Short Stories » The Power of Prayer

The Power of Prayer

WE have the promise of the heavenly Father that "the prayer of faith shall save the sick."

Where children are taught this from infancy, they are more sure to have faith than are those who are converted to religion later in life. An incident came to my hearing lately which I will relate.

A member of our ward is absent on a mission in Norway. After many months of travel and preaching, he became sick with a fever, and was taken to a hospital instead of to his friends. He sent a cablegram to his family informing them of his extreme sickness. This gave the hospital authorities knowledge of his being a Mormon, and they carried him out of the building and left him in the street. It took the sick man five hours to crawl half a mile to the house of a friend, where he was kindly cared for, but he rapidly grew worse from the effects of the harsh treatment and exposure he had endured.

When the cable message reached his family in Utah, they gathered together in solemn prayer in behalf of the sick husband and father.

The mother was a member of a Primary Association, and when the meeting was held, they made the far-off missionary the subject of prayer, all repeating in unison the words of the speaker. In due time a letter came stating that on a certain afternoon he began to recover, and next day resumed his travel on foot and preaching.

Upon comparing dates it was proven that his restoration began upon the very day of their united petitions in his behalf.

The ministering angels, with healing and blessing, had sped swifter than the winds, and God had fulfilled his promise to the prayer of faith of the little ones at home.