Prayer for a Pair of Boots

tn the Fall of 1858, H, a student in the Theological

Seminary at Princeton, N. J., was in great need of a new pair of boots. His toes were sticking out of his old ones, and he had no money to purchase new ones. All the money he could command was barely enough to pay his fare to his home, where he had promised a dear friend to be present on the approaching communion Sabbath.

H was a man of great faith, and was accustomed to

carry all his wants to God in prayer. To God he carried the present emergency, and earnestly importuned Him, that He would send him a pair of boots, and that He would do it before, the approaching Sabbath. He was persuaded that God heard, and would answer his petition, yet his faith was sorely tried, Saturday morning came and still there was no answer; ht resolved, however, to go to his home, fully persuaded that Go<J would in good time grant his request. He took the morning train at the Princeton depot, and reached home about eleven o’clock. It was a hard trial for him to go to “Preparatory Lecture” with his boots in the condition they were in; yet at two o’clock he went, still praying that God would send him a new pair of boots. During the service, a merchant in the town took a seat in the same pew with him, and at the close of the service, without a word being spoken on the subject,

the merchant, after shaking hands with H and inquiring

of his welfare, asked him if he would do him the favor of going down town to a certain boot and shoe store and select from the stock asi good a pair of boots as he could find, and, said the merchant, “have them charged to me.” It was, as H said to me on his return to the seminary, a direct answer to prayer. Indeed, it might be said of H that he

went through college and seminary on prayer. He laid all his plans before God, pleaded his promises, and never was disappointed.