November 2014 – HARVEY Christian Publishers

Amanda Smith, An Autobiography: The story of the Lord’s dealings with Amanda Smith.

Posted on November 24, 2014June 7, 2018 by

“Three months of schooling was all I ever had,” writes Amanda Smith. That was at a school for whites, though a few colored children were permitted to attend. To this school my brother and I walked five and a half miles each day, in going and returning, and the attention we received while there was only such as the teacher could give after the requirements of the more favored pupils had been met. In view of the deficiency in my early education, and other disadvantages in this respect, under which I have labored, I crave the indulgence of all who may read this simple and unvarnished story of my life.”

The above paragraph can be found in the introduction to the book Amanda Smith, an autobiography. The subtitle is “The story of the Lord’s dealings with Amanda Smith.” Harvey Christian Publishers reprinted an abridged version of this book some years ago but are now presenting the book in its entirety.

This autobiography is remarkable for its simplicity, truthfulness, and detailed description of life as it was then. “Unvarnished,” the author called it and so it is. Beginning with her birth into slavery, Amanda chronicles in detail her life—freedom from slavery, conversion, call to minister at home and abroad and, most of all, her inner struggles as a black lady evangelist in the latter half of nineteenth century America. Her story is moving and inspiring and also a revelation of the prejudice existing even in religious circles.

Although our struggles to fulfill God’s call in our individual lives may greatly differ in detail from Amanda Smith’s, in essence they are very little different. We, too, fight against bitterness, unforgiveness, prejudice, and doubt. Amanda’s victories through simple trust in her Heavenly Father, inspire us to have faith that we can fulfill God’s call for our lives in a way which honors and glorifies Him.

How They Prayed, Vol. Three: Be still, and hear what God shall say.

Posted on November 24, 2014June 7, 2018 by

The book by Edwin and Lillian Harvey, entitled How They Prayed Volume 3, quotes from the diaries, letters, and sermons of pastors and missionaries who have come to acknowledge the part prayer must play in revivals, widespread and local. “To arouse one man or woman to the tremendous power of prayer for others,” says A. J. Gordon, “is worth more than the combined activity of a score of average Christians. What David Brainerd did, others may do. God is no respecter of persons.”

“How sweet is prayer to my soul at this time,” Henry Martyn notes in his diary. “I seem as if I could never be tired, not only of spiritual joys, but of spiritual employments, since these are now the same.
“I felt as if I could never be tired with prayer. . . At night read the third and fourth chapters of the Acts; and lost much time and spirituality by indulging ideas of schemes about the Gospel, which had more of romance and pride in them than of wisdom and humiliation.”

If prayer matters then it ought not to be counted continually second in our scene of life. . . . All the time the devil is fighting our half-hour’s prayer, he never tires of fighting it. Sometimes there is a dullness which is a cloud of hell, sometimes a fiery assault.
“We know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.” We pray from the ground of that certainty; not towards certainty, but from it. Is that why we have the words, ‘In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving’? We give thanks before we see. Then the thought came, “What is it that we have in this sense already received? Surely just this: that the glory of the Lord will be manifested (for is not this what we desired of Him?), and that the very best will be done from His eternal point of view, for the work committed to us.” Amy Carmichael

Not in the tumult of the rending storm,
Not in the earthquake or devouring flame,
But in the hush that could all fear transform,
The still, small whisper to the Prophet came.

O Soul, keep silence on the mount of God,
Though cares and needs throb round thee like a sea;
From supplications and desires unshod,
Be still, and hear what God shall say to thee.

O rest, in utter quietude of soul,
Abandon words, leave prayer and praise awhile,
Let thy whole being, hushed in His control,
Learn the full meaning of His voice and smile.
―Mary Rowles Jarvis.

These quotations have been taken from How They Prayed Volume Three which is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and is available in their Online Christian Bookstore.

Father Calling: Called to save the children.

Posted on November 24, 2014June 7, 2018 by

Can God call children or rather does God call children? What he can do is infinite; what he does do brings the question down to practicalities. The book Father Calling presents stories of children who received intimations of God’s plan for their lives at a young age. Take Charles Spurgeon for example, or Lord Shaftsbury, or Hudson Taylor, to mention a few. Sometimes the call was direct but more often it came as a result of life experience as in the case of William Quarrier who founded the Quarrier Homes in Scotland. Growing up in the slums of Glasgow, William knew what it was to feel hungry and sometimes homeless. And so he determined to give his life to help other children like himself find a place of comfort and safety from the cruelty of a fallen world.

