A BELIEVING PRAYING MOTHER.

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received a letter from her daughter, dated two o'clock on the Sabbath, informing her that on that day, and at that hour, she had resolved to give her heart to Christ, intending to ask admission to the Church at the next communion. Strange to say, at the very moment when the believing, praying mother was writing her application for prayers for that child, she was announcing her own conversion. The mother's strong faith in God, at that moment in lively exercise, was thus honoured.

An invalid in her sick room was asked the question, "Are you a child of God?" The question planted a new thorn in her pillow. She could not rest, but tossed in agony till, early in the morning, the words came into her mind : "Come unto ME, and I will give you rest," and she rested there. She believed the promise, went to Christ, and found rest and salvation in Him. Then she could realize that by faith in Jesus she was one of God's adopted children.

Trials in various forms are often sent as sweet preliminaries to a work of grace in the soul. "Now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations; that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the

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THE GREAT REFINER'S FIRES.

appearing of Jesus Christ: whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.” 1 Peter i. 6-9.

Fear not then the furnace, for He lights it,
Not to destroy, but only to refine;

To purify the gold, and purge away
The dross, and fit for glory.

Wondrous thought! few amid the throng
Of ransomed spirits have not felt the power
Of the Great Refiner, seated by the fires,
Tempering their fury! ..

Go upwards; pass along their bright array,
And let the blood-bought myriads themselves
Bear living testimony. One can tell :
"Once was I ruining my precious soul;
Eternity was bartered for the baubles

Of a vain, a transient world. God struck me down ;
Blighted my prospects, withered up my gourds,
Laid my clay-idols in their mother dust,
And o'er the precincts of a happy home

Spread the eclipse of death! 'Deep called to deep,'
Tear followed tear, as wave succeeds to wave;

But 'All is well.' Each trial did but sever

The earthly tie, to rivet me to heaven ;
Shivered the reed, to bring me to the rock,
And give to God Himself the creature's place!”

Another one can tell : "I loved my gold;
Deified riches—made my idol Mammon.
God wrote its Verdict: 'Gold which perisheth !'
It mocked the hand which grasped it; but its loss
Led me to value treasure which no time

Corrodes, nor moth corrupts ; laid up in Christ

THE LAND WHOSE ATMOSPHERE IS LOVE. 131

'Riches unsearchable' beyond the wealth

Of worlds!"

66

Another there can tell : The sun

Of earth too brightly shone, and with false glow

The lustre intercepted of a land

Whose atmosphere is love. Upon a couch
Of languishing God laid me; weary days

And nights of pain were mine.

Now for each stroke I praise Him! It was needful discipline

To win my spirit from the shadowy dreams

Of a vain world. The Harp which when on earth,
Broken with sorrow, hung upon the willows,
Tuneless and mute, I now rejoice to sweep

Its new strung chords, to own the faithfulness
And love which wrung each tear-drop from my eye!"

Exceptions rare there may, indeed, be found
To this appointed discipline of Heaven.
Some gentle spirit purified for bliss,

Not in the fire, but by the "still small voice"
Of love, a Jewel for Immanuel's crown

Prepared.

"WITHOUT CHRIST, ALIENS AND STRANGERS,

HAVING NO HOPE, AND WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD; BUT NOW IN CHRIST JESUS, YE WHO WERE FAR OFF ARE MADE NIGH BY THE BLOOD

OF CHRIST, FOR HE IS OUR PEACE."-Eph. ii.

12-14.

CHAPTER V.

REMARKABLE CASES OF

CONVERSION

OF

ATHEISTS, DEISTS, INFIDELS, SCEPTICS, AND OTHER DOUBTERS.

"Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? By no means: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar.”

Romans iii. 3, 4.