Ten Ten Thousand Per Cent.
MR. JOHNSON dropped into the office of his friend Mr. Brown, in a mood decidedly blue, occasioned by a business investment which had proved a failure. It was a little after business hours, but Mr. Brown was still in his office and alone. He laid down his pen and greeted his friend with a familiar nod and a cheerful “How are you, Johnson?” “Sour as an east wind,” was the response, as he looked at the beaming countenance of his friend, whom he had known for many a year, and whose counsel he had sought many a time and scarcely ever had been disappointed. There appeared to be a little more than the usual brightness in Mr. Brown’s face as he wheeled his chair around and bade his friend be seated in another. Mr. Johnson noticed it, and said:— “What are you up to, Brown? Had a streak of luck, eh?” “Oh no, Johnson,” he replied, “nothing unusual or new in particular. I was only thinking of a little investment I am just about making.” “I thought so,” said Johnson, “and a good one I’ll be bound.” “I think so,” was the reply. “What would you say to ten thousand per cent. ?” “Ten thousand per cent.! You are raving.” “Not a bit of it,” said Brown. “And the very best of security—a regular royal pledge.” “Now I know you are crazy. Who ever heard of such a thing?” “Crazy? Not a bit of it,” said Mr. Brown, and he added: “This,” wheeling around and laying his hand upon a paper on his desk, “is a check which I have just signed, and intend for a poor Western missionary whom I know, and have just heard is sick and in much need. The Scriptures say that ‘He that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord,’ but I was never awakened to the fact of what interest he pays until yesterday, when our preacher startled me by saying he had promised ten thousand per cent. I pricked up my ears at the statement, and waited curiously to hear the proof; and there it was sure enough in Matt. 19: 29: ‘And every one that hath left houses, or brethern, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or lands for my name’s sake, shall receive a hundred fold and inherit eternal life.’ “I was struck at the sound of ten thousand per cent., but I figured it out, and found it correct. The preacher was very much in earnest, as he declared the Lord’s dividend. He was as enthusiastic as a stock-broker, only in an infinitely more noble cause. I was very much impressed at the time with the thought, and, in fact, have been ever since. It was in my mind when you came in. Not that I can lay claim for a moment to the spirit of self-sacrifice which the text quoted indicates, but my gift to the poor is a loan to the Lord, and I am not afraid but that I shall reap a good dividend.” “You take a worldly-wise view of the matter; don’t you?” inquired Mr. Johnson. “Perhaps I do; but it will bear it, although it is only one view of—” Here the office door opened, and the conversation was at an end; but Mr. Johnson went on his way comparing his own unlucky investment with the small one of Mr. Brown’s, which had yielded so large a return in solid pleasure, and who could tell what per cent, was laid up for him in the Lord’s treasury.—Sel.