face,
and felt she would be so frightened and shy and bewildered; and we
longed to know something about those last hours. But one of the heathen
women who had been about her at the last told what she knew, and our
friends wrote what they heard. "She said she was Jesus' child, and did
not seem afraid. And she said that she saw three Shining Ones come into
the room where she was lying, and she was comforted." Oh, need we ever
fear? Little Lala had been with us for so short a time that we had not
been able to teach her much; and so far as any of us know, she had heard
nothing of the ministry of angels. We had hardly dared to hope she
understood enough about our Lord Himself to rest her little heart upon
Him. But we do not know everything. Little innocent child that she was,
she was carried by the angels from the evil to come.
Old Devai keeps a brave heart. When she comes to see us, she cheers
herself by nursing the cheerful little people she brought to us, small
and wailing and not very hopeful. She is full of reminiscences on these
occasions. "Ah," she will say, addressing an astonished two-year-old,
"the devil and all his imps fought for you, my child!" This is
unfamiliar language to the baby; but Devai knows nothing of our modern
ideas of education, and considers crude fact advisable at any age. "Yes,
he fought for you, my child. I was sitting on the verandah of the house
wherein you lay, and I was preaching the Gospel of the grace of God to
the women, when five devils appeared. Yea, five were they, one older and
four younger. Men were they in outward shape, but within them were the
devils. I had nearly persuaded the women to let me have you, my child;
and till they fully consented, I was filling up the interval with
speech, for no man shall shut my mouth. And the women listened well, and
my heart burned within me--for it was life to me to see them
listening--when lo! those devils came--yea, five, one older and four
younger--sent by their master to confound me. And they rose up against
me and turned me out, and told the women folk not to listen; and you--I
should never get you, said they; and so it appeared, for with such is
might, and their master waxes furious when he knows his time is short.
But the Lord on high is mightier than a million million devils, and what
are five to Him? He rose up for me against them and discomfited
them"--Devai does not go into secular particulars--"and so you were
delivered from the mou
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