Lord Shaftsbury also gave his life to better the lot of children. Unlike William Quarrier, however, his childhood was not similar to the children he came to serve. Brought up in a beautiful mansion, he never knew what it was to be hungry or homeless. He did not have to rise early and go to the mills where heard-hearted masters made sure he earned the little he received as a result of long hard hours of work. But he came to love his Father in Heaven and listen to His voice and that led him to fight long and hard to make sure that the boys and girls of England and Scotland were no longer exploited by money-grabbing factory owners.
Both William Quarrier and Lord Shaftsbury, however, heard the same Voice, followed the same Master, and as a result, thousands of children lived to bless both their names.
Father Calling is written by Lillian Harvey and her daughter Trudy Harvey Tait and is published by Harvey Christian Publishers. It is available in their Online Christian Bookstore.

How They Prayed, Vol. Three: What will it cost?

Posted on November 20, 2014June 7, 2018 by

The book by Edwin and Lillian Harvey, entitled How They Prayed Volume 3, stresses the role of prayer in revivals, widespread and local, and the emphasis many pastors and missionaries placed on private and public prayer. The following quotations from missionaries to Africa and India encourage us to give communion with God top priority in our service for Christ:

“Christian, beware! Declension is always a slow leak, never a blowout. Flatness in spiritual living and serving is the result of a gradual slipping away from God in prayer and Bible Study, a neglecting of the means of grace.”
“‘He wondered that there was no intercessor.’
“‘He marveled because of their unbelief.’
“Two things that cause God to wonder now will be our greatest marvel by and by: 1. That we did not pray more. 2. That we did not trust more. He marvels now―we shall marvel when we see Him. The most marvelous thing of today is the unbelief of the Christians.”
–Rowland Bingham

“The secret of failure everywhere is the neglect of private communion with God. India lives too public a life to have a deep Christianity. And Indian Christians will have to alter many of their customs before they get deeper.”
And again: “It is better to do a little well and prayerfully than to fulfill a whole world of engagements with undue haste and rush.”
–Walker of Tinevelly. (Used by permission)

“I have been more than usually drawn out in earnest prayer of late―for the expedition―for my family―the fear lest ___’s misrepresentation may injure the cause of Christ―the hope that I may be permitted to open this dark land to the blessed Gospel. I have cast all before my God. Good Lord, have mercy upon me. Leave me not, nor forsake me. He has guided well in time past. I commit my way to Him for the future. All I have received has come from Him. Will He be pleased in mercy to use me for His glory? I have prayed for this, and Jesus Himself said, ‘Ask, and ye shall receive,’ and a host of statements to the same effect.
–David. Livingstone

“What will it cost?” the people asked
As they planned the fall campaign;
While in past exploits they calmly basked,
Looking only for outside gain.

“Three hundred at least for evangelists;
Twenty for heat and light.
And remember the music enthusiasts.”
What a price for such a small fight.

“What will it cost?” List to Spirit’s pleas:
Praying, fasting, and tears.
Each member humbled on bended knees,
Confessing the faults of years.

“The rough made smooth, the crooked straight;
Recourse to repentance’s fruit.
The Breath of God on all who wait;
Healing for blind, deaf, and mute.”

If revival comes we will have to pay
In heavenly currency.
Not a part or e’en half, but ALL we must lay
At His feet! Is it YOUR plea?
―Floyd Banker. Used by permission as published in the Wesleyan Methodist.

These quotations have been taken from How They Prayed Volume Three which is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and is available in their Online Christian Bookstore.

“The danger of our day is devotion to duty to the neglect of personal communion. We will do far more and far better if we carefully guard against hindering our times of communion with Him.
“As well try to draw water out of a dry well as to try to carry on Christian service without drawing present life from the Living Vine.
“Christian, beware! Declension is always a slow leak, never a blowout. Flatness in spiritual living and serving is the result of a gradual slipping away from God in prayer and Bible Study, a neglecting of the means of grace.”
“‘He wondered that there was no intercessor.’
“‘He marveled because of their unbelief.’
“Two things that cause God to wonder now will be our greatest marvel by and by: 1. That we did not pray more. 2. That we did not trust more. He marvels now―we shall marvel when we see Him. The most marvelous thing of today is the unbelief of the Christians.”
–Rowland Bingham

“What will it cost?” the people asked
As they planned the fall campaign;
While in past exploits they calmly basked,
Looking only for outside gain.

“Three hundred at least for evangelists;
Twenty for heat and light.
And remember the music enthusiasts.”
What a price for such a small fight.

