The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. NationNation, Carry Amelia
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The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation
Nation, Carry Amelia
Nation, Carry Amelia, 1846-1911; Social reformers -- United States -- Biography; Temperance -- United States
There was a period of from six months to a year that I was terribly
haunted by a feeling as if hung over a precipice. I was hanging
only by a rope above my head held by a hand out of a cloud. At night or in
the day, it was the same uneasy dread of falling. The precipice below
was black and horrible. There were banks on each side. At last I swung
over, landing on the right side. Oh! the relief!
When I first began to pray in public I was very awkward, never could
make any but what one would call a disconnected prayer, that never seems
to be impressive in an audience.
I asked an old-fashioned sister, who I knew was a saint, to tell me
what was wrong in my testimony. "I do not have liberty when I speak."
She said: "You do not praise God enough." I began to pray for a spirit
of praise. Shortly after this I was at prayer-meeting, was praying for
a spirit of praise. It was put in my mouth I rose to my feet and
began to say: "Praise God; Praise God!" repeating it over and over.
Oh! how sweet to use and hear those words! I could scarcely repress the
impulse to use them all the time. For a long time after this, when the
Bible was read or testimony struck me as being just right, I would audibly
say: "Praise God!" This was a "gift", for I had never felt the
impulse before. I have in a measure left this off, but I use it all the time,
when I hear good news, or see what pleases me. "He led captivity (sin)
captive and gave GIFTS unto men." Ever since I received the "baptism of
the Holy Ghost," I have liked one church about as well as another. I go
to all even the Catholic. I fast on Friday and use the sign of the cross.
Fast, because my Savior suffered in the flesh on Friday; use the sign
of the cross, because in the cross is salvation. Meditations on the cross
always lift heavenward. 'Tis the royal way, I want to keep it always in
view, want it to be the last I see. We who bear the cross continually in
this transient life, will wear the crown continually in the eternal. I love
a picture of the cross or a crucifix. I am debtor both to the Jew and the
Greek. I do not feel the dislike to the Catholic church that some Protestants
do. I believe there are as many honest priests as there are other
ministers. God's church is invisible to the world, for it is set up in the
hearts of the children of men. I have been greatly edified by conversing
with Catholic priests. When I lived in Texas my spiritual condition was
such that I wanted some explanation. I went to see Father Hennesy, of
Houston, I explained to him my strange leadings, he said a wise and
good thing, told me to "read the scriptures and pray and God would lead
me right."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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