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The friend was at home, but before Loest could speak his errand, he is addressed thus: "It is lucky you came, my friend, for I was just going to send for you, to request you to make provision to pay me back the five hundred thalers you owe me, for I must needs have it on Wednesday to pay off a mortgage on my house, which has just been called up."
Loest turned away; hard as the random taunt and remark of his opponent was, yet it recalled him to a sense of his duty, and his forgetfulness of the fact that he had not hitherto asked of God for special help in this circumstance. With cheerful steps he hurried home, and in long and imploring prayer, asked for help and forgiveness in this, his neglect of trust in one so rich and generous.
Loest was lost in wonder and grateful emotion at this gracious testimony of how faithfully his Lord could minister to him in his earthly necessities. "How countless must be the host of his ministering servants, seen or unseen, since He can employ some hundreds of them, and send them to buy of Daniel Loest to-day, or pay him that bill which thou owest.
The history of Loest and other providences which helped him in his business, are still further given more at length in a little book, "The Believing Tradesman," from the records of the Religious Tract Society of Berlin.
Three o'clock came, and still there was but six shillings eight pence in the till. Where was his money to come from? But Loest sat still, and "possessed his soul in patience" for he knew the Lord would choose the best time, and he desired to be found waiting and watching for the Lord's coming. The trial was severe.
Months elapsed, and the circumstance forgotten, when Mr. Loest was most unpleasantly reminded by receiving an order from the Court to pay in on the following Tuesday the six hundred thalers for which he had become security, under the penalty of execution. He now discovered that he had been designedly mystified, and there was no escape. The six hundred thalers must be paid before the next Tuesday.
"You shall have it," replied Loest, calmly, yet his heart became heavier every moment. Suddenly it occurred to him that the widow of a friend just dead was possessed of large means, and she might be inclined to help him. But alas, disappointment thickened fast upon him. Loest owed the deceased friend five hundred thalers for note, and three hundred thalers for goods just delivered.
At length night came, when Loest and his literally worn out assistants, after having poured out their hearts in thankful adoration in family prayer, sat down to the first meal they had that day enjoyed in common. When it was over, the brother and sister set themselves to count over the money which had that day been taken.
Never, in all his experience, could Loest remember such a ceaseless stream of customers as poured, on that memorable Monday, into his rather out-of-the-way shop.
Loest, said to him half in a whisper, "I live here close by, quite alone, in a cellar, and I have had a few thalers paid me, and now I want to beg of you to be so good as to keep them for me. I have not slept over night since I had them; it is a great charge for a lone woman like me." Loest was only too glad to accept the money, and offered interest, which she declined.