DR. MEYER loved to preach the gospel as he traveled about. On one occasion he was crossing the Atlantic, and the captain of the ship asked him to preach in the saloon, or main cabin. He spoke on “answered prayers” and told a number of stories.
It happened that there was present a man who didn’t believe in God or anything and Afterward someone asked him, “What do you think of Dr. Meyer’s sermon?”
“Oh,” he said, “I don’t believe a word of it.”
That same afternoon Dr. Meyer was speaking to passengers in another part of the ship. The infidel picked up two oranges and putting them in his pocket he headed for the gospel meeting.
As he threaded his way in and out among the passengers, he came across an old lady with, silvery hair and white face relaxed on one of the sofas. Her eyes were closed in sleep, her head back and her hands open on her lap. For some reason he was unable to explain, he took the oranges out of his pocket and placed them in the hands of the old lady and went on to the meeting.
When he came back the old woman was munching on one of the oranges. So he said to her, "You seem to be enjoying your orange!”
“Yes,” she said, “my Father is very good.”
“Your what? Your father can’t be living?”
“Oh,” she said, “He’s very much alive.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well,” she replied, “I’ve been sea-sick for five days. This morning I longed for an orange. I knew there were some to be had in the main cabin, but how to get them down here I didn’t know. So as I sat here I asked the Lord to please send me an orange. I suppose I must have fallen off to sleep, and would you believe it, sir, when I opened my eyes, He had not only sent me one, but He sent me two!”
“Why,” said the man, “is that true?” “That is absolutely true,” she replied.
The bottom fell out of his infidelity on the spot. I wish we could tell you that he got saved. This we do not know, we can only hope so. But it made a very deep impression on him.
God does answer prayer, and He sometimes uses infidels to carry the answer.
ML-02/27/1972