Children’s Story

Children’s Story – The Wormy Puffball

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We stayed in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota several times during a summer, a few years ago, while my parents were helping at a ministry there. Once while were there, a lady from the ministry picked a nice big puffball for us to eat (a puffball is a type of mushroom).

After waiting a day or two, we decided to cook it. We arrived at the cabin where we were staying, eager to find out what a puffball tasted like.

A little after we arrived, Dad called me up to the cabin door. He held the cut-apart puffball in his hand. Lo and behold, the whole inside seemed to be squirming! It was full of little worms!

I was thinking of how that puffball can represent us. From the outside it looked normal and appetizing. Just so, we can look pretty good on the outside—do things for people, go to Sabbath School and church every week, and act pretty nice—and yet we can still be pretty ugly on the inside—full of jealousy, anger, and pride. If we look pleasant on the outside but are nasty on the inside, we aren’t really Christians (Christians are like Jesus, you know); we are just pretending. That’s called living a lie.

A few days ago, on Sabbath, while we were walking in the hills near our house here in North Dakota, we found some more big puffballs. We broke them open and discovered something interesting—the top parts were good, while the lower parts had worms in them. The little worms evidently enter at the root end!

The devil begins to enter our minds at the deep roots. If you and I aren’t guarding our minds with Jesus’ help, we may not really even notice him until he really has control over us so that our words and actions start getting ugly, too.

Only God can help us keep the devil’s ugliness out of our minds. “Submit ourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7

Why not ask Jesus now to show you where the devil might be sneaking into your life and to help you overcome him? “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139: 23, 24

The End

Children’s Story – The Runaway Horses

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Mr. and Mrs. Wallner moved to the state of Montana, where the government was offering property free to anyone who would settle on it and improve the land. They were required to fence the property, build on it, and put part of it into cultivation. So Mr. Wallner signed up for two sections of land—a total of 1280 acres. He was only allowed to homestead one section, but he had to pay for the other one, which he did.  He had no tractor or other locomotive equipment, for in those days farming was done with horses. He had several good teams, but one was especially strong and high spirited. They were a beautiful team of dapple gray horses. They loved to work and to run. Their names were Pete and Vick.

The Wallners lived quite a distance from any city, but there was a little store and post office about 15 miles away. The store keeper and the post master were the same person, and both businesses were in his home.

One day Mrs. Wallner hitched up Pete and Vick to the spring wagon. She bundled up her one year old boy and together they set off for the little store. After she had done her business she started back home. On her way she stopped in to see the neighbors who lived about two miles from her home.

The neighbor, Mr. Huff, warned, “Watch out, those horses are acting very nervous.” Mrs. Wallner said, “Oh, I can handle them.”

But when she got over the hill and in the site of home she found out the horses were indeed too much to handle. When Pete and Vick saw the barn, they left the road and started in a beeline across the sage brush for the barn at full speed. The wagon bobbed up and down, up and down, over rocks, sage brush, and dirt mounds.

Mrs. Wallner realizing that the wagon might turn over at any moment, and that it might cost the life of her baby as well as her own, she decided to pick up the baby and jump out of the wagon.
But just as she was in the process of picking him up, the wagon hit a huge rock and bounced into the air; she was thrown out and the baby was left in the wagon. Sitting there in the sage brush she offered an earnest prayer to her Heavenly Father and said, “Oh! Lord save my baby.” In an instant, the wagon became detached from the horses and it came to a stop. Of course, the horses kept running to the barn.

She thanked her Savior, and quickly went to see what happened. First of all she found her baby safe in the wagon. She also found that the bolt that connected the double tree to the wagon tongue, had been pulled out. She knew this was virtually impossible for the bolt was ten inches long, an inch in diameter, and had a large nut on it; but there it lay on the ground.

Although she never saw the angel, she was sure that the baby’s guardian angel had saved his life.

The End

Children’s Story – Rowena and the Pills

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Mr. and Mrs. Woods were a very fine young couple. One day Jesus gave them a lovely baby girl to make their home even happier than it was. Of course, they had to think of a name for this sweet little member of their family. Thus her name became Rowena.

Rowena was a sweet cuddly little baby, and she grew very fast. Time slipped by very rapidly for Rowena’s mother and father, as they were very busy people. Almost before they could realized it, their little child was three years old.

