1885 · 1 min read
The Praying Shoe-maker
D. W. Whittle · The Wonders of Prayer, 1885
A shoe-maker being asked how he contrived to give so much, replied that it was easily done by obeying St.
Paul's precept in I Cor. 16: 2: "Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him." "I earn," said he, "one day with another, about a dollar a day, and I can without inconvenience to myself or family lay by five cents of this sum for charitable purposes; the amount is thirty cents a week.
My wife takes in sewing and washing, and earns something like two dollars a week, and she lays by ten cents of that. My children each of them earn a shilling or two, and are glad to contribute their penny; so that altogether we _lay by us in store_ forty cents a week. And if we have been unusually prospered, we contribute something more.
The weekly amount is deposited every Sunday morning in a box kept for that purpose, and reserved for future use. Thus, by these small earnings, we have learned that it is more blessed to give than to receive. The yearly amount saved in this way is about _twenty-five dollars_; and I distribute this among the various benevolent societies, according to the best of my judgment."
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