_From that very moment the fits left her. They never returned; and the child soon entirely recovered_.
Notice the full beauty and instruction of these two incidents: _Little Merrill"s life was saved in answer to prayer; was the means of his father"s salvation, and when he in turn had grown to an age when he could learn of G.o.d, his own prayer was the means of saving his own sister"s life_.
Notice, too, that all earthly available means were used to save each child, but to no effect. Physicians and parents considered the case hopeless, and then committed it to the decision of G.o.d.
Notice, too, that when little Merrill was so sick, that the mother and doctor both prayed, yet it was not until his father had also prayed that the answer came. G.o.d meant to honor the faith of the first two, but was _waiting for the prayer of the third_ ere he granted the request. That child"s sickness was one of the purposes of G.o.d. Notice in the second case, that while father, mother, doctor, the clergyman, and others of the house were all trusting in prayer, yet the Lord _was waiting for the prayer of the little brother_, ere he sent the blessing of relief. Such an incident draws its own conclusion. _Never cease in prayer for anything which is to G.o.d"s honor and glory. Use all the possible means to help G.o.d. Where human means are of no avail, commit it to G.o.d and wait in humble resignation. Ask others to pray, too, for the same object_, that when the answer comes, G.o.d may be glorified before the sight of others as well as your own. When so many are waiting to see if _G.o.d_ will honor his promises, depend upon it, _G.o.d will be found faithful to all his word_.
TRUSTING IN G.o.d"S PROMISES.
"It was a fierce, wild night in March, and the bl.u.s.tering wind was blowing, accompanied by the sharp, sleety snow. It was very desolate without, but still more desolate within the home I am going to describe to you. The room was large and almost bare, and the wind whistled through the cracks in the most dismal manner. In one corner of the room stood an old-fashioned bedstead upon which a woman lay, her emaciated form showing her to be in the last stage of consumption. A low fire burned in the large fire-place, and before it a little girl was kneeling. She had a small testament, and was trying by the dim fire-light to read a chapter, as was her custom, before going to bed. A faint voice called to her from the bed, "Nellie, my daughter, read the 14th chapter of St. John for your Mother." "Yes, Mother," was the reply, and after turning the leaves a few moments, the child began. All that long Winter day that poor mother had been tortured with pain and remorse. She was poor, very poor, and she knew she must die and leave her child to the mercies of the world. Her husband had died several years before. Since then she had struggled on, as best she could, till now she had almost grown to doubt G.o.d"s promises to the helpless. "In my Father"s house are many mansions." "I go to prepare a place for you."
Here the little reader paused, and crept to her mother"s side. She lay motionless, with closed eyes, while great hot tears were stealing down her wasted cheeks. "Mother, He has a place almost ready for you, hasn"t He." "Yes, my child, and I am going very soon, but _He_ will watch over you, Nellie, when Mother has gone to her last home."
"The weeks went slowly by to the suffering invalid; but when the violets were blooming, they made a grave upon the hillside, and laid the weary body down to rest, but the spirit had gone to the home which Christ himself had gone to prepare.
"Years pa.s.sed away. It was sunny May. The little church of Grenville was crowded. I noticed in one of the seats a lady plainly but neatly attired. There was nothing remarkable in the face with its mournful brown eyes, and decided looking mouth and chin. I ransacked my memory to find who the lady was. Suddenly a vision of the poor widow came. This, then, was the little girl, little Nellie Mason. "We will read a part of the 14th chapter of St. John," the minister said. "In my Father"s house are many mansions; I go to prepare a place for you." The slow, deliberate tones recalled me from my reverie, and I looked at Nellie.
Her head was bowed, but I could see the tears flowing like rain."
THE FAITH OF A LITTLE CHILD.
An incident most beautiful was told in the Fulton Street prayer meeting by a converted Jew.
"Journeying in the cars, I was attracted by two little girls, Jewesses.
I asked them if they loved Jesus. To my surprise, they said they did. I found that their mother was in a seat near by. She had attended some of the gospel meetings for Jews, and was interested in them. She said her husband had not been to church or synagogue for eleven years, and she did not know his views on religion. Her two little girls had attended a Methodist Sunday school, and there learned of Jesus. A day or so after, the mother was taken very sick, and remedies failing, the eldest child, a little over eight years old, said: "O Mamma, if you will let me pray to Jesus for you, He can take away your pains and give you sleep." She knelt with her sister and prayed in simple words to Jesus to heal her mother, telling Him that He had so promised to hear prayer. Shortly after, the mother, after long hours of restlessness and suffering, fell into a deep sleep and awoke relieved of pain and much refreshed. She heard from her daughter"s lips the story of her faith in Jesus and love for Him, and then sent for me, begging me to pray for her. I am glad to tell you that she is now a converted woman, a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ."
THE WANDERER FOUND.
A mother sent a request for prayer to the Fulton Street prayer-meeting, that she might hear from him who had long ago left home, and wandered far away. She had been praying very earnestly for him, and soon she wrote that she had just heard from him, and heard too that he had become a Christian and learned to trust in Him.
ARE YOU THERE.
A mother, one morning, gave her two little ones books and toys to amuse them while she went up-stairs to attend to something. A half hour pa.s.sed quietly away, and then one of the little ones went to the foot of the stairs, and in a timid voice called out, "Mamma, are you there?"
"Yes, darling."
"All right," said the little one, and-went on with her play. By-and-by the question was repeated, "Mamma, are you there?"
