And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.
—Rev. 8:4
4514 Make Me An Intercessor
Make me an Intercessor,
One who can really pray,
One of the Lord’s Remembrancers
By night as well as day.
Make me an Intercessor,
In Spirit-touch with Thee,
And give the heavenly vision
Praying through to victory.
Make me an Intercessor,
Teach me how to prevail,
To stand my ground and stillpray on,
Though pow’rs of hell assail.
Make me an Intercessor,
Sharing Thy death and life,
In prayer claiming for others,
Victory in the strife.
Make me an Intercessor,
Willing for deeper death,
Emptied, broken, then made anew,
And filled with Living Breath.
Make me an Intercessor,
Reveal this mighty thing,
The wondrous possibility
Of paying back my King.
Make me an Intercessor,
Hidden-unknown—set apart,
Thought little of by those around,
But satisfying thine heart.
—Selected
4515 Chained Together For 12 Centuries
St. Catherine’s Monastery near Mt. Sinai, Egypt, has preserved the remains of three monks in accordance with their last requests made about 12 centuries ago. One was a doorkeeper who asked to hold his job forever and whose mummy has since been sitting beside the door he guarded in life. The other two monks took a vow, when young, to devote their lives to perpetual adoration, one praying while the other was asleep and vice versa.
Thereafter, they never saw nor spoke to each other again although they occupied adjoining cells. Their only connection was a chain, that ran through the wall and was fastened to their wrists, which each would tug as a signal when ready to begin and end his prayers. They died together and today their skeletons lying side-by-side in caskets and are still united by the same chain.
4516 “Brother, The Grass Is Growing”
The earliest African converts to Christianity were earnest and regular in their private devotions. Each one reportedly had separate spots in the thicket where he poured out his heart to God. The several paths to these little Bethels became distinctly marked; and when any one began to decline in devotions, it was soon apparent to others. They would then kindly remind him, saying, “Brother, the grass grows on your path yonder.”
4517 Into The Day
I got up early one morning
And rushed right into the day;
I had so much to accomplish
I didn’t have time to pray.
Troubles just tumbled about me
And heavier came each task.
Why doesn’t God help me, I wondered,
He answered, “You didn’t ask.”
I tried to come into God’s presence,
I used all my keys at the lock.
God gently and lovingly chided,
“Why child, you didn’t knock.”
I wanted to see joy and beauty,
But the day toiled on grey and bleak,
I called on the Lord for the reason—
He said “You didn’t seek.”
I woke up early this morning
And paused before entering the day.
I had so much to accomplish
That I had to take time to pray.
—Author Unknown
4518 Same Terms With Christ
There was a godly man in Germany, named Bengel, who was noted for his intimacy with Christ. A friend desired to watch the saintly man at his devotions. So he concealed himself one night in his room. Bengel sat long at his table, reading his New Testament.
The hours passed. At length the clock struck midnight, and the old man spread out his hands and said with great joy, “Dear Lord Jesus, we are on the same old terms.” Then closing his book, he was soon in bed and asleep. He had learned the secret of friendship with Christ.
—W. J. Hart
4519 The Wish
What various hindrances we meet
In coming to a mercy seat!
Yet who that knows the worth of prayer
But wishes to be often there!
—William Cowper
4520 Ambassador On Duty
Late one night a salesman drove into a strange city and tried to get a room in a hotel. The clerk informed him that there was no vacancy. Disappointed, he started to leave the lobby when a dignified gentleman offered to share his room with him. Gratefully the traveler accepted his kindness.
Just before retiring, the man who had shown such hospitality, knelt and prayed aloud. In his petition he referred to the stranger by name and asked the Lord to bless him. Upon awakening the next morning, he told his guest it was his habit to read the Bible and commune with God at the beginning of each day, and he asked if he would like to join him. The Holy Spirit had been speaking to the heart of this salesman, and when his host tactfully confronted him with the claims of Christ, he gladly received the Savior.
As the two were ready to part, they exchanged business cards. The new believer was amazed to read, “William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of State.”
—P. R. Van Gorder
4521 Fifty Years Without Unkind Look
Rev. Robert Newton, the Wesleyan pulpit orator, and his bride, began their married life by retiring twice each day to pray with and for each other. This practice they kept up, when opportunity served, to the end of life.
When an old man, Mr. Newton remarked, “In the course of a short time, my wife and I shall celebrate the jubilee of our marriage; and I know not, that, during the fifty years of our union, an unkind look or an unkind word has ever passed between us.”
4522 How Praying Hyde Prayed
Dr. Wilbur Chapman wrote to a friend: I have learned some great lessons concerning prayer. At one of our missions in England the audience was exceedingly small; but I received a note saying that an American missionary was going to pray for God’s blessing down on our work. He was known as Praying Hyde. Almost instantly the tide turned. The hall became packed, and at my first invitation fifty men accepted Christ as their Saviour. As we were leaving I said, “Mr. Hyde, I want you to pray for me.”
He came to my room, turned the key in the door, and dropped on his knees, and waited five minutes without a single syllable coming from his lips. I could hear my own heart thumping, and his beating. I felt hot tears running down my face. I knew I was with God. Then, with upturned face, down while the tears were streaming, he said, “O God.” Then for five minutes at least he was still again; and then, when he knew that he was talking with God there came from the depths of his heart such petitions for me as I had never heard before. I rose from my knees to know what real prayer was. We believe that prayer is mighty and we believe it as we never did before.
—Gospel Herald
4523 Meyer Prays For Morgan
F. B. Meyer told the following experience to a few personal friends: “It was easy,” he said, “to pray for the success of G. Campbell Morgan when he was in America. But when he came back to England and took a church near to mine, it was somewhat different. The old Adam in me was inclined to jealousy, but I got my heel upon his head, and whether I felt right toward my friend, I determined to act right.
“My church gave a reception for him, and I acknowledged that if it was not necessary for me to preach Sunday evenings I would dearly love to go and hear him myself. Well, that made me feel right toward him.
“But just see how the dear Lord helped me out of my difficulty. There was Charles Spurgeon preaching wonderfully on the other side of me. He and Mr. Morgan were so popular, and drew such crowds, that our church caught the overflow, and we had all we could accommodate!”
—King’s Business
4524 Washington’s Devotional Life
Robert Lewis of Fredricksburg, Virginia, was Washington’s private secretary. During the first part of the presidency, he said that he accidently witnessed Washington’s private devotions, both morning and evening. He saw him in a kneeling posture, with an open Bible before him; and he said that he believed such was his daily practice. His custom was to go to his library at four o’clock in the morning for devotions.
4525 Never Drink Without Praying
“Stonewall Jackson,” says E. M. Bounds in Purpose in Prayer, “was a man of prayer.” Said he, “I have so fixed the habit of prayer in my mind that I never raise a glass of water to my lips without asking God’s blessing, never seal a letter without putting a word of prayer under the seal, never take a letter from the post without a brief sending of my thoughts heavenward, never change my classes in the lecture-room without a minute’s petition for the cadets who go out and for those who come in.”
—Aquilla Webb
4526 Brainerd Prays Through To Indians
David Brainerd was a man of great spiritual power. The work which he accomplished by prayer was simply marvelous. Dr. A. J. Gordon, in giving a sketch of Brainerd’s experience, said,
“In the depths of those forests, alone, unable to speak the language of the Indians, he spent whole days literally in prayer. What was he praying for? He knew that he could not reach those savages; he did not understand their language. If he wanted to speak at all, he must find somebody who could vaguely interpret his thought; therefore he knew that anything he should do must be absolutely dependent upon the power of God.
“So he spent whole days in prayer, simply that the power of the Holy Ghost might come upon him so unmistakably that these people should not be able to stand before him. What was his answer? Once he preached and the interpreter was so intoxicated that he could hardly stand up. That was the best he could do. Yet scores were converted through that sermon. We can account for it only by the tremendous power of God behind him.
