The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1866-11-11
READING.


Scene IN PALssrIsE.-I was travelling
over Anti Lebanon. It was bright sum
mer day, and near noon. Weary and way
worn, / rode down from bare mountain
ridge into the Wild and beautiful valley Of He
bron, and dismounted beside . little fountain,
under the "shadovsof q great rock" A
group of some fifteen or twenty shepards
were there, too, resting during the heat of the
day, and their fiocks, amounting to several
thousand sheep and goats, filled Yearly the
whole bottom Of the valley. At first l was
greatly annoyed by the too near approach Of
both men and animals, but when the time
came to lead the focks away to pasture again
Watched their motion with intense inter
est.
The sheparjs rose, went into the middle of
the dense mass of the animals, and then sep
Grating, walked away slowly in different dis
rections. As they vent each kept uttsring .
peculiar cry or call. The sheep heard, and
they too began to seperate one from the other.
/ observed the whole mass was agitated ~ if
the sheep and goats had been driven thither
by some unseen power. Gradually they form
q series Of dense, moving columns, following
closely in the footsteps of the shepards, and
drawn after them with their voices. ! also
observed that while each shepard wound his
way through the united flocks, come Of the
animals fed at bis approach, frightened at
his voice, others FASTENED toward him, "for
they knew his voice." In short time they
were led off; and the fountain was completely
deserted, not a sheep or goat ventured to lag
behind. Then the call Of the shepards we're
heard ecboing from rock and cliff, now loud
and clear, now dying away in the distance;
while the focks were seen, obedient to the
calls, following in long, distinct streams to the
guides whom alone they knew and trusted.
As | sat there, gazing with mingled wonder
and pleasure GU that strange and instructive
scene, another beautiful Scripture illustration
was realized before my eyes. One shepard
perpendicular bank of the glen. Behind II
two young lambs trotted along at the feet of
their mother. At first they frisked about, and
jumped lightly from stone to stone; but soon
they began to fall behind. The poor little
things cried piteously when the path became
sleeper and the rocks higher, and the focks
more and more distant The mother cried
too, running back aud forth--now lingering
behind, now Fastening on before, as if to vile
them upwards.
TWAS vain. The ascent was too much for
their feeble limbs. They stopped trembling
on the shelving cliff, and cried; the mother
stopped and cried by their side. | thought
they would certainly be lost; and saw the
cliffs FAR overhead, sweeping lower as if to
pounce upon their prey. But no The plain
tive cries of distress has already reached the
ear OF the good shepard. Mounting arock,
he looked down and saw the helpless little
ones minute and he was standing by
them. then taking them up in his arms. he
put them one on each side, in his bosom, In
the ample folds Of his coat. which was bound
round the waist with girdle.
The lambs made no attempt to run away
from him. They seemed to know what he
was going to do when be lifted them in his
arms, and the little creatures lay there with
their heads out as contentedly ~ an infant in
its mothers bosom, while the shepArd scaled
the dizzy heights again, and took his place at
the head of the flock. 1t may be easily i'm
agined with what deep interest have ever
since read the beautiful words Of Isaiah--"H
shall feed his flock like shepard He shall
gather the lambs with His arm and carry
them in his bosom. '-Famiiy Treasure.