"Yes, darling."
"All right," said the child again, and once more went on with her play.
And this is just the way we should feel towards Jesus. He has gone up-stairs, to the right hand of G.o.d, to attend to some things for us. He has left us down in this lower room of this world to be occupied here for a while. But to keep us from being worried by fear or care, He speaks to us from His word, as that mother spoke to her little ones. He says to us, "Fear not; I am with thee. I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." "The Lord will provide."
And so we see how certain it is that G.o.d does provide relief in trouble for those who love and serve Him.
G.o.d KNOWS THE BOTTOM OF THE BARREL.
"Mother, I think G.o.d always hears when we sc.r.a.pe the bottom of the barrel," said a little boy to his mother one day. His mother was poor.
They often used up their last stick of wood and their last bit of bread before they could tell where the next supply was to come from. But they had so often been provided for in unexpected ways, just when they were most in need, that the little boy thought _G.o.d always heard when they sc.r.a.ped the bottom of the barrel_. This was only that little fellow"s way of saying what Abraham said when he called the name of the place where G.o.d had delivered him, "Jehovah-Jireh."
G.o.d"S CARE FOR LITTLE CHILDREN IN LITTLE WANTS.
"I was early taught that G.o.d cares for His children, even to regard their _little_ daily wants. An ill.u.s.tration of my implicit confidence, which I do not remember ever to have been betrayed, occurred when I was about ten years of age. I was accustomed to give five cents each Sabbath at the Sunday School collection for foreign missions. This money was not given me directly by my parents; but I was allowed to go on an errand, or to do some little piece of work for a neighbor and thus earn it, outside of the performance of the duties that naturally fell to my lot at home. At one time, when I was attending school about a mile from home, my time out of school was taken up by my walk to and from it and the ch.o.r.es which necessarily fall to a farmer"s boy, so that for some months I had no opportunity of earning anything. One Sabbath morning, I dropped my last silver piece into the collection, with a prayer--which I always offered at such a time--that G.o.d would bless it to the heathen, that some one might be led to Him by it.
"I went home that day with a child"s anxiety, feeling that I could not bear the thought of giving nothing for the heathen on next Sabbath, and yet not seeing how I could possibly obtain it. That night I asked my Heavenly Father to provide the money for me. The anxiety was all gone; for I felt that G.o.d would answer. Next morning, when almost at the school-house, I found a handkerchief in the road, in the corner of which was securely tied a silver quarter and a silver dime. Instantly my thoughts flew to the next Sabbath, and to the prayer I had offered. O, yes! I thought, G.o.d has more than answered my prayer; instead of giving me just enough for next Sabbath, He has given me enough, for seven Sabbaths.
Then the thought came, somebody lost it; yes, it was my duty to find the owner, which I did not expect would be difficult, although it was in town. So I cheerfully gave it up, thinking that "the Lord will provide"
in some other way. I took it directly to my teacher, and asked her to find the owner. She made faithful inquiry, but no one was found to claim it. Who can question this being an answer to prayer, when we think of the numerous _chances_ against its occurring just as it did."
A CHILD"S PRAYER FOR PAPA.
A drunkard, who had run through his property, returned one night to his unfurnished house. He entered his empty hall. Anguish was gnawing at his heart-strings, and language was inadequate to express his agony as he entered his wife"s apartment, and there beheld the victims of his appet.i.te, his loving wife and a darling child. Morose and sullen, he seated himself without saying a word; he could not speak; he could not look up then. The mother said to the little angel at her side, "Come, my child, it is time to go to bed;" and that little baby, as she was wont, knelt by her mother"s lap and gazing wistfully into the face of her suffering parent, like a piece of chiseled statuary, slowly repeated her nightly orison. When she had finished, the child (but four years of age) said to her mother, "Dear Mother, may I not offer up one more prayer?"
"Yes, yes, my sweet pet, pray;" and she lifted up her tiny hands, closed her eyes, and prayed: "O G.o.d! spare, oh! spare my dear papa!" That prayer was lifted with electric rapidity to the throne of G.o.d. It was heard on high--it was heard on earth. The responsive "Amen!" burst from the father"s lips, and his heart of stone became a heart of flesh. Wife and child were both clasped to his bosom, and in penitence he said: "My child, you have saved your father from the grave of a drunkard. I"ll sign the pledge!"
A LITTLE QUAKER BOY"S PRAYER RIGHT OUT IN MEETING.
A little Quaker boy, about six years old, after sitting, like the rest of the congregation, in silence, all being afraid to speak first, as he thought, got up on the seat, and, folding his arms over his breast, murmured in a clear, sweet voice, just loud enough to be distinctly heard on the front seat, "I do wish the Lord would make us all gooder, and gooder, and gooder, till there is no bad left."
WHAT THE LITTLE CHILDREN MAY DO.
At family prayer, little Mary, one evening when all was silent, looked anxiously in the face of her back-sliding father, who had ceased to pray in his family, and said to him with quivering lips, "Pa, is G.o.d dead?"
"No, my child--why do you ask that?"
"Why, Pa, you never talk to him now as you used to do," she replied.
These words haunted the father until he was mercifully reclaimed.
THE UNBELIEVING FATHER LED TO GO TO CHURCH.
An unbelieving father came home one evening and asked where his little girl was. "She has gone to bed," said his wife. "I"ll just go and give her one kiss," said the father, for he loved his little daughter dearly.