THE PROPHET—HIS DELIVERER.
Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the
Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The
Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive;
and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and
thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his
enemies.—Psa. xli, 1, 2.
WHEN Alfred had finished, his father said, “That text tells us that God
knows when we are kind to his children, and will reward us for it at the
judgment day.”
“But, father,” said Alfred, “you told me once that we did not deserve
reward for any good thing which we ever did.”
“We do not deserve any reward,” said Mr. Penrose. “The wish in us to do
anything right comes from God. Yet, after he has given us this
disposition, he rewards us for the exercise of it; so, as the apostle
Paul tells us, ‘It is all of grace.’”
“Does God never pay us in this world for doing right?” said Alfred.
“Sometimes he _does_ pay us, even in this world, for being good to his
people. I will tell you, Alfred, how he once rewarded a man because he
was kind to one of his ministers.
“Many years, a great many years ago, some wicked men took one of God’s
good ministers, and put him in a dungeon. A dungeon is a dark prison.
The dungeon in which this good minister, or prophet, was put was a
doleful place under ground. The bottom of it was full of soft, filthy
mud.
“Wicked people put him in this sad place, because he feared the Lord,
and would say what he bade him, instead of what the enemies of the Lord
wished. They wanted him to say pleasant, flattering things; but God did
not tell him these.
“No doubt Jeremiah, for that was the prophet’s name, prayed to God from
that dark dungeon. Daniel cried to him from the lions’ den, and Jonah
prayed to him when the darkness wrapped him about. Man could not hear
Jonah’s voice from the midst of the seas; but God heard both Daniel and
Jonah. And he also heard the voice of his faithful Jeremiah from the
deep, damp dungeon.
“God put it in the heart of a man, who lived in the king’s house, to
remember Jeremiah, and to pity him. This good man went to the king, and
said,
“‘Those are wicked people who have cast Jeremiah into the dungeon. He
will die for hunger.’
“The king told this man to take some persons to help him, and to draw
Jeremiah out of the dungeon.
“Then this kind man let some ropes into the dungeon, and drew Jeremiah
out of it. He made him put some old linen, which he threw down to him,
under his arms, lest the ropes should hurt him. So he was very tender
toward him.
“Now because the man had done this thing to one of God’s faithful ones,
God remembered him when, some time after, fierce soldiers came against
the city, and killed almost all the people. He was not hurt because of
his kindness to the prophet.
“So you see, Alfred, _he_ was paid for it in this world.
“You will find this story in the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth chapters
of the book of Jeremiah. “When you get home you must read it for
your-self.”
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