LITTLE HELPS BY LARGE HEARTS.
A friend had been sitting a little while by the bed-side of a poor woman—rendered utterly helpless from paralysis—reading the Scriptures to her, when the door was gently opened, and three neatly-dressed little girls entered the room, each carrying a small basket. One of them approached the bed, and after a few simple and kind inquiries, held up the little basket she had in her hand, saying, "My mother sent you this, and hopes soon to come and see you." The poor woman thanked the child gratefully, and said, "Put it away, my dear, for me."
The little girl seemed quite used to the employment. She went over to a cupboard, emptied carefully the contents of her basket, and with a modest "Good-bye," the three children withdrew.
The poor woman then gave an explanation to the friend who was present. "These little girls," she said, "are the children of a very respectable butcher, and every Saturday afternoon their mother employs them to carry about to poor people scraps of meat and bones. They are nice children, and take quite a pleasure in doing it, and they have given me, and many others, many a good dinner."
Now, who can calculate the amount of good resulting from the thoughtful charity of this mother? We read thus of God's redeemed people—"their works do follow them"—not to heaven for recompense, as some vainly imagine, but on the earth. Continually we see the truth of this in the effects produced, after the lapse of years, from works done by those whose bones have long been turned to dust. Who can tell the influence this weekly act may have upon these three children, if spared to grow up to womanhood? And thus, when their mother's place knows her no more, her "works will follow her."