prayer and praise you know something of the turning to Christ which we have witnessed among people in the villages. Last year we reported fifteen adult baptisms during the year. This year, during the last six months alone, 125 adults have been baptized and there are still a large number of inquirers. In several villages where, a few months ago, we had no work whatsoever, we now have small Christian communities and day schools, and the work is spreading. “The evangelistic ministry here in . . . has never been what it is today. I am not especially associated with this movement; in fact, I do not think anyone con nects me with it particularly. Our senior missionary is the leader in it, and I am more than glad to have it so. There is such a joy, I think, in being a hidden instru ment, and it is far safer. “ In every department, things are in a more prosper ous condition than I have ever before known them to be. I give but half the time to my work that I once did, yet I feel nothing is neglected. The stress and strain have vanished. I find that I can live through the days quietly, with none of the sense o f hurry which once character ized me. And the joy of feeling that my life is evenly balanced—the part of work and the part of communion —brings constant rest and peace. I could not go back to the old way now—it does not seem as though I could—and may God grant that it may always be impossible. “ I have written this just as a testimony to His faith fulness and to the far-reaching value of the prayer life and especially of the life of intercession. Satan is keep ing so many of God’s children today from this his holy enjoyment. Our rightful heritage on earth is the life of communion, and yet few of us enter into it. I have touched only the borderland. The more fully I enter in, the more conscious I am of my weakness. “ The other day a request came to me for prayer and I was greatly humbled, for it seemed to me that my prayer life was so far short of what it ought to be that it was unthinkable that anyone should ask for my prayers. The incident brought me low before God in spirit. But it is always a comfort to realize that He can use us in our weakness, is it not? ‘God hath chosen the weak things of the world’ (I Cor. 1:27). Some of us could not get along without that verse. “We need much prayer for the new converts, if they are to stand fast in the faith and grow in the knowl edge of Christ; but I do not feel that we need to be anxious about them for ‘He is able.’ ” With this interesting letter we received the follow ing requests that breathe life and spiritual success: “ Join me,” the missionary wrote, “ in much praise for God’s continued working in the villages. People are sending to us, asking for the gospel to be preached to them. Thanks be to Him . . . Praise Him for His evi dent blessing in other fields . . . Praise Him for Himself, His hourly presence and fellowship . . . Pray that the new converts may grow in grace and in the knowledge of Him. Pray that we may know how to lead them on, and that we may be given great patience in dealing with them.” Some time later we received another letter which indicated that the work is growing in interest and power, so that this prosperity cannot be regarded as a mere flash but as a permanent blessing. The praying missionary wrote: “You will be glad to know that the spirit of earnest inquiry is increasing in all the villages and there is every promise of a greater movement in the future than we have had in the past. Our Christians now number 600, in contrast to one-sixth of that number two years ago.”
only India but the whole globe as well. Is it not strange how dull we are that we cannot see this? Why should we place greater value upon our own feeble effort than upon our reaching up and moving ‘the Hand that moves the world’ ? “When we think of such promises as Jeremiah 33:3 : ‘Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not,’ it is a very simple conclusion that the reason we do not see ‘great and mighty things’ is that we do not ‘call.’ What else can it be in the face of such a promise as this? I believe the world has yet to see what can be done by patient, persevering, prevailing prayer.” This letter, when read in connection with the writer’s previous requests, revealed several facts : 1. She had labored hard and faithfully for the Mas ter for years, without seeing any fruit. 2. She was taking up this life of intercession after a great struggle and in obedience to the call of Christ. 3. She was afraid of being misunderstood by her fellow workers. In less than a year she wrote another letter, and oh, what a change it revealed! The Lord has heard prayer and the wilderness was transformed into a flourishing garden. In her second letter the missionary stated: “ It is almost a year ago, I think, since I wrote you of the def inite call I felt I had received from God to give myself more fully to the life of intercession. It has been in my mind often of late to tell you something of the result of that decision. “Most of the year has been a battle to keep to my resolution. There has been no opposition from other missionaries, for my work is quite separate, and only the members of the family with whom I live have known of this new way into which God has led me, and they have been most sympathetic. The opposition has come from within, not without. “ At first the temptation came: ‘Suppose you see no immediate result of your prayers. If God should keep you waiting perhaps years for any visible blessing; if things should go just the same in spite of all the time you give to prayer, can you trust God and pray on until the answer comes? And can you continue even if the answer never seems to come?’ It was hard, but God gave grace to feel that I could pray on although I might never see thè fruit of it. “ Then came what was even a more severe struggle. I have always been active, accustomed to steady work all day long. My new life called for much of the best part of the day to be spent in prayer and Bible study. Can you imagine what that was like, and what it is sometimes even now? I would hear others going about, hard at work, while I stayed quietly in my room, seem ingly useless. Many a time my heart has longed to be out among the people in the rush of things, but God’s hand held me with as real a grip as any human hand, and I knew I could not go. This experience comes to me often even yet. Only the other day I felt it, and then in the midst of the old longing to be busy, God seemed to say, ‘What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?’ (Rom. 6:21). “ Ashamed! Yes, I am heartily sorry for the years of almost prayerless missionary effort. I do not know of anything else in my past experience that I deplore more than this. And what reward have I? I can look back over a long period in India—eight years of hard work, unceasing from morning till night—and can point to very, very little fruit of any kind.” “ But what of today?” the missionary asked enthu siastically. “ Through my more recent requests for
JANUARY, 1965
21
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker