Scripture Verse

Introduction

Anecdote

Some years ago, writes Mr. James A. Wat­son, of Black­burn, Eng­land, I oft­en vis­it­ed one of our adult Sun­day-school schol­ars who had just been brought to the know­ledge of the Sav­iour…She heard a gos­pel of full and free sal­va­tion, em­braced it, and grad­u­al­ly be­came a faith-filled, con­sis­tent Chris­tian. She was laid low with a ser­i­ous ill­ness, but it was al­ways a plea­sure to vis­it her.

On one oc­ca­sion she told me that the ev­en­ing be­fore, when she had been left alone for the night, a cloud came ov­er her spir­it, the sense of lone­li­ness grew up­on her, and she seemed for­sak­en of God.

All looked black, and she dread­ed the long, lone night. This was a most un­u­su­al thing and she won­dered why it should be so.

Just then, in the qui­et night, she heard steps on the flags of the foot-way. A man wear­ing the clogs of the fac­to­ry op­er­at­or was com­ing along, ev­i­dent­ly re­turn­ing late from some re­li­gious meet­ing. He was full of joy, for be­fore he reached the house where my schol­ar was lay­ing awake, he struck up in a joy­ful and loud song, Art thou wea­ry, art thou lang­uid?…

The sing­er, an an­gel in clogs, went on his way, sing­ing aloud out of a full heart; but deep down into the heart of the lone­ly wo­man went the words, Be at rest! Again she cast her­self up­on the Lord; the cloud part­ed, peace and rest filled her heart, and she doubt­ed no more.

Sankey, pp. 115–16