the other, "a night or two ago I looked out of my window, and saw your cattle in my meadow, and I drove them out and shut them in your yard, and if ever I catch them there at any time, I'll do it again." The man was so struck with the reply that he at once took the horse out of the pound, and paid the charges himself. Charles Jerdon. 331. A friend once showed Ruskin a costly handkerchief on which a blot of ink had been made. "Nothing can be done with that," said his friend, thinking the handkerchief ruined and worthless. Ruskin made no reply, but carried it away with him. After awhile he sent it back, to the surprise of his friend, who could scarcely recognise it. In a most skilful and artistic way he had made a fine design in Indian ink, using the blot as a basis, making the handkerchief as valuable as ever. A blotted life is not hopelessly a useless life. If Ruskin could make a beautiful and valuable handkerchief out of a blotted one, how much more can the Master Himself make a beautiful and useful life out of one that is blotted by sin, if only it is surrendered to Him.-Peloubet. 332. "What can Jesus Christ do for you now?" said an inhuman slave-master, when in the act of applying the lacerating whip to an already half-murdered slave. "Him teach me to forgive you, massa," was his reply.—Philips. 333. "Dr. Lawson, of Selkirk, a famout Scottish wit, as a wise and godly minister, was once approached by a busybody who wanted, with an air of great solemnity, to tell him of the wrong-doing of a brother in the church. The good minister turned to him and asked, 'Does anybody else know this but you?' 'No, sir,' was the answer. 'Have you told it to anybody else?' Again the answer was 'No.' 'Then,' said the good man, 'go home and hide it away at the feet of Jesus, and never speak of it again unless God leads you to speak to the man himself. If the Lord wants you to bring a scandal upon His church, let Him do it, but don't you be the instrument to cause it.'" 334. H. W. Beecher says: "There is an ugly kind of forgiveness in this world-a kind of hedgehog forgiveness, shot out like quills. Men take one who has offended, and set him down before the blowpipe of their indignation, and scorch him and burn his fault into him; and when they have kneaded him sufficiently with their fiery fists, then they forgive him." 335. Once there was an artisan who laboured for a rich Eastern master. By imprudence he got into an immense debt with an unmerciful creditor, who told him that, unless he settled accounts before the close of the year, he and his family should be sold as slaves. It was impossible for the poor man to pay the debt. He might quite as well have tried to build up a tower like that of Babel in one night. Meanwhile, his master noticed that his work was falling off every week, and was not so clever and accurate as it used to be. One day he spoke about this to the steward. "Why, sir," the steward replied, "that poor fellow cannot possibly make good work. He cannot manage his tools, for his hands tremble. Nor can he see well what he is doing, for his eyes are often filled with tears. He often sits down as in despair, and sighs heavily; and sometimes he makes himself drunk, to forget his misery. A heavy debt is pressing upon him, sir, and until it is paid he will not be able to make one good piece of work." "Tell him, then, that I have paid his debt," the generous master said. The steward went up to the servant and delivered the message. Picture to yourselves the joy of that poor man. From that moment fresh vigour was poured into his veins. His hands trembled no more, nor were his eyes dimmed with tears. He swung his hammer with a will, so that it was a pleasure to see him. His little dwelling rang with his merry songs, and he made his work quicker and better than ever before. Dr. Guthrie. 336. "A minister from New Zealand tells of a black man, recently converted, who was taking part in a communion service. The preacher, after awhile, saw him looking intently and wildly at the man by his side, and then in great agitation he arose and fled into the forest. Presently he returned, and, quietly taking the same place, finished the communion, eating from the same loaf and drinking from the same cup with the man from whose presence he had just fled. After the service the minister enquired the cause of his strange conduct, and the man told him that in the one by his side he recognised the one who had long ago slain his father and that he had sworn a great oath of revenge. But in the meantime he had been converted, yet when he saw the man there he remembered the murder and his oath, and the old hatred awoke within him, and so great was the temptation that came over him that it drove him out into the bush, where the evil one assailed him, but upon his knees he conquered through the power of a will renewed by the Spirit of God." FREEDOM 337. Freedom is not the power to do as we please, unless we please to do as we ought. The Scriptural condition of freedom should be noted. "He that