St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1881-04-22
Two Cheerful Givers.

God Ioveth IA cheerful giVer,-2 Cor. 9: :.
An aged widow who earned scanty
livelihood by means of her needle came
home from church one Sunday morning
in a very indignant frame of mind after
hearing the preacher say that IN the
whole congregation there was no one so
poor but they might show their love to
the Savior by giving something toward
the extension of His kingdom III the
world. Ii had never occurred to her
that she ought to give something for the
advancement of the kingdom OF God.
That, she thought, was the business OF
rich folks, but how could the Lord re-
quiIe of such poor woman as herself
TO give of what she SO much needed
.'The pastor may say what he likes /;
he does not know how poor | am" she
repeated to herself.
Duriug the watches of the night this
sermon came back to her mind and
again caused her extreme irritation.
Her thoughts accused and excused her
by turns, uutil it occurred to her to lay
the whole matter before tue Lord. Then
it seemed to her that she heard this an
swer: "If thou eanst not give as others
do, give as little child" From that
moment she determined to act on this
advice A little child gives penny, so
when she bought loaf of bread, lit
tie coffee, or some other necessary pro-
vision and received cent OF two IN
change, she put them aside ''for the
Lord Jesus She accomplished this
small sacrifice with simplicity and IA
cheerful heart, and God loves those who
give thus. The old woman soon expe-
rienced it. Formerly she was always
in trouble, hut from that time she had
10 more cause for anxiety. The bless
ings of God rested so visibly on her
work, that, instead of being i'll constant
anxiety about her daily bread, her heart
overlooked with contentment and graft
tude, aud it was with an eveI-incIeas-
ing pleasure that she added one penny
to the other. After short time she
was able to bring three dollars to her
pastor. In short, in the space of one
wear she gave, out of her extreme pov-
erty, twenty-One dollars to the Lord
Jesus, whom she served with the faith
and simplicity of a child.
The other giver was a rich merchant,
whom the Spirit of God had taught to
understand that giving to the Lord out
~ u
crumbs from his table, was not given
really. Il will not offer sacrifices unto
the Lord my God of that which doth
cost me nothing he exclaimed with
David, and from that moment lie watch
ed carefully over his expenditure. As
soon as lie was on the point of INDUCING
in some needless expense, he wrote
down the amount in his account book,
but put this money into box some
times it was piece of silver, sometimes
piece of gold, some. mes small COIN
He made these sacrifices in all simple
ity, and could say, "The love of Christ
cOnstraineth me-" Nobody except his
wife was aware of this. When his box
became full, lie made parcel of its
contents, and sent it sometimes TO 4
needy family. sometimes to the wife OF
working man, who was nursing hel
sick husband, sometimes to the tIeaSur-
er of missionary society. Those who
received these parcels did not know
whence they came, but the angels knew
it, and these gifts will surely be found
inscribed in the book of which St. John
speaks when he SAYS: "And the books
were opened, and the dead were judged
out of those things which were written
in the books, according to their works.
If all the poor disciples of the LORD
acted as did this widow, and the ricl
ones, as that merchant, would not al
the treasures of the Christian churcl
be like that ''river of Ged," which we
read of in the 65th Psalm, and which i,
"full of water? Will not those who
read this account of facts, listen to tn,
voice of the Lord saying to them, "GC
thou and do likewise = TRANSLATED
from a SiciSs Journal.