The poor invalid, in a dejected, half desponding tone, replied, “But slowly I fear,” intimating that he was creeping along only at a poor pace.

“Why bless you Bairn,” returned Samuel, “there were snails in the ark.”

The reply was so earnest, so unexpected, and met the dispirited man so immediately on his own ground, that the temptation broke away, and he was out of his depression.

It was a resurrection to his feelings, inferring that if the snail reached the ark and was saved, he too, “faint yet pursuing,” might gain admission into heaven.

HE GAVE ALL THE MONEY HE HAD.

At one time he attended a missionary meeting near Harrowgate.  “We had a blessed meeting,” said Samuel, “I was very happy and gave all the money I had in my pocket.”  After the meeting was concluded, he mounted his horse to return home.  No one had offered to pay his expenses—­he had not a farthing in his pocket.  Advanced in life—­a slow rider, and not a very sprightly horse—­in the night—­alone—­twenty miles from home.  Think of the lonesomeness; the time for the tempter to come and lead him to distrust in his Lord.  But he struggled; the trial was short and the victory complete, for, said he, “Devil, I never stuck fast yet.”

Just as he entered Harewood, a gentleman took his horse by the bridle, asked him where he had been, talked with him long, and to whom Samuel’s talk was a wonderful consolation.  Said Sammy: 

“I have not wanted for any good thing, and could always pray with Job, ’The Lord gave and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord.’”

The gentleman asked, “Can you read?”

“Yes,” returned Samuel.

“Then,” replied the gentleman, holding a piece of paper in his hand, which was rendered visible by the glimmering light of the stars,

“There is a five pound note for you.  You love God and his cause, and I believe you will never want.”

And Sammy said, “I cried for joy.  This was a fair salvation from the Lord.  When I got home, I told my wife.  She burst into tears, and we praised the Lord together,” and he added:  “You see, we never give to the Lord but He gives in return.”

“THE LORD WILL PROVIDE.”

A poor but pious widow in Boston, in her eighty-seventh year, said to a friend, “When I was left a widow with three little children, I was brought into such extremity that they were crying for bread, and I had nothing for them to eat.  As I arose on a Sabbath morning, I knew not what to do but to ask my heavenly Father to feed my little ones, and commit myself and them to his care.

“I then went out to the well to get a pail of water, and saw on the ground a six cent piece, which I took up; and learning that it did not belong to any of those who lived in the same house with me, I thought I might take it to feed my famishing children.  Though it was a Sabbath morning, I felt that it would be right to go to a baker who lived in the neighborhood, tell him our circumstances, and buy bread with the money Providence had thus cast in my way.  The baker not only did this, but the Lord opened his heart to add a bountiful supply; and from that hour to the present, which is nearly fifty years, I have never doubted that God would take care of his children.”