Well, one day the Woods family had to move. This was a big job for mommy and daddy, but Rowena just thought it was great fun. Things were scattered around and she could get into everything. She loved seeing what was in this box and that box. Moving turned out to be a great adventure for little her.

Especially was it fun when they got to their new home. For it had a stair way and upstairs rooms to investigate. Rowena had fun running up and down the stairs. But there was one room upstairs that Daddy had hooked shut, thinking that it was safe to lock out a little three year old girl, who was having fun getting settled in her new home.

The locked room was the room Daddy and Mommy were using for storage of the things that they were not needing at the present time. As mommy was cleaning up her kitchen she had a box of medications that were more in the way than they were useful, so she set them up on top of the refrigerator for a while. Then she decided that was not a good place, and since she was not using any of them, she decided to put them in the store room upstairs. That would be plenty safe, as the door was locked with a hook.

Little did Mommy know how clever their little three year old daughter was. One day when mother was very busy she paused for a moment and thought, “I wonder where Rowena is. She is so quiet and I haven’t seen her for a little while.” She called Rowena, but no answer. Mother began looking, never thinking that Rowena could get the locked door open. But mother went up the stairs, and there was Rowena in the store room.

Not only was she in the store room, but she had found the box of medications, and had consumed a whole bottle of carters little liver pills and a bottle of ionized yeast. Well, Rowena was already a very sick little girl lying on the floor.

Poor Mother, what was she to do? She had no car, as daddy had taken the car to work. She called a neighbor, who, as soon as possible, got in touch with Rowena’s daddy. He came home very quickly and rushed Rowena to the hospital. By the time she arrived there, she was unconscious.

The doctor and nurses began working on her immediately. They took a long rubber tube and put it down her nose, into her stomach and pumped out everything that was in there. They found the remains of the pills that Rowena had swallowed. The doctor shook his head and said that they did not think it would be possible to save Rowena’s life.

Mother called the minister of the local Seventh-day Adventist church, who came over to the hospital. When he saw little Rowena he too, realized that only God could save her life, so he anointed her with a little oil. He and the doctor with her parents knelt beside her bed and prayed that Jesus would heal little Rowena.

Jesus did heal her, but it took her a long time to get strong again. She had to learn to walk and talk all over again.

Is not Jesus wonderful? He loves the little children, and even when they make mistakes He wants to help them. But, it would have been better if she had not eaten those pills!

The End

Children’s Story – Dearer to Her Than Life

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“And it came to pass, that, as He (Jesus) was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, one of His disciples said unto Him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And He said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father …” 

Luke 11:1, 2

If I call someone “Father” that means I am the child, and in the Bible God tells children how they are to be towards their parents. Exodus 20:12 says, “Honour thy father and thy mother,” and the Lord says through Paul, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right” (Ephesians 6:1).

Jesus tells us, through His child Ellen White, “But if you call God your Father you acknowledge yourselves His children, to be guided by His wisdom and to be obedient in all things, knowing that His love is changeless. You will accept His plan for your life. As children of God, you will hold His honor, His character, His family, His work, as the objects of your highest interest. It will be your joy to recognize and honor your relation to your Father and to every member of His family. You will rejoice to do any act, however humble, that will tend to His glory or to the well-being of your kindred.” Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 105, 106.

Margaret lived in Scotland in the sixteenth century when Covenanters, followers of Christ through His servant John Knox, were thrown into prison, and many were martyred for their faith. Margaret was a Covenanter who ended up in jail for nothing more than belief in the Scriptures.

There she became friends with Mrs. Lauchlison, a fellow Covenanter who insisted on obeying Scripture rather than the king’s religion. The two encouraged one another in their cell, quoting Bible verses and praying for strength to endure to the end.

The day came when soldiers tied the hands of Mrs. Lauchlison and led her away to her execution. “Let me go too!” Margaret begged. Guarded by soldiers, she walked beside her friend to the beach where a wooden stake already stood at the water’s edge. Margaret watched as they bound her friend to the wooden pole. She stared as the tide came in, slowly raising the water level about the woman tied to the stake. Each wave brought the water higher about her body.

“What has the old woman done?” someone cried out of the crowd.

“She was found on her knees in prayer,” a guard answered.

As Margaret kept staring at her friend, the old woman’s wrinkled face seemed aglow with heavenly light. Margaret strained to catch her words above the crash of the waves. “I have promised to obey Thee, heavenly Father. Help me now when I am tested.”

