"The entrance of thy words giveth light: it giveth understanding to the simple.”
IN a small parochial school in the town of —in connection with the Irish Church, there was held a Sunday-school. The superintendent asked a Christian lady, with whom he was acquainted, and from whom I have learned the following facts, to take the first class. This class consisted of eleven grown-up girls, eight of whom since that day have declared themselves on the Lord's side, and are living to Him.
One Lord's day evening, as Miss M—,
the lady to whom I have referred, left the school, one girl, named Jane —, came up to her, and said, "Miss M—, may I walk a bit of the way with you, I have something to tell you so awful, and I want you to pray for the person.”
“Certainly, dear"—was the reply.
On their way Jane, who seemed overwhelmed with her subject, broke out, “Oh I am terrified, I am miserable.”
"What is it, dear?" Miss M—again asked. “Let me hear it, and let us take it to Him, who knows it already, and. who is ever willing, ever able to help.”
“You recollect, Ma'am, the young girl I told you of, the Roman Catholic, for whom you have been praying. Well, you know I told you I used to tell her all the stories you used to tell us, but for the last three weeks she has not been allowed to speak to me; her father and her mother are Romanists; she is their only child; and is dedicated, so they will not let her look at me. I hear, what makes them so angry now is, that Mary wag engaged to a young man in—, whom her family all liked very much.
They were to have been married this month, but he was up here last month, and when out with an acquaintance one evening they passed a large hall devoted to evangelistic services. Hearing singing, of which he was very fond, he said, What are they doing in there'?
“Oh,' replied his friend, some heretic fellow is holding forth, I believe.”
“It would be jolly to look in for a while to hear the singing,' said Robert. What is there to pay?'”
“Nothing,' replied the other, but I do not expect it is worth much.'
“However, they went in. The hymn was over, and a well-known evangelist had just given out the text, which he repeated several times. He that believeth not the Son hath not life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.'
The two young men remained, Robert to pray, his friend to scoff. Robert was saved, and next morning candidly and openly confessed Christ, and then he said,
Mary, you were all the world to me, but Christ is now more; I cannot marry a stranger to Him.'
“From this time Mary has not been allowed to speak to me," continued Jane," but now the worst of all has come. On Friday last, as she was walking down one of the principal streets of the town, she saw a small bit of white paper on the ground, and passed by.
Before, however, she reached the warehouse to which she was going, she felt, to use 'her own words, something within her urging her to go back and pick up that paper. She did so, and found it to be a little card, blank on the one side, but on the other this text, What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Mary read it several times, but never having read the Scriptures she was at a loss to know the meaning of the words. At last she said to herself, Jane can tell me,' and back she came to me, a distance of fully two miles.
“Entering my room in a most agitated state, she said, What does this mean? I know you can tell me.' I read it and replied, It means what it says, 'What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul,' and in a simple way I explained the passage.
“Who said it?” asked Mary hurriedly.
“The Lord Jesus Christ in His own word,” I answered.
“Instantly Mary snatched the ticket out of my hand, and rushed out of the house in a frantic manner. So alarmed was I by her looks, that after some time I followed her, and meeting her mother at her own door, I asked how Mary was, and if I could see her.
“Oh, indeed,' replied her mother, she is a strange creature, I think her mind is going, she is walking up and down her robin like one bewitched. I do not think she could see any one,' and turning round she went in. In fact, Miss M—,"said Jane," I am quite sure she is going mad, do pray for her that the Lord may spare her reason,”
This conversation took place on Sunday evening, and the Lord gave Miss M—to be much in prayer for poor Mary. Again, on the next evening, she tried to pray for her, but no utterance was given her except to praise. At the time this was inexplicable to her, subsequently all was made clear. On Tuesday morning, she received a letter from Jane, saying, "Praise the Lord, Mary is converted. Oh, Miss M—, such a conversion, I had it all from herself.
“It seems that on Friday night, after she left me, she was like a lunatic all the evening, pacing up and down. Her father and mother were in a terrible state, not knowing what to do with her, and very early she went to her own room; saying she would be better next day. She dared not tell them the truth.
“All that night she paced her room in wild agony. To use her own words ‘Everything I looked at, had these awful words written in enormous letters on it, 'Lose his own soul!’
