them a lodging place in the country of their adoption. Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins moved around among their guests. At length they approached Robert and Bridget. Mr. Jenkins said, "So Robert this is your wife, is she?" "Indade she is. Bridget, can't ye spake to the gintleman? Misther Jenkins, they call ye the old boss, but it is a raal gintleman ye are, every inch of ye." Bridget made what was intended. for a courtesy. Robert continued, "In my country the man I served seven years or more nivir did the like o' this to his hands." But Robert, "No, I suppose not. this is a free country, and we don't make such distinctions here as they do there." "But ye were a born gintleman, were ye not?" "Every man is a born gentleman in this country, if he only be industrious and behave himself properly." He then passed on and chatted with others of the company. Bridget said, "Robert this bates me intirely." "Well may ye say that, Bridget, and me too; for sure it bates both of us, and all ould Ireland besides. Hurrah for Ameriky!" In due time the supper was served. After this, the company returned to the parlors, and amid the buzz of conversation Mr. Jenkins arose and addressed them: "My Men and Friends: Some of you have been present on former occasions not unlike this. A few of you are here for the first time. I need not say you are all heartily welcome. "I might address you upon the relation which employers and their workmen sustain to each other, but upon this I will not speak to-night. You all know that I am a staunch teetotaler. I do not know, however, SO. that I ever told you why I became Perhaps we cannot better spend a few moments than for me to tell you how this came to pass. As many as would like to hear will please raise the hand." Every hand was raised. "I served my time in V- as some of you know. My boss was a man who used liquor. Three times every day we were called to grog as regularly as to our meals. I got so by the time I was twenty-one that I liked liquor, and so did every hand in the shop. Soon after I became a journeyman, I was married to this lady by my side. I had nothing but my two hands. We had many a hard struggle. We had children fast. I spent considerable money for liquor. Once in a while I would get over the bay, and come home drunk. The habit continued to grow upon me, till at length I became so unsteady that no one wished to employ me. I was a good workman when I was sober; I could point to work which I had done which was equal to that of any other man in the place. My wife had to take in washing to keep the family in bread while I was loafing doing nothing." 66 'Bridget," said Robert, "did ye ever hear the likes of that? Such a gintale lady as Mistress Jenkins doing washing!" This interruption caused all to turn their eyes toward Robert and Bridget, and Robert said, "I beg your pardon, sir." Mr. Jenkins resumed: "They were about to build the State-house in S, and a reward of several hundred dollars was offered for the best plan of a building suitable for the purposes for which it was designed. At the time this advertisement ap. peared I was sober, not because l had ceased to love liquor, but because I was too poor to get it. My wife knew that I was a good architect, and she encouraged me to try for the reward. She said she knew I could get the reward if I would only keep sober. She said, 'Lyman,' (she used to call me by my Christian name then), if you will only keep sober a week, you can get that reward as well 'Well,' said I, 'to please you I will try.' I knew I must have a clear head to make my plans, and a steady hand to make my draughts; and so I shut myself up in a room with my instruments and paper, and in a few days I had it all finished and sent to the committee. as not.' "Several others had tried, but the committee were unanimous in pronouncing my plans superior to all the rest. I ought to have said that I had also made estimates of the cost of the building, from the foundation to the top-stone. None of my neighbors knew what I was doing, for my wife and myself determined to say nothing to any one. 66 whether he will take the job of building it.' "I knew nothing about this then. I was at home, splitting wood in the back-yard, and my wife stood over the wash-tub. One of One of my little girls was on the back-door step, studying her Sunday lesson. She was committing to memory the verse, I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.' All at once it came into my head, Christ has strengthened me to abstain ever since I commenced drawing the plan. He can do it still. I will trust in him and drink no more. Before this, I had thought that, if I obtained the reward, I would have a good spree, and make up for the days I had been without liquor. "Full of this new idea, I went into the house, and took my pen, and wrote on the fly-leaf of the Bible, Through Christ, who strengtheneth me, I will never drink any more liquor. Amen!' and signed my name I held it up for my wife to read. She burst into tears. I put away the Bible, and went into the back-yard, and worked at my wood. to it. Among others who tried for the reward was a son of my old boss, who was then carrying on business at V. He and I never had agreed very well. He was known quite well through all the region, and he confidently expected to obtain the reward. But, as I have said, the committee awarded it to me. One of them was acquainted with the son of my boss, and was passing through the place on his way home. My competitor was of course anxious to know who was the successful man. The gentleman replied, A man by the name of Lyman Jenkins, who lives here in V.' 