Chapter 2

It is the opinion of many of God's children that as the present dispensation draws to its close, there will be among the spiritually minded and consecrated ones of the church, a reproduction of the gifts of Pentecost for a last testimony to the world before Christ comes in glory. There is much Scripture that might be quoted to sustain this opinion. God grant in His grace and mercy that it may be so. But neither the church or the world have any _claim_ upon God for it. The church has abused grace and the world has despised mercy. All the promises as to miracles wrought for a testimony as to the truth of Christ's resurrection, have been fulfilled. If Christ were to come to-day, the world would be without excuse in having rejected him, and could not plead that signs and wonders had been abundantly wrought in His name in the establishing of His church upon the earth.

The question of our Lord in Luke xviii., 8, "When the son of man cometh shall he find faith on the earth?" suggests to many minds that there may not be vouchsafed during the time immediately preceding his manifestations, any marked interference by God in the way of miracles or signs among his children, but that their faith in Him as the unseen God, and their trust in the truth and verify of His word, will be brought forth to the praise and glory of God and their joy, by their being left to the _word alone_ and the operations of the Holy Ghost by and through the word for their comfort and stability in the faith.

Coupled with this thought let it ever be borne in mind by the believer that the testimony of God's word as to miracles, signs and wonders wrought by _Satanic agency_ in the church, during the last day, is clear and unmistakable, and warnings abound as to our danger from them.

"The Spirit saith expressly that in later times some shall fall away from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils." 1 Tim. iv., 1.

"But know this, that in the last days grievous times shall come." "Evil men and impostors shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." 2 Tim. iii., 1 and 13.

"Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers be transformed as the ministers of righteousness. 2 Cor. xi., 14.

"And then shall that wicked be revealed. Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, _with all power, and signs_, and _lying wonders_; and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved." 2 Thess. ii., 8 to 10.

By these passages it is plain that a sign or a wonder does not establish a doctrine or endorse a man as certainly being _from God_. The doctrine and the man must be judged by the written word of God.

If there is ought in the doctrine that denies that Jesus is the Son of God, that derogates in the slightest degree from the merit of His atonement on the cross for our sins, or that takes the eye off from Him as the risen and coming Lord, the alone object of our faith and hope, or that dishonors in any way God's holy word, taking from or adding to it, _then_ the more signs and wonders and manifestations of mysterious power that there may be connected with it, then the more certainly we may know that it is of Satan and not of God.

And if, in the man who exhibits signs and wonders, there is a spirit contrary to the spirit of Christ, in his seeking honor from man, and using his power to establish a claim to such honor, "speaking of himself as some great one," and not walking in humility as a sinner saved from hell and kept day by day by the power of God through faith in Christ, And if the purpose of his signs be to establish revelations he is receiving in any form apart from the written word, then, though his signs be as marvelous as those of the magicians in Egypt, or Simon Magnus in Samaria, he is, like them, a minister of Satan and not a minister of Jesus Christ.

The age abounds in doctrines and men of this kind. The life of faith lays the soul open to assaults of the Devil by their agency.

"Beloved try the spirits whether they be of God."

Let us not waver in our faith in God's overruling providence, and in the reality of His interposition in answer to prayer for the deliverance and help of his people under any and all circumstances. "In _everything_, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let our requests be made known unto God," but let our first request be that we be kept in a sound mind obedient to the word, and let _all of_ our requests close with the utterance, from a sincere heart, of the words, "Thy will be done." If this be the attitude of our hearts our prayers shall be abundantly and graciously answered, and God shall guide us from the wiles of the Evil One for the sake of His dear Son Jesus Christ our Lord, through whose precious blood we have all grace and all blessing. Amen.

LAKE VIEW, July 24th, 1885.

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A MAN CAN RECEIVE NOTHING EXCEPT IT BE GIVEN HIM FROM HEAVEN. JOHN 3: 27.

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HIS COVENANT.

_"Know, that the Lord, thy God he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him, and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations."_

_"My Covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips."_

_"I will not suffer my faithfulness to fail."_

_"I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it."_

_"He is faithful that promised."_

_"I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David."_

_"Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David."_

_"God is not a man, that he should lie; hath he said and shall he not do it? hath he spoken and shall he not make it good?"_

_"Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in Heaven; thy faithfulness is unto all generations, thy word is true from the beginning."_

_"Thy faithfulness is unto all generations."_

_"The word of our God shall stand forever."_

_"So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth; it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the things whereto I sent it."_

