ANNA A. GORDON 227 one of the Moody revival meetings in Boston, in 1877. Of this meeting Miss Willard once wrote:
- 0n my going to conduct the women's meetings for Mr.
Moody, there was no one to play the organ ; an earnest appeal was made and after a painful pause and waiting, a slight figure in black with a music roll in her hand came shyly along the aisle, and Anna Gordon gently whispered, *As no one volunteers, I will do the best I can. ' That very day she had taken her first lesson on the organ, meaning to become mistress of that instrument, but something greater had come into her life a fortnight earlier. Her brother Arthur, eight- een years of age, and nearer to her by years and tempera- ment than any of the others (a devoted Christian boy who stood in the first rank at the high school, and was preparing for Amherst College with the expectation of becoming a min- ister), had suddenly died. This was Anna's first sorrow, and broke up the deep springs of her sweet nature. She had been a Christian and church member since she was twelve years old, but a deeper current Godward now flowed through her soul. This was her first visit to Boston after her brother had gone, and she had just attended Mr. Moody 's noon meet- ing, in which the text had been, * Whatsoever He saith unto you do it, ' and had promised in her inmost heart, she would try to do helpful things as the opportunity offered; and be- hold, the very first * opportunity ' was to come forward before twelve or fifteen hundred waiting women, and * start the tune. ' When I knew these things, I said in my heart, * This is a rare young spirit'
- I wish I could picture her as she looked then in her sweet
youth, with eyes that were the mirror of an absolute truth- fulness, no less than the utmost kindness and good will, with soft, fair hair over a forehead that my mother used to say was *one of the most urbane and symmetrical she ever saw,' with a pretty complexion and a smile full of humor and good will. She was hardly of medium height, and of slight figure, with a remarkably alert bearing, and quick gliding step. She had that noiseless way of getting about, and doing things with-