—Selected
4527 Young Queen Who Prayed
When William IV of England died, there was a young girl spending the night at the palace. They awakened her and told her that she was now the Queen of England. As soon as she heard the news she dropped on her knees and asked the Heavenly Father to help and guide her through all the years that were to follow.
For sixty-four years this girl, who was Queen Victoria, reigned over the British Empire. England never made greater progress than during her reign. A prince of India asked her what was the secret of England’s power, and for her answer she quietly picked up a Book from the table near by. “This is the secret,” she said. The Book was God’s Word, the Bible.
—George W. Truett
4528 Prayer His Real Business
William Carey was once reproached for spending so much time in prayer that he neglected his business. He replied that supplication, thanksgiving, and intercession were much more important in his life than laying up treasures on earth. “Prayer is my real business!” he said. “Cobbling shoes is a sideline; it just helps me pay expenses.”
The Lord honored Carey’s vigorous faith, for he became a renowned missionary and was mightily used by God in India, Burma, and the East Indies.
4529 “Washington Will Succeed!”
You may read in your United States history how George Washington found rest and relief in prayer during the trying times he and his soldiers passed through at Valley Forge. With all the cares and anxieties of that time upon him, he used to have recourse to prayer. One day a farmer approaching the camp heard an earnest voice. On coming nearer, he saw George Washington on his knees, his cheeks wet with tears, praying to God.
The farmer returned home and said to his wife: “George Washington will succeed! George Washington will succeed! The Americans will secure their independence!”
“What makes you think so, Isaac?” asked his wife.
The farmer replied: “I heard him pray, Hannah, out in the woods today, and the Lord will surely hear his prayer. He will, Hannah; thee may rest assured He will.”
—Sunday School Times
4530 A Moment
A moment in the morning,
Ere the cares of day begin,
Ere the heart’s wide door is open,
For the world to enter in,
Oh, then alone with Jesus,
In the silence of the morn,
In heavenly, sweet communion,
Let your joyful day be born,
In the quietude that blesses,
Let your soul be soothed and softened,
As the dew revives the rose!
—Selected
4531 Prayer Life Before Missions
The following story was told by a missionary: I remember before going out to India, sitting down with my roommate, now in China, and saying to him: “What are we going to tell them out there on the field? Are we merely going to tell them about Christ! If so, it would be cheaper to send out Bibles and tracts. Can we tell them that we know Jesus Christ saves and satisfies, that He keeps us more than conquerors day by day?”
I said: “I am not satisfied. I do not feel that I have a real message such as I need for men out there, nor the experience, nor the power. If we have not, is not the one great thing we need before we leave this country—to know Him?”
From that day to the end of our student days we rose every morning at five o’clock, spent an unhurried hour with the Word of God, and from six to seven an unhurried hour for prayer. These two hours each day changed our lives and outlook upon our missionary work.
—Alliance Weekly
4532 Traveling On My Knees
Last night I took a journey
To a land across the seas;
I did not go by boat or plane,
I traveled on my knees.
I saw so many people there
In deepest depths of sin,
But Jesus told me I should go,
That there were souls to win.
But I said, “Jesus, I cannot go
And work with such as these.”
He answered quickly, “Yes, you can
By traveling on your knees.”
He said, “You pray; I’ll meet the need,
You call and I will hear;
Be concerned about lost souls,
Of those both far and near.”
And so I tried it, knelt in prayer,
Gave up some hours of ease;
I felt the Lord right by my side
While traveling on my knees.
As I prayed on and saw souls saved
And twisted bodies healed,
And saw God’s workers’ strength renewed
While laboring on the field.
I said, “Yes, Lord, I have a job,
My desire Thy will to please;
I can go and heed Thy call
By traveling on my knees.”
—Sandra Goodwin
4533 A Sermon’s Background
It was after Father Chiniquy had spent 24 hours in importunate prayer that his preaching brought over a thousand people to Christ—the product of a single sermon.
4534 Secret Of Greatest Missionaries
The men who have accomplished most for God have been men of prayer. John Wesley was wont to spent at least two hours each day in prayer. Samuel Rutherford rose at three o’clock each morning to wait upon God. John Fletcher was said to have stained the walls of his chamber by the breath of his prayers. The greatest missionaries have been uniformly men of prayer.
Think of David Brainerd dying at the age of twenty-nine, and Henry Martyn at the age of thirty-one, and yet their names stand out as among the brightest stars in the missionary firmament. These young men exerted a profound influence not only upon their own generation, but upon all succeeding generations as well. It was not by their actual labors, which were soon cut off, so much as by their prayer life and their resultant saintly characters.
—Gospel Herald
4535 Maclaren’s One Hour
Dr. Alexander Maclaren was one of the clearest Bible Expositors of the age. How he became such a Bible scholar is worthy of note. One who in his early ministry was an assistant to the great Baptist preacher, once asked him what had contributed most of all to his success.
Doctor Maclaren, after deprecating the idea that he had attained “success,” said that he owed all that was in himself and his ministry to the habit, never broken, of spending one hour a day “alone with the Eternal.” The hour which he took was from nine to ten in the morning. His assistant says that he was sometimes allowed to be in the room with the pastor, but no word was allowed. In his well-worn armchair he sat, with his big Bible on his knees, sometimes reading its pages, more frequently his hand over his face.
During that hour he did not allow himself to read even the Bible for texts, or as a student. It was read as a child would read a letter from an absent father; as a loving heart would drink in again the message from a loved one far away.
—Pittsburg Christian Advocate
4536 Wesley’s Prayer Room
Said Warren W. Wiersbe, pastor of Moody Church: “One of the most moving experiences of my life came when I stepped from John Wesley’s bedroom in his London home into the little adjacent prayer room. Outside the house was the traffic noise of City Road, but inside that prayer chamber was the holy hush of God.
“Its only furnishings were a walnut table which held a Greek New Testament and a candlestick, a small stool and a chair. When he was in London, Wesley entered the room early each morning to read God’s Word and pray.”
The guide in Wesley’s home told me: “This little room was the powerhouse of Methodism!”
4537 Fanny Crosby’s Prayer Life
Fanny Crosby, though blinded in infancy, greeted friends and strangers alike with a cheerful “God bless your dear soul.” And, according to her own statement, she never attempted to write a hymn without first kneeling in prayer. If this be true, Fanny Crosby spent considerable time on her knees. She wrote no less than 8,000 songs.
Miss Crosby was often under pressure to meet deadlines. It was under such circumstances in 1869 that she tried to write words for a tune Composer W. H. Doane had sent her. But she couldn’t write. Then she remembered she had forgotten her prayer. Rising from her knees, she dictated—as fast as her assistant could write—words for the famous hymn, “Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross.”
But one day in 1874, Fanny Crosby prayed for more material things. She had run short of money and needed five dollars—even change. There was no time to draw on her publishers, so she simply prayed for the money. Her prayer ended, she was walking to and fro in her room trying to “get into the mood” for another hymn when an admirer called. Greeting the stranger with “God bless your dear soul,” the two chatted briefly.
In the parting handshake the admirer left something in the hymn-writer’s hand. It was five dollars. Rising from a prayer of thanks the blind poetess wrote: “All the way my Saviour leads me.”
—Clint Banner
4538 No Time To Pray
No time to pray!
Oh, who so fraught with earthly care.
As not to give to humble prayer
Some part of day?
No time to pray!
What heart so clean, so pure within,
That needeth not some check from sin,
Needs not to pray?
No time to pray!
’Mid each day’s danger, what retreat
More needful than the mercy-seat?
Who need not pray?
No time to pray!
Then sure your record falleth short;
Excuse will fail you as resort,
On that last day.
What thought more drear,
Than that our God His face should hide,
And say through all life’s swelling tide,
No time to hear!
—Anonymous
4539 End-Zone Ending
Football player Mike Rohrback of the University of Washington made three trips into the end zone against Stanford.
At the close of the game Rohrbach and about a dozen other players from both teams knelt on the end zone and, according to Rohrbach, “thanked the Lord that we got a chance to compete and see each other as friends.”
