How The Lord Controls Even The Locomotive And The Railroad Train.


A remarkable instance of how the Lord controlled circumstances for the

detention of one train, and speeded the arrival of the other, in answer

to the prayer of a poor widow, who was in anxiety and distress, is thus

known to the editor of _The Watchman and Reflector_:



"Not long ago an engineer brought his train to a stand at a little

Massachusetts village, where the passengers have five minutes for lunch.

lady came along the platform and said: 'The conductor tells me the

train at the junction in P---- leaves fifteen minutes before our

arrival. It is Saturday night, that is the last train. I have a very

sick child in the car, and no money for a hotel, and none for a private

conveyance for the long, long journey into the country. What shall I

do?' 'Well,' said the engineer, 'I wish I could tell you.' 'Would it be

possible for you to hurry a little?' said the anxious, tearful mother.

'No, madam, I have the time-table, and the rules say I must run by it.'



She turned sorrowfully away, leaving the bronzed face of the engineer

wet with tears. Presently she returned and said, 'Are you a Christian?'

'I trust I am,' was the reply. 'Will you pray with me that the Lord may,

in some way, delay the train at the junction?' 'Why, yes, I will pray

with you, but I have not much faith.' Just then, the conductor cried,

'All aboard.' The poor woman hurried back to her deformed and sick

child, and away went the train, climbing the grade. 'Somehow,' says the

engineer, 'everything worked to a charm. _As I prayed, I couldn't help

letting my engine out just a little_. We hardly stopped at the first

station, people got on and off with wonderful alacrity, the conductor's

lantern was in the air in half a minute, and then away again. Once over

the summit, it was dreadful easy to give her a little more, and then a

little more, as I prayed, till she seemed to shoot through the air like

an arrow. Somehow I couldn't hold her, knowing I had the road, and so we

dashed up to the junction six minutes ahead of time.' There stood the

train, and the conductor with his lantern on his arm. 'Well,' said he,

'_will you tell me what I am waiting here for? Somehow I felt I must

wait your coming to-night, but I don't know why_.' 'I guess,' said the

brother conductor, 'it is for this woman, with her sick and deformed

child, dreadfully anxious to get home this Saturday night.' But the man

on the engine and the grateful mother think they can tell why the train

waited. God held it to answer their prayers."



Think of this wonderful improbability according to natural

circumstances. These trains never connected with each other, nor were

intended to. There was no message sent ahead to stop. There was not the

slightest business reason for waiting, yet the second conductor, on

arrival of the first, asks this question, "_What am I waiting for_," and

the answer of the first is more singular, "I don't know."



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