This Week in AG History -- October 14, 1962

Robert Cummings (1892-1972) and his wife Mildred (1892-1981) originally were sent out by the United Presbyterian Church of North America as missionaries to India. Through a series of events, the couple received the baptism in the Holy Spirit while on the mission field and then became appointed missionaries with the Assemblies of God. They had a distinguished career as missionaries and Bible instructors. Fifty-five years ago, in the Oct. 14, 1962, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel, Robert Cummings wrote an article, “What God Taught Me,” describing how he came to accept the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

The son of United Presbyterian missionaries, Cummings was born and raised in Punjab, India, and attended school there. At age 15, he attended a preparatory school in the U.S. and latter attained two bachelor’s degrees and two master’s degrees. He was ordained in 1918 with the United Presbyterian Church and served a year as a chaplain in the U.S. Army.

Robert Cummings was appointed as a missionary with the United Presbyterian Church in 1920. While on the mission field, Robert and Mildred worked with various missionary agencies before becoming independent missionaries. Robert became principal of the Landour Language School in India where he rubbed shoulders with a number of Assemblies of God missionaries.

After reading the life of Charles Finney, Robert Cummings was struck by Finney’s description of his own spiritual experience, which felt like “waves and waves of liquid love.” Cummings began praying himself to be filled with the Holy Spirit. His wife was also seeking the Pentecostal blessing. During the Easter holidays of 1924, Mildred Cummings was wonderfully baptized in the Holy Spirit. Robert kept seeking and did not receive the Baptism until after he attended a prayer retreat in January 1925.

As he was walking along a canal bank in India and was praising God, he sensed God saying to him: “You really are not praising Me and praying for My glory because you are anxious for My glory, but because you want your Baptism.” Cummings realized this was true. He felt the Lord put a new prayer in his heart, “O God! Be Thou glorified at any cost to me.” Later that day he continued in prayer and praise, “O God! Be thou exalted and glorified in each of Thy children, in me. Let Thy name be vindicated and magnified at any cost to me.” This prayer brought on a time of weeping followed by an indescribable sense of the majesty and greatness of God. His heart then was filled with joy and even laughter as he felt a strong presence of God’s Spirit.

The next day as he continued praying, the Lord began to speak many things to him. Most of all, Cummings wanted to be yielded completely to God, including his tongue. He revealed, “As I yielded it to Him He spoke through me in a language which I did not know or understand.” He felt God’s power flowing through him in a life-changing way.

After being baptized in the Holy Spirit, Robert Cummings joined the Assemblies of God. During World War II, the Cummings family left India, and Robert was appointed director of missions at Central Bible Institute (now Evangel University). Receiving appointment with the Assemblies of God, he went back to India as a missionary in 1946. He served as field secretary for South Asia from 1946-1948. In this capacity, he and his wife traveled extensively throughout India and Ceylon, representing the Assemblies of God and continued in missionary work through 1961. After retiring from missionary work, he again served on the faculty of Central Bible Institute.

Looking back on his years of missionary service and the time he received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, Cummings declared, “I can testify that this experience back in India has meant to me new life, a new world, a new Saviour, a new Spirit.”

Read Robert Cummings’ testimony, “What God Taught Me,” on pages 4, 5, and 29 of the Oct. 14, 1962, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Also featured in this issue:

• “A Day at Azusa Street” by Stanley M. Horton

• “God’s Thoroughbred” by Jack West

• “Revival on Guam”

And many more!

Click here to read this issue now.

Pentecostal Evangel archived editions courtesy of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.

Glenn W. Gohr

Glenn W. Gohr is the reference archivist at the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center in Springfield, Missouri.