at I should become such a man's
wife. But I had one enlightening qualification for the position. I
loved William. I was called to that as he had been called to the
ministry. And now, as I laid my face against his as the rose lies
above the coffin lid, I was concerned only for William's peace.

"William," I challenged, "have you been doing wrong? Something really
and truly wicked?"

"I must have," he replied with egregious sincerity, "but I thought I
had been observing all my obligations with particular care."

"Then it's all right," I said. "God would not trifle with you about
the witness of His Spirit, especially at such a time as this!"

It was not often that I showed such boundless confidence in the Lord's
ways, and I was indeed far from feeling as familiar with them as I
pretended. But the affectation comforted him and certainly it was no
injury to the Maker of the heavens and the earth. William fell asleep
at once and awakened in the proper protracted-meeting frame of mind
next morning.

Many times afterward he experienced the same catastrophe, and these
have been the only occasions in my life when I have put on the whole
armor of God so that I might go forth properly to battle with the
powers and principalities of William's darkness.

I used to wonder a great deal in those days about "the witness of the
Spirit." Before my marriage I had heard little of it. I wanted to
know what it was, but I never prayed for it myself. The thought
occurred to me that what William called the witness of the Spirit might
be the shoulder tap of his own spirit approving him now and then. But
then came the deeper question, How did William come by his own spirit,
that part of him which was neither flesh, nor bone, nor blood, but
which had the power to make him sit up in the middle of the night to
pray, and to make him fast maybe all the next day? At last I reached a
comforting conclusion. That is one peculiarity of the human, he never
rests upon any other kind of conclusion. What he thinks may be so, but
if it is not comforting he thinks further on into the daybreak of
Eternity till he gets something better, more satisfactory for his
needs. This is why we shall always keep on finding God. There is
something lacking in us to which God only answers. The conclusion I
came to was this, that we are not all called to do the same things,
that William was called to preach and pray, and the witness of his
Spirit approved