"What is this wonderful coin?" exclaimed Michael.
The Levite examined it, and a look of contempt came on his face. "Fool, have you never seen a shekel before?" he enquired.
"Never such a one as this!" cried Michael.
"It is like any other shekel," said the Levite scornfully, and he tossed it down in the dust.
It was only the eye of Faith that saw any special value, in that which a miracle had produced.
"Did my eyes deceive me when I read verse after verse of God's Word from that coin?" said Michael to himself, as he raised from the earth his shekel, quite undimmed by the dust. "No, for another Psalm is commenced. Blessed shekel! I desire to keep thee to my dying day, and then have thee buried with me in my grave."
Michael kept to his resolution for some length of time. Each day, when there came any pause in his work, he drank in comfort and instruction from the words visible to him alone on his wonderful piece of silver. They were the first thing which he studied when rising at dawn; and when the sun set, he read till the light faded away. Then, kindling his small earthen lamp, Michael still pursued his blessed study: never did the minute characters engraved on the silver shine more brightly than then.
And yet Michael did break his resolution; did part with his treasure! And this was how it happened.
Partly from prophetic verses seen on his coin, but still more from hearing the Divine Preacher Himself, Michael had become a devout believer in the holy Jesus of Nazareth. One memorable day, Michael met two of the Lord's followers, and heard them conversing together in troubled tones.
"The Master commanded us to provide things needful for the feast," said one; "and we have nothing wherewith to buy them. Judas hath the bag; and we wot not whither he has gone. The day is wearing on, and there is nothing ready for the Master."