a retrospective tone. "I had two little children, the elder not eight
years old, and my sister was my housekeeper. She did not like
housekeeping nor taking care of children. Some women don't. She came to
me one day with a very serious face. 'Brother,' said she, 'you need a
wife, you must have a wife. I do not know how to take care of your
children and you are almost never at home.' She left me before I could
reply, almost before I could think what to reply. I was just home from
helping a pastor in Wisconsin, it was thirty-six degrees below zero the
day I left, and I had another engagement in Maine for the next week. I
_was_ very little at home, and my children did need a mother. I had not
thought whether I needed a wife or not; I was too much taken up with the
Lord's work to think about it. But that day I asked the Lord to find me a
wife. After praying about it three days it came to me that a certain
young lady was the one the Lord had chosen. Like Peter, I drew back and
said, 'Not so, Lord.' My first wife was a continual spiritual help to me;
she was the Lord's own messenger every day; but this lady, although a
church member, was not particularly spiritually minded. Several years
before she had been my pupil in Hebrew and Greek. I admired her
intellectual gifts, but if a brother in the ministry had asked me if she
would be a helpful wife to him, I should have hesitated about replying
in the affirmative. And, yet here it was, the Lord had chosen her for me.
I said, 'Not so, Lord,' until he assured me that her heart was in his
hand and he could fit her to become my wife and a mother to my children.
After waiting until I knew I was obeying the mind of my Master, I asked
her to marry me. She accepted, as far as her own heart and will were
concerned, but refused, because her father, a rich and worldly-minded
man, was not willing for her to marry an itinerant preacher.

"I had not had a charge for three years then. I was so continually called
to help other pastors that I had no time for a charge of my own. So it
kept on for months and months; her father was not willing, and she would
not marry me without his consent. My sister often said to me, 'I don't
see how you can want to marry a woman that isn't willing to have you,'
but I kept my own counsel. I knew the matter was in safe hands. I was not
at all troubled; I kept about my Master's business and he kept about
mine. Therefore, when she wrote to say that suddenly and unexpe