana where we lived had given up on her, so she went to a meeting. God saved and healed her, too.

Then she began writing to us in Montana, telling of great things the Lord was doing for her and others. She said God was answering prayer; He was cleaning up the lives of drunkards, taking out the very appetite for alcohol and tobacco, and He was healing all manner of diseases including cancer, which my mother had.

We thought this was too wonderful to be true and did not believe her. We also thought she had taken religion too far and would disgrace our family name. Mother was worried she had gotten into something fanatical and was losing her mind, so she sent me to Portland to straighten her out and talk her out of this Gospel. My words had no effect on her. You might as well talk to a post as talk to the weakest child of God, because this Gospel did not come from man; it came from God.

I attended an Apostolic Faith meeting not believing in anything, but it wasn’t hard for me to believe in the power of God when I heard the wonderful testimonies. I will never forget how a hope sprung up in my heart when I realized there was an almighty living God after all, and I could know Him for myself, right here and right now. When I heard God could save a person and change his whole life, it just won my heart. I believed every word, and I wanted to be a Christian—I wanted to know my heart was right with God.

My sins had not bothered me a bit until I heard this Gospel. Then I felt I was the worst sinner in the world, and I did not see how God could have mercy on me. I was a baseball player, so I had traveled with all of my expenses paid as well as wages. People called me “good” because I never used tobacco or drank, but I wore five or six diamonds, had nice clothes, and went out dancing as many as seven nights a week. I thought I was “it.” I also played in big pool and bowling tournaments, finishing first or second in every one of them. And I was a prize fighter. There was nothing I loved more than to fight before hundreds of men. They called me “Smiles.”

I confessed my sins with an honest heart and promised God the rest of my life if He would only save me in a way that I would know it was real. He answered that prayer. He saved me, and oh what a change! The old things passed away and all things became new. He filled me with joy, peace, and contentment, everything that satisfies. He gave me a new heart with new desires. My lying habit was gone. The love for the things of the world left when Jesus came in. I have not been to a dance hall, bowling alley, baseball game, or theatre in over forty years.

After God saved me, I wrote to Mother that my sister was not crazy, and I told her what God had done for me, that He had saved and also healed me when I never expected to see another well day.

She responded by sending another sister who was supposed to talk both of us out of the Gospel. She had an honest heart, though, and when she heard the wonderful Story, she got saved, too. Then the three of us began writing and telling Mother what God was doing for us. One of my sisters had jewels that she prized very highly. She sent them back to Montana with a note that said, “I have no more use for these jewels. God has taken the pride out of my heart!”

That convinced my mother that God had done something real. She got on her knees and prayed with all her heart, and God saved her—right in her own home. It was not long before she moved to Portland, and our home was united. She was nearly blind, had cancer, and had had heart trouble for years, but God healed her, too. She is a well, hardy, old lady now.

Surely I have a lot to worship Jesus for; He has done so much for me. He took my sins away, He healed my body, He gave me joy in the depths of my heart and peace that flows like a river. I am having the best days of all my life serving God.