"At midnight Paul and Silas [in prison] prayed, and sang praises unto God: ... and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed." So reads the Bible (Acts 16:25,26).
Recently a woman had an experience similar in a way to that of Paul and Silas. It was midnight for her also. Heavy chains of pain and fear seemed to have shackled her within a prison of intolerable suffering. Doubt and discouragement added to her affliction. But in the dark hours of the night she remembered Paul and Silas, and she too began to sing praises to God, at first silently and very uncertainly, then confidently, joyfully, and aloud. And her bands, too, were loosed, and her freedom was gained.
"O gentle presence," she sang, "peace and joy and power." And as she pondered these words of Mary Baker Eddy's precious hymn (Poems, p. 4), great vistas of God's healing love were unfolded to her.
