THE KING’S BUSINESS SAVED BY S. S. LESSON
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Sustaining Power of the Holy Ghost During, a Terrible Tornado, Related by a Woman who Passed Through It
‘C'OLLOWING is the experience of Mrs. ’ R. Graig in a tornado in Illinois as told by her mother, of this city, and to which reference is made in the editorial pages of this issue : A terrible tornado swept over Charleston, 111., at 3 :45, Saturday afternoon, May 26, leaving death and destruction in its path. The awful calamity and terrible scenes cannot be adequately described. Forty- nine were killed and scores injured. Twenty-five hundred people were left home less, and a million dollars will not replace the property lost. The tornado swept through the town in all its fury, trapping women and children in their homes like rats in a trap. Bodies of victims were found in buildings and yards and fields. The scenes following the storm were heart rending and sickening in the extreme. The following is the experience of Mrs. R. Craig, taken from a letter written to her mother, Mrs. Hattie Livingston, a short time after the storm. I am sorry I have not the letter at hand that I might give . my daughter’s experience more fully in her own language. The following is as near as I can remember it. Mrs. Craig has a large Sunday School class of about forty or fifty young ladies, normal school stu dents. She writes: “I had been depressed all week and had spent most of the time weeping, I did not know why. I could not study my Sunday School lesson. Saturday afternoon I gath ered together my Bible, books, and papers, and went out on the front porch to study. I found the lesson was about the Holy Spirit. Feeling depressed as I did, I decided I could not teach the lesson and would not attend Sunday School the following day. I picked up T he K ing ’ s B usiness and read Dr. Torrey’s notes on the lesson. Dr. Tor- rey said it was such an important lesson it was very essential that it should be
taught, so I decided if Dr. Torrey thought it was. so important and essential that it should be taught, that I would teach the lesson. I believe I owe the preservation of my life to that Sunday School lesson on the Holy Spirit! The subject took a won derful hold upon me. As I studied the les son I became very conscious of the pres ence of the Holy Spirit. My little son Rus sell had been spending the afternoon with his father in the grain elevator, but felt he must come home, and jumping on his wheel he hurried home, and his father left the elevator and went down town. Russell was playing in the yard while I sat on the porch studying, when at 3:30 p. m., a strange warning came over me; something told me to go into the house and close all the windows and doors and fasten them. I arose quickly, picked up my books and papers, and called to my little son to come into the house. I closed all the doors and windows. Suddenly it grew dark as night I went to the front door to see what was the cause, and saw the heavens were as black as night and the clouds were filled with electricity—the most wonderful sight I ever saw. I heard a faint roar, and fairly dragged my little son into the house. Fall ing upon my knees with my child I cried:, ‘Oh Jesus, put your arms around me and around the house, and keep that front door shut.’ (We had been having trouble with the latch on the front door, and a slight wind would blow it open). Immediately I felt my prayer was answered. I became calm and felt secure. The storm broke upon us in all its fury. I thought I would go to the cellar, and then, having a horror of being buried in debris, I remained in my sitting room. Part of my neghbor’s roof came crashing into my yard; terrible disas ter was all about, but amidst the roar and crash and hail and rain such as I have never seen before, I was held calm and
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