Isaiah 26:9 With my soul have I desired you in the night; yes, with my spirit within me will I seek you early… Minnesota is the centre of the great western granary of the world. There came down upon those splendid fields that extend over thousands of acres, without even the division of a fence, an awful scourge, known as the grasshopper scourge. Nothing could be done by man to remove the scourge. The grasshoppers laid their eggs, and the next year, as soon as the wheat appeared, the destructive insect appeared alongside of it, and the utmost zeal and effort of the farmers failed even to abate this dreadful pestilence. The governor of Minnesota, who was a very high-toned Christian gentleman, called upon the people of the State to observe a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer for the removal of the plague. Secular papers, and especially the infidel papers, scouted the idea of reaching this natural visitation of insects by an appeal to God. They made the thing as ridiculous as they could make it, but still the Christian people assembled in their places of prayer, and many came together on the appointed day. Spring came, the wheat began to appear in the furrow, and the grasshopper appeared alongside of the wheat; and then the secular papers, that had scorned the idea of prayer to Almighty God, said, "Where is the result of your day of prayer, and fasting, and humiliation?" The grasshoppers developed, but at the same time there developed a parasite that attached itself to the grasshopper and accomplished two results. In the first place, it made the grasshopper impotent to harm the wheat; and in the second place — which was more important — it made the grasshopper impotent to reproduce itself. And from that year there has been no scourge of grasshoppers in the State of Minnesota. And so the righteous have seen it and rejoined, and all iniquity has stopped her mouth in the presence of the manifest interposition of God. (A. T. Pierson, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. |
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