Thousands of fans who watched the game in Palo Alto, California, probably still are wondering what that post-game huddle was all about. Rohrbach, a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes suggested that fans there and elsewhere might be seeing more of that kind of activity this season.
4540 Theology Of Defeat
When the Washington Redskins trounced Dallas for the conference championship, millions of football fans saw the team kneel in the dressing room after the game and pray. When Washington lost the Super Bowl to Miami, no cameras were on hand but the team again prayed.
“Following the Super Bowl defeat,” said Skinner, “team members, while disappointed, nevertheless listened while he expounded a theology of defeat.”
“The country and the church,” he said later, “are success-oriented and are interested only in success stories of businessmen, athletes and beauty queens. Perhaps God has a message through the guy who fumbles four times and loses the game,” Skinner said, “because we learn from our mistakes and failures.”
—Barrie Doyle
4541 Prayer Drill Asked To Review
A British soldier was one night caught creeping stealthily back to his quarters from the nearby woods. He was taken before his commanding officer and charged with holding communications with the enemy. The man pleaded that he had gone into the woods to pray by himself. That was his only defense.
“Have you been in the habit of spending hours in private prayer?” the officer growled. “Yes, Sir!” “Then down on your knees and pray now!” he roared. “You never needed it so much.” Expecting immediate death, the soldier knelt and poured out his soul in prayer, that for eloquence could have been inspired only by the power of the Holy Spirit. “You may go,” said the officer simply when he had finished. “I believe your story. If you hadn’t been often at drill, you couldn’t have done so well at review.”
—Selected
4542 Never Found Time
I knelt to pray, but not for long.
I had too much to do.
Must hurry off and get to work,
For bills would soon be due.
And so I said a hurried prayer,
Jumped up from off my knees,
My Christian duties now were done,
My soul could be at ease.
All through the day I had no time
To speak a word of cheer;
No time to speak of Christ to friends,
They’d laugh at me I feared.
No time, no time, too much to do.
That was my constant cry;
No time to give to those in need—
At last was time to die.
And when before the Lord I came,
I stood with downcast eyes;
Within His hands He held a book—
It was the “Book of Life.”
God looked into His book and said,
“Your name I cannot find,
I once was going to write it down,
But never found the time.”
—Author Unknown
4543 Prayer Meeting of 53 Hours
Five men were entrapped in a deserted zinc mine in Salem, Kentucky, by falling rocks. They had nothing to eat. They were in utter darkness. One of the men could have saved himself had he not run back to warn the others.
When the entombed men discovered that they could not escape, they began to pray and sing. Their prayer and praise service lasted for fifty-three hours! Then they were rescued. Later one of the men testified, “We lay there from Friday morning till Sunday morning. We prayed “without ceasing.” When the rescuers reached us, we were still praying!”
When the men were brought up out of the mine, on the caps of each one were scrawled these words: “If we are dead when you find us, we are all saved!”
—Walter B. Knight
4544 Moravians’ Hundred-Year Prayer
When God was visiting the Moravians in the early days, they organized at Herrnhut two praying bands, one of men and the other of women, each with twenty-four members. These bands set apart one man and one woman to pray every hour of the day, so that the men in their place and the women in theirs were praying continuously during the twenty-four hours.
This double prayer, unbroken through every day, was maintained for a hundred years. During this period there emerged the Moravian Mission movement in which the missionary church grew three times as large as the home church. The Moravians were used to give new light on essential Bible truths to John and Charles Wesley, thus preparing them for the revival that swept England and reached America.
—Sunday School Times
4545 Fulton Street Prayer Meeting
“The Fulton Street prayer meetings, held during the noon hour for the past 103 years, have been shut down.”
This simple item reported recently in the New York Times, doubtless went unnoticed by many of the newspaper’s readers. And possibly many will wonder if there is any real significance in the discontinuance of one prayer meeting.
God’s children seem to have lost their confidence in the power of prayer and the power of His Word.
—Child Evangelism
4546 Right To Pray
Before a full-time chaplain was engaged, individual Congressmen took turns opening sessions of Congress with prayers. Finally a permanent chaplain was appointed.
One day he was late in arriving, and when time came for the session to begin, he was not there to pray. An older congressman stepped to the front and prepared to pray.
The Speaker of the House hit the desk with his gravel and asked, “By what right does the gentleman pray?”
The volunteer answered the Speaker, “The right of any sinner, sir.”
He was permitted to pray.
4547 She Asked Nothing This Time
“What can I do for you, Madam?” Abraham Lincoln asked an elderly lady who had been ushered into his private office. Placing a covered basket on the table she said, “Mr. President, I have come here today not to ask any favor for myself or for anyone. I heard that you were very fond of cookies, and I came here to bring you this basket of cookies!”
Tears trickled down the gaunt face of the great President. He stood speechless for a moment; then he said, “My good woman, your thoughtful and unselfish deed greatly moves me. Thousands have come into this office since I became President, but you are the first one to come asking no favor for yourself or somebody else!”
4548 Pentagon’s Prayer Room
Secretary of Defense Melvin R. Laird dedicated a room in the Pentagon as a quiet place for meditation and prayer. Mr. Laird explained that “though we cling to the principle that church and state should be separate, we do not propose to separate man from God.”
—Christian Victory
4549 Her Prayer “Line”
Alta Vail of Emporia, Kansas, tells in Sunshine magazine how she found a new way to pray while ironing. One day she was thinking about the different kinds of lines—bus lines, clothes lines, fishing lines, telephone lines. Why not a prayer line? she asked herself.
So she strung a short rope across one corner of her kitchen where she irons and hung cards on it with names of people she knew needed prayer. As she irons, she prays for each person by name.
Not surprisingly, news has spread and she gets regular requests to “hang me on your prayer line.”
4550 Pres. Wilson’s Example
In the midst of President Wilson’s difficulties in international negotiations he, too, felt the need of divine guidance. When Mr. Wilson arrived at a cabinet meeting his face wore a solemn look. It was evident that serious affairs of the nation were on his mind. He said to the cabinet members: “I don’t know whether you men believe in prayer or not. I do. Let us pray and ask the help of God.” The President of the United States fell upon his knees with the members of the cabinet, and offered a prayer to the Almighty for help.
—Aquilla Webb
4551 Pointing Out Washington
In the early days of the Republic, a stranger once asked at Congress how he could distinguish Washington.
He was told, “You can easily distinguish him when Congress goes to prayer. Washington is the gentleman who kneels.”
4552 Reciting All The Alphabet
A little lad was keeping his sheep one Sunday morning. The bells were ringing for church, and the people were going over the field, when the little fellow began to think that he, too, would like to pray to God. But what could he say? He had never learned a prayer. So he knelt down and commenced the alphabet—A, B, C, and so on to Z.
A gentleman happening to pass on the other side of the hedge heard the lad’s voice, and, looking through the bushes, saw the little fellow kneeling with folded hands and closed eyes, saying, “A, B, C.” “What are you doing, my little man?” “Please, sir, I was praying.” “But what are you saying your letters for?” “Why, I didn’t know any prayer, only I felt that I wanted God to take care of me and help me to care for the sheep; so I thought if I said all I knew, he would put it together and spell all I want.”
“Bless your heart, my little man, He will, He will, He will. When the heart speaks right, the lips can’t say wrong.”
—Our Sunday Afternoon
4553 On Love Letters
“To write a good love letter, you will begin without knowing what you are going to say, and end without knowing what you have said.”
—Rousseau
4554 Carver On Prayer
My prayers seem to be more of an attitude than anything else. I indulge in no lip service, but ask the great God silently, daily, and often many times a day, to permit me to speak to Him. I ask Him to give me wisdom, understanding and bodily strength to do His will. Hence, I am asking and receiving all the time.
—Dr. George Washington Carver
4555 Preferring The Nickel
A little girl approached her father and said, “Father, I want a nickel.” The father drew out his wallet and offered her a neat five-dollar bill. But the little girl, not knowing what it was, would not take it. “I don’t want that,” she said, “I want a nickel.” Are there times when we deal with our Heavenly Father as this little girl dealt with her earthly father? Do we sometimes ask for some small favor and refuse his offer of a blessing a hundred times more valuable?
