Sticking to it; or, Firmness and Obstinacy.

BY REV. F. BOURDILLON.

HEN I've said a thing, I stick to it." So said Tom Smith's father; and he looked as if he would do it too, for he drew himself up and stood firm, and stuck his chin up (a very obstinate-looking chin), as much as to say, "You're not going to move me." And what was it that Mr. Smith had said? Tom had been punished one day for misbehaving at the Sundayschool. It was not much of a punishment, and it was well deserved; he had only been made to stand at the bottom of the class. But Mr. Smith would not put up with it. Why was not his boy as good as the rest? Why should he be put down at the bottom? He should never set foot in the school again, that he should not. So Mr. Smith had said in the heat of the moment; and he had stuck to it when he got cool, and prided himself on it. The boy had never been to school since that Sunday. And this was all the answer the teacher could get when he went to see after him: "I said he shouldn't go any more, and he shan't; when I've said a thing, I stick to it."

The teacher could not move him. He showed him how he was keeping his own boy from what would do him good, and teaching him to idle away his time and get into mischief; but it was of no use. Mr. Smith did stick to what he had said, and the teacher was forced to go away. But he was not sorry he had punished the boy. It was the father who was in fault, not he; but poor Tom was the sufferer.

The teacher went away, and so will we. Let us look at another scene.

Here are two men talking; let us go near and hear what they are saying. One is trying to persuade the other, and the other will not be persuaded; you can almost guess that from their looks.

"Come along, mate; what's the use of being so stiff? We shan't be gone ten minutes; we'll just lock up the

place, and nobody will know. The governor will not be back for hours, and nobody 'll come while we're away. Come along."

"No, Jack, no; I don't stir till master comes back. How do you know nobody will come? But, be that how it may, I passed my word to him that the place shouldn't be left, and I'll stick to it; I won't go back from my word."

So Jack went off alone, grumbling at his mate for "an obstinate fool;" he went off to the public-house, but it was a good deal more than ten minutes before he appeared in the yard again. Whether anybody had been there or not, I don't know. But, at all events, Jack's mate had kept his word; what he had said he had stuck to. And he was right.

Then what was the difference between him and Smith? How comes it that this man was right for sticking to his word, and Smith wrong?

There was a very great difference. Smith had said what was wrong, and stuck to it; this man had said what was right, and stuck to it. The right and the wrong of what we say makes all the difference in the right and the wrong of sticking to it. In the one case it was firmness, in the other obstinacy. If we stick to what we have said only because we have said it, we are quite as likely to be wrong as right. For there is no principle there-no principle, but a great deal of pride.

Was Herod right or wrong in killing John the Baptist ? Wrong; cruelly wrong. He stuck to his word. He had told the girl he would give her whatever she asked—even to the half of his kingdom. What a foolish and wicked promise! To give her whatever she chose to ask, just because she had pleased him with her dancing! And, rather than break his word, he sent and had that innocent man beheaded. He did not wish to do it; he was sorry, but pride made him stick to his word. He had made the promise before all his lords, and shame-false shamewould not let him go back from it. There was pride in

Herod, and the fear of man; and so there was in Smith. Herod was afraid of what his lords might think; Smith would not have it said that he went back from his word. There was no principle in either.

The man of principle is quite different. He says he will do a thing, not from temper or fancy, but because it is right; and, because it is right, he will do it. If he were to find out, meanwhile, that it was not a right thing to do, then he would not do it. No pride, no fear of man, no thought of what people may say, will lead such a man to do a wrong thing, merely because he has said he will do it. If he was mistaken, he will own his mistake. If it was a

wrong thing to say, he will not make it doubly wrong by doing it; that would not mend the matter, for that would make two wrong things instead of one; that would be mere blind obstinacy.

But, on the other hand, a man must be firm and faithful in what is right. A man's word ought to be as good as his bond. A promise must not be lightly made, nor must it be lightly departed from. Unless it would be wrong to do it, the thing that has been promised must be done. A good and truthful man is not likely to make a rash promise, for such a man thinks of his words. And what he does he does to God, and not to man. Man, in some particular case, may never find out whether he has stuck to his word or not; but God knows, and that is what such a man considers. In the long run men will find it out too. We all know pretty well whom we can trust.

Don't be obstinate, then. Do not be proud of sticking to what you have said, merely because you have said it. That may lead you further and further astray.

But do be firm and truthful. Let those who have to do with you be able to depend on you out of sight as well as in sight. When once you know a thing to be right, then stick to it, and let nothing move you from it—no jeers, no rough usage, no soft words.

“Ah, but that's hard when you're all alone in it." Yes, I

know it's hard, especially for the young. What is right is very often not easy. But have we not a gracious God, who knows all our circumstances and all our difficulties? Prayer will bring us both guidance and strength. God, for Christ's sake, will hear us when we cry to Him, and give us His Holy Spirit, and make us firm and faithful, and all the more when we feel our weakness, and put no trust whatever in our own steadfastness.

"What must I do to be saved,"
And my soul be delivered from death?
Believe in the Saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ,

And trust in His promise by faith.

"What must I do to be saved,"

From the wounds sin hath made in my soul? They who touched but the hem of the garment of Christ

"And whithersoever He entered, into villages, or cities, or country, they laid the sick

In the days of the past were made whole. in the streets, and besought

"What must I do to be saved?" Can I touch one so far, far away?

Him that they might touch if it were but the border of His garment: and as many as touched Him were made

Faith bringeth Him near, to trust is to whole."-Mark vi. 56.

The Bible in Jacob's Well.

N the year 1839, the well-known and saintly McCheyne of Dundee was travelling in the Holy Land with his friend and future biographer, Mr., now Dr. Andrew Bonar. When the party came to Sychar they sought anxiously for the well where Jesus sat. Mr. Bonar was the only one who found it. He accidentally dropped his Bible into it.

One evening, shortly after the Bible had been lost,