These extraordinary beings were the wonder of our village, seventyⒶalteration in the MS years ago—and not of our village alone, but of a considerable section of country round about. I can rememberⒶalteration in the MS people coming horseback or in wagons as much as two hundred miles to see them. I can remember seeing sixty-four saddle horses tied to their mother'sⒶalteration in the MS farm-fence at one time; I often saw thirty and forty tied there. Such persons as came in wagons often camped in the woods and fields near by and staid several days.—The little tavern was full, at the same time, and its overflowings had to be received into the houses of the villagers. At church and Sunday school the Holy Children sat in a pew apart, and it was adorned with evergreen wreaths. The most solemn honors were paid them by everybody; when they walked to or from church, they movedⒶalteration in the MS through a double row of strangers and citizens, uncovered,Ⓐalteration in the MS who bentⒶalteration in the MS and received their blessing;Ⓐalteration in the MS letters came from great distances begging their prayers and craving their blessing. During some months, the concerns of life were almost wholly abandoned, in our village, and none thought of anything or talked of anything but religion. It was the sweetestⒶalteration in the MS and happiest time I have seen in my long life, and the memory of it has been a solace and refreshment to me all my days. In all the houses there were prayers and Scripture readings at various hours during the day, whilst the main part of the night was delivered up to praise-meetings ofⒶalteration in the MS the people in the church and the larger dwell- [begin page 71] ings . The present time seems starved indeed, religious-wise, to oneⒶalteration in the MS who partook of the rich spiritual abundance of that period.Ⓐalteration in the MS

The Holy Children were three—Hope and Mary, sisters, the one agedⒶalteration in the MS ten, the other eleven—and Cecilia, their step-Ⓐalteration in the MSsisterⒶtextual note, aged a little over ten. They were pale and fragile little creatures; their bodily health was exceedingly poor, but their spiritual health was perfect. They early devoted themselves to the things of religion, and thenceforth they took no interest in other matters.Ⓐalteration in the MS They always rose at dawn, read a chapter, each, aloud, from the Bible, then prayed, each in turn.Ⓐalteration in the MS Then they joined the family, and had household worship, conducting it themselves. They asked a blessing of considerable length, at breakfast, and saidⒶalteration in the MS grace after it. After breakfast it was their custom to devote one hour to prayer for their father, who detested religion in all its forms, and was a hardened man and singularly profane. He was kind hearted, but irascible; so, although he usually submitted, during some minutes, out of consideration for his daughters, he always lost patience sooner or later, and forsook the house, swearing horribly. He was confined to his bed a week, by and by,Ⓐalteration in the MS and then the children took turns with him, there being one or another of them on her knees in his room most part of the day or night, he blaspheming all the while, untilⒶalteration in the MS he died, which was upon the eighth day. AfterⒶalteration in the MS the morning hour of prayer for their father, the children used to devote the day, hour by hour, to visitingⒶalteration in the MS and praying with the sick and the unconverted here and there about the village, and to distributing tracts, medicines, and food.Ⓐalteration in the MS FromⒶalteration in the MS evening till midnight they studied and prayed. After their father's death they grew in grace and power with marvelous celerity. They had early taken as their motto that verse which says that faith like to a mustard seedⒶalteration in the MS will enable its possessor to remove mountains. The end and object of their ceaseless supplications was to acquire that puissant faith. They never doubted that they would some day succeed, and truly their prophetic hope was fulfilled. They had often said the Bible was full of instances to show that the prayers of the perfect were directly answered, in letter and spirit, noⒶalteration in the MS matter how extraordinary the request might be, and they were satisfied a time would come when they themselves would be perfect and thus be able to bring down blessings from heaven at call.Ⓐalteration in the MS

