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I would like to mention an amusing incident connected with the children at Bible school. About the middle of a semester, God provided the means for me to fly down to visit the three of them. The reason I decided to fly was because it saved so much time, and it wasn't feasible for me to be away from my family at home for very long. I had never flown before and was not looking forward to that part of the trip. I have a natural fear of heights and depths, so every time I thought of the plane ride, I would feel frightened. The morning I was supposed to leave, I was praying and asking God for a promise to give me courage to make that flight. He gave me this: "Wait on the Lord: be of good courage and he will strengthen thine heart" Psalm 27:14. Well, I had certainly waited on the Lord and had done my best to be courageous, so now He had promised to strengthen my heart. I said, "Thank You, Lord," for I certainly needed my heart to be strengthened. A little later as I was busy getting my house in order before I left, I passed by the promise box and the same old fear seemed to grip my heart. I said, "Lord, if You can just give me something to put in my purse to take along with me, I'll be so grateful." I reached over and pulled a promise and here is what I read, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me ... " Psalm 23:4. Oh, how quickly I put that promise back into the promise box, and told the Lord that I would be content with the first one He gave me. Someone told me when I related this incident to them, that they would have never gotten on that plane after that. But I felt sure that in spite of all my fear and trembling, that somehow God was going to take care of me. Hadn't He given me the means to go? And beside, there was a love for my three dear children and a daughter-in-law who would be waiting for me at the end of the journey, that compelled me to go through any difficulty to be able to spend a few short days with them. I had written my son that I was coming but told him I wanted to surprise the girls. The day I was to leave, I received a letter from my youngest daughter and this is what she wrote: "I dreamed the best dream last night. I dreamed you came to see us. It was such a good dream. I wish it was true." It touched my heart very deeply as I felt the longing of a young girl who was homesick to see her mother. I was so glad that God was allowing me to go. My son got the girls to go to the airport with him to "pick up a lady." They never imagined that the lady was their own mother, especially since they knew how afraid I was of heights. They never thought I'd fly. How well I remember their dear faces with such surprised looks, their excitement and happiness at having me come. How good our loving Heavenly Father is to make a way for me to visit my children that time and many times since. Bless His Name!
Georgia D. McCain
A Remarkable Deliverance
In December, 1911, I conducted a revival in Coal Creek, Tennessee. Coal Creek is the railroad center from which spurs run out to the mines in the mountains. Sunday morning, I was called from the breakfast table to the telephone. The Methodist preacher was on the other end of the wire. In a very much agitated voice, he said, "Brother Hicks, there has been an explosion in Cross Mountain Mine. I have a number of members in that mine and think I had better go up there. Would you be willing to go with me?" I replied in the affirmative. In a moment he was at the door with a horse and buggy. I climbed in and we drove up the valley to old Cross Mountain.
I can never forget that drive. It was a beautiful December day in the Southland. The leaves were stained red in the blood of the dying year. The squirrels were hopping along the roadside gathering their supply of winter nuts. The birds seemed to sing with pathos, as if they were touched with a feeling of our sorrow. We rode silently until we came to a sign saying, "Miners, buy your whiskey at --." My friend said, "Brother Hicks, that is solemn mockery in an hour like this." Evidently someone else thought the same for the sign was broken down as I passed back.
Soon we met some miners in caps and overalls and sooty faces, evidently just out of a mine, running down the road. We asked them, "What about the explosion?" "We're from Thistle Mine," they replied, "There is an entry from our mine to Cross Mountain. Some of our boys were blown on their faces but no one was hurt." "But what about Cross Mountain?" we asked. "Oh, blowed all to pieces," they replied, and ran on down the road.
A little farther, we came to the string of houses that make the mountain village. What a bedlam of sounds we heard! Women were crying and praying, children screaming and old men shouting excitedly. One woman with a baby in her arms ran out to our buggy and cried, "Oh, for God's sake, do something to reach my husband and get him out of there. I don't see how we can live without him." "We'll do anything in our power to save him," we answered as we drove on.
Soon we rounded a spur in the mountains and got the first view of Cross Mountain Mine. It was a drift mine, entering quite a distance up the side of the mountain. Dust and leaves were floating slowly out of the mouth of the mine. The idle power house stood nearby with the smoke curling lazily from its stack. Everything looked grim and silent, as if the old mine were sulking after its deed of cruelty.
