The Praying Plumber of Lisburn - Thomas Haire - By A. W. Tozer - brought by The School of Prayer's Founder - Peter-John Parisis

The Praying Plumber

OF LiSBURN

A Sketch of God's Dealings with Thomas Haire

By

A. W. TOZER

CHRISTIAN PUBLICATIONS, INC.
Third and Reily Streets Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

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Zx,

(Fnnlai in V. S. A.)

Introduction

By Da. S. A. Witmer, Tresident,
Fort Wayne Bible College

Oy a remarkable providence this sketch of Tom
Haire by A. W. Tozer brings together two men who in most
ways are very much difEerent but who in their affinity for
things spiritual are very much alike. Accordingly, they have
another characteristic in common; both are nonconformists,
each fashioned by divine processes according to an individual
pattern.

The significance of God-made men in the twentieth -century
West can best be appreciated against the backdrop of our
times. In this age of mass production and mass media of
communication, when the stress ia school and church, at
least in America, is on social adjustment, the inevitable result
is mediocre conformity. The product is a religious robot in-
stead of a saint. "This world is not a friend to grace" takes on
added meaning in our day, and it helps to explain why there
are so few saintly Christians.

The orders of the Catholic Church have for centuries tried
to produce saints by imposing a right regimentation of thought
and conduct on the human spirit. WbDe few Protestant
groups have followed this procedure, yet the prevalent in-
sistence on group conformity is just as deadly. The liberal
can be identified by his affected intonation and his repetition
of liberal cliches. The fundamentabst, indoctrinated in a par-
ticular school of orthodoxy, becomes an acceptable poll-parrot
of verbabsm. Even "holiness" preachers have their character-
istic mode of expression— their badge of the spiritually elite.

;<;

a* ■

The human spirit, however, can only be stultified by this
insistence on social conformity. It is a tragic misuse of free-
dom to use it for even the more refined types of enslavement.
It must be set free by Christian redemption and servitude to
Jesus Christ to find its reaLzation in the boundless reaches of
the Eternal. Fortunately, neither the subject nor the author
of this sketch is a product of convention. Had either been,
there would be no sketch, for there would have been nothing
to write about on the one hand, and on the other, the author
would not have had the insight to appreciate the spiritual
stature of Tom Haire. Both were needed to produce this
booklet— the deeply devout life of Brother Haire and the
kindred spirit of Dr. Tozer speaking through his gifted pen.

How the plumber from Lisbum, Ireland, and the editor of
The Alliance Weekly in Chicago were brought into an intimate
understanding of one another is an extraordinary providence.
The hotel fire that almost took the lives of Tom Haire and
Evangelist Ravenhill is one link in a chain forged by divine
purpose. How fellowship in things spiritual is gloriously
possible is here demonstrated. Tom Haire the layman has
Little formal education while the author's erudition extends
to many fields, but both in very much different ways are God-
made men whose habitat is the beavenlies. There both are
very much at home.

It has been my good fortune to know both the author and
the subject of these chapters. Both men are enemies of exag-
geration, pretense, sensationalism and window dressing. Ac-
cordingly, the sketch here pubhshed is an honest accoimt
forthrightly written. It has already been blessed to thousands
of readers of The Alliance Weekly, and I earnestly pray that
it will be used of God to bring many of His children into a
closer fellowship with Himself.

One of the rarest experiences I have ever had was m prayer

with Tom Hau:e. As his hands clasped my hand with that
of a distinguished churchman and theologian, he poured out
his heart in prolonged intercession. Afterwards, this prelate
and I agreed that this kind of prayer in its depth, and height
and breadth and insight was outside any human dimensions.
Tom had not learned to pray in any school of human tutoring.
We had been Ustening to a man converse with God who knew
from the Spirit's tutoring the concerns of the Father's heart
and the vocabulary of the heavenlies,

i

The Praying Plumber
of Lisburn

By A. W. TOZER

M ou HAVE only to glance at his round red face
and his twinkling blue eyes to guess the place of his birth.
And when he smiles and says, "Guid marnin'," there is no
doubt left Tom Haire is Irish.

Tom is not just somewhat Irish; be is so completely
identified with the looks and ways and speech of the Emerald
Isle that nothing on earth can ever change him. His soft,
thick, almost fuzay brogue reminds you of every Pat-and-Mike
story you have ever heard, and the happy upside-do\vn con-
struction that often comes out when he talks sounds like the
best of John M. Synge. It would take a keener ear than
mine and greater literary skill than I possess to hear and
reproduce in print the dehgblful if sometimes confusing dia-
lect which is the only language Tom knows and in which he
clothes his deeply spiritual and penetrating observations. So,
except for an occasional Hibernicism in word or phrase which
I consider too good to pass up, I shall make no attempt to
copy his Irish speech. For the purposes of this sketch I shall
let Tom speai in ordinary American English, though I admit
w^e may lose something by so doing.

It is not with Tom Haire the Irishman that we are con-

1

1

cerned here, however, but with Brother Tom Haire, the
servant of Christ. So fully has he lost himself in God that
the text "Not I, but Christ," actually seems to be a reality in
his life. 1 think I have never heard him quote the text, but
his whole being is a Uving exemplification of it. He appears
to live the text each moment of each day.

After two years of growing acquaintance with and increasing
appreciation of this man of faidi I concluded that I owed it
to the Christian public to share with them some of the good
things God has given me through His servant Tom Haire.
I have long felt and still feel that the practice of writing up
living men and spreading them before the public is question-
able. Especially is it bad when new converts are seized upon
as gospel propaganda and paraded before the world as evi-
dences of the truth of the Christian religion. Converted cow-
boys, opera stars and such have so completely captured the
attention of the Christian public that it has become increas-
ingly difficult to hold a sober view of the faith of our fathers.
I do not want to eontribute to this delinquency in any form,
but I felt that a man who has been praying for fifty years as
Tom has, and whose long godly life has been open to critical
examination for that time, was safe material for a brief write-
up. And besides, Tom is just a plumber, not a celebrity, so
any interest he may arouse among Christians is bound to be
spiritual.

