The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1866-05-08

t once, aud l never regretted giving up III
e thought then.
$ All, well that brightness was briefe
than those before it. When there sud
{ denly came need for the money we hac
e put at interest it Was gone. Geoffrey hac
= drank it up. That IS what drink makes :
noble, generous. unsel6sh man do.
And there We were, and so it went OIL
worse, always worse-till God did seem
to have torsaken my poor lad butI never
: lost faith.
: l tool; school, then to support US
: Poor little Nanny they had three chill,
dren BY this time and when Nanny wepl
over them, used to hold her to me some
times aud kiss her, poor child and say
"Thank God, Nanny, They're all girls p
4 l believe she did Girls amt SO apt
to fall to drink, you know. Oh, those
days. oh, the shifts we made the sacri.
fees we resorted TO the snIall expcdents
to allure Gcoffrev to stay with US Instead
of going to the dreadful town from which
he almost always came-uot himself! Oh,
the long nights when we walked and,
watched-we two-and walked the floor,
aud prayed. and listened, and got for our
drst sign of his coming the thick sound
of his voice. He always came talking to
himself when he was not right, and oh
the awful voice Ia which a drunkard
speaks!
He was always my brother Geoffrey.
though, my dear, dear brother, crazy with
the drink, but even then kind, and in his
widest freuzies it would calm him quicker
than anything else to put the youngest,
tenderest little child iu his arms. Hc
never hurt it.
Never miud,T cant make you see those
days as | do. | cant make you under
stand how every time he came home 50, even
when.it had become so common our hearts
sank as though it had been the first I
car liken the long pain of those days to
nothing and | believe solemnly before my
Heavenly Father, that, terrible as wasIour
agouy for him, we loved him SO, beside
his our suffering was as a drop to the ocear.
Reader, believe in prayer, I prayed
often, but one day, somehow, con viction
secmcd to come to me that | CROPPED too
much. that | did not give my prayer wings
and send it up even to the Mercy Seat
II seemed to me suddenly that had been
praying to an earthly spirit, instead ol
the great | Am-the Almighty, the Je-
hovah, awful upon his throne; and
kneat right there,and reaching up in that
- i Al
[ took hold of the very horns Of the altar
and that the great and tender heart of the
Divine>t Saviour was reached at last
am telling you real experience
That was how it seemed to me-
But | :rembled while | chung. An
awful awe an oppression seemed to crush
me earthward still, but still L would not
let 90.
Geoffrcy had been away all day, and
night did not b ing hin home. Nanny,
poor child, stole away to the town to look
for him, aad | walked the floor murmur-
ing prayer. | would have given my
! life for him that night.
Perhaps l mingled too much of earthly
idoIatry with my appeals to Heaven. My
prayers were destined to an awful response
/ saw Mercy descend that night, not gar
bed in augc's white, but bearing he two
edged sword of wrath and recompense.
/ As | p@ced the for, | heard voices and
the sound of many feet outside, aud then
an uncertain knock, and the door opening
some men came il, bearing upon litter
the form of a man. 1t was Godfrey.
| thought he was dead at fist, but he
was not Something terrible had happened
to him but it was not death aud he was So
Der. lie gave ne a ghastly smile, and
sanest look out of his eye had seen there
in long time,as bent over him ia wild
alright. Nobody could answer when
asked what had happened They all shrunk
from my look except him. He put up
his hands, and drew me to him.
IL went to heIp the thrashcrs at Kim
balls" he said, land got caught 10 the
machine. | can't ever 90 near rum
hole again, Saliua, without you take me
there"
| took the covering from his limbs at
that-I saw two bandaged stumps, | saw
the glorious creature which God had made
transformed into the most horrible Of Grip
plies, and | did not scream or faiut at the
sight, l think my heart must have stop
ped beating, though, for existence seemed
suspended by the awfuIness Of the blood
| Geoffrey held me yet.
"Ain't you glad, SaIina7" he asked
"You ought to be. All the devils in hell
cant get NE unless you give me up to
them"
shuddered, but l covered those poor
limbs again, and kissed Geofrey, aud
thought of my prayers. Was there no
other way to answer them?
was wrong to question Gods mercy
in even so terrible a diSpensation as that