April 11

Intercession for others

“So we fasted and besought our God for this: and he was entreated of us”(Ezra 8:23).
“For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him” (1 Sam. 1:27).

In the records of Mrs. Beecher Stowe’s life we are told that in her later years her consecration took high forms and she especially devoted herself to intercession. There came a time in her history when one who was very dear to her seemed about to sink away from the faith in which she trusted, and she set herself resolutely to avert this calamity. She put the full force of her intellect to work upon this conflict. Letter after letter found its way from her pen to the foreign town in which skepticism was doing its worst for the soul she loved.


She wrote, she reasoned, she argued, she pleaded, in vain. Then she turned to her great faith. She secluded herself from all but God, and set her whole faith to labor for her soul’s desire. A few weeks after a letter reached her saying, “At Christmas-time a light came to me. I see things differently now.”
—W. Robertson Nicol.

The weary ones had rest, the sad had joy
That day, and wondered “how.”
A plowman, singing at his work, had prayed,
“Lord, help them now.”
Away in foreign lands they wondered “how”
Their simple word had power.
At home, the Christians, two or three, had met
To pray an hour.
Yes, we are always wondering, wondering “how,”
Because we do not see
Someone, unknown, perhaps, and far away,
On bended knee!
—The Cleric.

Make me sensible of real answers to actual requests, as evidence of an interchange between myself on earth and my Savior in Heaven.
—Thomas Chalmers.

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