“God’s Will Shall Prevail in Our Lives”

AN Edmonton, Canada, publisher while attending the New York convention had an interesting experience while traveling on the bus to Plainfield. She was boarding the bus and had difficulty with her luggage and a gentleman of around sixty assisted her with the luggage. When they were seated in the bus they started to converse with each other and she learned that he was a Methodist who was a reader of the Bible and who had charge or supervision over a number of Sunday-school teachers. This is the letter she received when she got back from New York.

Dear Miss Johnson:

At this time I am reminded of a couple of lines from a hymn that we Methodists sing once in a while. It starts like this: ‘God works in a mysterious way His wonders to perform.’

Because I helped a young lady on the bus with her heavy suitcase and because on the ride from New York to Plainfield I engaged in conversation with her, and others of her faith, there seemed to come over me a rather uncomfortable unrest. As I told you, I was very much impressed by the wonderful outpouring of Witnesses from the four corners of the earth that I was convinced that there was something in your faith and belief that was real and vital. I do not say that I am yet ready to become one of you, but, believe me, some of the truths that you expounded, and the literature with which you provided me, have certainly opened up new vistas of thought for me.

I was very much impressed by your belief that the only thing we should pray for is that God’s will shall prevail in our lives. Strangely enough I never in my life prayed that way before, but this week that is all I have been praying for, that He will show me the way that He wants me to go. I told you I have had a personal problem, perplexing me for over two years. Well, now, that particular problem does not seem so great; I have never prayed so much as I have since the bus ride from New York, and I have so far come to the place where I feel that my position can best be expressed by the words of another hymn:

‘Have thine own way, Lord,

Have thine own way;

Thou art the Potter,

I am the clay.

Make me and mold me

After thy will,

While I am waiting

Yielding and still.’

So, Miss Johnson, from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you for your kindness to me. I am writing this letter because I want you to know that at least some of the seed that you sowed has fallen on fertile ground. I shall go to the Kingdom Hall here in Plainfield and learn more of your beliefs.

In closing may I say that I pray that God’s richest blessing may rest upon you in all that you do. Without being presumptuous, I would like to hear from you again.

Sincerely, [signed]

P.S. When I got on the bus, I had quite another kind of literature with me, but when I got off the bus in Plainfield I threw it in the trash can. Last night after a solo prayer, I threw away all my pipes and tobacco. God has taken from me the desire to smoke.