The Apostolic Faith Newspaper on the Azusa Street Revival

The Apostolic Faith

“Earnestly Contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” — Jude 3.

Vol. 1, No. 1. Los Angeles, Cal., September, 1906. Subscription Free

Pentecost Has Come

———-

Los Angeles Being Visited by a Revival of Bible Salvation and Pentecost as Recorded in the Book of Acts

The power of God now has this city agitated as never before. Pentecost has surely come and with it the Bible evidences are following, many being converted and sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost, speaking in tongues as they did on the day of Pentecost. The scenes that are daily enacted in the building on Azusa street and at Missions and Churches in other parts of the city are beyond description, and the real revival is only started, as God has been working with His children mostly, getting them through ot Pentecost, and laying the foundation for for a mighty wave of salvation among the unconverted.

The meetings are held in an old Methodist church that had been converted in part into a tenement house, leaving a large, unplastered, bar-like room on the ground floor. Here about a dozen congregated each day, holding meetings on Bonnie Brae in the evening. The writer atended a few of those meetings and being so different from anything he had seen and not hearing any speaking in tongues, he branded the teaching as third-blessing heresy and thought that settled it. It is needless to say the writer was compelled to do a great deal of apologizing and humbling himself to get right with God.

In a short time God began to manifest His power and soon the building could not contain the people. Now the meetings continue [. . . ] is kindling all over the city and surrounding towns. Proud, well-dressed preachers come into “investigate.” Soon their high looks are replaced with wonder, then conviction comes, and very often you will find then in a short time wallowing on the dirty floor, asking God to forgive them and make them as little children.

It would be impossible to state how many have been converted, sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost. They have been and are daily going out to all points of the compass to spread this wonderful gospel.

BRO. SEYMOUR’S CALL.

Br. W. J. Seymour has the following to say in regard to his call to this city:

“It was the divine call that brought me from Houston, Texas, to Los Angeles. The Lord put it in the heart of one of the saints in Los Angeles to write to me that she felt the Lord would have me come over here and do a work, and I cam, for I felt it was the leading of the Lord. The Lord sent the means, and I came to take charge of mission Santa Fe Street, and one night they locked the door against me, and afterwards got Bro. Roberts, the president of the Holiness Association, to come down and settle the doctrine of the Baptism with the Holy Ghost, that it was simply sanctification. He came down and a good many holiness preachers with him, and they stated that sanctification was the baptism with the Holy Ghost. But yet they did not have the evidence of the second chapter of Acts, for when the disciples were all filled with the Holy Ghost, they spoke in tongues as the Spirit gave utterance. After the president heard me speak of what the true baptism of the Holy Ghost was, he said he wanted it too, and told me when I had received it to let him know. So I received it and let him know. The beginning of the Pentecost started in a cottage prayer meeting at 214 Bonnie Brae.”

LETTER FROM BRO. PARHAM.

Bro. Chas. Parham, who God’s leader in the Apostolic Faith Movement, writes from Tonganoxie, Kansas, that he expects (D.V.) to be in Los Angeles Sept. 15. Hearing that Pentecost had come to Los Angeles, he writes, “I rejoice in God over you all, my children, though I have never seen you; but since you know the Holy Spirit’s power, we are baptised by one Spirit into one body. Keep together in unity till I come, then in a grand meeting let all prepare for the outside fields. I desire, unless God directs to the contrary, to meet and see all who have the full Gospel when I come.”

————

THE OLD-TIME PENTECOST

This work began about five years ago last January, when a company of people under the leadership of Chas. Parham, who where studying God’s word, tarried for Pentecost in Topeka, Kan. After searching through the country everywhere, they had been unable to find any Christians that had the true Pentecostal power. So they laid aside all the commentaries and notes and waited on the Lord, studying His word, and what they did not understand they got down before the bench and asked God to have wrought out in their hearts by the Holy Ghost. They had a prayer tower from which prayers were ascending night and day to God. After three months, a sister who had been teaching sanctification for the baptism with the Holy Ghost, one who had a sweet, loving experience and all the carnality taken out of her heart, felt the Lor lead her to have hands laid on her to receive the Pentecost. So when they prayed, the Holy Ghost came in [. . . ] speaking in an unknown tongue. This made all the Bible school hungry, and three nights afterward, twelve students received the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, and cloven tongues could be seen upon their head. They then had an experience that measured up with the second chapter of Acts, and could understand the first chapter of Ephesians.

Now after five years something like 13,000 people have received this gospel. It is spreading everywhere, until churches who do not believe backslide and lose the experience they have. Those who are older in this movement are stronger, and greater signs and wonders are following them.

The meetings in Los Angeles started in a cottage meeting, and the Pentecost fell there three nights. The people had nothing to do but wait on the Lord and praise Him, and they commenced speaking in tongues, as they did at Pentecost, and the Spirit sang songs through them.

The meeting was then transferred to Azusa Street, and since then multitudes have been coming. The meetings begin about ten o’clock in the morning and can hardly stop before ten or twelve at night, and sometimes t two or three in the morning, because so many are seeking, and some are slain under the power of God. People are seeking three times a day at the altar and row after row of seats have to be emptied and filled with seekers. We cannot tell how many people have been saved, and sanctified, and baptised with the Holy Ghost, and healed of all manner of sicknesses. Many are speaking in new tongues, and some are on their way to the foreign fields, with the gift of language. We are going on to get more of the power of God.

————

Many have laid aside their glasses and had their eye sight perfectly restored. The deaf have had their hearing restored.

————

A man was healed of asthma of twenty years standing. Many have been healed of heart trouble and lung trouble.

————

Many are saying that God has given the message that He is going to shake Los Angeles with an earthquake. First, there will be a revival to give all an opportunity to be saved. The revival is now in progress.

