A poor blind woman in Paris put twenty-seven francs into a plate at a missionary meeting.
“You cannot afford so much,” said one.
“Yes, sir, I can,” she answered.
On being pressed to explain, she said: “I am blind, and I said to my fellow straw-workers, ‘How much money do you spend in a year for oil in your lamps when it is too dark to work nights?’ they replied, ‘Twenty-seven francs.’ So I found that I save so much in the year because I am blind and do not need a lamp, and I give it to shed light to the dark heathen lands.”
What a happy, thankful heart was that! What a rich poor woman! She might have added the misery of a complaining, selfish spirit to the misfortune of her blindness, but instead, she made the darkness itself light by cherishing a loving and thankful spirit; she lessened her own woes by seeking to relieve those of others. Such grace to me be given!
The Youth’s Instructor, November 5, 1896.