Part 35 (2/2)
'See,' said I to my wife; 'I thought I _gave_ that money, but I only _lent_ it; how soon has the Lord returned it! Never again will I doubt his word.'
”I afterward learned that Mr. B---- had paid over the coin to the husband of the lady at whose house I staid, along with some other money, in payment for lumber, and he had given it to his wife.
”Take my advice, and when appealed to for aid, fear not to give of your poverty; depend upon it the Lord will not let you lose by it, if you wish to do good. If you wish to prosper, 'Give, and it shall be given unto you; for with the same measure that ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.' 'Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.'”
A NEW YEAR'S INCIDENT.
”One New Year's day I was going out to visit some of my poorer neighbors, and thought I would take a sovereign to a certain widow who had seen days of competence and comfort. I went to look in my drawer, and was so sorry to find I had but one sovereign left in my bank for the poor, and my allowance would not be due for two or three weeks. I had nearly closed the drawer upon the solitary sovereign, when this pa.s.sage of Scripture flashed so vividly into my mind, 'The Lord is able to give thee much more than this,' (2 Chron. xxv: 9.) that I again opened the drawer, took the money, and entered the carriage which was waiting for me. When I arrived at Mrs. A.'s, and with many good wishes for the New Year, offered her the sovereign, I shall never forget her face of surprised joy. The tears ran down her cheeks while she took my hands and said, 'May the G.o.d of the widow and fatherless bless you; we had not one penny in the house, nor a morsel of bread; it is he who has heard my prayers, and sent you again and again to supply my need.' You who pray for and visit the poor, and enjoy the blessedness of relieving their temporal wants and of speaking to them of Jesus, you will understand the gladness of heart with which I returned home.
”In the country we had only one post daily; so when evening came on, and it was nearly ten o'clock, I was not a little surprised at receiving a letter. When I opened it, how my heart beat for joy when I read these words from a comparative stranger: 'You will have many poor just now to claim your pity and your help, may I beg you to dispense the enclosed five pounds as you see fit? and I have ordered a box of soap to be sent to you for the same purpose.' These boxes of soap are worth four pounds.
Thus did our gracious G.o.d send nine times as much as I gave for his sake, before that day had closed.”
FENEBERG'S LOAN TO THE LORD.
”A poor man with an empty purse came one day to Michael Feneberg, the G.o.dly pastor of Seeg, in Bavaria, and begged three crowns, that he might finish his journey. It was all the money Feneberg had, but as he besought him so earnestly in the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus he gave it. Immediately after, he found himself in great outward need, and seeing no way of relief he prayed, saying, 'Lord, I lent Thee three crowns; Thou hast not yet returned them, and Thou knowest how I need them. Lord, I pray Thee, give them back.' The same day a messenger brought a money-letter, which Gossner, his a.s.sistant, reached over to Feneberg, saying, 'Here, father, is what you expended.' The letter contained two hundred thalers, or about one hundred and fifty dollars, which the poor traveler had begged from a rich man for the vicar; and the childlike old man, in joyful amazement, cried out, 'Ah, dear Lord, one dare ask nothing of Thee, for straightway Thou makest one feel so much ashamed!'”
COMPOUND INTEREST.
_The Christian_ tells of a minister in Ohio, who in 1860 was engaged to statedly supply a congregation who were in arrears for a whole year's salary to their former pastor, and were only able to promise their 'supply' five dollars a Sunday till the old debt should be paid. At the close of the year, only about two-thirds of this amount had been paid.
So it was not strange that their 'supply' soon found himself in arrears for many things. That year the cost of his periodicals alone had amounted to sixteen dollars. This he could not pay, and as none of them could be stopped without payment of arrearages; the debt must continue to increase.
On New Year's day the minister was called to marry a couple, and gave the fee, five dollars, to his wife saying, ”I want you to get yourself a dress with this.” There was a kind of material much worn then, which she had very much admired, a dress of which would cost four dollars. So she went to the Mission periodical to find the address of the Mission Secretary, thinking to send the extra dollar there. But as she glanced over its pages and noticed the trials and straits of the missionaries, and the embarra.s.sment of the Board that year, her heart was touched and she felt that they needed the money more than she did the dress, and instead of the one she concluded to send the five dollars.
She went to her husband and read her letter to him. ”O,” said he, ”I'm afraid we are too poor to give so much.” With a little feeling of disappointment she said, ”Well, give me the change and I will send what I had intended at first.” ”No,” said he, ”you have given it, and I dare not take it back.”
And so with a prayer that G.o.d would accept and bless the gift she signed her letter, ”A Friend of Missions,” thinking, as no one would know the author, that was the last she would hear about it in this world.
The ladies of that congregation were accustomed to meet weekly at the parsonage to sew for those in need. The next week a lady who was visiting in the place came with her friends, and as she entered the parlor she tossed a bundle into the lap of the minister's wife, saying, ”Mrs. ----, here is a present for you.”
The present was a dress pattern of the same kind of material she had intended to purchase. And as she thought to herself, ”G.o.d has given me this in place of what I have given,” she was reminded of the words, ”Give, and it shall be given to you.” But that was not the end.
A short time afterwards she received a letter from the Secretary of the Board of Missions, enclosing a printed copy of her own letter, and asking if she were the author of it; and added, ”If so, a large-hearted man in New York has authorized me to send you twenty-five dollars, with a special request that you purchase a dress worth five dollars, and give the rest to your husband and children.” There was her five dollars back, with four times as much more added to it.
THE BROWN TOWEL.
The editor of _The Christian Woman_ tells the story of a poor woman who, in her anxiety to give to the Lord, could find nothing but a poor brown towel.
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