BY BEFF.

SENT OUT TO PREACH WHEN A BOY—FIRST EXPERIENCE IN PREACHING—QUESTIONED BY AN INFIDEL—ANSWER GIVEN BY THE LORD.

One of the most astonishing attestations of the promise which the Lord makes to His servants, that they "shall not be confounded," that I have ever heard, was related to me by an experienced missionary, in whom I place great confidence, and for whose character I have great respect.

The incident and attendant circumstances, as nearly as I can recollect, were as follows, and I am sure I give the same in a manner substantially as related to me:

Brother A—first heard the gospel when a youth, in his native country—England. He was soon convinced of its truth, was baptized at the age of eighteen, and immediately after his baptism was ordained an Elder, and sent forth to preach the gospel. He was an unlettered, unsophisticated, bashful youth, one of the last, it would have been thought, to be selected to preach the gospel.

He started forth and arrived at a strange village, where, at a late hour, and after some interesting adventures, he was taken in by a kind-hearted man and his wife, who made him very comfortable.

On the next day he conversed with them upon the gospel.

They thought it remarkable to see such a boy as he was, out as a missionary of a new religion, became interested, and asked him to hold a meeting in their house.

He had never preached in public, but he said he would do the best he could. The appointment was spread, and the house was full at the appointed hour. The young Elder astonished himself at the ease with which he preached a long discourse on the first principles of the gospel.

Among those who had come to meeting was a hardened infidel, who was a very cunning reasoner, and who had made it a practice for many years to argue against the divinity of the scriptures. Nothing pleased him more than to draw some minister into a debate, and then to present some of his "unanswerable" arguments against the Bible. He had vanquished every minister in the village, and every itinerant preacher who had held meetings there for years, whom he could succeed in drawing into a debate.

When the young missionary had ceased preaching, some of the audience commenced to ask him questions. Presently the infidel, evidently thinking to easily vanquish so weak an adversary, commenced with his usual routine of questions, and at length asked:

"So you believe the flood actually drowned all the animals in the world except those in the ark?"

"Yes, sir," answered the Elder.

"We know that, not very long after the flood, many kinds of animals were found in various parts of the world at a great distance from where the ark landed, and even upon islands of the sea, far from the mainland, and under such circumstances as would render the theory of transportation by human means an absurdity. Now, how did those animals come to exist in the different and distant islands and continents?"

This question was the infidel's "trump card." At the right juncture in his debates he always asked it, and had never yet met with a minister, or any other Bible believer, who could satisfactorily answer it.

The young missionary felt his utter inability to answer this question. In trying to frame a reply, he sat gazing abstractedly at the ceiling of the room. The audience who remained knew that this was the great argument of the infidel, and did not, for a moment, suppose that the boyish preacher could meet it.

Suddenly there appeared before the young missionary's eyes, as if it were suspended in the air, a scroll. On the scroll appeared, in brilliant golden letters, these words: "In the days of Peleg the earth was divided." (Gen. x., 25). Instantly an explanation of the infidel's problem burst upon his mind.

He calmly and deliberately proceeded to explain that, prior to the days of Peleg, this whole earth was one vast continent, inhabited in its various portions, with different kinds of animals; that in the days of Peleg this vast continent was broken up into smaller divisions of land, islands, etc., and that, in this manner, the animals upon its surface accompanied the land in its divisions.

The infidel was confounded, the multitude astonished, and the young, illiterate missionary triumphant. Several remembered the passage of scripture, and none could gainsay the missionary's explanation. The latter, however, had no knowledge of any such a passage in the Bible, as he had read but very little of it, and, had the answer not come to him by revelation, he would have been confounded.

The scroll was so plainly visible to him that it seemed as though others could see it, but they did not.