Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1904-09-09
"Charity Thinketh No Evil"

The minister was conscious or the
depression of Monday morning as he
sat looking over the unanswered let
tiers of the last two days. He wanted
mOney-not much, but little-and he
could not shake off the helpiessness
which that want brought with it. L
haven't friend in the world OF whom
l should be willing to ask the loan Of
fifty dollars" he bitterly reflected.
Friendship isn't worth much in dol
lars and cents"
The money was needed to pay a
small doctors bill for the baby>s i'll
ness, for the minister had never been
able to bring himself to accept the
clerical immunity from doctors
charges. He wanted, too, with an I'M
reasonable eagerness, to buy a set of
maps for the Sunday school, of which
sample lay on the study floor. He
wanted his wife to keep her nurse
maid another month. Fifty dollars
would do the whole thing-but it
might as we'll have been five hundred,
so far as he was concerned.
Just then his morning mail was
brought in. A letter announced the
death of an old friend-a woman
whom he had met in a summer yaca-
ton years before and who had never
forgotten the young preacher. She
was a spinster of moderate means, but
large and hospitable heart and there
was always a welcome and cOmfrot-
able meal in her home for him when
ever he passed through her city. Now
she was dead, and she had expressed
a wish that he should assist her own
minister in the service at her funeral.
He gloomily thought that he could
hardly afford to go. The five dollars
for his fare looked large to him. It
would doubtless be labor Of love, and
just now he did not love the labor.
But he went, and he read the noble
words of st. Paul on death and the
resurrection with an awakening sense
of their depth and beauty. AS he was
leaving the old-fashioned house, now
empty of the gracious presence which
had made it's plainness pleasant to
L.
1t was in the handwriting of his dead
friend. The mere sight of it wrung
his heart.
AS he tore it open a hundred dollar
bill dropped into his hand, and he read,
For my dear friend, in memory of
the many hours when he has renewed
my belief that youth may have a deep
regard for age, that true friendship
seeketh not its own, and that Christ
rules in many human life'
He read the words as if in a dream.
Had he, in spite of his frequent lapses
into cynicism and doubt of human
kindness, had he helped this strong,
quiet woman to faith in human virtue ?
He had always been at his best with
her. All, that was it, Suddenly. as
in vision, he saw that he was forever
bound by his best, committed to it,
judged by it.
In one sense the revelation was well
come, i'll another sense unwelcome.
Bnt here it was, brought by the gift
from the dead hand. 1t had not come
as an answer to prayer, to relieve dis
tress, or to establish his faith in a
special providence: but it had come
to convince him of his guilt for that
easy, Monday morning pessimism
which had cheapened all human love.
and for the moment had credited the
devils doctrine that every man is for
himself.
His sermon the next Sunday was on
the text, Charity thinketh no evil"
and his congregation went away with
a noble assurance of the dominion of
goodness in this world.