He was much frightened, and called to his mother with trembling voice, "Mama, God won't let the thunder hurt us, will He?" When assured that the lightning was governed by God's laws, and that there was little or no danger, he quieted down and slept soundly during the rest of the storm. So far as was known, this child had never been told that God protected him under such conditions. It was evidently an inference drawn from his own thoughts about the personal influence he felt to pervade the world. (Text.)—George E. Dawson, "The Child and His Religion."
(1031)
FAITH AND POWER
When the soul of man is full of faith it is in a changed condition. The man is the same, but his state is not the same, and he in the new state develops new powers and new capacities. To be full of faith is to be full also of power of a new kind. For faith is spiritual dynamite.
Cold iron is precisely identical with iron
heated in the fire; but tho the metal is the
same, the fire that has entered it entirely
transforms its condition and endows it with
a new potency. And the fire also by entering
the iron takes upon itself new action,
making of the metal a vehicle of its dynamic
potency. So does the Spirit of God transfuse
and transform and vivify and fortify
human nature. (Text.)
(1032)
FAITH AND PRAYER
As the Lucania was in mid-Atlantic a
young man came to the purser and asked
him to lend him £10, as he was without
money, and every hour was bringing him
nearer to London. The purser said he had
made a rule not to lend money and suggested
that the young man should borrow from
some friend on board. "But I have no
friend. The only person who would give
me £10 is my mother, and she left London
for New York the same day as we sailed
from New York." The purser thought for a
moment, and then he said, "We may get into
speaking touch with the vessel on which
your mother is, and then you could ask her
to lend you the money by wireless
telegraphy." The next night the young man
was roused from sleep with the news that
the Lucania was in communication with the
boat on which his mother was a passenger.
She readily handed £10 to the purser on her
ship, and he authorized the purser on the
Lucania to give the young man this sum.
The vessels were many miles apart in the
darkness of the night, and yet the need on
the one ship was met by the love on the
other. What a light that throws on the
force of prayer! "Ask and ye shall receive."
(Text.)
(1033)
FAITH AND SUPPORT
Mr. Tornvall, of the Ping Liang station,
Central China, made a test of a converted
Taoist priest who wished to be a colporteur
for the Central China Tract Society. When
starting out for a distant city he asked the
missionary for a few cents, as he had no
money. Mr. Tornvall pointed out to him
from the gospels the way in which Jesus
sent out His disciples with no money in
their scrips. "All right," said the colporteur,
"I will also make trial of that plan," and off
he started. A month later two missionaries
found him in a distant city preaching and
selling his books, and looking remarkably
happy. He said that altho he had not been
feasting every day, yet he could give the
same testimony as the disciples: he had
lacked for nothing. (Text.)
(1034)
FAITH BETTER THAN SIGHT
There is a true story of a man who crossed the river Usk, England, under circumstances where faith was far better than sight:
He had been absent on business for some
time, and in the meantime the bridge had
been washed away, and a new one was being
constructed. While the buttresses were in
place, he drove up in his gig one very dark
night, and gave the reins to his horse, who,
he knew, was well accustomed to the road.
They crossed safely over what he took to be
the bridge, and came to an inn near the river.
The landlady asked him, being an old acquaintance,
what part of the country he had
come in from. "From Newport," he
answered. "Then you must have crossed the
river?" said the woman in astonishment.
"Yes, of course. How else could I have
come?" "But how did you manage it, and
in the dark, too?" "The same as usual;
there is no difficulty in driving over the
bridge, even tho it be dark." "Bless the
man!" said the landlady, "there is no bridge
to drive over. You must have come along
the planks left by the men." "Impossible,"