After Tom is gone someone will undoubedly write a book
about him. In the meantime, there are thousands of persons
who might profit by knowing something of his fife and teach-
ings now. So low has the level of spirituality fallen among
the churches that it is imperative that every effort possible
be made to raise it; and one effective way to inspire Christians
to press onward into the deep things of God is to show them
that there are a few saintly souls among us even now, that

the complexities and iniquities of the twentieth century have
not wholly destroyed the art of prayer and spiritual com-
munion of a Biblical quality. This knowledge may easily do
more to encourage men and women in the pursuit of God
than a thousand sermons could do.

When we consider how quick Christ and His apostles were
to focus attention upon persons who were spiritually worthy,
and that we are admonished in the Scriptures to emulate those
who have risen to a place of unusual faith and godliness, there
would seem to be no valid reason to withhold tliis sketch any
longer. Tom will not see what is written until it appears in
print; and if I know him as well as I believe I do he will not
read it afterwards. Tom is like that.

After I bad become convinced that something should be
written about Toot, the next problem was to persuade him to
agree to it. And that was not easy. When I broaclied the
subject to him he demurred immediately. "They wanted to
send reporters out to talk to me," he said, "but I wouldn't let
them. I am only a plumber. All I have is from God and I
don't want to let any man elevate me in any way." Then his
red face became redder still, his eyes filled with tears and his
voice got husky. "I'm afraid of losing me power with God,"
he whispered.

After I had explained to him tliat I felt he owed a debt to
other Christians to let them know how good the Lord had
been to him, and had promised that I would be careful to
give him no glory or credit at all, Tom felt better about the
matter and agreed to talk to me. Especially was he touched
by the argument that he owed something to his fellow Chris-
tians. Tom loves God's people with a wonderful, radiant af-
fection and is willing to do anything to bring a blessmg to
them.

Tom Haire was born sisty-sis years ago in County Down,

*

North Ireland {'Trotestant Ireland," as Tom always carefully
explains), and apart from two visits to the United States has
hved all his life there. He is a member of the Episcopal
Church of Ireland, the "disestablished" wing of the Episcopal
Ghnrch whose worship is much simpler and less ornate than
that of the Anghcans and which is evangelical in belief and
evangelistic in spirit. He is a lay preacher and evangelist,
but untU recently stayed very close to Lisbum, his home,
where his plumbing business is located. He was so busy with
his business and his evangelistic work, he says with a twinkle,
that he did not get around to finding a wife till he was thirty-
nine years old. He has a married daughter, Margaret, whose
husband now looks after Tom's business affairs. His wife has
been dead for thirteen years.

The two characteristics that mark Tom Haire as unusual
are his utter devotion to prayer and his amazing spiritual pene-
tration. (And are not the two always closely associated?)
Three montlis after his conversion, when he was sixteen years
old, he formed the habit of praying four hours each day. This
practice he followed faithfully for many years. Later he
added one all-night prayer session each week. In 19S0 these
weekly all-night prayer times were increased to two, and in
1943 he settled down to the habit of praying three nights of
every week. He gets along on very little sleep. In addition
to the three nights eadi week that he stays awake to pray
he is frequently awakened in the night seasons by a passage
of Scripture or a burden of prayer that will not let him rest.
"And almost always," he says, "the Lord wakens me early in
the morning to pray."

II

I CM Hauie is a rare compound of deep, tender
devotion, amazing good sense and a delightful sense of humor.
There is about him absolutely nothing of the tension found
in so many persons who seek to live the spiritual life.

Tom is completely free in the Spirit and will not allow him-
self to be brought under bondage to the mdiments of the
world nor the consciences of other people. His attitude to-
ward everyone and everything is one of good-natured toler-
ance if he does not like it, or smiling approval if he does. The
things he does not hke he is sure to pray about, and the things
he approves he is sure to make matters of thanksgiving to God.
But always he is relaxed and free from strain. He will not
allow himself to get righteously upset about anything. "I he
near to the heart of God," he says, "and I fear nothing in the
world."

That he hes near to God's heart is more than a passing
notion to Tom. It is all very real and practical. "God opens
His heart," he says, "and takes us m. In God all things are
beneath our feet. All power is given to us and we share God's
almightiness." He has no confidence at all in mankind, but
believes that God must be all in all. Not even our loftiest
human desires or holiest prayers are acceptable to God. "The
river ilows from beneath the throne," he explains, "and its
source is not of this world. So the source of our prayers must
be Christ Himself hidden in our hearts."

Though he counts heavily on the power of prayer he has
no faith in the virtue of prayer itself as such. He warns
against what he calls "merit-prayer," by which he means any

prayer offered with the secret notion that there is something
good in it which will impress God and which He must recog-
nize and reward. Along with "merit-prayer" goes "merit-
faith," which is the faith we think will in some way please
God.

"Too many of God's people are straining for faith," says
Tom, "and holding on hard trying to exercise it. This will
never do at all. The flesh cannot believe no matter how hard
it tries, and we only wear oiu'selves out with our human efforts.
True faith is the gift of God to an obedient soul and comes
of itself without effort. The source of faitli is Christ in us.
It is a fruit of the Spirit."

He flatly rejects the notion that we "can buy sometliing with
prayer." "God's gifts come from another source," he insists.
"They are 'freely given,' and have no price attached. It is
the goodness of Cod that gives us all things. God gives His
free gifts generously to those of His children who bring them-
selves into harmony with His will. Then they have but to
ask and He gives."

Brother Tom fasts quite often and sometimes the fast is pro-
longed for some time. But he scorns the thought that there
is any merit in it. "Some people," says Tom with a shake of
the head, "some people half kill themselves by ascetic prac-
tices. They imagine God to he so severe that He enjoys seeing
them hungry. They go about pale and weak m the mistaken
belief that they are making themselves dear to God. All such
notions come from the flesh and are false." Once during a
pi'olonged season of prayer he got suddenly thirsty and with-
out a qualm of conscience broke off prayer and went out for
a cup of tea. This got liim into difBculties with certain fellow
Christians who felt that he was surrendering to fleshly appe-
tites. But he has dwelt so long in the spacious heart of God
thgt he is, ynagected by the scruples of others. God's heart

1

is DO strait jacket even if some imperfectly taught saints insist
on acting as if it were. "Wliere the Spirit of the Lord is, there
is liberty."