That time did come. It came first to Hope, and then,Ⓐalteration in the MS a little later, [begin page 72] to her sisters. I well remember the day Hope's power was revealed to her. It was in church, on a Sunday, in July. All the land was parched with a drouth which had lasted during three months. During that time many petitions had been offered up, in churches and by firesides, without avail—the prayers were not answered, the rain did not come. The Governor had finally issued his proclamation, begging the combined prayers of the churches for a certain Sunday. Even this had failed. The Sunday afterward was the one which saw Hope's first triumph. There wasⒶtextual note not a cloud in the sky; it was blistering hot; everybody was sad; the preacher said, mournfully, that it was now plain that the rain was withheld for a punishment, and it would be wisest to ask for it no more for the present. At that moment that pale slim child rose up and rebuked the minister before the whole wondering assemblage, for his weak and faltering faith; then she put her two hands together, lifted up her face, and began to pray for rain. With her third sentence an instant darkness came, and with it a pouring deluge! Perhaps one may imagine the faces of the people—it is a matter I am not able to describe. The blessed rain continued to come down in torrents all day long, and the happy people talked of nothing but the miracle. Indeed, they were so absorbed in it that it was midnight before they woke up to a sense of the fact that this rain, which began as a blessing, had gradually turned into a calamity—the country was flooded, the whole region was well nigh afloat. Everybody turnedⒶalteration in the MS out and tried to save cattle, hogs, and bridges; and at this work they wrought despairingly and uselessly two or three hours before it occurred to anybody that if that child's prayer had brought the deluge, possibly another prayer from her might stop it. Some hurried away and called up the child out of her bed, and begged her to stay the flood if she could. She told them to cease from their terrors and bear witness to what was about to happen. She then knelt and offered up her petition. The answer was instantaneous; the rain stopped immediately and utterly.Ⓐalteration in the MS

It was soon manifest that Hope's power was permanent, and unfailing. Whatsoever prayer she uttered, it was answered,Ⓐalteration in the MS provided the thing prayed for was a temporal and physical matter. Presently her sisters acquired a like power. The fame of their miracles spread to long distances, as I have already said. There was rejoicing in all religious [begin page 73] hearts, because the unbelieving had always scoffed at prayer and said the pulpit had claimed that it could accomplish everything, whereas none could prove that it wasⒶalteration in the MS able to accomplish anything at all. Unbelievers had scoffed when prayers were offered up for better weather, and for the healing of the sick, and the staying of epidemics, and the averting of war—prayers which no living man had ever seen answered, they said. But the Holy Children had shown, now, that special providences were at the bidding of the prayers of the perfect. The evidences were without number and beyond dispute.

The calls for the Holy Children's services were incessant, and these services were always cheerfully granted. The results were sometimes strange and marvelous in the extreme. I remember an instance where they were asked to pray for cold weather, for the benefit of a poor widow who was perishing of a wasting fever. Although it was midsummer, ice formed, and there was a heavy fall of snow. The woman immediately recovered. The destruction of crops by the cold and snow was complete. This made the children many enemies among the farmers. The children changed the weather many times, every day, to benefit various persons, and these changes were veryⒶalteration in the MS trying to the general public, and caused much sickness and death, since alternate drenchings and freezings and scorchings were common, and none could escape colds, in consequence, neither could any ever know, upon going out, whether to wear muslin orⒶalteration in the MS furs. A manⒶalteration in the MS who dealt in matters of science and had long had a reputation as a singularly accurate weather prophet, found himselfⒶalteration in the MS utterly baffled by this extraordinary confusion of weather; and his business being ruined, he presently lost his reasonⒶalteration in the MS and endeavored to take the lives of the Holy Children. EventuallyⒶalteration in the MS so much complaint was made that the children were induced, by a general petition, to desist, and leave the weather alone. Yet there were many that protested, and were not able to see why they should not be allowed to have prayers offered up for weather to suit their private interests—a thing, they said,Ⓐalteration in the MS which had been done in all ages, and been encouraged by the pulpit, too, until such prayers were found to be worth something. There was a degree of reasonableness in the argument, but it plainly would not answer to listen to it.

