THE REBELLIOUS PRAYER by Butterworth

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 17, 1862

THE REBELLIOUS PRAYER.

By Butterworth

"LET him become what he will; so he may live, I shall be satisfied."

Thus prayed a father by the sick-bed of a youthful and an only son. He had prayed importunately for the abatement of the disease, but the child continually struggled with intense pain. A calm at last visited the sufferer. The pulse that had throbbed and fluttered beat feebly and slowly. A deathlike hue overcast the features.

The physician shook his head sadly, and said there was no hope. Suddenly the father thought that perhaps God was about to take away his child, to save the child from a life of error. Should he pray God to change his purpose? There was a struggle in the parent's heart. He gazed wistfully upon the child's countenance. It was calm, beautifully calm. The cheeks that were wont to dimple with laughter, were rigid, still, marblelike. The eye, that deep of affection into which he had loved to gaze, was unusually brilliant. The pale red lips wore those marks of sorrow that always touch a parent's heart. The longer he looked upon his idol the more lovely it seemed. All his desire and affection centered upon it. It seemed hard to give it up—hard, very hard. Tears filled his eyes, and he uttered the rebellious prayer recorded above.

The child recovered.

"Father, will you see me to the tree?"

Many years have passed since the scene we have been describing. That son had passed through an almost unparalleled course of iniquity and villainy. He had broken the sensitive heart of an affectionate and watchful mother, and brought her to a suicide's grave. He had been tried for crime, convicted, and sentenced to death. Pardon was offered him by the officers of the law if he would reform and lead an exemplary life. But he preferred the alternative of the gallows. In vain his white-haired father expostulated with him. With a careless air the criminal asked him if he would see him to the tree, and then went out of the prison with the sheriff, and was hanged.

—The above story is true and instructive. In our dissatisfaction with the prospective providences of God, we are in danger of having our desires granted us. It is our duty to hear, as well as to do, the will of God. All his acts toward us are acts of love. Our journey heavenward is necessarily variable. We have our Gethsemanes. Let us not forget, when praying for the bitter cup of affliction to pass, the words of our Master, "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." —Butterworth.