&ld;Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God&rd; (Matt. 5:8).

No missionary whom it has been my joy to meet ever impressed me quite as much as Dr. Wilbur Chapman. He wrote to a friend:

&ld;I have learned some great lessons concerning prayer. At one of our missions in England the audiences were exceedingly small. But I received a note saying that an American missionary…was going to pray God&rs;s blessing down upon our work. He was known as &ls;Praying Hyde&rs;.&rd; Almost instantly the tide turned. The hall became packed, and at my first invitation fifty men accepted Christ as their Savior.

As we were leaving I said, &ls;Mr. Hyde, I want you to pray for me.&rs; He came to my room, turned the key in the door, and dropped on his knees, and waited five minutes without a single syllable coming from his lips. I could hear my own heart thumping and beating. I felt the hot tears running down my face. I knew I was with God. Then, with upturned face, down which the tears were streaming, he said &ls;O God!&rs; Then for five minutes at least he was still again; and then, when he knew that he was talking with God…there came up from the depth of his heart such petitions for men as I had never heard before. I rose from my knees to know what real prayer was.

We believe that prayer is mighty, and we believe it as we never did before.&rd;

Dr. Chapman used to say, &ld;It was a season of prayer with John Hyde that made me realize what real prayer was. I owe to him more than I owe to any man for showing me what a prayer life is and what a real consecrated life is. Jesus Christ became a new ideal to me, and I had a glimpse of His prayer life, and I had a longing which has remained to this day to be a real praying man.&rd; And God the Holy Spirit can so teach us.