“I got out my Bible, and the thought came over me, ’Here is a man who labored and talked a hundred years, and didn’t succeed; didn’t get a convert notwithstanding all his efforts, all his prayers, but he didn’t get discouraged.’

“But he took God at his word; he worked right on; he prayed right on; and he waited God’s time.  And, my friends, from that time, I have never been discouraged.  Whenever I think of him, it lifts me up out of the darkness into the light.  Don’t get discouraged.”

The lesson of Noah’s life is briefly this:  He never converted a soul outside of his own family.  That was the work God gave him to do, and he prayed and waited and worked, and never gave up, and he was saved and all his family with him.

So every Christian must recognize that his field is not far off, but right around him, in his house, among his friends, working, praying, waiting, but never getting discouraged.  The Lord will never fail those who “abide in Him.”

SAMUEL HICK’S PRAYER FOR RAIN.

Samuel Hick was one of the men of “mighty faith” in the Lord, and as a preacher among the Methodists of England.  He was of great eminence for his happy spirit, remarkable trust, powerful and practical preaching, and unbounded liberality.  Among the many incidents connected with his life of faith, we quote a few to illustrate with what simplicity he expected always an answer to his prayer, and was not satisfied until he got it: 

In the course of a Summer of excessive drought a few years back, when the grain suffered greatly, and many of the cattle, especially in Lincolnshire, died.  Samuel Hick was much affected.  He visited Knaresborough, at which place he preached on the Lord’s day.

Remaining in the town and neighborhood over the Sabbath, he appeared extremely restless in the house in which he resided, during the whole of Monday.  He spoke but little—­was full of thought, now praying, now walking about the room, next sitting in a crouching posture—­then suddenly starting up and going to the door, turning his eyes toward heaven, as if looking for some celestial phenomenon, when he would return again, groan in spirit, and resume his seat.  The family, being impressed with his movements, asked him whether there was anything the matter with him or whether he expected any person, as the occasion of his going to the door so frequently.

“Bless you Bairns,” was his reply, “do you not recollect that I was praying for rain last night in the pulpit, and what will the infidel at Knaresborough think if it do not come; if my Lord should fail me, and not stand by me.”  But it must have time; it can not be here yet; it has to come from the sea.  Neither can it be seen at first.  The prophet only saw a bit of cloud like a man’s hand.  By and by it spread along the sky.  I am looking for an answer to my prayer, but it must have time.