"If You Had Prayed" | by H. A. Ironside

"If You Had Prayed"

By H. A. Ironside

     "IF YOU HAD prayed all your life for the salvation of a loved one, and then you got word that the person had died without giving any evidence of repentance after having lived a sinful life, what would you think, both of prayer itself and of the love of God and His promises to answer?"

     It was a very striking question, and everyone in the room was electrified. Dr. D. M. Stearns answered it about like this: "I should expect to meet that loved one in heaven, for I believe in a God Who answers prayer, and if He put the exercise upon your heart to pray for a dear one, it was because He doubtless intended to answer it."

     Then, he told a story. He said that many years ago there was a dear old lady living in Philadelphia who had a very wayward son. This young man had been brought up in church and Sunday School, but he had drifted away from everything holy. He had gone to sea and become a very rough, careless, godless sailor.

     One night, his mother was awakened with a very deep sense of need upon her heart. When she became fully awake, she thought of her son and was impressed that he was in great danger. She got up, threw on a dressing gown, knelt down by her bedside, and prayed earnestly that God would undertake for the boy, whatever his need was.

     She did not understand it. But after praying for perhaps two or three hours, there came to her a sense of rest and peace, and she felt sure that God had answered. She got back into bed and slept soundly until the morning.

     Day after day, she kept wondering to herself why she was thus awakened and moved to prayer. She could not feel the need to pray for her boy any more; rather, she praised God for something which she felt sure He had done for her son.

     Several weeks passed. Then one day, there was a knock at the door, and there stood her boy. As soon as he entered the room, he said, "Mother, I'm saved." Then, he told her a wonderful story.

     He told how a few weeks earlier they had been tossed in mid-Atlantic by a terrible storm, and at last, it looked as though there was no hope of their riding it through. One of the masts had snapped and the captain called the men to come out and cut it away. They stepped out, he among them, cursing and reviling God because they had to be out in such an awful night.

     They were cutting away this mast when suddenly the ship gave a lurch, and a great wave caught this young man and carried him overboard.

     He was a very powerful swimmer. But as he struggled in the sea, he went down deep, and the awful thought came to his mind, "I'm lost forever!" Suddenly, there came to him a hymn that he had often heard in his boyhood days.

There is life for a look at the Crucified One, 

There is life at this moment for thee;

Then look, sinner, look unto Him and be saved:

Unto Him who was nailed to the tree.

     He cried out in the agony of his heart, "O God, I look, I look to Jesus!" Then, he was carried up to the top of the waves and lost consciousness.

     Hours afterward when the storm had ceased and the men came out to clear the deck, they found him lying unconscious, crowded up against a bulwark. Evidently, while one waved had carried him over, another had brought him aboard the ship again.

     They took him into the cabin and gave him restoratives. When he came back to consciousness, the first words that came from his lips were, "Thank God, I'm saved!"

     Well, from that time on, he had an assurance of God's salvation that meant everything to him.

     Then, his mother told him how she had prayed for him on that particular night. They realized it was just at the time when he was in such desperate circumstances, and God had heard and answered.

     Now, suppose the young man's body never had been brought back on the ship. Suppose he had sunk down into the depths. People might have thought he was lost forever in his sin, but he would have been as truly saved as he actually was. God had permitted him to come back in testimony to His wonderful grace.

     Dr. Stearns told us that the man joined the church of which he was pastor and became a very active member and for years was an officer in the church. 

     The grace of God is able to deal with a soul even when we on earth do not know what is going on between that soul and God.

Down in the valley of death

A Cross is standing plain;

Where strange and dark the shadows fall,

And the ground has a deep, red stain.

That Cross uplifted high

Forbids, with voice divine

Our mourning hearts to break for the dead,

Who have died and left no sign.

—Moody Church News

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Courtesy of Pilgrim Tract Society. Reprinted by permission.