Milo

A GUIDING VOICE

A touching story came to us from Minnesota. A farmer, living on the edge of one of the many lakes of that state, started to cross it in a small sail-boat one evening after dark. The wind changed, and a gust overturned the boat when he was in the middle of the lake. The surface of the water was covered with large masses of floating ice. The farmer was an expert swimmer, and he struck out boldly towards the shore, where he thought his house stood; but he grew confused in the darkness; the ice formed rapidly over the whole lake.

He was in a small, quickly-narrowing circle, in which he beat about wildly, the chill of death creeping over his body. He gave up at last, and was sinking in the freezing water, when he heard a sound.

It was the voice of his little girl calling him: “Father! Father!” He listened. The sound of her voice would tell him which way home lay. It put fresh life into him. He thought: “If she would only call once more! But she will be frightened at the dark and cold. She will go in and shut the door”

But just then came the cry, loud and clear: “Father!” “I turned,” said the man afterward, in telling the story, “and struck out in the opposite direction. I had been going away from home. I fought my way; the ice broke before me. I reached the shore and home at last. But my dear was away from — Wesleyan Methodist.

What a multitude of souls about us, like that poor man, have lost their balance, and let go their grip on the life-boat, and are struggling amid the cold, icy waves of sin — soon to sink to the bottomless pit and be forever lost, unless some one goes as near to them as possible, and calls them in the right direction. Just one word spoken in Jesus’ name may show them the right way, and be the means of their salvation.

Dear brother, the sound of your voice, the words you may speak, the kind action you may do, may show some fallen brother the right way home. O let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. — Editor.

A GREAT REVIVAL IN ANSWER TO PREVAILING PRAYER

During the winter of t885-86 we were called to hold a revival meeting in New Haven, Shiawassee county, Michigan. During the first few days of the meeting we found many difficulties, and the powers .of darkness arrayed against the work. Keenly realizing our need, we went to God in earnest prayer, and soon experienced a wonderful travail of soul for the desolation of Zion. In less than twenty-four hours from the time this wonderful spirit, of wrestling prayer, was given us, the work commenced to move in earnest. The pastor, in sobs and tears, confessed that he was backslidden, asked pardon of some of his members, and came to the altar seeking forgiveness of God.

Many professed Christians followed his example, and in a few days the whole country was in a flame of revival, such as had never been known in that section of the country.

The spiritual condition of the community was so changed that for years sinners were converted at almost every public gathering of God’s people. Over two years after the commencement of that wonderful awakening, at a camp meeting held in the same community, a paper was drawn up endorsing our work, and signed by several ministers of the gospel and forty or fifty others; and from that paper we clip the following statement in reference to this glorious revival, known in all that section as “the big revival”: “When Brother Shaw came, great division and lack of harmony existed among the members of the different churches in the neighborhood, Methodist, Episcopal, Free Methodist, Weslyan Methodist, and German Evangelical.

Bible Christianity was at a low ebb, but he preached the truth of God faithfully. He condemned sin of every kind. God honored the message by a mighty outpouring of the Holy Ghost. The truth went home to hearts. The whole county was stirred. Scores who opposed the work bitterly for a time, were brought under conviction, saved, and became its warmest friends. Under the mighty power of God souls were humbled, confessions were made, wrongs were made right, and sectarian bigotry melted away.

Hearts were united. Several ministers of the gospel knelt at the altar as seekers. The work was so thorough that no difference could be discovered among the members of the different churches. All were equally separated from the world, and equally baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire. During the meeting, lasting in all about seven weeks, between two and three hundred souls were gloriously converted, reclaimed or sanctified. Never has there been known in all this community such a revival.” – Editor.

 A GREAT REVIVAL IN A SINGLE NIGHT

One of the most remarkable experiences we have had in seventeen years of evangelistic work, occurred in the spring of 1890. It will be remembered that at this time the United Brethren Church was sadly divided on the secrecy question, and in many places two pastors were employed, one by the “Liberals ” and another by the “Radicals” of the same congregation. In our travels we stopped to visit an old friend, who was the “Radical” pastor in such a place as these to whom we have referred. We had no thought of stopping only over the Sunday, and never did we get into a place where the people had less anticipations of a revival. Much hard feeling had existed, and many unkind, unchristian things had been said and done.

Sunday evening our friend invited us to preach for him. God gave us unusual liberty in prayer and in preaching His word, and opened the very windows of heaven, and showers of blessing fell upon that dry and barren land. In spite of circumstances so utterly forbidding, in one short hour, the people found themselves in the midst of a powerful revival. We never witnessed so much confession in so short a time. Many in tears asked each other’s forgiveness, and then came to the altar together, and prayed that they might regain their first love; and God heard and answered their prayers. The “Liberal” pastor was not present, but the “Liberal” presiding-elder was; and he and the “Radical” pastor had had little confidence in each other; but under ‘the mighty power of the Spirit, their hearts were united, and they embraced each other in tears.

Thus did God manifest His power, and get to His own name glory; and to Him alone be praise, both now and forever, for in His hands are the hearts of the children of men. — Editor.

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.