HOW HE SAVED HIS MONEY

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 28, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 35.

HOW HE SAVED HIS MONEY.

I remember once hearing of a boy. He was very, very poor. He lived in a foreign country, and his mother said to him one day that he must go into the great city and start in business, and she took his coat and cut it open and sewed between the lining and the coat forty golden dinars, which she had saved up for many, many years, to start him in life. She told him to take care of robbers as he went across the desert, and as he was going out of the door she said to him, “My boy, I have only two words for you, ‘Fear God, and never tell a lie.’”

The boy started off, and toward evening he saw glittering in the distance the minarets of the great city, but between the city and himself he saw a cloud of dust; it came nearer; presently he saw that it was a band of robbers. One of the robbers left the rest and rode toward him, and said, “Boy, what have you got?”

The boy looked him in the face and said, “I have got forty golden dinars sewed up in my coat.”

And the robber laughed, and wheeled around his horse and went away back. He would not believe the boy.

Presently another robber came, and he said, “Boy, what have you got?”

“Forty golden dinars sewed up in my coat.”

The robber said, “The boy is a fool,” and wheeled his horse and rode away back.

By and by the robber captain came, and he said, “Boy, what have you got?”

“I have got forty dinars sewed up in my coat.”

And the robber dismounted and put his hand in the boy’s breast, felt something round, counted one, two, three, four, five, until he counted out the forty golden coins.

He looked the boy in the face, and said, “Why did you tell me that?”

The boy said, “Because of God and my mother.”

The robber leaned upon his spear and thought, and he said, “Wait a moment.” He mounted his horse, rode back to the rest of the robbers, and came back in about five minutes with his dress changed. This time he looked not like a robber, but like a merchant. He took the boy upon his horse, and said, “My boy, I have long wanted to do something for my God and for my mother, and I have this moment renounced my robber’s life. I am also a merchant. I have a large business house in the city. I want you to come and live with me, to teach me about your God; and you will be rich, and your mother some day will come and live with us.”

And it all happened. By seeking first the kingdom of God, all these things were added unto him.—British Weekly.