Phineas F. Bresee - A Prince In Israel - Media Sabda Org

sixteen, and soon afterward shipped on a sailing vessel, with a crew of twelve, he being the only
Christian on board. Previously he had promised his mother that he would meet her three times a day
at the throne of grace. To accomplish this, he would go below, where, feeling that his prayers were
not satisfactory unless they were audible, he always prayed aloud. This brought terrible persecution
upon him from the sailors. They tried to compel him to desist from praying, but he would pray. They
danced and sang around him while he was engaged in his devotions, but he would pray. They threw
pieces of wood at him and bruised him, and poured buckets of water upon him, but could not
extinguish the fire in his soul. Then they tied him to the mast, and laid thirty-nine stripes upon his
back, the marks of which he carries today, although now more than ninety years of age. But still he
prayed. Finally, they tied a rope around his body and threw him overboard. He struggled and swam
as best he could, but when he would take hold of the side of the ship to climb up, they would push
him off with a long pole. At last his strength gave way, and, supposing that they really meant to kill
him, he made a final effort, and called to the sailors: "Send my bundle of clothes to my mother, and
tell her that I died for Jesus." He then sank into the deep, but his persecutors pulled him out, and up
on the deck. He was almost dead, but their long-continued efforts resulted in his resuscitation.
Conviction then began to seize those sailors. Before night two of them were gloriously converted,
and while they were praying down below with the young martyr, the others thought that the two were
again persecuting him, and called upon them to desist, saying that he had been tormented enough.
In less than a week every one on board the vessel, including the captain, was blessedly saved.
In a little while the ship put into a port near Cape Cod, because of an approaching storm. Other
vessels gathered there, to the number of nearly three hundred. The heroic boy had been conducting
religious services every Sunday. Unknown to him, when the vessels were lying at anchor, the captain
sent word around that on the next Sunday, services would be held on his ship, and that a boy would
give his experience of how he had been persecuted and nearly killed for Jesus' sake. While the boy
was down below preparing something to say in the meeting as usual, the sailors began to come on
board. They filled the ship's deck, climbed into the rigging, crowded every available space, and also
sat in boats all around the vessel. When the young preacher came on deck, this was the sight that met
his startled gaze. The crew formed a ring around him. They sang, and he prayed, after which he took
for his text: "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." The Holy Ghost began to work, and after
giving an earnest message, the anointed lad invited all who wanted to be prayed for, to so manifest.
From every direction the sailors responded and asked for prayer. The work of grace broke out, and
salvation flowed, until it was estimated that there were one hundred conversions that afternoon. This
was the beginning of a glorious revival in the assembled fleet. Men continued to seek and find
Christ, and while the ships lay in the harbor, word kept coming to young Crowell that on such and
such a vessel a meeting had been held and some one saved.
The foregoing is only one of almost innumerable interesting and thrilling events which formed
part of the life history of Dr. Bresee's associates in the early work of the Church of the Nazarene, but
the limits of this volume will not permit their narration.