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COURAGE AND TRUST

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 7, 1879

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 54, No. 7.

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COURAGE AND TRUST.

[THE following fable, with its interpretation, is commended to the attention of those who seem to think that no one can do any good, outside of their opinions or creed, and who would prevent the honest-hearted from drawing consolation and truth from the pure stream,—the Bible,—as if no others had any right to that universal fountain of the water of life. M. E. CORNELL.]
THE LAMB, THE WOLF, AND THE DOG—A FABLE.—A little lamb once left its mother, and went down the mountain to drink at a stream which ran below. At the same moment a wolf came out of the neighboring wood, and faced the lamb on the opposite bank.
“What right have you to drink here?” quoth the wolf; “Don’t you know this stream belongs to me?” “Am I doing wrong?” asked the innocent lamb. “I thought the stream was free to all.”
“Don’t stand there lying,” said the wolf, pretending to be very angry.
“I do not tell a lie,” answered the little lamb: “I was very thirsty when I came down the mountain, and I am sorry to have offended you by drinking of the stream.”
“Your sorrow won’t prevent me from killing you,” replied the wolf; “so prepare yourself to die!”
“I have no preparation to make,” said the lamb. “All my life has been as innocent as the flowers in the meadows.”
“So, then,” said the wolf, “you will make a dainty meal for me,” and he jumped over the stream, whilst the lamb lifted up its eyes to heaven, and stood ready to be sacrificed.
At this instant, the faithful sheep dog came bounding down the mountain and confronted the wolf.
“How now, old rascal?” quoth he. “Do you seek to kill one of my master’s stray lambs, by pretending to own the stream wherein he has slaked his thirst? This is one of your old tricks, which you must now answer for without loss of time.”
“Pardon me,” quoth the wolf, crouching with a vulpine smile. “I meant the little lamb no harm; I merely wanted to try his courage.”
“Try thine own courage against mine, then,” answered the brave dog; and with that he fell upon the cowardly wolf and tore him to pieces.
The little lamb uttered sorrowful cries, like the wailing of an orphan in some alien world, and then with the dog walked up the mountain to the fold.

INTERPRETATION.

“Dear to Heaven is innocence; Ever ready its defense. There are angels evermore, At the threshold of God’s door; Swift to fly, and strong to do Justice, all the wide world through. Thou art safe in self-possession. Innocence needs no confession. Guilt lies only in transgression. Fear not, therefore, though there be No sign of ready help for thee; But in thy peril and distress, Trust the Master, questionless.”