"Born of the Spirit;" or, Gems from the Book of LifeOsborne, Zenas
Religion
"Born of the Spirit;" or, Gems from the Book of Life
Osborne, Zenas
Free Methodist Church of North America; Osborne, Zenas
could not work, nor eat, nor sleep, and with this impression, came
the thought that, wife, or my first born son was very sick. I had
received a letter from my wife only the day before, stating that
they were well and did not expect me home for at least six weeks.
This impression came on me about four o’clock in the afternoon. My
feelings were so intense, that I arranged my affairs, took the stage
early the next morning, rode fifteen miles, and took the express
train for Albany, where I remained all night, or the rest of the
night, as we did not reach there until eleven o’clock. That was a
night of intense anxiety, and mental suffering, for it seemed to
me that my wife or child was very sick, nigh unto death. Imagine
my feelings as I stepped from the cars on arriving at Canaan four
corners, when one of my neighbors approached me with this question,
“Mr. Osborne, is your boy alive?” The same hour of the day when the
impression came on me, my dear wife was washing, she dipped out a
pail of scalding water from the boiler, set it down, went out to
hang out some clothes. My little boy, Henry Z., went up to the pail,
pulled up his dress, and put his foot in this pail of scalding hot
water. He screamed. His mother rushed into the house, took the boy
from the pail; but oh, what a sight! The dear child’s flesh drops
off, in places, near to the bone. The boy went into spasms. The
physician had doubts of his recovery. This was an anxious time for my
dear companion; she wrote me right away, but I had not received her
message, but the Almighty had telephoned me most emphatically, and
I obeyed the summons, and found the impression was not a delusion,
but a divine impression. After my dear child had so far recovered as
to be considered out of danger, I returned to my field of labor in
western N. Y. Was it not the Lord that made known to me the serious
sickness at home, and inspired my heart to hasten to the suffering
family? And was it not kind in the blessed Lord, to help in such a
time of need? Truly, God is good, in all His works and ways; and His
loving care is graciously manifested to all the creatures that He
hath made. How much of earth’s storm and tempest we might avoid, if
we would only keep our eyes and our ears open to see and hear what
God would have us see and hear.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account