Father Calling: Called to save the children.

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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.

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

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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.

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Quotable quotes from The Christian’s Daily Challenge.

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I gave up all for Christ, and what have I found? I have found everything in Christ.
—John Calvin. (p. 92.)
It is easy to appear a Daniel in a country where there are no lions. (p. 141.
We need not make so much effort to defend the Bible as to practice it . p. 199.
To speak well, is to sound like a cymbal, but to do well, is to act like an angel.
—Phillips Brooks. (Ibid.)
Blessed is any weight, however overwhelming, which God has been so good as to fasten with His own hand upon our shoulders.
—F. W. Faber. (p. 218)


Prayer is the key to Heaven; the Spirit helps faith to turn the key.
—T. Watson. (p. 292)
I believe that if you and I were to heed the whispers of our Father, we should not need to many of His thunders.
—J. H. Evans. (p. 315)
Yesterday’s heretics often become today’s saints. (p. 328)
The secret of an unsatisfied life too often is an unsurrendered will.—Hudson Taylor. (p. 342)
Prayer is the touch of an infant—but on the arm of the Almighty.
—Thomas Scott. (p. 346)
The great question is not what you will get, but what you will become. The greatest wealth you ever can get will be in yourself.
—Horace Bushnell. (p. 372)

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