---

Some years ago a pious widow in America, who was reduced to great poverty, had just placed the last smoked herring on her table to supply her hunger and that of her children, when a rap was heard at the door, and a stranger solicited a lodging and a morsel of food, saying that he had not tasted food for twenty-four hours. The widow did not hesitate, but offered a share to the stranger, saying, "We shall not be forsaken, or suffer deeper for an act of charity." The traveller drew near the table; but when he saw the scanty fare, filled with astonishment, he said, "And is this all your store? And do you offer a share to one you do not know? Then I never saw charity before! But, madam, do you not wrong your children by giving a part of your last morsel to a stranger?" "Ah," said the widow, weeping, "I have a boy, a darling son, somewhere on the face of the wide world, unless heaven has taken him away; and I only act towards you as I would that others should act towards him. God, who sent manna from heaven, can provide for us as He did for Israel; and how should I this night offend Him, if my son should be a wanderer, destitute as you, and He should have provided for him a home, even as poor as this, were I to turn you unrelieved away?" The widow stopped, and the stranger, springing from his seat, clasped her in his arms. "God indeed has provided just such a home for your wandering son, and has given him wealth to reward the goodness of his benefactress. My mother! O my mother!" It was indeed her long-lost son returned from India. He had chosen this way to surprise his family, and certainly not very wisely. But never was surprise more complete, or more joyful. He was able to make the family comfortable, which he immediately did. The mother lived for some years longer in the enjoyment of plenty.

---

---

KJV: And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;

WEB: Yahweh appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day.