

He that is taitlilul in tliat which is least, is faithful also in much.— l.UKK 16: 10. 



MYSELF AND MY NEIGHBORS. 



Thou liast hccii lailhfiil ovora fru- thinv'-s, I will 

 nmkc thco ruler on it many Ihiu^^s.— Matt, l'.'): U'l. 



Cast thy l)rca<l iii)()n tlic waters; lor tliou shiill 

 find it after many <lays.- E( ( . 11:1. 



FKLT as though I wantedlhest' two texts. 

 r little friends, to indicate what I want to 

 I talk about to-day. The thought was 

 something like this : That men go along 

 a great while, sometimes, trying hard to 

 do right, and it does not seem to amount to 

 much of any thing. Finally, however (it 

 may be years"^ after, and wheii we had for- 

 gotten all about how hard we tried to say, 

 " Get thee behind me. ISatan,)"' the reward 

 comes. We had cast our bread upon the 

 waters of this world long years ago. and sup- 

 posed it was lost and forgotten, liut here 

 is a wave that brings it up again. Again, 

 Ave may be growing in Christian graces, and 

 we may be growing, too. in our ability to 

 help the world along, and n()l know it or 

 think of it. Do you reniendier in that pass- 

 age where .Icsus told Ihe good folks thai 

 they had been heli)iiig him all along, ami 

 they did not know they had helped liim al 

 allV The text reads this way : 



Loril, when saw we Iheea hiinfjci-ed, ami led [\nr: 

 or thirsty, and {rave ihec drink? When yaw we thee 

 a ptranKer and took tbec Ui'f ov nakerl, and clotlicd 

 thoe? Or when saw wc thee sick, or in prison, and 

 eanie unto thee?— Matt. ;.',') ::r.—!i'.t. 



Now for my little story : 



Our railniatl eoiniiahy have decided lo 

 widen their tracks rigid here before our fac- 

 tory, and they are al^o Viiiildinga new depot. 



' a good deal, I believe, for the acconmiodation 

 of our business. In order to make the track 

 wider they have had to cut down a hill ; and 

 to do this'they are working right in front of 

 our factory windows with a steam-excava- 

 tor, if tliat is the proper name for it. It is 

 a great )tonderous engine made of timbers 

 and massive chains : and in front of it there 

 is a great iron scoop with massive steel 

 horns that dip into the git)und until it gets 

 a mouthful, and then it drops it out on to 

 one of the train of gravel-cars. As it is a 

 new thing in our town, crowds t)f jieople 

 gather around to see it dig through the hill. 

 It really looks at lirst sight like some of the 

 old sea-monsters, with its gigantic frame 

 and monstrous head. This head it dips 

 down into the hard stony ground, and roots 

 up a small hill as if it were a hog rooting in 

 a potatb-patch. When it gets a load on its 

 nose it swings its long neck around and 

 drops the dirt in the right place, as if it 

 were alive. Then it noses about to sec where 

 it will commence to root next time. Iluber 

 calls it •• (Jreat big ingel.'" lie has probably 

 got Ids knowledge of engines and the angels 

 his papa has told him about, a little mixtMl 

 iili; and I have woiulered sometimes wheth- 

 er tiie term '• angel "" would be so much of a 

 misnomer after all. It must be a messenger 

 of mercy to the poor men who have for ages 

 done ail this hard work by Viack-bre;iking 

 toil, ^^'hen the operatives of this machine 

 got it well started, so that every thing 

 worked all right, smoothly and safely, the 

 ixuiderous thing seemed to warm up with 

 exercise, and to )-ealiy put on life. The 



