A REMARKABLE DELIVERANCE.
The Lord sent His angel and delivered Daniel from the hungry lions, the three Hebrew worthies from the fiery furnace, and Peter from the cruel Herod's prison.' Does He not still have the same care for His people, or has the angels' commission to encamp round about them that fear Him, and deliver them, been withdrawn? The following remarkable incident shows Him to be ever the same tender, loving Father. The Rev. John Jones, a Welsh Calvinistic Methodist clergyman, was traveling alone on horseback thru a desolate country in North Wales, to attend an annual meeting, and was carrying money which he had collected for building chapels. On his way he met a dangerous-looking tramp, armed with a sharp sickle, who, when he had passed, turned and followed him, trying to keep out of sight, yet hurrying toward a gate which Mr. Jones would be compelled to open and pass thru. When the minister neared the gate, he discovered the tramp hiding near by in the bushes; and being a delicate man, and unarmed, he had cause to fear that he might be waylaid. Stopping his horse, he offered a silent prayer; then he says:— “At this juncture my horse, growing impatient at the delay, started off; when happening to turn my eye, I saw, to my utter astonishment, that I was not alone. There, on my right hand, I beheld a horseman in dark dress, mounted on a white steed. In intense amazement I gazed upon him. Where could he have come from? He appeared as suddenly as if he had sprung from the earth. He must have been riding behind, and overtaken me. And yet I had not heard the slightest sound; it was mysterious, inexplicable. “I described to the stranger the dangerous position in which I had been placed, and how relieved I felt by his sudden appearance. He made no reply; and, on looking at his face, he was intently gazing in the direction of the gate. I followed his gaze, and saw the reaper emerge from his concealment, and run across a field to our left. He had evidently seen that I was no longer alone, and had given up his intended attempt. “All cause for alarm being now removed, I endeavored to enter into conversation with my deliverer, but again without the slightest success. Not a word did he give me in reply. I continued talking, however, as we rode toward the gate, tho I utterly failed to see any reason for, and indeed felt rather hurt at his silence. Only once did I hear his voice. Having watched the reaper disappear over the brow of a neighboring hill, I turned to my companion and said, ‘Can it for a moment be doubted that my prayer was heard, and that you were sent for my deliverance by the Lord?’ Then the horseman uttered the single word ‘Amen.’ Not another word did he give, tho I continued endeavoring to get from him replies to my questions, both in English and in Welsh. “We were now approaching the gate. I hurried on my horse for the purpose of opening it, and, having done so, waited for him to pass thru; he came not. I turned my head to seek for him—he was gone. I was dumfounded; I looked back in the direction from which we had just been riding; he was not to be seen. He could not have gone thru the gate, nor have made his horse leap the high hedges which on both sides shut in the road. Where was he? Could it be possible that I had seen no man or horse at all, and the vision was but a creature of my imagination? I tried hard to convince myself that this was the case, but in vain; for unless some one had been with me,5why had the reaper with his murderous-looking sickle, hurried away? No; this horseman was no creature of mine. Who could he have been? “I asked myself this question again and again, and then a feeling of profound awe began to creep over my soul. I remembered the singular manner in which he first appeared. I recollected his silence, and then again that the single word to which he had given utterance had been elicited from him by mentioning the name of the Lord, and that this was the only occasion on which I had done so. What could I then believe?—But one thing, and that was, that my prayer had been heard, and that help had indeed been sent me at a time of peril. Full of this thought, I dismounted, and throwing myself on my knees at the side of the road, offered up a prayer of thankfulness to Him who had so signally preserved me from danger. “I then mounted my horse and continued my journey. Thru the years that have elapsed since that memorable July day, I have never for an instant wavered in the belief that I had a special providential deliverance.”—Our Dumb Animals.