We give the facts as related in the Fulton Street prayer meeting. Said the speaker: The case is that of a young man, intelligent, worthy, fashionable, occupying a high social position, married to a gay, fashionable wife, living in one of the fashionable avenues; himself, wife, and one sister making up the family. All were devoted to the pleasures of the world.
That young man was brought under the power of the influences of the Holy Spirit. For many days he was sad and sorrowful, and his wife and sister knew not what to make of it. At length, however, that young man, in one of our prayer meetings, found peace in believing in Jesus. Going home, he said to himself, “Now I must serve the Lord Jesus, and I will begin at once. I must go home and tell what the Lord has done for me, and pray in my family.”
The tempter said, “Not tonight; not so soon. Wait till you get a little stronger. Wait a few days.”
“No, no,” said the young disciple. “I must begin at once. I must pray in my family tonight.”
“Don’t be in such a hurry,” said the tempter. “You have never known much about prayer. You don’t know the language of prayer. You will certainly fail.”
“Get thee behind me, Satan; I must pray, and I will pray; and I will pray tonight.”
When he went into the house, he sought his library, and there poured out his heart to the blessed Saviour for grace to acknowledge, and own, and honor Him.
He went into his sumptuously furnished parlor. The gas was shedding down its mellow light from the burners. The wife and the sister were there. The time for prayer had come. His wife noticed with a kind of awe a great change in his countenance, but said nothing. This was a wife whom he loved as he did his own soul. He turned to her, and said―
“My dear, have you any objection to our having family worship?”
She looked at him with amazement and hesitation for a moment, and then answered with true good breeding and politeness, “Certainly not, if it is your pleasure.”
“Then get the Bible, if you please, and draw up around this table, under the gaslight, and we will read and pray.”
He read, and then he kneeled down to pray. But he observed that he alone was kneeling, and his wife and sister remained sitting both upright in their seats. This disconcerted him for a moment; and sure enough the tempter’s prophesy had come true.
At length he burst forth in the imploring cry, “God be merciful to me a sinner!” The tongue was loosed now, and he poured out a most fervent, agonizing, earnest prayer that God would have mercy upon his dear wife and sister, and convert them on the spot. As he went on, the heart of the wife was overcome. She slipped down from her seat, knelt down beside him, put her arms around his neck, and ere she was aware of it, she too was crying to God to have mercy on her soul. His sister went and knelt by his other side. She too, put her arms around him; she, too, sought a Saviour’s mighty power to save. All three on the spot, in answer to that first family prayer, were brought to consecrate themselves to the service of Him Who is willing and ready and mighty to save.
The peace of that now happy but once gay and thoughtless Emily flows like a river, and their salvation as an overflowing stream.