Description
Cast Thy Bread
“Cast thy bread upon the waters; for thou shalt find it after many days.” (Ecclesiastes 11:1) Is there power in kindness that expects nothing in return?
The year was 1844, and James Holt was called as a missionary into Tennessee. His traveling companion was Jackson Smith. James gives this account,
“We traveled as the people of old without purse or script. It was a very wet spring, and we had to travel many days through mud and slush, shoe-top deep, and wade through much tribulation, but we put ourselves in the hands of God and ceased not to call on his name. When we got to the Ohio River, the ferryman refused to take us over, because we had no money to pay him. We went below four miles to another ferry and told the ferry man our situation. He was very kind and kept us over night and set us across in the morning, telling us we could recompense him more by speaking a good word for his ferry.”
James describes that they continued their journey east, and then he said,
“We had not gone far beyond the forks of the road when we met a large train of wagons; the captain asked us about the ferry, and we recommended him to the one we had taken as the most accommodating.”
And to which ferry do you think the large train of wagons went—to the one recommended by James—the fellow who was kind and generous. Cast your bread upon the waters, it will someday come back. A case for kindness in a cruel world!
