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    Chapter 9—Trusted a Bank That Never Fails

    About the time we were making our last enlargement of the sanitarium and building the Rescue Home, we felt the time had come to definitely establish our work for the sick poor, the Good Samaritan Inn. So we purchased the property across the street. God put it in the hearts of some to help us and we began to take in the sick. We had some very striking experiences in the way of restoration, but strangely enough I could not get hold of any money to put in a heating plant. I presented its needs to several and prayed earnestly about it, but fall came, the house was cold, and the patients had to be moved over to the sanitarium. That is a chapter in our experience I have never been able to quite fully understand. Perhaps I was backslidden, perhaps we lacked the necessary faith, perhaps after all we were not as well prepared to care for the sick poor as we thought we were. It actually took us a couple of years more before we were again able to open our Good Samaritan Inn for the sick poor. When we did, a good woman gave us four hundred dollars without any solicitation, to make the necessary repairs. And now we are planning an extensive enlargement.FF 94.1

    One night a stranger who happened to be here, sent for me after I had gone home and wanted me to tell him about the Good Samaritan Inn, which I did. He wrote me a check for one hundred dollars. Next one of our patients, without my having mentioned the matter to her, sent me one hundred dollars for the same purpose, and another good woman gave me a hundred dollars. If God wants us to do it He will make it possible. If He doesn't want it done we don't want to do it. When we are trying to spell out God’s principles we may always expect to meet God’s providences, for the manna follows the Pillar of Cloud.FF 95.1

    *****

    Coming back again to the time when we were completing the main building of the sanitarium, I will give you a glimpse of a few other of our many interesting experiences. When we came to pay the last bills on this building, Mr. Hoyt came to me and said, “Don't you suppose you can go to Dr. Pearsons (the millionaire philanthropist whose home was in Hinsdale) and borrow five thousand dollars?” “Well, you know Dr. Pearsons is hard to approach,” but I went to see him and he let me have five thousand. By and by we needed another five thousand, and Mr. Hoyt asked me to try to borrow five thousand dollars more from him. By that time he was a patient in our sanitarium; he spent practically the last two years of his life here. When I asked him for the money he said, “The trouble with you, Paulson, is that you keep the house too warm. If you didn't waste so much that way you wouldn't need to borrow money.”FF 95.2

    He let me have the five thousand, but he wanted it all back again April first. I hoped the old man would forget about it. This was during the holidays, and we paid our bills and thus slipped through another crisis.FF 96.1

    Two weeks before April first he came along and said, “Doctor, have you got those ten thousand dollars for me?”FF 96.2

    “No, I hoped you would forget about that.”FF 96.3

    “I want that money to give to Governor Deneen for one of the colleges he is interested in.” And then he said, “Do you know where to go for the money?”FF 97.1

    I said, “No, I do not.” I saw the old man was in earnest and wanted that money. He said: “I would not have let you have that if I had thought you could not get it.”FF 97.2

    I said promptly, “I can get it.” He said, “Where can you get it?”FF 97.3

    I said, “I'll look to the Lord for it.”FF 97.4

    The old man appeared as though he wished I had a little more satisfactory place to look, but said nothing further. I can assure you I prayed about that thing. The first of April was on Thursday, and by Monday, when we got up to the twenty-eighth I did not know where to get any of that money. Some of you know it is not easy to pick up money when you really need it. I was very much concerned about it. On Tuesday morning, a lady who had been here a few days and with whom I had not talked at all, who was just here visiting some friends, said to me after patients’ morning worship:FF 97.5

    “I want to see you, Dr. Paulson.” We stepped into my office and then she said, “Just while we were singing in here at morning worship a thought came to me. I am receiving five thousand dollars this morning, and it came to me that perhaps you could make good use of it.”FF 98.1

    I said, “I have been praying the Lord to send me ten thousand dollars. I have to pay that amount to Dr. Pearsons on Thursday.” She said, “I'm sorry. I can't let you have more than five.”FF 98.2

    I sent for my business manager and we fixed up a note for her then and there. I said to our business manager, “That is strange; I have prayed for ten thousand; where is the other five?” He said, “That may come from another source.” A few hours later Dr. Pearsons knocked on the manager’s door and said:FF 98.3

    “Say, if you folks can dig up five thousand I can tell you where to get the other five.”FF 98.4

    “We already have the five thousand.” “Good,” he said. The old Doctor had gone down to the bank and said, “Why don't you cater a little to those folks up there? Suppose you lend them five thousand and show them your good will?” They agreed to that, so Dr. Pearsons said to go down and get our five thousand dollars at the bank.FF 98.5

    It was only a simple experience, but life is largely made up of simple things. Most of us have only a very few really wonderful or great experiences, so it is important to see God’s hand in the ordinary every-day incidents and affairs.FF 99.1

    All these experiences and many others like them have helped confirm my faith in this thing, that the Bible when it said, “Ask, and ye shall receive” is not a mistake. It does say if we turn away our ears from hearing the law our prayers are an abomination (Proverbs 28:9). But I believe when one is trying to do the right thing Providence is on the side of that man, as Detective Burns maintained was the great secret of his success. I have seen that principle work out again and again in my dealings with patients.FF 99.2

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