The Charlotte Democrat., 1888-02-03
Providence and the Little Ones.

In sermon preached Tor the Royal
Humane Society by DIR. Adam Clarke,
then an old N nan, he related the following
circumstance concerning himself, in which
he was evidently the subject of even a
more marvellous deliverance:
When boy, he Que day rode horse
down to large river,s which flowed near
his fathers house, and attempted to cross
it. But the stream was deeper and stron-
ger than he thought. The horse lost it's
footing and was carried down the current.
The boy was carried off the animals back,
sank, lost consciousness, and continued in
the water he knew not how long, for the
next thing he could remember was find
ing himself on the bank of the river, where
he supposed he had been drifted by the
stream, and where the heat of the sum-
mer's sun must have acted as restorative
to the system. II
The excellent Richard Cecil was the sub
ject of similar deliverance, in which the
watchful eye and merciiul hand of Provi-
dence may be distinctly seen. He was
playing in yard at the back of his fa-
theirs house, where were several tanks of
water. One of these was sunk in the
earth, aud at that time had been frozen
over, and hole made 10 the ice to water
the horses. The boy was playing at this
hole with a stick, when suddenly his foot
slipped, and falling into the hole he was
carried beneath the ice His fathers
workmen had received orders to proceed
to some work in another part of the dye
works, but somehow they had neglected
his order. Had they done otherwise they
would have been out of sight of the tank.
AS it was, the child had slipped SO noise
lessly into the water, and had so soon be-
come unconscious, that it was some MID
utes before one of the men, thinking he
saw something at the tank, found it was
the scarlet cloak of his masters son. The
child was taken from the water apparent
lY dead. From the use of proper means,
and after long efforts, animation returned
aud the boy was restored.
Not less was the hand of providence
seen when, while still boy, his clothes
were caught in the wheel of a horse mill.
He must have been crushed to death in
stantly but for the presence of mind which
God preserved. In moment he saw that
the head of the horse which worked the
mill was within reach of his feet. He
dashed them in the animals face so vio
lently as to at once stop him and the mill,
anu tnen ne succeeded IN eXtTlcatlnS Dim
| self.
The amiable and talented DR.. bod
bridge was his mothers twentieth child,
and was 80 frail and feeble at his birth,
that he was laid aside as dead. One o!
the attendants, however, thought she saw
some faint indications Of life, and by her
fostering care the tiny child came to show
further signs OF animation, aud the flicker
ing spark was tanned into a gentle fame.
The life thus wonderfully spared was no
less wonderfully devoted to God, and used
of him for the good of multitudes.
Alfred Saker, the pioneer missionary Of
western Africa, was so weak at his birth
that the nurse said he was "not worth rear
ing," yet did the hand unseen preserve
his feeble life, and make him one of many
thousands for noble self-sacri6ce, ,consecra-
ted toll and suffering, and Christian use
fulness.