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when he prayed. In prayer he recited every name, which lasted into the middle of the night. Only then was his prayer completed. _____ 33. A Consecration Experience _____ It was in the year 1866 that a certain consecration movement was put into motion within the boundaries of the Evangelical Community by Minister Scheuermann. At the time he was a collector for our orphan home in Flat Rock, Ohio. He taught of a sudden, positive cleansing of the human heart of all sinful drives and temptations. He called the sins "the groundhogs," which must be killed all at once through sanctification. However if they still stick their snouts out of the hole, he said, they weren't dead yet. Thus the man was not completely sanctified. He frivolously assailed the assembly with such expressions. Nothing was said about the growth in the consecration movement. Five or six years later a very serious preacher of the Evangelical Community came through our conference and forcefully preached for a week in our church in Buffalo. We had very spiritually rich meetings.

The church was well filled during the days and at night. At the time I was not at peace with my standing in grace, thus I attempted to participate with others of my brethren. It was my wish to achieve this complete consecration with the help of God in this matter and I thought to myself that such a consecrated child of God must lead the life of an angel in this godless world. This serious preacher was Brother Young and he delivered rich and powerful sermons. We believed every word that he said. He was a very different character from Brother Scheuermann. He was a quiet and peaceful champion of faith and he had great success wherever he worked. I was one of the fortunate ones and I was cleansed of all my sins and consecrated . That this was a serious and very important matter for me is proved by the following: I was so grateful to my loving heavenly father and my true savior that I felt compelled to bring the Lord a suitable offering and I did so with a joyous heart. I then had a discussion concerning the matter with my beloved wife. "Listen to me, Karolina, what do you think of what I have in mind? I will bring the Lord a proper offering with your approval; namely $1000.00," I said to her and to which she responded:

"Sure, if you are in a position to do so; it's fine by me." To this point I had given many smaller gifts. This time it should be a larger one, indeed the largest gift I have given to the Lord. The Lord saw that my cashbox became somewhat empty and he began to fill it back up with his great shovel. That year was the best year in business that I ever had. Brother Lauer, who at the time was our minister, came with Brother Young to my house and received the $1000.00. The new mission church, namely the St. Paul's Church, in its planning stages, received $650.00 The orphanage in Flat Rock, Ohio got $175.00 and our high school in Naperville, Ill. received $175.00. Now we were happy and I carefully watched all my inner drives and motivations. I wallowed, so to say, in my new sanctification. Things went well the first day. On the second day I observed nothing improper. On the third day I went out to the county with my horse. It was a very good and true horse but it made an unfortunate step which did not please me at all. I immediately took the whip and wanted to do something I hadn't done to my horse in six months.

Then I awoke as if out of a sleep. "Oh, dear God, what is that? That is Scheuermann's groundhog, sticking its snout out of the ground or out of the hole. Betrayed, betrayed. Everything is delusion." I cast my new experience into my unconscious; that is, I threw the consecration over board but thank God, I have received since August 23, 1908 another experience and a greater light. The loving God brought it to pass. To him be eternal praise and gratitude and I can not extol enough praise for this precious grace. One of Brother Young's sermons concerning total consecration came from the text of Matthew 5, 48: "You shall be perfect as our father in heaven is perfect." _____ 34. Quite Alone _____ It was the 14th of December, 1909 at 12 noon that I was quite alone with my God in my room and I occupied myself with the Lord. Such joy and power from the Holy Spirit came over me that I had to praise my savior in a loud voice. Hot tears rolled down

my cheeks because of this sudden outpouring of grace that I could not describe it. On December 12th we had an assembly with communion and I was blessed in full and quaking measure. In the afternoon of the same day I felt quite weak and exhausted. A reaction had taken hold and made itself evident. I began to struggle and I grappled for half the day and part of the night without resolution. I had no victory like Jacob, rather to me it seemed to be a "Waterloo." However it was not in vain for through waiting we become strong, as the Lord taught us in his word. Then on the following day the Lord blessed me as mentioned above. _____ 35. A Vision in the Early Morning _____ The time of visions is not yet over. I can attest to this. It was about 3 o'clock in the morning on December 13, 1908 that I had a vision as the result of a deep impression I received in the Sunday school on Sunday, December 12th — I loved my dealings with the Sunday school as much as my own life. I felt

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Text provided by Lockwood Library, State University of New York at Buffalo, BX8080.B65

Susan Kriegbaum-Hanks