A Christian wife, whose husband was an officer on a Mississippi steamer (which was burned), as she prayed that her husband would be preserved and saved, not knowing of the disaster, was assured that his life would be spared and that he would be saved.
When, the day following, she received a telegram, stating that her husband had perished, she folded it and said: ” It is not so. He is saved from the flames and waves, and shall be from his sins.” A few days later he arrived at home, and was soon converted. The faith of this Christian wife, after praying was earnest.
The Methodist Preachers’ Meeting of Boston was well attended last Monday, and W.N. Brodbeck, D.D., the pastor of the Tremont-street Church of this city thrilled the brethren with an address on “The relation of the ministers to revivals,” during which he pointedly referred to church fairs and festivals as barriers to revivals. He declared that some ministers and churches would never have a revival, because they would not do the hard work, and make the sacrifice essential to secure said results
At Urbana, Ohio, he began revival services, but at first only doubtful characters came to the altar, in whom the public had no confidence. Many were offended, and some said: “Do you know those people that are coming to the altar?
He replied: “Yes, I know them; they are immortal souls for whom Christ died.” When the meetings had run three weeks, one of his leading members came to him and said : ” I think it is time these meetings were stopped we have held them three weeks, and we want to hold a fair, and have some entertainments “
The pastor firmly and promptly replied: “You may do as you please, but these meetings will not stop.”
His heart was broken, and so was the heart of one of the devout women members. They expressed their feelings to each other and parted. They both spent the night in prayer, and at 10 o’clock the next morning, the pastor gained the evidence that his prayers were answered. After dinner he went out, and met the devout lady on the street, her face shining with the glory of God. She said: “The victory is coming.” “How do you know?”
“I got the evidence at 10 o’clock this morning, after spending a whole night in prayer.”
This was the very time that the pastor gained the evidence. That very night, while the pastor was preaching, a young man arose and came to the altar; others followed, so that the pastor had to stop preaching. God was among the people in power; the church was quickened, backsliders were reclaimed, hundreds of sinners were converted. Places of amusement and saloons were closed. The face of the community was changed, and 275 converts joined that one church, and the fair was not held. All because they refused to have the fair. Oh, for more nights of prayer! Oh, for more agony of soul for perishing sinners! Oh! For more of the mind of Christ! Then would revivals prevail, and thousands would be converted to God. — Christian Witness.
All dreams that make you better are from God. How do I know it? Is not God the source of all good? It does not take a very logical mind to argue that out. Tertullian and Martin Luther believed in dreams. The dreams of John Huss are immortal. St. Augustine, the Christian father, gives us the fact that a Carthagenian physician was persuaded of the immortality of the soul by an argument which he heard in a dream. The night before his assassination, the wife of Julius Caesar dreamed that her husband fell dead across her lap. It is possible to prove that God does appear in dreams to warn, to convert, and to save men. My friend, a retired sea-captain and a Christian, tells me that one night, while on the sea, he dreamed that a ship’s crew were in great suffering.
Waking up from his dream, he put about the ship, tacked in different directions, surprised everybody on the vessel — they thought he was going crazy — sailed on in another direction hour after hour, and for many hours, until he came to the perishing crew, and rescued them, and brought them to New York. Who conducted that dream? God.
In 1695, a vessel went out from Spithead for West India and ran against the ledge of rocks called the Caskets. The vessel went down, but the crew clambered up on the Caskets, to die of thirst or starvation, as they supposed. But there was a ship hound for Southampton that had the captain’s son on board. This lad twice in one night dreamed that there was a crew of sailors dying on the Caskets. He told his father of his dream. The vessel came down by the Caskets in time to find and to rescue those two dying men. Who conducted that dream? God.