Wherever there is a strain in the life we may be sure the
flesh is operating. The Holy Spirit gives fniitfuf burdens but
never brings strain. Our very eagerness to have our prayers
answered may cause us to lapse into the flesh if we are not
watchful. So Tom reasons. A woman sent for him recently
and wanted him to pray for her healing. She was in very bad
condition, but Tom would not pray. He detected in her eager-
ness to get well a bit of rebcDion against the will of God. So
he set about breaking her rebellion down. "Sister " he asked
innocently, "and have you ever read the Scripture, 'Precious
in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints? Sure, and
you would not want to rob the Lord of all that preciousness,
would you?" It was his way of telling her that slie was not fit
to live unless she was willing to die. The shock had its in-
tended effect, and after some further conversation Tom felt
that the woman had surrendered her will to God. Then he
prayed for her healing. She received some help physically,
and in addition she had also the benefit that comes from a
new spiritual experience.

Tom holds back from the highly advertised healing meeting,
but he ardently believes that an outpouring of the floly Sphit
on a life may easily result in physical healing. "Should God
ever pour out His Spirit again upon all flesh," he says, "we
may espect physical heahngs to accompany the outpouring.
It is part of the divine pattern."

Tom's conception of prayer is so lofty and so different from
the popular conception as to be something of another order
entirely. To him prayer is a spu^tual art, subject to divine
laws which must be obeyed if our prayers axe to achieve suc-
cess. "Harmony" and "dominion" are two words that come

easily from his lips when tallcing about prayer. Once in a
sermon I spoke of God's making man in His image. At the
close of the service Tom spoke a word of approval of the
seimon and then went on to develop the thought further. He
called attention to the words occurring so close together,
"image" and "dominion." 'T)o you notice," he asked, "how
God made man in His own image and then gave him domin-
ion? The dominion followed the image, and so it is with us
now. Oui dominion in prayer depends upon how nmcb of the
image of God we carry in our hearts. There must be com-
plete harmony between the soul and God if we are to enjoy
answered prayer. The degree of success we enjoy in prayer
depends upon the image within us." Then he added a sig-
nificant sentence: "For instance, God would not hear a man
who would kick a dog."

*

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L

III

I OM liAiRii;, on the whole, takes a very chari-
table attitude toward all his fellow Christians and toward
every shade of doctrinal belief within the framework of evan-
gelical Christianity.

He would not be classified as a teacher of divine healing but
he has strong convictions about the believer's privileges in
Christ as they touch his physical body. He believes that God
sometimes gives a praying man the assurance of healing for
someone else. "There is a sense in which a true Christian
may receive healing for another," he says, "God using him as
a channel through which He can pour Himself out upon the
needy person." In Tom's theology tlie onus of failure when
praying for the sick never falls upon the sick man. Those
who do the praying are responsible to exercise faith for the one
in need. That is quite a reversal of the current practice of
heaping scorn upon the sick man because he cannot get up
after he has been prayed for.

In prayer we need always to obtain the wisdom of the Spirit
so that we may pray according to the will of God and not
suffer discouragement from faflure to see our desires realized.
"When I get the mind of God," Tom insists, "I always get the
answer, When the wisdom of God floods over my imderstand-
ing I can take the sick man by the hand and tell him to
get up."

But even here he will not allow himself to get under bond-
age. He seeks not to support a doctrinal bias but to discover
and follow the will of God. He tells of praying once for the
recovery of a Christian woman who he felt was greatly needed
on eaith. He was on his knees interceding for her when he

12

felt a check on his spirit. Then he thought he heard the Lord
speaking in his heart. "Don't pray for her. Tom," the voice
seemed to say, "I have prepared a big reception for her up
here. I want her with Me." Tom immediately ceased to pray
and began to celebrate the blessed reception about to he held
in heaven for the departing sister. Shortly after this she went
to be with Christ.

Brother Tom's prayer list is very long and contams among
other things the names of many persons for whom he makes
regular intercession. Once when going over his list before
the Lord he came to the name of a dear friend who had lately
died. "Being a Protestant," says Tom, "1 took out me pencil
and started to cross off his name, for I did not believe in pray-
ing for the dead. But the Lord spoke to me and said, 'No,
Tom, do not cross him off. Just write after his name the
word Home! You have not lost himl' " Tom happily obeyed,
and while he did not again intercede for his friend, he never
felt that he had died. The relationship between these two
Christians had not been altered by the mere incident of death.
Tliis world and the one above are never far apart and some-
times they actually touch and intermingle. This has been the
comforting belief of the sweetest saints of the ages, and Tom's
experiences only seem to confirm the truth.

Anything that begins or ends in self is extremely hateful to
Tom Ha ire. Self-righteousness, self-confidence and every
other self-sin must be slain within us if we are to grow in the
love of God. He goes back to the sixth chapter of Romans
for his theology and insists that the doctrine become real in
the life. To Tom the sanctified life is one that is dead indeed
unto sin and alive unto God through Christ Jesus.

"A man is dead," he says, "when he no longer resists the
will of God in anything. Dead men do not resist. You must
go to God as a lamb, to obey, follow and die," Brother Tom
sees a close relationship between dying and giving. "We must

13

come to God with our hands opea, A man can't be crucified
while he keeps his fists closed. Open your hands in generous
giving and hold nothing back. Even tithing can he harmful
if we unconsciously feel that the one tenth we have given is
all that belongs to God. E-veri/thing is His; we own notiiing
at ali. The tenth is only the amount we set aside for rehgious
work. The other nine tenths are His also, but He graciously
permits us to use it as we have need."

When Tom was a youug man God filled him with the Holy
Ghost and he has never forgotten it, But he does not rest
upon an experience that happened so long ago. He believes
that we should go on to be filled again and again as the need
arises. "If I am filled in 1953," he explains, "in 1954 there
will he new areas discovered in my life of which I was un-
aware. These, too, need to be filled and claimed for God by
the sovereign Holy Ghost."

