A wonderful encounter

“My heart said for thee, Seek ye my face. Thy face, O Jehovah, will I seek” (Psalm 27:8).

A servant of God gives a testimony about a wonderful ecounter he experienced with a man of prayer:

Let me give a few reminiscences which have been indelibly impressed on my mind. The first time I met Mr Hyde 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 a 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 four 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 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 eight 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 three-thirty, when Hyde got up, and he said to me: "You are to speak at four 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 at my room and washed hurriedly, and then we both had a cup of tea, 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 over, 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.