Holy Ann of Toronto achieved some
amazing things simply through asking her Father. One was to pray about a well,
which had gone dry. Those who had been down it said that the bottom was as dry
as the kitchen floor. Ann was asked to pray about it, so she did. The next
morning there was plenty of water and, so the record goes, the well has never
since failed. MY SEARCH FOR TRUTH ~ Henry Thomas Hamblin
One of the most
remarkable answers to prayer in Ann's experience was that in which she obtained
water in a dry well. This incident has been told and re-told scores of times,
with all sorts of variations and additions. I was most careful to get the full
particulars and surrounding circumstances taken down as Ann narrated it. The
event occurred in the long, dry weeks of summer. During this period the well at
their home was usually dry for two or three months, and the boys were compelled
to haul water in barrels from the well about half a mile away. This was very
hard work, and especially when they had to provide, not only for household
needs, but for the stock as well. One evening at the close of the day Ann was
sitting in the kitchen with the boys around her, telling them some of the
remarkable ways in which her Heavenly Father had answered her prayers When she
had just concluded one of these narratives, Henry said, "Ann, why don't
you ask your Father to send water in that well, and not have us boys work so
hard? I was down in the well looking at it to-day, and it is just as dry as the
floor." This was thrown out to Ann in a half-joking, half-earnest way, as
though to challenge her faith. He little dreamt of the serious way that Ann
would take it. When she got up into her little room that night she knelt in
prayer and said, "Now, Father, you heard what Henry said to-night. If I
get up in class meeting and say, 'My God shall supply all your needs according
to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus,' the boys won't believe I am what I
profess to be if you don't send the water in the well." She then continued
to plead that the water might be sent, and finally, rising from her knees, she
said, "Now, Father, if I am what I profess to be, there will be water in
the well in the morning."
When she came down the next morning Henry was out
preparing to go for the water as usual. To his surprise and great amusement he
saw Ann take up the two pails and start for the well. He watched her from the
kitchen window as she hooked the pail to the windlass and began to lower it. If
she had done it the night before it would have gone with a bang to the bottom,
but after a while there was splash, and still down the pail went, and Ann began
with difficulty to wind up the windlass again, and at last put the pail upon
the well-stand full of water. She repeated this, and with both pails full of
clear, sparkling water, she walked up to the house. And who could wonder that
there was a little air of victory as she set down the pails and said to Harry,
"Well, what do you say now?" To her surprise he simply answered,
"Well, why didn't you do that long ago, and have saved us all that
work?".Meditation upon that question,thrown out so thoughtlessly by this
young boy, might yield some very profitable results. How often we go hungry and
thirsty, suffering the lack of all sorts of needed things, when a full supply
might be ours! "We have not because we ask not." Years after a friend
visited the well and was told that from the time referred to the well had never
been known to be dry summer or winter.
The Life Story of Ann
Preston
Known also as "Holy
Ann"
By Helen E. Bingham 1927
Ann “Holy Ann” Preston
( 1810 – 1906 )
Burial:
Mount Pleasant Cemetery
Toronto
Ontario, Canada
Plot: G, Section 9, Lot 5
( 1810 – 1906 )
Burial:
Mount Pleasant Cemetery
Toronto
Ontario, Canada
Plot: G, Section 9, Lot 5
On one occasion she
had risen in the morning, and, as usual, had asked her Father for a verse with
which to start the day. The special portion that was given to her was, "And we know that all things work together for
good to them that love God." It came while they were at family prayer,
and Ann said, "And we will see it
before night, too. God will showit." All through the day
Ann watched, but nothing unusual happened. However, when the girls returned
from meeting that night Ann asked if they had had a good meeting. One of them
answered, "Why, how could WE when I lost all the money I had to live on
next week on the way there?" Then they told how the money had been lost
and they had looked for it all the evening with a lantern. Before they retired,
at the family altar Ann reminded her Father of the promise of the morning, and
asked that He would keep the money for her wherever it was.
Early in the morning
she was wakened with the instruction, "Arise and get the money that you gave Me to keep
for you last night." Then came the other voice: ''Nonsense! Your leg is too bad for you to get
up and go." She did not obey at once and was just falling
to sleep when again the voice spoke, bidding her to arise. She went out and
walked down the path, not looking specially for it, but all at once she was
stopped by her Father and she saw a bill lying almost hidden with the snow, by
the side of a small hill. She picked it up and took it across the road, where
her friend,Mrs. Hughes, lived. Rapping at the door, she said, "Get up and
see if this is a bill." The lady took the bill and looked at it in
amazement, and said, "This is a five dollar bill." Ann said,
"Come and let us praise the Lord for this." After prayer Ann went
back home, and going in, threw the bill down and said, "There; there is
your money." The girls looked at it in surprise, for they had searched so
long for it.
The Life Story of Ann Preston
Known also as "Holy
Ann"
By Helen E. Bingham 1927
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