DIED WHILE IN PRAYER.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 25, 20 October 1893, Page 27

DIED WHILE IN PRAYER.

"Another man mas found in a kneeling posture, his face buried in his hands, as if he had died in prayer . I clip this pathetic sentence from an account of the St Etienne coal mine disaster which occured in France, in December, 1891, Tne fire bad 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.

Has it ever struck you that the interior of the human body ig like the Interior of a coal mine ? Well, it is. All the operations go on in solitude and darkness. Gases are engendered in it that 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 aftei her nrarriage, she never knew what illness was ; that ip, so as to remember it or to have it make a mark on her, as we may say. But mighty few folks manape to escape the old slave driver altogether. No did she. "It was in the summer of 1890," Bhe sayp, " when I began to feel bad. My appetite was poor, and what I did eat gave me great pain and distress My food seemed to lie like lead ; and after every mea), no matter how simple the food was, I had the most cxc uciatiug pain you can imagine. I had a nagging, thudding, pain at my chest, and through to my shoulders, that was very hard to bear. Ho bad was it that I thoigat something (perhaps a tumour) was growing within me. As so nas ever food entered my stomach I used to say, ' It is beginning, 1 meaning ths gnawing pain.

" I took all kinds of things for replief, and applied mustard plasters to the chest, but nothing did me any good. After * time I dared not take a proper meal ; I was afraid to eat. and got very thin and weak. It was as much as I conld do to go about my house-work. In October of this year (1891) Mrs James Mercer, of 176 High street Longton, recommended me to try Mother Seigel's Curative Syrup' and I got a bottle and commenced to take it. After a few does I felt relief ; my food agreed with me, and by the time I had taken one iarge bo 'tie all the pain had left me. and I now feel as well as ever I did." — Yours truly (signed), Mrs Elizabeth Weight, 12 Kine street. Han'ey, Staffordshire, November 19, 1891.

Ton ask me wh'jtthe sad fate of the miners has to do with the caße of Mrs Wright. I'll tell you in half a minute. This lady Bays she was taken ill in the summer of 1890. Now, do you suppose the illness and the cause of the illness came np at the same time ? By no means. Cause first, effect afterwards — that's the order, always. And, see here I A cause may be at work for weeks o- years before you notice auy results ; and, until you do notice results, yon don't know there's aught gone wrong. Is'nt that so? The miners, to be sure, knew there was a fire in the mine. But it was fenced off from them, and they thought they were s-jfe. The barriers leaked, and death gripped them in a twinkling of an eye.

The body is like a mine, as I have said. Disease and death are caused by the action of poisonous gases and acids inside of it. They all start from the stomach and then creep into every part ; sometimes fast sometimes slow. In some acute diseases very fast. The doctors of'en call gout an "explosion" of uric acid. The source of all these things is indegestion and dyspepsia. Slight symptoms first, then the more terrible and alarming. Watch tbe way it comes on. This was Mrs Wright's ailment. She suffered fifteen months before she found out what the matter was and what to do. Gracious, mercy I if we only knew the sort of things that go on in our bodies we'd understand that ii'fl about as dangerous to work in a kitchen as in a coal mine.