THE OLD SCOTCHMAN’S PRAYER.
I was pleased the other day with a story which an aged Scotch minister told me about an old Scotchman, who, many years ago, was on his way to a meeting of the people of God held in a tent, or some such temporary structure. The old pilgrim was poor and ill clad, and partly deaf; but he trusted in the Lord whom he served, and rejoiced in his kind providence. On his way to the meeting, he fell in with another Christian brother, a younger man bound on the same errand, and they traveled on together. When they had nearly reached the place of meeting, it was proposed that they should turn aside behind the hedge, and have a little praying before they entered the meeting. They did so, and the old man, who had learned in everything to let his requests be made known unto God, presented his case in language like the following:— “Lord, ye ken weel enough that I’m deaf, and I want a seat on the first bench if ye can let me have it, so that I can hear thy word. And ye see that my toes are sticking through my shoes, and I don’t think it is much to your credit to have your children’s toes sticking through their shoes, and therefore I want ye to get me a pair of new ones. And ye ken I have nae siller, and I want to stay there during the meeting, and therefore I want you to get me a place to stay.” When the old man had finished his quaint petition, and they had started on, his younger brother gently suggested to him that he thought his prayer was rather free in its forms of expression, and hardly as reverential as seemed proper to him in approaching the Supreme Being. But the old man did not accept the imputation of irreverence. “He’s my Father,” said he, “and I’m weel acquainted with him, and he’s weel acquainted with me, and I take great liberties with him.” So they went on to the meeting together. The old man stood for a while in the rear of the congregation, making an ear-trumpet of his hand to catch words, until some one near the pulpit noticed him, and beckoning him forward gave him a good seat upon the front bench. During the prayer the old man knelt down, and after he arose, a lady who had noticed his shoes said to him, “Are those the best shoes you have?” “Yes,” said he, “but I expect my Father will get me a new pair very soon.” “Come with me after the meeting,” said the lady, “and I will get you a new pair.” The service closed, and he went with her to her house. “Shall you stay during the meeting?” said the good woman as they went along. “I would, but I’m a stranger in the place, and have nae siller.” “Well,” said she, “you will be perfectly welcome to make your home at our house during the meeting.” The old man thanked the Lord that he had given him all the three things he had asked for; and, while the younger brother’s reverence for the Lord was right and proper, it is possible that he might have learned that there is a reverence that reaches higher than the forms and conventionalities of human taste, and which leads the believer to come boldly to the throne of grace to find all needed help in every trying hour.—Baptist Weekly.