Milo

A CYCLONE OF POWER AND GLORY IN ANSWER TO PRAYER

At a convention of Christian workers, held in April, 1882, we witnessed a spiritual cyclone. Forty or fifty ministers and laymen of different denominations had come together, for prayer and counsel, concerning the most important doctrines of the Christian church. Great differences of opinion were expressed, and the controversy became so sharp that some seemed offended, and the spiritual influence of the meeting sadly hindered. In fact, the powers of darkness threatened to come in like a flood, and overthrow the good that had already been done.

But some there were in that little company who knew the mighty power of prayer, and in that hour of need went on their faces before God with strong crying and tears. The Spirit interceded with groanings that could not be uttered, and soon an indescribable sacredness came over the meeting.

A sister, who is in general opposed to what are termed outward manifestations, was so pressed in spirit that she began to groan aloud, and then to exclaim: “The Lord shall have His way! the Lord shall have His way! The Lord shall have His way!” Others began to weep. Then a minister, who had come to the meeting strongly opposed to the views set forth by the leading workers, jumped to his feet, and shouted the praise of God, and began to tell of the mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost he had received. And sooner than we can write it, a veritable cyclone of God’s power and glory swept over the place, carrying everything before it. Stubborn hearts yielded, and, in a very few moments of time, many were saved and filled with the Spirit.

Of this convention and closing service, a minister, who is now a presiding elder in the United Brethren Church, says “The interest increased steadily from first to last, closing in a tornado of Divine power. None who were present last evening can ever forget how, at the first shout of victory, nearly all of the congregation rushed out of the house, only to return and gaze in speechless wonder, as souls being brought under conviction for sin, cried for pardon, or shouted their praises at being brought from nature’s darkness to God’s marvelous light. Others, groaning under the conviction for holiness, wrestled until the carnal mind was cast out; when some leaped for joy, and others were laid prostrate under the weight of glory. Eternity alone can tell the blessed results of that closing service.”

God does not thus reveal himself to the children of men for naught, and already thousands have been influenced for good as a result of that Pentecostal outpouring of His Spirit. — Editor.

A CHILD’S PRAYER ANSWERED

The following touching incident, which drew tears from eyes, was related to me a short time since, by a dear friend who had it from an eye-witness of the same. It occurred in the great city of New York, on one of the coldest days in February.

A little boy about ten years old was standing before a shoe store in Broadway, barefooted, peering through the window, and shivering with cold. A lady riding up the street in a beautiful carriage, drawn by horses finely caparisoned, observed the little fellow in his forlorn condition, and immediately ordered the driver to draw up and stop in front of the store. The lady, richly dressed in silk, alighted from her carriage, went quickly to the boy, and said: ” My little fellow, why are you looking so earnestly in that window?”

“I was asking God to give me a pair of shoes,” was the reply. The lady took him by the hand and went into the store, and asked the proprietor if he would allow one of his clerks to go and buy half a dozen pair of stockings for the boy. He readily assented. She then asked him if he could give her a basin of water and a towel, and he replied: “Certainly,” and quickly brought them to her.

She took the little fellow to the back part of the store, and, removing her gloves, knelt down, washed those little-feet and dried them with the towel.

By this time the young man had returned with the stockings. Placing a pair upon his feet, she purchased and gave him a pair of shoes, and tying up the remaining pairs of stockings, gave them to him, and patting him on the head said: “I hope, my little fellow, that you now feel more comfortable.”

As she turned to go, the astonished lad caught her hand, and looking up in her face, with tears in his eyes, answered her question with these words: “Are you God’s wife? “– Parish Register.

A CANCER HEALED, AND A WITHERED ARM RESTORED

Brother W. B. Bailey wrote us from Hybrid, Mo., January 7, 1887:

“I had a cancer in my left breast. It pained me very much; had become very bad and tender, and was a running sore. The saints prayed for me, and the Lord answered our prayers. Praise His holy name! The pain left me instantly, but the cancer healed gradually. It healed up without medicine or plaster, or anything but by trusting God alone. Praise the Lord for healing me, both soul and body. See Mark xvi:18 and James v:13-16.”