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ANSWERS TO PRAYER

A WONDERFUL ANSWER TO PRAYER AND PROOF OF THE EXISTENCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

A trustful Christian, whose heart had been deeply touched with thoughts of religion, was one day thinking and pondering and wishing that he might be more truly convinced of the actual existence of the Holy Spirit. "If," thought he, "there is a Holy Spirit, a Superior Mind and Will, I reverently and sincerely wish that I may be convinced of it beyond all doubt; that I may indeed know God is a living reality and daily guide and mighty among the plans and ways of men." Though having all the needed mental, historic and heart belief and trust in God--still there was desired that special satisfaction which can only come by _personal evidence._

With reverent feeling one morning, he asked the Lord humbly, in Prayer, "_What can thy servant, do for thee this day? Teach him, that he may gladly minister to any one in thy name_." In the course of the day there came to him the thought of the revival services then proceeding in Brooklyn, and feeling a cordial sympathy, he sat down and wrote a letter to _Mr. Moody_, with these words: "_I know not how you are supported, or anything of your needs; but I feel like helping you in your good work. Enclosed find check for $25; take it and use it if you need it for yourself; if not, then do some good with it_." The circumstance was almost forgotten, when the day after there came this wonderful reply from Mr. Moody:

"_Your letter came to hand in the_ SAME MAIL, _at the_ SAME INSTANT _of_ TIME, _with a letter from a brother in distress_ WANTING THE SAME AMOUNT. _And now you have made him happy, and my heart glad, and the Lord will bless you for it."_

D.L. MOODY.

Had there been a direct revelation from heaven, it could not have been more astounding than this, to the heart of that Christian. His own prayer was answered, as to his search for the evidences of the Holy Spirit, but oh, how wonderfully!

None but a Superior, Higher, Overruling Spirit, could have known the thoughts and desires of each heart. Nothing but an Omnipotent hand of Power and Wisdom could have brought these two letters together at that identical instant of time. None but an All-knowing Father could have fixed the amount of money which the one was to give and the other was to pray for.

This was a wonderful conjuncture of time, desire and amount, and could never have happened by any chance operation of Nature or the natural heart and will. Strangest of all, neither of the parties had ever met, known or corresponded with each other before. Neither did Mr. Moody know of the desire of the one, nor the necessity of the other, until in the act of opening the two letters side by side. In the one envelope was the prayer; in the other the answer.

That check, those letters, with all signatures and endorsements and those persons are this day living and can testify to the authenticity of the circumstance.

THE PRAYER OF FAITH.

The family of Mr. James R. Jordan has resided in Lake View, Chicago, since the spring of 1871. They are members of Lincoln Park Congregational Church. The father, Mr. James R. Jordan, died in October, 1882, aged eighty-four years. Through a long series of financial trials, sorrows, afflictions by death and pressing cares, this family learned to depend on God for their daily prosperity; and the cures wrought in them, according to God's Word, are only a small portion of the remarkable answers to prayer with which their history is filled.

It is an instructive fact for Christian meditation, that when the exercise of intelligent faith was necessary to their cures, the faith was there _ready for exercise._ They had not to begin, as, alas! so many do, at the very foundation, and find out first, what faith is, and next, how to exercise it. They had learned long before what faith is and what faith is not; that _faith is trustful obedience to the Word of God;_ that it _is not_ a determination to have one's own way, nor to expect the immediate gratification of a desire, simply because the desire has been made known to God. They knew that faith obediently accepts God's commands and promises, expects to comply with the conditions of those commands and promises, and, so complying, expects to receive the results of such obedience at such times and in such ways as God appoints; all of which truths they found, and all of which may be found in the Holy Scriptures.

Thus living in the hopes of the Gospel, realizing as much that their "home is in heaven" as that their "rest is not here," they have, through the years, performed the daily duties of their pilgrimage.

The writer has known them for thirteen years, and gratefully testifies that their faith has strengthened her's, and that their cheerful hope in the Lord has been a strong consolation to many who were in trouble.

After the sudden death of the youngest son of the family, in 1880, the care of the family devolved entirely upon the two daughters, Mrs. H.J. Furlong and Miss Addie S. Jordan.

In April, 1876, Mrs. Jordan fell and badly fractured her hip. She was then seventy-seven years old. On account of her age she could not well be etherized, nor endure the repeated necessary resetting of the bones, and consequently they grew together irregularly. Her hip-joint was stiff, so that she was never able to walk without the support of a cane or crutch. For eight years she could not leave her own little yard, nor climb into a carriage, nor walk without support.

Through this misfortune her afflictions grew worse. In January, 1884, she fell and broke one bone and dislocated another in the left wrist. Notwithstanding all that medical help could do, the shock brought on a severe sickness, and when, after eight weeks, she left her bed to move around feebly, she had almost lost her sight and hearing, her hand was useless, and her mind greatly impaired.

