Rev. Newman Hall delivered a very earnest address to the "unemployed," in the hall of the Boston Young Men's Christian Association on Thanksgiving afternoon, in which he related the following touching story:-
As I was traveling over the mountains of Cumberland some years ago, I heard a lamb bleating. I listened, detained, as I am sure, by a loving Providence. It was a pitiful cry. It seemed to say, "Help me, pity me, save me!"
I started in the direction whence it came. The little thing saw me, and came running to meet me. "Help me, pity me, save me!" It was half starved. I took it up in my arms. I think I talked to it. I saw an old sheep near by, and carried it to her. She would not notice it, and as I walked away, the little creature came tottering after me,-"Help me, pity me, save me!"
I thought, "I cannot leave ye, little one, to perish. I wouldn't mind carrying ye seven miles in my arms; but if I should meet the shepherd, what would he think of me! would he believe me!"
Just then I saw the tall form of a man rising above the top of one of the hills. It was my friend Richardson, the shepherd with whom I passed the night before. I had left some papers at his house, and he had hurried to bring them to me.
I told him about the lamb. "Yes," he said, "sheep will abandon them sometimes at this season of the year, when feed is so scarce. I will take it."
He took the lamb in his arms and held it against his bosom; and as I saw him going away over the hills, I could but think of the great Shepherd, who carries "the lambs in his bosom." And I thought if I, a sinful man, pity a little creature God has made, with how much greater tenderness will he pity us, who is the father of us all. Do you think that when the weakest of you cry to Jesus, "Help me, pity me, save me!" he will refuse to listen?. Never.
Two years afterward, I visited friend Richardson, the shepherd, and asked him what became of the little lamb.
"Why," said he, "it is now the finest of the flock."
"So may the feeblest soul that cries to Heaven for help be strengthened by grace, and become the noblest and most useful in the flock of God."
After the telling of this story the whole audience rose and sung,-