His Gun Refused to Fire—Protected by a Spider’s Web—Food Providentially Provided
TESTIMONIES to the intervening hand of Providence may well be taken from the story of the days when the great Nonconformist body was forming in England, amidst the persecutions and sufferings following the Act of Uniformity, in 1662. Those were “times of trouble” indeed, and the Lord was the refuge of His children.
THOROUGHGOOD'S EXPERIENCE
Nicolas Thoroughgood, a scholar of Cambridge, had been a merchant and a traveler. Becoming a minister, he went out of the state church with the two thousand other nonconforming ministers, and endured privation with them. “In his diary,” says Calamy, “he recorded a variety of remarkable providences in the course of his life, of which he takes notice with great thankfulness.” Here is an account of one of these deliverances:
“At one time, while he was at Monkton, reproving the sin of swearing, one of his hearers, sensible of his guilt, and thinking he was the person particularly intended, resolved to kill him, and in order to do it, hid himself behind a hedge which he knew Mr. Thoroughgood would ride by when he went to preach his weekly lecture.
“When Mr. T. came to the place, he offered [endeavored] to shoot him, but his piece failed, and only flashed in the pan. The next week he lay in the same place and with the same intent. When Mr. T. was come up, the wretch offered to fire again, but the piece would not go off. Upon this, his conscience accusing him for such a wickedness, he went after him, and falling down on his knees, with tears in his eyes, related the whole to him, and begged his pardon. This providence was the means of his conversion; and he became from that time a serious, good man.”—Volume 2, page 76.
KEPT BY A SPIDER'S WEB
An old work, Baxendale’s “Dictionary of Anecdotes,” preserves the following record of the times of 1662. The experience is almost the same as one recorded of a French Huguenot, in the days of the St. Bartholomew massacre.
“A story is related—in connection with the ejectment of the two thousand ministers from the Church of England—of Henry Havers, of Catherine Hall, Cambridge. Being pursued by enemies who sought to apprehend him, he sought refuge in a malt house, and crept into the kiln. Immediately afterward, he observed a spider fixing the first line of a large and beautiful web across the narrow entrance. The web being placed directly between him and the light, he was so much struck with the skill of the insect weaver, that for a while he forgot his own imminent danger; but by the time the network had crossed and recrossed the mouth of the kiln in every direction, the pursuers came to search for him. He listened as they approached, and distinctly overheard one of them say: ‘It is of no use to look in there; the old villain can never be there. Look at that spider’s web. He could never have got in there without breaking it.’”
A GIFT IN TIME OF NEED
Another deliverance of these times is thus narrated in an old volume by an unknown English writer:
“The Rev. Oliver Heywood, B. D., in a time of great persecution, was ejected from Coley Chapel, near Halifax, in Yorkshire. In 1664, a writ came out for apprehending him as an excommunicated person; but he was not taken. He acted with prudence and caution, in order to avoid a long imprisonment, keeping himself private; and it pleased God to protect him from the search of his pursuers. In one of those seasons, being deprived of his income, his family were in great straits. Their little stock of money was quite exhausted, and family provisions were entirely consumed.
“Martha, their faithful servant, who would not desert her master and mistress in their distress, still abode with them, but could lend no more assistance from her little savings. Mr. Heywood still trusted that God would provide; and when he had nothing but the divine promise to live upon, he said,
“When cruise and barrel both are dry,
We still will trust in God most high.”
“When the children began to be impatient, Mr. Heywood called his servant, and said to her: ‘Martha, take a basket and go to Halifax. Call upon Mr. N——, the shopkeeper in Northgate, and tell him I desire him to lend me five shillings. If he will be kind enough to do it, buy us some cheese, some bread, and such other little things as you know we want. Be as expeditious as you can in returning, for the poor children begin to be fretful for want of something to eat. The Lord give you good speed. In the meantime, we will offer up our requests to Him who feeds the young ravens when they cry, and who knows what we have need of before we ask Him.’”
“Martha went; but when she came to the house, her heart failed her, and she passed by the door again and again without going in to tell her errand. Mr. N——, standing at the shop door, called her to him, and asked, ‘Are you not Mr. Heywood’s servant?’ When she told him she was, he said to her, ‘I am glad to see you, as some friends have given me five guineas [about $25] for your master, and I was just thinking how I could send it.’ Martha burst into tears, and told him her errand. Mr. N—— was much affected with the story, and bade her come to him if the like necessity should return.
“She made haste to procure the necessary provisions, and, with a heart lightened of its burden, ran home to tell the success of her journey. When she knocked at her master’s door, which now must be kept locked for fear of constables and bailiffs, it was presently opened. Upon her entering the house, the children eagerly examined the basket, the patient mother wiped her eyes, and the father, hearing the servant’s narrative, smiled, and said: ‘The Lord hath not forgotten to be gracious. His word is true from the beginning. “They that seek the Lord shall not want any good.”’ Ps. 34:10.”
Always and everywhere, in prosperity or in trial, the history of God’s providences bears witness that there is access by faith to a Father in the heavens, whose tender mercies are over all.
