The Power of Prayer

Samuel I. Prime

8. Remarkable Answers To Prayer - The Four Great Revivals - Power Of Prayer - 'My Husband Saved' - Twenty Special Cases Selected - A Brother-In-Law - A Drunkard Saved.

We are now, said a venerable clergyman of the Reformed Dutch Church, in the fourth great revival under the gospel dispensation. The first commenced in Pentecostal times, and continued several centuries. The second commenced in the time of Martin Luther, and was long continued in the church. The third was in the days of Edwards, and Whitefield, and the Tennants. The fourth is that which now pervades our country, and is spreading to all other lands.

The great fact and truth established by the first great revival was the supreme divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It began with the dispensation of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. It went on through the days of the Apostles. This was the great rejoicing truth and fact of the period. It filled all hearts with gladness. It was the great truth on which the faith and the fate of a perishing world depended. It was necessary that this truth should be established and felt as a foundation on which the world would build its hopes.

The great truth illustrated and established by the great revival in the time of Luther and the Reformers was the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ. This cardinal doctrine was the platform on which they stood, in their opposition to the errors of the Church of Rome. It was necessary that the world should be set right on this subject. And it was set right. It was this that aroused the true church with amazing power, so that kings and dynasties sunk feebly down before her, as she marched on in her glorious triumphs.

The first truth illustrated and established in the third great revival in the time of Edwards, and Whitefield, and the Tennents was the doctrine of instantaneous conversion and regeneration by the Holy Spirit. It was necessary that this great doctrine should be enforced and stamped indelibly upon the convictions and heart of the world, so that it should remain an undisputed fact, received and acknowledged by all.

And now the great truth illustrated and established by this great revival of the present time, the fourth great revival, is the cardinal doctrine of Christian union; oneness of the church; a real unity; a oneness of all her members in Christ, the Head.

It is this great truth that is in this revival, and by this revival impressed upon the world. It is this that arms the church with its energy and power, by which she overcomes and goes on to victory and triumph. This is the truth which is to live in the convictions of men, till Christ has subdued all things to himself.

After reading requests, and earnest prayer, a highly respected Presbyterian clergyman arose and said:

‘We should remember that all these great revivals were bestowed in answer to prayer. I wonder if my brethren ever think of the power of prayer; of the power they have to prevail over the divine mind. If you ask me how this is, I cannot tell you how. But just see what the Bible reveals and teaches on this subject. It seems as if God had disclosed the fact that he cannot withstand the prayers of his people. Just see what he says about this. Look at the case of Moses on the Mount. God complained to Moses, as if he had said: these people whom I have brought out of Egypt with a high hand and outstretched arm have made themselves a golden calf; and they bow down and worship it, and they forsake and forget me, who scooped out the waters of the sea for them to pass over; who wrought miracles for their deliverance in the land of bondage. Now my wrath is waxed hot against them. Now, Moses, let me alone that I may destroy them. I will make of you a great nation. I will cut them off utterly. But if you fall down and pray, I know I cannot do it. Don’t ask me to spare them, and I will make of you a great people.

What did Moses do? Why, he fell on his knees. “Oh! my Father, what will become of thy great name?” he said. “What will the heathen say, and they of Egypt? Why, they will say that you just brought them out here into the wilderness to destroy them, and could not or would not save them. That be far from thee, Lord.” And what did God do? Why, he seemed not to be able to withstand the prayer of his servant, and rebellious Israel was saved.

Take other examples. At the prayer of one man the rain was stayed; not a drop of water or dew upon the earth for the space of three years and six months. And then at the prayer of one man the heavens gave rain.

Take another example. They of the Amalekites, and Moab, and Mount Seir, combined against the Jews to destroy them with a great army. But they awoke in the morning, and 180,000 of them were dead corpses. What was the matter? Why, one man had gone out against them armed with prayer.

So when God poured out his Spirit in these great revivals, it was in answer to prayer. Oh! when will the church learn that God hears and answers prayer, that prayer with God prevails?’

‘As I was leaving the prayer-meeting,’ said another of the speakers, ‘when I had gone a little distance, a lady came rushing up to me and exclaimed: “Oh! my brother, my brother; oh! is not my husband to be saved? I have put a request that he might be prayed for, three times; and three times this request has been read; and in each case no allusion has been made to my case in the prayers which followed. My husband has not been prayed for. What does it mean?”

‘Well, I said to her,’ said the speaker, “Suppose you keep on praying for him. I will pray for him. I will speak to others to pray for him. We will carry his case to other places of prayer.”

The heart of this wife was very much encouraged. When I met her again, I inquired, “Is your husband converted yet?”

“Oh! no, he is not converted; but I believe he will be. My husband is certainly to be a Christian. I feel assured he will be.”

In a few days I met her again. I asked her, “Is that husband of yours a Christian yet?”

“Oh, I am afraid not. I have been praying and hoping, and believing. I am so distressed with anxiety for him, that I have had to give up all attention to all household duties. I cannot oversee my house. My hope is in God, and I will trust in him, for vain is the help of man.”

A few days after, I met this same wife again.

“Is your husband converted yet?” Her countenance lighted with a spiritual, serene, and holy joy.

“Oh yes, I hope my husband is converted. He came home from his business; he ran to me, threw his arms round my neck, and, in weeping rapture, exclaimed, ‘Oh! I have found the Saviour! I have given myself up to him, and on the very next Sabbath I am to unite myself to the people of God. I am with you now for time and eternity.’

“I asked him where he was,” said the wife, “when he experienced the change. He answered,

‘In the Fulton street prayer-meeting.’ And this was the first knowledge I had that he ever attended the Fulton street prayer-meetings at all. So, while I was praying, he was going to the place of prayer, where the Lord met him in his mercy.