The faint strains of a hymn sounded above the pounding waves. Margaret watched as they washed over the old woman’s head. “Lord, help me to be as faithful to Your word,” she breathed a silent prayer of commitment.

The next day Margaret was the one tied to the stake. As the tide came in, she recited Romans 8:31–39: “If God be for us, who can be against us? Who can divide us from the love of Christ? … For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Margaret and her friend Mrs. Lauchlison both honored their Father in heaven. To do anything different than they did would have been to dishonor, disobey and deny Him. Though their obedience to their heavenly Father cost them their lives on this earth, they are simply sleeping in their temporary beds until the great waking up morning, when their Saviour and Lord will awaken them to the joys of eternal life.

Pray that each one of us will make the same commitment to our heavenly Father that Margaret and Mrs. Lauchlison made, to be faithful no matter the cost. Then we also, on that great waking up morning when Jesus returns, will be with our Father and His only begotten Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ, for eternity.

Children’s Story – The Christian Dog

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Born a Jewish lad in Bavaria, Germany, in 1796, Joseph Wolff, at the age of thirteen, embraced the Christian faith and was cast out by his family. Always seeking knowledge, he became one of the most learned men of his time. Not only did he have a knowledge of twenty-seven languages, in addition to many dialects, but he was a scholar in the sacred literature of Jews, Mohammedans, and Christians.

In 1831, the same year that William Miller began to preach, Joseph Wolff set out for a journey to Bokhara in the heart of Asia. It was very wild country, with a savage king. When they were about half way to Bokhara, his companions came to him and said: “Hadji Wolff [hadji means holy man], we are now coming to a very dangerous city, the city of Burchund. They will never allow a Christian within its walls. If they discover one, they will put him to death. Yet we must pass through Burchund to go to Bokhara.”

They decided that they would time their arrival to enter the city just as the gates were closing at sundown. If they were careful, they believed that they could stay at an inn, leaving in the morning as soon as the gates opened without attracting any attention.

The next morning they left the city without incident, believing that they had safely passed the city and that all danger was past; but this was not the case. Though Wolff had kept in the background, though he was dressed like all of those around him and could speak the language, there is something that Christians cannot hide; in their language and actions, they are like Jesus.

Someone suspected Wolff; and after he had left, this person went to the ameer, the ruler of the city, and told him: “Do you know that there was a Christian dog within the city of Burchund this night? He is on his way to Bokhara, and has left unpunished.”

The ameer immediately sent armed horsemen to bring Joseph back. By the end of the day, they had overtaken Wolff. Dragging him from his horse, they forced him to walk all of the way back to Burchund. When they arrived, Wolff, bruised and worn, was given no rest. The ameer called his counselors around him in his council chamber. They brought Wolff in, and standing him before them, began asking questions.

“What is your name?”

“It is Joseph Wolff.”

“Where do you come from?”

“I come from the great kingdom of England.”

“How far is that?”

“In a direct line, through Constantinople and then by land, it is seven thousand miles; but as I have come, it is fifteen thousand miles.”

“And where do you go?”

“I go to the kingdom and city of Bokhara.”

“For what purpose?”

“I go to find my people, the Jews, and to carry to them the glorious message of a soon-coming Saviour, even Jesus Christ the mighty, Who shall bring judgment to the good and the evil and restore all things in perfectness, as at the beginning.”

The ameer, astonished that anyone would confess Christ when such a confession meant death, exclaimed in amazement, “You are a Christian, then?”

Wolf replied, “I am a humble follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Still more amazed, the ameer asked, “Why do you mind what they believe in Bokhara? Why do you not stay at home with your family, eat, drink, and be merry?”

To this Wolff replied, quoting first a Mohammedan poet: “Sadi says, ‘The world, O brother, remains not to anyone. Fix therefore thy heart on the Creator of the world, and it shall be well with thee.’ I have found out by the reading of this Book, and he held out his Bible, that one can bind one’s heart to God only by believing in Jesus; and believing this, I am like one who walks in a beautiful garden and smells the odor of the roses and hears the warbling of the nightingales; and I do not like to be the only one so happy. Therefore I go about the world inviting others to walk with me arm in arm in that same beautiful garden.”

When they heard this, all the room rose as one man, clapping their hands and crying, “A holy man! A holy man! Drunk with the love of God! Sit down! Read to us from your Book.”

Suddenly, by the wisdom of the reply that God had given him, Wolff’s state was changed from that of a prisoner about to be condemned to death as a “Christian dog,” to that of an honored guest.

