Bishop Bowman, of the M.E. Church, gives the following instance from his own experience:
“ In the fall of 1858, whilst visiting Indiana, I was at an annual conference where Bishop Janes presided. We received a telegram that Bishop Simpson was dying. Said Bishop Janes: “Let us spend a few moments in earnest prayer for the recovery of Bishop Simpson.” We kneeled to pray. William Taylor, the great California street-preacher, was called to pray; and such a prayer I never heard since.
The impression seized upon me irresistibly, Bishop Simpson will not die. I rose from my knees perfectly quiet. Said I:
"Bishop Simpson will not die." "Why do you think so?" "Because I have had an irresistible impression made upon my mind during this prayer."’ Another said: "I have the same impression." We passed it along from bench to bench, until we found that a very large proportion of the conference had the same impression.
I made a minute of the time of day, and when I next saw Simpson, he was attending to his daily labor. I inquired of the bishop: "How did you recover from your sickness?" He replied: "I cannot tell." "What did your physician say?" "He said it was a miracle." I then said to the bishop: "Give me the time and circumstances under which the change occurred.’ He fixed upon the day, and the very hour, making allowance for the distance a thousand miles away that the preachers were engaged in prayer at this conference.
The physician left his room and said to his wife: "It is useless to do anything further; the bishop must die." In about an hour he returned, and started back, inquiring: "What have you done?" "Nothing," was the reply. "He is recovering rapidly," said the physician; "a change has occurred in the disease within the last hour beyond anything I have ever seen; the crisis is past, and the bishop will recover." And he did.
The doctor was puzzled; it was beyond all the course and probabilities of nature, and the laws of science. What was it that made those ministers so sure -- what was it that made the patient recover, at the exact hour that they prayed? There is only one answer: “The ever-living power of a Superior Spirit which rules the world.”
-- Wonders of Prayer
Touching Incidents and Remarkable Answers to Prayer - 1893
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