The Little Gleaner Part 77

"_Peace be unto you._"--JOHN xx. 19.

P ekah 2 Kings xv. 25.

E glon Judges iii. 14.

A masa 2 Samuel xvii. 25.

C ush 1 Chronicles i. 8.

E uphrates Deuteronomy i. 7.

B enjamin Genesis x.x.xv. 24.

E lah 1 Kings xvi. 8.

U rijah 2 Kings xvi. 10.

N ahor Genesis xi. 26.

T opaz Exodus x.x.xix. 10.

O g Psalm cx.x.xvi. 20.

Y oke Jeremiah xxvii. 8.

O badiah 1 Kings xviii. 3.

U nicorn Numbers xxiii. 22.

ANN PICKWORTH (Aged 11 years).

_Sydney House, Sleaford._

BUNYAN'S DEATH.

It was on the 31st of August, 1688, that John Bunyan left the Valley of the Shadow of Death, Doubting Castle, Vanity Fair, and all those other stages of the progress of a soul in its efforts to find rest and peace, to cross the dark river that, in his immortal dream, flowed under the walls of the Celestial City. This is how Mr. Froude describes the closing scene of his great life:--

"His end was characteristic. It was brought on by exposure when he was engaged in an act of charity. A quarrel had broken out in a family at Reading with which Bunyan had some acquaintance. A father had taken offence at his son, and threatened to disinherit him. Bunyan undertook a journey on horseback from Bedford to Reading, in the hope of reconciling them. He succeeded, but at the cost of his life. Returning by London, he was overtaken on the road by a storm of rain, and was wetted through before he could find shelter. The chill, falling on a const.i.tution already weakened by illness, brought on fever. He was able to reach the house of Mr. Strudwick, one of his London friends, but he never left his bed afterwards. In ten days he was dead."

Mr. Froude thinks that the exact date is uncertain; but Southey and other biographers generally fix it upon the 31st of August. He was buried in a vault belonging to the Strudwick family, in the famous old Nonconformist burial ground of Bunhill Fields, where his monument--restored of late years by admiring and appreciative friends--may be seen any day by the pa.s.ser-by, on which runs this inscription--"Mr. John Bunyan, Author of 'The Pilgrim's Progress,' ob.

31st August, 1688, aet. 60."

John Bunyan wrote sixty books, and lived sixty years. His chief work, "The Pilgrim's Progress," has been translated into seventy-two distinct languages and dialects, and thus has had a wider circulation and been more read than any book next to the Scriptures. More than fifty years ago Macaulay spoke of it as "the only book of its kind that possesses a strong human interest--that, while other allegories only amuse the fancy, this has been read by thousands with tears." What was true then is no less true now.

EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF THE SEA.

A Queenstown correspondent telegraphs that the National Line steamer _Spain_, from New York, which arrived at Queenstown recently, brings intelligence that an aged gentleman, named Murtagh, residing in Brooklyn, received a letter on October 11th, from one of the uninhabited islands of the South Sea group, Ojee, written by a friend of his, named Captain Green, who was supposed to have been lost at sea in 1858, in a vessel commanded by him, called the _Confederation_. She sailed from New York, in February of that year, for Australia, and not having been heard of afterwards, it was presumed that she had foundered with all on board, numbering sixteen, including two women. The letter, written on a soiled leaf of a s.h.i.+p's log, was dated July, 1887, and had been put aboard a whaling barque which pa.s.sed near the island about that time. The writer observes that no doubt all hands aboard the _Confederation_ had been given up as lost. He then relates how the vessel foundered in a gale after being nine weeks at sea, and how her crew, including himself and two women, having taken to the boats, after forty days, landed on the coral reefs of the Island of Ojee, there being no signs of habitation, but an abundance of game, fish, fruits, and water. No vessel came near the place until one evening in December, 1862, when eight of the crew put off in a boat to intercept her. The weather being very stormy, they never returned to the island, and Captain Green thinks they were lost.

He further states that the women became the wives of two of the remaining castaways, and that although there had been several deaths on the island, the population at the time he wrote consisted of twelve persons, who felt quite contented. They were, however, badly in need of clothing. During thirty years, they had communicated from the island with only three vessels, and this letter had been four years written and ready to be sent by some s.h.i.+p. Captain Green adds that he is sixty-eight years of age, and in good health.

PLEADING.

(RUTH i. 16.)

"Intreat me not to leave Thee," Lord; What is this world to me?

No happiness can it afford, O G.o.d, apart from Thee.

Thou art the joy of my delights; The Life of life to me; The comfort of my darkest nights; Yea, All in all to me.

Dark were this world without Thee, Lord, But, lighted with Thy love, Thy watchfulness, Thy tender care, More fully here I prove.

More subject for my song above I gather day by day; Deeper experience of that love Which guides my pilgrim way.

Oh, give me grace to serve Thee, Lord, Each swiftly-pa.s.sing day, That I the approving word, "Well done,"

At last may hear Thee say.

A SOWER.

THE ANTI-ROMISH BOOK.

During the reign of that Popish King, James II., the law in Scotland was, that no clergyman might preach, and that no bookseller might sell, any book that reflected on the Romish Church.

One of the Royal messengers entered a bookseller's shop in Edinburgh.

"Had he any books in stock written against the Roman Catholic Church?"

"Yes, he had a Book that reflected very severely indeed against that Church. Might he sell it?"

"Let me see it," said the messenger.

The old bookseller went to his shelves and took down a volume--a Book which does certainly speak very emphatically against Romanism--the Bible!

BIBLE ENIGMA.

My 1, 11, 7, 6, 9, 5, a governor of the Jews.

My 2, 10, 5, 14, 6, the father of Joanna.

My 3, 13, a king of Bashan.

My 4, 6, 14, 10, 9, 11, a disobedient queen.

My 5, 8, 11, a priest.

My 6, 4, 11, 9, 10, the city of Hadad.

My 7, 3, 9, 6, 12, the brother of Timna.