On her birthday, June 10, 1884, when she was eighty-five years old, she greatly mourned that she had outlived her usefulness; that she could no longer feed herself, nor read her Bible, nor remember the desirable subjects for her prayers, and she hoped that she should not linger here long in such a helpless and useless condition.

During the latter part of this time the two daughters were sick, Mrs. Furlong with paralysis and Miss Jordan with consumption.

In the latter part of 1882 Miss Jordan, then in feeble health, was needed at home to attend the father's last sickness, and Mrs. Furlong was left to conduct their business alone. 'The extraordinary exertion brought on paralysis. It began in her right arm, which became so insensible that the strongest ammonia produced no sensation or apparent effect. Gradually her whole right side lost power, her foot dragged, and though she did manage to move about, she was comparatively helpless. Physicians spoke not hopefully; and protracted rest was recommended as a _possible_ relief. She planned to take electric treatment, though not very hopeful about the result. She failed once to meet her physician, and while planning the second time to take the treatment, and considering Christ's miracles of healing, and the Bible's promises to the sick, and having a feeling that possibly she might be doing wrong in not relying entirely on the Lord, who had hitherto so much helped them, she delayed a little, and failed again to meet the appointment. It was a Saturday evening in January, 1883.

She went home and sat down that evening alone, in the dining-room, depressed. The enfeebled family--the aged crippled mother, the sick sister and her own young son--had retired. As she thought the subject through, she became convinced that it was not good to spend time and money in the way proposed. Instantly the words THE SAVIOUR filled her soul with indescribable hope, and as she thought of His miracles, and how _the same Jesus_, on earth, healed paralyzed ones, the hope grew that He would heal her.

With the well hand she stretched out her paralyzed hand on the table and said: "Dear Lord, will you heal me?" Like an electric shock the life began to move in her arm, and the continued sensation was as though something that, previously, had not moved was set in motion. The feeling passed up to the head, and down the body to the foot. _She was healed! and she was grateful!_ She did not speak of her experience to the family, but retired. She rose early the next morning, and awoke her son,--a prayerful, dutiful young man,--and said to him, "I'm going to church, to-day." He replied, "Then I'll get up and go with you," expecting that she must ride.

Her soul was solemnly full that day of the felt presence of the Holy Spirit, and she did not like to talk. Her son watched her movements, astonished.

She went to the church, took a class again in Sunday School, and; in going back and forth to church that day and evening, walked about sixty blocks without weariness.

We are not permitted, here, to draw aside the curtain, to dwell upon the surprises and the grateful joy of that ever-to-be-remembered, sacred day.

A few days after this healing, she, with a consciousness that she was running a risk, lifted a heavy weight, and a numbness returned. She confessed the sin to the Lord, and asked Him that, when she had been sufficiently chastened, He would take the trouble away. Gradually, within two days, it disappeared, and has never returned.

At the time when Mrs. Furlong was healed, in answer to prayer, Miss. Jordan's case was considered hopeless. Her lungs had been diseased since 1876. In November, 1879, her physician had decided that tubercles had formed in the left lung, and that the right lung was much congested and hardened.

In 1882 she had many hemorrhages, and gradually grew worse, so that she could not use her left arm or shoulder without producing hemorrhage.

Mrs. Furlong, soon after her own healing, received a comforting assurance from the Lord that her sister would be healed; but Miss Jordan, herself, had not that assurance. At this time she took little or no medicines, the physicians and the family having no confidence in their curative effect; but, on the 1st of January, 1884, she had so many chills and hemorrhages, that they sent for the family physician to aid in checking, if possible, the severe attack.

During this apparently rapid descent deathward, Mrs. Furlong continued to repeat to the family and to the physicians that the Lord would heal her sister.

Miss Jordan was one day so low that she could just be aroused to take her medicine. As Mrs. Furlong went to give it, Miss Jordan said to her, "Do you want to throw that medicine away?" Mrs. Furlong said "Yes," and threw it away. Six hours of united waiting upon the Lord followed. They were hours of pain. From nine in the morning till three in the afternoon she suffered indescribable pain. A few minutes after three, the pain left her, and with a bright look she said, "I believe I'm better." She wanted to rise and dress, but Mrs. Furlong advised her to rest through the night. She said she had not, in five years, been so free from weariness and pain.

The aged mother was sick in bed with that broken wrist, and Mrs. Furlong feared that her sister's improved condition would shock and perplex her.

