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.'"