What a scene when the child began to breathe again! and when the anxious
mother was summoned to receive her boy from the dead. "Now," said she,
"I know thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth
is truth." When the church fights its battles on its knees, it prevails.
Only let us, who say we believe in God, put our faith into petition, and
obtain answers, then Infidelity will hide its head. Mr. Finney tells
that when he first began to attend a place of worship, it was as an
honest inquirer after truth. The members of the church noticed his
coming to the prayer meetings with regularity, and presently it occurred
to them that the young man might be anxious about his soul. Accordingly
they asked him if he would like them to pray for him. He somewhat
roughly declined, for, said he, "You don't get any answers to your
prayers for yourselves. You have been for months praying to be revived,
and you are not any better." Perhaps he was right, though rude. We may
have in our midst those who would believe the Bible if they saw that we
had only to ask to receive.
Let every father bear this in mind when he leads the devotions of his
family. Nothing is so likely to save our children from infidelity as
their knowing that we receive when we ask, and that our knock brings an
open door. If only the family altar were the meeting place between God
and man, Atheists might sneer and chatter, but they would never be able
to cause our children to listen, for would not they say, "I know my
father is a man of God, and the word of the Lord in his mouth is true."
Reader, is the family altar at your house a bridge from earth to heaven,
or is it a sham, and a helper to those who say, Prayer is an exploded
superstition?