ANDREW JOHNSON
(Methodist)

 

ANDREW JOHNSON
(Methodist)

Andrew Johnson was an unique preacher and writer. His alliterations and wisdom made

his writings and sermons interesting to his hearers and readers.

“Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!” I am requested to relate my experience of holiness. I

am glad to do this for many reasons: first, to give God all the glory; second, I desire to help others
to see this great gospel truth, and I would like to inspire Christians everywhere to see the promised
experience of the Canaan of Perfect Love…

I attended, while yet in my teens, a great revival meeting at Stanford, Lincoln County,

Kentucky. The late Dr. H. C. Morrison, editor of the Pentecostal Herald and president of Asbury
College, was conducting the revival. The meeting continued for several weeks. The town and
community were deeply stirred…The writer was captured, convicted, caught up, and carried on the
spiritual currents of an old-time, soul-saving revival…I sat over against the wall on the third row
of seats. The evangelistic message roared and re-echoed with the Sinaiatic thunders of convictive
truth.

When the invitation was given, the writer was the first one to respond to the call and go

forward for prayer. Dr. Morrison shouted, “God bless this boy!” I fell at the front bench and
believed every word the pastor, Dr. W. E. Arnold, said to me in the way of instruction and
encouragement. There was no resentment or resistance in my heart and not a thing on earth that I
was unwilling to surrender. Yet I did not receive the witness to my salvation until I was three
miles away from the church on my way home. I was looking up to the skies with the songs of the
service resounding in my soul when suddenly I came in direct contact with the Holy Spirit and a
filial, friendly communication was opened between my soul and heaven. I came mysteriously into a
new world of light and love. My attitude was changed; my condition was changed; my relationship
was changed. In a word, I was a new creature in Christ Jesus (II Cor. 5:17).

 

Four days later I went to the altar as a definite seeker for the further experience of entire

sanctification. Dr. J. W. Hughes, the founder of Asbury College, preached a powerful sermon that
morning on Bible holiness and invited Christians to come to the altar and consecrate their lives to
God for service and seek the blessing of holiness. He called upon a good sister, Mrs. J. E. Lynn,
who had been a member of the church for twenty years, to pray. She refused to pray out in an
audible voice. Then he called in ringing tones as a general in an army: “Andrew Johnson, lead us
in prayer.”

Up to this time, I had never prayed in public, had been converted only four days. But as an

obedient seeker, I turned the willows loose by the water’s edge and immediately launched out into
the deep, calling in earnest upon God to cleanse my heart. The fire fell and the power struck me
like a galvanic battery. “In the twinkling of an eye, Jesus’ blood can sanctify!” It seemed as though
every wheel in the machinery of the universe for the moment stood stock-still. I was blessed and
filled with the infinite calm of a profound peace that passeth all understanding. My heart was
purified instantly from all the dross of sin and carnality. The very essence of heaven, it seemed,
was in my redeemed soul.

The preacher then shouted: “Testify!” I boldly walked up into the pulpit and uttered these

five words: “I believe I am sanctified.” Dr. Morrison laid his hands on my head and exclaimed: “I
believe this boy will make a preacher.” How well I remember that hallowed and sacred moment!

If I have ever amounted to anything in the world for God in having preached His word

these fifty-four years, traveling here and there in forty-five states, Canada, and Mexico, it dates
from the identical moment the sanctifying fire swept through my entire being during that holy and
ever memorable altar service. Hallelujah! The blood is all my plea! To God be all the glory!

Source: “Living Flames of Fire” by Bernie Smith
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THE END

 

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HOW THEY ENTERED CANAAN
(A Collection of Holiness Experience Accounts)
Compiled by Duane V. Maxey

Vol. I — Named Accounts