A few years ago, a clergyman in London had been invited to visit a
friend for one night in the country in order to meet an old friend whom
he had not seen for long. It was bitter winter weather and he decided
not to go. Walking his parish in the afternoon, he believed that a voice
three times urged him to go. He hurriedly changed his arrangements and
went. The snow was tremendously deep, and the house of his friend, some
miles from the railway station, was reached with difficulty. In the
course of the night the clergyman was roused from sleep by the butler,
who begged him to go and visit a groom in the service of the family, who
was ill and "like to die." Crossing a field path with difficulty, as the
snow was very deep, they reached the poor man's house. He had been in
agony of mind and longed to see a clergyman. When it was found
impossible to fetch the nearest clergyman, owing to the impassable state
of the roads, he had prayed earnestly that one might be sent to him. The
poor fellow died in the clergyman's arms in the early morning, much
comforted and in great peace.
A strangely similar case happened more recently. An American gentleman
travelling in Europe was taken suddenly and seriously ill in one of our
northern towns. The day before this happened, a clergyman, who was at a
distance in the country, was seized with a sudden and unaccountable
desire to visit this very town. He had no idea why, but prayed for
guidance in the matter, and finally felt convinced that he must go.
Having stayed the night there he was about to return home, rather
inclined to think himself a very foolish person, when a waiter in the
hotel brought him an American lady's card and said that the lady wished
to see him. He was the only English clergyman of whom she and her
husband had any knowledge. They had happened to hear him preach in
America. She had no idea where he lived, but when her husband was taken
ill she and her daughter had prayed that _he_ might be sent to them. On
inquiry, strange to say, he was found to be in the hotel, and was able
to render some assistance to the poor sufferer, who died in a few hours,
and to his surviving and mourning relatives.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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