Revival Through Prayer and Fasting
By Henry Nicola
BRO. WHITE: If I had language to express my feelings, I would like to tell what the Lord has done for us of late. When we came up to the time appointed for prayer and fasting, we as a church stopped our work, and met each day according to appointment, and also in the evening of each day. We tried to feel from the first, that we were uniting our prayers with the brethren and sisters all over the land for the object set forth. But we soon began to feel that we were a great distance from the Lord, but as we began to repent of our lukewarmness, and exercise zeal in the matter, the Lord helped us to see that we had failed greatly in not living up to the light we have had in many things; especially did we feel that we had failed at our own homes, in our own families, and as we began to confess our faults, the good Spirit of God came into our meetings, and they grew better and better. Truly we began to feel that these were solemn assemblies, for as on former occasions many of our young brethren and sisters might have been heard between meeting hours laughing, and in light and chaffy conversation, they were now heard agonizing with the Lord for a true knowledge of themselves, and confessing their sins to God and to each other. So our meetings went on until the Sabbath. We met at 10 A. M. for prayer, and while we tried to pray, we believed that God had heard his people's prayers for his afflicted servants, and if not already answered, would in his own good time, and we felt truly happy. Had a short intermission, then came together to confess our sins and give a more full expression of what the Lord had done for us during these meetings, and then commemorate the death and sufferings of our blessed Lord. And as children began to confess to parents, and parents to children, and husbands and wives to each other, and brethren and sisters to each other, and also to their unconverted friends, the Spirit of the Lord came into our midst and touched our hearts in a more wonderful manner than we had yet felt. There was scarcely a dry face to be seen in the entire assembly of about seventy-five or eighty grown persons, besides many children whose hearts were also filled with the love of God. Some of them confessed their sins for the first time, and said they wanted to go with their parents to the Kingdom. We were made to think that truly the Spirit of Elijah's God was here, turning the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers. When we came to wash each others' feet, and commune at the Lord's table, our hearts were again touched, to see those that had had hard feelings against each other for a long time, break down and confess their sins and embrace each other again in the Lord. Truly our cups were all full, and we felt that our hearts were joined together as never before. I would7not forget to say that the Washington brethren, and three from Mt. Pleasant met with us in these meetings and shared largely with us of the good Spirit of God. As our meetings closed, and we separated, we felt that we had been newly converted into the truth, and we felt to say from our hearts, that we would live better than ever before.
HENRY NICOLA.