Demonstrations of the power of God

Healings and miracles occurred in the British Isles during the ministry of George and Stephen Jeffreys

From Wales God raised up two brothers who have been wonderfully used of God in the Pentecostal work in the British Isles.

George Jeffreys, the younger of the two while yet in his teens, began preaching the full gospel. God gave him some very gracious revivals in Ireland. The old people in Ireland, who remembered the revival in 1859, when God’s power was so mightily manifested, were delighted to see revival of like nature. The first meeting hall was established in Belfast, Ireland, with a seating capacity of 300. Today in the same city there are two large tabernacles with a seating capacity of 2,000.

Reared in an earnest Christian home, George Jeffreys never knew a time when he did not love Jesus, but he can definitely fix the date of his new birth. Not many years after he started a business career as a lad, he abandoned it for the more serious business of proclaiming the gospel to perishing souls. Before he left business one side of his face was struck with paralysis, and for a time he partially lost the power of speech. Ever since 1911, when he was completely healed, he has publicly preached Divine Healing in the atonement, and has been markedly used of the Lord in healing of the sick. The campaigns held by George Jeffreys have packed some of the largest halls in the British Isles, including the historic hall of St. Andrews, Glasgow, with its seating capacity of 4,500; the Guild Hall of Plymouth, which accommodates nearly 4,000; the Military Riding School of Carlside, which holds 4,000; and the Royal Albert Hall of London, which accommodates 10,000. Each Easter three meetings have been held in this great hall and at each meeting the building has been filled to capacity. One Easter 1,000 were baptized in water. At a testimony service given at Albert Hall at Easter, 1933, to quote the account given in the Daily Express: ‘Of those who testified there were 72 guaranteed cures of cancer and malignant growths; 20 had been crippled; 17 had been blind; 70 had been afflicted with stiff muscles or useless limbs; and 18 had been deaf’.

Over 1,200 were swept into the kingdom in one campaign held in Brighton, and 300 gave testimony to the Lord’s healing power. One who attended this meeting writes: ‘Hundreds of people have testified in the meeting to having been healed. People who only a few weeks ago were bedridden, or wheeled about in chairs, are today walking and praising God for His kindness in healing them. Lame ones, who moved only by the aid of crutches, are able to dispense with these. Deaf ones have been made to hear, blind ones to see, fourteen testified to having been cured of cancer, tuberculosis, or tumor’.

Mr. Percy G. Parker wrote of a revival campaign held by George Jeffreys at Portsmouth: ‘Hundreds testified to healing, two at least had been wheeled into the meetings a few days before. One for fifteen years and the other for twenty years had been wheeled about helpless, but lo! they walked before us healed! The useless leg of one had faded to a skeleton. Not only was she instantly healed but her flesh returned as fresh and full as the other. A little girlie of about three years of age had been healed of paralysis of both arms. She held them up before us. Another had been blind in her right eye for many years. Now she sees! Growths, dislocations, deafness, rupture, even sugar diabetes have all disappeared before the touch of the Master.

We are living in the days of the acts of the Holy Ghost – thank God for it! Our eyes are seeing what hundreds of thousands of the redeemed ones have been groaning for. At this last meeting no less than 130 people signified their acceptance of Christ’.

The following is a newspaper clipping from the Bournemouth Times and Directory, by a special reporter, Marion Holmes: ‘If I had gone to the big tent – where Principal George Jeffreys has been holding revival and healing meetings – to scoff, I should certainly have remained to pray. But I did not go to scoff, I went to see if the wonderful cures of which I had heard were really taking place, and to decide – if I could – whether they were due, as some said, to hysterical excitement, or to something much greater and more permanent in its effects. I went, I saw, and I was conquered …. The gift of sight to a boy, who – so I was told – was born blind, was conferred at the same meeting; and I was given the particulars of the healing of a severe and long-standing case of spinal trouble by the grateful patient himself. Cases of cancer, goiter, rheumatism, nerve trouble, curvature of the spine, hereditary deafness, asthma, and numerous others have been cured at other meetings’.

The following incident is one of the after-effects of the revival meeting held at Bournemouth. It is taken from the Daily Chronicle, a London newspaper: ‘After being crippled from early childhood, owing to a diseased hip, Lindley Lodge, aged 26, of Highfield Road, Salisbury, has been cured by prayer. She has cast aside a surgical shoe, a splint, and surgical irons, and now wears ordinary shoes. Miss Lodge has been a patient in Salisbury infirmary about 20 times since she was five years old, and has had a number of operations, yet for the most part she has had to be wheeled in a chair. When last discharged from the infirmary a few months ago she was told that, failing relief of her pain, it would be necessary to amputate the leg. She agreed to this course, but decided to wait until after Christmas. In the meantime, however, a friend communicated with Pastor Fergus Trevor, of Bournemouth, who sent a message that at 3:20 p. m. on a certain day, special prayer would be offered for her. ‘I had heard of a person at Bournemouth being cured of curvature of the spine by prayer’, she told a Chronicle reporter, ‘and just before three o’clock that day I went into my room, took off my splint and irons, and feeling sure that I should not wear them again, I began to pray. Then something happened – I do not know what – but when I came to myself I could walk around the room. That was at 3:25. I flew downstairs to tell my parents. They were dumbfounded’. Within a week Miss Lodge had discarded her shoe, which had a sole 3,5 inches thick, and has worn shoes one of which had merely an extra layer of leather on the sole. The leg which was previously four inches short is now pratically normal’.

