Page 99 - Living Epistles

the Word and preparing the subject on which I expected to speak in the
various lodging-houses on the morrow. I waited perhaps a little longer than
usual. At last about ten o'clock, there being. no interruption of any kind, I put
on my overcoat and was preparing to leave for home, rather thankful to
know that by that time I should have to let myself in with the latchkey, as my
landlady retired early. There was certainly no help for that night. But
perhaps God would interpose for me by Monday, and I might be able to pay
my landlady early in the week the money I would have given her before had
it been possible.

"Just as I was about to turn down the gas, I heard the doctor's step in the
garden that lay between the dwelling-house and Surgery. He was laughing
to himself very heartily, as though greatly amused. Entering the Surgery he
asked for the ledger, and told me that, strange to say, one of his richest
patients had just come to pay his doctor's bill. Was it not an odd thing to do?

It never struck me that it might have any bearing on my own case, or I might
have felt embarrassed. But looking at it simply from the position of an
uninterested spectator, I also was highly amused that a man rolling in
wealth should come after ten o'clock at night to pay a bill which he could any
day have met by a check with the greatest ease. It appeared that somehow
or other he could not rest with this on his mind, and had been constrained to
come at that unusual hour to discharge his liability.

"The account was duly receipted in the ledger, and Dr. Hardey was about to
leave, when suddenly he turned and handing me some of the banknotes just
received, said to my surprise and thankfulness

"'By the way, Taylor, you might as well take these notes. I have no change,
but can give you the balance next week.'

"Again I was left, my feelings undiscovered, to go back to my little closet and
praise the Lord with a joyful heart that after all I might go to China. To me
this incident was not a trivial one; and to recall it sometimes, in
circumstances of great difficulty, in China or elsewhere, has proved no small
comfort and strength."

Joseph’s Comments: I find this testimony very fitting for the hour in which
we live. The Spirit is indicating that an hour is at hand when life as it is now
known in America and many Western nations will be changed forever.