26. CHAPTER VII - HIS CHILD-LIKE OBEDIENCE

CHAPTER VII
HIS CHILD-LIKE OBEDIENCE NOT a day did I pass in John Hyde’s company but his simple obedience surprised one and led me to see what a real son he was and how much his Heavenly Father’s Will guided his life. Let me mention one such instance. Once at the Sialkot Convention, which was so inspired by his prayers in those old days, the Committee, in order to lay stress on the message instead of on its messengers, did not announce the names of the speakers. John Hyde was suddenly asked to speak at the evening meet­ing. Somehow it got noised abroad and many were saying Mr. Hyde will speak to-night I ’ The meeting was very full and expectant, especially as a great friend of his was in the chair in place of the usual Chairman. Just before the speaker’s prayer-meeting this friend was asked what Psalm should be sung. The subject of our Lord’s sufferings being much on his heart, he suggested the 22nd Psalm. Imagine his surprise when the leader of song announced that they would sing the sand Psalm at Mr. Hyde’s request. It was supposed they had talked it over together. There was much prayer, the praise was fervent ; but Mr. Hyde was sitting down on the platform behind the pulpit deep in prayer. As he did not move, the Chairman read Zechariah xiii, commenting at some length on that question and answer, What are those wounds between thine hands ? ’ Then he shall answer, ’ Those with which I was wounded in the house of my Friends.’ He spoke of the loneliness of Christ in His sufferings, no one knowing about His sorrows and pointed out that only three disci­ples even entered Gethsemane with our Lord ; the other eight were left outside ; those three, alas, were full of sleep, so much so that Peter referring to this with a certain guilty conscience speaks of himself as only a witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed.’ He was not yet a partaker of these sufferings. So is it to-day ; the majority of Christians know nothing of Gethsemane. At the best a few are witnesses ’ only of His sufferings. Hence the world is not won for Christ, nor will it be until His people as a whole become fellow-partakers of His sufferings.

All this time John Hyde was lost in prayer. After this the Chairman during another singing laid his hands on his shoulder and said with a friendly squeeze, If God has a message, for you to give, will you give it now ? ’ As John did not move, the late Rev. John Forman, then Chairman of the Convention, said to his brother in the chair, ’ Is he going to speak ? " I have asked him,’ was the reply, ’ You ask him too if you are led to do it.’ Presently as the singing stopped he said, ’ May I give two messages God has laid on my heart ? ’ He did so and the meeting proceeded to its close after which, there was a very earnest after-meeting and much prayer by those present. During that time John Hyde went away to the Prayer-Room without address­ing a word to the meeting. The people were thus taught to attend to God’s Message and not to the messenger.

Some time afterwards I asked him about that matter. He told me that he felt full of a subject The Glory of Christ’s Kingdom.’ When, however, the Chairman laid his hand on his shoulder, he seemed as if he pressed John down. This thought was enforced by his words If you have a message from God.’

John began to doubt if God wanted him to give this message then and so of course, waited on God in prayer and never had His direct leading to speak to that meeting !

Only a man very closely in touch with His Heavenly Father would have been quick enough to follow this leading and only one whose supreme wish was to please God and not his fellow-men would have been brave enough to keep silende in the circumstances. A friend, afterwards speaking of the Revival, said to me : We ought to have emphasized the lesson of absolute obedience more than we did. I believe it was want of obedience that grieved the Holy Spirit and stopped that Revival.’

I could not but agree with him at the same time telling him this incident to show that one of the leaders in that Revival at least could not be accused of the sin of disobedience. But ye shall receive power, after that the Hoty Ghost is come upon you : and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all .Judea, and in Samaria, and uuto the uttermost Part of the earth.

—Acts 1:8. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess ; but be filled with the Spirit.

—Ephesians v. 18. And when they had prayed ... they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.

—Acts iv. 31.

We are often asked, ’ Have not all Christians the Spirit ?’ Certainly. ’ If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.’ But all are not ’ filled with the Spirit ’ ; and having the Spirit, and being filled with the Spirit, are different things in degree.. This equipment is not eloquence, nor is it intellectual force, or keenness. It is not any human gift, power, or qualification whatever. .. It is a power altogether distinct front all gifts of mind and speech, and the power which alone can vitalise them and make them effective in the work of God. II is this marvellous something, this hoty unction pervading what we do and say, which fells those to whom we appeal that we are sent of God. It is this which converts a look into a saving message, and which touches into mighty effectiveness the simplest word we speak, or the feeblest effort we /nil forth. To this full equipment for Christian life and service every believer in Jesus is called of God as called now - REV. THOMAS WAUGH.