this very word will judge you at the last day, and that it were better for your soul that you had never been born, than that, despising Him who speaks to you also from heaven, you count as an unholy thing the blood of Jesus, shed upon the cross, which alone can cleanse you from all sin.

Rev C. Malan.

IT MIGHT BE WORSE.

A YOUNG nobleman of Hungary related to me the following story, which he said was still repeated in that part of his country where it occurred a great many years ago.

There was once a young lord who had a large estate in Hungary, and possessed all the power which the nobility in those days had over their vassals and dependants. In Poland, at the present time, as well as in the Russian dominions generally, the lower classes of the people are little more than slaves; but at the time my story refers to, a nobleman, like this young lord of Hungary, could hang up any of his dependants he pleased, or torture or put them to death in any way he liked, and that without any form of trial.

This young nobleman had returned from the wars with the Turks, and he settled down peacefully in his strong castle, with his wife; and then he thought life was to go very easily with him, and never imagined he was to meet with any crosses or vexations, or to have his will and pleasure contradicted any more; for he was a great lord, and ruled all the country round about. He had a favourite horse, a very fine and noble charger, that had carried him into battle many a time when he fought against the Turks, and brought him safely out of it; and perhaps this young lord had often given the praise of his safety to his good horse, and forgot that it is God only who covereth the head in the day of battle.

However this may have been, he had a great affection for his noble horse; he turned him out to feed and enjoy himself, and resolved that, as the master was at rest, the steed should rest also. But this young lord had to learn by slow degrees a very important lesson, and this horse was to be the beginning of his instruction, which was brought about as follows:

One day the favourite horse fell over a precipice and was killed. The owner was nearly frantic; it was his first loss, and he could not at all submit to it. He raged and stormed; his servants fled trembling from him; he threatened to put the herdsman to death who had charge of the cattle, and was

actually giving orders for doing so, when the old chaplain who had lived with his father, and on whose knee he had sat when a child, came past, and the young lord, supposing he would share his indignation, appealed to him, if he were not right in being angry. The old chaplain listened very gravely, and said it was a pitiable case, and he was very sorry for the noble horse, and for the young lord's loss; but then he shook his head, and added, " But, my lord, it might be worse."

This observation made his lordship very angry; he turned his anger from the herdsman to the good old chaplain, called him unfeeling, indifferent, hard-hearted, and left him in great displeasure.

But his favourite steed was only his first loss; soon after a sort of plague broke out among his cattle, and great numbers died. Then the young lord began to think that he was the most afflicted and tormented of men, and he was sure that the old chaplain would now admit that he did well to be angry, and would agree with him, that his case was very hard indeed.

He sent for him accordingly, and when he came broke out into impatience and anger, blaming the herdsmen, the weather, the water the cattle drank, and seeming to think he had no right whatever to meet with this trial. The old man condoled with him, said it was grievous to lose so much wealth, and to see the poor creatures suffering and dying as they did. "But," he added, my lord, it might be worse.'

Then the young lord grew enraged again, to hear these provoking words" It might be worse;" for pride and passion caused him to think nothing could be worse, and he ordered the old chaplain to quit his presence, bitterly reproaching him with presuming on his age and position, which might shelter him from the consequences of this impertinent conduct, but warning him never again to repeat it. The old man meekly withdrew; but the young lord had not yet learned his lesson.

The plague among the cattle ceased; a large number died, and the rest recovered, and months passed over, and the young lord was forgetting his troubles, when, lo! his two lovely infant boys, one just able to creep round his knees, the other just beginning to prattle, became ill, sickened, and died, both of them, so quickly, that it was almost one blow. That was indeed a great trial; it would have been a sore trial to any one, and this young lord had seldom had his will crossed or his hopes disappointed, and never resigned his heart to God's holy will and pleasure. Therefore in his affliction

3

he just resembled the description of Scripture, and was like 66 a wild bull in a net."

66

When the first burst of his grief and anguish was over, he recollected the words of the old chaplain. "Ah!" said he to himself, now at least the old man can no longer use his favourite speech." He was quite sure that in this instance that good old man would join with all the other persons who surrounded him in exaggerating his affliction, and flattering him under it. So he sent for the old chaplain, and he came to him. He, too, was sorry for the pretty children, and felt for the bereaved parents, but he saw the impatience and anger of this proud young lord's heart, who was more angry than Jonah when the gourd which had sheltered him from the sun had been smitten, and he was grieved to see that he did not think at all of God's goodness, nor perceive that in wrath the Lord remembereth mercy, and does not suffer his whole displeasure to arise; and, seeing this was so, he warned his young lord that, heavy as his trial was, he should remember— "It might be worse.'

