A Recovery from a Death-Bed

“Some forty years ago, in a rural parish in New England, a young man lay apparently on his death-bed with a putrid fever. His aunt, in whose family he was string, was a woman who had long lived in habitual intercourse with the unseen world through prayer. One afternoon, when it seemed to those around him that the sick one must die, she went away alone to speak with God. With intense earnestness she pleaded for the young man’s life. And, being deeply interested in the portion of our country then beginning to be settled, she asked also that ho might become a home missionary at the West. There were various circumstances which made this latter request, as well as the other, seem very unlikely to be fulfilled. And yet it was. The young man recovered, pursued a collegiate and theological course, and still lives and labors as a most devoted and useful Christian pioneer. More than once he has been a member of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, and his name is familiar to many.”