A SACRED TALISMAN.
THREE little German girls, whose friends were in America, wanted to go thither. They were from eight to twelve years old, and the question was how to get them across the great ocean,'' and away into the interior of America. There was no one to go with them, they must go alone; and no one could tell what troubles might assail them, or what dangers might surround them. But their friends had faith in God, and before they sent them out, they got a book, and on the fly-leaf they wrote a sentence in German, in French, and in English, and they told the little children when they started,—
"If you get into trouble, or need any help, you just stand still and open this book, and hold it right up before you."
Then they started off on their long journey by railway and by steamship, from place to place and from port to port; and wherever they went, if any trouble occurred or any difficulty arose, the children would stop and open the book and hold it before them, and they always found some one who could read German, or English, or French, and who was ready to help them on their way.
And what were those words which proved such a talisman and protection to these children among strangers in a strange land? What were the words that made the careless and thoughtless, the rough and reckless, kind? That gave them protection and help in every hour of need, and opened doors before them? They were the words of One who lived on the earth long years ago, and who, though he has passed away from human vision, yet holds his grasp upon the minds of men. These were the words:" And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."
Selected.