I AM induced to write one of me happy memories of my life in the believe that it is a joy and an inspiration to Christians to hear of special answers to the prayers of God’s people.
There is a thrill of rejoicing when one realizes more keenly the presence and power of our over-ruling God through some personal testimony.
Sometimes our minds may be exercised by the unanswerable questions submitted to us of the inscrutable dealings of our Heavenly. Father with His children; yet for those whose minds are staved upon Jehovah there is perfect peace and rest.
The true story I am now relating is more particularly a memory of one of my mother’s friends, though also known to me personally. Some years ago, in a small house in the South East of London, there lived a happy family of parents with their three young children. The father was a tutor in a then well-known boys’ college of high repute, where he was much loved and respected.
In the midst of unclouded happiness, and the recent joy of the conversion of their eldest little girl of eight years, came sudden disease and death, the parents and the two young daughters being stricken down with three different forms of fever.
The father and daughters died, and were buried before the young mother was conscious of her great bereavement, as she had been nursed in a separate room and had been in such a critical state that all family news had to be kept from her.
This overwhelming sorrow was met by Mrs. Stannard with the Christian fortitude and faith that she had always shown, and she faced the maintenance of herself and delicate baby boy of three years with absolute trust.
In starting a day school for young children the young widow met with much kindness and encouragement from the parents of the pupils of her late husband, which enabled her to keep on her little home.
Some years later a larger house was rented, and a few boarders received, one of these being daughter-in-law later—to the gentleman who was father of our present daylight saving scheme.
But the solicitous care of the little son, together with the increased responsibilities and struggle to meet the demands of the higher education of her pupils, undermined Mrs. Stannard’s health, and eventually my mother persuaded her to seek medical advice.
Much prayer for guidance was sought, and an appointment duly made with a West-end physician.
When the consultation was over the great doctor said: “All I can do for you madam is to advise you to go at once to a warmer climate and settle there.”
The question naturally asked by the patient was: “But where?” and the answer given in one word was “Melbourne.”
Financially this was impossible advice to follow and the friends faced one another outside the consulting room with the wonder of what it all meant.
Perplexed they returned home, but there the answer was awaiting them, for on the table lay a pre-paid cable from a gentleman living in Melbourne, asking Mrs. Stannard to marry him and if the answer was in the affirmative the passage money would be at once sent.
When a girl Mrs. Stannard had witnessed the wedding of a young friend to a Christian gentleman who had then left England with his bride in uncertainty as to his permanent destination, and therefore it was indeed a surprise to receive this cable in the name of the gentleman whose marriage she had attended so many years previously.
Later news gave the information that Mrs. Eastwood had died a year before the cable had been sent and she had asked her husband to try to find and marry, if possible, the Christian friend of her girlhood in the firm belief that she would be a true mother to her little children.
And so in the loving providing and over-ruling of our God, Mrs. Stannard and her young son settled in Melbourne in a very comfortable home and in a climate where the mother and son enjoyed good health— the delicate boy becoming in time a minister of the Gospel in Australia, and the happy father of six bonny boys and girls.
Mr. and Mrs. Eastwood returned to England a few years later to visit old friends, and we had the great pleasure of reviewing with them the manifold mercies of God, ascribing to Him all praise and thanksgiving. E.K.