“And help us to stay faithful until the end,” visitors to the H.L. Chesser home heard as each mealtime blessing concluded. Those who knew Hallie Louticious Chesser knew that these words were not only the prayer of his lips, but they were also words by which he lived his life. H.L. Chesser (1898-1987) knew what it was to come from a family of humble means.
“Robert, come with me to a mission where the people speak in ‘other tongues,’ as they did in the early church. I tell you it is all so wonderful. Every time I go there, I am blessed.” With that brief but enthusiastic invitation from his father, Robert Cook and his wife, Anna, found themselves in the Upper Room Mission on South Spring Street in Los Angeles, California.
“Oh, wretched man that I was! My life had become miserable, and I decided that my only hope lay in Christ; and to receive Him I would surrender my all.” –John C. Jernigan
“I guess you remember the little girl you prayed for at Brother Linwood Slay’s tent revival here in Alabama City, who had been sick for two years and five months. She was six years old and weighed only fifteen pounds. Well, Brother Walker, I just want to tell you and praise the Lord for He has really and truly healed her. She began to mend from that night on and now she weighs over thirty pounds and can pull up to a chair.” –Sister Mary Morgan
“Dear ones, I only feel humble and meek and am glad to know that I have victory, and rejoice because my name is written in heaven. Please pray that I continue in this highway of holiness and that my husband be filled with the Holy Ghost; also that my father will get saved.” — Mother Jessie L. Hayward
By the end of 1921, the words “Echo Park Revival Tabernacle” no longer stood for a fond but distant dream. The building was fast becoming a blessed and concrete reality, a solid base for the evangelistic work the Master had placed in my hands. How eager and anxious I was after another strenuous series of eastern campaigns and the transcontinental trip through snow and sleet to reach Los Angeles, where I lost no time speeding to the tabernacle site.
