us.

party was under the care of the dragoman. A lad and a poor fellow from the town hung on as camp-followers: running behind the party, who were all mounted. Not thinking of any danger in the immediate vicinity of Nablous, we left our pistols at our lodgings, and there was not a weapon among This was just as well, for we could not have made any effectual resistance when attacked, and would only have provoked the enemy to destroy us if we had fired on them. It was a pleasant half-hour's ride from the gate of the city to the well. On either side rose those mounts so famous in oldtime story-Ebal and Gerizim, the mountains of blessing and cursing. On Ebal once the altar of the Lord was reared, and on it all the words of the law were written. No iron tool was to be lifted in rearing the altar, whole large stones only. There are enough scattered around now to build a temple. On Gerizim the tribes to bless were standing, on Ebal the tribes to curse; and to this day Ebal is covered with rocks and Gerizim is tilled to its top.

"Here at the base of Mount Gerizim is Jacob's Well, the scene of one of the most beautiful and instructive passages in the life of our Lord. Looking down the narrow valley, we could mark the way by which he was travelling. At the well he would pause while his disciples went to the city which we have just left. The woman of Samaria comes while he is sitting on the well, which was stoned up a little way from the ground. And then follows that remarkable conversation which has come down to us through the ages and will be read to the end of time.

"When we arrived we found a heap of rubbish about the well, which was covered with a stone. This we removed and found that it concealed the opening through a wooden platform, and the mouth of the well was two or three feet on one side of this opening. Mr. Righter and I crept under the platform and proceeded with a cord and weight to measure the depth of the well. Just as the weight touched the bottom the cry was raised that Bedouins were coming. We tied a knot in the string to keep the measure,—which was seventyfive feet,—and came out. The party were all mounted and

anxious to be off, for a party of Arabs were riding toward us, in single file, with their long spears at rest and guns slung over their shoulders. The better part of valor was for us, unarmed and on horseback, to get away from the enemy as speedily as possible. Our dragoman proved indeed our leader in flight, for instead of keeping between us and the enemy and holding a parley with them if he could, he was off like a shot to the city, and left us to our fate. As my horse had been selected for his gentleness and easy gait, without regard to speed, the rest of the party soon left me behind. The savages halted, and one of their number came on to overtake me. Looking back over my shoulder, I saw him coming in full leap upon me with his spear balanced and ready to run it through my back. At this instant Mr. Righter, who had gone on ahead of me, looked around, and seeing the imminent danger to which I was exposed, wheeled about and dashed between me and the savage. The spear hit him in his side, went through his overcoat and underclothing, made a flesh-wound just below the ribs and glanced off. Had he been in the position that I was in it would have gone directly into his body and killed him without a doubt. Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Thompson rode back to us, and addressing the Arab in his own language, to his great astonishment, and calling him friend, they seemed to shake his purpose. He ordered us to stay where we were while he went off to his company. But we did not obey orders, and as soon as he was gone we went the other way with accelerated velocity, and did not look back till we were under the walls of the city. The two camp-followers fell into the hands of the enemy, were beaten and stripped of their scant clothing, which we, however, made up to them.

Once more in our lodgings, I examined the wound of my friend Righter, cleansed it thoroughly with cold water, dressed it with sticking-plaster, and sought to keep him quiet after the excitement. His cot was next to mine, and the night following this eventful day I often put out my hand, which he would take in his and press it in token of the love that had prompted him to offer his life for his friend. And

greater love hath no man than this. Neither of us could sleep that night. If I dozed a moment, that big black savage, horse, spear, gun and all, would dash into the room, and sleep would fly from me as I did from him a few hours before. It was some time before my nerves resumed their normal condition. History has made some heroic friendships immortal. And we know that soldiers have sacrificed themselves for their commanders. But no story tells of purer and nobler self-sacrifice than this. One minute more and that cruel spear would have gone into my back and come out of my breast. He rode between it and me and received it in his side. That is in brief my experience with the Arabs, whose murderous spears and guns are now doing such fearful work with the flower of the British army in the Soudan." But tell us of the fate of your party, and especially of the hero of Jacob's Well."

66

Dr.

