Faith In God's Liberality.


A clergyman, himself an exponent of God's bountiful dealings 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, he 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
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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, judge 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.'"



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