OMNIPOTENT FAITH

A Sixteen-mile Drive -- Catching the Train -- Just Misses a Month's Quarantine

All things are possible to him that believeth. Mark 9:23.

     If we only knew it, we are well-nigh omnipotent. Perhaps there never lived a man who fully proved all the possibilities of faith and prayer. Why, then, are we so dependent upon wicked men and Sabbath-breaking corporations? Since Christ authorizes us to command things apparently as immovable as trees and mountains, surely in this day we ought to walk upon the "high places of the earth."

     For one, the writer is heartily ashamed of the few exploits of faith in controlling men and things, yet in a limited sense we have been enabled to demand boats, railroad trains, etc., to wait, or hurry up, as the case might be.

     We had closed a good camp meeting in Mississippi where the bedbugs are thick, weather hot and fleas dance all night to the fiddling of the mosquitoes. But people are hospitable and common enough to preach to in shirt sleeves.

     Here we had an interesting drive of sixteen miles to Hazelhurst where we were to take the train. The conveyance came so late that we were told we could never make it, but we ventured. The heat was intense, the roads dusty, and three of us, besides a trunk and three valises, crowded into a two-horse surry. The horses perspired freely while we kept praying that the Lord would undertake for them and us. At last we turned the corner, some forty rods from the depot, just in time to see the train pull in.

     For the time being, our hearts sank within us, and the driver said, "We cannot make it!" But the thought of waiting nearly twelve hours for the next train made me desperate. Just then the whip broke, the horses became frightened at the engine and the driver gave up, but I seized the lines and, making one more attempt, reached the depot, grabbed the trunk, carried it across the street, threw it into the baggage-car unchecked, then ran and bought a ticket. Now I had to run back to the buggy to get two valises, and by this time the train was moving off, but I made the successful leap, leaving the other poor preacher to wait twelve hours for the next train. All in the world he had to look after was a small valise, but he was so spellbound, watching the "Yankee," that he missed the train.

     I never heard how he came out, for the next day, after passing through Jackson, Mississippi (where I had to change), the quarantine 'vent into effect, because of yellow fever, and had I missed my train I doubtless would have been held there for a month. Sometimes it pays to "get a move on you."

     Another case: I must catch a certain train from the Erie Railroad, in New York. It was icy and as we were five minutes late I prayed, "O Lord, hold that train." When I arrived the conductor was mad. I thanked him for waiting for me. He said, "I don't know why we waited, for we generally do not do so here." I replied, "I know why! God wanted me to preach tonight in Youngstown."

     "God has His best things for the few

     Who dare to stand the test;

     He has His second choice for those

     Who will not have His best."