TANK BAPTISMS

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 134, 8 June 1935, Page 27

TANK BAPTISMS

LONDON DEMONSTRATION

Sixty men, women, and children were baptised by, total immersion in a tank at the Albert Hall, Kensington, recently, when the tenth annual demonstration of the Elim Foursquare Gospel Alliance was held, says the "Daily Mail."

The meeting was attended by 10,000 people, many of whom did not leave the building from 9 a.m. till 10 p.m. During the meeting nearly 1000 sick people were anointed with oil and prayed for; communion was administered to many thousands; more than 100 people declared conversion.

The services were conducted by Principal George Jeffreys, a handsome man, with dark, curly hair.

Among those who attended were a number of cripples carried in the arms of their friends. For an hour and a half Principal Jeffreys made his way among the cripples and sick .people, and anointed their foreheads with oil.

When members of the congregation were asked if they had been cured at previous services of various ailments the following response was forthcoming:—Cripples, 34; blindness in one or both eyes, 19; deafness, 22; cancer and other ailments, 78.

A large tank had been erected in front of the platform for the baptisms.

Principal Jeffreys, wearing wading boots beneath his black gown, stood in the warm water, while the men converts, in white shirts and flannel trousers, and the women, in white dresses and bathing caps, entered it by a flight of steps. Each convert was plunged under the water by the principal.

The first to be baptised were a man and wife—Mr. and Mrs. Harbour, of Rushton, Northamptonshire—and their daughter and son-in-law, all of whom stood in the tank together. Children Were among those baptised.

One member of the congregation was Lady Holman, wife of Lieut-General Sir Herbert Holman, who told a "Daily Mail" reporter that as a result of a healing service conducted by Principal Jeffreys she had been cured of a complaint which had made it almost impossible for her to use one eye.

A message of greeting to the King was sent from the Albert Hall, and a telegram of thanks was later read out.