A REMARKABLE ANSWER TO PRAYER

Mr. Jay Gould once left his eastern home for a trip across the continent. In the western part of Texas the train he was traveling on was halted for a few hours at a little town to make needed repairs on the engine. Mr. Gould, to pass the time, walked up the village street, and found a sale going on, and the auctioneer calling out, "Fourteen hundred and seventy-five dollars." He inquired of a man what was being sold, and was told that it was a new church that the contracting builder had a claim on for the work. Mr. Gould, to help the sale, offered fifteen hundred dollars, which the auctioneer called a few times without a raise, and the church was sold to Mr. Gould at his bid.

Three gray-haired old men standing near watched the proceedings of the transfer and, going up to Mr. Gould, not knowing who he was asked him what he intended to do with the church he had just bought. "What is it to you what I do with it? It is mine now, to keep or to give away," said the millionaire. One of the men said: "This is what it is to us: We three men are trustees of that church house and were sent here to see and then report what disposal was made of it; and in the church, at this present moment, the entire congregation, with the presiding elders and preachers, are down on their knees before the God of Heaven, asking Him to Divinely interfere in some way to save our church, so that it may not be lost to us. That is what it is to our people."

Jay Gould gave the people their church.

The lesson is to never give up, stay in prayer, and have faith in God's care for His children.