Magnificent Prayer #279
Magnificent Prayer #279
You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.
A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.
Psalm 91:5–7
On the coast of Scotland, one stormy night, a woman came to the house of her pastor, and said to the minister, “Rise, and pray for my husband, for he is on the sea in a storm.” The Christian wife and her pastor knelt down and prayed for the salvation of the sea-captain. Sure enough, at that very hour the vessel was tossed upon the angry seas. The ship plunged in the wave, and it seemed as if it would never come up again; but it righted, and came to the top of the wave. It plunged again, and for a long while the captain thought it would never rise; but it began to shake itself from the wave, and again bounded the sea. The third time it went down, and all hands on board gave up the last hope. But again it mounted. As it came out of the foaming billows, the captain said to his crew, “Lads, surely there was some God’s soul on the land praying for us tonight, or we would never have come up out of that.” Prayer is a mighty influence. It is a strong and sure sickle. Let us all lay hold of it.
T. DEWITT TALMADGE
Pray About It: God protects His people in times of danger—especially in response to prayer. Have you prayed a hedge of protection around your loved ones? The rough seas they face are no less dangerous than a ship caught in a tempest. Pray for them with the same urgency. Your prayer today can calm their rough sea.
George Benfield, a driver on the Midland Railway, living at Derby, was standing on the footplate oiling his engine, the train being stationary, when his foot slipped; he fell on the space between the lines. He heard the express coming on, and had only time enough to lie full length on the “six-foot” when it rushed by, and he escaped unhurt. He returned to his home in the middle of the night and as he was going up-stairs he heard one of his children, a girl about eight years old, crying and sobbing. “Oh, father,” she said, “I thought somebody came and told me that you were going to be killed, and I got out of bed and prayed that God would not let you die.”
Was it only a dream, a coincidence? George Benfield and others believed that he owed his life to that prayer.
DEAN HOLE
From the book