"Certainly, if you are interested in hearing more. Calhoun was then a missionary in Mount Lebanon. He afterwards came to this country, and at my house met a hundred ministers and other friends; he was dying then, and his soul lived with God while he was yet in the flesh. He had relatives to whom he went, and then he slept in the Lord. Mr. Thompson is the son of the missionary at Sidon, the distinguished author of the 'Land and the Book.' The son came to this city, and is now a great physician and the instructor of that wonderful Bible-class in Association Hall. Mr. Groesbeck died in this city. The Rev. Mr. Hill is an honored pastor in New England. Not long after he returned from that journey he sent for me to come to New Hampshire and make him the happy husband of a lovely bride. I went. His son is now an assistant in my office, and writes in the next room to mine. And Righter, whom you call 'the hero of Jacob's Well'-Mr. Hill and he came home with me; and the American Bible Society prevailed on him to go back to the Levant in its service. The Crimean war was now raging. He went to the Crimea; was kindly entertained by Lord Raglan, the English general in command; visited the wounded, ministered to the dying, pushed his way into

Assyria, and at Diarbekir, on the banks of the Tigris, after fighting bravely with fever, in the midst of tender, loving Christian friends, he breathed away his noble soul.

"The last two years of his life were filled with incident and adventure, and some other evening, if you like, I will tell you more of him and them."

none.

SEEKING REST AND FINDING NONE.

THIS is just about what a great part of the world are doing, especially in summer time-seeking rest and finding It is but a small portion of the inhabitants of a great city who go from home to find rest and refreshment'; and very few who go get what they go for. At some fashionable watering-places the same rounds of parties, dinners, suppers, kettle-drums, receptions, balls, and plays are kept up as in the winter in town. One would suppose that even the brain of fashion would enjoy a little rest. But if it seeks rest, it finds none. Its life is excitement, and without it the season is dull, horrid, intolerable.

The number of telegraph-wires at Saratoga is largely increasing. The great hotels must provide the means of keeping their guests in constant intercourse with the stock market of the world. The man of business cannot rest unless he knows how things are, and when he knows he has no rest at all. He cannot go where the telegraph will not talk to him, and the more it talks the more uneasy he is. He went away seeking rest, but finds none. It is one of the wonders of the world how women and men stand the wear and tear of fashionable and business life. The quiet scholar with his book, by the sea or in the mountain shade, seems to be getting rest; yet it is quite likely the man of business says, "I should think he would get tired of study, study, study, and would like to rest awhile."

No class of people need rest more than professional men. And some of them take queer measures to get it. Many seek it and find it not. More than half the tourists who go to Europe for recreation and health come back more tired than when they went. It takes them six months at home to get over a journey in Europe. They went seeking rest, and found none. They made a toil of their pleasure. That was the mischief of it. They wanted to see and do so much in foreign travel, that they rushed around generally as if shot ahead by a catapult.

the few months of

There is no labor or study more wearying to the brain than "sight-seeing." It absorbs the mental faculties. The attention is arrested, fixed, held, and all the powers are taxed to retain distinct images of what is seen. It is hard work. Go into a gallery of pictures by great masters. You see them for the first time perhaps. You know it may be the last time. It is your pleasure to get them photographed on the mind, so that you may not have them all mixed up in memory a year hence. Your head is held back as you look up. The neck is weary of holding the head. The floor is cold, and drives the blood away from the feet. You are chilled and stiff. But you stick to it, and do up a gallery or two and four or five churches in five or six hours. It was a day of pleasure, a red-letter day, long to be remembered. But it was a hard day's work. You never studied so hard or so much in any one day before. Hebrew is play to it. It told on the brain. And if you keep up that sort of study for two or three months, and call it relaxation from preaching or practising, you will be seeking rest and finding none. In that way delicate persons get ill in foreign travel and wonder why they are laid up. They tried to do too much. That is all. They are not able to afford the time for slow and easy stages, and so they drive on as though life depended on the swiftness of their journey. It is just the other way exactly. Life is likely to be lost by haste; health is saved by taking things moderately.

A minister takes a well-earned release for four months, and very wisely resolves to go to Europe. He has long wanted