I remember a man who enlisted in the army and left a wife and two children, and the wife was not in good health. One cold day in November, in the first year of the war, the news came that he was shot in battle, and the mother was in great sorrow. Soon after, the landlord came round for his rent, and she told him her trouble, and said she would not be able to pay the rent so regularly as before, as she had only her needle by which she could obtain a livelihood; sewing machines were just coming in then, but as she could not buy one, she had a very poor chance. The man was a heartless wretch, and said that if she did not pay the rent regularly he would turn her out. After he went away the mother began to weep. Her little child, not quite five, came up to her and said:
“Mamma, is not God very rich?”
“Yes, my child.”
“Can’t God take care of us?”
“Yes.”
“Then what makes you cry? Mayn’t I go and ask Him?”
The mother said she might, if she liked. The little child knelt at her little bed, and said,
“O Lord, you have given and have taken away my dear father, and the landlord says he will turn us out of doors, and my mamma has no money: won’t you please lend us a little house to live in?”
Then she came out to her mother and said,
“Mamma don’t cry. Jesus will take care of us. I know He will, for I have asked Him.”
It is upwards of twenty years, and that mother has never paid any rent from that day to this. A beautiful cottage was provided for her and her two children, and she has lived there without paying any rent, and when the fire swept over the city of Chicago and burned up her house, a second little home was put up for her.
“This is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us: and if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.” 1 John 5:14,1514And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: 15And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. (1 John 5:14‑15).
ML 08/20/1944