THE PENNY PIECE.
I give the following from the lips of one who was well acquainted with the facts:—
A frost had been raging for thirteen weeks. The consequence was that out-door labourers, for the most part, were stopped in their employment. Among these was a poor gardener who had a wife and five or six children. He was at length reduced to great straits. He had spent all but his last penny, and had not the slightest prospect of more.
Passing down a certain street one day, he happened to see a poor man standing in the lobby of a church or chapel. His heart yearned over him, and he thought, "How I should like to help him; but I have only a penny left for myself and family." Still, he felt that he could not resist the inclination. He instantly turned round, stepped back, and gave the man his last penny. Immediately there came a peculiar light and gladness into his soul. Instead of being burdened by his destitution, he was relieved by it. He was rich in his poverty.
That very night the long frost broke, and in the morning he resumed his work. He had not been long in the garden before his employer appeared. Addressing him, he said, "I am sure you must have felt the effects of this long frost very much. Here is a sovereign for you." The poor gardener felt amazed, and, to use his own words, it was as though the Lord said to him, "Here's a sovereign for the penny you lent Me last night."
Reader, it is written, "He that giveth to the poor lendeth unto the Lord"; and again, "There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty."
O. J.
Bad men excuse their faults; good men will leave them.