JOHN HYDE
1865-1912, Missionary to India
It was to the Punjab that the son of
an Illinois Presbyterian minister, John Nelson Hyde, felt led to begin his
lifetime of missionary endeavor. At the time of his posting, he was one of only
five missionaries in a territory holding nearly one million non-Christians.
Progress was slow, but measured. In a letter to his seminary after his first
year in India, Hyde wrote:
Yesterday eight low-caste persons
were baptized at one of the villages. It seems a work of God in which man, even
as an instrument, was used in a very small degree. Pray for us. I learn to
speak the language very, very slowly: can only talk a little in public or in
conversation.”
Hyde's inability to master the
complex native languages was due in no small degree to his partial deafness. To
the dismay of mission authorities, he devoted most of his time to Bible rather
than language study, displaying the withdrawn intensity of a visionary rather
than the engaging demeanor of the traditional missionary. In time, however,
Hyde gained a certain fluency, though he never lost his zeal for Scripture.
With periods of outright persecution by natives, and few, if any conversions,
Hyde began leading his fellow missionaries in intercession for India. So deep
was his call to prayer that by 1899 he began spending entire nights face down
before God. In a letter to his college he wrote:
Have felt led to pray for others
this winter as never before. I never before knew what it was to work all day
and then pray all night before God for another… In college or at parties at
home, I used to keep such hours for myself, or pleasure, and can I not do as
much for God and souls?”
In 1904, Indian Christians and
western missionaries gathered for the first of an annual series of conventions
at Sialkot in what is today Pakistan. To support this time of spiritual
renewal, John Hyde and his friends formed the Punjab Prayer Union, setting
aside half an hour each day to pray for revival. The results of their prayers
were plainly seen at the Sialkot Convention as a special anointing fell upon
those gathered. Year by year the prayer union fasted and prayed, and at each
convention a growing urgency for evangelism and intercession filled each
attendee. John Hyde emerged as the prayer leader, and all were amazed at both
the depth of his spiritual insight, and the ferocity of his burden for India.
By 1908, John Hyde dared to pray
what was to many at the convention an impossible request: that during the
coming year in India one soul would be saved every day. Three hundred sixty
five people converted, baptized, and publicly confessing Jesus as their Savior.
Impossible -- yet it happened. Before the next convention John Hyde had prayed
more than 400 people into God's kingdom, and when the prayer union gathered
again, he doubled his goal to two souls a day. Eight hundred conversions were
recorded that year, and still Hyde showed an unquenchable passion for lost
souls.
At the 1910 convention, those around
Hyde marveled at his faith, as they witnessed his near violent supplications,
"Give me souls, oh God, or I die!" Before the meeting ended, John
Hyde revealed that he was again doubling his goal for the coming year. Four
souls a day, and nothing less. During the next twelve months John Hyde's
ministry took him throughout India. By now he was known as "Praying
Hyde," and his intercession was sought at revivals in Calcutta, Bombay,
and other large cities. If on any day four people were not converted, Hyde said
at night there would be such a weight on his heart he could not eat or sleep
until he had prayed through to victory. The number of new converts continually
grew.
It was in Calcutta that friends persuaded
Hyde to see a doctor about his rapidly deteriorating health. The years of
travail had obviously taken a toll. Yet no one expected the medical examiner's
incredible diagnosis. John Hyde's heart had shifted out of its natural position
on the left side of his chest to a place over on the right. It was unlike
anything the doctor had seen before, and he warned Hyde that unless he got
complete rest he would be dead in six months.
In fact, Praying Hyde lived for
nearly two more years, long enough to see a wave of revival sweep through the
Punjab and the rest of India -- and long enough to have his own personal vision
enlarged. Before he died, he shared what God had shown him:
On the day of prayer, God gave me a
new experience. I seemed to be away above our conflict here in the Punjab and I
saw God's great battle in all India, and then away out beyond in China, Japan,
and Africa. I saw how we had been thinking in narrow circles of our own
countries and in our own denominations, and how God was now rapidly joining
force to force and line to line, and all was beginning to be one great
struggle. That, to me, means the great triumph of Christ. We must exercise the
greatest care to be utterly obedient to Him who sees all the battlefield all
the time. It is only He who can put each man in the place where his life can
count for the most.
This site is very useful for everyone. I have found lot of stuff here, which is very interesting, but don't forget to check my website. We have amazing jackets and coats. All products are available at discounted price. We have limited stock. Order your favorite ones now. Pennyworth Thomas Wayne Blue Blazer
ReplyDelete