06. IN THE VERY PRESENCE OF GOD
PART I A VESSEL UNTO HONOUR IN THE VERY PRESENCE OF GOD OUR FIRST MEETING AND PRAYER-FELLOWSHIP AT THE LUDHIANA CONVENTION AND ITS RESULTS
Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ saluteth you, always labouring fervently for yen in prayers, That ye may stand perfect and complete in all Ike will of God.
—Colossians iv. 12, No one can COntinue long and earnestly in prayer without beginning o perceive that the Spirit is gently leading to an entirely new consecration, of which. PT-view* he knew nothing.
—REV. ANDREW MURRAY. BY one of the last mails we had a letter from a dear sister who was a missionary in India for years and who still longs to be back if only the state of her health and home ties would allow her to come.
She says also that she is deeply touched by the account of Mr. Hyde’s wonderful prayer-life, and then she gives a few words of her own reminiscences of him. I remember,’ she said, during one of the jubblepore Conventions, at the noon-tide prayer meeting, I was kneeling near to him and can never forget how I was thrilled with a feeling I cannot describe as he pleaded in prayer, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!" It seemed as if a baptism of love and power came over me and my soul was humbled in the dust before the Lord. I had the privilege of meeting Mr. Hyde again in E way home to America. Flow his influence still lives.’
Mr. McCheyne Paterson describes Mr. Hyde as ’ A great fisher for souls,’ and that is very true, for he not only prayed for men but was a real angler. He would be just for a minute in a room with perhaps a perfect stranger, but it would be quite a sufficient time to open the Bible and show some wonderful passage from the Word, and quietly he wouprayer-life person to the Saviour. We heard of a worldly lady once who thought she would have a little fun at Mr. Hyde’s expense, so she asked, Don’t you think Mr. Hyde that a lady who dances can go to Heaven ? ’ He looked at her with a smile and quietly said, I do not see how a lady can go to Heaven unless she dances,’ and then he dwe3t on the joy of sin forgiven—the overwhelming joy, especially for one who had been living for the world and for self, and he gently appealed to her, as to whether she had experienced this joy, and went quoting the Word of God and begging of her not to be satisfied until this wonder. ful experience would compel her ’ to dance for joy.’ We feel sure that she never tried to get any more fun at his expense. Truly Hyde was a fisher for souls, and we know that our members will be grateful to Mr. McCheyne Paterson for his articles.
Dr. Chapman, the great evangelist, said, after being round the world on an evangelistic tour, that it was during a season of prayer with Mr. Hyde that he realized what real prayer was. I believe that hundreds in India can say the same. I owe to him more than I owe to any man, for showing me what a prayer•life is,’ and what a real consecrated life is. I shall ever praise God for bringing me into contact with him ; even now I have not been able to take in all that was lived before me by him. Jesus Christ became a new ideal to me, and I had a glimpse of His Prayer-life, and I had a longing which has remained to this day dwelt a real praying man. But let me give a few reminiscences which have been indelibly impressed on my mind. The first time I met him was at Ludhiana in the Punjab where he lived at the time. I had been invited to speak a few words on the Revival in the Khassia Hills to the Conference of the United States Presbyterian Mission, who had their annual session at the time there. I had travelled by night from Allahabad to Ludhiana and reached there early in the morning. I was taken to have a cup of tea with the Delegates and others, and I was introduced across the table to Mr. Hyde, all that he said to me was, I want to see you, I shall wait for you at the door.’ There he was waiting and his first word was, Come with me to the Prayer Room, we want you there.’ I do not know whether it was a command or request, I felt I had to go. I told him that I had travelled all night, and that I was tired, and had to speak at 4 o’clock but I went with him. We found half-a-dozen persons there and Hyde went down on his face before the Lord. I knelt down and a strange feeling crept over me. Several prayed, and then Hyde began, and I remember very little more, I knew that I was in the presence of God Himself and had no desire to leave the place, in fact I do not think that I thought of myself or of my surroundings, for I had entered a new world and I wanted to remain there.
We had entered the room about 8 o’clock in the morning, several had gone out, others had come in, but Hyde was on his face on the floor, and had led us in prayer several times. Meals had been forgotten, and my tired feeling had gone, and the revival account and message that I was to deliver and concerning which I had been very anxious had gone out of my mind, until about 3.30 when Hyde got up, and I found we were the only two present, and he said to me, You are to speak at 4 o’clock, I shall take you to have a cup of tea.’ I replied that he must need a little refreshment too, but he said, ’ No, I do not want any but you must have some.’ We called in my room and washed hurriedly and then we had a cup of tea, each of us, and it was full time for the service. He took me right to the door, then took my hand and said, ’ Go in and speak, that is your work, I shall go back to the Prayer Room to pray for you, that is my work. When the service is over, come into the Prayer Room again and we shall praise God together.’ What a thrill, like an electric shock, passed through me as we parted. It was easy to speak, though I was speaking through an Interpreter. What I said, I do not know. Before the meeting was through, the Indian translator overcome by his feelings and overpowered by the Spirit of God failed to go on and another had to take his place. I know the Lord spoke that night, He spoke to me, and spoke to many. I realized then the Power of Prayer ; how often I had read of blessing in answer to prayer, but it was brought home to me that evening with such force that ever since, I try to enlist prayer warriors to pray for me whenever I stand up to deliver His messages. It was one of the most wonderful services I ever attended, and I know that it was the Praying Saint behind the scenes that brought the blessing down on me.
I went back after the service to him, to praise the Lord. There was no question asked by him, whether it was a good service or not, whether men had received a blessing or not ; nor did I think of telling him what blessing I had personally received and how his prayers had been answered. He seemed to know it all and how he praised the Lord, and how easy it was for me to praise the Lord and speak to Him of the blessing He had given. I had very little talk with him at that Conference. I knew very little about him and somehow I had no desire to ask him any questions ; but a new power had come into my life which humbled me, and gave me a new idea altogether of a missionary’s life and even a Christian life and the ideal revealed to me then has never been lost, but, with the years as they pass, there is a deeper longing to live up to the ideal.
I had a talk with several of the missionaries about him, and I found that he had been misunderstood by them, but their eyes were being opened to the fact that he was not an ordinary worker, but specially endowed with the Spirit of Prayer and given to India to teach men how to pray. Years afterwards I asked him whether he had realized in his early years that the missionaries were not in favour of the way he spent so much of his time in prayer, and he smiled, that sweet smile which one can never forget, and said, ’ Oh, yes, I knew it, but they did not understand me that was all, they never intended to be unkind.’ There was not one atom of bitterness as far as I could see. At the time that I came into contact with him, they spoke approvingly of his long vigils. The probability is that he was not in bed one night during that Conference, and the Lord honoured him. He was out of sight, but, in answer to his prayers, many were blessed, and I believe a new era in the history of the Mission and in the history of the Punjab was commenced at that time.