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 nejirly closed the drawer upon the solitary sovereign, when this passage 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 nevei forget her face of surprised joy. The tears ran down her cheeks while she took my hands and said, ‘May the God 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 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 God send nine times as much as I gjive for his sake, before that day had closed.”