“What will it cost?” List to Spirit’s pleas:
Praying, fasting, and tears.
Each member humbled on bended knees,
Confessing the faults of years.

“The rough made smooth, the crooked straight;
Recourse to repentance’s fruit.
The Breath of God on all who wait;
Healing for blind, deaf, and mute.”

These quotations have been taken from How They Prayed Volume Three which is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and is available in their Online Christian Bookstore.

How They Prayed, Vol. Three: When prayer becomes a Symphony

Posted on November 20, 2014June 7, 2018 by

“‘If two of you shall symphonize on earth as touching anything that they shall ask it shall be done for them of my father which is in Heaven.’ The word, symphonize, is a musical term,” wrote A. T. Pierson, “referring to the harmony of notes in a chord, which is possible only when each accords with the whole instrument. One note, out of tune, will turn accord into discord. So the power of joint supplication depends not on the numbers gathered, but on the measure of real agreement of each with the mind and will of God. One out of accord with Him hinders perfect harmony with the rest; hence the smallest number that can agree is specified, because there is more power when two pray, provided they truly agree, than when a larger number apparently unite but such agreement is lacking. Numbers are of no importance, but perfect harmony is.”

The above quotation has been taken from How They Prayed Volume Three, written and compiled by Edwin and Lillian Harvey as are the following words of Lilias Trotter, taken from her book, The Master of the Impossible:

“The promise that has been alive these days is Matthew 18:18, ‘Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.’ It is framed in on either side by the condition of unity of spirit. And this ‘binding’ and ‘loosing’ seems to be the true sphere of prayer. The two parables of intercession help mark this out as a battlefield of prayer―the friend on the midnight errand loosing the powers of life; the widow in her importunity binding the power of death.”

“The history of missions,” said Dr. S. M. Zwemer, “is the history of answered prayer. . . it is the key to the whole missionary problem. All human means are secondary. The work of missions from start to finish is a miracle of God’s grace. So stupendous is the task, so great the obstacles and opposition that ‘if we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing.’ We must invoke and rely upon supernatural power.”

All quotations are taken from How They Prayed Volume 3 which is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and is available in their Online Christian Bookstore.

How They Prayed, Vol. 3: Is prayer our chief work?

Posted on November 18, 2014June 7, 2018 by

The book by Edwin and Lillian Harvey, entitled How They Prayed Volume 3, reveals the part prayer prayed in revivals, widespread and local, and the emphasis those men used of God in these revivals placed on private and public prayer. The following missionaries to the Orient exhort us out of their rich experience of prevailing prayer, to give communion with God top priority:

“Secret prayer is commonly considered a duty which must be performed every morning and evening, in order to keep a conscience void of offense. But do not, my dear brother, entertain an opinion as defective. Consider secret prayer as one of the three great works of thy life. Arrange thy affairs, if possible, so that thou canst leisurely devote two or three hours every day, not merely to devotional exercises, but to the very act of secret prayer and communion with God. Endeavor several times a day, to withdraw from business and company, and lift up thy soul to God in private retirement.”
–Adoniram Judson

“‘Wait on thy God CONTINUALLY,’ and the beginning of departure is found in only waiting upon God OCCASIONALLY.” A. N. Groves

“Our question to every reader is, What place does prayer have in your life? Has it the first place or a secondary place? We all believe in prayer but is it fundamental work? Or supplemental?
“We may think that our work is so urgent that we cannot give time to prayer; but this worker says, and many would confirm her statement, that the work has not suffered in any way; one is able to do more work, when prayer has its rightful place in our lives; the work runs more smoothly, difficulties vanish away, when we take everything to the Lord in prayer.
“Shall this be a message for you, dear fellow-worker? Let us revise our estimate of the values of spiritual forces. Shall we make prayer our chief work?”– John Hyde (often known as “Praying Hyde).

The Lord is my pace setter
I shall not rush.
He makes me stop,
And rest for quiet intervals.

He provides me with images of stillness
Which restore my serenity.

He leads me in ways of efficiency
Through calmness of mind.
And His guidance is peace.
Even though I have a great many things
To accomplish each day,
I will not fret,
For His presence is here,
His timelessness,
His all-importance,
Will keep me in balance.

He prepares refreshment and renewal
In the midst of my activity.
My cup of joyous energy overflows.
Surely harmony and effectiveness
Shall be the fruits of my hours,
For I shall walk in the pace of my Lord,
And dwell in His house for ever.–Toki Miyashiro (With apologies to the Psalmist, David)

These quotations have been taken from How They Prayed Volume Three which is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and is available in their Online Christian Bookstore.