—Secret Place
4556 Praying For The Water
I was once invited to a luncheon where thirty or forty Christians—ministers and laymen—were gathered together for discussion of a certain problem of Christian work.
A well-known layman was asked to return thanks before the meal. I have heard the blessing asked hundreds of times, but suddenly my attention was aroused. The man who was praying said, “We thank Thee for all these gifts, for our food, for our water … ”
I do not know what else was said in the prayer, but that thought gripped me. Thank God for the water … I have asked the blessing before thousands of meals, but that day for the first time, I thanked the Lord in spirit and in truth for common ordinary water, and for the Living Water. I then began to think of other common things for which we never thank God, and began thanking Him.
—Donald Grey Barnhouse
4557 Lincoln Loses Out?
Lincoln himself liked to tell the story about two Quakers who had a spirited discussion concerning himself and Jefferson Davis.
“I think Mr. Jefferson will win this war,” said the first one.
“Why does thee think so?”
“Because Jefferson is a praying man.”
“And so is Abraham a praying man.”
“That’s true,” answered the first, “but the Lord will think Abraham is joking.”
—Maxwell Droke
4558 Making Sure She Knelt
For several nights a six-year-old girl threw one shoe under her bed before going to sleep. Her mother asked her why she did that.
“My teacher says,” was the reply, “that if we have to kneel by our beds to look for our shoes, we’ll remember to keep kneeling and say our morning prayers.”
4559 Rab Safra at Prayer
Rab Safra had a jewel for which he asked the price of ten pieces of gold. Several dealers saw the jewel and offered five gold pieces. Rab Safra declined, and the merchants left him. After a second consideration, he, however, resolved upon selling the jewel for five pieces.
The next day, just as Rab Safra was at prayers, the merchants unexpectedly returned. “Sir,” said they to him, “we come to you again to do business after all. Do you wish to part with the jewel for the price we offered you?” But Rab Safra made no reply. “Well, well, be not angered, we will add another two pieces.” Rab Safra still remained silent.
“Well, then, be it as you say; we will give you ten pieces, the price you asked.” By this time Rab Safra had ended his prayer, and said: “Sirs, I was at prayers, and could not hear you. As for the jewel, I have already resolved upon selling it at the price you offered me yesterday. If you then pay me five pieces of gold, I shall be satisfied.”
4560 Hypocritical Prayer
I knelt to pray when day was done,
And prayed, “O Lord bless every one,
Lift from every saddened heart the pain,
And let the sick be well again.”
And then I woke another day,
And carelessly went upon my way.
The whole day long I did not try
To wipe a tear from any eye.
I did not try to share the load
Of any brother on the road.
I did not even go to see
The sick man just next door to me.
Yet once again when day was done,
I prayed, “O Lord bless everyone.”
But as I prayed, unto my ear
There came a voice that whispered clear,
“Pause, hypocrite, before you pray,
Whom have you tried to bless today?
God’s sweetest blessings always go,
By hands which serve Him below.”
And then I hid my face and cried,
“Forgive me, God, for I have lied.
Let me but live another day,
And I will live the way I pray!”
—Selected
4561 Tokyo, Tokyo, Tokyo
A little boy was observed by a minister in church praying very fervently; but, much to the pastor’s surprise, he was also heard to say from time to time, “Tokyo, Tokyo, Tokyo.” So when the service was over the minister went up to the boy and said, “Son, I was very pleased to see you praying so devoutly, but do tell me, why did you keep saying, “Tokyo, Tokyo, Tokyo”?” The little boy replied, “Well, you see, sir, I have just been taking my geography examination in school, and I have been praying to the Lord to make Tokyo the Capital of France.”
—Sir Eric Roll
4562 Eenie, Meenie … !
A mother listening to the evening prayers of her sleepy, little daughter was astonished and amazed to hear the following:
“Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
And when he hollers let him go,
Eenie, meenie, miny, mo.”
—Balance Sheet
4563 While Finishing Her Prayer …
Dr. W. T. Grenfell tells us in his autobiography that he was converted through Moody’s common sense. Moody had asked a minister to lead in prayer at a great meeting. This good man began a long “oratorical effort.” Young Grenfell was bored and seized his hat to escape, when Moody cried out, “Let us sing a hymn while our brother finishes his prayer.”
Grenfell was delighted at the remark. He remained and was won for Christ.
4564 Gardener’s (Foolish) Prayer
O Lord, grant that in some way it may rain every day, say from about midnight until three o’clock in the morning, but you see, it must be gentle and warm so that it can soak in; grant that at the same time it would not rain on campion, alyssum, helianthemum, lavender, and the others which you in your infinite wisdom know are drought-loving plants—I will write their names on a bit of paper if you like—and grant that the sun may shine the whole day long, but not everywhere (not, for instance, on spiraea or on gentian, platain lily and rhododendron) and not too much; that there may be plenty of dew and little wind, enough worms, no plant-lice and snails, no mildew, and that once a week thin liquid manure and guano may fall from heaven. Amen.
—The Gardener’s Year
4565 The Spare Tire
Some Christians seem to look upon God as a kind of spare tire. A spare tire is forgotten for months at a time until suddenly we have a flat on the road. Then we want the spare tire to be in good condition, ready for use. Just so, many forget God during all the times when things go well, then in an emergency they want God to be on hand, immediately ready to hear and answer their cry of distress.
—Sunday
4566 Most Powerful Energy
Dr. Alexis Carrel is a medical doctor who won a Nobel Prize in physiology. He wrote: “Prayer is the most powerful form of energy that one can generate. The influence of prayer on the human mind and body is as demonstrable as that of secreting glands. Its results can be measured in terms of increased bouyancy, greater intellectual vigor, moral stamina and a deeper understanding of human relationships.
Prayer is indispensable to the fullest development of personality. Only in prayer do we achieve that complete harmonious assembly of mind, body and spirit which gives the frail human need its unshakeable strength. When we pray we link ourselves with the inexhaustible motive that spins the universe.”
4567 Epigram On Prayer
• Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance, it is laying hold of His highest willingness.
—Archbishop Trench
• The only footprints on the sands of time, that will really last, are the ones made after knee-prints!
—C. W. Renwick
• Tennyson: More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.
• Seven days without prayer makes one weak.
—The Bible Friend
• Groanings which cannot be uttered are often prayers which cannot be refused.
—C. H. Spurgeon
• Moody: “A man who prays much in private will make short prayers in public.”
• When the outlook is bad, try the uplook!
• Martin Luther set apart his three best hours for prayer.
• George Muller said that the most important part of prayer was the fifteen minutes after he had said “Amen.”
• Prayer gives you courage to make the decisions you must make in crisis and then the confidence to leave the result to a Higher Power.
—General Eisenhower
• The best prayers have often more groans than words.
• In prayer it is better to have a heart without words, than words without a heart.
ANSWERS TO PRAYERS
4568 Prayer And Our Nation
Prayer in 1620 safely guided the Mayflower with the Pilgrims to a new world.
Prayer in 1623 saved the Pilgrim fathers from starvation.
Prayer in 1777 at Valley Forge saved the Continental Army and won the war for American Independence.
Prayer at Philadelphia saved the Constitutional Convention and gave birth to the American Way of Life.
Prayer in 1857 saved America from economic destruction.
Prayer in l918 ended World War I and lack of prayer started World War II.
Prayer saved England at Dunkirk. Myriads of fliers and servicemen of all nations lost at sea were saved through prayer.
—Church Chimes
4569 Franklin Asked For Prayer
In 1787 prayer helped determine the future of our country in a significant way.
The Constitutional Convention was on the verge of total failure over the issue of whether small states should have the same representation as large states.
In this hopeless situation, 81-year-old Benjamin Franklin offered a suggestion. He was convinced Scripture is right when it states, “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it” (Psalm 127:1), so he said:
“Gentlemen, I have lived a long time and am convinced that God governs in the affairs of men. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? I move that prayer imploring the assistance of Heaven be held every morning before we proceed to business.”