‘Were I to name him,’ continued the speaker, ‘you would all know him, for he is a marked and eminent man in this city.’

The tears were flowing freely all around the room.

‘Now, just mark one thing,’ said the same voice, ‘how God, by the Spirit, supported the faith of this humble, feeble believer; and how, at the same time, he broke her off from all human reliance, that the excellency of the power might be of God, and not of man.’

A melting, hallowed influence fell upon the prayer-meeting. Then how beautifully came in these lines, which were sung with deep emotion:

One there is above all others,
Well deserves the name of friend;
His is love beyond a brother’s,
Costly, free, and knows no end.

A coloured woman, devoted to her Saviour, in her humble, earnest way, determined to select twenty of her acquaintances, and pray earnestly for their salvation. She was a member of the Broome street church, known intimately to Miss Maynard, since called to heaven, who was well known by many who attend this Fulton street prayer-meeting. This coloured woman kept her resolution, selected the twenty, prayed without ceasing for their conversion, and subsequently had the blessed satisfaction of believing that they all had embraced the Saviour.

A Montreal clergyman, whose son was in Yale College, and unconverted, prayed earnestly for God’s saving grace to descend upon him, and quite recently had evidence that his prayers were heard and answered in the conversion of that son.

A pastor who was settled seven hundred miles from New York, who visited this meeting one year ago, was much impressed; considered the Fulton street prayer-meeting as the mother of an awakened religious feeling all over the land, and his attendance here had made him wise to win souls to Christ. He had been greatly blessed in his ministry, had laboured with uncommon zeal, fervour, and success. He had improved the golden hour for gathering in the harvest of souls.

A friend, in rising, said it gave him great pleasure to inform the meeting that a brother called at his place of business on that very morning, and with an unusually happy face, exclaimed, ‘My son, for whom I have prayed so long, is at last under conviction of sin. His sister has prayed earnestly for him that he might be brought to Christ. For three months he has been suffering from a sense of his unworthiness, but never told his nearest and dearest friends. Yesterday he met an acquaintance who urged him to visit the theatre in the evening, in his company. He promised to go. After they separated, he thought, “I had resolved to go to the prayer-meeting this evening; I do not know about going to the theatre. This may be the last opportunity I may ever have of attending such a prayer-meeting; I must not lose it - I will not.” He resolved not to go to the theatre, but to go to the prayer-meeting. He did so, and was so convinced of his sins, and of his need of a Saviour, that he rose in that same prayer-meeting, and related the experience he had passed through, in terms so touching that there was scarcely a dry eye in the house.

On a late occasion, when many requests had been read, and the chairman had made an earnest appeal for prayer for the objects thus presented, a gentleman arose in the audience and said:

‘Mr Chairman, bear with me a moment before prayer, while I add to these requests one for my brother-in-law, and state some facts. He was in this room for the first time last night, at a night prayer-meeting. He is in this businessmen’s daily prayer-meeting now, and in this meeting for the first time to-day. The Holy Spirit met him in his mercy last night. He came here entirely careless and thoughtless, by my persuasion. And this morning he sent for me, before he left his room, to come and pray with him. He has just returned from Newport, where he had spent the summer as regardless of religion as the hundreds with whom he was daily associated. I found him in great distress of mind. I found him on his knees, praying and shedding a flood of tears. I talked to him, prayed with him, and heard him pray. And now I ask you to pray that he may be converted this very hour—before we leave the room.’

Then followed fervent, earnest prayer. What solemnity settled upon the minds of all. What a sense of the divine presence.

The next day this same case was again remembered. The man was present again, affected to tears through the whole meeting. On the next day he, of his own accord, and without any solicitation, put in the following request.

‘The brother-in-law, for whom prayers have been offered in this room, desires to add his testimony to the efficacy of prayer. He humbly trusts, through the merits of a dying Saviour, that he has been hopefully converted; and he earnestly requests the continued prayers of this meeting that his faith may be strengthened in the Lord.’

In a subsequent chapter, the record of this case is given in detail.

A man arose, greatly agitated respecting his soul and its destiny. Well he might be, he said. He had been a man of such a course of life, that he had much to repent of. He had been a great transgressor - profane - idle - dissolute - intemperate - a hater of religion and all its duties and requirements - a disbeliever in much that is called religion. He had lived a hardened, ungodly life, till he chanced to stray into one of the Fulton street meetings.

He came up to the upper lecture-room in great trepidation of mind. He wanted to find, he said, some place where there was a temperance pledge. He wanted to sign it. He would prefer to go to the rooms of the American Temperance Union, and sign there. He wanted to begin, he said, at the beginning — and the first thing was to quit the abomination of strong drink. This was the beginning, he said, of ‘Let the wicked forsake his way’, and then he hoped he should be able to forsake everything else that was wicked. He appeared to be in great haste. He said he was in a hurry to be a Christian’. This seemed to be according to the Scriptures, and yet he seemed to be wholly taught of the Holy Spirit.

We saw him a few days after this. He had been faithful in coming to all the meetings. He had been faithful to his pledge of total abstinence. He was very jealous of himself. His great fear was that some ‘old evil companion’ would get power over him - would get him to drink just one drop; then all would be gone, soul, body - all, said he, will go to hell together. He said his continual prayer was, ‘Lord! hold thou me up and I shall be safe.’ ‘I cry to God continually,’ said he, ‘for I feel that God must help me or I shall fall. No man can realise the power of this appetite who has not felt it. I must be a Christian to be safe.’