The Two Travelers.

In the early days of emigration to the West, a traveler once came, for the first time in his life, to the banks of the mighty Mississippi. There was no bridge. He must cross. It was early winter, and the surface of the great river was sheeted with gleaming ice. He knew nothing of its thickness, however, and feared to trust himself to it. He hesitated long, but night was coming on, and he must reach the other shore. At length, with many fears and infinite caution, he crept out on hands and knees, thinking thus to distribute his weight as much as possible, and trembling with every sound. When he had gone in this way, painfully, about halfway over, he heard a sound of singing behind him. There in the dusk was a colored man, driving a four-horse load of coal across the ice, and singing as he went! Many a Christian creeps tremblingly out upon God’s promises, where another, stronger in faith, goes singing through life upheld by the same Word.