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"Give and it shall
be given back to you"
Topic: Giving, Compassion, Consequences
This story is about a very poor Scottish farmer who's name was Fleming.
One day, while working to feed his family, farmer Fleming heard a cry
for help coming from a nearby swamp. The farmer dropped his tools and ran
over to the nearby swamp.
There to his surprise was a young terrified boy stuck up to his waist in a thick black muck. The young boy was screaming and struggling to free himself.
Farmer Fleming saved the young boy from what would have been a slow and terrifying death in quicksand. The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's small tattered farm house.
An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out of the carriage and introduced
himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved. "I want
to repay you," said the nobleman. "You saved my son's life."
"No, I can't accept payment for what I did," the Scottish farmer replied,
waving off the offer, "anyone would have done the same," he explained.
At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door."Is that your
son?" the nobleman asked.
"Yes," the farmer replied proudly. The nobleman said, "I'll make you
a deal. Let me have the honor of
giving him a good education. If the young boy is anything like his
father, he'll grow up to be a man you can be proud of."
So the farmer accepted the nobleman's offer. In time, farmer Fleming's
son graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went
on to become known throughout the
world as the noted, Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin.
Years later, the nobleman's son, who had almost died in the quicksand,
was stricken with pneumonia.
What saved his life? Penicillin.
The name of the nobleman was, Lord Randolph Churchill. His son grew up to be the noted, Sir Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of England during World War II.
Someone once said what goes around comes around. Jesus said it another way in Luke 6:38 "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it shall be measured back to you."