"If You Love Me, Lean Hard."
Miss Fiske, in her devoted labors among the Nestorians, tells a charming little incident which carries with it a good moral. She had spent a large part of the Sabbath in hard toil, having superintended and taught in the Sunday-school, and taken charge of a prayer-meeting with her scholars. Very weary and exhausted, she longed for rest. But duty seemed to call her to a neighboring village where Mr. Stoddard was to speak; and as she sat on a mat on the floor without support, thinking that still another meeting with the women readers in the village was before her, her strength seemed inadequate to the great pressure of duties. For a few moments she was despondent, longing for some respite from this severe toil. But suddenly a Nestorian woman took her seat directly behind her, and whispered in her ear, "Lean on me." She politely declined, but the good-hearted woman drew her back forcibly, and compelled her to find support. Soon she whispered again, "If you love me, lean hard." "Very refreshing," says Miss Fiske, "was that support. And then came the Master's own voice, repeating the words, 'If ye love me, lean hard,' and I leaned on him too, feeling that, through that poor woman, he had preached me a better sermon than I could have heard at home. I was rested long before the service was through; then I spent an hour with the women, and after sunset rode six miles to my own home. I wondered that I was not weary that night nor the next morning; and I have rested ever since on those sweet words, 'If you love me, lean hard.'" Christians often grow weary in well-doing, because they fail to lean on Jesus. If they could hear his voice saying, "If ye love me, lean hard," refreshment would come in the hardest toil, and animate them to new diligence.—National Baptist.