ining
in the darkness, he struck with all his might. Off the beast went into
the darkness. All was silence again, and the boy stood listening and
trembling. Then from the top of a nearby hill he heard a dog howl with
pain. He found, next morning, that it was only a neighbour's dog that
had frightened him so.

That boy is not the only one who has seen things mistakenly, just
because he was afraid. If you are dreading something, you will think
that everything that happens brings the thing you dread. Usually nothing
happens at all. The trouble was only in the person's mind, just as that
wildcat was in the boy's mind, and so every noise he could not explain
was a wildcat.

I am sure David must have known something about that fear when, as a
boy, he watched his sheep out on the lonely hills at night. But David
learned that there was One who was able to protect him by night as well
as by day. It was God. And so he wrote of God: "He that keepeth thee
will not slumber. God is thy keeper. God is thy shade upon thy right
hand. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the
arrow that flieth by day; for the pestilence that walketh in
darkness.... It shall not come nigh thee."

Let us remember that no real harm can come to us unless it comes from
within ourselves. God is our protector. In His love we can trust by day,
and in His care we can lay us down to sleep at night without a fear.

THE BRAMBLE-BUSH KING

There is a story in the Old Testament which says that once upon a time
the trees gathered together to choose a king to rule over them.

First they invited the olive-tree; but the olive-tree said it was too
busy bearing fruit. Then they asked the fig-tree to be king; but the
fig-tree had its work to do, and also declined. Next they waited upon
the vine with an invitation; but, like the others, it did not wish to be
their king.

Finally the trees asked the bramble to accept the position, and the
bramble gladly agreed. The first order it gave was for all the trees to
take shelter under its branches or be burned with fire. That sounds just
like a prickly, thorny, little bramble, does it not?

That is usually the way of people who like to lord it over other people
when they have no ability for it. There are some who want to do so when
they are at a party. They want to be the hitching-post to which all the
people are tied when they talk. If the bramble takes the form of a boy,
he wants to be captain