“Yes, sir; go on; you are a splendid thought reader.”
“You feel that merely to dispose of your money anyhow—without discrimination—would be worse than hoarding it up?”
“That I do, sir!”
“It is not your money, but the Lord’s; and you wish to dispose of every penny in a way He would approve?”
“Yes, sir,” was “Cobbler” Horn’s emphatic confirmation; “and I’m so anxious about it that often I can’t sleep at nights. I expect the Lord gave me all this money because He knew I should want to use it for Him; and I’m determined not to disappoint Him. I feel the more strongly on the subject, because there’s so much of the Lord’s money in the world that he never gets the benefit of at all.”
The minister listened gravely.
“So you want my advice?”
“Yes, sir; and your help. My difficulty is that it is the unworthy who are most eager to ask for help. Those who are really deserving are often the last to cry out; and many of them would rather die than beg. Now, sir, I want you to help me to find out cases of real need, to tell me of any good cause that comes to your knowledge; and suggest as many ways as you can of making a good use of my money. Will you do this for me, sir? Although you have helped me so much already, I don’t think you will refuse my request.”
The minister listened to this appeal from “the Golden Shoemaker” with a feeling of holy joy.
“No, my dear friend,” he said, “I will not refuse your request. How can I? Believing, with you, that your wealth is a Divine trust, I regard your appeal as a call from God Himself. Besides, you could not have demanded from me a more congenial service. You shall have all the help I can give; and between us,” he added, with a reviving flicker of his previous facetiousness, “we shall make the millions fly.”