TOGETHER WITH GOD by Edison J. Driver

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 9, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 32.

“TOGETHER WITH GOD.”

By Edison J. Driver

HALF-HEARTED religion never did do much. But an active and intelligent faith has often found a way (or made one) to accomplish the seemingly impossible. The two principles are well illustrated in the following anecdote:—

A certain young man given to sowing wild oats, had, before he realized it, gone too far. The taste for drink, opium, and tobacco led him into the wildest dissipations, till, sinking lower and lower, he became the very picture of dejection. His parents were respectable people, and he had many friends, yet nothing could they do to help him. It is true that they talked Scripture after a fashion, and entreated again and again, but it was all in vain. His case seemed a hopeless one indeed.

But one person felt that it was not hopeless. On her knees before the God of heaven, she earnestly prayed to be shown a way to help him. And so one day she said, “Tom, we are going to pray for you to-night.”

“Pray for me! No you—” he began, but she said firmly:—

“Yes, Tom, we must pray for you.”

Altho he remonstrated and argued, she found words to quietly meet all his objections. Then she told him the story of what Christ came to earth to do, and, as she pictured the scenes of that marvelous life to him, he broke into tears.

“O, do you think there’s any hope for a fellow like me?” he cried.

She certainly did think so. Her words fell like healing balm on his bruised mind, and, as she repeated the invitation and promise, “Come unto Me, . . . and I will give you rest,” he said:—

“O, thank God! I believe it all now.”

That night, when they prayed, the gentle and powerful Spirit came in and took away his unnatural taste, and set him free. And he is free to-day. EDISON J. DRIVER. Fresno, Cal.