Victory, Victory, Victory

“Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” — from 1 Corinthians 15

All those years of hard work and very little sleep had worn John out. In 1910 a doctor in Calcutta told him that his heart was in a very bad way, and that he needed months and months of quiet rest. John just smiled. In March 1911 he left India for the last time, very ill.

On the way home he stayed in Wales with his friend Mr. Jones. There he met an old lady who was very deaf. She was sad because she could not hear anything in church. “You ought to praise God for that,” said John! He could hardly hear in church either, he told her. So he looked at the preacher and prayed for him, and then looked at each person and prayed for them, one by one. The old lady laughed and said she would try it. Later she wrote that it had made a wonderful difference to her life.

Back in America, the doctors found that John had an illness they could not cure. He went to stay at his sister’s home in Northampton, Massachusetts. He was often in great pain, but he did not complain. After the worst pain he would say, “Praise the Lord.” Shortly before he died, he told his sister, “It’s just victory, victory, victory.”

John died on 17 February 1912. He was forty-six years old. His last words were in Punjabi, the language of the villages he loved. His friends remembered them as “Bol, Yisu Masih, ki jai!” That means, “Shout the victory of Jesus Christ!” He was buried in Carthage, beside his father, his mother and his brother Edmund.

Today people all over the world remember him as “Praying Hyde.” But John never wanted people to look at him. He wanted them to look at Jesus, and to pray.

When you belong to Jesus, even dying is not the end. Jesus has already won the victory, and everyone who trusts him will be with him for ever.

Dear Jesus, thank you that you have won the victory. Teach me to pray, and help me to trust you all my life. Amen.