Extraordinary Care of the Lord in Answer to Prayer

"The scenes of the riots in New York, at the time of our civil war, are of national celebrity; but few, however, know that one of the most atrocious acts of cruelty attempted to be perpetrated by the malefactors, and which utterly failed of its purpose, _came solely in answer to prayer_.

On the first day of the mob, however, several thousand men, _women and children_, armed with clubs and brickbats, suddenly appeared at the door of the Colored Orphan Asylum, and effected an entrance by breaking down the front door with an axe. The building was soon fired in ten or fifteen places, and the work of destruction was accomplished in twenty minutes.

"There were at the time two hundred and twenty-three children in the building with their attendants and teachers.

The matron having assembled all the children after the first alarm, one of the teachers thus addressed them: 'Children, do you believe that Almighty God can deliver you from a mob?' The reply was promptly made in the affirmative. 'Then,' said she, 'I wish you now to pray silently to God to protect you from this mob. I believe that he is able and will do it.

Pray earnestly to him, and when I give the signal, go in order, without noise, to the dining-room.' At this every head was instantly bowed in prayer, such prayer as is not frequently offered, the silent, earnest supplication of terrified and persecuted little children. When, at the sound of the bell, their heads were raised, the teacher said the tears were streaming, but not a sound, not even a sob, was to be heard.

They then quietly went down stairs and through the halls, and she remarked that 'to her dying day she should never forget the scene;' the few moments of eloquent silence, the streaming noiseless tears, the funereal march through the halls, the yells and the horrible sounds which were nearer and nearer approaching. _Not one of these helpless innocents was injured in the least_; but in spite of the threats and the blood-thirstiness of the rioters, through whom they were obliged to pass, all were removed unmolested to a place of safety."