Luke 11:3 Give us day by day our daily bread. The value of praying over these matters is seen in times of extremity. As God fed Elijah by means of ravens — birds of a ravenous disposition — so He sometimes in answer to prayer employs instrumentalities of a most unlikely kind to be almoners of His bounty. The following story is told in the Sword and Trowel for January, 1884: — "Thomas Hownham, who lived in the North of England, a good many years ago, was once reduced to great straits. Having tried in vain to get work, he went out in the moonlight to a spot some way from his cottage, and there poured out his soul in prayer, his wife and children having gone to bed supperless, the little ones crying themselves to sleep. In an hour or two he returned. To his surprise he found inside the door a joint of meat and a half-peck loaf. He woke his wife and children, and they had a hearty meal together. How it came there he could not find out till twelve years after, when a rich but very miserly farmer died. Then a respectable servant who had lived long in his employ spoke of his master as having done one act of charity in the course of his life, though he afterwards regretted it. On the night in question he dreamed three times over that Hownham and his family were starving, and at last it had such an effect on him that he woke his two servants, and sent his man with bread and meat, which he left at the cottage. Next morning he was so vexed with himself at what he had done, that he charged both his servants never to say a word about it as long as he lived, or he would discharge them." (J. H. Batt.) Parallel Verses KJV: Give us day by day our daily bread. |
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