THE READY HAND.
A SABBATH-SCHOOL teacher was out looking up an absent scholar. With neatly clad feet she was picking her way over the muddy crossing. Just before her was a young girl, carrying a pail of water. A blast of wind swept around the corner and snatching her shawl from her shoulders, held it fluttering behind her. . She set down her pail at the curbstone, to wrap it again about her. The lady behind her reached out her hand and laid it over her shoulder, saying kindly, "Wait a moment, and I will find you a pin."
As the search went on, in a free, pleasant way she said, "As I came on behind you just now, something made me think of a woman who went to draw water from a well, nearly two thousand years ago, and found something very precious there."
The pin was found, and the kid-covered hands were put out to gather together the edges of the faded shawl. The pale face of the girl was lifted in amazement to the pleasant countenance so near her own, but the kind voice went on: "I have a beautiful card at home with the picture and story upon it.. Will you tell me where you live, and let me bring it to you when I come this way next week?”
"Yes, miss," said the girl, in a timid voice giving her name and number.
"Very well; I shall not forget you, but will certainly bring it to you the next time I come."
The girl carried the water into the house, with a flush upon her cheek and a flutter of joy in her heart. There was but little in her hard life to make it bright or pleasant, but this thoughtful act and kind word and promise of the lady seemed to create a little rill of joy, which flowed through her heart, and made the week until the promise was fulfilled quite unlike the ordinary weeks of her life. Nor did the week end it, for her wonder at what the story might be, proved a good preparation of the heart to receive it. Like the woman of Samaria, she, too, longed to draw water from this wonderful well, and the lady, in lessons of kind and patient instruction, at length led her to the "fountain opened for sin and uncleanness."
How rich was the harvest of her "little deed of kindness, her little words of love." Did she think when she scattered those tiny seeds that she should reap pearls so soon? We do not think she even thought of the harvest; her heart was so full of loving-kindness that it could not but express itself thus. If the heart be full of love, the lips will be ready with loving words, and the hand with kind deeds and generous gifts:
—Christiana at Work.
YE HAVE DONE IT UNTO ME.
Two young girls were walking leisurely home from school one pleasant day in early autumn, when one thus addressed the other :—
"Edith Willis, what will the girls say when they hear that you have invited Maggie Kelley to your party?" Edith was silent for a moment, and then, raising her soft blue eyes to those of her companion, she replied:
"Ella, when mamma told me to invite Maggie, I asked her the same question She told me that it made no difference what the girls said who thought Maggie quite beneath them because she was poor, and her school bills were paid by my father; and she asked me if I would like to hear what Jesus would say. So she took her Bible and read to me these words: 'And the King shall answer and say unto them, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.’"