While discussing the doctrine and experience of the Holy
Spirit with him I took occasion to inquire what he thought
of the notion that everyone who is filled with the Spirit will
speak in tongues. I knew that his views would be of great
value because they spring out of fifty years of holy living and
victorious praying. Here would be no mere theory nor prej-
udiced opinion, but a wise and spiritual word spoken out of
long familiarity with the Holy Ghost.

To my blunt question, "Brother Tom, have you ever spoken
with tongues?" he gave the answer smilingly and gently: "No.
I have never spoken in tongues, but I do not 'forbid' anyone
from doing so. I think, however, that I have been instru-
mental in leading many persons from tongues to love. You
see, I do not need tongues. I can make myself clear to others
with the one I have now, and God knows what I am saying
before I utter a word. So of what use would tongues he to
meP" It may he that someone has spoken a wiser word on
diis controversial subject, hut if so I have not heard it.

14

IV

r OR siNNEiffi and for defeated Christians Tom
Haire feels only pity and a great sorrow of heart, but toward
sin itself his attitude is one of stern, unsmiling hostihty. To
him sin is the cause of all our human woe, the veil that shuts
us out from the blessed presence of God. It is never to be
tolerated in any form by anyone who wishes to follow Christ.

From his view of sin it naturally follows that he holds re-
pentance to be indispensable to salvation. His usually mild
language becomes sharp and imperious as he calls his hearers
to forsake iniquity and turn to God. For him there can be no
compromise with wrongdoing. The seeking heart must make
its eternal choice, either to serve sin and suffer the everlasting
displeasure of God or to forsake all sin and enter into the di-
vine fellowship through the mercies of Christ.

If you were to ask Tom what he considers the greatest hin-
drance to prayer he would answer instantly, Unconfessed sin.
And in coming to God the first thing to deal with is sin in the
life. But for all that, it never enters his mind that he can
atone for his sins by any kind of penance or self -punishment.
Forgiveness is a free gift of God based upon the work of Christ
on the cross and is never to be had on any other terms than
faith. When a sin has been forsaken and confessed it is at
that moment forgiven, never to be remembered against us
forever. No possible good can come from brooding over it.
It is gone for good.

Learned theologians have a fancy name for the doctrine of
sin. They caU it "hamaitiology." In all probability Tom
would not recognize the word if he chanced to come upon it.

but his own hamartiology is fully adequate. He likes to re-
call that with God, forgiving and forgetting are the same thing.
When God forgives, he forgets. Then Tom sums up his joyous
pei'sona! theology in a single sentence, "If God forgets," he
asks happily, "why should I remumber?"

Tom has made two visits to the United States within the
last few years. As he approached our shores for the first time
he hid himself away on board the ship and sought the face of
God in great earnestness to know what he should say to the
"Amuricans." What God said to him, or what he seemed to
hear God say to him, was so deep and wise that it should be
seriously studied by every one of us. Whether it was the
very voice of God or only the crystallization of a wisdom that
had come to him through long years of praying matters not
at all. It is too wise and wonderful to ignore.

"When you get to America," the Voice said within him,
"don't get mixed up in doctrinal trifles. Don't pay any atten-
tion to then- heads. Just look at their hearts. You will find
their differences to be of the head; their similarities to he of
the heart. So talk to their hearts. Don't read up on the re-
ligious situation in America. Don't try to fit into things or
please people. Just talk to them straight out of your heart.
Tell them the things I have told you, and you will get on all
right." Fortunately Tom had the courage and good sense
to obey these wise admonitions.

Tom Haire, like many another uneducated man, takes an
attitude of meek deference toward all learning, and gazes with
great respect upon any man he considers learned. But his
confidence in his own kind of learning makes him bold to
speak out even in the presence of the great. "My knowledge,"
he says, "has been all on the experiential plane. I have never
had the slightest interest in theology as a mere theory. There
is an anointing which teaches all things so that we need not

16

that any man teach us." This attitude he holds in complete
hirmihty without bigotry and without arrogance. Once I
talked to him about the views held by certain unbeheving in-
tellectuals that seemed to contradict his views. He advanced
no arguments to support his position. He bowed his head
and spoke in a low voice : "But they've never been where I've
been," he said simply.

I have not felt free to ask Tom outright what books he has
read. I only know that I have never seen him with any book
except the Bible. It is altogether safe to assume that he has
not read any of the devotional writers of the ages, yet his
whole spiritual outlook is that of an evangelical mystic. There
is a cathohcity about him that would have made him com-
pletely at home with the great saints of the past. He could
have preached to the birds along with Francis of Assist
(though his practical Irish mind would hkely have inquired,
"Shure, and what is the guid of it all?"). He might have sung
across England with Richard Eolle, or sat in silence with
George Fox, or preached in a cemetery with John Wesley.
And when the fiery logic of Charles Finney had devastated
a congregation Tom might have come among the terrified
seekers with his Bible and his wise words of instruction and
led them straight to God.

The spiritual outlook of this twentieth century Irishman is
so near to that of the fourteenth century Germans, Eckhart
and Tauler, and the seventeenth century Frenchman, Fenelon,
as to create a suspicion that he may be indebted to their writ-
ings for many of his ideas. But such is positively not the case.
In all our dozens of conversations and our long prayer sea-
sons together he has never so much as mentioned their names,
nor has he ever quoted from their writings so much as one
sentence. To him they simply do not exist. The only explana-
tion for the remarkable resemblance between these Christian

17

L^

J

men so far removed ia time is that the same Holy Spirit taught
all of them, and where He can find hstening ears He always
teaches the same things. There is a unity of spiritual beliefs
among men of the Spirit that jumps centuries, denominational
gulfs and doctrinal hedges and perfects a comniunion of saints
in spite of every effort of devil or man to keep them apart.

18

It is important to any proper understanding
of the grace of God in the life of His servant, Thomas Haire,
that we do not think of him as a plaster saint or as a mystic
dreamer far removed from the rough and downright world
where we live. He has not fled the world to escape it; better
than flight has been his deliverance from it while Uving ia the
midst of it.