Miss Jordan lay on the lounge the most of the time for two days. One of her expressions was, "It's perfect bliss to lie here free from pain." Her breathing became perfectly natural, and very soon the great hollow place in the upper part of the chest, over the left lung, filled out. Shortly before her healing she only weighed eighty pounds; but a few months after her weight had increased to one hundred and twenty pounds.

She progressed in health rapidly, and on the second Sunday after the healing came she attended church. The feeble mother was most sensitively anxious lest her daughter should pursue some unwarrantable course which should lead to relapse.

Miss Jordan's health steadily improved, but it was several months before a cough entirely left her. You may be sure that doubters made the most of that cough! _But it left her!_ At one time she brought on a slight relapse by giving lessons in crayon drawing. She came to the conclusion that the Lord had other work for her to do: and at this writing, September, 1885, having prayerfully and watchfully followed the leadings of the Lord, is a missionary among the freedmen of the South, and is strong in health and in faith, "giving glory to God."

One of the aged mother's perplexities was that the Lord should want her to live on in such a helpless and useless condition, while her daughters, who might be so useful, must die; but oh, how successful she had by precept and example taught those daughters that "He hath done all things well!" How patiently she suffered whatever she thought was the Lord's will! How sweet was her constant thanksgiving! Said a pious Christian neighbor, whose poor health restricted her attendance at church, "When I'm hungry for a blessing I go down to see old lady Jordan."

After eight painful weeks, she so far recovered from the sickness consequent on the broken and dislocated wrist as to move around feebly, but sight and hearing were almost gone. Her leg was stiff, her hand stiff, her wrist deformed, and her mind greatly impaired.

Miss Jordan became very hopeful, and received strong assurance, in answer to prayer, that her mother might be healed. Mrs. Furlong received no assurance whatever in her mother's case. There was a great deal of talking and praying about it, in the family, and finally Mrs. Jordan humbly claimed the Lord's help, beseeching Him that since He had recorded that He would make the blind to see, the lame to walk, and the deaf to hear, if it was His will He would heal her. This was the night of June 16th, 1884.

In the morning Miss Jordan was so hopeful that she rose early, and attentively listened to the movements in her mother's room. She called the little family's attention to them, saying, "Just listen to her;" and as, holding on by the banister, the aged mother came with her accustomed slow movements down to the dining room, Miss Jordan said, to them, "Now, watch her."

According to the long habit of eight years, she began to reach out for her cane, unconscious that she had been walking around her room with new freedom. Miss Jordan went toward her and said, "Mother, do you want your cane?" and, wondering, the old lady walked freely into the dining room. They gathered around her, and said, "Are you not healed, mother?" and she began to think _she was_, and sat down in her chair by the table. Could she move her hand? The doubled-up thumb, and straight, stiff finger, were _perfectly free_ and as _limber as ever_, and the stiff wrist joint _moved with perfect freedom!_ She _heard as well as anybody!_ Could she see? She went up-stairs to her Bible, whose blurred, dim pages she had thought closed to her forever, and _she could read as well as ever_, and without glasses! She could thread the finest needle. Could she kneel and thank the Lord? She had not knelt for eight years. Yes, she could kneel as well as when she served the Lord in her youth!

Christian reader, stop here and think what a joyful family that was that June morning. That aged saint, of a little more than 85 years, was in good health again! And her two daughters had been snatched from the jaws of death! What a triumph of blessed memories to leave in legacy to that young, hopeful, Christian son, who, in childhood, had himself repeatedly proved that the Lord hears and answers prayer!

Mrs. Jordan has never used cane or crutch since that morning. She has frequently walked five blocks, to go to her church; and, a few weeks after her healing, she one day walked the distance of about fifteen blocks. She has walked for hours in Lincoln Park, among the plants and flowers, and she goes up and down stairs, and wherever she likes, as well as anyone.

She has the use of her faculties, and an altogether comfortable use of her sight, though that is not so acute as at first. Her earliest joy was that she was permitted to see that the Lord had some purpose in sparing her so long.

Dear Christian reader, shall the wonderful manifestation of that "purpose" strengthen your faith? It helps me.

"Is anything too hard for the Lord?" "No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly." "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him." "If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit."

In the hopes of the Gospel,

Miss E. Dryer.

150 Madison St., Chicago.

ALMOST A BANKRUPT.

A prominent Christian had just entered a merchant's counting-room, when the head man of the place said to him, "Let us kneel and ask God to help me through, for without his help, I shall be a bankrupt before the setting of the sun." So they knelt and prayed. That man went through the pressure, and did not become a bankrupt.

"HE COULD NOT FLEE FROM THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT."

A clergyman of distinction gives this instance of the worthlessness of all attempts to flee from the Power of the Spirit.