“In one of the lovely homes of Massachusetts, while the snow was falling and the winds were howling without, a lady sat on one side of the cheerful fire, knitting a little stocking for her oldest grandson, and her husband, opposite to her, was reading aloud a missionary paper, when the following passage arrested the attention of the lady and fastened itself in her memory.

“’In consequence of failure to obtain my salary when due, I have been so oppressed with care and want, as to make it painfully difficult to perform my duties as a minister.  There is very little prospect, seemingly, of improvement in this respect for some time to come.  What I say of my own painfully inadequate support, is substantially true of nearly all your missionaries in this State.  You, of course, cannot be blamed for this.  You are but the almoners of the churches, and can be expected to appropriate only what they furnish. This, however, the Master will charge to somebody as a grievous fault; for it is not His will that his ministers should labor unrequited.’

“This extract was without name or date.  It was simply headed ’from a missionary in Northern Indiana.’  Scores of readers probably gave it only a passing glance.  Not so the lady who sat knitting by the fire and heard her husband read it.  The words sank into her mind, and dwelt in her thoughts.  The clause, ’This, however, the Master will charge to somebody as a grievous fault,’ especially seemed to follow her wherever she went.  The case, she said, haunted her.  She seemed to be herself that very ‘somebody’ who was to answer at the bar of God for the curtailed supplies and straitened means of this humble minister.

“Impelled by an unseen, but, as she believes, a divine presence and power, after asking counsel and guidance of the Lord, she took twenty-five dollars which were at her own disposal, and requested her husband to give it to the Rev. Dr. H------ for the writer of the above communication, if he could devise any way to obtain the writer’s address.

“Doctor H------ is a prompt man, who does not let gold destined to such
an end rest in his pocket.  Familiar with the various organizations of
the benevolent societies, and only too happy to have an agency in
supplying the wants of a laborer in Christ’s vineyard, he soon started
the money on its appointed errand.  Early in April, the lady in her rural
home had the happiness of receiving the following note, of which we omit
nothing, save the names of persons and places: 

“’DEAR MADAM.—­I have just received a draft for twenty-five dollars, as a special donation from you.  This I do with profound gratitude to you for this unselfish and Christ-like deed, and to Him who put it into your heart to do it.  How you, a lady a thousand miles away, could know that I was, and had been for some time, urged by unusual need to pray for succor and worldly support with unwonted fervency, is a matter of more than curious inquiry.