ase out for the poor fellow. Still, it is an advantage to have such a man
get out of the way. He is opposed to all new enterprises. He puts back
everything he tries to help. His digestion of religious things is impaired,
and his circulation is so poor that no amount of friction can arouse him.

Now, it is dangerous for any of you to stay in that condition. If you
cannot be moved, God will kill you, and He will put in your place those who
will do the work you are neglecting.

My friends, let all arouse! The nearness of our last account, the greatness
of the work to be done, and the calls of God's word and providence, ought
to stir our souls. After having been in the harvest field so long it would
be a shame in the nightfall of death to go home empty-handed. Gather up a
few gleanings from the field, and beat them out, that it may be found that
Ruth had at least "one ephah of barley."

CHAPTER LXVII.

THORNS.

The Christian world has long been guessing what Paul's thorn in the flesh
was. I have a book that in ten pages tries to show what Paul's thorn was
not, and in another ten pages tries to show what it was.

Many of the theological doctors have felt Paul's pulse to see what was the
matter with him. I suppose that the reason he did not tell us what it was
may have been because he did not want us to know. He knew that if he stated
what it was there would have been a great many people from Corinth
bothering him with prescriptions as to how he might cure it.

Some say it was diseased eyes, some that it was a humped back. It may have
been neuralgia. Perhaps it was gout, although his active habits and a
sparse diet throw doubt on the supposition. Suffice to say it was a
thorn--that is, it stuck him. It was sharp.

It was probably of not much account in the eyes of the world. It was not a
trouble that could be compared to a lion or a boisterous sea. It was like a
thorn that you may have in your hand or foot and no one know it. Thus we
see that it becomes a type of those little nettlesome worries of life that
exasperate the spirit.

Every one has a thorn sticking him. The housekeeper finds it in unfaithful
domestics; or an inmate who keeps things disordered; or a house too small
for convenience or too large to be kept cleanly. The professional man finds
it in perpetual interruptions or calls for "more copy." The Sabbath-school
teacher finds it in inattentive scholars, or neighboring teachers that talk
loud and