The Dr Bushnell, in his marvelous book, entitled “Nature and the Supernatural,” gives the following that he got from Captain Yount, in California, a fact confirmed by many families: Captain Yount dreamed twice one night that one hundred and fifty miles away there was a company of travelers fast in the snow. He also saw in the dream rocks of a peculiar formation, and telling his dream to an old hunter, the hunter said ” Why, I remember those rocks those rocks are in the Carson Valley Pass, one hundred and fifty miles away.” Captain Yount, impelled by this dream, although laughed at by his neighbors, gathered men together, took mules and blankets, and started out on the expedition, traveled one hundred and fifty miles, saw those very rocks which he had described in his dream, and finding the suffering ones at the foot of those rocks, brought them back; to confirm the story of Captain Yount. Who conducted that dream? God
God has often appeared in dreams to rescue and comfort. You have known people –perhaps it is something I state in your own experience — you have seen people go to sleep with bereavements inconsolable, and they awakened in perfect resignation because of what they had seen in slumber. Dr Crannage, one of the most remarkable men I ever met — remarkable for benevolence and great philapthropics — at Wellington, England, showed me a house where the Lord had appeared in a wonderful dream to a poor woman. The woman was rheumatic, sick, poor to the last point of destitution. She was waited on and cared for by another poor woman, her only attendant. Word came to her one day that this poor woman had died, and the invalid of whom I am speaking lay helpless upon the couch, wondering what would become of her. In that mood she fell asleep. In her sleep she said the Angel of the Lord appeared, and took her into the open air, and pointed in one direction, and there were mountains of bread, and pointed in another direction, and there were mountains of butter, and in another direction, and there were mountains of all kinds of worldly supply. The Angel of the Lord said to her: “Woman, all these mountains belong to your Father, and do you think that he will let you, his child, hunger and die?” Dr. Crannage told me, by some Divine impulse he went into that destitute home, saw the suffering there, and administered unto it, caring for her all the way through. Do you tell me that that dream was woven out of earthly anodynes? Was that the phantasmagoria of a diseased brain? No; it was an all-sympathetic God addressing a poor woman through a dream.
Furthermore, I have to say, that there are people in this house who were converted to God through a dream. John Newton, the fame of whose piety fills all Christendom, while a licentious sailor on shipboard, in his dream, thought that a being approached him and gave him a very beautiful ring, and put it upon his finger, and said to him, “As long as you wear that ring, you will be prospered; if you lose that ring, you will be ruined.” In the same dream another personage appeared, and by a strange infatuation persuaded John Newton to throw that ring overboard, and sank into the sea. Then the mountains in sight were full of fire, and the air was lurid, with consuming wrath. While John Newton was repenting of his folly in having thrown overboard the treasure, another personage came through the dream, and told John Newton he would plunge into the sea and bring the ring up if he desired it. He plunged into the sea and brought it up, and said to John Newton: “Here is that gem, but I think I will keep it for you, lest you lose it again;” and John Newton consented, and all the fire went out from the mountains, and all the signs of lurid wrath disappeared, from the air; and John Newton said that he saw in his dream that that valuable gem was his soul; and that the being who persuaded him to throw it overboard was Satan, and that the one who plunged in and restored that gem, keeping it for him, was Christ. And that dream makes one of the most wonderful chapters in the life of that most wonderful man.
A German was crossing the Atlantic Ocean, and in his dream he saw a man with a handful of white flowers, and he was told to follow the man who had that handful of white flowers. The German, arriving in New York, wandered into the Fulton street prayer-meeting, and Mr. Lamphier — whom many of you know-the great apostle of prayer meetings, that day had given to him a bunch of tube roses. They stood on his desk, and at the close of the religious services he took the tube roses and started homeward, and the German followed him, and through an interpreter told Mr. Lamphier that on the sea he had dreamed of a man with a handful of white flowers and was told to follow him. Suffice it to say, through that interview and following interviews, he became a Christian, and is a city missionary preaching the gospel to his own countrymen. God in a dream!
John Hardock, while on shipboard, dreamed one night that the day of judgment had come, and that the roll of the ship’s crew was called except his own name, and that these people, this crew, were all banished; and in his dream he asked the reader why his own name was omitted, and he was told it was to give him more opportunity for repentance. He woke up a different man. He became illustrious for Christian attainment. If you do not believe these things, then you must discard all testimony, and refuse to accept any kind of authoritative witness. God in a dream! — T. DeWitt Talmage
William Taylor, now M.E. Bishop to Africa, and one of the greatest of living men, was converted in 1841, when about twenty years old. He soon entered the ministry and spent seven years in the Baltimore Conference, and a second seven years in California. While there he became known the world over as the “California Street Preacher.” At the end of that time God clearly called him to general evangelistic work and for nearly forty years he has proved himself one of the most mighty men in Christian faith and labor that the church of God has ever known. In every continent on the globe and many of the Islands of the sea he has proclaimed to listening multitudes the unsearchable riches of Christ, and untold thousands have been converted to God. His first field, outside of the United States and Canada, with the exception of a few months in England & Ireland, was Australia, where God gave him six thousand souls as the result of the labor of two and one-half years.
