Mr. Moody's Faith, In Prayer. A Remarkable Answer.
Mr. Moody, on his return from England, while conducting a prayer-meeting
in Northfield, Mass., gave this illustration of the power of prayer to
subdue the most unlikely cases of sin and unbelief:
"There is not a heart so hard that God cannot touch it. While in
Edinburgh, a man was pointed out to me by a friend who said, 'Moody,
that man is chairman of the Edinburgh infidel club.' So I went and sat
down be
ide him, and said, 'Well, my friend, I am glad to see you at
this meeting. Are you not concerned about your welfare?' He said that he
did not believe in a hereafter. I said, 'Well, you just get down on your
knees and let me pray for you.'
"'_I don't believe in prayer_.'
"I tried unsuccessfully to get the man down on his knees, and finally
knelt down beside him and prayed for him. Well, he made a good deal of
sport over it, and I met him again many times in Edinburgh after that. A
year ago last month, while in the north of Scotland, I met the man
again. Placing my hand on his shoulder, I asked, '_Hasn't God answered
the prayer_?'
"He replied, 'There is no God. I am just the same as I always have been.
If you believe in a God, and in answer to prayer, do as I told you. Try
your hand on me.'
"'Well,' I said, 'God's time will come; there are a great many praying
for you; and I have faith to believe you are going to be blessed.'
"Six months ago I was in Liverpool; and there I got a letter from the
leading barrister of Edinburgh, telling me that my friend, the infidel,
had come to Christ, and that of his club of thirty men _seventeen_ had
followed his example.
"How it happened he could not say, but whereas he was once blind, now he
could see. God has answered the prayer. '_I didn't know how it was to be
answered_,' said Mr. Moody, '_but I believed it would be and it was
done. What we want to do is to come boldly to God_.'"