things familiar to us are
strange to you of America.”

"Yes," I answered,
I answered, “and

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no doubt because of this we often make mistakes which are more serious than mispronunciation of your names.'

He smiled pleasantly, then with earnestness said: "So many things in the life of my people, the same now as in the days of old, have been woven into the words of the Bible and into the religious ideas expressed there; you of the Western world, not knowing these things as they are, often misunderstand what is written, or at least fail to get a correct impression from it."

"Tell us about some of these," I ventured, with a parental glance at two listening little faces.

of Our After mentioning several inSyrian Guest stances, he went on: "And there is the shepherd psalm;

I find that it is taken among you as having two parts, the first under the figure of shepherd life, the second turning to the scene of a banquet with the host and the guest.

"Oh, we have talked about that," said my lady of the teacups as she dangled the tea-ball with a connoisseur's fondness, "and we have even said that we wished the wonderful little psalm could have been finished in the one figure of shepherd life."

"It seems to us," I added, wishing to give suitable support to my lady's rather brave declaration of our sense of a literary flaw in the matchless psalm, "it seems to us to lose the sweet, simple melody and to close with strange, heavy chords when it changes to a scene of banquet hospitality. Do

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you mean that it actually keeps the shepherd figure to the Syrian Guest

end?"

"Certainly, good friends."

With keen personal interest I asked him to tell us how we might see it as a shepherd psalm throughout. So we listened, and he talked, over the cooling teacups.

"It is all, all a simple shepherd psalm," he began. "See how it runs through the round of shepherd life from first word to last."

With softly modulated voice that had the rhythm of music and the hush of veneration in it, he quoted: “THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD; SHALL NOT WANT.”

I

"There is the opening strain of its music; in that chord is sounded the key-note, which is never lost till the plaintive melody dies away at the song's end. All that follows

of Our is that thought put in varySyrian Guest ing light.”

I wish it were possible to reproduce here the light in his face and the interchange of tones in his mellow voice as he went on. He talked of how the varied needs of the sheep and the many-sided care of the shepherd are pictured in the short sentences of the psalm.

"Each is distinct and adds something too precious to be merged and lost," he said.

"HE MAKETH ME TO LIE DOWN IN GREEN PASTURES,'

nourishment, rest. 'HE LEADETH ME BESIDE THE STILL WATERS,' — the scene changes and so does the meaning. You think here of quietly flowing streams; so you get one more picture of rest; but you miss one of the finest scenes in shepherd life and one of the rarest blessings of

the soul that is led of God.

he Song lof

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All through the day's roaming Gyrian Guest the shepherd keeps one thing

in mind. He must lead his flock to a drinking-place. The refreshment of good water marks the coveted hour of all the day; the spot where it is found. amid the rough, waterless hills and plains is the crowning token of the shepherd's unfailing thoughtfulness. When at last the sheep are led ‘BESIDE THE STILL WATERS,' how good it is, after the dust and heat of the sheep-walks!

"This is what a shepherd would mean by those words, 'HE LEADETH ME BESIDE THE STILL WATERS.' You know of rivers and brooks in the Holy Land, for their names are read many times in the Bible;