IN EVERYTHING BY PRAYER AND SUPPLICATION.
THERE is told a story of 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 a hedge and have a little praying before they entered the meeting. They did so, and the old man, who had learned "in everything by prayer and supplication" to let his request be made known to God, presented his case in language like the following: "Lord, Thou ken'st weel enough that I'm deaf, and I want a seat on the first bench if Thou canst let me have it, so that I can hear Thy word. And Thou seest that my toes are sticking thru my shoes, and I don't think it so much to Thy credit to have Thy children's toes sticking thru their shoes, and therefore I want, Thou knowest, a pair of new ones. And I have nae siller, and I want to stay there thru the meeting, and therefore I want that Thou shouldst 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 form 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," he said, "and I am weel acquainted wi' Him, and He's weel acquainted wi' me, and I take great liberties wi' Him." So they went on to the meeting together. The old man stood for awhile in the rear of the congregation, making an ear-trumpet of his hand to catch the 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 these the best shoes you have?" "Yes," said he, "but I expect my Father will get me a new pair very sune." "Come with me after the meeting," said the good 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 I 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.