DAVID AND ABISHAI. 91 to their parent's instructions at all, as if it were beneath them to do so? Boy, if you have a mind and temper of this sort, you will rue it some day. When your father's chair becomes vacant, and you stand trembling on the plank that crosses his open grave, and shudder when you hear the hard clods fall upon his coffin, you may vainly wish him back again, that you might show him the respect you denied him in life; and you may think, too, of the story of King David and Solomon, and reproach your faithless memory for casting away the lesson at a time when you might have turned it to good account. DAVID AND ABISHAI. FAINT and wearied with his journey, How would'st thou start up in horror, "Shall I smite ?" said Abishai, "Shall I now avenge thy wrongs God himself hath shut thy foe up, ? How my sword for vengeance longs!" 92 CHRISTIAN CHARITY. Stay thine arm," said David mildly, Stay thine arm, restrain thy wrath.” Who can touch the Lord's anointed? Praise be to the great Jehovah, Merciful is He, and gracious, "D. G." CHRISTIAN CHARITY. LET the love of your brethren be as fire within you, consuming that selfishness that is so contrary to it, and so natural to men; let it set your thoughts at work to study how to do others good; let your love be an active love, intense within you, and extending itself in doing good to the souls and bodies of our brethren as they need, and you are able. A WITNESSING SLAVE. A SLAVE, who could neither read nor write, heard the gospel, and the Spirit of God made it effectual to his conversion. Like all true converts, he felt a missionary spirit. He was anxious for the conversion of his brethren; and at length it became a uniform practice, frequently, after the toils of the day were over, to walk three or four miles and hold a meeting among the slaves. On one occasion this meeting was discovered by the patrol, who are authorised to inflict summary punishment of ten lashes upon all slaves they find assembled together for any reason. This was done immediately with all present but Gabriel. As he was the ringleader, they thought he must be punished more severely; so they took him to the magistrate. As they were tying up his hands he exclaimed, "Oh, this is just the way Pontius Pilate did to my Massa!" Here his persecutors relented. One of them afterwards was troubled in his conscience for what he had 94 TRAVELLING HOMEWARD. done; and after a long time, finding no peace, he went to Gabriel, and asked him if he would forgive him. "Forgive you!" said Gabriel; "why, massa, me have been praying for you ever since you tied me up." TRAVELLING HOMEWARD. MEN, when travelling homeward, turn their eyes in the direction in which home lies, scanning the way as it winds before them, counting the coming miles. When they reach it, they delight no less in looking back upon the road by which they have reached the dwelling of their fathers, remembering all that befell them, whether of evil or of good, as they passed along. So it is with us. Our route is homeward; and our eye turns to the New Jerusalem. It is our joy to think of the eternal day we are there to spend with God and with the Lamb. Ere long, we shall be within its courts, or pacing o'er its streets in holy company. And when standing on its bright walls, we shall look backward upon the path that brought us to the kingdom, brief as it was, but very wonderful; we shall recall each struggle, each weary step, each dark or lonely turn, each rugged ascent, each valley of Baca, with its wells or pools; we shall remind ourselves of Jehovah's dealings with us by the way, as he led us, sometimes in sorrow, sometimes in joy, with sure but mysterious guidance, to the "joyous city;" or we shall tell our story to others-to some angel, perhaps, or some redeemed one that left earth in infancy, and knew no such rough passage to the "rest" as that which we have to speak of; and pointing to the different windings of the earthly path, we shall say, "There, and then, and A CHILD OF PRAYER. 95 thus, I first drew near to God, and tasted that he was gracious;-there, and then, and thus, I endured that conflict, I got entangled with that snare, I lost my way, I stumbled and fell, I was overshadowed with darkness, -yet out of all the Lord delivered me.”—Dr. H. Bonar. A CHILD OF PRAYER. AT the last communion season, among those who "stood before the Lord," and called men and angels to witness their decision to serve him, was a boy of twelve summers. Several months had past since he felt that he had given his heart to the Saviour, and he earnestly desired publicly to profess his love to him; his pastor and the Session thought it would not be right to deny him the privilege. While I sat, an interested spectator of this scene, another was most vividly recalled. More than a thousand miles eastward of my present location, twelve years before, in a quiet parlour, on a Sabbath morning, just after this boy saw the light of the world, a small household was gathered around the family altar, and the father in prayer and faith solemnly gave this child to God; he petitioned that whatever else was denied him, he might have the converting and sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit. All present at that hour felt that the prayer of faith had been offered. A few years after, that father went home to his everlasting rest. Through weary months of suffering, and even down to the entrance of the "dark valley," he testified to the faithfulness of God. And now in this distant spot, as I behold this child devote himself to the service of the God of his father, I |