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with everything that you can do without; ask your friend for the cost of his proffered hospitality (be sure he will generally give you more); calculate what you have saved by "good" bargains, and hand on the gains.
These directions may seem trivial and the fruits which may spring from their observance insignificant. But remember, brethren, that where a loaf of bread may keep a fellow Christian from starvation, there cannot really be anything trivial and insignificant.
Besides, it is not merely the actual support for the body, but the moral influence of manifested sympathy which has to be considered. We have read how a kind word has lighted up a careworn countenance and drawn forth the utterance, "It does us good to feel that we are cared for." Who knows what the message of brotherly interest told by our smallest offerings, blest by God, may effect? How it may arouse from despondency, how it may calm the troubled breast, how it may cheer the last sad hours, and prompt the wretched soul to bless God and us ere it depart!
