Snails in the Ark

To many who with despondency protest that they have not faith enough, get along so slow, are too weak, &c., the following sharp retort of Hick will prove a bright lining to their dark cloud of failing, and lead them to plod on in prayer.

“To a gentleman laboring under great nervous depression, whom he had visited and who was moving along the streets as though he was apprehensive that every step would shake his system in pieces, he was rendered singularly useful. They met, and Samuel, having a deeper interest in the soul than the body, asked: ‘Well, how are you getting on your way to Heaven.’”

The poor invalid, in a dejected, half desponding tone, replied, “But slowly I fear,” intimating that he was creeping along only at a poor pace.

“Why bless you Bairn,” returned Samuel, there were snails in the ark,^’

The reply was so earnest, so unexpected, and met the dispirited man so immediately on his own ground, that the temptation broke away, and he was out of his depression.

It was a resurrection to his feelings, inferring that if the snail reached the ark and was saved, he too, “faint yet pursuing,” might gain admission into heaven.