n Christ's gospel, I do not think that we could stand the assault
and rebuff of the world for ever. We all were so weary of the last war. It
seemed as if those four years were as long as any fifteen or twenty years
of our life. But how could we endure one hundred years, or five hundred
years, or a thousand years, of earthly assault? Methinks the spirit would
wear down under the constant chafing and the assault of the world.

Blessed be God, this story of grief and trouble and perplexity will come to
an end! There are twelve gates to heaven, and they are all gates of mercy.
There are paths coming into all those gates, and they are all paths of
mercy. There are bells that ring in the eternal towers, and they are all
chimes of mercy. There are mansions prepared for us in this good land when
we have done with the toils of earth, and all those mansions are mansions
of mercy. Can you not now strike upon your soul, saying, "Bless the Lord, O
my soul, for thy pardoning mercy, for thy restraining mercy, for thy
guiding mercy, for thy comforting mercy, for thy enthroning mercy!"

CHAPTER LXV.

UNDER THE CAMEL'S SADDLE.

Rachel had been affianced to Jacob, and one day while her father, Laban,
was away from home she eloped with Jacob. Laban returned home and expressed
great sorrow that he had not been there when his daughter went away, saying
that he would have allowed her to go, and that she might have been
accompanied with a harp and the dance and with many beautiful presents.

Laban started for Rachel and Jacob. He was very anxious to recover the gods
that had been stolen from his household. He supposed that Rachel had taken
them, as she really had. He came up in the course of a few days to the
party and demanded the gods that had been taken from his house. Jacob knew
nothing about the felony, but Rachel was secreting these household gods.

Laban came into the tent where she was, and asked for them. She sat upon a
saddle of a camel, the saddle having been laid down at the side of the
tent, and under this camel's saddle were the images. Rachel pretended to be
sick, and said she could not rise. Her father, Laban, supposed that she
told the truth, and looked everywhere but under the camel's saddle, where
really the lost images were. He failed in the search, and went back home
without them.

It was a strange thing for Laban to do. He pretended to be a worshiper of
the true God. What did he want of those images? Ah, the