Such a scene I never expect to see again this side the judgment! At one end, a woman sat on the ties of the tramway screaming, "O God, if he'd only been ready to go!" Another stood near her twisting the ropes, her face as pale as death, not uttering a word. An old man wearing a mackintosh walked up and down the tramway crying, "My God, my poor boy." The people became so frenzied that it was necessary to make a door and put it over the mouth of the mine lest some irresponsible person should slip in. One poor fellow rushed up to the door crying, "Let me in, let me in. I want to go to my brother!" They led him away stark mad.
After the men had been in the cave two days, we gave up all hope that any of them should come out alive. By and by, they began to bring out the dead. Wood, a leader in our campaign, went to his sister, Mrs. Henderson, whose husband and boy were in the mine, and asked her: "Where do you want Bill and the boy buried when they are brought out? I think they will reach their entry today."
"There'll be time enough to talk about burying Bill and the boy when they are dead," she replied. He said, "Oh, you might as well give up. They're all dead; they couldn't possibly live in there this long." She looked at him for a moment and answered, "Bill and my boy are not dead, I haven't been on my knees two days and a half for nothing." He thought she was going crazy. He asked some neighbor woman to watch her.
Upon his own initiative, he had the graves dug where he thought she would like to have them buried. That night after supper, Mrs. Henderson went into the kitchen and put some water on to heat. The watchers asked her what she was going to do. She said, "I'm heating water for Bill and the boy to wash with when they come out." They said to her: "Mrs Henderson, they've had an explosion, and they're all killed; none of them will come out alive." "Oh," she replied, "Bill and my boy will be out before ten o'clock tonight."
Between nine and ten o'clock that night, somewhere in the bowels of old Cross Mountain, a rescue party had their lights go out. They were asking one another for a light, when a poor fellow behind some boards and mud plaster that had been put over an entry to keep back the bad air, shouted to them: "I'll give you a light, if you'll break down these boards." Quickly they tore down the boards and there stood Bill Henderson. He had come down from a room a little farther back where he, his boy and three others had barricaded themselves, and spent the hours fighting back the choke-damp and praying. Most of them, not expecting to get out at all, had written farewell letters to their loved ones. These five came out before ten that night. Of the eighty-six souls that went into Cross Mountain Mine on the morning of the explosion they were the only ones who came out alive.
I. E. Hicks
(This account taken from The Faith Builder, published by Schmul Publishers, Rare Reprint Specialists, Salem, Ohio. Used by permission.)
How God Quieted a Restless Baby
One day we were invited to have an evening meal with Brother and Sister Martin. I observed that fourteen-month-old Donnie was having a restle
ss time. He wouldn't eat; just whimpered and cried. The mother informed us that she had taken him to two doctors and a baby specialist but all three told her that nothing was wrong with him, he was only going through a cross spell.
After supper, the Lord urged me to put my finger into his mouth. This I did and found a sharp object (a piece of granite) more than a quarter inch square, lodged between his four little front teeth and his gum. I removed it and he immediately stopped fussing and crying. Each doctor charged for his service but didn't help any; but God knew where the trouble was and revealed it to me in answer to prayer.
Rev. Claude Eshelman
Praying for a Backslidden Preacher
One morning as I was ironing, a tremendous burden settled down on my heart. I kept ironing and trying to be faithful to the burden as I ironed, but the burden grew so heavy until I turned off my iron and knelt by a chair in my living room and began to fervently call on God. I had an awesome feeling that someone was about to drop off into hell, and God had put this burden of intercession upon me that I might stand in the gap to keep this individual out of hell. I prayed earnestly, though I can't remember how long, until God lifted the burden, though I did not understand what it was all about.
Later that afternoon, I lay down to rest awhile and I was still meditating on the awful burden I had had that morning. I prayed, "Lord, will You somehow reveal to me what this is all about?" He spoke from Proverbs 29:1, "He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." He said, "You were praying for a backslidden preacher."
On Sunday morning, I stood to testify and told of the burden and what God had told me. When I had finished, a dear lady,whose husband had turned his back on God and was out in sin, stood to her feet weeping. She said, "You were praying for my husband (a backslidden preacher). He was involved in a car accident and there's no telling what might have happened, had God not put the burden on your heart."
I was so glad I had been faithful to the burden and had not let my ironing hinder me that morning. Oh, the faithfulness of God! He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but seeks for someone to "make up the hedge, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30) for never-dying souls. How we should praise Him for His love and mercy for the souls of men.
Georgia D. McCain
The Lonely Cabin on the Forty Mile
The following is "A battle between a Bible and a barrel of whiskey over the souls of three men."
In Straight Paths Page 25