Mary Brandon, a gifted choir singer, was much in demand among her many friends, and her vocal accomplishments added pleasure to their frequent social gatherings. When her devoted husband passed away her great sorrow only increased the sweetness and pathos of her beautiful voice.
Some time later, the young widow suddenly gave up her choir work and refused all social engagements, although her voice was still in its prime. The sad cause for her retirement from public life and her distaste for applause was that her heart was burdened with anxiety and sorrow for a wayward son. He had run away from home, and his bereaved mother could get no tidings of him. Weary years passed by without word from the lad, and his mother was losing all hope of his return.
While spending a week with a friend in a city some distance from her home, Mrs. Brandon was persuaded to accompany friends to a gospel meeting. Her ability as a singer was soon noised abroad and the pastor of the church to which her friend took her was told of her sorrow. He sought to help her; and when a series of revival meetings were in progress, he finally extracted a promise to sing at the meetings.
The church was crowded. With a pathos which can be well imagined she sang the well-known hymn, "Where is my wandering boy tonight?" The second verse had been sung:
Once he was pure as the morning dew,
As he knelt at his mother's knee,
No face was so bright, no heart more true,
And none so sweet as he.”
Then the congregation softly took up the chorus:
"Oh where is my boy tonight?
Oh where is my boy tonight?
My heart o'er-flows for I love him he knows;
Oh where is my boy tonight?”
Far back in the church, under the balcony, sat a young man. In sudden determination he arose as though to leave. Instead, he turned and made his way up the aisle. Tears flowing freely, he cried out: "Mother, I am here!”
The embrace of the mother and her wandering boy thrilled the audience, and the service was turned into a general hallelujah! But best of all, in the inquiry room that night, among the many souls who sobbed out their confessions of sin against God, the young man was one of them. To the joy of the mother, the prodigal had returned not only to her, but to the Father whose heart had yearned over him.
Later, while Ira D. Sankey, the great singer-evangelist, was preaching in California, he told this story of the prodigal. He then spoke of a mother who also was seeking her missing boy. Was it by chance or coincidence that at that very meeting her wandering boy had drifted in, just in time to hear Sankey tell this incident? No! God's all-seeing eye and tender love were in exercise to draw this wandering lad also to Himself and the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Thus another soul was led to repentance toward God and faith in the Savior of sinners.