Given a Treasure in Friend and Helper
God’s best gifts to us are ordinarily not in our finding some missing material treasure, or in enabling us to discharge some particular duty, but in his bringing to our side some friend or helper who is more to our mental and spiritual life than we dared to think of, or to desire, before the gift came from God. In this line I have had very much to be grateful for; and it is of such a gift, as peculiarly pointed out of God, that I now wish to bear my hearty testimony.
In the spring of 1870 I was living at Hartford, with a business office in Boston, in charge of the general missionary operations of The American Sunday-school Union for the New England field. For several years
I had had a valued assistant in that work, 65
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in Hartford, aiding me in my official corres: pondence and in the details of Sunday- -school movements in Connecticut. Suddenly that assistant was called to another sphere of labor, with opportunities peculiarly suited to his talents and tastes, and he said he would leave it with me to say whether he should accept the proffer, to my serious inconvenience, or should continue as my helper. I saw that it was my duty to advise him, for his own sake, to accept the position, even though I did not see how I could replace him in the position he was occupying. And it was thus that I found myself needing an assistant in a sphere of the Lord’s service, without knowing which way to turn for him. I laid the matter before the Lord, and was on the watch for his indications of help to me.
On the third Sunday in May, I was a visitor in the Sunday-school of the Second Congregational Church of Norwich, Connecticut. I had, in advance, no reason to
suppose that I might there have any indi- 66
Given a Treasure in Friend and Helper
cation as to the supply of my special need, nor was this need peculiarly in my mind at the time. During the opening exercises I was seated between the superintendent and the singing-leader. Just as I was bending my head in prayer, my eyes caught a glimpse of a young man passing through the door of the library-room at my right hand. I did not see the full face even for the moment, but as it passed from sight the message was borne in upon my mind from above, “Zhat is the young man who is to be your helper.”
When the prayer was concluded, I turned my eyes to the library-room, and I saw the young man there. Pointing him out to the singing-leader by my side, I asked, “Who is he?” The answer came, “That’s Johnnie Wattles.” I said, “I’ll ask you about
him by and by;” and then I gave myself again to the exercises of the hour.
Later I was told that “Johnnie Wattles” was assistant in a well-known apothecary’s
store in the city, where, with a younger 67
‘WMlustrative Answers to Prayer brother, he was learning the business, in order that the two might start out for themselves in that business. It seemed most unlikely that he would be willing to turn aside from his life work to assist me in what was little more than a temporary clerical position; but I felt justified in following up the matter in the line of the mental suggestion that I had received as from the Lord. I sought an interview with him, and, without telling him of this mental suggestion, I spoke of the position which I desired to have filled, and asked him if he would think of taking it. I spoke of the incidental advantages of the place in the kind of work with which it was associated and the sort of people with whom it would bring him into pleasant relations. He expressed surprise at my interest in him as a stranger, and promised to look carefully into the question, and let me know his conclusions.
I did not, of course, propose to ignore
reason and prudence in such a matter, be- 68
Given a Treasure in Friend and Helper
cause of the providential prompting which had started me in this line. I consulted the pastor of the young man as to his character and capacity. He spoke of him with warmth as of a lovely spirit, of fine natural capabilities, and of firm Christian principles. Others whom I consulted agreed with his pastor as to his winning ways and his sterling worth, and I had no doubt on these points.
He also looked into the matter cautiously, and consulted various advisers. Most of these thought he would be unwise to make the proposed change, but his pastor and a few others approved his inclination to accept the proffered position. In talking it over with me, he said that he had felt that the business of a druggist was his life work, and he should not wish to turn permanently aside from that pathway without clearer indications than he had yet received of the Lord’s wish for him to change. I told him that he would be entirely free to try it for only a year as an experiment.
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I was all the while careful not to attempt to influence him in the slightest degree in favor of accepting my proposition by any suggestion that in my opinion it would be wise for him to do so. I wanted him left free to act as he thought God would have him. I wanted him to come only if God wanted him to. And I knew that if God wanted him to come he would come.
Four weeks after the subject was first broached to him, he wrote me as follows: “I believe I have looked carefully at both sides of the question which you have so kindly left entirely with me, and am thoroughly prepared to-night to decide. I most gladly and heartily offer myself to you, hoping, as I do so, that it may prove for our mutual good. Ever since I had the first interview with you, I have been delighted with the idea of making the change, and have not now the least doubt in my mind but that it is the very best thing I can do: It seems almost a miracle
to me that you should have noticed me as 70
Given a Treasure tn Friend and Helper
you did, and much more that you should have once thought of asking me to take the place; and I can only hope and pray that I may be such an assistant to you as you have anticipated. I am afraid that I shall not come up to your expectations, but shall try, and do the best I can.”
At the time he first came to me, Mr. Wattles was a little more than twenty years old, but his fair face and youthful appearance made him seem hardly more than eighteen. Yet he was of most engaging manners, and he commanded confidence without limitation. He won every heart at the start by his looks and ways, and he held every heart to the last by his sterling worth. Outside of his office work, his first experience in the Sunday-school field was as superintendent of a mission school in Hartford, where the roughest boys and the most cultivated teachers were alike under the spell of his winsome presence. Then he was for a while the leader of the
teachers’-meeting of the Asylum Hill Con- 71
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gregational Church, in its weekly stud, of the Sunday-school lesson. Among those teachers were men and women of rich experience and disciplined minds, including a distinguished judge of the Supreme Court of the state; and all were alike charmed and helped by his leadership. While not having the advantages of a liberal education, Mr. Wattles had clearness of mind in the perception of truth, and sound good sense in the use of all his powers. Moreover, he worked diligently in preparation for any service he was called to attempt, and he never assumed to know what he did not know positively.
Before six months had passed, Mr. Wattles said that he would never go back to his former position, even at ten thousand dollars.a year. He felt that God was leading him to better service. He soon had his younger brother in another branch of the work which now had his heart, and he himself was pressing onward and upward.
He became the general secretary of the 72
Given a Treasure in Friend and Helper
Connecticut Sunday-school Association, and he developed special power in organizing and directing movements for the improvement of the Sunday-schools of the state. He showed himself also an effective speaker in conventions and institutes throughout New England. Moreover, he was showing power and gaining influence and winning friends more and more widely all the time.
And in this way my life came to be linked with the God-led life of John D. Wattles, who was later my loved friend, my dear son-in-law, my business partner, and a helper, an example, and an inspiration to me, while proving himself a helper and an inspiration to many thousands of those who never saw his face or heard his voice, and an example to every one who ever knew him as he was. And when, at his life’s close, after my twenty-three years of loving companionship with him, I came to look back over the way he was led of
God so willingly, so trustfully, so loyally, 73
the loveliness of Fsuch: a God-led Ss
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Teaching Dessons of Trust to my
Helper