I have wanted to be altogether fair in presenting this sketch.
To eulogize at the expense of accuracy would be to defeat
the very end 1 am trying to attain, namely, to show what God
can do for a man if the man will but place himself in His
hands. Were the object of this sketch a perfect man the efiect
would be to discourage us completely. The pale was saint
who never knew human imperfections could not inspire us
to godliness. Even Christ had to be tempted in all points like
as we are, and the high priests of the Temple must themselves
be compassed with Iniii-mity if they were to know how to have
compassion on the ignorant and them that were out of the
way.

It is my desire to present here both sides of the ledger, to
show the credit side certainly, and then to exhibit the debit
side to get a balanced picture.

Probably the best commentary on the life and character of
God's Irish servant is to say that after two years of rather in-
timate acquaintance with him I am unable to dig up anything
of any consequence to write on the debit side of his life. I
have seen him in the most trying circumstances, undergoing
tests that would have tried the character of an angel, and I

19

I

have not in one single instance seen him act otherwise than
like a Christian.

It was the doctrine of the Wesleyan theologians that a man
can be perfected in love and yet be imperfect in other phases
of his life, that perfect love does not necessarily imply perfect
judgment. Tom Haire appears to me to be a fine proof of
the truth of this doctrine. His glowing love for God and men,
his utter devotion to prayer and praise, have yet left him open
to errors of judgment much as any of us. He is the first one
to mention this, and is keenly aware of the necessity, to lean
hard on God that he may be saved from serious mistakes,

For instance, Tom is much more generous with his affec-
tions than I coidd feel free to be, but in the light of the prac-
tices of godly men and women of the past and the admoni-
tions of the Scriptures concerning the holy kiss, be may be
right and I wrong. It is not uncommon to see him greet a
Christian brother with an old-fashioned hug and kiss. Some
might list this as a fault, but if so, it cannot be too serious, and
getting kissed by Brother Tom is like being caressed by all
your godly ancestors at once.

I have also known Tom to fall asleep during some of his
prolonged seasons of prayer. Wifliam T. MacArthur used to
say that under certain circumstances the most religious thing
a man could do was to go to sleep, and I have no doubt that
Tom's occasional cat nap while stretched before the Lord in
the Jong night watches may be God's merciful provision for
His servant's health. Once while trying to stay through an
all-night season of prayer with him and a few others I learned
by esperience what such praying costs. Sometime after mid-
night I petered out and slipped off to my study for a snooze.
At eight o'clock the next morning I waked to bear Tom leaving
the church. He had lasted out the night and I, though much
younger than he, had surrendered to the sandman long beforel

It is only fair to say, too, that Tom is sometimes capable
of prejudice that is something less than scholarly. He insists,
for instance, that the King James Vei'sion of the Scriptures is
the only proper one for a Christian to read. "1 know it is
only a translation," he argues, "but God breathed on the trans-
lators as He did on no others, and thus preserved them from
error. Of course," he adds meditatively, "they did call the
Holy Spirit 'it' in the eighth chapter of Romans. But that was
just a mistake." There you have it. The translators were
divinely preserved from error, but they made a mistake! That
comes perilously near to being an Irish bull, but if one is to
be committed, who could better qualify for it than the man
from County Antrim, Ireland?

Sometimes also Tom can become very much of a tease. He
particularly loves to josh his American friends about the in-
feriority of all things American to everything Irish. After his
accident at the hotel fire in Chicago I went to see him often.
He lay cruelly ci'ushed by the long fall to the concrete pave-
ment. His hip and thigh were fractured, his back broken in
several places and one of his hands burned severely. He lay
in what must have been harsh, grinding pain. To afford what
assurance I could I bent close to his ear and told him that we
had secured for* him one of the best orthopedic surgeons ob-
tainable. For ail his great pain he managed a sly grin. "Ye
mean he is one of the bust in Amurica," he whispered, "but
don't forget, we have butter ones in Ireland."

Tom is not a finished speaker by any means, but in an
average message he manages to throw off so many sparks of
real inspiration that his hearers forget everything but the won-
der of the truth he is proclaiming. His messages tend to be
circular, that is, they travel around to the same thought again
and again. He reminds me of the advice given to a young
preacher to the effect that if he was going to harp on one

21

string he should make that string a humdiiigerl Tom's stiing
is love, fastened between the two pegs of faith and prayer.
And that sti-ing is so long and so vibrant tiiat it is seldom
monotonous to lister to no matter how many times you hear it.
In my effort to escape the charge of writing an extravagant
panegyric I have combed through my knowledge of Tom
Haire to try to find some flaw in his godly life. The fact that
I could discover no more than is mentioned here is probably
a finer commendation than the most eloquent eulogii.,m cxjuld
ever be.

22

H

VI

liEONAED Ravenhill, the English evangelist,
opened a series of meetings in the church where I have been
pastor for some years, and as usual brought along Tom Haire
as a companion and prayer helper. The two men are as dif-
ferent as night and day, the evangelist being a veritable son
of thunder and Tom a gentle, affectionate soul who will listen
to anyone's troubles as long as necessary and permit himself
to be taien advantage of without limit just to be sure he wiU
not miss someone who may actually be in need of help. The
fiery Englishman bears patiently with the slow, smiling Irish-
man. Each one makes up what the other lacks and together
they make a remarkable team.

Tom had not been long among us till he began to sense
the spiritual condition of the people. "The trouble I find
here " he said after a while, "is not gross sin of a fleshly kind,
but sin on a higher, spiritual level." And this "higher" kind
of sin was to him vei-y much more serious. Pride, self-confi-
dence, refined unbelief, worldly-mindedness— these are far
more destructive and much harder to get at than those cruder
sins which are the stock in trade of evangelistic preaching.
Thereafter Tom's prayers followed very closely the direction
indicated by the speciflc needs of the people. Tom doesn't
like to waste prayer.

This habit of carefully surveying the situation before setting
out to pray about things is characteristic of Tom Haire. To
him prayer is a science whose laws can be learned. Praying
itself is not a shot in the dark, not a net cast into the sea with

the hope of a good catch. Praying is working along with God
in the fulfillment of the divine plan. Praying is fighting close
up at the front where the sharp deciding action is taking place.

