I can thus say with thanks, faith was then made perfect in danger, and the Lord was faithful in hearing his child’s cry, and delivered him.

GOD NEVER FAILED HER.

An aged colored woman, lived that life of faith which shines brighter and brighter unto the perfect day.  Born a slave, on Long Island, she was never taught to read, never enjoyed any social privileges; but the God of the widow of Sarepta, who had neither “store-house nor barn,” was her God, and brought her out of the house of spiritual bondage.

She outlived all her early associations; all her children and grandchildren, husband and brother passed on before, leaving her alone in poverty and sickness.  Yet she sat in her little hut, a cheerful, happy Christian; a living witness for God as a covenant-keeper.  Doubting, despondent souls were always glad to visit her, to listen to her simple words of wisdom and gather strength from her invincible trust.  Roman Catholic neighbors persecuted and even threatened her; but in reply to a missionary who remarked that it must be very trying and somewhat dangerous, she said, “Don’t you know the Lord has a hook in the jaws of the wicked, so they shan’t hurt us if we belong to him?  Jesus is always with me; so I’m never alone and never afraid.”

HIS MOTHER’S PRAYER.

A poor sailor, leading a most profligate and abandoned life, whose praying mother followed him like a shadow into and out of his drinking saloons and gambling houses, at last absented himself from home, whenever he was in port.  Her burden, finally, seemed too great to bear, and she resolved to make a stronger effort than ever before, to cast it upon the Lord.  As she knelt, with her heart well-nigh bursting with this desire, she felt a powerful conviction that, at last, she was answered.  For several years the son went on in his wicked career, and the mother sorrowed that it was so, but her soul was no longer laden with fear; she felt the assurance of his conversion, sooner or later.  Again, for several years, she never heard of him, and thought him dead; then she ceased praying for him, and was steadfast in the faith of meeting him in heaven.  But sight was to be given her, as a reward for faith.  He returned, at last, only thirty years of age, but broken down in health, and worn out by dissipation and hardship.  Still unconverted, but, to satisfy his mother, he consented to remain in the room during a visit of the missionary of that district; a man with sufficient tact not to make his efforts obnoxious.  He did not tell the young man he was a sinner and must flee from the wrath to come; he merely presented the love of Jesus; the love that saved to the very uttermost; that waited more patiently than any earthly friend, and forgave more royally.  At first, he listened indifferently, but, at last, burst into tears, saying,