In his early years, Rouse claims his life was a testimony to the truth of Romans 3:16, "Destruction and misery are in their ways."
In his early teens, Rouse joined a gang of boys who blocked the door of the Presbyterian church, sermon in progress, using wheels from the hay-rakes found in front of the blacksmith's shop.
They would scare people by hiding out in the Knox Church cemetery at night with a ball of lamp-wick wrapped and sewn, soaked in coal-oil.
The climax of their antics came when Alexander Marshall, Dr. James Law, and Dr. J. N. Case had pitched a gospel tent across from his farm.
Then they put a bull thistle under his tail, causing the horse to plunge into the tent, creating havoc and spoiling the meeting for the night.
He got the wood on, and was on his way home, when he saw that, according to Romans 5:6, "Christ died for the ungodly," and he remembered that moment as the time where he "passed from death unto life."
Rouse's sister joined the Marshallites, which was the nickname they gave to the assembly of Alexander Marshall, who was the first to preach there.
While attending college to become a Congregational minister, on a Saturday in the autumn of 1893 he walked along the main street of town and heard the singing of a hymn in an upstairs hall.
He was interviewed by the elder Brethren, and "had the privilege for the first time of breaking the bread and drinking the wine in memory of the broken body, and poured out blood of our Lord Jesus Christ."
The next night, back in Midland, Rouse told how he was saved, and immediately left on a tour through towns and villages with the Bible carriage.