According to Tom, there is such a thing as strategic prayer,
that is, prayer that takes into accoimt what the devil is trying
to accomplish and where he is working, and attacks him at
that strategic point. "Don't waste your time praying around
the edges," he says. "Go for the devil direct. Pray him lose
from souls. Weaken his hold on people by direct attack.
Then your prayers will comit and the work of God will get
done."

Tom makes much of the believer's authority in Christ. Over
the protests of the cautious expositor, he appropriates Scripture
that might be proved to belong to a future age. "God says
we are kings and priests," he declares, "and what is a king
without a kingdom? There is a sphere where we can have
full dominion in prayer. Complete authority is ours. We
only need to ask and we shall receive." If this were mere
theory we might dismiss it as being simply an en-or in inter-
pretation, but it has been proved in the fires of practical liv-
ing. God has given to His praying servant great power to
command, to demand, and the results have been and are many
and unusual.

One lesson we may learn from this man is to pray intelli-
gently and with planned direction. When he cannot find the
will of God about a thing he is as helpJess as any man, but
once he knows what God wants htm to ask in prayer his voice
takes on bold assm'ance. A young doctor in our congregation
became suddenly ill with an acute form of hepatitis. He was
taking advanced work in a Chicago hospital before returning
to Ethiopia for his second term as a missionary. We asked
Tom to pray for him, and he prayed dutifully but without

much assurance. "God has not told me what He wants to do,"
he repeated again and again. "I have not heard from God
about this." Shortly thereafter the doctor lapsed into a coma
and in a few days died, leaving a wife and chfid and an empty
place on his mission field. No one could fathom the ways of
God in it all, but it did not stagger Tom. God had operated
after His own hidden purpose, and for this once He had with-
held His secret from all of us. "All 1 know about it," said
Tom, shaking his head solemnly, "is that God must have had
some strong reason for wanting His servant with Him." Some
of us who have lived close to this man believe that if God
had wanted to keep the doctor here on earth He would have
told Tom.

Like many another plain believer who has sat at the feet
of Christ longer than he has sat before books on theology,
Tom tends to great simplicity in everything. All those fine
shadings of tcuth that slow down so many highly educated
persons are lost on Tom. To him there are just two forces
in the universe, God and Satan, and if a specific phenomenon
does not originate with one it will be found to have originated
with the other. That may be oversimplification, but it puts
an edge on his axe and get results.

For one who fights as many battles as does this Irishman
he is remarkably restful and self-possessed. Or better say,
God-possessed, for his tranquillity is not natural; it is a divine
thing. One of his favorite words is "relax." He cannot see
the good of tension anywhere. "Climb up into the arms of
God," he says, "and relax. Getting things from God is as
natural as breathing. When we pray we exhale; when we
take the answer we inhale. Prayer is simply a restful inhaling
and exhaling in the Spirit of God."

It is significant that Dr. A. B. Simpson in his day taught

the same truth in almost the same words. A stanza of one
of his songs runs like this;

I am breathing out my longings
In Thtj listening, loving ears;

I am breathing in Thy answers.
Stilling evert) doubt and fear.

This becomes all tlie more remarkable when it is remembered
that Tom Haire never came under the influence of A. B. Simp-
son. He never heard him preach nor read one of his boo^.
It can only be explained as the same Spnit saying the same
thing to different men who listen to His voice with equal care.

26

VII

It was four o'clock of a bitterly cold November
morning when the telephone rang and an excited voice told
me that the Norwood Hotel was burning and the guests were
fleeing into the street in their night clothes to escape the
flames.

Leonard Ravenhill, the English evangehst, and his prayer
helper, Tom Haire, who were engaged in evangelistic meet-
ings in our local church, were stopping at the Norwood. My
informant could tell me nothing about these men. He only
knew that some guests had died in the fire and others had
been badly injured.

In a few minutes one of the elders of the church picked me
up and together we raced over the icy streets to the scene of
die fire. The police and firemen had the area blocked off.
The basement of the First Nazarene Church, located within
one block of the hotel, had been converted into a first-aid
station and the less seriously injured victims of the fire were
being cared for there. A hurried search among the shivermg
and frightened persons who had gathered in the church base-
ment failed to discover either Eavenbill or Haire. The excited
guests could not tell us anything about them, but some thought
that the two men had been among the victims who had
jumped from the hotel windows.

The next logical place to look was St. Bernard Hospital, a
few blocks away. There the scene was one of confusion. We
stopped one of the hurrying sisters and inquired whether two
Protestant evangelists had been admitted to the hospital in

27

the last few minutes. The sister replied that she did not
know. "But " she added, "as I helped to bring in one elderly
man who had been hurt in the fire, he patted my cheek and
asked me if I loved Jesus." Wc did not need to ask furlter.
We had found Tom.

Both Mr. Ravenhill and Mr. Haire had been seriously in-
jured by the long jump to the pavement from the third story
window o£ the hotel, Both had broien bones in many parts
of their bodies, Tom suffered deep bums on one hand and
Ravenhill received internal injuries.

Nothing else within the sphere of my own experience has
demonstrated so beautifully the real quality of present-day
Christians as did the hotel accident suffered by the two evan-
gelists. The news wires carried the story to every part of the
United States and Canada and finally to England and Ireland.
Immediately telegrams and long distance calls began to flood
in to my office from far parts of the continent. Churches
wrote to offer assistance; Christian nurses and doctors volun-
teered their aid; visitors came in great numbers and prayer
went up lite incense from coast to coast. The two men
hovered for a while between life and death and then slowly
began to get well. Whatever cynical unbelief may say, there
are many persons who believe that the multitude of inter-
cessions made for others were returning on the heads of God's
servants. For everyone who says, "Why did this happen to
praying men?" there are others who exclaim, "How could
mortal man come through all this and stfll live?" By every
natural evidence they should have died. That they are alive
today is due to the kindness of God and the determined
prayers of God's people.

The weeks spent in St. Bernard Hospital revealed the work-
ings of God in many ways. Since this sketch concerns Mr.
Haire I shall focus attention upon him mainly, though jt

should be said also that some of the experiences of Evangelist
Ravenhill were not less wonderful.