His wife wrote at the same time:

“And all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” Matt. xxi :22. I praise the Lord, prayer was answered for me. I was very much afflicted in body. I went to the doctors. They could not cure me, I only grew worse. Was taken with a pain in my right shoulder. How I suffered none can tell. I could not use my arm without great pain. I could not raise my hand to comb my hair. My arm wasted away until it was less than the other. My hand was cold most all of the time. I was a cripple ten years. The saints prayed for me, and I was healed in answer to prayer. I can use my arm now. My hand is like the other. I can write and work with my right hand. I also had the dyspepsia seventeen years, and am healed in answer to prayer.”

S.B. Shaw

This 19th century book is a book about answered prayers, how God has answered prayer in ordinary people’s lives. The stories can comfort, inspire, and warm your heart. It a book that reminds Christians that God never forgets to care for the abandoned, the old, the sick, the young, and the persecuted. Shaw’s also show that God may answer prayers in ways we do not expect, it is very touching and remarkable.

Excerpt from Touching Incidents and Remarkable Answers to Prayer: As Related by John B. Gough, Bishop Bowman, LL. D., Mrs. Mary Grant Cramer, James H. Potts, D.D., Mathew Hale Smith, John Wesley, T. De Witt Talmage, D.D., George Muller, and Many Others

True prayer is the language of an earnest soul breathing after God, and a. Knowledge of his will. The praying spirit is a search for the presence of God, and a continued craving for a conscious blessing from Him. Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not thyself from my supplication. O Lord God Of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee let my prayer come before thee incline thine ear unto my cry for my soul is full of troubles. Hear me when I call, 0 God of my righteousness thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer. These are the cries of a dependent, trusting, and enriched heart. They Show the natural disposition of troubled man to fly to God for succor and relief.

Man has always prayed. He cannot help it. He is made so. His prayers may not always be prompted by the right motive, nor couched in acceptable phraseology, nor offered in the proper spirit. Ye ask and receive not be cause ye ask amiss. But man will pray. He must pray. The very nature of his earthly life demands prayer. He may rebel against his environments, scoff at the necessity for sup plication, for years neglect his duty, yet sooner or later, secretly or Openly, he will call upon a higher power for that aid which earthly help can not render.

A BLACKSMITH PREVAILED WITH GOD FOR A REVIVAL

A story related by Mr. Finney, will illustrate the power of the mighty prayer of faith, even when every human aid seems withheld, and nothing remains but the burning, throbbing heart, breathing out its longings, and pouring out its groans and tears before the Lord.

In a certain town there had been no revival for many years; the church was nearly run out, the youth were all unconverted, and desolation reigned unbroken. There lived in a retired part of the town, an aged man, a blacksmith by trade, and of so stammering a tongue that it was painful to hear him speak. On one Friday, as he was at work in his shop alone in his mind became greatly exercised about the state of the church, and of the impenitent. His agony became so great that he was induced to lay aside his work, lock the shop door, and spend the afternoon in prayer.

He prevailed and on the Lord’s day, called on the minister and desired him to appoint a conference meeting. After some hesitation — the minister consented — observing, however, that he feared but few would attend. He appointed it the same evening, at a large, private house.

The people gathered from far and near, doubtless to surprise of the unbelieving and faint-hearted. A solemn sense of the presence of God seemed to oppress the as feelings too deep for speech were welling up in many hearts. All was silent for a time, until one sinner broke out in and said, if any one could pray, he begged him to pray for him. Another followed, and still another, until it was found that persons from every quarter of the town were under deep conviction. And what was remarkable was, that they all dated their conviction at the hour when the old man was praying in his shop. A powerful revival followed. Thus this old stammering man prevailed, and as a prince had power with God. — Records of Prevailing Prayer

December 31st

Yesterday

The God of Israel will be your rereward. Isaiah 52:12.

Security from Yesterday. “God requireth that which is past.” At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise from remembering the yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace is apt to be checked by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them in order to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual culture for the future. God reminds us of the past lest we get into a shallow security in the present.
Security for To-morrow. “For the Lord will go before you.” This is a gracious revelation, that God will garrison where we have failed to. He will watch lest things trip us up again into like failure, as they assuredly would do if He were not our rereward. God’s hand reaches back to the past and makes a clearing-house for conscience.
Security for To-day. “For ye shall not go out with haste.” As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, unremembering delight, nor with the flight of impulsive thoughtlessness, but with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays present irreparable things to us; it is true that we have lost opportunities which will never return but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past sleep, but let it sleep on the bosom of Christ.
Leave the Irreparable Past in His hands, and step out into the Irresistible Future with Him.