At a meeting Brother George and I were holding in Illinois, there was a
brother who wanted to walk by faith. He thought that in order to make a
success of such an experience he would have to ask the Lord to take away
all feeling. I suppose he must have prayed until he got his prayer through,
for God certainly did withdraw all good feelings from him. He took a severe
affliction which caused his face and parts of his body to swell badly, and
which brought on intense suffering. God seemed to be present when we prayed
for him, but the brother was not healed, and his suffering became so severe
that we were greatly burdened for him, and went to God in very earnest
prayer to know wherein the difficulty lay. God showed us how the brother
had prayed, and when we told him what the Lord had revealed to us, he saw
his mistake and made matters right with the Lord, then he was soon
gloriously healed. I have no idea that he ever asked the Lord again to take
away all good feelings so as to enjoy walking by faith.
Some few years later, while Sister Kaser, my brother and I were in
Robinson, Kansas, at a camp-meeting word came that my father was very sick
and wished my brother and me to come at once. Brother Warner and his
company were in this meeting. God was gloriously working, and souls were
being saved. When the letter came, therefore, we felt very reluctant to
leave, and after going to God in earnest prayer, we could not feel that he
wanted us to start that day. Besides, I felt impressed that if we should
start that day we should not get through to see him alive anyway, so we
delayed our trip until the day following.
For about two weeks God had been impressing me that I was going to have a
severe trial, at the same time bringing to me these comforting words: "I
will go with you through it." This promise had been on my mind many times.
The next morning we got a telegram that father was dead, and the enemy
tried to crush me with the accusation that I did not love my father or I
would have started to him the day before. Upon receipt of this telegram
George and I started at once. We had not proceeded far on our journey until
we learned that the train we should have taken had we gone the day before,
was wrecked. Some of the cars went into the river. The Lord's warning had
possibly saved us from death; but if not, from unnecessary delay, because
had we taken that train, we should not have reached our destination any
sooner than we did.
As I stood and gazed upon the still form of my father and remembered that a
great deal of his Christian life had not been satisfactory, I wished I
could have talked with him before he was taken.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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