PRAYING HYDE: A LIFE WHOLLY GIVEN TO INTERCESSION

He was called Praying Hyde because he prayed with such reality that it seemed as if he could not be denied. His very name became a testimony to the power of prevailing prayer. Hyde made prayer not a part of life but the whole of life. He lived in constant communion with God, and nothing else mattered more. The passion of his soul was for souls. He could not rest while men were without Christ, for eternity pressed upon him every day. He lived in the secret place of prayer, and from it he went forth clothed with power. His hidden hours alone with God were the source of his visible strength. Hyde had one great object in life, the salvation of souls. All else was secondary, and every decision was measured against this holy aim. The burden of India's millions weighed on him until he could scarcely eat or sleep without groaning for them in prayer. His body weakened, but his spirit prevailed. He was not a man of many words, but he was a man of one passion, the passion of prayer. In silence he carried a nation before God. The keynote of Hyde's life was intercession, and he taught it more by living than by speaking. His life itself was a sermon on prayer. Prayer was to him more than breathing, more than food, more than sleep. It was the atmosphere of his existence. His life was one continuous cry for revival. From the hidden place of prayer he released a river that watered the land. THE SECRET OF THE SIALKOT REVIVAL The Punjab was visited with revival. Hyde's prayers had brought down showers of blessing that no human effort could explain. Revival followed him wherever he went, for he lived in prayer. His very presence carried the fragrance of intercession. Hyde could not preach much, but he could pray down revival. The power of his life was not in eloquence but in his communion with God. It was not Hyde's eloquence that stirred the Punjab, but his tears and his agonizing in prayer. His sermons were his groans before the throne. During the Sialkot Conventions, it became a proverb: Hyde is praying, therefore blessing will fall. Men trembled when they knew he was on his knees. He carried revival with him into the smallest prayer meeting and into the largest convention. Wherever he prayed, heaven opened. Those who knelt with him in prayer rose broken, melted, and filled with the spirit of revival. His intercession was contagious and irresistible. Men said, The Punjab has been changed through this man's prayers. His name became a testimony to what God can do through a single life wholly surrendered. Hyde was God's channel to turn a dry land into a place of springs. Where once there was barrenness, living waters began to flow. The secret of the Sialkot revival was the secret prayer chamber of John Hyde. The hidden wrestling of one man with God birthed a movement that shook nations. PRAYING HYDE: LETTERS OF A LIFE POURED OUT IN INTERCESSION Yesterday eight low-caste persons were baptized in one of the villages. It was clearly the work of God, in which man, even as an instrument, was scarcely used at all. Pray for us. I am learning the language very slowly, and can speak only a little in public or in private conversation. For my classmates I pray constantly. Will not some of you come out this year to share in the work? Pray in faith for immediate blessings in India. God's power is not delayed when His people pray believingly. I prayed, Enlarge my border, with temporal things in mind and with hope for wider work. The answer came in the form of illness that limited strength and effort, keeping me from labor for months. Yet in the waiting came enlargement of soul. The lesson pressed home was, Not my will but Thine be done. Spiritual increase came through physical straitening. Will you not seek God's face in prayer for India and for me, that my health may be precious in His sight? The land is so exhausting, and I long to remain here in His service. This winter I have been led to pray for others as never before. I never knew what it was to labor all day and then pray all night before God for another soul until now. In college or at parties at home, I used to keep such hours for my own pleasure. Can I not give as much to God for souls as I once gave to vanity? It is praying for others, not so much for ourselves, that brings down the blessing. Heaven moves when love intercedes for another. Prayer seems to be my whole life. There is so much to pray for, and I long to spend my entire life before God in intercession. Oh, the need of souls. It drives me to prayer night and day. I cannot rest while they are perishing.