PRAYER FOR A PAIR OF BOOTS.


In the Fall of 1858, H----, a student in the Theological Seminary at
Princeton, N.J., was in great need of a new pair of boots. His toes were
sticking out of his old ones, and he had no money to purchase new ones.
All the money he could command was barely enough to pay his fare to his
home, where be had promised a dear friend to be present on the
approaching communion Sabbath.

H---- was a man of great faith, and was accustomed to carry all his
wants to God in prayer. To God he carried the present emergency, and
earnestly importuned Him, that He would send him a pair of boots, and
that He would do it before the approaching Sabbath. He was persuaded
that God heard, and would answer his petition, yet his faith was sorely
tried. Saturday morning came and still there was no answer; he resolved,
however, to go to his home, fully persuaded that God would in good time
grant his request. He took the morning train at the Princeton depot, and
reached home about eleven o'clock. It was a hard trial for him to go to
"Preparatory Lecture" with his boots in the condition they were in; yet
at two o'clock he went, still praying that God would send him a new pair
of boots. During the service, a merchant in the town took a seat in the
same pew with him, and at the close of the service, without a word being
spoken on the subject, the merchant, after shaking hands with H---- and
inquiring of his welfare, asked him if he would do him the favor of
going down town to a certain boot and shoe store and select from the
stock as good a pair of boots as he could find, and, said the merchant,
"have them charged to me." It was, as, H---- said to me on his return to
the seminary, a direct answer to prayer. Indeed, it might be said of