HELP SENT IN TIME OF NEED
Destitute and Afflicted — Miraculously Delivered
IN that wonderful hundred and seventh psalm, the psalmist sums up centuries of providential deliverances in olden time, declaring over and over that the Lord is good, and calling upon “the redeemed” to “say so”: “Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses.” Verses 5, 6. It is the psalm of praise for watchful providences in time of need; and by these experiences of old, many a believing soul has been led to trust in the same living God for deliverance. Here is a modern story of deliverance, told, it is said, by the son of the woman whom God used as the messenger of mercy: “One winter morning, a Christian woman, who had often distributed to the necessity of the saints, sat alone in the room where advanced age and the beginning of what proved to be her last illness confined her. “Roused from her meditation by the entrance of her daughter, she said: ‘My dear, old Mr. and Mrs. W—— have been on my mind all night. I hear they were not at church on Sunday. I know that they are poor. They may be sick and in want. I wish you would take a basket, call a cab, drive to the market, buy a goodly supply of provisions, and take it to them.’ Here she gave the address; and as her daughter was leaving the room, she added, handing her a thick flannel skirt: ‘Perhaps you would do well to take this too. The weather is cold, and Mrs. W—— may need it.’ “The young woman went. The provisions were bought; and at the head of the third flight of stairs in the tenement house to which she had been directed, she stopped. Through the door she heard Mr. W——’s voice asking a blessing upon the food before him. “At the conclusion of the grace, and smiling at what she now believed to be her mother’s unnecessary anxiety, she knocked and entered. Sure enough, there they were at dinner, the wife at the foot of the table, waiting to be helped, the husband at the head, carving — one large apple, all the food they had! “With tears in her eyes, the young woman drew forth her kindly stores; and while a comfortable meal was prepared, she listened to their grateful thanks, and heard from uncomplaining lips their pitiful story,—how they earned a precarious living as clear starchers; how the husband had been attacked with rheumatism, and the wife with a felon; how, though utterly destitute, they had poured out before their God all their troubles, and how they had surely believed that He would send some one to help them. “When dinner was ready, and the visitor was about to leave, Mrs. W—— accompanied her to the door, and with an expectant look, said, ‘My dear, did you bring the flannel petticoat?’ “In the excitement of her entrance, the young woman had quite forgotten the skirt, which still lay in the bottom of the basket. Astonished at the question, she said, ‘Yes, I brought you a skirt; but why did you think so?’ “‘Because, dear,’ said the old saint, ‘when I told the Lord there was only an apple left, I told Him I needed a warm flannel petticoat; and I was only wondering whether you had it, or would He send it by some one else.’” Skepticism stumbles at the thought that the great Creator should bend down to notice the detailed concerns of daily life, and make provision for them. But the childlike faith that takes God at His word, delights to know that it is precisely because God is so infinitely great that He is able to concern Himself with the smallest details that affect His children. “Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool. . . . But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word.” Isa. 66: 1, 2.