JOHN WESLEY AND THE POWER OF PRAYER.
It has been said that prayer is the stepping-stone to acceptance with Christ. It is more, it is the key to the heart of God. But we are sometimes inclined to think that the number who pray with a view to receiving a definite answer to their prayers are very few. Yet on no subject is the Bible more explicit and emphatic. Again and again are we enjoined to ask with the expectation of the realization of our request. What, for example, could be plainer? “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” Among the men who were accustomed to receive answers to prayer, and whose testimony to its efficacy and power should be a constant source of encouragement to us, is John Wesley. John Wesley, with some of his co-workers, had been laboring in the Norman Islands and had appointed a day to be at Bristol. Taking passage with Mr. Clarke, Dr. Coke, and Joseph Bradford, in an English brig which had touched at Guernsey on its voyage from France, they left Guernsey with a fine, fair breeze and every prospect of making a quick passage. In a short time the wind died away, and a contrary wind arose and blew with great force. Mr. Wesley was in the cabin reading; and hearing the bustle on deck, occasioned by putting the vessel about, he put his head above deck and inquired the cause. Being told that the wind was contrary and they were obliged to tack ship, he said, ‘Let us go to prayer.’ At his request, Coke, Clarke, and Bradford prayed. “As they concluded, Mr. Wesley broke out in fervent supplication, which seemed, says Dr. Clarke, to be more the offspring of strong faith than mere desire. He said: ‘Almighty and everlasting God, Thou hast Thy way everywhere and all things serve the purposes of Thy will; Thou holdest the winds in Thy fists and sittest upon the water-floods and reignest a king forever—command these winds and these waves that they obey Thee, and take us speedily and safely to the haven where we would be,’ etc. The power of his petition was felt by all. He rose from his knees, made no kind of remark, but took up his book and continued his reading. Dr. Clarke went on deck, and to his surprise, found the vessel standing on her course with a steady breeze, which did not abate, but carried them at the rate of nine or ten miles an hour, until they were safely anchored at their desired port. Mr. Wesley made no remark on the sudden change of the wind. ‘So fully,’ says Dr. Clarke, ‘did he expect to be heard, that he took it for granted he was heard. Such answers to prayer he was in the habit of receiving, and therefore to him the occurrence was not strange.’—Volunteers’ Gazette.