“My heart is full, that God should so answer my simple prayer.  I first asked him for $10, then $15, and then for $25.  I asked him for $25 several times, and was astonished at my boldness, but the amount was so fixed in my mind, I could not ask for anything else, and then I humbly trusted it to Him, and from that time I thought, I will not name any sum; let it be as He knows my need.  And how He has honored my simple faith and trust in these dark days. Your letter contained exactly the $25 I prayed for.  I have not had $1.50 to spend this Summer.  I have suffered for everything.  But through it all I have felt such perfect faith in the Lord, that his hand was leading me, even when I could not see a step before me; and that He should move your heart to help me seems so wonderful, so good.  I am so glad I can thank you now, but ah, so much “over there” where words will express so much more in the beautiful atmosphere of heaven.  Your letter and kind gift was mailed the very same day that I was praying in great distress and trial.  I knew not but that I should be without even a home.  My verse was Psalms 50:  15.  O, how I had to pray that day.  So day by day I was comforted, and now to-day the answer has come.”

Here, then, is a portion of the story of a sweet life who trusted God, not as a God of the past, nor far off, but ever living, ever present, ever faithful, and believed Him able, willing, and that He would help her in her daily life.  She tried her Lord, to prove if his promises were indeed true, and she clung to them to the very last.  No one knew her need.  No one knew what she was praying for.  The stranger did not know anything of her.  She had asked money of no one but the Lord.  Hesitant ever, she dared not name any amount of the Lord, but that ever present Spirit of God guided her heart, made her fix the amount, and then touched the heart of the stranger and fixed the amount also in his mind, and then, by his own guidance saved the letter from being lost, and behold! when opened the prayer of the one and the gift of the other was the same.

What a comfort, what a privilege, then, it is for the true-hearted Christian thus to feel, “There is one who careth for us.”

WHY HE FAILED.

A prominent business man failed in the Spring of 1877.  He had been for years a prominent and consistent member of a Christian church.  He had even supported a church once almost entirely.  Nothing was known against his character, but he failed; he failed in business.  No one knew the reason why, but there it was, failure.

At last, in moments of bitter repentance before God, he unbosomed himself to his pastor, and said, “Long ago I promised to give the Lord one-tenth of all the profits I gained from my business, and while I did so, I was immensely prosperous and successful; never did any one have any such splendid success,—­but I forgot my promise, stopped giving, thought that I did not need to spend so much, and I began to invest my means in real estate.  When I stopped giving I stopped getting.  Now all is gone.  I lost my all because I did not keep my promise to the Lord.”