Wolff opened his Bible to Isaiah and to the Gospels and read to them the prophecies and stories of Jesus: how He was born a babe in Bethlehem while the shepherds watched and the angels sang; how as He grew up He went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; how wicked men took Him and slew Him upon the cross on Calvary, but God raised Him from the dead on the third day; how He ascended to heaven, where He now sits on the right hand of the throne of God, soon to come as a glorious King and bring his reward to the faithful and His judgment to the wicked. At last, overcome with weariness, he could go on no longer.

They then asked him if he had any more Books like the one from which he was reading. “Oh, yes,” Wolff replied, “I have many of them.” He sent his servant, who returned with armloads of books. Wolff gave a Bible to all of the men in the room, who were, perhaps, the only men in the whole city who could read.

They then said to him, “Hadji, Wolff, you cannot leave us now. You must stay with us and teach us.” For two whole weeks Wolff stayed with them and taught them. When at last he said that he must go on his journey, they brought him in honor to the gate of their city, the ameer and all of his chief men accompanying him, to bid him farewell. They loaded him with gifts; and as he departed they cried; “God go with you! Allah be with you, Hadji Wolff. You came to us. We thought that you were an enemy, but God has shown us that you are our friend; for you are a man who is drunk with the love of God!”

Children’s Story – Gilpin’s Broken Ankle

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During the early days of the Reformation in England, toward the close of Queen Mary’s reign, Bernard Gilpin, a Reformed pastor, lived in northern England. Brother Gilpin was deeply loved by the poor villagers to whom he ministered; and from them, he had received the title, “Apostle of the North.”

One of Bernard’s favorite Bible texts, and one he used to inspire everyone he knew with hope and courage, was Romans 8:28, which says, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His promise.” Whatever came, whether good or bad, his word was always the same, “Ah, well, God’s will be done; all is for the best.”

Queen Mary was a bitter enemy of Protestantism; and during her reign, many people lost their lives for accepting the Reformed faith. One day, as Mr. Gilpin was deep into his study of the Bible, there was a knock on his door. A detachment of soldiers had been sent by the queen to arrest him for heresy. He was to be taken to London, there to be charged with treason and given the typical mock trial that all received who were suspected of heresy. While Gilpin was preparing to go with the soldiers, the word of his arrest spread rapidly. Soon a large group of villagers had gathered to mourn the loss of their pastor and to bid him farewell. As he was preparing to leave them, nothing doubting that he would soon die at the martyr’s stake, Brother Gilpin tried to encourage them with the words, “God’s will be done; all is for the best.”

Near sunset on the second day of horseback riding, the soldiers and Gilpin arrived at a small village. The captain inquired about an inn in which to spend the night. As they dismounted, Gilpin fell. This so excited his horse that it bolted down the cobblestone street, dragging Gilpin behind.

When one of the soldiers finally stopped the horse and Gilpin tried to stand on his feet, a sharp pain raced up his leg. Closer examination revealed a bloody and broken ankle, as well as some other severe cuts and scrapes. Badly injured, He had to be carried into the inn by three other men.

The captain was furious. He knew that this meant a delay in their traveling. The next morning he sent all of the men ahead to report the unfortunate accident to his commander, while he remained with the prisoner. Turning to Gilpin, the captain angrily said, “I suppose that you are going to tell me that this is all for the best?”

“Sir, I make no question that it is,” Gilpin meekly replied. The rough captain laughed as he looked at the man who was soon going to lose his life for preaching against the established religion of England.

“I suppose you believe,” the captain continued, “that everything worked out well for your friends Latimer and Ridley when her royal highness burned them at the stake.” Before Gilpin could reply, the unfriendly captain continued, “and what about the Archbishop of Canterbury? You cannot tell me that he felt that when she ordered him to give his life that he was happy about it.”

A little more than two weeks passed in the little inn as the captain kept up his unrelenting attack on Gilpin’s confidence that God was going to work out things for his best good. The captain did not do all of the talking, however, and there can be little doubt that in listening to the patient answers of the quiet man of God, the rough captain’s heart was touched.

Just prior to the day that it had been determined that Gilpin’s condition had improved sufficiently so that he could make the trip to London to face trial and certain death, the town crier came past the inn announcing that Mary had died and that Elizabeth now reigned in her place. Elizabeth was a Protestant; and the captain, realizing that it would be futile to take Gilpin any farther, released him on the spot.

