Observations placeholder
The Quaker lady, who lived in Philadelphia, heard a still, small voice say 'Thou wilt lose a son; and he is a pleasant child’
Identifier
024927
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Premonitions: A leap in to the future – Herbert Greenhouse [1971]
"THOU WILT LOSE A SON,,
The Quaker lady, who lived in Philadelphia, often heard a still, small voice whenever a sad event was about to take place. She kept a diary in which she recorded what the voice said. One day she wrote, "The Lord showed me that I should lose a son. It was often told me, though without sound of words. It said: 'Thou wilt lose a son; and he is a pleasant child."'
The "pleasant child," her son James, often went swimming in the Delaware River near Philadelphia. Once, soon after his mother had written down her premonition, he was in the river with a friend: The friend was in danger of drowning, and James tried to rescue him but was also drowned.
A messenger was sent to tell his mother, who lived eight miles from the scene of death. When he arrived, he was struck dumb and unable to recite the bad news.
The Quaker lady heard a voice say, "James is drowned.', She said calmly to the messenger, "Thou has come to tell me that James is drowned."
The story is related in The Life of Isaac T. Hopper, by Lucie Marie Child. The Quaker lady lived in the early part of the eighteenth century.