answered prayer. They compel us either to deny the facts or admit a supernatural factor. To do the former we must impeach the testimony of men who declare what they have seen, or felt, or known. "I know," says Dr. Henry A. Reynolds, "that God answers prayer, for he has done it for me." That is right to the point. Others have spoken with similar confidence, giving times, seasons, places, and circumstances. Let us attend to some of them.

Our first illustration will be selected from profane history. It is a remarkable case of deliverance from persecution, and of the punishment of the persecutors. It is a record of the Jewish colony at Alexandria, B. C. 200. We learn that "Ptolemy Philopator, furiously angry at the refusal of the high-priest to permit him to enter the temple courts at Jerusalem, returning to Egypt, flung into prison all the Jews upon whom he could lay his hands. There was at Alexandria a huge hippodrome used for gladiatorial shows, and here hosts of captives were confined. The king decreed that elephants, made furious by intoxicating and stimulating drugs, should be let loose upon them in the arena of this amphitheatre, and allowed to trample them to death. For two days his own drunken revels delayed the execution of this horrid decree, and for two days there went up ceaseless prayer to Israel's God, that he who delivered Daniel from the lions would rescue his helpless people.

"The third day came, and the infuriated monsters were driven into the amphitheatre and goaded forward to torture the prisoners; but, wonderful to relate, instead of attacking and destroying these Jews, they turned madly upon the guards and spectators, killed many of them, and drove the rest in terror from the corridors. Ptolemy was so impressed with this exhibition of power of the God of the Jews that he released the prisoners, and, like Ahasuerus, permitted them to destroy their foes."

Here is another historical fact, showing that prayer will be answered, though not always in the precise way the petitioner may ask. The mother of Augustine was a woman of devoted piety, but her son was a youth of wild and dissipated habits. She prayed earnestly and long for his conversion, but apparently without success. At length he resolved to visit Rome. She, sup

posing that the temptations of that abandoned city would be his ruin, most. earnestly begged of God to thwart his purpose. She felt a quiet assurance that God had heard her prayer, and that her desire would be granted; but to her amazement her son went to Rome. There he fell in with Christian society, and was converted. His mother then acknowledged that though the particular thing she asked for was withholden, yet the deep desire of her heart, the desire which had prompted all her prayers, was granted. What was the fault in the prayers of this woman? Simply an ignorance of the means which God would use for her son's conversion, a thing she could not have known without special revelation. She prayed according to the knowledge which she had, and God answered her according to the desire of her heart.

The next example is given by Prof. Calvin E. Stowe, D. D., and relates to well-known parties of the Old World. He says: "Henry Young Stilling was an eminent physician in the service of the Grand Duke of Baden. He died in the year 1812; his career was an extraordinary one. By his skill as an oculist, he restored more blind persons to sight than there are miracles recorded of our blessed Saviour himself. I have been acquainted with some of his children and grand-children, and feel no doubt of the entire accuracy of the facts about to be related. Stilling was an intimate friend of the German poet Goethe, who will not be accused of credulity or superstition, and it was at Goethe's suggestion that he published the account of his own life from which the following incidents are taken. Goethe, in his autobiography, says of Stilling! 'He had a sound understanding, and an enthusiasm for all that is good, right, and true, in the utmost possible purity. His course of life had been very simple, and yet had abounded with events, and a manifold activity. The element of his energy was an impregnable faith in God, and in an assistance immediately proceeding from him, which obviously justified itself in an uninterrupted provision, and an infallible deliverance from every distress and every evil. He had experienced numerous instances of this kind in his life, and they had recently been frequently repeated; so that, though he led a frugal life, yet it was without care and with the greatest cheerfulness; and he applied himself most diligently to his studies, although he

could not reckon upon any certain subsistence from one quarter of a year to another. I urged him to write his life, and he promised to do so.'

"Such is the unequivocal testimony of Goethe, who was most intimately acquainted with him; and surely no one will say that Goethe was a man to be beguiled by religious fanaticism, especially toward the latter part of his life, when he wrote the sentences I have just quoted.

"In youth, Stilling was extremely poor, destitute of the common comforts and necessaries of life. After a long season of anxiety and prayer, he felt satisfied that it was the will of God that he should go to a university, and prepare himself for the medical profession. He did not at first make choice of a university, but waited for an intimation from his Heavenly Father; for as he intended to study simply from faith, he would not follow his own will in anything. Three weeks after he had come to this determination, a friend asked him whither he intended to go. He replied he did not know. 'Oh,' said she, 'our neighbor, Mr. T., is going to Strasburg to spend a winter there; go with him.' This touched Stilling's heart; he felt that this was the intimation he had waited for. Meanwhile, Mr.T. himself entered the room, and was heartily pleased with the proposition. The whole of his welfare now depended upon his becoming a physician, and for this a thousand dollars at least were requisite, of which he could not tell in the whole world where to raise a hundred. He nevertheless fixed his confidence firmly on God, and reasoned as follows: 'God begins nothing without terminating it gloriously: now it is most certainly true that he alone has ordered my present circumstances entirely without my co-operation. Consequently, it is also most certainly true that he will accomplish everything regarding me in a manner worthy of himself.' He smilingly said to his friends, who were as poor as himself, 'I wonder from what quarter my Heavenly Father will provide me with money.' When they expressed anxiety, he said, 'Believe assuredly, that he who was able to feed a thousand people with a little bread lives still, and to him I commit myself. He will certainly find out means. Do not be anxious; the Lord will provide.'

"Forty-six dollars were all that he could raise for his journey. He met unavoidable delay on the way, and while in Frankfort, three days' ride from Strasburg, he had but a single dollar left. He said nothing of it to any one, but waited for the assistance of his Heavenly Father. As he was walking the street and praying inwardly to God, he met Mr. L., a merchant from the place of his residence, who says to him: Stilling, what brought you here?' 'I am going to Strasburg to study medicine.' 'Where do you get your money to study with?' 'I have a rich Father in heaven.' Mr. L. looked steadily at him, and inquired, 'How much money have you on hand?' 'One dollar,' says Stilling. 'So,' says Mr. L. 'Well, I'm one of your Father's stewards,' and handed him thirty-three dollars. Stilling felt warm tears in his eyes; says he, I am now rich enough-I want no more.' This first trial made him so courageous that he no longer doubted that God would help him through everything.

"He had been but a short time in Strasburg when his thirty-three dollars were again reduced to one, on which account he began again to pray very earnestly. Just at this time, one morning, his roommate, Mr. T., says to him: Stilling, I believe you did not bring much money with you,' and offered him thirty dollars in gold, which he gladly accepted as in answer to his prayers. In a few months after this, the time arrived when he must pay the lecturer's fee, or have his name stricken from the list of students. The money was to be paid by six o'clock on Thursday evening. Thursday morning came and he had no money, and no means of getting any. The day was spent in prayer. Five o'clock in the evening came, and yet there was no money. His faith began almost to fail; he broke out into a perspiration-his face was wet with tears. Some one knocked at the door. Come in,' said he. It was Mr. R., the gentleman of whom he rented the room. 'I called,' said Mr. R., to see how you like your room?' 'Thank you,' says Stilling, 'I like it very much.' Says Mr. R., 'I thought I would ask you one more question; have you brought any money with you?' Stilling says he now felt like Habakkuk when the angel took him by the hair of the head to carry him to Babylon.* He answered, 'No, I have

* See History of Bel and the Dragon in the Apocrypha, vers. 33–39.