“HARK! What is that? Someone knocking. Well, I wish they would go on and let us rest. We have lost enough already.” Thus spoke a wife, one night, to her husband, who had just been disturbed by someone at the door. They lived in a cottage by themselves, at some distance from neighbors. Their house being near the public road, many a traveler had stopped to beg a lodging, and receiving it had gone away, oftentimes taking things without leave, that could be poorly spared by this couple, for they were poor. The man was a weaver, but now, owing to these frequent stealings, he had very little left but the loom, with which he wove for their daily bread. But they were the Lord’s children, and it cost them a severe pang to turn away from any who asked for a favor.
While we have been giving this explanation, the man has not been left to knock, for the husband has been to the door and unlocked it, and brought in the stranger. He is not a very pleasant looking one either, but one that might well arouse their fears that all was not right. Still he is allowed to stay, and is given such comfort for the night as the poor weaver could offer.
Now let us go back with the husband and listen, while he explains to his wife how it all happened.
“Have you really let him stay?”
“Yes, he seemed to need it, and I told him he might.”
“What does he look like?”
“Rather a rough one, that is a fact.”
“Well, we shall probably be robbed of what we have left. Why did you do this? You know what we have suffered.”
“Yes, and I would not have done so, but for the security he gave.”
“What was that?”
“I told him, that we had already been robbed of nearly everything, and would rather not have him come in, and asked him what assurance I could have that he would not rob us, and he answered that he gave the Lord as security. I felt that we could take that, and for His sake give any one shelter.”
So these dear simple ones were quieted to sleep, resting on the arm and the word of Him who never fails His own.
But, in the morning, they found that their lodger had left them, and had taken their loom with him! Knowing that if he used the name of the Lord, he would be likely to be taken as a Christian, and a safe man, this cunning thief had thus deceived them and taken just what he wanted.
“There!” said the wife, “I felt afraid, and told you we ought not to trust anybody any more, What shall we do?”
“Well,” answered the husband, “he gave the Lord as security, and I will take Him for it, He is good for that, and I will rest on Him yet.”
Happy man! And the Lord met this trust, and brought back the loom before the day had gone. The day was exceedingly foggy, and the fog was so thick that the traveler with his stolen loom, wandered round and round the cottage of these poor people, thinking he was going straight on his way. As night began to come on, feeling worn out, he knocked at the very door he had left in the morning, and asked if he could come in.
“Yes, and put down the loom!” said the man, who knew his voice.
The thief was so alarmed, that he dropped the loom and ran away, and they saw nothing more of him. Thus, though the thief meant nothing for the Lord, when he used His name as security, the Lord Himself took up the case. We cannot trust Him in vain. God has given His Son that we may have One to trust in, and “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also, freely give us all things?”
ML 04/02/1922