Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1867-07-16
MOr0I and Religious.
Providence Illustrated.

Silently and without display, like the laws of
nature in the material world, God preserves and
prepares his instruments to effect his purposes.
The following incidents, collected from history
by contemporary, illustrate this subject:
Some years ago young man, holding sub
ordinate position in the East India Companys
service, twice attempted to deprive himself of
life by swapping loaded pistol at his head.
Each time the pistol missed fire. A friend
entering his room shortly afterwards, he request
ed him to fire it out of the window it then
went off without any difficulty Satisfied thus
that the weapon had been duly primed and
loaded, this young man sprang up, exclaiming,
Il must be reserved for something great and
from that moment gave up the idea of suicide,
which for some time previous had been upper
most in his thoughts That young man after
wards became Lord Give.
Two brothers were on one occason walking
together, when violent storm Of thunder and
lightning overlook them One was struck dead
on the spot, the other was spared; else would
the name of the great Reformer, Martin Luther,
have been unknown to mankind.
The holy ST. Augustine, having to preach at
| distant town, took with him guide, who, by
some unaccountable means, mistook the ususal
road and fell into a by-path. He afterwards
discovered that his enemies, having heard of
his movements, had placed themselves in the
proper road with the design of numbering him.
When Oliver Cromwell was an infant,
monkey snatched him from his cradle, leaped
with him through garret window, and ran
along the leads of the house. The utmost alarm
was excited amongst the inmates, and various
were the devices used to rescue the child from
the guardianship of his newly y-found protector.
| All were unavailing his would be rescuers had
lost courage, and were in despair ofever seeing
the baby alive again, when the monkey quietly
retraced his steps and deposited his burden
safely on the bed. On subsequent occasion
the waters had we'll nigh quenched his insatia-
BILE ambition. He fell into deep pond, from
drowning in which clergyman named johnson
was the sole instrument of his rescue.
At the siege of Leicester, young soldier,
about seventeen years of age, was drawn out
for sentry duty. One of his comrades was very
made and this man went. He was shot dead
while on guard. The young man first drawn,
afterwards became the author of the Pilgrims
Progress
Doddridge, when born, was so weakly an
infant it was believed to be dead A nurse
standing by fancied she saw some signs of
vitality. Thus the feeble spark of life was saved
from being extinguished, and an eminent author
and consistent Christian preserved to the world.
John Wesley, when child. was only Just
preserved from fire. Almost the moment after
he was rescued, the roof of the house where he
had been fell in. Of Philip Henry a similar
instance is recorded.
John Knox, the renowned Scotch Reformer.
was always wont to sit at the head of a table
with his back to the window. On one particular
evening, without, however. being able to ac-
count for it, he would neither himself sit in the
chair, nor permit any one else to occupy his
place. That very night bullet was shot in at
| the window, purposey to kill him; it grazed
the chair in which he usually sat, and made a
hole in the foot of candlestick on the table.
Many years have now elapsed since three
young subalterns might have been seen strug-
Cling in the water off ST. Helena one of them.
peculiarly helpless, was fast succumbing. He
was saved, to live, as Arthur Wellesley, the
Duke of Wellington
The life of John Newton is but the history of
a series of marvellous deliverances. AS youth
he had agreed to accompany friends on board
a man-of-war He arrived too late to go; the
boat in which his friends had gone was capsized,
and all its occupants were drowned. On anoth-
er occasion, when tide-surveyor in the port of
Liverpool, some business had detained him, so
that he came to his boat much later than usual,
| to the great surprise of those who were in the
habit of observing his then undertaking punct-
uality. He went out in the boat as heretofore
to inspect a ship, which blew up just before he
reached her. Had he left the shore a few
minutes sooner, he must have perished with
the rest on board.