the South.

* * * * *

There is a beautiful story told about a little child in the orphanage
of John Falk at Weimar. They were having supper in the dining hall,
and the teacher gave thanks in the ordinary way before the children
began their meals, saying, "Come, Lord Jesus, and be our guest
to-night, and bless the mercies which Thou hast provided." One little
boy looked up and said, "Teacher, you always ask the Lord Jesus to
come, but He never comes. Will He ever come?" "Oh, yes, if you will
only hold on in faith, He will be sure to come." "Very well," said the
little boy, "I will set a chair beside me here to-night to be ready
when He comes." And so the meal proceeded. By-and-by there came a rap
at the door, and there was ushered in a poor, half-frozen apprentice.
He was taken to the fire and his hands warmed. Then he was asked to
partake of the meal, and where should he go but to the chair which the
little boy had provided? As he sat down there the little boy looked up
with a light in his eye and said, "Teacher, I see it now. The Lord
Jesus was not able to come Himself, and He sent the poor man in His
place. Isn't that it?"

Aye, that is just it. And so, brethren, the Lord Jesus isn't able,
according to his plans for this world, to come personally yet among
us, but He has sent these colored people, Chinese, Indians and
heathen, to make appeal in His behalf to us, and who among us will set
a chair for Him? There are many friends with whom I hardly agree who
are very anxiously waiting for the appearance of the personal Christ
among us, and they are wondering what they shall do to welcome Him.
Would that the eyes of these brethren, and our own, too, were opened
to the perception of the Christ that is already here, in the persons
of those needing to be helped and educated and elevated, and that
their ears could hear His words, "Inasmuch as ye do it unto one of the
least of these his brethren ye do it unto Christ." That is the
Christian philosophy of giving, and if a man does not feel the force
of these considerations, I should be disposed to say he has not yet
begun to be a Christian.

REV. WILLIAM M. TAYLOR, D.D.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The American Missionary, Volume 49,
No. 4, April, 1895, by Various

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ***

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