It was not long before the news had spread through the
hospital that a Protestant "saint" had come among them.
Nurses, doctors, supervisors and "sisters" of various kinds came
to see Tom for themselves. Some of them admitted that they
had not been aware that such men as Tom were still to be
found running loose. Though their teachings forbade them
to believe that Tom was a real Christian, their yearning hearts
were better and more charitable than their dogmas, and they
soon accepted him not as a Christian only but as a superior
saint who could teach them the things of the Spirit.

Among those who visited Tom was a distinguished professor
of philosophy at Notre Dame University. He came not to
try to convert Tom but to hear from his mouth the wonders
of a life of prayer and worship. In the course of his conver-
sations he admitted that he was very much dissatisfied with
the kind of Christian being produced within the Catholic fold.
"They come to me and confess their sins," he said, "and then
go back and do the same things again. I do not believe in
that 'kind of rehgion. When a man comes to Christ he should
come with John the Baptist repentance." This may sound
trite to the average evangelical, but coming from a highly
placed prelate of the Roman Church it is httle less than as-
tounding. And the whole experience suggests that there may
be many others enmeshed in the toils of Romanism who would
look our way if we presented more examples of true godh-
ness to catch their attention.

Tom's experience in the hospital was not without humorous
incidents, though Tom was extremely careful never to give
offense to the Catholic personnel. One Friday he suddenly
developed an appetite for meat and called a nm-se to him.
"I say, suster," he hegan, "I crave a wee piece o' roast chueken

§9

D'ye suppose ye cud get me some?" The nurse said No, It
was Friday, and besides, chicken was not served to patients
in that hospital. That was final. But Tom persisted, "But,
suster. Ye don't know who 1 ami Tomorrah the British con-
sul is comin' to see me. And besides that, look at the green
hght above me bed, put there in honor of auld Ireland. Now
do I get some cbucken?" Tom's blue eyes were twinkling,
The consul's visit was scarcely to be in honor of Tom, and the
green light above the bed surely bad no remote relation to
Tom's birthplace. The nurse left the room shaking her head
doubtfully. After a while she reappeared all smiles, and on
a tray she caiiied a plate laden with roast chicken. Tom ate
the meal with relish. He undoubtedly enjoyed it, but more
than all he enjoyed the fact that he had gotten roast chicken
in a Catholic hospital on Friday.

One day as a supervisor was in his room, Tom suddenly
asked her to pi-ay for him. She promised she would go im-
mediately to the chapel and say a prayer foi- him. But that
would not do. "No," Tom insisted, "I want you to pray for
me now. Right here." The surprised sister scrambled around
in her voluminous bag and came up with a prayer book out
of whicli she read a prayer. Then to be sure she would not
leave, Tom grabbed her hand and bung on. "Now, suster,
I'll pray for you." Then he laundied into one of his tender,
impassioned prayers while the sister stood reverently with
bowed head. When he was through there was awe in her
voice as she said, "That wasn't a memorized prayer, was it,
Tom? That came right out of yoiu heart. The Holy Ghost
must have given you that." Until the day breaks and the
shadows flee away it will not be revealed how much was ac-
comphshed through the suffering man of God by such faithful
witnessing among persons who for all their blindness are at
least reverent and serious-minded.

30

\Vlien the men were recovered sufficiently to be moved, a
United States Army ambulance plane flew them to New York
where they were the guests of the army for one day. Then
they were flown overseas to their respective homes in England
and Ireland.

In a few months, much improved physically, Tom came
bacJc to the United States, Wlien all financial matters had
been adjusted and the time was ripe to settle his accounts,
Tom called on his doctor to pay the bill. The doctor looked
him over and waited to hear what he would say. He had
been told that he could expect a request for a discount. He
was definitely not prepared for what he was to hear.

"Now, Doctor," Tom began, "I vrant to settle up with you.
I understand that you expect me to ask for a discount on my
bfll on the grounds that I am a Christian worker. But, Doctor,
I shall do nothing of the kind. You see, I am connected with
the Deity and I run my business on the same principles as
God runs His. God never asks for discounts. His method
is to give full measure, pressed down, shaken together and
running over. And I want to do the same. Here is a signed
check made out to you. Only the amount is left blank. Now
you take it, write in any amount you please and it will be
honored. And I'd rather you made it too much tfian too httle."

This was more than the Catholic surgeon could stand, He
broke doven and wept, threw his arms around Tom and kissed
bim Uke a son. "I have never seen a Christian like you before
in all my life, Tom. Here, hand me the check." Then he
deducted ?250 from the total bill and wrote in the reduced
amount.

While Tom was going through the long siege of sufEering
after his accident he was forced for the first time in years to
give up his habit of praying three nights each week. He
missed having these long seasons of intercession, but he did

J

not let it bother bun nor did he allow himself to get under
bondage because he could not pray as before. God knew
that His servant would be back at his regular habit as soon
as he could, and Tom knew that He knew and rmderstood.
Between friends there are some things that can be taken for

One day not long ago Tom came shufQmg into the church,
his face shining a bit more than usual and his voice full of
excitement hke a boy that had just received a sled or a pony
for his birthday. The reason for his new joy was that God
had enabled him to go back to his old habit of aU-night
prayer again! He feels so much "butter," he says, that he
can stay up all night now without any trouble.

But Tom wfll probably never again be able to kneel before
God as he had been doing for fifty years. The crushed pelvis
and the broken back are "butter," it is true, but they will not
permit him to bend very much at best. He must now do his
praying sitting up for the most part, though when be is by
himself he often stretches full length on the floor as he goes
over bis long prayer lists or worships the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. I have come upon him sometimes lying prone
before the Lord quietly wrestling against the evil one whom
he calls "Seten.'° And so completely free is he that when he
is interrupted in prayer by the unexpected entrance of a
friend, he simply breaks oH his praying, scrambles to his feet
and enters into a relaxed and delightful conversation about
anything that the visitor may have on his mind. Tom will
talk about anything, but he is never so keen nor so original as
when talking about the goodness of God and the power of
prayer.

The doctors have told Tom that his accident has probably
prolonged his life many years by forcing a long rest just at the
period in bis life when his heart stood in need of it. Of course

sucli a matter is in the hand of God and any prediction of
longevity would be altogether rash and foolWdy. But one
thing is sure: whether he stays among us for many years
or slips off to heaven tomorrow is not of any consequence to
Tom. He has lived so long on the portico of heaven that he
wiU fee! quite at home when the Father comes out and invites
him inside.