was called in the Lord, being a bondservant, is the Lord's freedman" (1 Cor. 7:22). Freedom is conditional upon association with the Lord Jesus. Those who have answered the call of the gospel are the "Lord's freedmen." Jesus said: "If ye abide in my word, then are ye truly my disciples; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:31, 32). "If therefore the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed" (v. 36). The most perfect liberty exists where there is the fullest surrender to the divine will. Note the purpose of our freedom. We are free to serve: "Likewise he that is called, being free, is Christ's bondservant" (1 Cor. 7:23). The liberty of worldlings often leads to lawlessness. The Christian takes heed, "lest by any means this liberty becomes a stumblingblock to the weak" (1 Cor. 8:9). The man of the world may boast of being a "freethinker." The man of God desires that even his views shall not clash with divine revelation. "The truth shall make you free." True liberty is a priceless blessing. "Better to sit in Freedom's hall, With cold, damp feet, and mouldering wall, Than bend the neck, and bow the knee, In the proudest palace of slavery." 338. Rejoice in your liberty, but in your lawful liberty. True freedom consists with the observance of law. Adam was as free in paradise as in the wilds to which he was banished for his transgression. I hold that true freedom and the observance of law are perfectly consistent with each other.-W. L. Thornton. 339. He that is good is free, though he be a slave; and he that is evil is a slave, though he be a king.-Augustine. 340. "There is no liberty but in the gospel, no equality but in the truth, no fraternity but in Jesus." 341. "In the days of what was called 'the underground railway' in America, poor slaves in the South were often got away from their slavery by secret means. They were hid in cellars and garrets, and then conveyed at midnight across the land from one hospitable house to another. A poor fellow had found his way to Canada, and, of course, on British territory, was a free man. As the train moved into Toronto, Harriet Tubman, herself an emancipated slave who had helped hundreds of others to freedom, went in and saw him crouching down in a corner, mortally afraid that some slave-owner might be after him. 'Joe, you fool,' she said, 'what are you crouching there for? You have shaken off the lion's paw; you are a free man on free soil. Praise the Lord, Joe!' Jesus Christ has purchased our liberty (Gal. 5:1)." 342. On my lawn is a goat tethered by a rope to a stake. He is not at liberty. Why not cut the rope and let him go where, and do as, he pleases? Because if I do he will gnaw the bark of the young trees, trample down the garden-beds, pull up the strawberry plants by the roots. In a word, because he is not able to perceive and be obedient to the invisible law, he must be subjected to a visible and tangible one. But I have a collie dog who has learned obedience, and has acquired his right to liberty. Dr. Lyman Abbott. 343. In the British colonies, before the time of Wilberforce, there used to be a great many slaves, but that good man began to agitate the question of setting them free; and when they heard of it they were very anxious to know how he was getting along. The slaves used to watch for the white sails of British ships, hoping to hear good news, but fearing they might hear bad news. There was a ship which had sailed immediately after the emancipation act had been passed and signed by the king; and when she came within hailing distance of the boats which had put off from the shore at the port where she was bound, the captain could not wait to deliver the message officially, and have it duly promulgated by the Government, but, seeing the poor, anxious men standing up in their boats, eager for the news, as are all slaves who have suffered, he placed his trumpet to his mouth, and shouted with all his might, "Free! D. L. Moody. 344. "Would you be free? 'Tis your chief wish, you say: If to no feasts abroad thou lov'st to go, By thine own use, and not by others' eyes; If (only safe from weathers) thou canst dwell If in thy mind such power and greatness be- Free!" 345. Once, in the company of Adoniram Judson, some friends were repeating anecdotes of what different men in different ages regarded as the highest type of human happiness. He said: "Pooh! these men were not qualified to judge. I know of a much higher pleasure than that. What do you think of floating down the Irrawaddy, on a cool moonlight evening, with your wife by your side and your child in your arms, free-all free? But you cannot understand it either; it needs twenty-one months' experience in a Burman prison to understand that; but I never regret the twenty-one months when I recall that one delicious thrill. I think I have a better appreciation of what heaven may be ever since."-Archibald McLean. Heaven will be freedom from sin, pain, anxiety, selfishness, and everything foreign to the soul's highest interests and joy. |