SOME twenty-five years since, in a seaport town in New England, there
resided a deacon, who was engaged in lucrative business. Although of
prudent habits, his benevolence led him to indorse largely for one who
had won his confidence as a Christian brother, but afterwards proved
to be a designing knave. This issued in the good deacon's failure,
when, with scrupulous integrity, every thing that could be claimed by
his creditors was given up. A winter of great severity and of general
business depression followed. His wife and young children looked to
him for a subsistence which he knew not how to furnish, as his most
diligent efforts for employment were unsuccessful.
A debt incurred, with no prospect of payment, was, in his estimation,
sin; and he sadly saw their little stock of provisions rapidly
diminishing, with no way to obtain more. He was a man of prayer as
well as action, and carried the case to Him who feedeth the ravens.
Yet long, weary weeks passed and no succor came. At length the morning
dawned when the last stick of wood was on the fire, and little Hatty
told her father that the candles were all gone; "and how," asked she,
"shall we take care of dear mamma to-night?"
The question wont to the father's heart with dagger-like poignancy. The
vision of his suffering wife, gasping her life away in the last fearful
stages of consumption, her comfortless sick-room unwarmed, unlighted,
and the thick darkness which he knew would enshroud her mind, when made
aware of the extent of their destitution, would have driven him to
distraction, were it not that he yet had hope in One mighty to save. He
fled to his closet, and there, in an agony of prayer, besought the Lord
for help; and, forgetting all other wants, plead and plead again for
the two articles now specially needed, specifying them with reiterated
earnestness. He arose from his knees in full assurance of faith and
with heavenly tranquillity, and went forth, expecting deliverance,
looking for it, however, in but one way,—through his own earnings. But
after a fruitless day of seeking employment, gloomily he returned home.
He entered his gate, and was startled to see before him a generous pile
of wood.