The Wonders of Prayer Part 23

PRAYING FOR A LOST POCKET-BOOK.

A contributor to _The Christian_ writes as follows:

"A few months since I lost my pocket-book, containing money and papers of a large amount--more than I felt able to lose--and which I should feel the loss of, as I was owing at that time about the same amount.

"On the day of my loss, I had been from home about a mile and a half, and it was about 9 o'clock _in the evening_, when I returned. And it was not till then that I ascertained my loss.

"My health was very poor, and the prospect of regaining the lost pocket-book was quite uncertain; it was so dark that I thought it would be impossible for me to find it. Consequently I determined to remain awake during the night, and at 3 o'clock in the morning search for it, and if possible, find it before any one should pa.s.s over the road.

"The seeming impossibility of finding it, and the reflections consequent upon the loss of the money were so unpleasant to me that I was led to make it a subject of prayer, fully trusting that in some way G.o.d would so direct that I should come in possession of it. If so, I determined to give him $25 of it.

"As soon as I had formed this purpose, all that unpleasant feeling left me, and I did not admit a single doubt but I should get it.

"Accordingly, _at 3 o'clock in the morning_ I made a thorough search, but could not find it. Yet my faith in G.o.d's guiding hand did not fail me, and I believed that my trust would be realized.

"While I was thus thinking of the certainty of the fulfillment of the promises of the Gospel to the believer, I was called on by a gentleman, a leading business man of the place, who came to know if _I had lost anything_.

"I told him I had lost my pocket-book. He wanted to know how much it contained. I told him. He said his son had occasion to pa.s.s early on that morning, and had found it in the road, and that in all probability I should otherwise have lost it, as two men pa.s.sed by immediately after it was found.

"Thus G.o.d found it and returned it to me."

LIVES OF FAITH AND TRUST

AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF FAITH AND TRUST.

For many centimes there has not been a more remarkable testimony of unfaltering trust in the faithfulness of G.o.d in supplying human wants, than is found in the life and labor of George Muller and his Orphan Home, in Bristol, England. His record is one of humility, yet one of daily dependence upon the providence and the knowledge of G.o.d to supply his daily wants. It has been one of extraordinary trial; yet never, for a single hour, has G.o.d forsaken him. Beginning, in 1834, with absolutely nothing; giving himself, his earthly all and his family to the Lord, and asking the Lord's pleasure and blessing upon his work of philanthropy, he has never, for once, appealed to any individual for aid, for a.s.sistance, for loans; but has relied wholly in prayer to the Lord--coming with each day's cares and necessities--and the Lord has ever supplied. He has never borrowed, never been in debt; living only upon what the Lord has sent--yet in the forty-third year of his life of faith and trust--he has been able, through the voluntary contributions which the Lord has prompted the hearts of the people to give, to accomplish these wonderful results: _Over half a million dollars_ have been spent in the construction of buildings--_over fifteen thousand orphans have been cared for and supported--and over one million dollars_ have been received for their support. _Every dollar of which has been asked for in believing prayer from the Lord_. The record is the most astounding in the faith of the Christian religion, and the power and providence of G.o.d to answer prayer, that modern times can show.

The orphans' homes have been visited again and again by Christian clergymen of all denominations, to feel the positive satisfaction and certainty that all this were indeed the work of prayer, and they have been abundantly convinced.

The spectacle is indeed a _standing miracle. "A man sheltering, feeding, clothing, educating, and mailing comfortable and happy, hundreds of poor orphan children, with no funds of his own, and no possible means of sustenance, save that which G.o.d sent him in answer to prayer_."

An eminent clergyman who for five years had been constantly hearing of this work of faith, and could hardly believe in its possibility, at last visited Mr. Muller's home for the purpose of thorough investigation, exposing it, if it were under false pretenses or mistaken ways of securing public sympathy, or else with utmost critical search, desired to become convinced it was indeed supported only by true prayer. He had reserved for himself, as he says, a wide margin for deductions and disappointment, but after his search, as "_I left Bristol, I exclaimed with the queen of Sheba, 'The half had not been told me.' Here I saw, indeed, seven hundred orphan children fed and provided for, by the hand of G.o.d, in answer to prayer, as literally and truly as Elijah was fed by ravens with meat which the Lord provided_."

Mr. Muller himself has said in regard to their manner of living: "_Greater and more manifest nearness of the Lord's presence I have never had, than when after breakfast, there were no means for dinner, and then the Lord provided the dinner for more than one hundred persons; and when after dinner, there were no means for the tea; and yet the Lord provided the tea; and all this without one single human being having been informed about our need_."

Thus it will be seen his life is one of daily trial and trust, and he says, "Our desire therefore, is, not that we may be without trials of faith, but that the Lord graciously would be pleased to support us in the trial, that we may not dishonor him by distrust."

The question having been asked of him, "Such a way of living must lead the mind continually to think whence food, clothes, etc., are to come, with no benefit for spiritual exercise," he replies: "Our minds are very little tried about the necessaries of life; just because the care respecting them is laid upon our Father, who, because we are his children, not _only allows_ us to do so, _but will have us to do so_.

"It must also be remembered that even if our minds _were_ much tried about our supplies, yet because we look to the _Lord alone_ for all these things, we should be brought by our sense of need, into the presence of our Father for the supply of it, _and that is a blessing_, and satisfying to the soul."

