A REMARKABLE instance of God’s gracious care for his own occurred some years ago. A poor Christian widow, residing in the county of ―, struggled hard to support her fatherless children, of whom she had several. By the Lord’s blessing on her industry and economy she was not only enabled to affect her object, and to keep herself and them above want and free from debt, but had also managed to put by about thirty shillings towards some domestic want in prospect. A wicked neighbor heard of this, and being an abandoned man, devoid of pity for the widow and the fatherless, he resolved, if possible, to possess himself of the poor woman’s hard earnings. Knowing her character, and that she was as compassionate towards others as she was industrious on behalf of her helpless children, he went to her lone cottage door one very wet night shortly after she had retired to rest, and, knocking loudly till he had awakened her, begged piteously in a feigned voice for shelter from the storm, assuring her that he had traveled far, was wet through, and faint for want of food and rest. She objected strongly against admitting a man at that hour of the night into her house, telling him that she feared the reproach which might be thus brought upon her as a Christian widow; but he begged so hard and told so sad a tale, that moved by pity for him, she resolved to grant his request; and though she had but little food in the house, she purposed to make him welcome to what she had, and, re-lighting her fire, to allow him to sit by it till morning. With these kind intentions she hastily dressed and descended to the door. But, alas for the hard heart of the wretched man who stood without, she had no sooner opened to him, than pouncing upon her like a wild beast, he seized her by the throat to stifle her screams, and threatened her with instant death if she did not tell him where she had stored her little savings. Terrified almost to insensibility by the suddenness and brutality of the attack, she directed him to the place. He secured the money and rushed from the house; but as he turned to leave, it suddenly occurred to him that being well known to her as a neighbor she must have recognized him, and in the morning he would, as a matter of course, be pursued and apprehended for the robbery.
One crime almost invariably brings another, and the thought now arose in his wicked heart that he must dispatch her to secure his own safety. With this fearful intention he returned to the house. The door was still open, for the poor woman had swooned, and lay helpless and unconscious just where he had left her. And now he began to consider how he should effect his purpose. He had no knife or other instrument with him, nothing but a piece of cord. In this he made a noose, and passing it round her neck as she lay on the floor, he looked about him for some hook or place on which to suspend his victim. A beam ran across the room where he stood; but the house was very old, and the wood might be rotten. Should it give way beneath the strain he was about to put it to, his poor victim might so far recover consciousness as to struggle for her life; and his coward heart trembled at the thought of the children being awakened by their mother’s cries, and alarming the distant neighbors. What was to be done? Time was hurrying on, a mistake might lead to his detection and punishment. He would test the beam before he trusted all to its strength. Laying down the cruel cord with which he meant to murder her who had opened her door in compassion for his need, he sprang upwards, and clasped his hands over the beam to ascertain whether it would bear his weight. Yes, it bore him well. It neither bent nor creaked beneath the strain as he swung to and fro some feet above the ground. It would do well to hang the kind-hearted woman who had sought to do him good, and he had only to unclasp his cruel hands and descend to do the fearful deed. Ah, but when he tried to unlock his fingers he could not. No. God had fixed him there, and he could not come down.
In vain he tried to tear his hands asunder; in vain he sought some foothold that he might relieve the weight that locked his tangled fingers fast within each other, and would not let them part. How those cruel fingers that had clutched the helpless woman’s throat so savagely ached! how his wrists and elbow joints and shoulders cracked with the fearful tension, as he hung and groaned in anguish! And the night crept on, and every moment made discovery more certain, while judgment seemed to have already overtaken him. Hardened as his heart was, and dark as his understanding must have been, he could not but perceive that God had interfered to save his child from a cruel death, and had proved himself a husband to the widow, and a father to the fatherless. He would not let the murderous man rob those helpless little ones of their fond, loving mother, whose industrious hand, prospered by his goodness, provided for their wants. He would not let him even take away her hard earnings, the blessing he had given to meet her children’s need. The night passed slowly on, the candle burned down, and flickered in the socket, and died out at last. The poor woman recovering from her swoon, yet half unconscious still, crept away in the darkness to her chamber; but her would-be murderer, writhing in anguish of body and horror of mind, was still fixed to the beam by the just judgment of God, not daring to cry out for help, and stifling his own groans lest his presence should be discovered.
The morning dawned at last; and, found there by the police with the stolen money in his possession, and the too evident purpose of his murderous heart manifest to all, he was eventually transported. Whether it ever occurred to him afterwards, that in interfering so providentially to save his child from death, God also saved him, from the commission of a great crime, and that even the remarkable visitation from which he suffered so fearfully on that never-to-be-forgotten night was really a mercy to his own soul, we know not. But to the heart of the Christian widow it must indeed have been precious to see the loving hand of her gracious Lord thus stretched out to protect her from violence and cruelty; and we may well hope that an interposition so remarkable, was blessed to her children also, teaching them to believe and confide in their mother’s Saviour-God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Blessed be his name!