There were eight of us last night and most of us were men. One person told me he'd been offered Tottenham Barcelona ticket (Wembley is not far from us). he declined in favour of being with us. Wise choice (although they had a cracking game in Wembley I gather). We nearly all prayed and before that I took us briefly through Genesis 19:27-29. I ended with this Samuel Prime story from the 1858 revival
I
must tell you one thing in regard to the power of prayer. I believe
much in prayer for particular cases and particular individuals. I
have seen it to result in the salvation of souls in many cases during
the last winter. But the case I wish to speak of is the following:
A
brother pastor, who laboured near me, was on his death-bed. I knew
him well - knew all about his habits of prayer. When he was dying,
some one of his brother ministers asked him how he felt in view of
his departure. 'Oh!' he said, 'I feel happy, and assured of my
salvation, as a poor, lost sinner saved through a Saviour's precious,
atoning blood.' But still there seemed to be something weighing upon
his mind. So one of us inquired,'My dear brother, is there any thing
that is now a cause of anxiety to you?
The
dying minister put his hand under his pillow, and drew out a piece of
paper, on which were written twenty-five names of men, unconverted,
leading men in his parish, and, with tears in his eyes, he said,
“Yes, there is one cause of anxiety, and here it is: it is the
salvation of these twenty-five men. I have prayed much for these
twenty-five men, name by name. If I could know that these men would
be converted, I could then say, 'Lord, now let thy servant depart in
peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.'” This was the great
burden upon his heart, and so he died.
At
a recent meeting of our ecclesiastical body, when the conversation on
the state of religion was being held, and the successor of that
departed minister was giving in his account, I asked the moderator if
I might, through him, ask the brother about those twenty-five men,
for we all knew about the case. The clergyman heard my inquiry, and
for some time was unable to speak. Then, with the tears flowing down
his cheeks, he said, 'Brethren,
every one of those twenty-five men has been converted.' We
believe they were converted in answer to our deceased brother's
desires and prayers - perhaps in answer to that burden of desire
which he had for their conversion in the dying hour. Long had he
borne them on his heart as the burden of prayer, and all of them, we
think, will be stars in his crown of rejoicing in the great day.
