When you have scraped all that you can by direct means, look about for by-ways. Part with everything that you can do without; ask your friend for the cost of his proffered hospitality (be sure he will generally give you more); calculate what you have saved by “good” bargains, and hand on the gains.
These directions may seem trivial and the fruits which may spring from their observance insignificant. But remember, brethren, that where a loaf of bread may keep a fellow Christian from starvation, there cannot really be anything trivial and insignificant.
Besides, it is not merely the actual support for the body, but the moral influence of manifested sympathy which has to be considered. We have read how a kind word has lighted up a careworn countenance and drawn forth the utterance, “It does us good to feel that we are cared for.” Who knows what the message of brotherly interest told by our smallest offerings, blest by God, may effect? How it may arouse from despondency, how it may calm the troubled breast, how it may cheer the last sad hours, and prompt the wretched soul to bless God and us ere it depart!
And this recalls to us another truth, that if we cannot remove the burden, we may help to bear it. Let us make this our concern. After all that we can do, there will, alas! probably remain very much unrelieved. If we cannot take it off, let us bear it up. If we cannot wipe away our brother’s tears, let us weep with him. If he must go forth bearing the cross even unto death, let us bear it with him, like Joseph of Arimathea, and give him the precious peace of knowing that he is not alone. At the worst this shall keep his soul alive while the body is perishing; it shall make him walk calmly in the valley of the shadow of death; it shall bear good fruit in eternity, if not in time.
One other brief suggestion on this head. Such an interest and effort as I have urged upon you must, if you are Christians, not only stretch forth your desires to your brother Christian, but raise up your hearts to God. Bear his burdens into the presence of the God that heareth prayer. Tell out his wants, breathe your aspirations for him before the throne of grace. The prayer shall be heard and answered. It shall return into your own bosom; it shall enlist mighty intercession for you; if it does not keep alive here, it shall save from death there. It shall people heaven with expectants for your coming; with those who, when you fail, shall joy to receive you into everlasting habitations.
F. Shoberl, Printer, 37, Dean Street, Soho, W.