19th Century preacher and author A. B. Simpson gives a wonderful example of the power of accumulative prayer. In the city of Rangoon resided the largest and finest bell in the East. It was the pride of the great Buddhist Temple, Shwee-da-gone. During one war the bell sank in a river. Over the years, various engineers tried but failed to raise it. At last, a clever priest asked permission to try, but only if the bell was given to his temple.

The priest had his assistants gather an immense number of bamboo rods. One by one the rods were fastened to the bell at the bottom of the river. After thousands of them had been fastened, the bell began to move. When the last bamboo rod was attached, the buoyancy of the accumulated rods lifted the bronze bell from the mire of the river bottom to the stream's surface.

A. B. Simpson writes:

Faith can lift the heaviest of burdens and the highest of mountains. Every whisper of believing prayer is like one of the little bamboo rods. For a time they seem to be in vain, but there comes a last breath of believing supplication, and lo, the walls of Jericho fall, the mountain becomes a plain, and the host of Amalek is defeated.