It proved to be the case; she was soon led into a glimmering hope, though feeling that she literally carried a burden on her back.  Starting out, one night, to look for a place of worship, she turned her feet to a Methodist meeting from whence the sound of singing had reached her.  In the prayer and exhortation, however, there were words which revealed to her the secret of faith and salvation.  She felt the burden loosen and fall from her shoulders, so sensibly, that involuntarily, she turned and looked for it on the floor.  In a few moments she began to realize the freedom she had gained, and started to her feet in joy and wonder.

Her work then began in her own home, and through her prayers of faith, five members of the Commodore’s own family and an Irish Catholic servant girl, were brought to “Christ, the living way.”  For years her faith was proved by her works; her daily example in the household, her watchings and waitings by the bedside of her helpless husband—­poverty, sickness, perplexities of every sort, but made her hope the brighter, her hold the firmer.  With no dependence for their daily bread but the benefactions of one and another person, sometimes entire strangers, they never knew what it was to suffer actual want, nor did Frances ever believe that her friend would forget her.

REMARKABLE PRESERVATION OF LIFE FROM LIGHTNING IN ANSWER TO PRAYER.

I was riding on top of the Boulder Pass of the Rocky Mountains, in the summer of 1876, when a sudden storm of rain, wind, and furious tempest came up.  There was no shelter from rocks, no trees or buildings to be seen—­a lonely, wind-swept summit.  I knew that the lightning on those high elevations was fearful in intensity.  I was appalled at the prospect before me, but feeling that God had promised to care for his children—­ “No evil shall befall thee or come nigh thy dwelling”—­I composed myself, and though on horseback, with the rain beating in torrents, I offered simple prayer to God that he would save me from the rain and stop it.  But No, it came harder than ever; then I prayed that I might be protected from all danger, “for I trusted in Him!”

I rode on and on for miles, chilly, cold, wet through, the clouds hanging low and the lightning flashing above me, around me, striking near me, constant flashes, peals of thunder; but I was not terrified.  “God must keep me.” Twice I was distinctly struck with the electric flash, detached portions or sparks from the electric cloud, directly in the center of the forehead, but it had no more force than just to close my eyes, shake my head a little, obscure my sight a moment, and then it was all over, and I was clearer, cooler, calmer, happier, and more self-possessed than ever before.  I attribute my protection from peril entirely to prayer, and the fierceness of the tempest and the proximity of danger were permitted by the Lord to try my trust.  Those portions which struck me, if in ordinary times had been given me from an electric battery in a school-room, a shock with sparks only one-hundredth the size, would have killed me.