--CONNECTION OF REVIVALS WITH
PRAYER AT HOME.
The Nestorian converts have been noted for their spirit of prayer.
In 1846, the prayers of the hopefully pious in the Male Seminary
were very remarkable. Several rooms were appropriated to devotion,
and there one might hear the voice of supplication from morning till
night. Many spent several hours a day in this holy employment; and
one needed only to listen to know that their prayers came from the
depths of the soul. At one time, they beg that the dog may have a
single crumb from the table of his master; again, they are smiting
on their breasts by the side of the publican. Now they are
prodigals--hungry, naked, and far from their Father's house; and now
they sink in the sea, crying, "Lord, save me; I perish!" or, as poor
outcast lepers, they come to the great Physician for a cure. This
one builds on the Rock of Ages, while the torrents roar around. That
one washes the feet of Jesus with his tears, and wipes them with the
hair of his head; another, as a soldier of the cross, plants its
blood-stained banner in the inner citadel of his heart. Their ardent
feelings found such appropriate expression in their Oriental
metaphors, that one might learn from children to pray as he never
prayed before.
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