THE JUDGE AND THE FARMER.
By L. J. Kirkwood
On a bright Sabbath morning, by the side of a country road, running along the Hudson, not many miles from New York, two men stood talking together. One was a judge of high social standing and legal distinction, the other was a stone-mason, and their conversation was about the building of a new wall near the place where they were standing, to consult about which the judge had sent for the mason on this Sabbath morning. Just coming into sight as he trudged along the road on his way to church was a plain Scotch farmer, well known as a God-fearing, Sabbath-keeping, honest, hardworking man, neither fearing nor asking favor of the great or rich. His chief ambition in life seemed to be to raise a large family of children in the fear of God and honorably in the sight of men, which his example was well fitted to do. In the midst of an animated explanation of what he wanted in a new wall, the judge caught sight of the farmer. Stopping suddenly he said: “There comes David S—; it will never do to let him see us talking business on the Sabbath morning; we will just step behind this bit of wall until he passes.” And the judge and the mason crouched down behind the wall until the plodding footsteps of the farmer echoed faintly in the distance, and the good man passed from sight, all unconscious of the silent reproof his appearance had caused; while the judge, with feelings one would think belittling to his manliness, crept from his hiding place, to continue his conscious and confessed desecration of the Lord’s day. The next morning the incident was related to the farmer by the mason, who was himself a Scotchman, though, unhappily, not so conscientious as his friend. He told the story with some glee, adding, “Wha wad a’ thot, maun, that ye had sic a pooer in ye as to mak the judge hide behind the wall for the fear o’ ye?” Is not this an illustration of the force and influence of a sincere Christian character, though devoid of the adornments, in the world’s sight, of either position, wealth, or learning? All these together could not resist the silent sermon of the good man’s life, which brought home to the haughty judge the conviction of his sin.—L. J. Kirkwood.