Notwithstanding the many trials and difficulties, Andrew continued firm in his attachment to the Sabbath, and some time after, his faith was greatly increased by the following circumstance. The country, in many parts, was still a dense and unbroken forest, and much of the labour of these early settlers was to clear away the superabundant wood. In this employment Andrew was engaged one first-day, when his neighbours were all gone to the Dunker meeting. He was piling and burning brush, which, at that time, formed the material of all the fences, upon his own and the contiguous estates. After he had been at work for some time, the wind rose to a smart breeze, and the fires in a very few minutes became unmanageable. On they went, crackling and roaring; the fence on one side of the lot took fire, whence it spread with rapidity, and was in a fair way to communicate to the home establishment of his neighbour. Andrew saw plainly enough that notwithstanding all his efforts to the contrary, the whole must inevitably be burned before human help could be obtained, unless Providence would interpose. In this extremity he threw himself upon his knees, his face and hands blackened with smoke and ashes, and cried out in the deepest tones of supplication, "Oh Lord, if it be from thee that I keep the seventh day for a Sabbath, and labour on this day, according to thy law, do thou stop this fire." While he thus prayed the wind veered suddenly, and took the fire in altogether another direction, so that it became easily manageable. The skeptic may sneer at this, but the Christian will remember that God is omniscient, that He holds the winds in his fist, and moreover that He has promised to hear and answer prayer. This remarkable circumstance Andrew improved, by vowing unto the Lord to be steadfast in his law, and to make his house for ever a house devoted to the servants and the service of God,—a vow which the Almighty seems to this time to have accepted. But for years after this, Andrew was the only master and minister in his house devoted to God; but he steadily maintained divine worship upon the Sabbath, and not without success, for he had the happiness of seeing some of his neighbours, one at a time, come and unite with him in serving God.