Amazing Prayer

In the year 1826, the preacher John Smith was leading a service in the city of Nottingham. He led the people in prayer and ended it by reciting the Lord's Prayer. We read that the people:

"responded with peculiar fervour to each petition as it was pronounced, till he came to the doxology, at each clause of which he raised his voice and ascribed to the Almighty 'the kingdom and the power and the glory, for ever and ever' in a tone and with an unction which fell on the congregation with irresistable force" . . . and the people were gripped . . . "A glow of heavenly feeling pervaded the whole assembly; many gave vent to their emotions by bursts of tears and some with irrepressible shouts of praise. Others laid hold of the words, repeating them again and again even after he had ceased; and whispers of 'for ever and ever' mingled with sobs passed from one to another . . . In fact, it was some time before the regular business of the meeting could be resumed." (Paul Cook)