The motion carried. From then on prayer was offered each morning. The change after prayer was introduced was so dramatic that in a short while a compromise was reached which is still in effect today.
—The Bible Friend
4570 Orville Mitchell’s Urge To Stop
Probably everyone of us has at some time or another wondered how our prayers are being answered, but I recall one about which there is no doubt.
Once in the middle of the night I awoke in the most terrible moment of a very realistic dream. I was driving a car and I had just struck a child. The effect upon me was so real and terrible that I climbed out of bed, got down on my knees and asked my Father in heaven not to let that thing happen to me. Then it was as though the burden was taken from me, sleep was restored, and not another thought was given to the matter until noon next day.
Now five of us were in a car. I was at the wheel, and we were moving out Worth Street at around 25 miles per hour. Suddenly an urge to immediately stop came upon me with no apparent reason, and this we did quite abruptly.
When the other four passengers picked themselves off the dashboard and the back of the front seat, and all five of us tried to figure out why this abrupt stop was necessary, we were amazed to see a child dressed only in a diaper emerge between parked automobiles and waddle out into the street immediately in front of us.
Next a mother came charging out of the house, bounding over the curb and out into the street. She angrily grabbed up the child, and without much more than a glance in our direction retreated into the house.
To whom, do you suppose, has the Lord demonstrated his love in this remarkable answer to prayer? The little tot probably will never hear that his life was spared. The mother was so angry with herself for letting the child escape from the house that it is quite likely she never breathed one “Thank You” to the Lord.
The other four occupants of the car, having heard the events leading up to the sudden stop, have asked me to tell the story on an occasion or two. But to me, who would have suffered most had the Lord not intervened, to me it has meant the most. All I can say in gratitude will confirm that the Psalmist was right when he said, “Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.”
—Orville Mitchell, Sr.
NOTE: The late Mr. Orville Mitchell was the beloved president of the John E. Mitchell Co., which manufactures the widely acclaimed “Mark IV”auto-conditioners in Dallas, Texas.
4571 The Mayo Brothers
Said Dr. Will Mayo:
“I have seen patients that were dead by all standards. We knew they could not live. But I have seen a minister come to the bedside and do something for him that I could not do, although I have done ererything in my professional power. But something touched some immortal spark in him and in defiance of medical knowledge and materialistic common sense, that patient LIVED!”
The Mayo Brothers, Doctors Will and Charles, were founders of the world-famed Mayo Clinics.
4572 How Much Does Prayer Weigh?
How much does a prayer weigh? The only man I ever knew who tried to weigh one still does not know.
Once upon a time he thought he did. That was when he owned a little grocery store on the West side. It was the week before Christmas after the World War. A tired-looking woman came into the store and asked him for enough food to make up a Christmas dinner for her children. He asked her how much she could afford to spend.
She answered, “My husband was killed in the war. I have nothing to offer but a little prayer.”
This man confesses that he was not very sentimental in those days. A grocery store could not be run like a breadline.
So he said, “Write it on paper,” and turned about his business.
To his surprise, the woman plucked a piece of paper out of her bosom and handed it to him over the counter and said, “I did that during the night watching over my sick baby.”
The grocer took the paper before he could recover from his surprise, and then regretted having done so! For what would he do with it, what could he say?
Then an idea suddenly came to him. He placed the paper, without even reading the prayer, on the weight side of his old-fashioned scales. He said, “We shall see how much food this is worth.”
To his astonishment the scale would not go down when he put a loaf of bread on the other side. To his confusion and embarrassment, it would not go down though he kept on adding food, anything he could lay his hands on quickly, because people were watching him.
He tried to be gruff and he was making a bad job of it. His face got red and it made him angry to be flustered.
So finally he said, “Well, that’s all the scales will hold anyway. Here’s a bag. You’ll have to put it in yourself. I’m busy.”
With what sounded like a gasp or a little sob, she took the bag and started packing in the food, wiping her eyes on her sleeves every time her arm was free to do so. He tried not to look, but he could not help seeing that he had given her a pretty big bag and that it was not quite full. So he tossed a large cheese down the counter, but he did not say anything; nor did he see the timid smile of grateful understanding which glistened in her moist eyes at this final betrayal of the grocer’s crusty exterior.
When the woman had gone, he went to look at the scales, scratching his head and shaking it in puzzlement. Then he found the solution. The scales were broken.
The grocer is an old man now. His hair is white. But he still scratches it in the same place and shakes it slowly back and forth with the same puzzled expression. He never saw the woman again. And, come to think of it, he had never seen her before either. Yet for the rest of his life he remembered her better than any other woman in the world and thought of her more often.
He knew it had not been just his imagination, for he still had the slip of paper upon which the woman’s prayer had been written: “Please, Lord, give us this day our daily bread” (Matt. 6:11).
—The Lifeline
4573 Hymn And Pill For Doomed Sub
The British Press Association reported this strange incident:
A British submarine lay disabled on the ocean floor. After two days, hope of raising her was abandoned. The crew on orders of the commanding officer began singing:
“Abide with me!
Fast falls the eventide,
The darkness deepens—
Lord, with me abide!
When other helpers
Fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless,
Oh, abide with me!”
The officer explained to the men that they did not have long to live. There was no hope of outside aid, he said, because the surface searchers did not know the vessel’s position.
Sedative pills were distributed to the men to quiet their nerves. One sailor was affected more quickly than the others, and he swooned. He fell against a piece of equipment and set in motion the submarine’s jammed surfacing mechanism.
The submarine went to the surface and made port safely.
—Gospel Herald
4574 Rome’s Thundering Legion
The two most famous legions in the Roman army were the Tenth Legion and the Thundering Legion. The Tenth Legion was composed of Caesar’s veteran shock troops. In every great emergency it was upon that Legion that he called, and it never failed him. The Thundering Legion was the name given to the Militine Legion in the days of the philosopher-emperor—and yet one of the worst persecutors of the Church—Marcus Aurelius.
Tertullian tells us how the legion won that name, the “Thundering Legion.” In A. D. 176 the army of the emperor was engaged in a campaign against the Germans. In their march the Romans found themselves encircled by precipitous mountains which were occupied by their savage enemies. In addition to this danger the army was tormented by thirst because of the drought. It was then that the commander of the Praetorian Guard informed the emperor that the Militine Legion was made up of Christian, and that they believed in the power of prayer.
“Let them pray, then,” said the emperor. The soldiers of the Legion then bowed on the ground and earnestly besought God in the name of Christ to deliver the Roman army. They had scarcely risen from their knees when a great thunderstorm arose, accompanied by hail. The storm drove the barbarians out of their strongholds; and, descending from the mountains, they entreated the Romans for mercy. His army delivered from death at the hands of the barbarians, all delivered from death by the droughts the emperor decreed that this legion should be thereafter called the “ Thundering Legion.” He also abated somewhat his persecution of the Christians.
—C. E. Macartney
4575 Tavern Keeper Believed That Prayer
The story is told of a small town in which there were no liquor stores. Eventually, however, a nightclub was built right on Main Street. Members of one of the churches in the area were so disturbed that they conducted several all-night prayer meetings, and asked the Lord to burn down that den of iniquity. Lightning struck the tavern a short time later, and it was completely destroyed by fire.
The owner, knowing how the church people had prayed, sued them for the damages. His attorney claimed that their prayers had caused the loss. The congregation, on the other hand, hired a lawyer and fought the charges. After much deliberation the judge declared, “It’s the opinion of this court that wherever the guilt may lie, the tavern keeper is the one who really believes in prayer while the church members do not!”
—R. W. de Haan
4576 “Foolish And Irresponsible Action”
The Rev. Robert Middlemiss of England found he was travelling on the wrong train—a non-stop express. More than that: he had to attend a meeting at which he was to bring the message. Mr. Middlemiss prayed for help, and within minutes the train stopped. The preacher, overjoyed at his good fortune, jumped from the Newcastle-to-London express and summoned a taxi so that he could keep his appointment at a nearby town.
