John G Lake prayer in Bosworth's home

I sat in Fred Bosworth’s home one night before Fred thought of preaching the gospel, and listened to Lillian Thistleweight (sister-in-law of Charles Parham) tell of God and His love, His sanctifying grace and power, and what real holiness is. It was not her arguments of logic that impressed me; it was herself. It was the divine holiness that came from her soul; it was the living Spirit of God that came out of the woman’s life. I sat back in the room, as far away as I could get. I was self-satisfied, doing well in the world, prosperous with all the accompaniments that go with successful life. But that night my heart became so hungry that I fell on my knees, and those who were present will tell you yet that they had never heard anybody pray as I prayed.

Bosworth said long afterward, “Lake, there is one instance that I shall always remember in your life. That was the night you prayed in my home until the rafters shook, until God came down, until the fire struck, until God came in and sanctified our hearts.” All the devils in hell could not make me believe there is not a real sanctified experience of Jesus Christ, when God comes in and makes your heart pure and takes self out of your nature, and gives you divine triumph over sin and self. “Blessed are they which do hunger.” Beloved, pray to get hungry.

As I talked with Lillian Thistleweight, I observed the one supreme thing in that woman’s soul was the consciousness of holiness. She said, “Brother, that is what we prayed for; that is what the baptismbrought to us. That is what we coveted from God.”