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PREVAILING PRAYER FOR A REVIVAL

We knew a preacher, still living, who was appointed to the charge of a church in Springfield, Ill. The church seemed very much depressed. It’s life was at a low ebb. It was in the midst of the harvest, in the hot weather, when things seemed most depressed. The pastor, a holy man of God, announced on Sunday evening to a small congregation of a score or two of persons, “There will be a prayer-meeting in this church to-morrow morning at sunrise for the revival of the work of God and for the conversion of sinners.”

The people wondered at the notice, and went home. The pastor went up into his study, which was in the parsonage by the side of the church, and gave that night to prayer. Just as the East began to lighten up a little with the coming day he had the assurance that his prayer was answered, and casts himself down on a sofa for a little rest. Presently he awoke suddenly to see the sun shining on the wall over his head. He sprang up and hooked out of the window to see how late it was, when he saw the sun just rising above the horizon. Looking down into the yard by the church, he was overjoyed to see the church crowded with people, and teams crowding into the street for a long distance. God had heard his prayer, and had sent out his Spirit into the community, and there had been no sleeping in Springfield that night.

People in the country who knew nothing of the appointment got up in the night, hitched up their teams, and drove into town and to the church to find out what the matter was. A good man had taken hold of God. The prayer meeting began, and was closed that night at eleven o’clock. Several souls were converted. A gracious work broke out, and the community was greatly blessed. The foregoing we certify to on the highest authority, having it from the lips of the man himself, whom every body knowing him. We greatly need earnest, persevering, believing prayer. One night of such prayer kept by all the Church would startle the nation. We sorely need a mighty baptism of power. We have all the other elements of success. We lack no machinery. We have truth, and the experience of its saving power and the appliances. What we now need is the outpouring of the Spirit upon us as a people.

We must rekindle our fires. We must make our churches centers of saving power. One hour a day spent by the church in earnest prayer for the revival of God’s work would make the coming year the most memorable in the history of the church. If you do not feel burdened, ask for the spirit of prayer, and that shall be given you. Forsake your sins and leave yourself with God, and give yourself to prayer, and all over the land God will hear and answer, and pour out his Spirit, and bestow his power, and make this year a revival year. C.H. Fowler

PRAYING FOR WOOD

E. B. Slade tells an interesting instance of answered prayer. One cold winter he was forty miles away from home, holding revival services, when, in the midst of a terrible snowstorm, during which travel was almost wholly impossible, his wife, at home, ran out of wood.

To save the little that remained, she put her children to bed, and wrapped them up in blankets, At last baking must be done, and, making a fire of her last wood, she began to pray that help might come, and persevered until her faith won the victory.

She then went about her work in perfect peace of mind, assured that relief would come. In the course of a few hours her nearest neighbor, a lady, waded through the snow, saying that she had been impressed that she must come over and see what was the matter. The facts were stated, and relief promised. Hardly had she gone when another lady came in with the same statement, and the same offer was made. A little while later a gentleman came in expressing a similar feeling; and when he learned the facts, he took them all to his home, and cared for them until Mr. Slade returned home.

PRAYERS ANSWERED FOR RAIN

Within two blocks of the Pacific Mission, in Chicago, is one of our large depots, the Rock Island and Lake Shore. Here is a good field for labor. One night, when inviting one and another to the mission, a. lady answered: “We are or our way to Oberlin.” “The place,” I asked, “where Charles Finney lived?” “Yes.” “And did you know him?” “Yes,” she answered; “and my husband, who is here, was a member of his church.” Soon he joined us, much crippled and out of health; at first but little inclined to talk. I told him how precious the memory of Mr. Finney was, and asked if he could tell us any personal reminiscences of him. Soon the fire began to burn in his heart, and his lips began to speak. He said:”We had been long without rain. All vegetation was drying up; everything looked parched. In the prayer preceding the sermon, on Sunday, Mr. Finney began to pour out his full heart to God for rain. He laid the whole case before Him. ‘Lord, the cattle in the fields are lowing for water; there will be no food for them for winter, unless thou sendest rain. The harvest will fail – no food for man-unless Thou sendest rain. The little squirrels in the woods are panting for rain. On and on the petitions rose, faith rising as he prayed, until he felt they had entered into the ear of the Lord of Sabaoth, and, that ‘as a prince, he had power with God, and prevailed.’ His closing words were: “Lord; we want rain, and we want it now!” The service proceeded, the text was chosen, and for about half an hour Mr. Finney preached, when the rain began to dash against the windows. He stopped, and gave out the hymn:

