I had an experience a while ago on a Chautauqua platform that I
never shall forget.
It was a very large assembly, and it was held in a place where
I had never been before, and where I had no old friends on hand
to serve as “claqueurs.” I discovered very soon after beginning
my lecture that for some unaccountable reason I was not _en
rapport_ with my audience, who listened to me, as it were,
out of the corners of their eyes and with half-averted faces.
I felt instinctively that that lecture was foredoomed to failure
unless in some way Providence interposed for my deliverance.
Well, Providence did; for presently a big dog entered the
auditorium, and gazed wistfully about him. Then, facing the
platform and seeing me hard at work, he compassionately
concluded to come up and help me. And on he came, straight up
the aisle, and climbed the platform steps, while everybody
watched him.
He walked around me, sized me up, and then deliberately planted
himself in front of me, sat down, and pricked up his ears like a
pulpit committee listening to a candidate.
I ceased addressing the audience, and, turning to the dog, I
said: “I am delighted to welcome you to this platform. I have
been anxiously waiting for you, and had begun to fear that
you would not be here. You have come to the kingdom for just
this time, and I am happy to discover that in this large and
evidently critical audience I have at last found one hearer who
has sense enough to appreciate a good thing when he hears it.”
The dog seemed to understand that he was addrest; and so he
howled, and then the people howled, and I went on howling. The
dog went his way without ever knowing that he saved my life that
day.--P. S. HENSON, _Christian Endeavor World_.
(2573)
=Providential Rescue=--See KONGO PIONEER MISSIONARY WORK.
=Providing Against Disaster=--See CONTROL OF CIRCUMSTANCES.
=Providing for Great Men=--See GREAT MEN SHOULD BE PROVIDED FOR.