mplete in
Christ, though the stay on earth be but for a day, and though the work
done fulfil no great human plan, and leave no brilliant record among
men.

"Thy work unfinished! Do not fear
Though at his coming may be found
The stone unset.
Yet, for thy faith, beyond the skies
Thine own shall be the longed-for prize.
He knoweth best who calls from labor now
To rest, to build no more."

CHAPTER XXIV.

IRON SHOES FOR ROUGH ROADS.

"Our feeble frame he knoweth,
Remembereth we are dust;
And evermore his face is kind,
His ways are ever just.
In evil and in blindness,
Through darkened maze we rove,
But still our Father leads us home,
By strength of mighty love."
--MARGARET E. SANGSTER.

The matter of shoes is important. Especially is this true when the
roads are rough and hard. We cannot then get along without something
strong and comfortable to wear on our feet. One would scarcely expect
to find anything in the Bible about such a need as this. Yet it only
shows how truly the Bible is fitted to all our actual life to discover
in it a promise referring to shoes.

In the blessing of Moses, pronounced before his death upon the several
tribes, there was this among other things for Asher: "Thy shoes shall
be iron." A little geographical note will help to make the meaning
plain. Part of Asher's allotted portion was hilly and rugged. Common
sandals, made of wood or leather, would not endure the wear and tear of
the sharp, flinty rocks. There was need, therefore, for some special
kind of shoes. Hence the form of the promise: "Thy shoes shall be
iron."

Even the Bible words which took the most vivid local coloring from the
particular circumstances in which they were originally spoken, are yet
as true for us as they were for those to whom they first came. We have
only to get disentangled from the local allusions the real heart of the
meaning of the words, and we have an eternal promise which every child
of God may claim.

Turning, then, this old-time assurance into a word for
nineteenth-century pilgrims, we get from it some important suggestions.
For one thing it tells us that we may have some rugged pieces of road
before we get to the end of our life-journey. If not, what need would
there be for iron shoes? If the way is to be flower-strewn, velvet
slippers, as Dr. McLaren somewhere suggests, would do. No man wants
iron-soled shoes for a walk th