Pioneers of Faith 2 Pioneers of Faith by Lester Sumrall 1 Pioneers of Faith by Lester Sumrall South Bend, Indiana www.leseapublishing.com 3 Pioneers of Faith Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. Photographs in Chapters 1-10 and 12-24 are used by permission of Assemblies of God Archives, 1445 Boonville Avenue, Springfield, Missouri 65802-1894. Pioneers of Faith ISBN 1-58568-207-1 Copyright © 1995 by LeSEA Publishing 4th Printing August 2018 LeSEA Publishing 530 E. Ireland Rd. South Bend, IN 46614 Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. Contents and/or cover may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without the express written consent of the Publisher. 4 Dedication I dedicate this volume to the memory of Stanley Howard Frodsham (1882-1969): a man who loved people, a man who blessed people, a man who helped pioneer the move of the Holy Spirit in this century. He inspired my life from the first day we met. We were together again and again in his home, his office, and in public meetings. He was present in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, when I was twenty years old, and the Lord showed Howard Carter that I was the young man to go with him around the world. Stanley Frodsham wrote for posterity most of the chal- lenging story that the world knows about Smith Wigglesworth. For this the Church of all time will hold him in honor. I will never forget his humility and his prolific producing of spiritual material — much of which does not have his name on it. He never received royalties, just produced fruit to bless others. Frodsham told me when I was thirty-four years old, “You will come to know that all flesh is corrupt without Christ.” I pray that the entire Church will learn this fact today. I was never in the presence of this great pioneer without leaving with a teaching and an admonition from God’s Word, and I have tried to follow his example. Lester Sumrall 5 Pioneers of Faith 6 Contents Part One: Introduction An Overview of My Journey Through the Twentieth Century 11 Part Two: “Roots” of Today’s Spirit-Filled Christians 1 Thomas Ball Barratt: An Unusual Servant of God 25 2 Daniel Berg and Adolf Vingren: Men Who Would Not Compromise 33 3 Fred Francis Bosworth: A Man of Humility and Humor 37 4 Robert Alexander Brown: Marked by Courage and Conviction 45 5 Alfred Howard Carter: A Man of Whom the World Was Not Worthy 51 6 Finis Jennings Dake: A Pioneer in the Word of God 67 7 Stanley Howard Frodsham: His Pen Was Tuned for Greatness 73 8 Donald Gee: Ambassador-At-Large 77 9 Willis Collins Hoover: Father of Pentecostalism in Chile 81 10 Harold Lawrence Cuthbert Horton: Defender of “Initial Evidence” Doctrine 85 11 Lam Jeevaratnam: A Messenger of Jesus 87 12 Stephen and George Jeffreys: Two Brothers With Sad Endings 91 7 Pioneers of Faith 13 Carrie Judd Montgomery: A Bridge Builder 97 14 Peter Christopher Nelson: A Pilgrimage Through Darkness 103 15 Petrus Lewi Pethrus: The Great Organizer 111 16 Victor Guy Plymire: “Fenced With Iron” 119 17 Charles S. Price: A Prince Among Preachers 127 18 Raymond Theodore Richey: A True Pioneer 133 19 James Salter: “Wise Counselor” of the Congo 141 20 Douglas R. Scott: Apostle to France 147 21 Lillian Trasher: The Great Mother of the Nile 153 22 Alfred George Ward: A Man Who Knew His Weapons 159 23 Smith Wigglesworth: Apostle of Faith 163 24 Lilian Barbara Yeomans: She Mixed Medicine and Divine Healing 181 Part Three: Conclusion Moving With the Last Blaze of Glory! 187 Bibliography 8 Part One Introduction 9 Pioneers of Faith 10 An Overview of My Journey Through the Twentieth Century These are the last days of the Church age, I believe, and they should be fulfilling days for God’s people. In order for that to happen, Christians need to understand their roots. Our primary “Root,” of course, is Jesus Christ (Isa. 11:1, 53:2), and He lives in us through the Holy Spirit. In John 15, Jesus called Himself the “Vine” and us “the branch- es.” He is the Root, and we are His fruit. And He wants us to bear fruit for Him in our turn. He called Himself “the root and the offspring of David” (Rev. 22:16). In the closing days of this century, it is important for the Church to know the roots of the present move of the Spirit. This century has seen the mightiest moves of the Holy Spirit since the Day of Pentecost. God said He would pour out His Spirit upon