A day or two later, at the close of a meeting, a gentleman came to the Elder and asked him to accept of some money which would aid him in obtaining a pair of shoes.
The following day a shoemaker, who had made the acquaintance of the Elder, happened by where he was stopping, and having discovered that the Elder needed some shoes, told him that he had just made a pair for himself, but through some mistake they would not fit him, as they were too small, and asked the Elder if he would not accept them as a present. He did so with gratitude, and found them to be as good a fit as if they had been made for himself.
Thus he received a literal answer to his prayer and more too. Yet neither of these people had he asked for money or for shoes.
This is one example among numberless instances of a similar nature that have occurred in the experience of scores of Elders.
By such means, also, the Elders learn who are their friends, and will give a favorable account of such people before the Lord, and they will receive at His hands a just reward.
The people, also, who befriend the servants of God, have been remarkably blessed, not only temporally, but in many instances have been raised from beds of sickness by the power of God.
An instance may be cited which occurred not long since in one of the Southern States.
A lady, whose husband and herself had treated the Elders with kindness, was taken quite sick, and the affliction soon proved to be very serious indeed. Three physicians were called to attend her, which they did for several weeks, with little or no prospect of her recovery. Finally they gave her up.
The Elders having returned to that neighborhood from a tour in another County, this lady sent for them to come to administer to her the ordinance of the gospel for the healing of the sick. She had heard them allude to such an ordinance in their preaching, and found that what they taught agreed with the pattern given in the New Testament. They laid their hands upon her, at her earnest request, and after repeating the ordinance several times, with prayer and supplication, she arose from her bed of sickness to which she had been confined for ten months. She requested baptism, and soon after rode a horse to a stream of water, and was baptized and confirmed by the servants of God. Numbers of astonished witnesses were present and she was looked upon as a living miracle. She and her husband, with others, soon afterwards gathered with the Saints in Southern Colorado.
Another instance of healing was in the case of a little girl who had been seized with fits, in which her limbs were drawn up and caused to quiver, and her eyes turned back as if she were dying. The Elders, being present, administered to her, and, through the ordinance of the gospel and the prayer of faith, she was healed by the power of God.