disease.

In the midst of all this gloom and sorrow of a fatal epidemic, a little
daughter was born to Mr. and Mrs. Muller September 17, 1832. About her
name, Lydia, sweet fragrance lingers, for she became one of God's purest
saints and the beloved wife of James Wright. How little do we forecast
at the time the future of a new-born babe who, like Samuel, may in God's
decree be established to be a prophet of the Lord, or be set apart to
some peculiar sphere of service, as in the case of another Lydia, whose
heart the Lord opened and whom He called to be the nucleus of the first
Christian church in Europe.

Mr. Mullers unfeigned humility, and the docility that always accompanies
that unconscious grace, found new exercise when the meetings with
inquirers revealed the fact that his colleague's preaching was much more
used of God than his own, in conviction and conversion. This discovery
led to much self-searching, and he concluded that three reasons lay back
of this fact: first, Mr. Craik was more spiritually minded than himself;
second, he was more earnest in prayer for converting power; and third,
he oftener spoke directly to the unsaved, in his public ministrations.
Such disclosures of his own comparative lack did not exhaust themselves
in vain self-reproaches, but led at once to more importunate prayer,
more diligent preparation for addressing the unconverted, and more
frequent appeals to this class. From this time on, Mr. Muller's
preaching had the seal of God upon it equally with his brother's. What a
wholesome lesson to learn, that for every defect in our service there is
a cause, and that the one all-sufficient remedy is the throne of grace,
where in every time of need we may boldly come to find grace and help!
It has been already noted that Mr. Muller did not satisfy himself with
more prayer, but gave new diligence and study to the preparation of
discourses adapted to awaken careless souls. In the supernatural as well
as the natural sphere, there is a law of cause and effect. Even the
Spirit of God works not without order and method; He has His chosen
channels through which He pours blessing. There is no accident in the
spiritual world. "The Spirit bloweth where He listeth," but even the
wind has its circuits. There is a kind of preaching, fitted to bring
conviction and conversion, and there is another kind which is not so
fitted. Even in the faithful use of truth there is room for
discrimination and selection. In