If you find yourself getting very miserly, begin to scatter, like a wealthy farmer in New York state I heard of. He was a noted miser, but he was converted. Soon after, a poor man who had been burned out and had no provisions came to him for help. The farmer thought he would be liberal and give the man a ham from his smoke-house. On his way to get it, the tempter whispered to him:
"Give him the smallest one you have."
He had a struggle whether he would give a large or a small ham, but finally he took down the largest he could find.
"You are a fool," the devil said.
"If you don't keep still," the farmer replied, "I will give him every ham I have in the smoke-house."
Warm the Wax!
A gentleman in Ireland had a seal made for me. "D.L.M." is on one side, and on the other, "God is love." If I want to stamp "God is love" I would not make much headway if the wax was hard and cold. Many people go to meetings, and it is as hard to make an impression on them as in pressing a seal on hard wax. But let the wax be warmed up and an impression is made. If we are willing, every one of us may be sealed for the day of redemption. "In whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your salvation; in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise."
Draw Nearer
When I was a boy my mother used to send me out doors to get a birch stick to whip me with, when I had to be punished. At first I used to stand off from the rod as far as I could. But I soon found that the whipping hurt me more that way than any other; and so I went as near to my mother as I could, and found she could not strike me so hard. And so when God chastens us let us kiss the rod and draw as near to Him as we can.