'What!' he said, has that miserable cuss got the reward? He is drunk every day of his life.' 'As to that,' he replied, 'I know nothing. Drunk or sober he has surpassed all the others. I am now going to see him and find out poor "I had worked but a few moments when the member of the committee rapped at the door. He inquired if Lyman Jenkins lived there, and was shown in. My wife came and told me. When I entered, he said, 'Is your name Jenkins?' I told him it was. Did you draw up these plans?' He handed me the papers I had pre pared. I told him I did. He then told me the result. He added, 'Your plans exhibit a good deal of genius. I was instructed by the committee to engage you to superintend the construction of the building. Since I came to the place, however, I have learned that you are intemperate and unreliable, and this leads me to question whether I ought to engage you.' 6 6 "Try him,' said my wife, he isn't going to drink any more.' I could say nothing. She got the Bible and opened it to where I had written my pledge. He read it, and said, Mr. Jenkins, do you mean that?' I replied that I did. Well, then,' said he, we will try you. Here are five hundred dollars for the plan. Your salary will be two thousand dollars per year. You will go and engage stone, and timber, and men; and we shall have the foundation laid this fall. But remember that if you break that pledge you will lose your job.' "He went away. This is how I became a teetotaler. That was more than twenty years ago. I haven't drunk a drop since. I have the same pledge here in a book, and I hope those of you who have not signed it will do so." King walked up and signed it. "I am glad to see your name there, King." Robert O'Neill then presented himself, and said, Misther Jinkins, i'ts not the likes me that can write, but ye may put my name on, and by all the saints I'll kape it." Mr. Jenkins put his name on, and said, "Robert, if you keep that it will be the making of you." He was followed by all the others who had not previously signed. Soon the tea-party, which had been so pleasant and profitable, broke up, and the visitors returned to their homes. "What is that, sir?" asked the soldier. I replied: "No one dares to doubt the bravery of a British soldier; he will rush up to the cannon's mouth, although he knows it will be certain death for him to do so and yet many a British soldier, so brave, so courageous, and so daring, is ashamed to kneel down in the. barrack-room and offer up the prayer taught him by his mother! I cannot understand that of the British soldier." 66 Well, sir, that's true: very few men have courage to do that." "How is this-how do you account for it?" I inquired. "Well, sir, you remind me of what occurred in my own bedroom at the barracks a short time ago. A fresh man came in, and the first night, when he was going to bed, he knelt down by his bedside to pray. And there was a hallabaloo! While he was on his knees some of the men threw their belts at him, some laughed, some whistled, and one fellow jumped over a bed and shouted in his ears, but the new-comer was firm, and went on with his prayer. On the second night every one was on the lookout to see whether he would kneel down again. As soon as the man bent his knees, a strange scene followed. Whistling, jeering, and mocking was general, and belts were again hurled at his head. Still he went on saying his prayers, and seemed not to notice their jeers or abuse. On the third night, when he began to pray, there was not SO much noise as on the second night. On the fourth and fifth nights he continued his prayers, but on each succeeding night the opposition grew less and less. On the sixth night, while he was kneeling, one of the soldiers in the room exclaimed, 'He stands fire. HE STANDS FIRE. He's genuine! And from that night ev ery man in the room began to respect him."-British Workman TAKING VENGEANCE. REV. B. HUNT. "To you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting te struction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power." Who were they that troubled the Thessalonian Christians? In the 17th chapter of Acts we are told that the Jews of Thessalonica "set all the city in an uproar," when Paul went there and preached, and that they were not satisfied when they had driven him from that city, but when they learned that he was at Berea preaching "the word of God," they went there "also and stirred up the people against him so that the brethren had to send Paul away from that city." Wherever the apostles preached in gentile cities, the Jews followed them, persecuted and troubled them. The Jews troubled the Thessalonian Christians, and were the persons who received