————

The Lord has given the gift of writing in unknown languages, also the gift of playing on instruments.

————

A little girl who walked with crutches and had tuberculosis of the bones, as the doctors declared, was healed and dropped her crutches and began to skip about the yard.

————

All over this city, God has been setting homes on fire and coming down and melting and saving and sanctifying and baptising with the Holy Ghost.

————

Many churches have been praying for Pentecost, and Pentecost has come. The question is now, will they accept it? God has answered in a way they did not look for. He came in a humble way as of old, born in a manger.

————

The secular papers have stirred and published reports against the movement, but it has only resulted in drawing hungry souls who understand the devil would not fight a thing unless God was in it. So they have come and found it was indeed the power of God.

————

Jesus was too large for the synagogues. He preached outside because there was not room for him inside. This Pentecostal movement is too large to be confined in any denomination or sect. It works outside, drawing all together in one bond of love, one Church, one body of Christ.

————

A Mohammedan, a Soudanese by birth, a man who is an interpreter and speaks six[] languages, came into the meetings at Azusa Street and the Lord gave him messages which none but himself could understand. He identified, and wrote [a] number of the languages.

————

A brother who had been a spiritualist medium and who was so possessed with demons that he had no rest, and was on the point of committing suicide, was instantly delivered of demon power. He then sought God for the pardon of his sins and sanctification, and is now filled with a different spirit.

————

A little girl about twelve years of age was sanctified in a Sunday afternoon children’s meeting, and in the evening meeting she was baptized with the Holy Ghost. When she was filled those standing near remarked, “Who can doubt such a clear case of God’s power.”

————

In about an hour and a half, a young man was converted, sanctified and baptized with the Holy Ghost, and spoke with tongues. He was also healed from consumption, so that when he visited the doctor he pronounced his lungs sound. He has received many tongues, also the gift of prophecy, and writing in a number of foreign languages, and has a call to a foreign field.

————

Many are the prophesies spoken in unknown tongues and many the visions that God is giving concerning His soon coming. The heathen must first receive the gospel. Once prophecy given in an unknown tongues was interpreted, “The time is short, and I am going to send out a large number in the Spirit of God to preach the full gospel in the power of the Spirit.”

————

About 150 people in Los Angeles, more than on the day of Pentecost, have received the gift of the Holy Ghost and the Bible evidence, the gift of tongues, and many have been saved and sanctified, nobody knows how many. People are seeking at the altar three times a day and it is hard to close at night on account of seekers and those who are under the power of God.

————

When Pentecostal lines are struck, Pentecostal giving commences. Hundreds of dollars have been laid down for the sending of missionaries and thousands will be laid down. No collections are taken for rent, no begging for money. No man’s silver or gold is coveted. The silver and the gold are His own to carry on His own work. He can also publish His own papers without asking for money or subscription price.

————

In the meetings, it is noticeable that while some in the rear are opposing and arguing, others are at the altar falling down under the power of God and feasting on the the good things of God. The two spirits are always manifest, but no opposition can kill, no power in earth, or hell can stop God’s work, while He has consecrated instruments through which to work.

————

Many have received the gift of singing as well as speaking in the inspiration of the Spirit. The Lord is giving new voices, he translates old songs into new voices, he gives the music that is being sung by the angels and has a heavenly choir all singing the same heavenly song in harmony. It is beautiful music, no instruments are needed in the meetings.

————

A Nazarene brother who received the baptism with the Holy Ghost in is own home in family worship, in trying to tell about it, said, “It was a baptism of love. Such abounding love! Such compassion seemed to almost kill me with its sweetness! People do not know what they are doing when they stand out against it. The devil never gave me a swet thing, he was always trying to get me to censuring people. This baptism fills us with divine love.”

————

The gift of languages is given with the commission, “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.” The Lord has given languages to the unlearned. Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Zulu and languages of Africa, Hindu and Bengali and dialects of India, Chippewa and other languages of the Indians, Esquimaux [. . . ] the deaf mute language [. . .] in fact the Holy Ghost speaks all the languages of the world through His children.

————

A minister says that God showed him twenty years ago that the divine plan for missionaries was that they might receive the gift of tongues either before going to the foreign field or on the way. It should be a sign to the heathen that the message is of God. The gift of tongues can only be used as the Spirit gives utterance. It cannot be learned like the native tongues, but the Lord takes control of the organs of speech at will. It is emphatically, God’s message.

————

During a meeting at Monrovia, a preacher who at one time had been used of God in the Pentecost Bands under Vivian Dake, but had cooled off, was reclaimed, sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost. When the power of God came on him his eight-year-old son was kneeling behind him. The boy had previously sought and obtained a clear heart, and when the Holy Ghost fell on his father, He also fell on him and his hands began to shake and he sang in tongues.

————

Bro. Campbell, a Nazarene brother, 83 years of age, who has been for 53 years serving the Lord, received the baptism with the Holy Ghost, and gift of tongues in his own home. His son, who was a physician, was called and came to see if he was sick, but found him only happy in the Lord. Not only old men and old women, but boys and girls, are receiving their Pentecost. Viola Price, a little orphan colored girl eight years of age, has received the gift of tongues.

————

Mrs. Lucy F. Farrow, God’s anointed handmaid, who came some four months ago from Houston, Texas, to Los Angeles, bringing the full Gospel, and whom God has greatly used as she laid her ands on many who have received the Pentecost and the gift of tongues, has now returned to Houston, en route to Norfolk, Va. This is her old home which she left as a girl, being sold into slavery in the south. The Lord, she feels, is now calling her back. Sister Farrow, Bro. W. J. Seymour and Bro. J. A. Warren were the three that the Lord sent from Houston as messengers of the full gospel.