as though God could not trust us with any margin, so that we are always in want of money. Perhaps if we had a considerable balance in the bank, we should have put our trust in that instead of realizing every moment our absolute dependence on God. Like the children of Israel in the wilderness, we have had supplies of manna just sufficient for our need. Always in want, always tempted to be anxious, it has always happened at the last moment, when the case seemed absolutely desperate, that help has been forthcoming, sometimes from the most unexpected quarter."

On one occasion the situation was unusually alarming, so Mr. Hughes invited his principal colleagues to meet him at midnight, to save themselves from being interrupted, that they might pray for what they needed. This is how Mr. Hughes tells the story: "We spent some time, in the quietness of that late hour, imploring God to send us one thousand pounds for His work by a particular day. In the course of the meeting, one of our number burst forth in the rapturous expression of gratitude, as he was irresistibly convinced that our prayer was heard and would be answered. I confess I did not share his absolute confidence, and the absolute confidence of my wife and some others. I believed with trembling. I am afraid I could say nothing more than, Lord, I believe, help Thou my unbelief.' The appointed day came, I went to the meeting at which the sum total would be announced. It appeared that in a very short time, and in very extraordinary ways, ninety hundred and ninety pounds had been sent to the West London Mission. I confess that, as a theologian, I was perplexed. We had asked for one thousand pounds, there was a deficiency of ten pounds.

I could not understand it. I went home, trying to explain the discrepancy. As I entered my house and was engaged in taking off my hat and coat, I noticed a letter lying on the table in the hall. I remembered that it had been lying there when I went out, but I was in a great hurry and did not stop to open it. I took it up, opened it, and discovered that it contained a check for ten pounds for the West London Mission, bringing up the amount needed for that day to the exact sum we had named in our midnight prayer meeting. Of course, this may be described as a mere coincidence, but all we want is coincidences of this sort. The name is nothing, the fact is everything, and there have been many such facts."

There was a similar direct answer to prayer in Mr. Hughes' experience before he went to the West London Mission. It was while he was still a circuit minister and was engaged in an effort to build Sunday schools in the south of London. For this purpose a friend had promised him one hundred pounds if he could get nine hundred pounds more within a week. He did his utmost, and by desperate efforts, with the assistance of friends, they did get eight hundred pounds, but not a penny more. The terms of the promise were that unless the thousand pounds were procured that week, they could not proceed with the building scheme, and the entire enterprise might have been postponed for years, or perhaps never accomplished. On the last morning of the week, one of the principal church officers called on Mr. Hughes and said he had come upon quite extraordinary business. Let Mr. Hughes tell the story in his own language:

"A Christian woman in the neighborhood, whom I

did not know, of whom I had never heard, who had no connection whatever with my church, had that moment been lying awake in bed and an extraordinary impression had come to her that she was at once to give me one hundred pounds. She naturally resisted so extraordinary an impression, as a caprice or a delusion, but it refused to leave her; it became stronger and stronger until at last she was deeply convinced that it was the will of God. What made it more extraordinary was the fact that she had never before had, and would, in all probability, never again have one hundred pounds at her disposal for any such purpose, but that morning she sent me the money through my friend, who produced it in the form of crisp English bank notes. From that day until this I have no idea who she is, as she wished to conceal her name from me. Whether she is alive or in heaven, I cannot say ; but what I do know is that this extraordinary answer to our prayers secured the rest of the money and led to the erection of one of the finest schools in London in which there are more than one thousand scholars to-day."

I admit that Mueller, Spurgeon, Moody, and Hughes were exceptionally fine types of Christian character, but I will not admit for one moment that, in their conception and use of prayer, they accomplished anything that is beyond the reach of every Christian believer. Every one that asketh, receiveth." Principles involved here have been applied in the lives of thousands and tens of thousands of ordinary Christian workers, though perhaps not on such an extended scale.

CHAPTER VI

'ANSWERED PRAYER

(d) IN THE LIfe and Work OF THE CHURCHES

If I were the pastor of a modern church my supreme aim and constant prayer would be to have it a

PRAYING CHURCH.

After a long experience as a church member and Christian worker I can see in prayer a panacea for all the troubles that worry a minister, damage the spiritual life of the people, and nullify the best laid plans a church may have for the blessing and uplifting of a community. Prayer-earnest, humble, simple, direct, persevering prayer-creates enthusiasm, courage, enterprise, zeal; it chases away ill-feeling, jealousy, indifference, stinginess, and worldliness.

All the great church pastors of modern days have realized this great truth.

Mr. Spurgeon, showing some visiting friend over the Metropolitan Tabernacle previous to a Sabbath evening service, was asked the question, how he managed to maintain the interest of the people in the work for such a long succession of years? He replied, “It is owing to my heating apparatus. Come, and I will show it to you." He took his friend to the door of the large lecture room in the basement of the Tabernacle, and quietly opening it, said, “There it is-my heating apparatus! It was the Sabbath evening preparatory prayer meeting in which were gathered one thousand

persons to pray for God's blessing on the service which was to follow.

Beecher, Talmage, Cuyler, Conwell, Moody, all testified to the same thing.

Henry Ward Beecher, in an interview, spoke with great emphasis on the value and importance of a good weekly prayer meeting. He said, "A good prayer meeting is of slow growth. It is sometimes the result of years of patient work. Our prayer meeting at Plymouth Church, for the first five years of my labor, amounted to little; at the end of the next five years it did not amount to much. But then my work began to tell. I had to train up men in my idea of a prayer meeting." And it was worth the effort.

Some one has called the prayer meeting the lungs of the church—its respiratory organ. Without a continually breathing-in process any living thing will die. When a church's breathing apparatus is in good order there will be no doubt as to its life and power.

Certainly Christ has said to every individual member of the church, what He said to His disciples, "I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it you" (John 14:16).

How beautifully forceful is His language, showing so clearly the action and re-action of prayer and fruitfulness. Prayer (abiding in Christ) brings fruitfulness, and fruitfulness, in turn, brings the assurance of answer to prayer. "That whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it you."

Dr. Cuyler declared that "a full, warm, devout prayer meeting bespeaks a healthy church," and Dr.