Striking Answer.


The following incidents are specially contributed to these pages by Rev.

J.S. Bass, a Home Missionary of Brooklyn, N.Y.:



"While living in Canada, my eldest daughter, then a girl of ten years of

age, rather delicate and of feeble health, had a severe attack of

chorea, "St. Vitus's dance." To those who have had any experience in

this distressing complaint, nothing need be said of the deep affliction

of the
ousehold at the sight of our loved one, as all her muscles

appeared to be affected, the face distorted with protrusion of the

tongue, and the continuous involuntary motions by jerks of her limbs.

The ablest medical advice and assistance were employed, and all that the

sympathy of friends and the skill of physicians could do were of no

avail. She grew worse rather than better, and death was looked to as a

happy release to the sufferings of the child, and the anguish of the

parents; as the medical men had given as their opinion that the mind of

the child would become diseased, and if her life were lengthened, it

would be an enfeebled body united to an idiotic mind.



"But God was better to us than our most sanguine hopes far better to us

than our fears.



"In our trouble we thought on God, and asked his help. We knew we had

the prayers of some of God's chosen ones. On a certain Sunday morning I

left my home to fill an appointment in the Wesleyan chapel in the

village of Cooksville, two miles distant. I left with a heavy heart. My

child was distressing to look upon, my wife and her sister were worn out

with watching and fatigue. It was only from a sense of duty that I left

my home that morning. During the sermon God refreshed and encouraged my

heart still to trust in him. After the service, many of the congregation

tarried to inquire of my daughter's condition, among them an aged saint,

Sister Wilson, widow of a Wesleyan preacher, and Sister Galbraith, wife

of the class-leader. Mother Wilson encouraged me to 'hope in God,'

saying 'the sisters of the church have decided to spend to-morrow

morning together in supplication and prayer for you and your family, and

that God would cure Ruth.'



"Monday morning came. Ruth had passed a restless night. Weak and

emaciated, her head was held that a tea-spoonful of water should be

given her. My duties called me away (immediately after breakfast) to a

neighbor's; about noon, a messenger came, in great haste, to call me

home. On entering the sick-chamber, I noticed the trundle-bed empty, and

my little girl, with smiling face, sitting in a chair at the window,

(say eight feet from the bed.) I learned from the child that, while on

the bed, the thought came to her that, if she could only get her feet on

the floor, the Lord would help her to sit up. By an effort, she

succeeded, moving herself to the edge of the bed, put her legs over the

side until her feet touched the floor, and sat up. She then thought, if

she tried, the Lord would help her to stand up, and then to walk; all of

which she accomplished, without any human aid, she being left in the

room alone. The same afternoon she was in the yard playing with her

brothers, quickly gained flesh, recovered strength, with intellect clear

and bright; she lived to the age of twenty-two, never again afflicted

with this disease, or anything like it. At the age of twenty-two, ripe

for heaven, it pleased God to take her to himself.



"The sisters, led by Mother Wilson, waited on God in prayer, and God

fulfilled that day the promise--Isaiah 65:24: 'And it shall come to

pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet

speaking, I will hear.'"



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