A scientist might laugh at this way of driving, or at asking G.o.d to guide in such trivial matters. But we shall still believe that G.o.d led the horse and blessed us in our attempt to serve him."
ALL OUR NEEDS.
"About eight years ago, while a Student in college, I became embarra.s.sed for want of funds. Debts began to acc.u.mulate. Antic.i.p.ating money from usual sources, promises had been made to pay at a certain date.
"The time to make these payments approached. The antic.i.p.ated money did not come. A student in debt is most dependent and hopeless. In great distress, locking the study-door, I sat down to think. First came visions of an auction sale of a few books and scanty furniture; then of notes and protests; finally the promises of G.o.d came into mind. I knew he had promised to supply my wants. "All things whatsoever ye have need of," came home in great power. I am needy, I have given up business, all, to preach the gospel. I remember as "twere yesterday the feelings, the struggles, of that hour. With all earnestness I asked for help in my hour of distress. At last I felt confident that the aid needed would come in time, Sat.u.r.day; this was Monday. I thanked G.o.d for the answer-- and being questioned by a needy creditor of that afternoon, a.s.sured him that his money would be ready.
"Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday pa.s.sed--no sign, but faith said G.o.d will not fail. Friday morning--heart beat fast as I went to the post-office--it seemed as if through its agency the help would come.
Nothing. But it must be here to-day. Returning from the office Friday evening, wondering how G.o.d would send deliverance, I saw on my table a long official envelope. A cla.s.smate preceding me at the office had brought it. A letter from a gentleman in Wall street whom I have never seen. On Monday, he casually asked of a tea-broker, an acquaintance, if he knew of any one in H----. The broker mentioned, after a little thought, my name.
"The letter contained a request for service of a peculiar sort, connected with some legal matters, contained money and promise of more.
_Over three times the sum I asked G.o.d for was finally given. More than enough for a term"s expenses_.
"I never mentioned the matter of my need at that time to a human being, nor spoke of the prayer. I have always thanked G.o.d for that, and am sure he provides for me in accordance with his promise."
HE HEALETH THE SICK.
"The wife of Deacon W. was sinking rapidly with pneumonia. Friends gave up all hope of her recovery, and even the hopeful physician felt that he was hoping against hope. In his despair the husband bore the case directly to G.o.d; he sought the prayers of his minister and of the church; and he asked all Christians to pray that the mother of his little children might be spared. She lingered between life and death for several days, when unexpectedly to many, she began to gain strength, and in due season was about again. This was several years ago, and she has been an active worker in the church and Sunday-school ever since."
A POWERFUL DREAM.
"My father, a minister of the gospel, was prostrated by sickness. A large family of little ones was dependent upon him for support. Funds ran low. One evening my mother remarked that she had broken the last dollar. My father lay awake most of the night, praying to his G.o.d for help in this emergency. That same night a man in a parish not many miles distant was much impressed by a dream. He dreamed that a minister who preached in his church not long before, was sick and in want. He knew neither his name nor his place of residence. He arose at the first dawn of day, and going to his own pastor inquired the name and address of the stranger who had recently preached for them. These obtained, he mounted his horse, and knocked at our door just as my mother drew up the window-shades. She answered the knock, when, without a word, a stranger placed an envelope in her hand and immediately rode away. The envelope contained a ten-dollar bill, which we all believed was the Lord"s answer to our father"s prayer. Afterwards these facts were disclosed by the pastor to him whom the Lord chose to disperse his bounty."
ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE.
"In 1874, through Providence, I became sore pressed to provide for myself and family; two of my children had just begun to learn to read. I was desirous to procure for them the "N.---," (a children"s journal,) but I could not see how I was to pay for it and meet other obligations.
So I carried it to our Father in heaven, asking if it was best and according to his will my children should get the "N.---." In about ten days afterward I received a note from a lady friend, with whom I or none of our family had had any communication for weeks, and in that note she advised us that her little daughter, the same age as our second, had sent as a Christmas gift a subscription for the "N.---," to be sent to our Mary"s address. "If ye abide in me, and my words in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you.""
CASTING ALL YOUR CARE ON HIM.
"Once, soon after the death of my husband and the loss of all his large property, I had a bill of _fifty dollars_ to pay, and was notified two weeks beforehand that not a day"s grace would be given. Besides what I was earning by my pen, I had due me, in a neighboring city, just the amount I should need--the income on my only remaining piece of real estate; and, as my tenant was always prompt, I wrote to him where to send me the money, and gave the subject no farther thought. But, when the time for his response was already past, and I heard nothing from my debts, and but a few days to the time of my own need yet remained, I felt anxious and sought divine direction as to the course I ought to pursue. Rising from my knees, I took up my Bible, and the very first words my eyes rested upon, were these: "Casting all your care upon Him, for he careth for you." All anxiety from that hour left me; but I felt impelled to apply to a certain editor for the payment of _twenty dollars_ he owed me, and I felt sure the other thirty would come from somewhere.
"So the days pa.s.sed until the morning of the day upon which I should be called on for the fifty dollars, and _still I had not a single dollar_ on hand to meet the claim. At ten o"clock my creditor came, but half an hour before him the postman had put into my hand a letter containing a check for _fifty dollars_, the exact amount I needed. It had come from the editor to whom I had applied for twenty dollars, and lo! he had sent me fifty. The thirty advanced he said I could give him credit for on my next MS. He did not know my need, but G.o.d did, and thus He had answered my prayer."
IN EVERYTHING MAKE KNOWN YOUR WANTS.
"Six years ago, on the low country of South Carolina, a friend asked me to go with him to a camp-meeting. I was delighted with the idea, for, in my estimation, a good camp-meeting comes nearer heaven than any other place on earth.
