Part 3.
“How long I slept,” said the old woman, “I do not know, but at last a loud knock at the cottage door, made me jump, and at the same time the children began to call out for their breakfast.
“‘All right, my dears,’ I called back, ‘you shall have some presently.’ Another knock, and I opened the door to a man with a hundred pounds of coal on his back.
“‘Look sharp, missus,’ says he, ‘where am I to put this, and four, more like it?’
“‘Five hundred pounds of coal for me!’ I cried out almost in. fear. ‘They can’t be for me. I’ve no money to get coal; you’ve made a mistake!’
“‘No mistake,’ said he, walking through the house and opening the back door, where he flung them down in the yard.
“‘But there is a mistake,’ I said, ‘for—’
“‘Now, missus, just you be quiet. The coal is bought and paid for, and here’s my orders on this paper to deliver them here. Your name is Sarah Coulston, isn’t it?”
“‘Yes, that’s right,’ I said, my heart well-nigh too full to speak; ‘but whoever could have sent them?’
‘“There, there, mother,’ said Ellen? as she came to my side, and looked at the coal; ‘that is number one of what ‘God will send,’ and she was right, for we had only just lit the fire when another knock came at the door, and the grocer’s boy left a big basket of groceries—everything you could want in the house, besides canned meat and milk enough for a large family.
“Ellen jumped for joy, and the younger children clapped their hands. The water was soon boiling and the food on the table.
“‘O, mother, we’ve no bread!’
“‘Not yet, lass,’ said I, for all my doubts had gone. ‘It will come, for God never does His work by halves,’ and sure enough, another knock at the door, and a push and the baker came in. Now, Clifford was not what you would call a Christian by profession, but he was a kindly fellow and he had often let me have bread when I could not pay for it.
“‘Good morning, missus,’ he said, ‘I am that orful cold, I can’t go no further; this weather makes my heart trouble worse. Can I have a warm?’
“‘Yes, to be sure, come in.’
“‘Why, what a jolty fire you have!’ he exclaimed as he went over to it.
“‘You are right,’ ‘I ‘answered and then told him all that had happened. He listened with ears, eyes and mouth open; then, when I handed him a cup, of tea, he said to Ellen, ‘Run out to my van, and bring in two big loaves, and mind, my girl, you will have two every day till things is better with you.’
“‘Bless the Lord!’ I cried out, ‘He has never failed anyone yet, Clifford!’
“‘No it seems not, missus, and as I believe what you have told me of how He has helped you in the hour of need, by His help, I will begin to trust Him from this moment.’
“‘That’s right lad. Trust Him now as a Saviour, who can pardon all your sins. Let us kneel down here and ask Him to receive you. Shall we?’
“‘Yes, missus, I’m willing.’
“You may be sure, continued Sarah, that God saved him then and there, and from that day he was quite a changed man.
“‘There, that is my story:” I like to tell it to show God’s goodness, and it may help anyone who is wavering in faith to believe that God is always true to His word. From that day to this He has supplied all our needs. My children are firm believers in prayer, and in the God who never forsook their mother nor them, nor let them cry to Him in vain. And here I raise my Ebenezer and say:
‘Engraved as in eternal brass
The mighty Promise shines,
Nor can the powers of darkness ‘rase
Those everlasting lines.’”
ML 11/18/1917