THOU KNOWEST NOT WHETHER SHALL PROSPER

A lady related to me the following very interesting facts:

“The other day,” said she, “I happened to take up, quite casually, an old magazine, and found in it a story of a man who was called by grace in India, in a rather curious way. The man called on a missionary, and asked him if he had ever heard of a Dr. Hawker, and, if he had, could he tell him where he could obtain any of his writings. The minister told him as much as he knew, but wished to know what special reason the man had for making this enquiry. And this was his reply. ‘Sir, I once went down to the shore near my home to see a ship sail for England, but it had just gone when I got there and the people who had gathered for the same purpose were all coming away. As I was turning to go home, I noticed, scattered along the beach, a number of pieces of paper, some of which I picked up. I found they were tracts written by a Dr. Hawker. At that time I was quite ignorant of the way of salvation, and knew nothing of my own state. Those tracts were so used of God to my good that my eyes were opened to both. I was led to the Bible, and I believe to the Lord through them. And now I have a great desire to read whatever other books this good man has written. That is why I asked you.’

The lady continued: “When I was a child, I lived at Plymouth, and my dear mother was a constant attendant on Dr. Hawker’s ministry, which she greatly loved. My father had been dead many years, but I had one brother who was unhappily getting rather wild, and beyond my poor mother’s power to control. Living as we did in a great seaport, he was determined to see the world, and nothing would do for him than that he should go to sea. This was very painful to my mother, and she tried hard to persuade him against it, but with no success. In her trouble she sought advice from Dr. Hawker, who, seeing that my brother would never settle on shore, used his influence with a commander, whom he knew to be a worthy man, and obtained a berth for him on board ship. My mother took care that he should not leave these shores without his Bible, and also, a supply of tracts written by her pastor Dr. Hawker. She bid him read the former daily; the latter she made him promise to distribute during his stay in India, to whence he was bound.

“My brother remained abroad several years, and on his return, my mother who had not forgotten the tracts, asked him what he had done with them. He confessed that a false shame had prevented him giving them away, until he was on the point of returning to Europe, when the remembrance of his promise, and his unwillingness to face his mother without some kind of performance to it, induced him to think of what he could do with them: ‘So,’ said he, ‘I took the whole packet and strewed them along the shore, the very day we sailed. I thought perhaps someone may pick them up, read them and so my mother’s intentions may be fulfilled in this way’.

“My brother soon after went to sea, and we never saw him again; but my mother was a woman of faith and prayer, and she always felt the tracts were not lost, and that her poor son would be saved in the end. From what he said in his last letter home, and the accounts we received of his dying hours, we had good ground of hope that this was so.

“As to the tracts, I had not the least expectation of hearing of them again, but when I read the story in the old magazine, I felt sure that my mother’s prayers for a blessing to rest on them had also been heard and answered. I have not the slightest doubt that the tracts which that poor man picked up, and which were made the channel of light and blessing to his soul, were the identical ones my brother had strewn upon the shore.”

—The Sower, 1892

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