tion to ask you; and if you will answer it, I shall feel very
much obliged to you. I am told that you started in life very poor,
and now you are one of the richest men in this part of the country.
My question is _this_: will you please tell me the _secret_ of your
success in business?"

"I don't know that there is any great secret about it," said his
friend, "but I will tell you all I know. I got a situation, and began
to work for my own living when I was only sixteen years old. My
wages, at first, were to be forty dollars a year, with my board and
lodging. My clothing and all my other expenses were to come out of
the forty dollars. I then made a solemn promise to the Lord that
_one-tenth_ of my wages, or four dollars out of the forty, should be
faithfully laid aside to be given to the poor, or to some religious
work. This promise I kept religiously, and after laying aside
one-tenth to give away, at the end of the year, besides meeting my
expenses, I had more than a tenth left for myself. I then made a vow
that whatever it might please God to give me, I would never give
_less_ than one-tenth of my income to him. This vow I have faithfully
kept from that day to this. If there be any secret to my
success--_this is it_. Whatever I receive during the year, I feel
sure that I am richer on nine-tenths of it, with God's blessing, than
I should be on the whole of it, without that blessing. I believe that
God has blessed me, and made my business prosper. And I am sure that
anyone who will make the trial of this secret of success, will find
it work as it has done in my case."

This man was certainly proving the truth of our Saviour's words, when
he said--"Give, and it shall be given unto you." And his experience
shows most satisfactorily that "giving is God's rule for getting."

"The Steamboat Captain and the Soldier." During the late war there
was a steamboat, one day, in front of a flourishing town on the Ohio
River. The captain, who had charge of her was the owner of the boat.
The steam was up; and the captain was about to start on a trip some
miles down the river with an excursion party, who had chartered the
boat for the occasion. While waiting for the party to come on board,
a poor wounded soldier came up to the captain. He said he was
suffering from severe sickness, as well as from his wounds. He had
been in the hospital. The doctor had told him he could not live long;
and he was very anxious to get home, and see his mo