God has graciously honored the ministry of Pastor Stephen Jeffreys, brother of George Jeffreys, in the salvation of souls, and has continually confirmed the Word with signs following. J. W. Adams, an Episcopal minister of Wall, Litchfield, Staffs., writes: ‘While in London I went to Surrey Tabernacle, Walworth, and though at first somewhat prejudiced, I was profoundly impressed that Pastor Jeffreys and his helpers were instruments of the Lord Jesus in healing all manner of sickness. After being given up by doctors and turned away from hospitals, the blind received their sight, the deaf heard, the dumb spoke, cancer was cured, and the lame leaped for joy. Above all, the gospel was preached to rich and poor alike’.

One who attended Stephen Jeffreys’ campaign at Bishop Auckland wrote as follows: ‘There have been as many as 1,500 turned away disappointed after waiting in line two hours before the commencement of the service, who have complained: ‘When we have a bit of gospel we cannot get in to hear it’. There have been some wonderful divine healing cases – the lame walking, the deaf hearing, and all manner of diseases healed in the name of Jesus. A born blind girl, twelve years of age, from Newcastle on Tyne, received her sight, and the first face she saw in the world was the pastor’s. A dear man who had been in an invalid’s carriage and on crutches for seven years, came to the meeting on Friday night and could hardly move on his crutches, an object of pity. The pastor laid hands on him as he sat helpless in the chair. Immediately he came to his feet, and putting his crutches on his shoulder, walked home. This man walked into the meeting on Sunday night, and as soon as he was noticed the whole congregation of 1,000 began clapping their hands as they saw him mount the platform. This man has come every night since, dancing and leaping for joy. Another woman, Monday night, never able to walk from birth, of about forty-five years, was prayed for. As the evangelist laid hands on her she stood and walked, and then in sheer joy sobbed’.

Mr. T. D. Dorling writes: ‘During the month here at Bishop Auckland, over 2,000 souls confessed the Lord as their Saviour, a church being formed which now fills the Eden theatre holding 1,200 people on a Sunday evening’.

‘On September 3, 1927, a campaign commenced at Victoria Hall, Sunderland. The Lord came down in mighty power and testified to His presence in a manner that set the county heaving. Crowds gathered from distant towns, creating a situation which had to be taken in hand by the police. Twice a day thousands of people were divided into queues by mounted and foot police, and when 3,000 had been admitted to the hall, often a larger number remained outside to be dispersed by the police or reformed into queues to wait for the next meeting. Probably never before in England have such services been witnessed in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. So mightily was the Spirit outpoured that at ten p. m. queues were formed, standing or sitting, throughout the whole night till three p. m. the next day, sympathetic hearts ministering to the crowds – some with their sick – throughout the night, supplying hot tea and eatables.

An inspection in the early hours of the morning revealed some stirring examples and deep pathos of human love and sympathy. An aged mother reclining on the flagstone was holding the place for a crippled son, who could not spend the night in the open. A young woman resting on the pavement was ministering throughout the night to her sick husband. Each story told a need and a sacrifice through love. Ambulances, cabs and a variety of vehicles brought the sick and suffering and numbers were immediately raised form stretchers and testified in a practical manner of their healing. Such mighty demonstrations of the power and virtue of Calvary increased the interest, and the crowds, from which the Lord drew an abundant harvest – 3,300 souls passed through the enquiry rooms or confessed the Lord as their Saviour; forming a church so numerous as to create a difficulty to find a place to accommodate them. This work has since spread to Seaham Harbour, where a second church has been formed in a hall holding 1,000.

One who attended the revival meeting held by Stephen Jeffreys in Bury, wrote: ‘We have daily seen wonderful miracles of healing and salvation. Seven blind eyes have been opened, deaf have regained their hearing, the lame have discarded crutches, and the dead in trespasses and sins have been raised to newness of life. One Thursday afternoon two cases of cancer were prayed for and both were healed. One of these two was Mrs. Wall, The Homestead, Woodland Ave., Gorton, Manchester. Mrs. Wall preached in the United Methodist Church the Sunday morning after her healing’.

Pages could be filled with remarkable stories of similar meetings.

From: Stanley H. Frodsham, With Signs Following, Gospel Publishing House, Springfield Missouri, 1946, pages 64-70

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