Part 36 (2/2)

As a series of religious meetings was held in a Baptist church in ----, and the hearts of G.o.d's people were greatly encouraged, the church was consumed by fire. It was proposed to continue the meetings in the Congregational church, but the workmen were coming the next morning to demolish and rebuild it. It was then proposed to hire the workmen to delay, that the people might a.s.semble for three days more, but nothing was done; when the Congregational pastor walking his study, and thinking that some souls might be gathered in, went to the workmen, and handed them $10 from his own pocket, which he could ill afford; the meetings were continued, and a number of souls hopefully converted to G.o.d. The day following, as he pa.s.sed the house, the man to whom he paid the $10 called to him, and constrained him to receive back the whole amount, saying it was of no value compared with the saving of a soul.

THE LIBERAL FARMER.

A farmer in one of the retired mountain towns of Ma.s.sachusetts, began business in 1818, with six hundred dollars in debt. He began with the determination to pay the debt in six years, in equal installments, and to give all his net income if any remained above those installments. The income of the first year, however, was expended in purchasing stock and other necessaries for his farm.

In the six next years he paid off the debt, and having abandoned the intention of ever being any richer, he has ever since given his entire income, after supporting his family and thoroughly educating his six children.

During all this period he has lived with the strictest economy, and everything pertaining to his house, table, dress and equipage has been in the most simple style; and though he has twice been a member of the State Senate, he conscientiously retains this simplicity in his mode of life. The farm is rocky and remote from the village, and his whole property, real and personal, would not exceed in value three thousand dollars. Yet sometimes he has been enabled to give from $200 to $300 a year.

EXPERIENCE OF A SADDLER.

Normand Smith, a saddler of Hartford, Conn., after practicing for years an elevated system of benevolence, bequeathed in charity the sum of $30,000.

An anonymous writer says of himself, that he commenced business and prosecuted it in the usual way till he lost $900, which was all he was worth, and found himself in debt $1,100.

Being led by his trials to take G.o.d's word as his guide in business as well as in heart and religion, he determined to give his earnings liberally unto the Lord.

The first year he gave $12. For eighteen years the amount increased by about 25 per cent., and the last year he gave $850, and he says he did it easier than during the first year he paid the $12. Besides, though with nothing but his hands to depend on when he began this course, he paid the whole debt of $1,100 with interest, though it took him nine years to do it.

JACOB NOT BLESSED UNTIL HE BECAME A LIBERAL GIVER.

Jacob went out from his father's house ”with his staff,” a poor man. But at Bethel he vowed to give to G.o.d the _tenth_ of all that G.o.d should bestow on him. Commencing thus, G.o.d blessed him, and in twenty years he returned with great riches.

THE LORD'S INSURANCE MONEY.

A tradesman in New York had pledged to give to the Lord a certain portion of his business receipts as fast as they were collected. He called this _The Lord's insurance money_, for, said he, ”so long as I give so long will the Lord help me and bless me, and in some way he will give me the means to give, so it is no money lost. Rather it is a blessing to my heart to keep it open in grat.i.tude, a blessing to dispose of it to gladden other hearts, and the surest way to keep the Lord's favor with me.”

The results of his experience were blessed indeed, as he said, ”I never realized before how closely the Lord is connected with all my interests, and how he helps me in all my business plans. Things happen constantly which show me constantly that some one who knows more than I is benefiting me--protecting me. Bad debts have been paid which I did not expect. Errand boys, just getting into sly and bad habits, have been discovered ere their thefts had proceeded far. As I needed competent help in my business, it has come just as it was wanted. When customers were failing, somehow their debts to me were paid, although they failed to pay others. A severe fire came to my office and apparently seemed to have swept all my valuables away. But it was stopped at just the right moment, and not one thing valuable was lost. The insurance companies paid me enough to replace every damage, and the office was renewed better than before. The Lord sends me business enough to pay for my debts, yet others are dull. _I cannot tell why it is, except that I always pray for my business, and ask the Lord to bless it for the good of others_, and that the means which come from it may be used for his cause. When I stop giving, business stops coming. When I stop praying specially for it, perplexities arise. As long as I pray for it, it all moves easily, and I have no care or trouble. The Lord is my Banker, my Helper, my Insurer, my Deliverer, my Patron, and my Blessed Savior of temporal things as well as spiritual.”

GIVE AND IT SHALL BE GIVEN.

”'Cheerful giving,' writes an aged minister, 'is what enriches the giver and brings down a blessing from above. A poor clergyman attended one of Zion's festivals in a distant city. The railroad company supplied him with a return ticket, and though many of his brethren would secure treasures from the book-stores, but a solitary twenty-five cent scrip was in his possession, and he would need that to pay for refreshment on his way home. It was the last day of the feast. Mention, again and again, was made of the widow's mite, or poor men's gifts, and, as the boxes were pa.s.sed, he felt sad that, in his deep poverty, he could not cast in a single penny. As the a.s.sembly was dismissed, it was announced that collectors would stand at the door to gather up the _fragments_ which ought to be in the Lord's treasury. With slow steps this good man pa.s.sed down and put that last money he possessed into the waiting box.

”In a few moments, a gentleman of the city invited him to his, table to dine, with quite a number of the dignitaries of the church. During the repast, the host was called from the table for a little time. At the conclusion of a pleasant entertainment, the poor minister was taken one side and an envelope put into his hands, with this remark: 'I was called from the table by a man who has long owed me a small debt, which I thought was lost a long time since, and I cannot think what it was paid to-day for, except that I might give it to you.' The envelope contained twenty-five dollars. When the books are opened, that rich steward will see how his money was used, and thank G.o.d, who put it into his heart to dispose of it thus.”

”LENDING TO THE LORD.”

”A physician who is not a professor of religion, in a neighboring city, has for many years exhibited an unshaken faith in that declaration. He told me that he has made many experiments on it, and the Lord has fulfilled his words, 'That which he hath given will He pay him again,'

in every case. One of his 'experiments' came under my observation.

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