Part 33 (1/2)
”Early in the morning a gentleman called on his way to business. He wished Johnny's mother to come to his home to take charge of his two motherless boys. She immediately accepted the offer. They were thus provided with all the comforts of a good home. Johnny is a man now, but he has never forgotten the time when he prayed so earnestly for his daily bread.
”_G.o.d will hear prayer_ is his firm belief. In many ways has he had the faith of his childhood confirmed. He looks to G.o.d as his Father with the same trust now as then.
G.o.d WILL TAKE CARE OF ME.
”When the yellow fever raged in New Orleans, the pestilence visited a Christian household, and the father died. Then the mother was suddenly seized, and knowing that she must die, she gathered the four children around her bed, the oldest being only about ten years of age, and said to them that G.o.d was about to take her home to heaven. She urged them to have no fears, and a.s.sured them that the kind, heavenly Father who had so long provided for them would surely come and take care of them. The children, with almost breaking hearts, believed what the dying mother had told them.
”She was buried. The three youngest soon followed her, although they received every necessary attention from friends during their sickness.
The oldest, a boy, was also seized by the pestilence, and in an unguarded moment, under the influence of delirium, wandered from his sick-bed out into the suburbs of the city, and lying down in the tall gra.s.s by the roadside, looked steadfastly up, murmuring, incoherently at times, 'Mother said G.o.d would come and take care of me--would come and take care of me!' A gentleman happening to pa.s.s at the time, and hearing the unusual sounds, went where the lad was lying, and rousing him, asked him what he was doing there. Said the little fellow in reply: '_Father died; mother died; little brother and sisters died. But just before mother went away into heaven, she told us to have no fear, for G.o.d would come and take care of us, and I am now waiting for him to come down and take me. I know he will come, for mother said so, and she always told us the truth_.'
”'Well,' said the gentleman, whose kindliest sympathies were stirred by the little fellow's sad condition and his implicit confidence in his sainted mother's pious instructions, '_G.o.d has sent me, my son, to take care of you_.' So he had him carried to his home, and kindly nursed and cared for by his own family. He recovered, and to-day is one of the most useful Christian young men in the far West, where he has fixed his home.”
LAURA HEALED.
”A Christian teacher, connected with a Southern Orphan Asylum, writes _The Christian_, that often when the children were sick, and most of them came to me more or less diseased, I cried to the Lord for help, and He who 'bore our infirmities, and carried our sicknesses,' healed them.
Oh it is so good to trust in the Lord! How much better to rely on Him 'in whom we live, and move, and have our being,' than to put confidence in man, even in the most skillful physician. To confirm and strengthen the faith of the doubting, I send you the following account of the healing of one of our orphans.
”Laura was one of a large orphan family, living on Port Royal Island, S.C. When her mother died, she went to live with a colored woman who made her work very hard, 'tote' wood and water, hoe cotton and corn, do all manner of drudgery, rise at daybreak, and live on scanty food. Laura suffered from want, exposure and abuse. The freed-women of the plantation looked with pity into her eyes, and desired her to run away.
But she replied, 'Aunt Dora will run after me, and when she done cotch me, she'll stripe me well with the lash; she done tell so already.'
”One morning, however, when Laura went to the creek for crabs, a good aunty followed her, and throwing a shawl over the poor child's rags, said, 'Now, Laura, put foot for Beaufort fast as ever you can, and when you get there, inquire where Mrs. Mather lives: go straight to her; she has a good home for jes sich poor creeters as you be.' Laura obeyed, hastened to Beaufort, seven miles distant, found my home, was made welcome, and her miserable rags exchanged for good clean clothes. In the morning, I said, 'Laura, did you sleep well last night?' She replied, 'O, missis, my heart too full of joy to sleep. Me lay awake all night, thinking how happy me is in dis nice, clean bed, all to myself. Me never sleep in a bed before, missis.'
”Laura, then about thirteen years old, came to me with a hard cough, and pain in her side. I put on flannels, gave her a generous diet, and hoped, that with rest and cheerful surroundings, she would soon rally as other children had, who came to me in a similar broken-down condition.
Still the cough and pain continued. I dosed her with various restoratives, such as flax-seed, and slippery elm, etc., but all were of no avail. She steadily grew worse. Every week I could see she declined.
Her appet.i.te failed; night sweats came on; and she was so weak that most of the day she lay in bed. The children, all of whom loved Laura, she was so patient and gentle, whispered one to another, 'Laura is gwine to die; dere is def in her eye.”
”One evening in mid-winter, the poor child's short breath, fluttering pulse, and cold, clammy sweat alarmed me, and I felt sure that unless the dear Lord interposed in her behalf, her time with us was very short.
I lingered by her bed till near midnight in prayer for her recovery. I could not give her up. Again in my own room I poured out my soul in prayer for the child, and then slept. About two o'clock, I suddenly awoke, and heard what seemed a voice saying to me, '_Go to Laura; I can heal her now; the conditions are right; you are both calm and trustful_.'
”I arose quickly, hastened to her room and said to her, 'Laura, do you want to get well?' 'O, yes, missis, me wants to get well.' 'Do you believe Jesus can cure you?' She replied, 'I know he can if he will.'
'Well, Laura,' I said, 'Jesus has just waked me out of a sound sleep, and told me to go and tell you that he _will cure you now_. Do you believe he will, Laura?' 'Yes, missis, me _do believe_,' she replied earnestly. She then repeated this prayer. 'O, Jesus, do please to make me well; let me live a long time, and be a good and useful woman.'
”The burden had rolled off my heart; I returned to my room and slept sweetly. In the morning, Tamar, Laura's attendant, met me at the door, exclaiming joyfully, 'O, I'se so glad! Laura is a heap better, Missis.
She wake me up long time before day and begged me to get her something to eat, she so hungry.'
”From that night Laura rapidly recovered. Her cough abated, her appet.i.te was restored, her night sweats ceased, and in less than a month she was strong and well.”