But British Rail was not happy about the incident. It criticized the Baptist minister for his “foolish and irresponsible action.” It also denied that the train stopped because of divine intervention, saying, “There was trouble on the line.”
—Prairie Overcomer
4577 She Woke Up In The Night
In 1947, while I was travelling on horseback on Cental China with Mr. Fred Mitchell, we came to a spot that was notorious as a robber hideout. The missionary accompanying us was keeping a sharp look-out. Suddenly we came upon a body lying beside the path. The victim was obviously not long dead. The brigands had been at work.
A few days later I received a letter from my wife, asking whether we had been in any danger on a date and at a time she named. On that particular night she had been suddenly awakened with the strong impression that I was in danger. She rose and prayed until the burden lifted and peace returned.
On consulting my diary, I discovered that this midnight prayer synchronized with the time we were passing through that robber-infested area. God heard and answered the prayer for the safety of His servants.
—J. O. Sanders
4578 Ten Men In A Row
Back of our home in the Philippines during World War II was the place where the Japanese tortured and killed their victims. We could hear the screams of the tortured day and night. They liked to throw the babies in the air and catch them on the point of a sword, and the things they devised to torture adults were unthinkable.
Twice my father had been taken by enemy officers and had been returned to us as a result of my mother’s prayers.
The third time the officer said, “He has been returned to you two times—but don’t you ever think he will be spared the third time. This time he dies.”
“If you don’t believe in prayer, get out of here,” Mother told him.
The officer left, taking my father with him.
Mother put us five children to bed on our grass mats. Then she began her prayer vigil in behalf of our father. At four a.m., she woke us saying, “The burden has become so heavy I cannot bear it alone. Get up and help me pray for your father.”
We gathered in a circle around Mother, with the two-month-old baby on the floor in the centre. While we were praying we heard footsteps. We were sure the officer was coming for us, and Mother threw her arms around us as far as she could reach.
Suddenly she said, “Those are your father’s footsteps!”
“Are you safe?” he asked, pulling the bamboo door back. We lit the lamp and saw his white shirt splattered with blood from those who had stood near him.
“I understand now why they let me go,” he said soberly. “You were praying.”
He told us that he had been the last in a row of ten men. A man had gone down the row, slashing off the heads of each with a sword.
“He raised his sword when he came to me, and just as he was ready to bring it down the officer in charge suddenly screamed, “Stop!” Then that officer roared at me, “Go home. Quick, get out of here. Go home.”
“Then he dived at me, grabbed my arm and propelled me toward the gate and past the guard as fast as he could—and here I am.”
That had been what was happening at the time Mother was so burdened that she got us up to pray.
We do not know what the officer experienced to make him change the order—but we do know why.
—The Pentecostal Evangel
4579 Twenty Thousand Prayers For Son
I remember when preaching on one occasion to an immense audience in the Agricultural Hall in London, a father and a mother were in great distress about their absent son, who had given up God’s ways, and had wandered from his father’s home to the wild bush of Australia. These poor parents asked the united prayers of that vast congregation for their son, and I suppose fully 20,000 prayers rose to the mercy seat.
That very hour those prayers ascended from the audience in London, that young man was riding through the Australian bush to town, a day’s ride from his camp. Something caused him to think of his home and his parents, and as he sat in the saddle, the Spirit of the Lord descended upon him, and he was convicted of sin. Dismounting, he knelt down by his horse’s side, and prayed to God for forgiveness, and in a little while he was assured of conversion. When he reached the town, he wrote the good news to his delighted mother, and asked if they would receive him at home. The answer flashed along the cable beneath the ocean: “Come home at once!”
So afraid were they that he might arrive in the night when they were not awake to receive him, that they fastened a big bell to the door, so that all the family would be awakened as he entered.
—D. L. Moody
4580 Explaining God’s Answers To Prayers
During the reign of Abdullah the Third, there was a great drought in Baghdad. The Mohammendan doctors issued a decree that the prayers of the faithful should be offered up for rain; the drought continued.
The Jews were then permitted to add their prayers; the supplications of both were ineffectual. As famine stared them in the face, those dogs, the Christians, were finally asked to pray. It so happened that immediately torrents of rain followed.
The whole conclave was now as indignant at the cessation of the drought as they were before alarmed at its continuance. Some explanations were necessary to the people, as follows:
“The God of our Prophet was highly gratified by the prayers of the faithful which were as sweet-smelling savors to Him. He refused their requests in order to prolong the pleasure of listening to their prayers; but the prayers of those Christian infidels were an abomination to Him, and He granted their petitions the sooner to be rid of their loathsome importunities.”
—Colton
4581 The Pastor’s Text
In the early years of his ministry, Dr. George W. Truett took the following verse as his text for a morning’s message: “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in heaven” (Mt. 18:19). Having quoted his text, Dr. Truett asked:
“Do you believe it?” Of course he did not expect an answer, but one was forthcoming nevertheless. As he paused for a moment that his question might be understood, a very poor member of the congregation, poor in this world’s goods but rich in faith, rose to her feet. “I believe it, pastor,” she said, “and I want you to claim that promise with me.”
“It staggered me,” said the pastor. “I knew I did not have the faith to claim the promise, but before I had time to answer, a big, burly blacksmith in the congregation rose to his feet; “I’ll claim that promise with you, Auntie,” he said, and together the two, the poor washer-woman and the blacksmith, dropped to their knees in the aisle and poured out their hearts in prayer for the salvation of the woman’s husband.”
Now it happened that this man was a riverboat captain on the Rio Grande, a swearing, foul-mouthed drunken sot, and he was at that moment sleeping off a drink at home.
That night, for the first time in many years at least, the old riverboat captain was in the church and while the pastor preached the woman prayed, not for the salvation of her husband, rather she was thanking God for it, for she seemed to know it would happen that night.
And of course when the invitation was given this old foul-mouthed captain came to give his heart to the Lord and he became one of the most dependable and faithful workers in that church.
—Baptist Standard
4582 And The Rains Stopped
It was almost time for the “Old-fashioned Revival Hour” to go on the air. The broadcast was originating in a tin-roofed tabernacle in Waterloo, Iowa. As Dr. Charles Fuller, the dean of gospel boadcasters, stood on the platform before the microphone, a heavy rain began to fall and pound upon the tin roof, making it impossible for the broadcast to go forth with its Bible-saturated message. Dr. Fuller prayed, “Lord, if You don’t stop the rain, the Old-fashioned Revival Hour will not be able to go out over the air. For Jesus’ sake, please stop the rain!”
How illustrative of Dr. Fuller’s simple faith in the power of God was that prayer! Within three minutes, the rain stopped suddenly, and the program went out without the slightest interference. But five minutes after the close of the service, a torrential downpour occurred.
—Gospel Herald
4583 Her Husband Was On The “Titanic”
One Sunday night in April 1912, an American woman was very weary, yet could not sleep because of an oppression of fear. At last she felt a burden of prayer, and with tremendous earnestness began to pray for her husband then in mid-Atlantic, homeward-bound on the Titanic. As the hours went by she could get no assurance, and kept on praying in an agony, until about five o’clock in the morning when a great peace possessed her, and she slept.
Meanwhile her husband, Colonel Gracie, was among the doomed hundreds who were trying frantically to launch the lifeboats from the great ship whose vitals had been torn out by an iceberg. He had given up all hope of being saved himself, and was doing his best to help the women and children. He wished that he could get a last message through to his wife, and cried from his heart, “Good-by, my darling.” Then as the ship plunged to her watery grave, he was sucked down in the giant whirlpool. Instinctively he began to swim under water, ice-cold as it was, crying in his heart.
Suddenly he came to the surface and found himself near an overturned lifeboat. Along with several others he climbed aboard, and was picked up by another lifeboat, about five in the morning, the very time that peace came to his praying wife! Supplication! The prayer that will not take No for an answer, that storms the battlements of Heaven, and brings confusion and defeat to all the powers of hell, even death itself!
