She used to go off in these rhapsodies frequently; she had dull prosaic
neighbors, who never got excited over praise or anything else, and
they used to say that old Susan was crazy when she prayed. In alluding
to this she once told me, smiling, that she was going to ask the Lord
to make them crazy in prayer. She thought a little more earnestness
on the subject would be an improvement. Her faith was so strong that
it seemed to have an element of sublimity in it; it was grand! The
extreme poverty in which she lived, and her reliance upon others for
every comfort in life, made her realize her dependence upon our Father
in heaven more strongly than those who live in ease and luxury. She
has often said to me, "I am poor and sick, broken down with hard work,
crooked and bent with rheumatism, my wrists are so weak, and my
fingers so stiff, that I can hardly pick up chips; boys often laugh
at me in the street, because when I bend down I cannot always get up
again; sometimes my fire goes out, and I have nothing to eat until the
Lord sends some kind friend with food. But bless the Lord I am going
home. The Lord is my Father, and in my Father's house there is plenty;
more than enough. Oh, when I get home! Dear Lord, dear Lord! When I
shall reach my home, I shall forget all the troubles I have had in this
poor shanty." Looking at her in her poor room, I have often thought
that if possible, heaven would seem more glorious to her, coming out
of distress and misery, sickness and want, darkness and cold, into the
full blaze of heavenly light.
She was very grateful to those who paid her rent. Of one lady in
particular, she often spoke to me with great affection. She said to me
once, naming this lady: "She is to be paid back every cent." It was
spoken with so much earnestness that I involuntarily looked around
as if I expected to see some one standing there with the money. She
smiled, and told me she had been reminding God of His promise to pay
her debts.
I once called on passing, to leave some dinner for her, she met me at
the door, and insisted on my coming in. "I know'd you was a comin',"
she said, "for I had nothin' t'eat, and I prayed de Lord ter send me
somethin'."
"Well," I replied, "He has heard your prayer, and has sent this to you."
She placed the dish on her stove to keep warm, and then she began to
talk of prayer. "I does pray fur you," she said, "and fur Mr. and Mrs.
L., and Miss C. I prays fur all de world, but the Lord lets us choose
out those who's good to us, and pray fur them most of all. Mr. L. has
been so good, so good to me, never gettin' tired of being good to me,
oh, I do pray fur him!" She paused, and sat thinking a moment, and then
added: "When Aunt Susan stops a prayin', she'll be cold and dead."
"Aunt Susan" was by no means a gloomy Christian, she had a sense of
humor, and was often very quick-witted in reply.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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