Ernest Bell

Though I was brought up in a Christian home, I saw the results that followed those who went the so-called down-and-out way. I made up my mind that I was going to be very different.

As far as life was concerned, I had a good time. I had everything that this world could offer. I had a very fine position in the city of San Francisco as the sales manager of a national organization. I knew what it was to make good money, but nothing satisfied.

It was in the city of San Francisco that I found God. I sat in the Apostolic Faith Church meetings time and time again. I listened to the testimonies as they went forth, and they couldn’t help but register in my heart. Finally, after one meeting, I went to the altar of prayer and I surrendered my life to God. I have never ceased to thank God for saving my soul that night.

I thought that giving my heart to God would be the end of all pleasure. I had sought pleasure with all my heart by traveling all over. I once made a ten-thousand-mile trip from one end of this country to the other and down into Mexico, but that did not satisfy. I sought pleasure in the Hindu temple with the ancient mysticisms, but that didn’t satisfy either. It was those simple testimonies in the meeting that night that registered in my heart.

One thing that troubled me before I was saved was just how I would be able to live a Christian life in sales work. I had done things that I wouldn’t be able to do anymore. I thought it would interfere with my selling. I found out that it didn’t bother me at all, because when God changed my heart, I didn’t have any trouble living it.

Many times, when engaged in sales work, out on mountain roads and mountain passes, going from one place to another, God spared my life. More than once I know it was the mercy of God that spared me. I have fallen asleep at the wheel going fifty to sixty miles-per-hour on the wrong side of the highway, but God spared my life—even before I was saved. I just have to thank God from the bottom of my heart for saving my life.

I thank God for the old-time religion. I thank God for the reality of the Gospel for it is, as the song says, “More than I ever dreamed could be.” I can say this Gospel is the most real thing that I have ever experienced.