p. 9 | Faithfulness Rewarded by Wm. Covert

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · May 12, 1904

Faithfulness Rewarded

By Wm. Covert

WM. COVERT

THE following is a copy of a letter from Elder Harrison Grant to Brother A. C. Woodbury, of Darlington, Wis., written in answer to inquiry made by Brother Woodbury about the incident described in the letter:—

“COLLEGE VIEW, NEB., Aug. 10, 1897.

“DEAR BROTHER: I received yours of August 1 in due time. I will say in regard to your inquiry about the grasshoppers in the year 1876-77, that the grasshoppers were in Minnesota so vast in numbers that they ate and destroyed every green thing, such as grain, grass, and vegetables, except in low, wet, marshy places. In some places, large wheat-fields from one to two feet high, and all vegetables, were eaten up as clean as if the fire had burned them.

“At that time, a family by the name of Calkins lived in the town of Tenhassen, Martin Co., Minn. They were very poor, so the mother and two small boys did what they could to provide for the family.

“She was a member of the Tenhassen church. This mother was a very devoted, conscientious woman, and very particular to pay her tithe, or systematic benevolence, as we called it at that time.

“She had a garden—about two acres—which she and her two boys worked. God seemed to bless and care for that garden in a most wonderful manner, and saved her fruits from the destroyer. The grasshoppers came up around that garden fence, and piled up, one on top of the other, in places from one to two feet high.

“Once in a while one would fly over the garden, but not light to do any damage. So she had plenty for herself, and sold some to her neighbors.

“If we expect to be cared for through the perils of the last days, and be able to escape the seven last plagues and to stand in the judgment, we must be honest with God, and bring all our tithe into the storehouse, and then hear it said, ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant.’

“In hope of eternal life,

“H. GRANT.”