The Protestant Reformer returned to his flock, and the captain to his duty in London. Even though their backgrounds and beliefs were as different as night and day, there was one thing that they both knew to be true; and that is that, “All things work together for good to them that love God,” even to the breaking of an ankle.

Children’s Story – The Relief of Leyden

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The armies of Spain and the Inquisition were seeking to subdue Holland. The city of Leyden was filled with many people trying to escape the advancing papal armies. In fact, so many people had fled to the city for safety that there were now three times the number of people than those who actually lived there. There was not enough food to feed them all; and after having held out against the Spaniards for three months, they were threatened with starvation. In order to send relief and food to the starving city, William of Orange decided upon a desperate plan.

Much of Holland is land that is actually lower than the sea that surrounds the small country. The seawater is kept out by a wall, or series of dikes. William determined to break a hole in the dikes, allowing seawater to flood in over the land. According to his plan, he was then going to send a flotilla of flat-bottomed relief ships, armed with guns and filled with supplies, to assist the besieged city of Leyden.

An opening was made in the dike; but that year strong, northeasterly winds blew longer than usual, beating back the waters. Only a few inches of seawater flooded in over the land, not nearly enough to float the boats with the supplies. The Spanish, who had at first been terrified at the prospect of being flooded by the ocean, began to ridicule the efforts to rescue the starving people of Leyden. Their taunts, however, were heard by One whose hand holds the oceans.

For seven weeks there had been not a piece of bread in Leyden. The suffering from hunger was terrible. Already thousands had died when, on the first of October, the wind gave evidence of shifting and a gale began to blow in from the northwest. After blowing for some hours, it again changed directions, coming with increased fury from the southwest. The strength of the winds heaped up the waters of the ocean upon the coast of Holland and, like loosed from its fetters, it came surging through the broken dikes. At midnight on the second of October, Admiral Boisot’s flotilla was afloat and making its way to Leyden.

Boisot’s fleet advanced to within two miles of the walls of Leyden; but here, at about a mile distance from the city, was a strong Spanish garrison, called Lammen, blocking the way. The admiral realized that the fort was above water and of great strength, and he hesitated to attack it. The citizens in Leyden saw the fleet behind the fort and understood the difficulty preventing the relief supplies from arriving. By means of a carrier pigeon, it was arranged that the following morning, the people from inside Leyden would attack the Spanish fort from one side, while the ships would attack from the other.

Night fell again, and it was blacker than usual. About midnight, a terrible crash was heard. A short time later, a strange sight appeared. A line of lights was seen to be coming out of Lammen and moving through the darkness away from the fort. All waited for the coming of day to explain what was happening.

At last dawn broke, and it was seen that a large portion of the city walls of Leyden had fallen over during the night. This was what had caused the noise. Had the Spanish realized what had taken place, they might have rushed into the city and massacred the inhabitants; but instead of this, they imagined the terrible sound to be the enemy rushing to attack them, so, lighting their torches and lanterns, they fled when no man pursued. Instead of opening fire on the fort, Boisot sailed under the silent guns of the now empty fort and entered the city of Leyden.

The citizens of Leyden, along with the sailors of Admiral Boisot’s fleet, sang a hymn of thanksgiving and praise, though few were able to continue singing until the end because of the tears of gratitude that were shed.

The miracle of the sea did not end here, for yet another miracle was to reveal the providence of God. The whole fast plain from Rotterdam to Leyden was now underwater. It was expected that many, many hours of labor would be required to recover the fertile and beautiful land, now so sorely marred! The very next day, however, the wind shifted to the northeast and, blowing with great violence, it steadily pushed the waters back out to sea, laying bare the land behind. He Who had brought up the ocean upon Holland with His mighty hand, rolled it back.

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Children’s Story – Rescue At Sea

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In the days of sailing vessels, a Moravian missionary who had been serving in Jamaica, along with his wife and their small daughter, set sail for Mississippi. As it was a trip of only a few days, the ship carried very few provisions. They had not gone far, however, when a storm arose and drove them far from their course. The storm was followed by a dead calm that settled down, making it impossible to sail.

As the days lengthened into weeks, their food and water was almost gone. Each day everyone was given a small biscuit to eat and half a pint of water to drink. Under the hot tropical sun, this was not nearly enough water, and the suffering from thirst became almost more than words can describe. The passengers’ tongues became so swollen from thirst that they could hardly close their mouths.Though they had offered many prayers for help, the day came when the supply of food was nearly gone. The missionary’s wife decided to spend the entire night in prayer, asking God to send someone to help them. Early the next morning, she finally fell asleep. Not long after she fell asleep, she was awakened by her husband’s voice.

