Here is a sentiment of the Psalms repeated in distant Japan by one who,
perhaps, had never read about the all-seeing One who “understandeth our
thoughts afar off”:
Take heed unto thyself; the mighty God
That is the soul of nature, sees the good
And bad that man in his most secret heart
Thinks by himself, and brings it to the light.
(Text.)--Her Majesty the Empress HARUKO
of Japan. Translated by ARTHUR LLOYD.
(2246)
* * * * *
There was in my regiment during the Civil War--I was chaplain--a
certain corporal, a gay-hearted fellow and a good soldier, of
whom I was very fond--with whom on occasion of his recovery
from a dangerous sickness I felt it my duty to have a serious
pastoral talk; and while he convalesced I watched for an
opportunity for it. As I sat one day on the side of his bed
in the hospital tent chatting with him, he asked me what the
campaign, when by and by spring opened, was going to be. I
told him that I didn’t know. “Well,” said he, “I suppose that
General McClellan knows all about it.” (This was away back in
1861, not long after we went to the field.) I answered: “General
McClellan has his plans, of course, but he doesn’t know. Things
may not turn out as he expects.” “But,” said the corporal,
“President Lincoln knows, doesn’t he?” “No,” I said, “he doesn’t
know, either. He has his ideas, but he can’t see ahead any more
than General McClellan can.” “Dear me,” said the corporal,
“it would be a great comfort if there was somebody that did
know about things”--and I saw my chance. “True, corporal,”
I observed, “that’s a very natural feeling; and the blest
fact is there is One who does know everything, both past and
future, about you and me, and about this army; who knows when
we are going to move, and where to, and what’s going to happen;
knows the whole thing.” “Oh,” says the corporal, “you mean old
Scott!”--JOSEPH H. TWICHELL.
(2247)
=Omnipresence, A Wrestle with=--See CHILDREN’S RELIGIOUS IDEAS.
=One Idea, The Man With=--See ENGROSSMENT IN BUSINESS.