How They Prayed, Vol. Three: “See What I can do in answer to a praying people!”

Posted on November 18, 2014June 7, 2018 by

The book by Edwin and Lillian Harvey entitled How They Prayed Volume 3, reveals the part prayer prayed in revivals, widespread and local, and the emphasis those men used of God in these revivals placed on private and public prayer. Henry Breeden was once such man:
“I came to a affixed resolve,” Breeden wrote, “that whatever else I was or was not, and whatever else I did or did not, I would by the grace of God become a man decidedly given up to prayer. And that resolve, I am thankful to be able to say, I have to a great extent been able to carry out.

However other things have been attended to, the work of calling on the Lord has been my great and chief personal business. During the early part of life, however, though thoroughly given to this exercise, I had no settled arrangement with regard to the number of times for this duty to be attended to each day. But, a good number of years ago, I fixed it as a rule, that I would never pray less than a set number of times, chiefly in private, every day, God being my helper as long as I lived. And though since that resolution was formed, many years of hard labor have passed away, yet this duty has ever been attended to most carefully. But oh, how much to God I owe for His gracious help therein! And, thanks be to Him, I can look back on this with a happy degree of humble gratitude. Of a truth, I can say, I would far rather have it said that Henry Breeden was a man given much to mighty prayer, than that it should be gazetted that he was worth his unnumbered thousands of this world’s wealth.”

The Welsh Revival was a revival, among other things, of prayer. Evan Roberts was mightily used of God in this revival and his biographer says of him: “Now, as the message gripped his soul, he gave himself to prayer as never before; and with the Holy Spirit’s guidance day by day his faith was strengthened. As he worked he prayed, and God came and filled his life. He was very practical, and soon got the secret of ‘praying without ceasing.’ He learned the sweetness of the abiding Christ through prayer, and prayer became a habit in his busy life.”
Many contemporaries of Evan Roberts attempted to discover the reason for the power and effect of that revival and had to attribute it to prayer. Campbell Morgan writes thus:
“In the name of God let us cease trying to find it! At least let us cease trying to trace it to any one man or convention. You cannot trace it. And yet I will trace it tonight. Whence has it come? All over Wales―I am giving you roughly the result of the questioning of fifty or more persons at random in the week―a praying remnant has been agonizing before God about the state of this beloved land, and it is through prayer the answer of fire has come.
“You tell me that the revival originates with Evan Roberts. I tell you that Roberts is a product of the revival. You tell me that it began in an Endeavor meeting where a young girl bore testimony. I tell you that was the result of a revival breaking out everywhere. . . . It is a Divine visitation in which God―let me say this reverently―in which God is saying to us: ‘See what I can do without the things you are depending on; see what I can do in answer to a praying people; see what I can do through the simplest, who are ready to fall in line, and depend wholly and absolutely upon Me.’

These quotations have been taken from How They Prayed Volume Three which is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and is available in their Online Christian Bookstore.

How They Prayed Volume 3: “Make me an intercessor!”

Posted on November 18, 2014June 7, 2018 by

In the book, How They Prayed, Volume Three,” the authors, Edwin and Lillian Harvey, have given us insight into the heart-breathings of many of God’s children who were called to minister for Him at home or abroad. One such servant–author and missionary–Isobel Kuhn, shares some of her longings with us:
““Lord, I bring Thee my myrrh.’ That was the silent heart-cry that had taken the hurt and fear out of my missionary journey to Lisu-land. I had seldom before been able to offer Him that gift, and I have never forgotten the joy of it.

“There are those who think they are willing to suffer and die ‘for Christ’s sake,’ but who are unwilling to spend half an hour daily in prayer for His work and workers. It is ‘myrrh’ when we say quietly to friends: ‘No, I cannot accept your invitations. I have something I must do,’ and then to spend that time in intercession for His work and workers or in some other self-effacing work or drudgery that makes possible the giving of the Gospel to every creature.”

Make me an Intercessor,
Willing for deeper death,
Emptied, broken, then made anew,
And filled with Living Breath.

Make me an Intercessor,
Hidden―unknown―set apart,
Thought little of by those around,
But satisfying Thine heart.

“The need of all is prayer; the second need is prayer; the third need is prayer,” writes missionary to Japan, Paget Wilkes.

Within the veil, there is a secret place
Where Christ hath gone to evermore abide,
And there to plead before His Father’s face,
The wound-prints of His hands and feet and side.