—Christian Observer
4584 A Living Skeleton As Exhibit
James Gilmour, a missionary to Mongolia, was once asked to treat some wounded soldiers. Although he was not a doctor, he did have some knowledge of first-aid. So he felt he could not refuse the request. He dressed the wounds of two of the men but a third had a badly broken thigh bone. The missionary had no idea what to do for such an injury. Kneeling beside the man, he asked the Lord for help.
He didn’t know how God would answer his prayers, but he was confident that his need would be supplied. He couldn’t find any book on physiology in the primitive hospital, and no doctor arrived. To complicate matters, a crowd of beggars came to him asking for money. He was deeply concerned about his patient, yet his heart went out to those ragged paupers. Hurriedly he gave them a small gift, plus a few kind words of spiritual admonition.
A moment later he stared in amazement at one weary beggar who had remained behind. The half-starved fellow was little more than a living skeleton. The missionary suddenly realized that the Lord had brought him a walking lesson in anatomy! He asked the elderly man if he might examine him. After carefully tracing the femur bone with his fingers to learn how to treat the soldier’s broken leg, he returned to the patient and was able to set the fracture.
—Our Daily Bread
4585 Fifty-Two Years’ Prayer For The Last Man
More than half a century ago, George Mueller, that prince of intercessors with God, began to pray for a group of five personal friends. After five years one of them came to Christ. In ten years, two more of them found peace in the same Saviour. He prayed on for twenty-five years, and the fourth man was saved. For the fifth he prayed until the time of his death, and this friend, too, came to Christ a few months afterwards.
For this latter friend, Mr. Mueller had prayed almost fifty-two years! When we behold such perseverance in prayer, we feel that we have scarcely touched the fringe of real importunity in our intercessions for others.
—Earnest Worker
4586 Prayer Costs
“I want you to spend fifteen minutes every day praying for foreign missions,” said a pastor to some young people in his congregation. “But beware how you pray, for I warn you that it is a very costly experiment.”
“Costly?” they asked in surprise.
“Yes, costly,” he replied. “When Carey began to pray for the conversion of the world it cost him himself.
“Brainerd prayed for the dark-skinned savages, and, after two years of blessed work, it cost him his life.
“Two students in Mr. Moody’s summer school began to pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth more servants into His harvest; and, lo, it is going to cost America five thousand young men and women who have, in answer to this prayer, pledged themselves to the work.
“Be sure it is a dangerous thing to pray in earnest for this work; you will find that you cannot pray and withhold your labour, or pray and withhold your money; indeed, you will find that your very life will no longer be your own when your prayers begin to be answered.”
—F. E. Marsh
4587 Change Of Heart
One day a lady was giving her little nephew a lesson. He was generally a good, attentive child, but on this occasion he could not fix his mind on his work. Suddenly he said, “Auntie, may I kneel down and ask God to help me to find my marble?” His aunt having given her consent, the little boy knelt by his chair, closed his eyes, and prayed silently. Then he rose and went on with his lesson contentedly.
Next day, almost afraid of asking the question, lest the child had not found his toy, and so might lose his simple faith, she said, “Well, dear, have you found your marble?” “No, Auntie,” was the reply, “but God had made me not want to.”
—Home Messenger
4588 God, OK To Substitute
Years ago I lived in a town where I could never buy anything to fit me. I used to send away occasionally to a certain large store for what I needed, and they would send me printed order forms. At the bottom of the forms were some such words as these: “If we have not the article you order in stock may we substitute?”
Once I said, “Yes,” and they wrote, “We are sorry we have not in stock the article you ordered, but we are substituting—,” and they sent me something that was worth double the price I paid. They made it a rule, if they could not supply the article ordered, to substitute with one of a much better guality.
Ever after that I printed it out boldly so they would understand it—“Y-E-S.” When we pray to God, we had better put on the order form that we are quite willing to let Him substitute, for every time He does, He sends us something far better. “Exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Eph. 3:20).
—Gospel Witness
4589 For Adequacy Not Safety
Consider the illustrative value of the sinking of the S.S. Dorchester in the North Atlantic the cold night of February 3, 1943, with the loss of 678 lives out of 904 men aboard. Clark Poling was a young chaplain assigned to this ship. Before leaving, he asked his father, Daniel A. Poling, to pray not for his safety, but that he would be adequate for any situation. When the enemy torpedo struck and the ship started down, many of the men froze in fear.
Young Poling, with three other chaplains, strapped their own lifebelts to the fear-stricken men, helped load the lifeboats, then joined hands in a circle of prayer as they went to the watery graves. His father’s prayer had been answered; he had found adequacy where he had not found safety.
—James Hastings
4590 Contrary Answers
In his Confessions, Augustine relates that when as a young man, having expressed a purpose to visit Rome, his mother remonstrated, and prayed earnestly that he might be prevented from going, her reason being that she feared the effect upon the young man of the temptations and vices with which the great city abounded.
He went, however, and during his stay there was converted to Christianity under the preaching of St. Ambrose. Augustine writes that her prayer was answered, though not in its outward form, but in its inward heart. What she really prayed for was that he might be saved from the ways of sin.
—James Freeman Clarke
4591 God’s Delayed Blessings
In the charming little booklet, “Expectation Corner,” Adam Slowman was led into the Lord’s treasure houses, and among other wonders there revealed to him was the “Delayed Blessings Office,” where God kept certain things prayed for until the time came to send them. It takes a long time for some petitioners to learn that delays are not denials. Ah, there are secrets of love and wisdom in the “Delayed Blessings Department” which are little dreamed of. Men would pluck their mercies green when the Lord would have them ripe. “Therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you.”
God’s plans like lilies pure and white, unfold;
We must not tear the close-shut leaves apart;
Time will reveal the calyxes of gold.
—Sunday School Times
4592 Mother’s Prayer Led To Seminary Gift
Years ago a devout woman of Scotland prayed earnestly that her son might be called to the Gospel ministry. He grew up to be an earnest Christian man, and in the very morning of that manhood began to prepare for the high calling to which he seemed destined. But before his preparation was complete, he decided that he was not called of God to this work. He left school and entered a bank. He continued to the end of his days a financier. He died, successful and rich.
The mother’s prayer was not granted. But when her son’s will was read, it was found that his large fortune had been left to the endowment of what is now the Kentucky Theological Seminary. By this not one, but many ministers are given in answer to the Scotch mother’s prayer. For that prayer, though not granted, was answered.
—Southern Evangelist
4593 She Dared Not Pray Against Duke
A certain Duke of Milan was so hated for his unbearable cruelty that everybody prayed day and night for something bad to happen to him. Someone noticed that every day at sunrise a decrepit old woman entered a church and prayed to God that he gave the Duke health and long life. The Duke, hearing about this and knowing very well that he did not deserve that for his virtue, sent for the old woman and asked her why she prayed to God for him every day.
“I admit,” she said, “that I have done this until now for good reasons. This is because when I was a young girl the Milanese had a very cruel lord, and I wished that he should fall from power and die. After he died he was succeeded by another who was no better than he, wherefore I believed once more that it would be to our great advantage if he were killed.
“Now you are our third lord, and you are more wicked and cruel than the first two. I fear, therefore, that after your death you will be succeeded by someone worse than you are; and so I never stop praying God to let you live for a long time.” The tyrant was too ashamed to put to death that little woman who was so bold.
—Italian
4594 Epigram On Prayer (Answers)
• When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers.
—Oscar Wilde
• Mrs. Billy Graham told an audience of Minneapolis women last year: “God has not always answered my prayers. If He had, I would have married the wrong man—several times.”
—Religious News Service
PRAYER AND EFFORTS
4595 Kicking The Bird Trap
The celebrated William Ewart Gladstone used to tell friends about a neighbor’s little girl who really believed in prayer.
Her brother had made a trap that caught little sparrows and she prayed that it might fail. Suddenly for three days her face was radiant when she prayed and her absolute faith in the futility of the trap was so noticeable that her mother asked: “Julia, how can you be so positive?”
She smiled, “Because, dear Mama, I went out three days ago and kicked the trap to pieces.”
