pected scene, the suggestion came like a flash to his soul, "My wife's God is more real to her than her husband is. If she is so earnest for my welfare as to rise at such an hour and pray alone for me, it is time I had some care for my own soul"; and he instantly arose from his bed, knelt beside her and added his own prayer to hers. He gave his heart to God on the spot, and that very morning came to the early meeting at the church and announced his change of heart; the next Sabbath he united with the Church.—H. C. Mabie, "Methods in Evangelism."
(2446)
PRAYER BY GREAT LEADERS
The following is from The Saturday Evening Post:
At the critical hours of American history
when the noonday sky was midnight and the
atmosphere saturated with murk—where do
we find our great American leaders unable
by human eyes to see before them? We
find them, do we not? on their knees beseeching
divine guidance and groping for
a clasp of the Unseen Hand which would
lead them and this people into the light again.
The whole winter of the American troops
at Valley Forge is an historical panorama
of heroism, self-denial, and sacrifice. Yet
every noble incident of that season of doom
and dread furnishes but details of the background
for the great central picture which
the American mind loves to dwell upon—Washington
on his knees at Valley Forge.
It was Lincoln who in 1864 declared: "God
bless the churches, and blest be God who
in this hour giveth us the churches." And
Washington, in 1789, immediately after he
was made the first President of the republic,
wrote to the bishops of the Methodist
Church:
"I trust the people of every denomination will have occasion to be convinced that I shall always strive to prove a faithful and impartial patron of genuine, vital religion. . . . I take in the kindest part the promise you make of presenting your prayers at the throne of grace for me, and that I likewise implore the divine benediction on yourself and your religious community."
(2447)
PRAYER, CONVINCING
George W. Coleman, in his book "Searchlights," says:
One of my ministerial friends, who has
resigned his pulpit because of his out-and-out
socialistic views, naturally stirred up a
good deal of angry opposition in some
quarters, altho he has one of the sweetest
characters I have ever known. Hateful and
contemptuous things were said. There was
much damning with faint praise, especially
among former friends.
A level-headed friend of mine, a woman of sixty years or thereabouts, heard something of the commotion, and, to satisfy her curiosity, dropt into the church one Sunday to hear for herself what the minister really had to say for his peculiar and unpopular views. When I met her soon afterward, her only comment was, "Well, I have only to say that a man who can pray like that can't go very far wrong, whether its socialism or anything else."
(2448)
PRAYER FOR COMMON NEEDS
Mrs. Scranton, a missionary in Korea, writes in the Bible Society's Reporter of a Korean Christian woman whose reply to a neighbor was a beautiful testimony to her faithfulness in prayer:
The neighbor said she could not pray—she
had no time, and furthermore she had
no skill with her lips. The Christian replied,
"Am I not a busy woman, and yet I pray.
When I get up in the morning I say, 'My
Heavenly Father, You have given me these
garments with which I clothe my naked
body. Without them I should be ashamed.
Now please clothe my soul that it may never
be ashamed or afraid.' When I wash my
face and hands I pray that I may be made
clean inside as well as outside. I make the
fire; and if I put on much wood it burns
brightly, and I ask that the Holy Spirit may
kindle just such a fire in my heart. Then
I sweep the room and I say, 'Please sweep
away all the bad there is in and around me.'
When I cook the rice I pray that heavenly
food may be given to my soul to keep it
from starving to death." Has not this woman
learned the secret of prayer?
(2449)
PRAYER FOR OTHERS
James Whitcomb Riley writes this altruistic prayer:
Dear Lord, kind Lord,
Gracious Lord, I pray
Thou wilt look on all I love,
Tenderly to-day!
