The storm increased rather than diminished in violence as night came on, and when Mr. Carleton and his wife entered the church, they found that the sexton had lighted and heated only the small room. But this was large enough to hold the bare dozen who had braved the storm for that hour of prayer. Two of the deacons and their wives, three young ladies who had recently joined the church, the sexton and his wife, with Mr. and Mrs. Carleton made eleven. Who was the twelfth? Will you believe it? It was Ray Branford. Never before had he attended a Friday night prayer meeting at the First Church; and now to be out in all that storm! It seemed easy enough to account for it, when he explained to Mr. Carleton, as he shook hands with him, that a neighbor had been taken suddenly sick and he had come up for the doctor. The doctor wasn't at home, and wouldn't be for an hour; and as he was going to ride back with him to the Forge, he thought he might as well come in to the prayer meeting and wait there, as over at the doctor's office. This was the _human_ explanation of it; but up there in heaven they would have told you it was a _providence_ of God. Mr. Carleton was very informal in that service. He took his chair right down near his little audience, and opening his Bible he read a few verses from the forty-third chapter of Isaiah, and then called on Deacon Blake to pray. This good brother was one of those who are so rare, who know how to come directly to God and tell him just what they need. When he had done that, he stopped. It was a very brief prayer, almost as brief as that of Bartimeus when he asked the Lord for sight; but all of that little company felt they had been lifted right into God's presence, and that he knew, and would give them just what they needed most. Then they sang a familiar hymn, after which Mr. Carleton, still sitting in his chair, gave them a brief talk. "There is one verse here in this passage I have read," he remarked, "that I want you all to notice, 'Fear not: for I have redeemed thee; I have called thee by thy name: thou art mine.' This, of course, applies first to God's chosen people Israel; but secondly, to the spiritual Israel, and thus to each child of God. Every one of us here to-night, if he belongs to Christ, can claim the words. "The child of God is admonished to fear not--to let nothing trouble him--neither life's trials nor death itself. He of all men should have no cause for alarm. The reason for this is threefold. God has redeemed him; has called him by name; has declared, 'Thou art mine.' This is not a mere repetition of thought. There is a gradation and a climax. To be called by name is more than mere redemption; to have it declared that 'thou art God's is more than the calling by name. There are three steps, and they are progressive--first, redemption, then intimacy, and last, identity; for Christ and his disciple are one."