Faith in God's Liberality

A clergyman, himself an exponent of God’s bountiful deal* ings with men, was called upon in test of his own principles of giving to the Lord.

Preaching, in the morning, a sermon on Foreign Missions, an unusually large contribution was taken up. In the afternoon, ho listened to another sermon, by a brother, on Home Missions, and the subject became so important that he was led closely to agitate the question how much he should himself give to the cause.” I was, indeed, in a great strait between charity and necessity. I felt desirous to contribute; but, there I was, on a journey, and I had given so much in the morning that I really feared I had no more money than would bear my expenses.

“The collection was taken; I gave my last dollar, and trusted in the Lord to provide. I proceeded on my journey, stopping to see a friend for whom I had collected forty dollars. I was now one hundred and forty miles from home, and how my expenses were to be met, I could not imagine. But, jutlge my surprise, when, on presenting the money to my friend, he took a hundred dollars, and, adding it to the forty, placed the whole of it in my hand, saying he would make me a present of it.

“Gratitude and joy swelled my bosom; my mind at once remembered my sacrifice of the day before, and now I had realized the literal fulfillment of the promise, ‘Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down and running over, shall men give into your bosom.’”