`LOSE HIS OWN SOUL Ceiling, wall, floors; nay my very hands contained them, I was on the eve of madness; I felt it, I did not dare to lie down, or put out the light, I tried to pray to our mother, but the only words that would come were, Lord, help me.'
“Next morning, she came down looking pale and miserable. Father asked me,' she said, `Are you no better? ' I replied, Not much,' He reminded me of a party we were to have on the next night (Sunday), and said, You must be all right for that you know; would you wish to see the doctor? “No I not' I said there is no occasion, I shall be all right by that time.' Again I asked leave to retire early; and did so, but as I closed my door again, the huge letters appeared all around me. It was no fancy, there they stood, ‘Lose his own soul.' That whole night I spent like the preceding one, pacing the room, now and again trying to pray, but I had no words, except Lord help me.'
“Next day, father was very angry because I looked ill and miserable, and said, I must see a Doctor. I said, if I was not better to-morrow I would. The evening came and, ill as I was, they made me go down. I do not know a thing that happened, I only know that the big letters were there, everywhere I looked. I could not shut them out.
“At last I got so ill that I had to leave, and then the company dispersed. I feared my father's anger, but he pitied me, and sent me to bed. During the dancing I remembered an old nurse, I had had when about six years old; she loved me, but she was sent away, because she had told me some heretic things, she was a heretic.
“Oh, I said, if I only knew where Nana is, she could help me, I know.'
“At about 11 o'clock, I heard father and mother go by to their room, and just then I remembered that Nana had left an old torn Bible behind her, which was thrown into a lumber room downstairs. At once the thought struck me that I must get it, and starting down I sought amongst heaps of old rubbish till I found it. Bringing it up, I closed my door, but then it was a big book, and I knew not where to find my text. I laid it on my bed, and falling on my knees, I asked God to show me my text, then opening the book, my eyes fell on these words, 'For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'
“I was awfully disappointed, I expected to see my verse when I asked God to show it to me, and almost angry, I said, ' That will not do.
It is my own verse I want,' and closing the book, I reopened it, but at the same place, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'
“'Again impatiently shutting the Bible,' cried to God to show me my verse. Once more I opened it, and once more I saw, ' God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life!' And this time, indeed. Jane, it was no fancy, it was not the light of the lamp that fell upon the page, but oh, such alight, and the words stood out so, I saw it all, God loved—God gave—and I had everlasting life. I felt bursting, and could only utter a shriek of joy, which brought father and mother into my room.
“They saw what it all meant, they scolded and they threatened. Father took my book to burn, mother wept; but I, I was happy, I had no pale face next day, but felt oh, so calm, I cannot explain it to you, unless you have known it for yourself.”
Miss M—’s heart was filled with wonder and praise as she thus heard the story of God's dealings with this young soul, apparently shut out from all human aid, but whom He had met and taught Himself.
She heard afterward that Mary's parents did all in their power to get her back again to her old carelessness and darkness, and to get, as they said, “these newfangled notions out of her head." Threats failing, coaxing was resorted to. At last, one day her father said, “Well, Mary, I have done my best, and now I shall give you over to Father S—, a Jesuit priest, he will bring you to your senses.”
Accordingly the priest arrived, and he first tried joking, turning it all into ridicule; but seeing this fail, he showed her the folly of vexing her father, who could turn her out to beg her bread in the streets, and as she still remained unmoved, he continued, "He will, too, for it is only right he should."
“Well, Father," replied the young girl," If my father and mother forsake me, I am sure the Lord will take care of me."
“Who told you such rubbish?” asked the priest.
“No one," she replied, "I only feel it.”
“Well, then, if you drive me to it," he said, after two hours vain reasoning, " If you do not give up your nonsense, I shall curse you from the altar, and then you will be friendless as well as houseless.”
“Oh, Father," she answered," take care how you curse one whom the Lord has blessed.”
Thus was the Spirit's sword used by the infant hand of one who did not know she was using it. It proved too much; he left, and commanded her father to turn her out; but in this her father did not obey him, for the old book he had taken to burn, curiosity led him to read, and the Spirit blessing the study of it, the father was truly converted, and not he alone, but his wife with him.
When this became known, the whole family had to leave the country, their lives were no longer safe and they are now residing on a foreign shore—Mary, Robert, and the father.
The mother, shortly after her conversion, went to be forever with the Lord.
“The Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow; and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." A. T.