all flesh in the last days (Acts 2:1-18; Joel 2:28, 29). At Pentecost, shortly after Jesus ascended, the Holy Spirit came in power. This move, I believe as do many others, was the equivalent of the “early rain” God had promised. I also believe the twentieth century saw the beginning of the “latter rain” stage of God’s pouring out His Spirit upon all flesh, and it has continued through move after move during the past ninety years. However, the greatest outpouring of the “latter rain” is virtually upon us. About 1900, the world was in a state of “false peace,” thinking there would be no more wars. People wanted to close the patent office, because all the possible inventions 11 Pioneers of Faith had been made. However, people were praying for revival. They thought the new century should bring revival. The entire evangelical world seemed to be praying for revival at the same time — and God brought revival. The sad thing is that many of those praying for revival would not accept revival when it came, because it did not please them. It was not like the moves of God they had experienced before. They did not understand that what came before was a foundation, or “roots” for the next move of God. The “latter rain” began as a tiny trickle in a Bible school in Topeka, Kansas, when a man named Charles Parham sought the Holy Spirit’s gifts. Then it spread into Texas, where a black brother, William Seymour, took it to Los Angeles, and it became a full downpour. People came to the Azusa Street Mission from all of the continents of the world. However, its greatest adversaries were fundamentalists who said they believed the Bible, yet called this move of God “heretical.” They placed their doctrines, that said the gifts of the Spirit were not for today, above the Word of God. The roots of the modern outpouring that began to explode into the world from Azusa Street can be found in the ministries of nineteenth-century revivalists such as Dwight L. Moody, Billy Sunday, and John Alexander Dowie, all of the United States, and Charles Haddon Spurgeon and Gypsy Smith of Great Britain. It seems to me that those revivals mark the dividing line of the early and latter rain outpourings. Dowie died in 1907 as the Azusa Street meetings began to flow worldwide. I saw his original tabernacle. I also slept in Dowie’s personal bed in the town he founded — Zion, Illinois — when I visited pioneer Finis Dake, when he was president of Great Lakes Bible Institute in Zion. I have personally 12 Overview of My Journey experienced every move of the Holy Spirit in the twentieth century, and I have known many of the pioneers of each revival. Just as the roots of Azusa Street can be found in the meet- ings of the last century, the roots of today’s move of God can be found in the spiritual pioneers who lived and ministered from Azusa Street to not long after World War II. The move of the Spirit has not stopped, nor has it even declined during this century. There are presidents and prime ministers around the world today who have the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit. A few years ago, this was not true. I have been in some of their homes, and I know what I am talking about. I have heard them speak forth in their spiritual language. The move of the Spirit will increase until Jesus comes. This is the latter rain, and I am glad that I am a part of it. It has amazed me to see over the years how God has found people in remote corners of the earth, brought them to the center of what He was doing in order to lay a new foundation in their lives, and then sent them back to take the move into farther and farther places. Sometime between 1934-1936, I met Victor Plymire, a former missionary, in Hong Kong and also in Shanghai. He told me how the Lord led him into the Holy Spirit ex- perience. The Lord spoke to him and said, “Leave your family here and go to Los Angeles.” He asked, “What for?” but the Lord did not tell him. He left his family on the mission field and went to Los Angeles where he received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. As a result, his denomination cut off his support. Plymire then became a faith missionary in Tibet where he took the power of God to thousands of people in the 13 Pioneers of Faith Overview of My Journey Himalayas. He, his wife, and children rode mules over those mountains, because they had no other way to travel.