to prove or fully comprehend it. The child must become the
parent before he can understand the ways of the father or mother with
him; yet he can know their love before he can comprehend their ways.

Nothing could do more harm than to have the absolute assurance that an
almighty friend would fly to our aid and protection in every time of
danger or need. A friend whose power relieved us from the necessity of
prudence or courage or endeavour would be a foe indeed. The All Wise
loves man too well and too wisely to make plain always His ways of
caring for him and His purposes of protection.

The furrowed faces and whitened heads of men may be the will of love as
truly as the smooth ways of ease and complacency. There is one at the
helm, but His concern is more for the making of strong sailors than for
the securing of smooth sailing. The best evidence of the care of the
Most High for all the sons of men is not in the immediate unbaring of
His arm for their protection, but rather in the manner in which He
causes the wind and the waves, the struggle with the tempest, the need
for the nerving of the soul in the hour of peril all to work out His
will, the will of great love, the bringing of the mariner to His
likeness in character and soul.

THE SHEPHERD AND THE SHEEP

Millions have lived and died in faith in that word, The Lord is my
Shepherd; nations have sung its strain into the strength of their
being. The picture of the one who leads His flock, who carries the
lambs in His arms, appeals to all; yet who has not some time, perhaps
often, questioned: After all, is there any one who cares; is there any
eye to see or heart to heed if I--or, indeed, all men--should faint or
fall by the way?

Perhaps there are some who no longer find aught beyond an imagery of
poetic beauty in the old strain, who even feel that it would be
retreating intellectually to conceive of an infinite heart that broods
over men or a hand that helps. They tell us that science has wiped out
the possibility of such an one as this great Shepherd of the flock of
humanity. Yet even they are not dead to this great thought that so
long stirred men's souls and made them brave, ready to sacrifice, to
die.

The truth is, the singer of long ago was but giving expression, in
figures familiar to him, of a truth we all apprehend with greater or
less clearness, one that alone gives strength, hope, and faith to our
hearts, the conviction that back of all t