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A touching
story is told in connection with the work of the Countess of Huntingdon among
the colliers in the English Black Country. Finding that many of these poor miners
had never heard the name of God. or of Christ, she sent out preachers to hold
meetings among them in the open air. The Wesleys, Venn, and Whitefield were
among her helpers. |
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In a cabin
on her estate there lived a crippled blind girl, named Elixa Poulard, who
heard of this great work. She was carried to the castle, and asked that she
might see Lady Huntingdon. |
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"Can
I help?" she inquired humbly. "I never have done anything for
God." |
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The servants
would have driven her away but the Countess interfered "She is lame and
blind, and scared at her own voice," they said. |
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"God
calls His own messengers," replied the Countess. "Carry her to the
meeting at the mines tonight." |
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Eliza, in
her solitude, had learned many hymns, and her voice was of such a tone that
it would wring the heart of the most beastly. When she sang of Christ upon
the cross, the women cried out, and the men wept sore. No words of the
preachers were as powerful as the song of the poor cripple, lying there on
her pallet. They carried her from one place to another, and many people were
converted as a result of her ministry of song. |
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It is said
that when Lady Huntingdon told her of the souls she had influenced for God, her
poor, ugly face grew beautiful as the face of an angel. |
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"Who
would have thought He would have chosen me!" she said. |
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From:
THRILLING STORIES For Young And Old By Julia A. Shelhamer, God's Bible School
and College, Cincinnati, Ohio. No Date |