The Secret of Successful
Praying

By TOM HAIRE
VIII

«s NEVER before I fee! the great need for in-
tense research into the deeper mysteries of prayer.

I see on the distant horizon truth which, if I can attajji
to thi-ough grace, should to some degree shake hell and retard
its outpourings into the world and the Church in our day.
This truth hes mainly in John 17 (verses 21-23): "That they
all may be one; as thou. Father, art in me, and I in thee,
diat they also may be one in us: that the world may beheve
that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me
I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are
one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect
in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me,
and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me."

The purpose that lies in this passage, as 1 see it, is that the
world may come to believe in Christ. The condition is that
we believers grow more perfectly into harmony with and
correspondence to the Deity. This is a restoration to that
state enjoyed by our Brst parents before the Fall. It is de-
scribed by the words, "So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God created he liim." In the next sentence
God said, "Have dominion." Those who are in the divine

34

image have divine authorization to subdue the earth. The
means by which this authority is exercised is prayer.

The first Adam faOed. He was but a creature of God. The
new creation which is brought into being through the work
of Christ in atonement is born of God and receives His true
nature, so that the fullness of the Godhead indwells the human
personality. This is a distinct advance over the position
enjoyed by the first Adam. The human personality becomes
the outward instrument of the Almighty Inworker. If this
becomes true in actual experience, then the "subduing" and
the "dominion" should be made factual in the earth where-
ever our prayer rights are exercised in faith.

That a Spirit-led Cliristian can actually do the very work
of Christ is plainly taught in the Scriptures. Paul saidj "To
me to live is Christ." John said, "As he is, so are we in this
vrorld." And I think we have hardly yet dared to face the
mighty implications in the words of our Lord in John 14;
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the
works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than
these shall he do; because I go unto my Father" (verse 12).

Sometimes I imagine I am a bottle filled to the utmost;
then I think I am that bottle in the middle of the wat^s
before the firmament was created or the dry land appeared,
with infinite mOes of grace beneath me and around me in all
directions. The little bottle doubts sometimes through the
suggestions of the serpent. WOl there be enough water to
keep it filled and to float it safely forever? But the doubts
are only for a moment. Thank God there is always enough
in ChristI

As in the Garden there was a serpent, so now there are
serpents to tempt God's redeemed people. Only now the
dark serpents have been joined by white ones. The dark
ones are on Skid How and are terrible because of their frigtt-

35

ful physical manifestations such as drinking, dope addiction
and other sTich gross sins. The white ones are of the same
nature as the others, but are illuminated by "the angel of
light" who transforms them into white ones with supernatural
power to work in human personahties. These may lead
people to speak with the tongues of angels, foretell the futme,
understand all mysteries and be driven with a passionate
desire for the attainment of all knowledge.

Our colleges, sad to think, are alive with white serpents,
moving men to seek honor among men, such honor as superior
learning brings. It is difficult to get prayer into its primary
place in our colleges, even in our Christian colleges. The
head, the voice, the dress, the gestures— these take first place
and are eagerly cultivated. But we can never cast out devils
with the intellect, however cultured. Even casting out devils
may be counterfeited by the devil, who will withdraw his
power for a moment to deceive the unwary. Casting out
devils, speaking wonderful words or moving mountains may
be no evidence at all of true Christianity. "Many will say
to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in
thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in
thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I
profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye
that work iniquity" (Mat. 7:22-23).

Martyrdom without love will prove to be a snare. Giving
my body to be burned or starving it by fasting is in direct
violation of the command of God in creation. "Give ye them
to eat" is in harmony with the ptirpose of God, for He made
many things to be used for food for mankind. True fasting is
the result of spiritual preoccupation, as when Moses went into
the Mount and contiimed without food for foity days. He
did not need food then, for he was seeing God's face. The
sins of Aaron and the people of Israel lay heavily on his

heart and crowded out the desire for food. He spent his days
in intercession. I think ho saw by faith the Lamb slain before
the foundation of the world, and as he moved into spiritual
union with the Lamb he was enabled to intercede successfully
for Israel. God answered with the most wonderful words
ever spoken to man; "I have pardoned according to thy
word." Moses was oflFered the opportunity to become greater
than the sinning multitude, but in declining this offer and
identifying himself with Israel he came into spiritual harmony
with the Lamb who was later to give His life for His sirming
friends. Is this what PatJ meant when he expressed a desire
to be "made conformable" unto His death?

Fasting and faith are to be secondary always. Perhaps I
should say, conscious faith and purposive fasting. We are
commanded to "have the faith of God." This is a result of a
loving understanding of die mind of God and comes
as He sits beside the refining vessel and skims off the dross
from our natures. Then we see His face and understand the
purpose behind the refining fire and beheve Him without
effort. God thus gives the gift of affinity. It is a kind of
spiritual birth within us and is accompanied by love. God
is love and without love everything else is vain.

It is impossible to overemphasize the importance of love
in the Christian hfe. Though I have all faith and have not
love I am as salt that has lost its savor. Love cannot sin,
for God is love and God can never sin. Love is a fire that
consumes sin. The Church clamors for mountain-removing
faith and meritorious praying and fasting, but if all this is
secretly to be used to attain fame among the saints then it is
inspired by the white serpent. Christ prayed all night because
He was drawn irresistibly to it as by a magnet within Him.
It was the result of an irresistible urge ratiier than of con-
scious purpose. He that saith he abideth in Him ought to

37

walk even as He walked— and prayed. The same motives
that governed Him should govern us.

Tlie secret power of prayer is affinity with Christ and con-
formity to His image. The urge to pray must come from God
and not from our own ambition. Increasing measure of Christ-
likeness will mean increased power in prayer. Then when
He shall appear, we shall he like Him, for we shall see Him
as He is.

■ '-nvhiiirfa luitii.'..

t^

. ffV^

^oy

2og^9

Tozer, Alden Wi Ison
The praying plumber of Lisburn

DATE DUE

I