An exceedingly sickly season followed the confused and untimely [begin page 74] weather, and every house became a hospital. The Holy Children were urged to interfere with prayer. They did so. The sickness immediately disappeared, and no one was unwell in the slightest degree, during three months. Then the physicians, undertakers and professionalⒶalteration in the MS nurses rose in a body and made such an outcry that the Holy Children were forced to modify the state of things. They agreed to pray in behalf ofⒶalteration in the MS special cases, only. Now a young man presently fell sick, and when he was dying his mother begged hard for his life, and the Holy Children yielded, and by their prayers restoredⒶemendation him to immediate health. The next day he killed a comrade in a quarrel, and shortly was hanged for it. His mother never forgave herself for procuring the plans of God to be altered.Ⓐalteration in the MS By request of another mother, another dying sonⒶalteration in the MS was prayed back to health, but it was not a fortunate thing; for he strangelyⒶalteration in the MS forsook his blameless ways, and in a few months was in a felon's cell for robbing his employer, and his family were broken hearted and longing for deathⒶtextual note. A bachelor died in a neighboring town, leaving a will giving all his property to the Society for the Encouragement of Missions.Ⓐalteration in the MS Several days after the burial, an absent friend arrived home, and learning of the death, came to our village and got the children to pray him back to life and health. He found himself a beggar; the Society had possession of all his wealth and legalⒶalteration in the MS counsel warned the officers of the Society that if they gave it up they wouldⒶalteration in the MS be transcending their powers and the Society could come on them for damages in the full amount, and they would unquestionably be obliged to pay. The officers started to say something about Lazarus, but the lawyer said that if Lazarus left any property behind him he most certainly found himself penniless when he was raised from the dead; that if there was anyⒶalteration in the MS dispute between him and his heirs, the law upheld the latter. To return to my narrative.Ⓐalteration in the MS There was an aggravating lawsuit; the Society proved that the manⒶalteration in the MS had been dead and been buried; the court dismissed the case, saying it could not consider the complaints of a corpse. The matter was appealed;Ⓐalteration in the MS the higher court sustained the lower one. It went further, and said that for a dead man to bring a suitⒶalteration in the MS was a thing without precedent, a violation of privilege, and hence was plainly contempt of court—whereupon it laid a heavy fine upon the transgressor.Ⓐemendation Ⓐalteration in the MS Maddened by these misfortunes, the plaintiff killed [begin page 75] the presiding officer of the SocietyⒶalteration in the MS and then blew his own brains out, previously warning the Holy Children that if they disturbed him again he would make it a serious matter for them.

The children were the constant though innocent cause of trouble. Every blessing they brought down upon an individual was sure to fetch curses in its train for other people. Gradually the community grew anxious and uneasy; these prayers had unsettled everything; they had so disturbed the order of nature, that nobody could any longer guess, one day, what was likelyⒶalteration in the MS to happen the next. The popularity of the children began to waste away. The people murmured against them, and said they were a pestilent incumbrance and a dangerous power to have in the village. During the time that they meddled with the weather, they made justⒶalteration in the MS one friend every time they changed it, and not less than five hundred enemies—Ⓐalteration in the MS a thing which was naturalⒶalteration in the MS, and to be expected.—When they agreed to let the weather and the public health alone, their popularityⒶemendation seemed regainedⒶalteration in the MS, for a while, but they soon lost it once more, through indiscretions. To accommodate a procession, they prayed that the river might be divided; this prayer was answered, and the procession passed over dry-shod. The march consumed twenty minutes, only, butⒶalteration in the MS twenty minutes was ample time to enable the backed-up waters to overflow all the country for more than a hundred and fifty miles up the river, on both sides; in consequence of which a vast number of farms and villages were ruined, many lives were lost,Ⓐemendation Ⓐtextual note immense aggregations of live stock destroyed, and thousands of people reduced to beggary. The children had to be spirited away and kept concealed for two or three months, after that, so bitter was the feeling against them, and so widespread the desire to poison or hang them.

