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CONVERTED BY A TELEGRAM

A young telegraph operator in a provincial town was anxious about his soul. But he could not have guessed that a message would reach him as it did. He had been sleepless all night, thinking of his need of a Saviour, and in the morning he went to his work with his heart uttering the publican’s prayer. The sunny weather and beauty of summer scenery did not engage him, for he was longing for that peace of God which the Christian feels.

Absorbed with his desire, he continued to pray, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” and was constantly repeating the words, when the click of the signal told him that his office was called. He took his place at the instrument, and quickly and with unusual emotion spelled his message, from “Herbert,” at Windermore, to “J.B.,” at Warworth: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world.” “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.”

Such a telegram as that the young man had never known to pass the wires before. It was sent to a servant girl who, in her distress of mind, had written a letter to her brother, “Herbert,” but it proved a double blessing, for it came to the operator as a direct reply from heaven to his prayer. He accepted it as such, and his faith saw and rested in the Lamb of God.—Selected.

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— December, 1883 —