ld strangle in her last moments, had asked the bystanders to run for
him, her old acquaintance, in the efficacy of whose prayers she had
great faith. The old patriarch was without a coat at the time, but,
unmindful of that, hastened after.

"Mr. White," exclaimed the sick woman excitedly upon seeing him, "I want
you to pray that I won't strangle. I'm not afraid to die, but I don't
want to die that way. I want you to offer a prayer for me that I may be
saved from that. I'm so afraid."

Seeing by the woman's manner that she was very much overwrought, he
used all his art to soothe her.

"Have no fear, Mrs. Sadler, now," he exclaimed solemnly. "You won't
strangle. I will ask the Lord for you, and this evil will not come upon
you. You need not have any fear."

"Kneel down, you," he commanded, turning upon the assembled neighbors
and relatives who had followed or had been there before him, while he
pushed back his white hair from his forehead. "Let us now pray that this
good woman here be allowed to pass away in peace." And even with the
rustle of kneeling that accompanied his words he lifted up his coatless
arms and began to pray.

Through his magnificent phraseology, no doubt, as well as his profound
faith, he succeeded in inducing a feeling of peace and quiet in all his
hearers, the sick woman included, who, listening, sank into a restful
stupor, from which all agony of mind had apparently disappeared. Then
when the physical atmosphere of the room had been thus reorganized, he
ceased and retired to the yard in front of the house, where on a bench
under a shade tree he seated himself to wipe his moist brow and recover
his composure. In a few moments a slight commotion in the sick-room
denoted that the end had come. Several neighbors came out, and one said,
"Well, it is all over, Mr. White. She is dead."

"Yes," he replied with great assurance. "She didn't strangle, did she?"

"No," said the other, "the Lord granted her request."

"I knew He would," he replied in his customary loud and confident tone.
"Prayer is always answered."

Then, after viewing the dead woman and making additional comments, he
was off, as placid as though nothing had occurred.

I happened to hear of this some time after, and one day, while sitting
with him on his front porch, said, "Mr. White, do you really believe
that the Lord directly answered your prayer in that instance?"

"Answered!" he almost shouted defiantly and yet with a kind of