BREAD UPON THE WATERS

BREAD UPON THE WATERS. A SCOTCH lady of social distinction, whose name for obvious reasons need not be mentioned, and whose husband had left her a competence, had two profligate sons, who wasted her substance with riotous living. When she saw that her property was being squandered, she determined to make an offering to the Lord. She took twenty pounds and gave it to the London Missionary Society. Her sons were very angry at this, and told her that she might just as well cast her money into the sea. “I will cast it into the sea,” she replied, “and it will be my bread upon the waters.” The sons, having spent all they could get, enlisted in a regiment, and were sent to India. Their positions were far apart, but God so ordered, in his providence, that both were stationed near good missionaries. The elder one was led to repent of his sins and embrace Christ. He shortly afterward died. Meanwhile the widowed mother was praying for her boys. One evening, as she was taking down her family bible to read, the door was softly opened, and the younger son appeared to greet the aged mother. He told her he had turned to God, and Christ had blotted out all his sins. Then he narrated his past history in connection with the influence the missionaries of the Cross had on his own mind, while his mother, with tears of overflowing gratitude, exclaimed,—“Oh, my twenty pounds! my twenty pounds! I have cast my bread upon the waters, and now I have found it after many days.”