Читать книгу The Wonders of Prayer - Various - Страница 32

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In about the year 1830, in Central New York, there was a time of great scarcity of provisions. Grain was very high, and difficult to be obtained at any price; and, of course, families of limited means were very much straitened. In one family, the wife and mother of six children, a Godly woman, worked at her trade (tailoress) to the extent of her ability, and prayed earnestly that God would deliver them from pressing want. Husband and children all knew of their need, and of the fervent prayers of the wife and mother for their supply; but no one knew by what means the supply was to come. Every day, as their scanty means were being consumed, the prospect grew darker. On the farm was a large quantity of pine timber. Four miles from there, in the next town, lived a man who needed some shingles; and, casting about him to see where he should obtain a supply, thought he would go and purchase a pine tree, and himself and man go into the woods and work it up into shingles. As he was about starting, the thought occurred to him, "Perhaps they may be in want of wheat flour--a bag cannot come amiss in this time of scarcity." So, putting two bushels in a bag, he proceeded to the next town, entered the house, and made known his errand, saying, "I have brought along two bushels of flour towards paying for the tree, thinking you might be in want of it in this time of scarcity, and I knew you live six or seven miles from the mill, and have no horse." "That is in answer to prayer," said the noble woman; and the husband believed it, though not a praying man. When, at night, the oldest son came in, the mother said to him, "God has answered our prayers, and sent a bag of flour." It is believed that, while this was not miraculous, it was as directly the interposition of God, as feeding Elijah by the ravens; and it was in direct answer to prayer for that special blessing."