IT is stated in the “Life of Major Vandeleur,” that one afternoon he heard that a man in the arsenal had met with a serious accident; and, as soon as his work there was over, he hastened to the hospital to see what could be done for the comfort of the poor fellow. The doctors had just decided upon immediate amputation of the foot. The man was lamenting, not his own suffering, but the prospect of starvation before his poor wife and little children, if he were to leave the hospital a cripple for life. Arthur earnestly requested the doctors to postpone the amputation until the next day. They did not consider that the delay would involve any serious consequences, and therefore consented to it.
Arthur went home to plead earnestly with God on behalf of this poor man, whose distress had so moved his heart. That prayer of faith met with an immediate answer. The next morning the doctors pronounced the foot to be so much better that there was every reason to hope that it might be saved; and in a short time the man entirely recovered.
But a better blessing still was given in answer to that prayer of faith. “The major spoke kindly,” said he, “and prayed with me, and told me about the Saviour who shed his precious blood for sinners. And then I began to see that I, who thought I had not a friend anywhere, had found two friends, an earthly and a heavenly Friend. I was enabled to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, was delivered from the dominion of sin, and from that hour became another man. There was room for a change; for I had never been to school nor to a place of worship from the time I was ten years of age. I never had a mother’s prayers; and if any one spoke to me about religion, all I did was to laugh at them. As soon as I came out of the hospital I sought opportunity to serve the Lord in setting Christ before those who do not know him, especially the young; and for the last two years I have been a teacher in a Sunday-school, and have found it a blessed work indeed to lead the little ones to Jesus.”