“When all thy mercies, O my God,
My rising soul surveys,
Transported with the view,
I’m lost in wonder, love, and praise”

“The whole congregation rose to their feet, and don’t think, in that assembly of three thousand people was one dry eye. I never can tell it,” said the stranger:” but it melts me right up.” Yea, we were all melted, while “heaven came souls to greet, and glory crowned the Mercy seat.” “God, who lived in Elijah’s time, Is just the same today.” “Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are and he prayed earnestly “when the sins of the people were hurrying them on to destruction” that it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth for the space of three years. And again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain.” Are not all these scriptures given to encourage and strengthen the faith of God’s people in all ages? Yea, verily! Two sisters had left the Taylorville, Ill., campground on their way to visit a sick woman.

The earth had become as dust; all nature was parched and drying up under the hot beams of the sun. It was Saturday; and looking forward to the Sunday, bringing its multitudes from all the surrounding country, they thought of the suffering and discomfort there would be. The elder of the two asked: “Is not God the same today as in the days of Elijah?” The dry bed of a spring seemed a good place for prayer, and there they knelt together. Soon their united faith took hold, and the assurance was given that their prayers were heard, and their petitions should be granted. L. B. Kent, of Jacksonville, the leader of the meeting, proposed at the close of the afternoon service, that a meeting should be held for prayer for rain. “And shall I hide what the Lord has already promised?” was the query whispered by the Spirit. “No;” and rising to her feet, one of the sisters told how the Lord had promised the rain.

Night came. The moon, in her glorious brightness, shone forth, and there was no indication in the heavens of rain. Hour after hour passed, while every now and then, as faith 2 held on for the promised blessing, the assuring words of Jesus would come: “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you three o’clock came, and the rain began to fall, and the hallelujahs and praises to God went up from many a waiting heart. It fell copiously until seven o’clock when clouds dispersed, and the people gathered and the work of God moved on blessedly. — Sarah A. Cooke

PRAYER FOR THE PREACHER

John Livingston, of Scotland, once spent a whole night in prayer with a company of his brethren, for God’s blessing, all of them besieging the throne; and the next day, under his sermon, five hundred souls were saved.

All the world has heard how the audience of the elder President Edwards was moved by his terrible sermon on “Sinners in the hands of an angry God;” some of them even grasping hold of the pillars of the sanctuary, from feeling that their feet were actually sliding into the pit. But the secret of that sermon’s power is known to but few.

Some Christians in the vicinity (Enfield, Mass.) had become alarmed, lest, while God was blessing other places, He should in anger pass them by; and so they met on the preceding evening, and spent the whole night in agonizing prayer — Foster’s Cyclopedia

PRAYER ANSWERED FOR ONE HUNDRED MISSIONARIES

Major O. M. Brown, President of the Ohio Christian Alliance, of Cleveland, O.H, furnishes us the following: In the spring of 1890, A. B. Simpson, President of the International Christian Alliance, was burdened in prayer for the heathen, who were perishing without the knowledge of the true God. And as he prayed, he began to inquire: “Lord, what can I do about it?” Then he began to ask the Lord to give him that year, one hundred missionaries for the foreign work, and money enough to pay their transit, and support them one year on the field; which would be about one hundred thousand dollars.

At the New York State Convention of the Alliance, held at Round Lake, in July of that same year, Mr. Simpson gave a very stirring address on the subject, and the people pledged $1,800 in a few minutes. At the Ohio Convention, at Beulah Park, near Cleveland, a few days later, $2,200 was pledged. And at the Old Orchard Convention, in Maine, in the month of August, $35,000 was pledged. Afterward, the pledges kept coming in, until there was upwards of $100,000 pledged. Before the year was out, the one hundred missionaries were many of them, in the field, or on the way thither. A few of them had not yet departed, but were ready to sail.

The work nearly doubled during the year 1892. These missionaries are scattered over large portions of the heathen world-in India, China, Japan, Africa, Palestine, South America, and the Islands of the Sea. None of this great force of Christian workers receive any stated salary for their service; and no member of the Mission Board receives any remuneration for his service. God will honor those who ask large things of Him.