“O Lord, grant me my desire on this journey, for thy name’s sake. My
first petition;—Comfort in Christ—the comfort of love—the bowels of
love and mercy in the denomination—the fellowship of the
Spirit.—Amen. My second petition;—That the sermons I have prepared
for this journey may increase in their ministration, like the five
loaves and two fishes.—Amen. C. E.”
CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE.
Mr. Evans was a poor man, but “rich in good works.” Suffering poverty
always excited his pity, and opened his purse. Wherever he beheld
distress, he was “ready to distribute, willing to communicate,” according
to the ability which God had given him. His salary in Anglesea, for
twenty years, was only seventeen pounds per annum; and afterward, only
thirty. With so small an income, he could not be expected to bestow much
upon the various objects of charity. But he gave annually one pound to
the Bible Society, one pound to the Missionary Society, and ten shillings
to the Baptist Education Society, besides contributing liberally to the
relief of the poor and the sick in his neighborhood.
Sometimes his liberality was larger than his purse. Once, when a
Protestant Irishman, poorly clad, told him that he spent much time in
reading the Scriptures to his illiterate countrymen, he pulled off his
own coat, and gave it to him. At another time, he presented a poor Jew,
who had recently been converted to Christianity, a new suit of clothes,
the best he had in his wardrobe. While in Anglesea, he visited a brother
in the church, who had been reduced by protracted illness to a condition
of great distress; and finding the family almost in a state of
starvation, emptied his pocket of the only pound he had. His wife
remonstrated with him, told him she had not bread enough in the house to
last twenty-four hours, and demanded what he would do now he had given
away all his money. His only answer was: “Jehovah-jireh; the Lord will
provide!” The next day he received a letter from England, enclosing two
pounds as a present. As soon as he had read it, he called out to his
wife;—“Catherine! I told thee that Providence would return the
alms-pound, for it was a loan to the Lord; and see, here it is, doubled
in one day!” It is evident from this incident, that Mr. Evans’
liberality was the fruit of his faith in God; and the good man’s
confidence is never put to shame. “There is that scattereth, and yet
increaseth.”
SPIRIT OF FORGIVENESS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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