And so she prayed with all the fervor of her overwrought spirit, until the dusk reminded her of the many hours she had been absent from the sick man in the attic they called home.
As she was about to cross her own threshold, a hand was laid upon her shoulder in the darkness, and a voice filled with a love and tenderness she had never heard in any human speech, said, softly:
“What ails thee?”
She could see nothing, but her soul was grown desperate, and she answered, without fear, “I am troubled for my husband, for his life is ebbing away, and the miseries we suffer. I pray only for him, but God does not answer my prayers.”
“And do you pray only for your husband?”
“Yes, we are all alone in the world, and there are none who care for us, or do for us, or pity us. We have only God.”
“Then pray for all the world and all mankind, and perhaps God will hear your prayer.”
Then the sorrowing soul knew that she too was not without sin, and that out of the House of God she had met the angel of the Lord.
Walter Blackburn Harte.