wells and fountains on the of Our plains. But as the shepherd Syrian Guest leads his sheep over the rough

slopes, he finds many a spring and
sees its rivulet noisily running down
a crevice. His sheep need water.
They cannot drink from the leaping
little stream. What does he do?
finds a suitable turn or nook in its

He

course; he walls it up with a little

dam and so holds the water till it forms a quiet pool. Then, right there on the open hills, he leads his sheep 'BESIDE THE STILL WATERS, which the shepherd's own hand has stilled. I know of nothing more fit to picture the Shepherd's care of souls that trust him than that scene up there on the mountainside."

While our thoughts were carried away to these scenes of thirsty flocks drinking, I chanced to notice that the tea-ball was again quietly at work.

of Our As we sat thinking on that Syrian Guest picture up in the mountain, a good hand offered our guest a fresh cup. He received it with a low bow, sipped it in quiet, then with a grateful smile began speaking again.

"HE RESTORETH MY SOUL.' You know," he said, turning to me, "that soul means the life or one's self in the Hebrew writings."

Then addressing us all he went on: "There are perilous places for the sheep on all sides, and they seem never to learn to avoid them. The shepherd must ever be on the watch. And there are private fields and sometimes gardens and vineyards here and there in the shepherd country; if a sheep stray into them and be caught there it is forfeited to the owner of the land. So, 'HE RESTORETH MY SOUL' means, 'The shepherd brings me back and rescues me from fatal and forbidden places.""

'Restores me when wan

lof-Our

dering,' is the way it is put Syrian Guest in one of our hymns," I inter

posed.

"Ah, sir, that is it exactly," he answered. "Restores me when wandering!'

"HE LEADETH ME IN THE PATHS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS FOR HIS NAME'S SAKE. Often have I roamed through the shepherd country in my youth and seen how hard it is to choose the right path for the sheep; one leads to a precipice, another to a' place where the sheep cannot find the way back; and the shepherd was always going ahead, 'leading' them in the right paths, proud of his good name as a shepherd.

66

'Some paths that are right paths still lead through places that have deadly perils. 'YEA, THOUGH I WALK THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH,' is

of Our the way the psalm touches Syrian Guest this fact in shepherd life. This way of naming the valley is

very true to our country. I remember one near my home called 'the valley of robbers,' and another, 'the ravine of the raven.' You see 'the valley of the shadow of death' is a name drawn from my country's old custom.

"'FOR THOU ART WITH ME.' Ah, how could more be put into few words! With the sheep, it matters not what the surroundings are, nor how great the perils and hardships; if only the shepherd is with them, they are content. There is no finer picture of the way of peace for the troubled in all the world.

"To show how much the presence of the shepherd counts for the welfare of the sheep I can think of nothing better than the strange thing I now tell you. It is quite beyond the usual,