p. 127

p. 128
by Alexander Alfred Boddy (possibly; unattributed)
Confidence, August 1916.

Mrs. Walshaw on Prayer.

On the Monday evening there was a great gathering, when Mrs. [Lydia A.] Walshaw, of Halifax, spoke with great power. Here are some notes of her address:

• “God longs to bring man back into heart-fellowship with himself.”
• “The prayer life brings us back into communion with God.”
• “It must be a life of prayer; we must go on until we even become a prayer.”
• “God is waiting for our prayer, that he may give us a mighty revival.”
• “The Holy Spirit teaches us and helps us in prayer.”

In one of her prayer meetings recently they were having a very earnest time of prayer, when the Spirit gave a message through one sister. “I would see England on her knees.” Pentecost has brought wonderful intensity in prayer.

Our Lord said, “I would that ye were either hot or cold.” The speaker often wondered what this meant. Why should he wish that we were cold? Then it was shown to her that if we are cold we must be uncomfortable, and this would drive us to move toward the fire. He wants us to be hot; He wants us to be baptized with fire. The fire of the Holy Spirit brings zeal and love and power.

The speaker concluded with the story of her father’s conversion in the USA. She was taken over from England to America by an inward call from God, who told her that she should be used to the conversion of her beloved father, who was then an unbeliever. She was much used on the way, and at last reached her father, who was a physician and a clever man. The day came when there was an opening. He told her how one of his patients had come to him in great trouble, asking him to pray for her. “You don’t mean to say you did pray?” “Yes,” he replied; “I could not do anything else.” She seized the opportunity to tell him of the object of her visit, and she found him quite ready to receive her help. She had the joy of seeing her father on the Lord’s side.

Bro. Smith Wigglesworth.

He told us of how at some recent meetings there was great blessing, but a spiritualistic woman spoke in tongues. “That’s the devil. Come out of her,” cried Brother Wigglesworth, with great emphasis.

At another meeting there were two rows of spiritualists. The enemy often gives a close imitation of the real. So the spiritualist began closely to imitate. They began to mutter and move the chairs. Then someone spoke in tongues, and an interpretation was given as follows: “God has declared that he has the power that means dethronement.” Our brother cried out, “Come out, you devils.” He went down to the two rows and turned the people out into the street and down the street.

At this point during Brother Wigglesworth’s address, Pastor [Edwin M.] Bacon [of] Plymouth had a message in tongues, which was interpreted by Mrs. [Eleanor] Crisp. This was the message: “Not until he is enthroned and has dominion and supreme control can he have power over the demons.”

Pastor Bacon (Plymouth).

Pastor Bacon during the convention gave out some remarkable messages in tongues. Two army nurses in the body of the hall were quite sure it was a foreign language, for he spoke so fluently. Of course it may have been; it sounded something like an African dialect, but it was nothing our brother had received naturally. Pastor Bacon has a Baptist Church at Plymouth, where they have had wonderful spiritual uplifts of late.

At one meeting he said:

• “God did not create this world as an experiment nor as an expedient. He had been working from all eternity to carry out his plans.”
• “Everything is for him; everything is in him. I shall be with him for eternity.”
• The devil thought he had blighted God’s noblest work. He had no idea of the mystery of godliness—the wonderful things that God had prepared for them that love him.
• God values redeemed ones more than the whole of the great stars or planets, or even the sun or moon.
• The whole world lieth in the Wicked One. Though pressure may come, Jesus has been victorious, and will get the victory again.
• He took our individual lives into his own. He died for me; each one of us can say: “I have been crucified with Christ.” Jesus has done it all; he sends his Pentecost for us.
• The heavens declare the glory of God. Jesus is far above all things; we are in him.
• The pictured heavens shall be rolled up like a vesture; but as long as Christ remains we shall remain. We are to be above the Milky Way and the stars.
• We are being molded by circumstances, “even by knocks, that we may be conformed to his image.”

Mrs. Hodges on the baptism.

It was in 1908, she told us, that she received her baptism in a drawing room at Croydon, when Mrs. Boddy and Miss Price were praying for her. She was very thankful for this blessing.

At one of the meetings during the London Convention she gave some simple directions as to how to receive the full baptism in the Holy Spirit with the sign of tongues. She illustrated it by describing the way she had helped four sisters some time before at Hereford.

1. The first question is: “Have you received the assurance that you are born from above?” This is most important. “Does the Spirit bear witness with your spirit as to the new birth, that you are really a child of God through faith in the atoning work of the Lord Jesus?”

2. You must seek it as a gift only. Not even because you are sanctified.

“Nothing in my hands I bring,
Simply to thy cross I cling.”

Take Jesus only as your Savior and the giver of this gift. We receive the baptism because we take Jesus for all we need.

It is the Spirit of the Son that we receive at the new birth, but when we come to the baptism in the Holy Spirit we receive the promise of the Father.

3. To receive the sign the spirit of praise is most necessary. She said to the four sisters at Hereford, “Just kneel down and receive the promise of the Father. Get your spiritual eyes on Jesus and praise him. You can say, ‘Glory to Jesus.’ Say it with your whole heart.” She added: “Don’t cover your eyes so much, but rather open your mouths and praise God. Now do you really receive the promise of the Father?” “Yes,” they replied; they truly received him. Very soon one of them actually saw the Lord Jesus, and soon all were speaking in the blessed tongue. The blessing of the baptism is Jesus himself coming in. Let us always keep our eyes on Jesus. Look to him for everything.

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