the punish ⚫ment of the text. When were those persecuting Christ's coming and his punishing those persecuting Jews must have taken place more than eighteen hundred years ago, as the Christians were to rest from their troubles when Christ should be revealed, and not till then. This judgment was to occur "when the Lord Jesus should be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels." Math. 16: 27, 28. "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you there be some standing here who shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." The destruction of Jerusalem and the downfall of the Jewish nation took place about the year seventy, nearly forty years after this prediction of our Lord, and some who heard him make the prediction lived to see the sentence executed. Then eighteen hundred years ago. those who troubled the Thessalonian Christians were sent into their punishment, and then those persecuted Thessalonian Christians rested from their troubles. Christ said to his disciples, "When they (the Jews) persecute you in this city, flee ye to another; for verily I say unto you, ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of Man be come." And again Christ said, "When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh; for these be the days of vengeance that all things which are written may be fulfilled." be fulfilled." There the vengeance spoken of in the text was executed upon the Jews, the persecutors of the Thessalonian Christians, and the persecuting power of the Jews was ended forever. Jews who troubled the Thessalonian Christians to be punished? Paul answers this question in the text, "To you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven taking vengeance on them that know not God," etc. The Christians were to be troubled until this coming of Christ to punish the persecuting Jews, took place. It was to occur during their lifetime, in a very few years from the time this epistle was written, and unless these Thessalonian Christians are still living and are yet suffering But we may be asked, how the these persecutions, the event of downfall of the Jewish nation could relieve the Christians of Thessalonia, a gentile country, from being troubled and persecuted by the Jews? According to Josephus and other historians, we learn that the Jews from all Judea and the surrounding nations had come up to Jerusalem to the feast of unleavened bread and were on a sudden shut-up by the Roman army. Josephus says, "Now this vast multitude is indeed collected out of remote places; but the entire nation was now shut up by fate as in a prison, and the Roman army compassed the city when it was crowded with inhabitants." In another place he says, "Eleven hundred thousand perished in the siege, and ninety-seven thousand were carried away into captivity." Then and there the persecuting power of the Jews was destroyed. Those that were not slaughtered had enough of their own troubles to occupy all their time. And the Jews remain to this day a despised, dispersed, and persecuted race, without a country to claim as their home; most fearfully has vengeance been wreaked upon them. The Jews supposed the presence of God was located in the temple at Jerusalem, and when that was destroyed and they were banished from their country, they were cast out from God's presence. In 2nd Kings, 17th chapter, we read, "Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight," or out of his presence. . . . "For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them, until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day." Thus the Jews were banished, cast out from the presence of the Lord into captivity. From this captivity they returned to Jerusalem and rebuilt their temple. But they afterwards became so corrupt that God said to them again, Jer. 23: 39, 40: "Therefore, behold I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and cast you out of my presence, and I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you and a. perpetual shame which will not be forgotten." Thus did God tell them that they should be cast out of his presence with an everlasting reproach. When Paul repeated the same prediction in our text, the time of its execution was near at hand. This destruction took place when their city was destroyed and they were dispersed among all the nations of the earth. They have been enduring this destruction for more than eighteen hundred years. Well might it be called everlasting. The same punishment of the Jews is spoken of by our Saviour when he says, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killeth the prophets, and stoneth them that are sent unto thee, bow often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not; behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." Thus we see the time is coming when these banished Jews "shall say blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." They now deny that Christ is Lord, but the time is coming when they will acknowledge him. There is ultimate redemption for them. Again, it is written, "Behold, your God will come with a vengeance, even God with a recompense, he will come and save you." God's rewards |