Prayer and praying menBounds, Edward M. (Edward McKendree)
Religion
Prayer and praying men
Bounds, Edward M. (Edward McKendree)
Bible -- Prayers; Prayer -- Christianity
_Bishop Lambeth and Wainwright had a great M. E. Mission in Osaka,
Japan. One day the order came from high up that no more meetings would
be allowed in the city by Protestants. Lambeth and Wainwright did all
they could but the high officials were obstinate and unrelenting. They
then retired to the room of prayer. Supper time came and the Japanese
girl came to summon them to their meal, but she fell under the power
of prayer. Mrs. Lambeth came to find what the matter was and fell
under the same power. They then rose and went to the mission hall and
opened it: and at once commenced meeting. God fell upon the assembly
and two of the sons of the city officials came to the altar and were
saved. Next morning one of the officials in authority came to the
mission and said, “Go on with your meetings, you will not be
interrupted.” The Osaka daily paper came out with box car letters
saying, “THE CHRISTIAN’S GOD CAME TO TOWN LAST NIGHT.”_--REV. H. C.
MORRISON.
Jonah, the man who prayed in the fish’s belly, brings to view another
remarkable instance of these Old Testament worthies who were given to
prayer. This man Jonah, a prophet of the Lord, was a fugitive from God
and from the place of duty. He had been sent on a mission of warning to
wicked Nineveh, and had been commanded to cry out against them, “for
their wickedness is come up before me,” said God. But Jonah, through
fear or otherwise, declined to obey God, and took passage on a ship for
Tarshish, fleeing from God. He seems to have overlooked the plain fact
that the same God who had sent him on that alarming mission had His eye
upon him as he hid himself on board that vessel. A storm arose as the
vessel was on its way to Tarshish, and it was decided to throw Jonah
overboard in order to appease God and to avert the destruction of the
boat and of all on board. But God was there as He had been with Jonah
from the beginning. He had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah, in
order to arrest him, to defeat him in his flight from the post of duty,
and to save Jonah that he might help to carry out the purposes of God.
It was Jonah who was in the fish’s belly, in that great strait,
and passing through a strange experience, who called upon God, who
heard him and caused the fish to vomit him out on dry land. What
possible force could rescue him from this fearful place? He seemed
hopelessly lost, in “the belly of hell,” as good as dead and damned.
But he prays--what else can he do? And this is just what he had been
accustomed to do when in trouble before.
“I cried by reason of my affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me;
out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardst my voice.”
And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry
land.
Like others he joined prayer to a vow he had made, for he says in his
prayer, “But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving;
I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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