a field of uncut oats. The owner rushed out in great indignation, demanding the name of the leader that he might report him.
"My name is Jackson," replied the general. "What Jackson?" asked the irate farmer. "General Jackson." "You don't mean to tell me that you are the famous Stonewall Jackson?" the farmer stammered. "That's what they call me." The farmer took off his hat with great reverence and said: "General Jackson, ride over my whole field. Do what you like with it, sir."—The Sunday Magazine.
(2707)
Requital—See Grace; Repayment.
RESCUE
Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, the pioneer missionary
to Turkey, was one day crossing the Galata
Bridge in Constantinople when his attention
was attracted to a crowd. He prest into it
to see its object of interest and found a
cursing American sailor dying of cholera.
The missionary asked him a few questions
and was answered by oaths. He had the
man removed to a house, and after a few
months' nursing by the Christians of the mission
he was able to ship for America. On
the morning he left, he called on Dr. Hamlin
and said, "I have been a very wicked man,
and have done all the evil I could in the
world, and now I am going to do all the
good I can."
Three years later, the mission received this letter from him:
"Dear Mr. Hamlin: Thank God, I will
survive the dead! I am here workin' and
blowin' the gospel trumpet on the Eri
Kanal.
Yours Brown."
Twenty-five years later Dr. Hamlin met a
gentleman in Paris who had just returned
from Honolulu. Said he, "I met a man
named Brown who has done a great deal of
good among the sailors in the Pacific. He
can go everywhere and anywhere with the
Bible. He told me that once he was dying,
a blasphemous dog, in the streets of Constantinople,
and you picked him up and
saved him soul and body."
(2708)
The worth of man is independent of conditions of life or color of skin. An exemplification of that fact is recorded in the history of a rescue in Hongkong harbor:
While the cyclone was at its highest and
it was still a question whether the largest
steamers in the port would survive the
storm, the officers of the Schuylkill noticed
a vague pencil of light through the sheets
of rain, lighting up a confusion of loose and
drifting shipping. For the first two or three
flashes they thought they were menaced with
the new peril of lightning, but no detonation
followed the flash. A lull in the rain showed
that the search-light of the second-class
British cruiser Azelia was following one of
her boats while it made a desperate struggle
to reach the crew of a foundering Chinese
junk. The pencil of light, now bright, now
dim, followed the boat as it was pulled by a
crew of stout British tars and managed with
almost incredible cleverness by its officer.
They saw it alongside the junk, saw the
Chinese tumble into it half dead with fright
and fatigue, and disappear beyond the rays of
the searchlight. Next morning they learned
that the Chinese were landed safely farther
down the harbor, but that the boat was
crusht like an eggshell against the sea-wall,
tho the sailors were saved to a man.
(2709)
Many straying souls who have lost the way may be but fallen angels, whom love and kindness might restore.
George MacDonald tells of a young woman
who had been led astray. A minister found
her one night on his doorstep, and brought
her into his house. His little daughter, who
was up-stairs with her mother, asked, "Mama,
who is it papa has in the library?" Her
mother replied, "It is an angel, dear, who
has lost her way, and papa is telling her the
way back."
(2710)
This incident has been related of the eminent divine, Edward Irving:
When a boy in Scotland with his little
sister he went down on the sands of Solway
Firth to meet his uncle, who was coming to
visit their home. When the tide comes in
there, it flows in with a rush. It sweeps on
like a flood. All the people there know this
danger of the onrushing sea and guard
against it, but these little children forgot the
time and tide. They were playing in a little
pool of water. Suddenly a horseman dashed
down from the mountain side. Without a
word he came up on a run, secured the two
children to the saddle and started for the
hills. Faster and faster followed the rising
