Part 1.
SARAH COLLSTON was a widow with six children, who lived in a small cottage in a village in Y.
She was highly esteemed by all who knew her, for her unflinching faith in God; and her many friends, whether rich or poor, seemed to believe that Sarah’s prayers found special favor with God, her Father. One reason for this persuasion was that she was always ready to aver that God would never fail any soul that really trusted in Him, no matter how dark the hour might be through which He let His child pass.
At other times Sarah would tell her visitors of marvelous answers to prayer. One of the most remarkable shall be given to our readers in her own words. We had called on Sarah one winter’s day, and when seated by the fire we begged her to give us a few incidents from her past life.
“I will do it with pleasure,” she replied, “because nothing gives me greater joy in my soul than telling of God’s goodness, which has followed me continually. You see I was the child of godly parents. There never could have lived a better man than my father, or a truer Christian than my mother. We were a large family, and wages in the country were low. Father was a weaver, before the days of strikes, and when machinery was unheard of at the mills; but mother managed to bring us up in an honest, clean, godly way. We were poor: there is no denying it, and many a time I have known mother very hard put to. Often she would go short herself that we children might have more. Yes, and to be host, there has been many a morning when, with all her managing, we have gone hungry to work or to school. But you never heard either father or mother let out a word of complaint.
“From my earliest recollection, I used to notice that when the neighbors grumbled, my parents did not; but at morning or evening prayer they would just tell the Lord all, and then leave their trouble, whatever it might be, with Him. I never remember a Sunday when we did not go with our parents to church, morning and afternoon. At night, father or mother stayed in with us in turns. Ah! those Sunday nights were fine! The Bible and hymn book were brought out: we sang some hymns together; then the Bible was read and we prayed. I say we, because as we children grew old enough to understand what prayer was, we used to offer our own little requests to God. Yes, as I look back to those days, I bless God for such parents.”
“In course of time, I took a class in the Sunday school, and it was there I met George Coulston. George was not my first lover, there was more than one who spoke to me or to father, but I always said ‘No’, because they knew nothing of having passed from death unto life, and I made up my mind from the day of my conversion, at the age of sixteen, that I would never be unequally yoked with an unbeliever. I knew what the apostle’s warning meant, and never gave any of them a second thought. But when George Coulston came along it was different. He knew what it was to have his sins forgiven, and we were married. There are some now-a-days, who would smile at me going to be married in a print dress, but we had no fine clothes for our wedding. Instead of that, we put a few things in a tiny cottage, which were all paid for, and began life in the fear of the Lord.”
“By-and-by the children came, and then we felt the shoe pinch as wages fell lower, and machinery was brought into the mills, but we stuck to God’s Word, and tried with His help to walk in His ways.
“There were many times when things went awry, and trouble pressed on us, and there were times in our lives, when we were tempted to say with Jacob, ‘All these things are against me,’ but that is where we make the mistake, we just look at things as they appear to us, and we forget He sees the other side. You know a weaver sees the wrong side of the fabric; it’s the other side which comes out all right; so God sees the other side, and so shall we, some day. George and I used often to sing in the dark times. Aye, He can keep us singing, when, but for Him, we would be sighing and grumbling.
“This was one of our hymns,
‘His every word of grace is strong
As that which built the skies;
The voice that rolls the stars along,
Speaks all the promises,’
and we always proved Him true to His word.
“George went home quite suddenly. He was taken bad in the mill, and only got into the house in time to say good-bye to me. He died, as he had lived, loving and trusting in his Saviour. ‘God won’t fail thee, Sallie,’ he said, ‘He will be a Friend to thee, and a Father to the children.’”
ML 11/04/1917