“My dear,” he said, “we think we see a sail. I would not disappoint you, but if it is God’s will for us, it will come to our relief.”

As quickly as possible, they made their way up on to the deck. The distant ship was still too far away to be seen by the naked eye, but the passengers took turns looking through the ship’s spyglass. It certainly looked as if it were a ship. Yes; now they were sure it was a ship, but would it come their way. They had seen ships far in the distance before, but each time the ship had passed out of sight without having seen them.

But this ship was coming nearer and nearer. Soon they could see it with the naked eye. Still it kept coming closer until it came close enough that a small boat was let down and four men, one of them evidently the captain, stepped into it and came across to where the stricken vessel sat floating in the water.The captain was the first to come aboard. When he saw their desperate condition, he lifted his hat and solemnly said:

“Now I believe that there is a God in heaven!”

The ship that had rescued them proved to be one of the small steamers that towed sailing vessels into the harbor. By the rules that then bound them, they were only allowed to go a certain distance out of port to look for vessels needing their assistance. Following is the strange story that the captain told.One day after he had gone the full limit, he felt unaccountably impelled to go still farther, although there was not a vessel in sight. His mate remonstrated with him, reminding him of the fine to which he was subject if he continued on beyond the range that was permitted.

“I cannot help it! I have to go on!” was his only reply.

By and by the captain became desperately seasick, something that he had not experienced in twenty years. He became so sick that he was forced to take to his berth, yet he refused to turn back. The crew finally mutinied, for they were now growing short on provision. Thinking their captain had lost his senses, they determined to take things into their own hands and return home with the ship. At this point, the captain became so distressed that he begged them to go on, promising them that if they saw nothing to justify his action by sunrise the next morning, he would give up and promptly return home. The men reluctantly agreed to continue on through the night. When the day dawned, the man at the masthead reported a black, motionless object far out to sea.”Make for it!” exclaimed the captain, emphatically. “That is what we have come after.”

At that instant, the seasickness left him; and he took the post of command. On reaching the ship with the missionaries and seeing their terrible condition, although he had been an infidel for many years, the conviction came to him with overwhelming power that he had been supernaturally guided and that there was a God in heaven. Later, when he learned of how the feeble missionary mother had spent the entire night in prayer, he became fully convinced that He was also a prayer-hearing and prayer-answering God.

This is a modern illustration of the fact that God “delivereth and rescueth, and He worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth.” Daniel 6:27

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Children’s Story – Hurricanes and Shredded Sails

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You have all heard the story of Jonah and how the prophet of the Lord tried to run away from doing the job that God had given him to do in warning Nineveh. Our story this time is about a missionary and how God again directed a ship by a great storm. This time, however, God used the storm to take a man to a place where people had been praying for missionaries to come.

In 1786, a party of Methodist missionaries sailed from England on their way to Nova Scotia in Canada. There was already some mission work going on in the area, and these missionaries were going there to help strengthen the mission work that was already begun. They set sail from England on September 24. Their progress was very slow; for week after week, they found themselves being buffeted by storms. The seas were rough and the winds blew hard. Two months later, on December 4, they were finally approaching Newfoundland, but still seemed unable to complete their crossing of the Atlantic Ocean.

About this time, Dr. Coke, the leader of the mission party, received a very strong impression that they were going to be driven to the West Indies. This was a very strange thing, as they were even then getting very close to Newfoundland, and the West Indies were thousands of miles away.

Because of the contrary winds, it was becoming almost impossible for the captain to hold his course. He became convinced that somehow the missionaries were responsible for his trouble. Crying out that there was a Jonah on board, he threw many of Dr. Coke’s books and papers overboard and even threatened to throw the doctor himself over.

At ten in the evening, a dreadful gale blew from the northwest. Mr. Hilditch, one of the passengers, came running to Dr. Coke, crying, “Pray for us, Doctor, pray for us, for we are just gone!” Coming out of his cabin, Dr. Coke learned that a dreadful hurricane had just arisen. The crew, being taken by surprise, had not had time to take down the sails and expecting that at any moment the ship would be filled with water and sink, in desperation were about to cut the mast down. Once the mast and sail had been cut down the ship would no longer be able to travel with the wind and would float helplessly on the sea.

