Picture an old woman with a halo of silvered hair—the hot tears flowing down her furrowed cheeks—her worn hands busy over a washboard in a room of poverty—praying—for her son John—John who ran away from home in his teens to become a sailor—John of whom it was now reported that he had become a very wicked man—praying, praying always, that her son might be of service to God. The mother believed in two things, the power of prayer and the reformation of her son. God answered the prayer by working a miracle in the heart of John Newton.

John Newton, the sailor-preacher. Among the thousands of men and women he brought to Christ was Thomas Scott, cultured, selfish, and self-satisfied. Because of the washtub prayers another miracle was worked, and Thomas Scott used both his pen and voice to lead thousands of unbelieving hearts to Christ, among them a dyspeptic, melancholic young man, William Cowper by name. He, too, was washed in the cleansing blood and in a moment of inspiration wrote “There Is a Fountain Filled With Blood.” And these song has brought countless thousands to the Man who died on Calvary. All this resulted because a mother took God at His word and prayed that her son’s heart might become as white as the soapsuds in the washtub.

Prayer without fervency and violence, is no prayer; it is speaking not praying.—Lifeless prayer is no more prayer than the picture of a man is a man. To say a prayer is not to pray; Aschanius taught his parrot the Lord’s Prayer.

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound,

That saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now am found,

Was blind, but now I see.

shows that anyone can come to Jesus and find mercy there. He will comfort the troubled, the needy, even the desperate. He says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (11:28).