He went into the water and
called them by name, but they came to the bank and bleated, and were
too afraid to follow. At last he went back, tightened his girdle about
his loins, took up two little lambs, and put one inside his frock, and
another inside his bosom. Then he started into the water, and the old
sheep looked up to the shepherd instead of down into the water. They
wanted to see their little ones. So he got them over the water, and
led them into the green pastures on the other side.

How many times the Good Shepherd has come down here and taken a little
lamb to the hill-tops of glory, and then the father and mother begin
to look up and follow.

Two Pictures

A friend told me of a poor man who had sent his son to school in the
city. One day the father was hauling some wood into the city, perhaps
to pay his boy's bills. The young man was walking down the street with
two of his school friends, all dressed in the very height of fashion.
His father saw him, and was so glad that he left his wood, and went to
the sidewalk to speak to him. But the boy was ashamed of his father,
who had on his old working clothes, and spurned him, and said:

"I don't know you."

Will such a young man ever amount to anything? Never!

There was a very promising young man in my Sunday-school in Chicago.
His father was a confirmed drunkard, and his mother took in washing to
educate her four children. This was her eldest son, and I thought that
he was going to redeem the whole family. But one day a thing happened
that made him go down in my estimation.

The boy was in the high school, and was a very bright scholar. One day
he stood with his mother at the cottage door--it was a poor house, but
she could not pay for their schooling and feed and clothe her children
and hire a very good house too out of her earnings. When they were
talking a young man from the high school came up the street, and this
boy walked away from his mother. Next day the young man said:

"Who was that I saw you talking to yesterday?"

"Oh, that was my washerwoman."

I said: "Poor fellow! He will never amount to anything."

That was a good many years ago. I have kept my eye on him. He has gone
down, down, down, and now he is just a miserable wreck. Of course, he
would go down! Ashamed of his mother that loved him and toiled for
him, and bore so much hardship for him! I cannot tell you the contempt
I had for that one act.

Let us look at--

A Brighter