In the course of time so many restrictions came to be placed upon the children's prayers, by public demand, that they were at last confined to two things, raisingⒶemendation the dead and restoring the dying to health. Yet even these services—which at first nobody dreamed of finding fault with—began to result in serious inconveniences. A very rich old bachelor, with a host of needy kin, was snatched from the very jaws of death by the children, and given a long lease of life. The needy kin were not slow to deliver their opinions about what they termed “this outrage;” neither were they mild or measured in their abuse of the Holy [begin page 76] Children. Almost every time a particularly disagreeable person died, his relatives had the annoyance of seeing him walk into their midst again within a week. Often, when such a person was about to die, half the village would be in an anxious and uncomfortable state, dreading the interference of the children, each individual hoping they would let nature take its course but none being willing to assume the exceedingly delicate office of suggesting it.

However, a time came at last when people were forced to speak. The village had been cursed, for many years, by the presence of a brute named Marvin, who was a thief, liar, drunkard, blackguard, incendiary, a loathsome and hateful creature in every way. One day the news went about that he was dying. The public joy was hardly concealed. Everybody thought of the Holy Children in a moment,Ⓐtextual note but it was too late. A dozen men started in the direction of Marvin's house, meaning to stand guard there and keep the children away; but they were too late; the prayer had been offered, and they met Marvin himself, striding down the street, hale and hearty, and good for thirty years more.

An indignation meeting was called, and there was a packed attendance.Ⓐalteration in the MS It was difficult to maintain order, so excited were the people. Intemperate speeches were made, and resolutions offered in which the children were bitterly denounced. Among the resolutions finally adopted were these:

Resolved, That theⒶalteration in the MS promiseⒶalteration in the MS “Ask and ye shall receive” shall henceforth be acceptedⒶalteration in the MS as sound in theory, and true; but it shallⒶalteration in the MS stop there; whosoever ventures to actually followⒶalteration in the MS the admonition shall suffer death.

Resolved, That to pray for the restoration of the sick; for the averting of war; for the blessing of rain; and for other special providences, wereⒶalteration in the MS things righteous and admissible whilst they were mere forms and yielded no effect; but henceforth, whosoever shall so pray shall be deemed guilty of crime and shall suffer death.

Resolved, That if the ordinary prayersⒶalteration in the MS of a nation were answered during a single day, the universal misery, misfortune, destruction and desolation which would ensue, would constitute a cataclysm which would take its place side by side with the deluge and so remain in history to the end of time.

Resolved, That whosoever shall utter his belief in special providences in answer to prayer, shall be adjudged insane and shall be confined.

Resolved, That the Supreme Being is ableⒶalteration in the MS to conduct the affairs of this world without the assistance of this village; and whosoever shall venture toⒶalteration in the MS offer such assistance shall suffer death.

Resolved, That since no man can improve the Creator's plans by procuring their alteration, there shall be but one form of prayer allowed in this village henceforth, and that form shall begin and end with the words, “Lord, Thy Ⓐemendation will, not mine, be done;” and whosoever shall add to or take from this prayer, shall perish at the stake.

During several weeks the Holy Children observed these laws, and things moved along, in nature, in a smooth and orderly way which filled the hearts of the harassed people with the deepest gratitude; but at last the children made the sun and moon stand still ten or twelve hours once, to accommodate a sheriff's posse who were trying to exterminate a troublesome bandⒶalteration in the MS of tramps.Ⓐalteration in the MS The result was frightful. The tides of the ocean being released from the moon's control, burst in one mighty assault upon the shores of all the continents and islands of the globe and swept millions of human beings to instant death. The children, being warned by friends, fled to the woods, but they were hunted down, one after the other, by the maddened populace, and shot.