John Hyde (1865–1912), an American missionary to India, was known as “Praying Hyde” because his successful intercessory prayer ministry brought numerous people to Christ.
November is the 150th anniversary of his birth.
He was born Nov. 9, 1865, to Smith and Lucinda Hyde in Carrollton, Illinois. His father was a Presbyterian minister and his mother a godly woman.
Hyde attended Carthage College in Illinois and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1887 with such high honors that he received a position on the faculty. He soon resigned, though, and entered McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois. After graduating from seminary in 1892, he sailed to India as a missionary.
During his first days in Punjab (Northwest India), he and a friend attended an open-air service where a missionary preacher spoke about Jesus Christ as Savior. Another participant asked Hyde’s friend whether he had been saved. “If the question had been asked me,” Hyde wrote, “I would have had to confess that Christ had not fully saved me.” He went back to his room and asked God to deliver him from his sins. God gave him assurance of his salvation.
Hyde was partially deaf, which made him struggle to learn the native languages. Despite the problems he learned enough to minister to the Indian people and focused on studying Scripture.
His mission had few converts in the early years, and he endured persecution from the native people who were largely Hindu. He then started praying intensely. Beginning in 1899 he spent entire nights praying. He even forgot about sleep and food. One of his most famous prayers was, “Give me souls, oh God, or I die!”
In 1904 he began attending annual conferences in Sialkot (modern-day Pakistan). He started the Punjab Prayer Union. Members set aside half an hour a day to pray for spiritual revival. In 1908 he informed the conference about his dream of having one conversion a day. At the end of a year 400 conversions had occurred. Then he started praying for two conversions a day and then four per day. His prayers were answered.
His health began declining and in 1910 a doctor examined him and found that his heart had shifted out of its natural position on the left side to his right side. The doctor told Hyde to get complete rest.
However, he continued to work. In April 1911 he went on an evangelistic tour in England. Then he visited friends in Wales, where he became ill. He went home to America and doctors found a malignant brain tumor. After an operation he died Feb. 17, 1912, at the age of 46.
Hyde’s last words were: “Shout the victory of Jesus Christ.”
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