But more wonderful victories awaited him. From Australia God led his servant to Africa, and, there among the heathen; speaking what was to him an unknown tongue, God wrought so mightily, so gloriously, that the record is one of the most remarkable that can be found in all the history of the Christian Church. In the short space of’ seven months nearly 8,000 souls were converted. Out of this number 1,200 were colonists, and the rest were Kaffirs, Fingoes and Hottentots. The following account of a meeting held at Heald Town is quoted from “Life of William Taylor,” by E. Davies, and is a fair illustration of the victories of that seven months tour in Africa. “The Wesleyan Chapel will hold about eight hundred. The first service was to the natives, but Charles Pamla was not there to interpret; but they found a Kaffir boy, who, after private instruction from Mr. Taylor, answered a good purpose.
His name was Siko. He put the sentences into Kaffir very rapidly. An extraordinary power rested upon the audience. Silence reigned, except the suppressed sobs. After the sermon the simplicity of the gospel was explained, and the way of salvation by faith, and when they were invited, about three hundred rushed forward to take the kingdom by storm. They all prayed audibly, and the floor was wet with their tears, yet none seemed to be crying louder than their neighbors. The pastor was afraid, but God was in the movement. “Fourteen whites were among the seekers. As soon as any one was converted he was placed in a seat on the side of the pulpit and had an opportunity to testify for Christ. One hundred and thirty-nine natives and seven whites gave their names as converted in one service, which lasted five hours. “In a few days after he held another service in the same place, at which God’s power was manifested almost as on the Day of Pentecost. It surpassed anything Mr. Taylor ever saw. It was as the Spirit of God moving upon the waters, yea, as the Spirit that moved in the valley of dry bones and raised them up an exceeding great army.
At this second service at Heald Town there Were one hundred and sixty-seven converted, making a total for two services of three hundred and six natives and ten whites saved.Many will wonder what kind of preaching could produce marvelous results. He remarks:
I. He preached the law, as proclaimed from the burning Mount of Sinai, the law-that is holy, just and good, the law that is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. He sought to kill before he made alive, to convict before he sought to point out Christ.
II. He preached the gospel in all its wonderful and glorious provisions of justification, regeneration, adoption and the witness of the Spirit, and that no professor of religion should live without this grace.
III. He preached purity of heart and the baptism of fire to all true believers, and his speech and his preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.
IV. He spent much of time in wrestling with God for divine guidance and power to win souls. At one place he could not succeed in starting a school until he had spent a whole night in prayer. All the most important movements of his life were the result of prevailing prayer.
As a result of his faith and devotion, self-supporting missions have been established, not only in Africa, but also in India and South America, that are a wonder to the world. Christ-like in his devotion, strong in faith and mighty in prayer, his life with its results must prove a never-failing inspiration to church till time shall be no more.
From the life of evangelist, J. S. Inskip, we quote the following incident, which occurred while he was pastor at Springfield, Ohio, January, 1851. A few days before its occurrence, he recorded in his journal that he felt unusually encouraged to look unto God for a revival of religion in his own heart, and among the members of his church, and that he was favored with much freedom in discoursing upon the duty and encouragements to prayer. We give the account in his own words:”This has been one of the greatest days I have ever seem! In the morning I went into the high school and conducted the opening exercises. I then went into the church and attended to some items of business, intending to go subsequently into the country. As I passed along the street I received a message from Brother Howard, requesting me immediately to repair to the high school. I went without delay and found in one of the rooms of the institution such a scene as I never witnessed before. There were over thirty of the young ladies and smaller children weeping and crying aloud for mercy. The exercises of the institution were suspended.
We held a meeting for the benefit of the students in the afternoon. I presume, during day there were some eighteen converted. At night we held a society meeting. There were some eight or ten more convent making in all some thirty conversions during the day. Twenty joined the society. I never knew such a work. To God be all the glory, glory, glory in the highest! My soul is unspeakably happy.” From this manifestation of Divine power, the work spread into the town. It was a time of great excitement.
This is my personal collection of thoughts and writings, mainly from much smarter people than I, which challenge me in my discipleship walk. Don't rush by these thoughts, but ponder them.
Milo 