It is not strange, though ’tis a grace indeed,
That He should ever live to save His own
Unto the uttermost, and intercede
For all the blood-bought jewels of His crown.

But ’tis amazing grace that He should bid
Me enter there, and suffer me to dwell,
Before His Father’s presence unafraid
And with Him intercede within the veil.
–Paget Wilkes

How They Prayed, Volume Three, is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and is available in their Online Christian Bookstore.

How They Prayed Volume 3: Prayer—the work of the future!

Posted on November 18, 2014June 7, 2018 by

Words spoken by saints about to depart for their heavenly Home often affect us deeply. John Sung, who did so much to establish God’s work in China, had a dying message for the Church today. “The work of the future is to be the work of prayer,” he gasped.

“There is no way that Christians, in a private capacity, can do so much to promote the work of God and advance the Kingdom of Christ as by prayer,” said Jonathan Edwards.

“Prayer, unceasing and earnest,” comments William Burns, another laboror for God in China, “is that wherein the great strength of a revival of religion lieth. Who among us has the spirit of prayer?” he continues. “They are mighty who have this spirit, and weak who have it not . . . . The great fundamental error as far as I can see, in the economy of the Christian life, which many, and alas! I for one commit, is that of having too few and too short periods of solemn retirement with our gracious Father and His adorable Son, Jesus Christ.”

“Brother, if you would enter that Province, you must go forward on your knees,” wrote Hudson Taylor to a fellow-missionary who had asked his advice regarding pioneering in China.
“God Himself is the great source of power,” Mr. Taylor continues. “Power belongeth unto God. . . . Further, God’s power is available power. We are supernatural people, born again by a supernatural birth, kept by a supernatural power, sustained on supernatural food, taught by a supernatural Teacher from a supernatural Book. We are led by a supernatural Captain in right paths to assured victories.”

And still another missionary concludes: “The invisible results are, I verily believe, far greater and far more important than the visible. The growth of our work is similar to that of a plant. The root of a plant takes a longer time to grow than the stem; but maturation takes more time than either. The giant oak is wrapped up in that tiny acorn; but to develop it, the acorn must have time to strike its roots, and the sapling must be exposed to the necessary influences. Summer and winter, spring and autumn, the stormy winds and soft breezes have all had a share in, and were all necessary to, the development of the baby-oak into the fair tree you see today. So it is with our work. All great work requires time.”
– Griffith John

All the above quotations are taken from How They Prayed Volume 3, written and compiled by Edwin and Lillian Harvey, and published by Harvey Christian Publishers. This book is available in their Online Christian Bookstore.

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These quotations have been taken from How They Prayed Volume Three which is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and is available in their Online Christian Bookstore.

How They Prayed, Vol. Three: “Pray-er Preachers!”

Posted on November 15, 2014June 7, 2018 by

D. L. Moody said: “Next to the wonder of seeing my Savior will be, I think, the wonder that I have made so little of the power of prayer.” This statement was uttered by D. L. Moody and quoted in the book by Edwin and Lillian Harvey entitled How They Prayed Volume 3. A further quotation by R. A. Torrey reveals the fact that Mr. Moody was a man of prayer in the deepest and most meaningful sense:

“D. L. Moody certainly was a wonderful preacher; taking it all in all. . . . But out of a very intimate acquaintance with him I wish to testify that he was a far great pray-er than he was preacher. Time and time again, he was confronted by obstacles that seemed insurmountable, but he always knew the way to overcome all difficulties. He knew the way to bring to pass anything that needed to be brought to pass. He knew and believed in the deepest depths of his soul that ‘nothing was too hard for the Lord’ and that prayer could do anything that God could do.”
“In regard to my own experience,” said the revivalist, “I will say that unless I had the spirit of prayer I could do nothing. If even for a day or an hour I lost the spirit of grace and supplication, I found myself unable to preach with power and efficiency, or to win souls by personal conversation.”

Mr. Finney was also a praying man. A student of Oberlin College, forty-five years later, has this to say about his professor: “The class in Theology in 1838, met to hear one of the last lectures of the course. Our teacher, as usual, knelt with us in offering the opening prayer. But the burden on his soul for us, for Zion, for a lost world, could not be thrown off in a few petitions. He ‘stood in the gap’ and wrestled for the blessing. For a whole hour he led us up to God. We then arose and went in profound silence to our rooms. There was no lecture on that day. That prayer, never can we forget it!”

These quotations have been taken from How They Prayed Volume Three which is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and is available in their Online Christian Bookstore.

Month: November 2014