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VICTORY

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 23, 1900

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 77, No. 4.

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VICTORY

By A. F. Ballenger

A Fight for a Child.

“MAY I have a talk with you, Brother Ballenger?” asked a nine-year-old girl at the close of the meeting. A time was set, and the youthful seeker came and told her troubles, and asked that prayer might be offered for her. There was great earnestness in her conversation, and tears and sobs broke into her intelligent prayer.
From others it was learned that her adoptive mother, who had taken her when two years old, had thought it absolutely necessary to separate this child from her family because she dreaded the result of certain sinful habits upon the younger adopted children. This decision brought great suffering to both adoptive parents; for they loved the child.
The situation, summed up, was this: a nine-year-old child confessing her sins, and weeping before God in prayer for deliverance from sinning; a loving mother weeping and praying for her deliverance; and the life of the Lord Jesus Christ given for her salvation, and pleading in her behalf at the Father’s throne. And yet the child continues to sin, and so seriously that she is deemed dangerous, and is sent forth from the home as an incorrigible.
No encouraging results followed our prayer season. The help must come through the co-operation of the adoptive mother for her own salvation.
Months later I met the adoptive mother, and heard from her the sad story again. Her heart yearned for the child, but she feared to let the little outcast come home. The little sinner wanted to go home and be good; the mother wanted her to come home and be good; and the Lord wanted her to come home and be good; and yet she was bad; and was banished from home.
When these facts were all laid before the mother in this light, it was decided that the devil was not strong enough to keep the little one from home and deliverance, in opposition to the desire of the child, her mother, and her God. We therefore knelt and presented the child at the throne of grace with holy boldness. We told the Lord that we did not believe the enemy had power enough to ruin the child in the face of such a combination of cries for deliverance. The mother arose from her knees with faith to call the little wanderer home. The result of her faith is here told in her own words:—
“For some time I have been impressed to write to you to the glory of God; but have felt that it would be wrong unnecessarily to take a moment of your time, which otherwise would be spent to the glory of God. But my heart is so full this morning that I can not forbear writing. Doubtless you will not remember me unless I refer to the case of the little girl, —, whom you talked with at —, and who seemed such an extraordinary case. I am —, who was helped spiritually and physically through your efforts at the — camp-meeting. My heartis full of praise and gratitude for the goodness of the Lord to me. I claimed the victory over sin in all its phases at that time, and claim it still. Be untiring in your efforts to inspire others with the same faith that you preached at our camp-meeting. I had been groping for help. It was dark, but I held on, and my prayer was more than answered at the camp-meeting. My faith has grown a hundredfold. Since then I live by faith. Many and varied have been my experiences, but they have all been permitted for my good, as they have tended to strengthen my faith. And the Lord has permitted my experiences to be a help to others, for which I praise him.”
“I asked for your prayers in behalf of little —, and I have felt that I had them. I have taken her back into my heart and home. I have claimed the keeping power with and for her, and I thank God that now I see a change for the better. We seek the Lord earnestly and untiringly; and the very fact that she, over whom Satan seemed to have almost entire control, is being molded into the likeness of Christ, demonstrates the power of God, and the truthfulness of the scripture which says, ‘What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.’ Oh, I am so glad I have learned to trust in Jesus! He gives me strength to do more than I have been able to do in thirteen years. I live by faith, and I praise the dear Lord for the privilege of so doing.”
It is not enough to pray. Many prayers, even earnest prayers, prayers offered with tears, do not bring the petition asked for. “But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.” James 1: 6, 7. “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” Heb. 11: 6. “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” Mark 11: 24. A. F. BALLENGER.