Now this so enraged the passionate and proud young man, that he sprang up from the couch where he was lying, and certainly if the poor old chaplain had not escaped very speedily, it might have been worse for him. He got away safely, however, and went back to his own humble abode. But in his fine castle that haughty lord could find no rest, because this simple old man did not yield to his will, and flatter his violent temper. He thought over the chaplain's conduct towards him, until displeasure grew to hatred, and, like Haman, all his greatness and power availed him nothing, so long as this old Christian meekly answered to his angry complainings-" My lord, it might be worse." His will with others was law, and he resolved to make it so with the old chaplain. He nurtured these thoughts for two or three days, and then he resolved to send for him, and frighten him into a change of conduct. He told his servants his intentions, loaded a pistol, and laid it ready, and then sent to summon the old man into his presence. Now, it had come to pass, that that very day the old chaplain had gone to prune a fruit tree that was against the wall in his little garden, and as he was not a tall man he stood on a stool to reach the branch; the stool turned, and the pruning knife made a terrible gash in his own hand.

The messenger who was sent from the castle returned there with these tidings; but the young lord would not believe

them; he thought the story a pretence, and, snatching up his pistol, he hastened himself to the old man's dwelling, determined to shoot him if he found he was thus deceiving him. Of even this bad and violent action he could have been capable, so great was the anger and dislike which the words of that meek and patient man had caused. He threw open the door of the chaplain's little apartment, and there, sitting before a table on which lay some clothes all stained with blood, was the poor chaplain, with a very pale and rueful countenance, and his hand in a sad condition. The young lord stopped at the door, and his stern and angry face grew a little softer. "So it is true," he said, 66 you are badly wounded." "Yes, my lord," said the old man, with a gesture of pain; "I am badly wounded; but, my lord, it might be worse."

The young nobleman started; he recollected the purpose for which he had come there, if that old man had deceived him. He drew out the pistol and said, "These words for once are truly spoken! Do you know why I brought this ?" The chaplain trembled, and said no. To shoot you if I had not found you wounded," his lord replied. The old man fell on his knees, and gave God thanks. His words reached the heart of that proud and impetuous young nobleman. God's Holy Spirit smote him with repentance; he felt the truth of the speech that had been so irritating to him"It might be worse." He afterwards joined in that old chaplain's prayers; he listened to his instructions; his meek and Christian counsels were heard with reverence; and this incident brought about his conversion. He learned, through grace, to know the pride and sinfulness of his heart, and with penitence and faith in Jesus Christ to cast himself on the pardoning mercy of God, and by the same grace of the Holy Spirit he was enabled to subdue his unruly will and violent temper, to submit to God, who ruleth over all, to put on some of the meekness and gentleness of Christ, and demean himself in life more as became His servant. His pride was gone, he knew that he, even amid all his greatness and power, ought, with the humility of a sinful man, to account himself but a worm of the dust before the majesty of God, and to submit to his holy will and dispensations, as being more regulated by God's mercy than by his own deservings.

and

Much more of his after history was not related, but I was assured that to the end of his prolonged life that good old chaplain was an honoured guest at his lord's castle, where other children in place of the two that had died, grew up at

his knees, and listened to the instructions which had made their father a wiser and better man. I was told also that for some generations the words that nobleman had once so much disliked were often used in that castle and its neighbourhood; and that when even the children showed any impatience, anger, or resentment at a loss, or injury, or disappointment, some of the others might be seen to hold up a warning finger, and whisper the admonishing words-" It might be worse."

THE MUSTARD SEED, AND THE LEAVEN.

MATT. XIII., 31-33.

S. B.

THESE two parables are in some respects alike; both make known the great truths of the gospel of Christ, and the kingdom of heaven, by descriptions of earthly matters. The first describes the progress of the gospel outwardly, in the world; the second, its progress inwardly, in the deepest recesses of the heart. The parable of the mustard seed is the first to come under our consideration, but it is of less importance to dwell upon the spread of religion in the world, than on the true, budding spiritual life felt within the heart.

The kingdom of heaven includes the dealings of God with men, by which his power has gained a victory over all hindrances. He had chosen to himself, among the sinful children of Adam, a race who should be more in number than the sand of the sea or the stars of heaven, and in whom all the families of the earth should be blessed. He called out of Chaldea a man who was childless, and had no hope of any descendants; this man was for five and twenty whole years a stranger in the land of promise, without offspring, yet through him the promise of God was accomplished. His children, through whom the Saviour of the world was to be born, were long enslaved in Egypt. Behold, upon the river of Egypt, a cradle of rushes, which holds a little child, who thus escapes the sword of the oppressor. This child becomes the deliverer of God's people, and the lawgiver appointed by him for them. After his death they forsook the ways of God, and turned aside to idols. Among the mountains of Ephraim lived a pious woman, who prayed earnestly to the Lord for a child whom she would bring up to his service. Her secret prayer was as a grain of mustard seed, from which arose Samuel, the restorer of his people, the father of the prophets, the man of God.

Such were the dealings of the Almighty in former times, and again under the New Testament dispensation. In the