—Maxwell Droke
4596 Myconius’ Dream
When Martin Luther set out on the work which shook the world, his friend Myconius expressed sympathy. “But,” he said, “I can best help where I am. I will remain and pray while you toil.” Myconius prayed day by day, but as he prayed he began to feel uncomfortable.
One night he had a dream. He thought the Saviour himself approached and showed him his hands and feet. He saw the fountain in which he had been cleansed from sin. Then looking earnestly into his eyes the Saviour said, “Follow me.” The Lord took him to a lofty mountain and pointed eastward. Looking in that direction Myconius saw a plain stretching away to the horizon. It was dotted with white sheep—thousands and thousands of them. One man was trying to shepherd them all. The man was Luther. The Saviour pointed westward. Myconius saw a great field of standing corn. One reaper was trying to harvest it all. The lonely laborer was spent and exhausted, but still he persisted in his task. Myconius recognized in the solitary reaper his old friend Luther.
“It is not enough,” said Myconius when he awakened, “that I should pray. The sheep must be shepherded; the fields must be reaped. Here am I; send me.” And he went out and shared his old friend’s labors.
—Fiery Crags, by Boreham
4597 Farm Without Hard Worker
One day the minister visited a hard-working farmer who was in his congregation. The minister marveled at the change in the farm, from dilapidated buildings and poor, worn-out land to modern, brightly-painted buildings and rich, abundant cropland.
“My, Bill,” said the minister, “the Lord and you have certainly worked wonders with this farm.”
“Yes,” replied the farmer laconically, “but you should have seen the place when the Lord had it by Himself.”
—Gospel Herold
4598 Allenby’s Prayer For Jerusalem
Allenby Bridge was built to honor Allenby whom God used to miraculously make conquest of Jerusalem without the firing of a single gun. It spans the Jordan River.
Allenby told how as a little boy when he knelt to say his evening prayers he was taught to lisp after his mother the closing part of the prayer, “And, O Lord, we would not forget Thine ancient people, Israel; hasten the day when Israel shall again be Thy people and shall be restored to Thy favor and to their land.”
At a reception in London, Allenby said, “I never knew then that God would give me the privilege of helping to answer my own childhood prayers.”
—Chosen People
4599 Simply Let Buckets Down
A ship in distress off the Canadian coast, with its fresh water supply com pletely exhausted, sent out an S.O.S. for fresh water. The reply came back immediately: “Let your buckets down.” They had sailed into the fresh waters of the River St. Lawrence.
—A. Naismith
4600 Pay Now, Pray Later
A worldly-wise minister was having trouble collecting money from his congregation for a new addition to the church. Yet members kept telling him they were praying for the project’s success. Donations finally went up one Sunday when a slogan appeared on the collection plate: “Pay now, Pray later!”
4601 Calling White House Direct
David Urey was desperate. His wife lay critically injured from an auto accident in West Virginia. Doctors said she needed immediate attention from a neurosurgeon if she were to survive.
Urey tried to charter a helicopter to fly her to Washington, D.C., where the nearest adequate medical care was available. He failed.
Finally he declared, “I’m going to call the White House.” It was a bold act, but as a result, President Nixon’s private helicopter was immediately dispatched to Urey’s aid.
4602 Writing President For Blood
Carol Ann Miller, a twelve-year-old girl in Oxon Hill, Maryland, had a heart ailment which required specialized, dangerous surgery. A rare type of blood—B-negative—was needed for transfusion before the surgeons would attempt the operation.
“I’ll write to President Eisenhower, and ask him to help me get the needed blood,” thought Carol Ann. So she wrote: “My Dear President: The surgeons want to close up a hole in my heart. If you know anyone who has B-negative blood, please call my mother. It is very important!”
The girl’s plea deeply touched the president. Immediately he had the Red Cross contacted, and also the doctors in Walter Reed Hospital. Soon twenty pints of the required blood were made available to Carol Ann’s surgeons.
4603 God Not In Junk Business
Dr. Walter Wilson and a missionary friend were praying for a car which was greatly needed for the missionary’s work in Africa. The missionary prayed, “O God, You know how badly I need a car for my work. Do, Lord, send me a car. Any kind of an old, ramshackle car will do!” Dr. Wilson interrupted. “Stop praying that way, brother! God is not in the junk business!”
—Selected
4604 A Unique Promise
There was once a godless seaman who was in a boat fishing with his godless companions when a storm came up which threatened to sink the ship. His companions begged him to offer a prayer; but he demurred, saying it was years since he had prayed or entered a church.
Finally, upon their insistence, he made this prayer: “O Lord, I have not asked You for anything for fifteen years, and if You deliver us out of this storm and bring us safe to land again, I promise that I will not bother You again for another fifteen years.”
4605 Seeing More Of Heaven On Knees
Said the great and devout scientist, Sir Isaac Newton: “I can take my telescope and look millions and millions of miles into space, but I can lay it aside and go into my room, shut the door, get down on my knees in earnest prayer, and see more of heaven and get closer to God than I can assisted by all the telescopes and material agencies on earth.”
—Free Methodist
4606 On Not Telling All
A young man who had involved himself in debt went for assistance to Cecil Rhodes, the Colossus of South Africa. “How much do you owe?” asked Mr. Rhodes. A sum was named. “Is that all?” That was all. A check for the amount was written out. “Come to see me tomorrow about the appointment, and be ready to leave for the north.” The young fellow left happily, but in the morning there was another story.
In his dread of stating an amount which to him seemed large, he had not told the true sum of his indebtedness, and had spent the afternoon trying to raise the extra money from Mr. Rhodes’ own friends on the strength of the appointment he was to receive. “It won’t do,” was the unexpected reply he received in the morning, “I asked you a question, and you gave me the wrong answer. You are of no use to me. Good day.”
—The Boy’s World
4607 Glad To Take Her Across Street
A great man once said that of all the experiences of his life that he could remember, there was nothing that gave him such unmixed joy as when, on a crowded street of a great city, a little child looked up into his face, and put his tiny hand in his great one, and said, “Take me across the street to the other side.” It was an honor to the strong man to take that trusting child across the street to the other side.
Are there not streets ahead for you to cross? Is there some difficulty that you must meet, and do you need a strong arm to take you over to the other side? Put your hand in the hand of Christ. Simple confidence in Him will delight His heart.
—Choice Gleanings
4608 Einstein’s Little Visitor
One of his neighbors, the mother of a ten-year-old girl, noticed that the child often visited Einstein’s house. The woman wondered at this, and the child explained: “I had trouble with my homework in arithmetic. People said that at No. 112 there lives a very big mathematician, who is also a very good man. I asked him to help me. He was very willing, and explained everything very well. He said I should come whenever I find a problem too difficult.”
Alarmed at the child’s boldness, the girl’s mother went to Einstein to apologize. Einstein said, “You don’t have to excuse yourself. I have learned more from the conversations with the child than she has from me.”
4609 Lincoln’s Serenity
The fate of the nation was hanging precariously in the balances. General Lee and his army had surged forward to the environs of Gettysburg, where the fateful, decisive battle of the Civil War was in the making. The sorrows and burdens of the war-torn nation had exacted its terrible toll on the occupant of the White House, Abraham Lincoln. Yet, on the eve of the crucial Battle of Gettysburg, he was calm and assured. His serenity was reassuring to his generals.
When they inquired, “How can you be so self-possessed in this hour of the nation’s mortal peril and darkness?” Lincoln said, “I spent last night in prayer before the Lord. He has given to me the assurance that our cause will triumph and that the nation will be preserved!”
—Selected
4610 Open Thy Mouth
“Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it” (Psalm 81:10).
One can best understand these words if he is acquainted with a strange custom that existed in the days when Asaph wrote this Psalm. At that time when a benevolent king wished to extend a favor to a visitor, or give an ambassador a special honor, he would request him to open his mouth wide. The king would then cram it full of sweetmeats. On occasion he would even put in a handful of jewels.
See also : Mark 13:33; Luke 21:36; Rom. 12:12; I Pet. 4:7.