DIED WHILE IN PRAYER.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 24, 13 October 1893, Page 29

DIED WHILE IN PRAYER.

" Another man was found in a kneeling posture, hit face buried in his hands, at if he had died in prayer, I clip this pathetic sentence from an account of the 8t Etienns coal mine disaster which occured in France, in December, 1891. Tbe fire had been smouldering for years in a remote part of the mine but its further advance had been stopped by barriers. Yet they proved insufficient at, and the terrible fire-damp exploded, scattering death throughout the mine. Such incidents are too well-known in England to need further explanation or comment.

Haa it ever struck you that; the interior of the human body is like the interior of a coal mine? Well, it is. All the operations go on in solitude and darkness. Gases are engendered in it tbat are just as dangerous as fire-damp. Generally they— yet hold on, let's have the little story first.

It s about a woman. In fact, it's from her, too, and is sure to interest somebody ; may be you. Sbe says that a long run of time, from childhood to years after her rr arriaire, she never knew wnat illness was j that ie, so as to remember it or to have it make a mark on her, as we may say. But mighty few folks manage to escape tbe old slave driver altogether. No did sbe. "It was in the summer of 1890," she save, " when I begio to feel bad. My appetite was poor, and what I did eat gave me great pain and distress My food seemed to he like lead ; and after every meal, no matter how simple the food was, I had the most cxc uciating pain you can imagine. I had a nagging, thudding, p%in at my chest, and through to my shoulders, that was very hard to bear, So bad was it that I thought something (perhaps a tumour) was growing within me. As so jn as ever food entered my stomach I used to say, ' It is beginning,' meaning ths gnawing pain.

" I took all kinda of things for replief, and applied mustard plasters to the chest, but nothing did me any good. After a time I dared not take h proper meal ; I was afraid to eat. and got very thin and weak. It was ne much as I could do to go about my house-work In October of this year (1891) Mrs J.m*s Merc«r, of 176 High street, Loneton, recommended me to try Mother Seigel's Curative Syrup and I got a bottle and commenced to take it. Alter a few does I felt relief ; my food agreed with me, and by the time I had taken one lanje bo tie all the pmn had left me. and I now ftel as well aa ever I dvi."— Yours truly (signed), Mra Elizabeth Weight, 12 King street, Han'ey, Staffordshire, November 19, 1891.

Tou ask me whit the sad fate of the miners has to do with the case of Mrs Wright. I'll tell you in half a minute. This lady says she whs taken ill in the summer cf 1890. Now, do you suppose the illness and the caus<« of the illness came up at the same time f By no means. Cause firs', fffect afterwards — that's the order, always. Aud, Be<> here I A c«use may be at work for weeks or years before you nonce any re-ults; and, until you do notice resultp, you don't know there's aught gone wrong. Is'nt that so ? The miners, to be snr. , knew tnere was a fire in the mine. But it was fenced off from them, and they thought they wtre Sif*. The barriers leaked, and death gripped them in a twinkling of aa eye.

The body is like a mine, as I have said. Disease and death are caused by the action of poisonous gates and acids inside of it. They all start from the stomach anu then creep into every part ; sometime* fast sometimes slow. In some acute diseases very fast. The doctor! of'en call gout an "explosion" of uric acid. The source of all these thugs is indegestiou aud dyspepsia. Blight symptoms first, then the more terrible and alarming. Watch the way it comes on. This wu Mrs Wright's ailment. Sbe suffered fifteen months before the found out what the matter was and what to do. Graciouc, mercy ! if we only knew the sort of th ngs that go on in our bodies we'd understand that ii's about as dangerous to work in a ki chen as in a coal mine,