The Bank of Faith: God the Guardian of the Poor

Perhaps the providence of God in supplying the wants of the poor never was more closely watched and better described than has been done by the late William Huntington, formerly a minister in London, England, who, in a book with the quaint title of the “Bank of Faith,” tells how, in his course of life, day by day the Lord guarded him, helped him, and provided for every need, even the most trifling. It is a precious record of faith and full of true encouragement. He answers as follows this question: “Should we pray for temporal blesS’ ings?”

“Some have affirmed that we have no warrant to pray for temporal blessings, but, blessed be God, he has given us ’ the jyromise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come,’ Yea, the promise of all things pertaining to life and Godliness, and whatever God has promised we may warrantably pray for.

“Those that came to our Saviour in the days of his flesh, prayed chiefly for temporal mercies. The blind prayed for sight, the lepers for a cure, the lame for the use of their limbs, and the deaf for the use of their ears, and surely had they prayed unwarrantably, their prayers would not have been so miraculously answered.

“Elijah prayed for a temporal mercy when he prayed for rain, and it is clear that God answered him. Elisha works a miracle to produce a temporal mercy when he healed the barren plains of Jericho.”

Is my reader a poor Christian? Take it patiently. God maketh the poor as well as the rich. Envy not the rich. Riches are often seen to be a canker-worm at the root of a good man’s comfort, a snare in his life, an iron pillar at the back of his pride. Agar prayed to be fed with food convenient for him, and you may pray for the same, and what God gives you in answer to your prayer you will be thankful for.

That state is surely best which keeps you dependent on God and thankful to Him, and so you shall find it to the end. Go on, poor Christian, trvsting in the providence of God,