"Just three days before we were to go, an unexpected circ.u.mstance connected with his business, made it impossible for him to leave. It was with real heartfelt sorrow I heard of it. The day before we were to have started, as I saw another member of the family, who was going with a friend, packing her trunk, it seemed to me I could not bear it. I carried my trouble to my dear heavenly Father, begging him to send me a way to go.
"I rose from my knees with the sweet a.s.surance in my heart my prayer was heard--packed my trunk and waited patiently. When night came and the men came home, in the place of the expected buggy came a small spring-wagon, and a seat for me. What may seem more remarkable, the change between buggy and spring-wagon was made ten miles away, while I was praying.
"I believe I enjoyed the meeting more for the feeling of thankfulness that pervaded my whole being while there."
THE GREAT PHYSICIAN.
"Nearly five years ago, after a decline of almost two years, I was brought very near to the grave. Medical aid availed nothing. I was fearfully emaciated, and my death was daily expected. A devoted mother and a sister, who had watched over me tenderly during my long illness, were completely exhausted.
"I determined to apply to the Great Physician, as directed in James 5:14. As I united with others in prayer, unconsciously I uttered these words, "I shall yet praise Thee in the great congregation." All present felt a.s.sured that it was the will of G.o.d to restore me to health.
Appearances were against me; for some time I could sleep but very little, and there was no perceptible gain. But trusting in the sure promise, the next Sabbath I rode a short distance to church, and, as I thus ventured out little by little, my strength gradually returned. A few months later, my mother, who through disease had been in a state of despair for some years, was enabled again to hope in G.o.d"s mercy."
SHALL SAVE THE SICK.
"I was desperately ill. My physicians had done all in their power, without success--and yet I lived! For my father"s sake, the hearts of hundreds waited the issue, and prayed for me! For his sake, the bells in the neighborhood were tied--the criers did not come within sound of the house--nor was the sound of wheels heard upon the street. There was a death-like stillness without and within.
"The physicians sat with folded hands and wept, because the blow seemed too heavy for my father to bear--the thought that I was going to die without any a.s.surance that I trusted in my Saviour!
""It cannot be," he said, "I will wrestle with my G.o.d until He hears me!" Sunday came. In almost every church a special prayer was offered for my recovery. After morning service, a band of devoted women met, and offered fervent prayers that G.o.d would spare my life. Evening came--the weary doctors went home, leaving the last sacred moments to my parents.
Early next morning they came again, and exclaimed, as they entered the room, "She is better! Prayer has saved her!" I still live, "a spared monument of G.o.d"s mercy.""
ALL-SUFFICIENT FOR ALL NEED.
"I am a mother of seven children. By the help of our Father in heaven, we have all of us gone regularly to church and Sunday-school. We are poor; and at length the time came we were not clothed so we could comfortably go to church. I earnestly asked our Father to show me, within a week, which was right for us to do: to go in debt for clothes, or stay at home. Within that week, I received a large package of ready-made clothing. The clothing came from a source I never thought of receiving anything from."
A VERY PRESENT HELP IN TROUBLE.
"At one time, during a season of adversity, there was urgent occasion for a certain sum beyond the income of the family, and there was no way of borrowing it. I took the matter to the Lord in prayer, asking Him, if the money were really needed, as it appeared to be, to send it, and, if it were not, to remove the distressing circ.u.mstances. The answer came in a sum five times the amount asked for, and in a manner totally unexpected."
"At another time, the mother of the family was very ill, and, when apparently near death, the physicians had ordered a remedy which was to be constantly employed, as her life, so far as they could judge, depended on its use. One night, her symptoms became so alarming as to compel the writer (who had charge of the nursing) to use this remedy more freely than ever, and, about midnight the supply was exhausted.
There was no possibility of obtaining any more before morning, and the rest of that night, while attending to the other directions of the doctors, I spent in one earnest, agonizing prayer that G.o.d would so overrule natural causes that death would not occur in consequence of what I felt to be my own culpable carelessness in not having provided a larger quant.i.ty of an article so necessary. In His great mercy, He granted the prayer, the dangerous symptoms did not increase during the seven or eight hours that intervened before the remedy could be procured. One proof that it was a special mercy, is found in the fact that there was no other such standing still of the disease, either before this or afterward. And the doctors were astonished when they saw that the disease had made no progress, under conditions that rendered that progress inevitable in the usual law of cause and effect. And when, on her final recovery, Doctor Parker told her that she owed her life to the good care I had taken of her, my thoughts went back to the long hours of that night of anguish, and I said, "It was the Lord that took care of her." "I meant your care, under Providence," was the reply."
HE SHALL DIRECT THY PATHS
"I am a teacher by profession, and, a few years ago, I found myself placed in a school whose every surrounding was utterly repugnant to my tastes, and to all my ideas of right and wrong and what good teaching should be. At first, I kept hoping that things would grow better, and that I should, at least, be able to have some influence on the modes of teaching; but I soon found that everything connected with the establishment was directed by the iron will of an unscrupulous and tyrannical woman, whose laws were as irrevocable as those of the Medes and Persians. I at once decided I could not stay there long, but I had no other position in view, and it was not easy to secure one in the middle of the term. As usual, I made it a subject of prayer, and the result was that, in a short time, I was most unexpectedly, and without the least solicitation on my part, offered a much better position, in every respect, which, of course, I was only too thankful to accept. That is only one instance, out of thousands I could name, where G.o.d has heard and answered my prayers, and I believe He will do so to the end."
HOW THE LORD IS CONSTANTLY CARING FOR HIS TRUSTING POOR.