Children -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Children's stories; Christian life -- Juvenile fiction; Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction
"And I heard her pray for me," said Alice, her voice awe-stricken as
she told of it. "You never heard such a prayer! At least, I never have.
I was not used to hearing people pray for me. And she asked the Lord to
get me ready to sing with the angels. Think how that must have made me
feel! I, who had never thought about angels, and was afraid to die, and
afraid to hear about death! But she prayed more than that. She asked
God to let me sing for some soul that night; sing it a song that would
make it want Christ for a friend. Think of it; I sing for a soul! It
frightened me. I turned from that window feeling all white and faint. I
thought I could not sing at all, and yet I must. But I cannot describe
to you what an evening it was. I could not get away from that prayer.
It seemed to float all about me. Try as I would, I could not put it
aside. What if Auntie Barber's prayer should be answered, and I should
sing some soul into peace with God, and there was I, afraid of Him!
But that last hymn just stabbed me. Standing up there, all alone, and
singing those awful words:
"'Take my voice, and let me sing
'Always, only for my King.'
"It seemed to me that I mocked Him with the words; that I had always
been mocking Him, and I was afraid. I had just found out that it was
a fearful thing to be able to sing. You remember that I called out to
Auntie Barber as she passed, and went away with her? But I said hardly
anything to her that I meant to. I began: 'O, Auntie Barber, you don't
know me. You think I sing for God, but I don't. I've been mocking Him
with just words all my life, and I am frightened, frightened!' She
interrupted me just there.
"'Dear heart,' she said, 'He knows all about you, and he loves you, and
is waiting for you. Come in, and tell Him the whole story.' And she
drew me into that very room where she had prayed for me!
"The rest of the story isn't long to tell," said Alice, smiling on me
with eyes that glistened; "but it will take eternity to live it! I
finished the hymn that evening in Auntie Barber's room:
"'Take myself, and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee!"
And she meant the words.
I wish I had time to tell you the rest of the story about our church
choir. Once more it was reconstructed. He declared that all our singers
were either ill-humored or hysterical, and every one of them flatted.
Then our Boston guest took up the burden. For three weeks she preached
the Gospel to us in song, alone, utterly unsustained, save by the
organist, who bravely held the fort with her. During those three weeks
she worked. She gathered the girls about her—those elements of power in
every church, if they were only understood. "Let us have a new choir,"
she said; "let us take this for our motto:
"'Take my voice, and let me sing
Ever, only for my King.'"
She printed those words in illuminated text, and framed them and hung
them in the choir gallery.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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