This humble statement from the experience of one who has tried and proven the Lord in little things, as well as large, conveys to the Christian that world of practical instruction which is contained in the precepts of the Bible, viz: to _encourage all to cast their cares on G.o.d_; and teaches them the lessons of their dependence upon Him for their daily supplies.

The meaning of the Lord's blessing upon the work of Mr. Muller, is to make it a standing example and ill.u.s.tration to be adopted in every Christian home. "_How G.o.d supplies our needs, how he rewards faith, how he cares for those who trust in Him. How he can as well take care of his children to-day as he did in the days of the Prophets, and how surely he fulfills his promise, even when the trial brings us to the extremities of circ.u.mstances seemingly impossible_."

Mr. Muller's experience is remarkable, not because the Lord has made his an exceptional case for the bestowal of blessings, but because of the _remarkable, unwavering and persevering application of his faith_, by the man himself.

His faith began with small degrees, and small hopes. It was painfully tried. But it clung hopefully, and never failed to gain a triumph. Each trial only increased its tenacity, and brought him greater humility, for it opened his own heart to a sense of his own powerlessness, and this faith has grown with work and trial, till its strength is beyond all precedent.

The lessons which the Lord wishes each one to take from it, is this: "_Be your faith little or weak, never give it up; apply my promises to all your needs, and expect their fulfillment. Little things are as sacred as great things_."

In the journal kept by Mr. Muller during his many years of experience, he has preserved many incidents of answer to prayer in small matters, of which we quote the following from his book. "_The Power of Faith and Prayer_."

1. "One of the orphan boys needed to be apprenticed. I knew of no suitable believing master who would take an indoor apprentice. I gave myself to prayer, and brought the matter daily before the Lord. At last, though I had to pray about the matter from May 21 to September, the Lord granted my request, and I found a suitable place for him.

2. I asked the Lord that he would be pleased to deliver a certain sister in the Lord from the great spiritual depression under which she was suffering, and after three days the Lord granted my request.

3. I asked the Lord daily in his mercy to keep a sister in the Lord from insanity, who was then apparently on the border of it. I have now to record his praise, after nearly four years have pa.s.sed away, that the Lord has kept her from it.

4. During this year has occurred the conversion of one of the greatest sinners that I had ever heard of in all my service for the Lord.

Repeatedly I fell on my knees with his wife, and asked the Lord for his conversion, when she came to me in the deepest distress of soul, on account of the most barbarous and cruel treatment that she had received from him in his bitter enmity against her for the Lord's sake. And now the awful persecutor is converted.

5. It pleased the Lord to try my faith in a way in which before, it had not been tried. My beloved daughter was taken ill on June 20. This illness, at first a low fever, turned to typhus, _and July 3 there seemed no hope of her recovery_.

Now was the trial of faith, but faith triumphed. My wife and I were enabled to give her up into the hands of the Lord. He sustained us both exceedingly.

She continued very ill till about July 20, when restoration began. On August 18, she was so far restored that she could be removed to Clevedon for change of air. It was then 59 days since she was taken ill.

6. The heating apparatus of our Orphan Home unexpectedly gave out. It was the commencement of Winter. To repair the leak was a questionable matter. To put in a new boiler would in all probability take many weeks.

Workmen were sent for to make repairs. But on the day fixed for repairs a _bleak north wind set in_."

Now came cold weather, the fire must be put out, the repairs could not be put off. Gladly would I have paid one hundred pounds if thereby the difficulty could have been overcome, and the children not be exposed to suffer for many days from living in cold rooms.

At last I determined on falling entirely into the hands of G.o.d, who is very merciful and of tender compa.s.sion. I now asked the Lord for two things, viz.: "That He would be pleased to change the _north wind into a south wind_, and that he would give the workmen a mind to work.

Well, the memorable day came. The evening before, the bleak north wind blew still; but on the Wednesday the south wind blew _exactly as I had prayed_. The weather was so mild that no fire was needed.

About half-past eight in the evening, the princ.i.p.al of the firm whence the boiler-makers came, arrived to see how the work was going on, and whether he could in any way speed the matter.

The princ.i.p.al went with me to see his men; to the foreman of whom he said: "The men will work late this evening, and come very early again to-morrow."

"_We would rather_," said the leader, "_work all night_."

Then remembered I the second part of my prayer, that G.o.d would give the men a mind to work. By morning the repair was accomplished, the leak was stopped, and in thirty hours the fire was again in the boiler; _and all the time the south wind blew so mildly that there was not the least need of a fire_.

7. In the year 1865, the scarlet fever broke out in several of the Orphan Homes. In one of which were four hundred girls, and in the other four hundred and fifty. It appeared among the infants. The cases increased more and more. But we betook ourselves to G.o.d in prayer. Day by day we called upon Him regarding this trial, and generally two or three times a day. At last, when the infirmary rooms were filled, and some other rooms that could be spared for the occasion, to keep the sick children from the rest, and when we had no other rooms to spare, at least not without inconvenience, it pleased the Lord to answer our prayers, and in mercy stay the disease. The disease was very general in the town of Bristol, and many children died in consequence. _But not one in the Orphan Home died. All recovered_.

At another date, the whooping-cough also broke out among the four hundred and fifty girls of our Home, and though many were dying in the towns of the same disease, yet all in the Orphan Home recovered except one little girl who had very weak lungs, a const.i.tutional tendency to consumption.