cries shame if they do not; and besides, to love us is but (you may say) to love themselves. Our honour, our welfare, our prosperity, at so many points bear right upon their own. But these poor servitors, who get no share in our successes, who are not heard of in our glory; who are used, paid, turned off, at just our pleasure,-what shall we give them for their faithfulness, or measure out for all their toil? Here is a lesson for each one to study. A lesson the Bible sets us, you see. For many kings died of whom it makes no mention; and mothers of kings had not always their names written down. Nobody knows where the Queen of Sheba was buried; and if there were tears shed for the great king, the king of Assyria,' they are not noted. Yet here the death of a faithful old nurse comes in as a 'but' in the midst of Jacob's prosperous journey; and the tears shed for her will never be forgotten. Jacob's wives and children were well; his flocks went safely on. And they journeyed; and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, so that they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob. But Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died.-GEN. xxxv. 5, 8. —It was no strange thing. The old nurse was now very old, and life was probably no great joy to her. Could they expect to keep her long? And yet there came a great blank in the migrating tribe that day, when the love that had been proved, and the faithfulness that was beyond suspicion, was taken from them. It was not what she could do,-they did not want her to do, now in her age and feebleness: it was what she was, and what she had been. The Lord render to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness.-1 SAM. xxvi. 23. -There is a charge of the apostle, which with one word changed has place here. We beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord. Say 'under you,' and go on : And to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake.1 THESS. v. 12, 13. -Not in mere justice, mere condescending kindness, but in love. For their work's sake. Do you ever think what in fact their work is? Translate it out of everyday phrases into real life truth, and what do the words mean? -this 'cooking,' and 'sweeping,' and 'digging,' and 'waiting,' that comes so glibly from our tongues? Well, they mean (with a faithful servant) to be always making ready the best for other people. To rise early that others may sleep late; to work in the cold that others may sit by the fire; to serve first another's hunger; to go out in thin raiment that the fur cloaks may stay at home. Not now and then, as we might do it for a friend, but always. To brush off the dust of other people's pleasure trips, and pick up the shreds of their fancy work. To wash the carriage in which the man may never ride, and dust the sofa whereon the maid may never sit. What pays for such service? Money? No. It buys it, that is all. As many another depreciated thing is bought in this world, because the seller has no choice. Yet there D are ways of payment. or even if they are not-to you: faithful to their interests, watchful for their good. It is possible for even servants to be tired, for even servants to have griefs. Bring them into the kingdom where 'there is neither bond nor free;' help bear their burdens-who lift so many for you; and by all kind consideration make their duties a pleasure and not hard bondage. Be faithful to them, as they are Be reasonable. Pharaoh demanded bricks without straw, Nebuchadnezzar called for the interpretation of a dream which yet he had not told. Be courteous, be pitiful, with your servants as with others. Be humble, even towards them. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.-GAL. vi. 1. -Sarah was not such a perfect woman that it gave her a right to be hard upon Hagar. Make fellow-labourers of them, each in his sphere. Onesimus was a slave, and yet a brother beloved' (Philemon 16). Study over that epistle, and try Paul's way of turning the 'unprofitable' into 'profitable to thee and to me.' Give them that which is 'just and equal' (Col. iv. 1).—And summing up the duties of servants, Paul adds: And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatenings: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him.-EPH. vi. 9. VII. Near Bethlehem. And Rachel died.-GEN. xxxv. 19. DID you ever stand in some sweet summer region, watching the glory of the day-the sunlight, the waving branches, the shimmering leaves? Down there in the meadow white sheep are feeding, and red cattle wade slowly along through the brook; and the drove of horsesgrey, chestnut, and black-lay their heads together, or stretch them out thoughtfully across the fence. You can hear the vainglorious crow of the cocks ringing out from farm to farm, and the business cackle of the hens; and the twitter of happy work and happy play fills every bush and every tree. From the sky over your head and the grass under your feet, comes the murmur of life and action and summer joy. 'The cowslip flushes in meadows green, The buttercup catches the sun in its chalice; Far away in the hollow lies the village, with white houses trapping the sun; and the spire of the old red church shows calm and quiet against the green hillside beyond. So still, so peaceful. Surely for this one day the gates of the temple of Janus are shut. Then in a moment, from that stillest spot of all, there sounds an alarm: the church bell clangs sharply out upon the scented air. Not with measured peal, saluting the Lord's day morning; nor yet, with well-known metal words, inviting the country round to 'meeting'-a meeting with the Lord. This is a sudden cry, irregular, dissonant: an unwilling peal, for a hated conqueror. 'Listen!'it says: bow down your heads. Death has another victory.' : Listen and there comes a hush; and while all the country side is waiting, again the bell rings out. One!for a man; Two!-for a woman: and once more the sound sinks down, and the listeners draw their breath. Then slowly, measuredly, stroke by stroke, the iron tongue winds up its story-counting off the years that the fight has lasted. Ninety years, perhaps and perhaps but three. Even so, like those two solemn strokes before the age, these words sound out to me: And Rachel died. -It is the simplest announcement of a loss beyond all telling. The fewest words alone can meet the case, because the case so far transcends all words. No tears are mentioned, and perhaps there were none; their very springs at first scorched dry by the fiery trial.' And there are no recorded words of passionate outcry, so it may be that Jacob's grief was mute. For while we read of Abraham's tears, and Abraham's action, there is here |