After meeting for prayer, the missionaries sang a hymn together. Just at that moment, the foresail shredded to pieces, allowing the crew to save the mast, and probably the ship itself.

The captain decided to head across the Atlantic for the West Indies, the very place that Dr. Coke had felt impressed they were to go. The half-wrecked ship landed at Antigua in the West Indies on Christmas day. On this Island, two thousand miles from their intended destination, the Methodist missionaries found a shipwright [a carpenter who works on building and repairing ships] preacher by the name of Baxter, who had been working with the Black slaves of the island. Through his labors, more than two thousand had been converted to the gospel. These faithful people had been praying that God would send them missionaries!

Dr. Coke clearly understood God’s providence to have directed them to these islands to work for the people there, and he determined to make it his place of labor. He saw in their experience the “stormy wind fulfilling His Word” (see Psalm 148:8) in sending messengers of light across the seas. These missionaries were almost the first ray of light to have come to the slave population of these dark islands.

Dr. Coke was the agent used of God to plant the light of truth among the slaves of the West Indies. During his lifetime, he crossed and recrossed the Atlantic Ocean a number of times. Finally, in his old age on his way to start a mission on Ceylon, an island country not far from the coast of India, he died aboard a ship and was buried at sea.

Children’s Story – Prayer for the Pirates

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In the days of sailing vessels, a party of Moravian missionaries was sailing toward St. Thomas in the West Indies. The ship on which they were sailing was called the Britannia. In those days, the southern seas were full of pirates; and one day a pirate ship was seen rapidly approaching the Britannia. Though poorly equipped for defense, all hands on the Britannia were called to prepare to resist the pirates. The Moravian missionaries, however, retired to their cabin. There they began praying for God to intervene and to not only spare human life, but to make it possible for them to continue on their trip so that they could carry the gospel message to a dark and waiting land.

The pirate ship continued to draw closer until it was within gunshot range of the Britannia; and then, from its many cannons, it began to pour out a heavy fire. As the ships came closer together, the men along the pirate ship’s deck next prepared themselves to board the Britannia. In order to do this; they would throw large metal hooks attached to ropes onto the deck of the ship they wanted to board. As soon as the hooks, called grappling irons, fastened themselves to something, they would quickly pull themselves across to the ship on the ropes. Just at the moment the pirates their grappling irons across toward the Britannia, their own ship was suddenly tossed violently by the waves and the men who held the ropes were thrown headlong into the sea.

Irritated with this disaster, the pirate captain sent others to take the place of the fallen men. When they also tried to board the Britannia, the same thing happened to them. Seeing that he could not succeed in this manner, the captain ordered his guns to fire again; but, strange to say, the balls all missed the Britannia, falling harmlessly into the sea. The smoke of the frequent firing of the guns was, however, very dense and hung about the vessels for quite some time, hiding them from each other’s view. When at last a gust of wind cleared away the smoke, to the amazement of the pirate captain, the Britannia was seen to be far away with all of her sails set, speeding rapidly away from him. The pirates gave up the chase as hopeless; feeling completely frustrated by their failure to capture the ship on which the missionaries were sailing.

For five years after their arrival, the missionaries continued to faithfully preach the gospel in St. Thomas. On the fifth anniversary of their narrow escape, they, along with the other brethren on the island, assembled together to celebrate. As they were sitting together, word was brought that a stranger wished to speak to them. At their permission, a tall, fine-looking man with a pleasant expression on his face entered. He asked if they were the missionaries who had come to the island in the Britannia five years before.

“We are,” replied the brother whom he addressed.

“And were you attacked upon the sea by pirates?” asked the stranger.

“Yes, replied the brother, “but why are you asking these questions?”

“Because,” answered the stranger, “I am the captain who commanded the pirate ship that attacked you. The miraculous way in which your ship escaped was the reason for my own salvation from the power of sin through faith in Christ.”

The stranger then proceeded to tell them how, on making inquiry, he was led to conclude that it was through the prayers of the missionaries that the Britannia escaped. As a result, he was determined to visit their place of worship. Finding a Moravian mission, he was there converted from the error of his ways.

“And thus,” he concluded, “from a pirate captain I am become a poor sinner, justified by the grace and mercy of Christ. My hope has been that I might some day be able to find you and tell you of my miraculous conversion. This joy has now been granted me today.”