An Answer to Prayer by H. T. Williams

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 27, 1883

An Answer to Prayer.

By H. T. Williams

Bishop Bowman gives the following instance of answer to prayer from his own experience:—

“In the fall of 1858, while visiting Indiana, I was at an annual Conference where Bishop Janes presided. We received a telegram that Bishop Simpson was dying. Said Bishop Janes, ‘Let us spend a few moments in earnest prayer for the recovery of Bishop Simpson.’ We kneeled to pray. William Taylor, the great California street preacher, was called to pray, and such a prayer I have never heard since. The impression seized upon me irresistibly, Bishop Simpson will not die. I rose from my knees perfectly quiet. Said I, ‘Bishop Simpson will not die.’ ‘Why do you think so?’ ‘Because I have had an irresistible impression made upon my mind during this prayer.’ Another said, ‘I have the same impression.’ We passed it along from bench to bench until we found that a large proportion of the Conference had the same impression. I made a minute of the time of day, and when I next saw Bishop Simpson he was attending to his daily labor. I inquired of the Bishop, ‘How did you recover from your sickness?’ He replied, ‘I cannot tell.’ ‘What did your physician say?’ ‘He said it was a miracle.’ I then said to the Bishop, ‘Give me the time and circumstances under which the change occurred.’ He fixed the day and the very hour, making allowance for the distance—a thousand miles away—that the preachers were engaged in prayer at this Conference. The physician left the room and said to his wife, ‘It is useless to do anything further, the Bishop must die.’ In about an hour he returned, and started back, inquiring, ‘What have you done?’ ‘Nothing,’ was the reply. ‘He is recovering rapidly,’ said the physician; ‘a change has occurred in the disease within the last hour beyond anything I have ever seen; the crisis is passed, and the Bishop will recover.’ And he did.”—The Wonders of Prayer, by H. T. Williams.