Madge looked wistfully at Alie, her usual counsellor as well as friend. Suddenly her face brightened. “I know! I know!” she exclaimed; “I once heard him say he wished he’d a glass like those on board a ship, and he’d show us the hills a long way off, and the mountains in the moon beside.”
“A telescope he shall have,” said Mrs. Everard, “and one of the best that can be made.”
The lady was as good as her word, and the sailor the next day became the happy owner of that which it had long been his wish to possess, though that such a wish should ever be gratified had never entered into the good man’s calculations.
“It seems so strange,” whispered Alie to Madge, “so very strange, that we should be so thanked and rewarded for such little acts of kindness. I don’t believe that such a thing ever happened before.”
“My child, you are mistaken,” said Mrs. Everard, who chanced to hear the observation; “more wondrous things are happening every day—things of which the present scene is like a type. The poorest, weakest little one who suffers on earth, and needs the hand of Christian kindness, is the child of a Parent infinitely rich, infinitely great, who deigns to notice, and who will a thousand-fold reward, the smallest kindness shown for His sake. Nothing given in charity is ever lost; no effort made for charity is ever forgotten. Inasmuch as ye did it unto the least of these My brethren, ye did it unto Me, are the words of Him who holds in His hands all the treasures of earth and heaven. We may not, perhaps, see in this world—but assuredly we shall see in the next—that however worthless in themselves our services may be, the Almighty condescends to accept them; and that, he that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord, and that which he hath given will He pay him again.”
Help the poor who need your aid,
Help with silver and with gold.
Ye whom God hath stewards made.
In your hands His wealth to hold.
Help the poor by kindly deed;